By buying so many porcelains, Hua Wanchi successfully attracted the attention of the owner of a high-end porcelain store.
"Sir, please stop for a moment."
Hua Wanchi paused and looked at the shopkeeper.
"I see that you are wealthy, but you only buy some novel and inexpensive porcelain. Are you interested in coming and seeing some of the good stuff?"
"Oh?" Hua Wanchi became interested. "What good stuff? Take me to see it."
There was a signboard of "Qingyuhang" hanging on a rather upscale building. When I stepped into the store, I saw porcelain displayed on the elegant and staggered dark red cabinets, which looked very beautiful.
"Boss, what good stuff do you have here?"
The shopkeeper's face showed mystery, "I brought you here because I saw that you are compatible. Ordinary people can't see this good thing."
Hua Wanchi became even more curious and said fearfully, "Boss, you're not going to take out the things you offered to that place... are you? This is a business that can get you killed. If that's the case, I don't dare to do it."
The shopkeeper cheerfully explained, "You are worrying too much, sir. We, the humble people, would not dare to do such a thing even if we had ten lives.
These are inferior products from the imperial kilns, and we would never dare to supply them to the nobles above us, but we can allow them to be sold outside. Sir, don’t look at these as inferior products, they are still first-class quality if put outside.”
Hua Wanchi: "Let me see."
It was said so well that she had to taste it to see if it was salty enough.
The shopkeeper took out a wooden box and introduced it, "Sir, you should know that we have five famous kilns in Daliang: Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln, and Ding Kiln. Among them, Ru Kiln and Guan Kiln are specially supplied to the palace."
Hua Wanchi nodded, curious: "Could it be that what the shopkeeper took out came from one of these two kilns?"
The shopkeeper carefully placed the box on the table and opened it, revealing a porcelain bowl wrapped in a lining. The green bowl was in the shape of a lotus and had a light color.
"Sir, please look at this. This is a second-rate lotus bowl from the Ru kiln. It has only one, barely noticeable flaw: the glaze is slightly off, failing to achieve the effect of a sky blue after rain. However, it's very close to perfection."
Hua Wanchi picked up the bowl and looked at it carefully.
It was indeed a perfect bowl, with bright and even color, and clear and regular shape and pattern. She seriously suspected that the bowl was not a defective product, but was passed off as such.
After all, as long as this kind of operation is profitable, it would not be surprising to the ancients.
She looked at the shopkeeper's smug expression and felt that the truth of the matter was probably similar to what she had guessed.
Hua Wanchi found it quite interesting and asked, "I think this bowl is really good. I wonder how much the shopkeeper wants for it?"
The shopkeeper's smile brightened a little, and he said, "Although this is a defective product from the palace kiln, such a near-perfect bowl is hard to come by. I am only showing it to you now because I see that you have a connection with me.
"300 taels, I think you are not someone who doesn't know the value of things."
300 taels! Fanfan took a deep breath in shock and looked at the bowl. Even if the bowl was made of gold, it would not be worth 300 taels!
Don’t be fooled by the fact that the protagonists in novels often have thousands or tens of thousands of taels of silver. In fact, no one can come up with such a large amount of money unless the imperial court allocates funds or they are wealthy businessmen.
300 taels is already a huge sum of money. If one penny is calculated as one dollar, 300 taels is 300,000 yuan. To buy such a bowl with 300,000 yuan is a bit of a luxury unless you have a mine at home.
Of course, one tael of silver may not be worth more than 1,000 copper coins, but let's calculate it this way for now.
However, although this is the case on the surface, the private lives of high-ranking officials can be unimaginably luxurious. A bowl worth only 300 taels is probably just an insignificant decoration in their room.
For Hua Wanchi, it was nothing.
Although she only exchanged 1,000 taels of silver, she had a lot of gold, and gold and silver were extremely valuable. Although they could be exchanged with copper coins, they were actually much rarer than copper coins.
Gold was used to buy embroidery in the past.
When Manager Huang saw that she paid with gold, his attitude became much more cordial.
Hua Wanchi put down the bowl, looked at the other porcelain with interest, and asked, "Boss, do you have any other good things here?"
When the shopkeeper heard this, his eyes lit up and his face was almost crooked with smiles.
…
In short, this trip can be considered a fruitful one.
After leaving the porcelain shop, Hua Wanchi went to the stall selling calligraphy and paintings.
Xiangguo Temple is a large free trade market with a wide variety of stalls and is extremely lively.
After strolling around with great interest, Hua Wanchi figured out some of the things. Many of the calligraphy and paintings were imitations of famous artists, but in terms of craftsmanship, they were actually quite good.
The most important thing is that this is a pure work of ancient people!
Hang it at home and your level of coolness will instantly improve.
You can also find paintings by famous artists here. Of course, Hua Wanchi doesn't know who the celebrities are from that era, but her ancestors can help her identify them.
Snow plum picture, buy it!
Bird pictures, buy!
Spring peach branch picture, buy it!
Persimmon picture, buy!
Jiangshantu, buy it!
Hua Wanchi was so generous that the stall owners selling calligraphy and paintings couldn't help but notice him and immediately started selling him things.
One said he had a famous work by someone, another said it was a century-old painting handed down from ancient times, and another said he had calligraphy by a famous calligrapher...
Hua Wanchi certainly doesn't refuse everyone, but basically as long as the quality is good, she will be very generous with the money.
In a short while, the fat sheep dripping with oil was not only surrounded by the stall owners, but also coveted by thieves.
Hua Wanchi didn't keep the money on him, but Fanfan suddenly exclaimed: "My wallet is gone!"
Hua Wanchi's eyes immediately became sharp, staring at a certain direction like an eagle - but he saw nothing.
There were simply too many people around, and it was impossible for the thief to have the stolen items written on his face. If it could be seen, there must be something fishy going on.
She touched her nose a little guiltily and asked, "How much money do you have in your purse?"
Fanfan looked a little depressed: "I saved up for a long time, hundreds of coins, and it was all stolen."
Hua Wanchi immediately clapped his hands and said boldly, "You lost money because of me. I'll compensate you. Come on, I'll take you to buy a purse first! And by the way, I'll buy you some clothes."
It can be seen that the living standards of the people in Bianliang are actually quite good.
Fanfan's clothes were not too worn, but traces of mending could still be seen on them. Judging from the material, they were not made of pure cotton, but seemed to have some linen mixed in with the cotton.
In this age of distinct classes, dressing too well can be a recipe for disaster.
But it’s not a big problem to buy her some new clothes.
So, Hua Wanchi took Fanfan and rented two sedan chairs and headed towards Huang's Embroidery Shop.
Fanfan twisted around in the sedan chair, looking a little excited: "This is my first time riding this thing. Don't tell me, it's quite comfortable."
It was also Hua Wanchi's first time, so he got to experience what it felt like to ride in a sedan chair.
One word: awesome!
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