Auction.
This was a new term that had not been seen in Shuowen Jiezi. Everyone found it very novel, and almost everyone who got a thin wooden stick in their hand arrived the next day.
Xianjin glanced around and saw the academician from next door coming in person, the girls of the co-magistrate and the assistant magistrate came with their elder brother and younger brother, Xiong Youyou brought the little girl named Baojuan who was wearing the gold-plated satin jacket that day, and the Zhen family, the salt merchants, cloth merchants, tea merchants at the canal transport wharf, the doctor of Baicaotang, and Mr. Huang, the construction worker. These were the nearby ones, and some from far away, such as the gentry in the suburbs of Xuancheng, the landlords with permanent properties, or the scholarly families whose children, grandchildren and nephews were officials outside, were all gathered.
The old scholar whose eyes saw Kunlun Mountain yesterday belonged to the last category. He was not very good and did not take the exam to become a scholar. However, he gave birth to an extremely competitive son who passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. Now he is editing books in the Hanlin Academy and can be considered a high-ranking father in Xuancheng Prefecture.
Xianjin raised his chin and nodded slightly towards a certain point in the crowd.
A fat, square face, which looked familiar but not familiar, rose slowly from the crowd, like a large sunflower that had been fertilized twice as much.
Zhang·Large Sunflower·Wenbo held a thin wooden stick in his hand and waved excitedly at Xianjin.
Suo'er sighed, "...How come you've become so fat!"
Xianjin is calm: The fat on the waist is also a part of their PLAY after marriage.
When the sand and gravel from the night watch had settled, the Huajian Hall behind the exhibition hall had windows on all four sides. When the gong sounded "dong dong", the curtains on all four windows were lowered in unison. More than ten goat-horn lamps with fine brushwork slowly rose up. On the left and right sides of the Huajian Hall were armchairs made of pearwood, and next to the armchairs were small stools, on which were placed exquisite and beautiful white porcelain plates and a complete set of Jun kiln white-glazed tea sets. In front of the Huajian Hall was a three-inch wooden platform. Soon, a woman wearing a white feather and a green satin gown stepped onto the small wooden platform, holding a golden hammer.
Six lights under the stage suddenly lit up, making the woman on the stage glow around the edges, like a piece of warm jade.
"Manager Zhong is a little different." Zhou Ergou scratched his head.
Xianjin nodded with satisfaction: the stage lights made the Queen of the Curls, Auntie Zhong, who was yelling at the top of her lungs and calling twenty or so young men "useless" and "stupid assholes", become gentle and soft, which made it hard for her to believe that in the future, the real personality of the idol under the stage makeup...
Xianjin had a calm expression and stood behind the crowd with his arms folded across his chest.
"Today's exhibits are priced at one hundred dollars each, and the starting price is five hundred coins. If you are interested, please raise your paddle. Each time you raise your paddle, you will get an extra one hundred coins! The number plate is on your right hand side. After three bids, the hammer will drop and the deal will be done!"
Aunt Zhong introduced the rules loudly.
There was a constant stream of whispers from the audience.
Very low price.
Even lower than bamboo paper.
Five hundred coins! ?
A knife of top-grade rice paper? !
It’s just the price of fifty meat patties!
No one had ever played this before, and they were as excited as if they had heard the initial price of a French auction house, and they were eager to try it.
Xianjin raised the corners of his lips and smiled: This is one of the wonderful things about auctions - the initial price makes you feel you can get a bargain.
When Aunt Zhong struck with her golden hammer, the first thing to appear was the Kesi Kunlun Mountain that her high-ranking father had been dreaming of.
"Six hundred Wen!" The high-ranking father has his precious son, who graduated from the Hanlin Academy, in his hands and is fearless!
"Seven hundred coins!"
"Eight hundred coins!"
"Nine hundred coins!"
In the blink of an eye, the price was driven up to one tael and one cent of silver!
Xiong Youyou smiled thoughtfully and blinked gently at Xianjin, not knowing whether it was a compliment or admiration.
Xianjin bowed from a distance and said: These are all tricks thought up by capitalists in later generations. She is just repeating others' ideas. Thank you for the compliment.
After the filming, people showed different reactions. Some were so angry that they raised their signs repeatedly.
Some came to their senses and realized the real purpose of the auction. They covered their signs and looked warily at the beautiful lady on the stage with a smile as warm as the spring breeze.
Some wanted it very much and did not care about the money - Gao Gan's father successfully bought the Kesi Kunlun Mountain Xuan paper at the price of five taels and seven cents, and happily followed Lu Badan into the inner room to sign and pay. When he came out, a little maid with the same white feather mask followed closely behind him. Gao Gan's father sat down contentedly, and the little maid boiled tea around the stove. The fragrance of Fujian white tea was elegant.
Everyone looked at the empty teacups beside them and suddenly realized: You have to spend money to buy things before you can have a cup of tea!
This...this...this is really...what a profiteer!
But then I thought, we are all respectable people. Wouldn't it be so shameful if I was the only one who couldn't drink this tea?
The second, third and fourth exhibits were sold at the prices of six taels, six taels and seven cents, and seven taels and three cents respectively.
There are a total of twenty pieces of rice paper with carved Shan Hai Jing series, and the patterns and designs are different. The price is roughly balanced in the range of six or seven taels of silver.
Xianjin nodded slightly in the dark, which was pretty much what she expected.
The carved silk series is, in essence, just an ordinary leather paper. In terms of workmanship and quality, it is not as good as the top-grade jade paper which costs three taels per cut, and it is even worse than the Chengxintang paper which costs five taels per cut.
The only selling point is the carved silk and Tibetan paintings.
Xianjin has endowed this series with more selling points: such as status, the fun of bidding, and the gunpowder smell of competition.
There is a reason for selling these things no matter how much silver they are sold for.
Xianjin stood and watched the entire auction.
When it came to the last exhibit, Aunt Zhong lowered her voice to create a perfect atmosphere, "...The last exhibit is the treasure of the finale!"
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