When the old man saw someone looking at the calligraphy and paintings, he quickly greeted her, "Young lady, do you want to buy calligraphy and paintings? These are antiques that I collected in the past, and they are very valuable."
The old man looked at the calligraphy and paintings on display with reluctance in his eyes. He kept stroking the scroll in his hand, clearly showing his deep affection for these works.
"Grandpa, if you're reluctant to part with it, why did you take it out?" Lin Yue asked, puzzled.
If the elderly can survive, there's no reason why the rest of the family should be gone. Doesn't the son have the ability to work and support his elderly parents?
"I can't bear to part with it, but there's nothing I can do. We're out of food at home, and my wife is waiting for me to bring back the grain so we can cook!" The old man smiled gently as he spoke of his wife.
"Then, what about your family? Where did they go?" Lin Yue asked, gesturing for Cang Yu to unfold a painting.
The foodie space was controlling her thoughts again. She really wanted the calligraphy and paintings on the stall in front of her. To avoid performing a "magic trick" directly, she could only ask Cang Yu to open them for her.
As for asking the elderly person's family...
She wasn't curious about other people's family affairs; she was just asking casually.
The months of training were no joke; Cang Yu tacitly helped her unfold the painting in front of her.
"Them..." The old man looked up, his eyes filled with longing.
Before the apocalypse, the old man's family was quite well-off; his sons and grandsons were all successful, and they had no worries about food or drink.
He has no other hobbies except collecting antiques. His son and grandson support his hobby and will buy back any good ones for him to collect.
The end times came suddenly. My two sons and four grandsons had all gone to other places and were not at home. Later, I couldn't contact them anymore. Their money was all in the bank, and there was only a small amount of cash at home.
On June 15th, they also wanted to withdraw money, but there were too many people and the bank ran out of cash when it was their turn. So they used the only cash they had at home to stock up on some supplies.
In addition, he and his wife were old and used to love to buy food and stock up. After the apocalypse, they never opened the door to anyone or went out. Before the search party came to their door, they were not disturbed.
When he came to the base later, he begged the soldiers to help him move his treasures to the base. Because they were old and had no children around, the base did not charge them rent and directly allocated them a two-bedroom apartment next to the police station.
Although they had stockpiled a lot of food, they had to use it up every day. After saving every penny for four months, they were really out of food. Since they couldn't do anything else, they took out all their treasures to set up a stall.
In this apocalyptic world, no one even glances at these things. He has been setting up his stall for five days straight and hasn't managed to get anything. Today, he and his wife have run out of food. If they can't get anything soon, they will just have to wait to starve to death.
However, even though they should have died long ago at this point, becoming a burden to others for no reason, they still didn't want to die. They wanted to live and see if their sons and grandsons were alright.
Even if the land is riddled with holes, they still want to live a few more days and see the world!
The old man said a lot, and Lin Yue just listened without saying a word.
He didn't seem to need her response; he probably just wanted someone to listen to him.
As he was speaking, he noticed Lin Yue looking at the painting and stopped talking.
Cang Yu set up the exhibition, and Lin Yue examined it carefully. The painting depicted a pavilion and many peonies, along with a young girl. The signature was Feng Zhishui.
My daughter is not talented; she has never even heard of Feng Zhishui, let alone his paintings.
But if you want space, then it has to be good stuff.
"This is Feng Zhishui's 'The Peony Pavilion: The Maiden' from the Song Dynasty, very precious..." The old man paused, then continued, "It used to be very precious." (For plot purposes, please don't take it too seriously (●°u°●)? 」It is said that there was no such person in history.)
Lin Yue didn't understand and didn't offer much comment, but simply asked, "Grandpa, how are you planning to exchange this painting?"
"Young lady, are you really going to change?" The old man was so excited when he heard that Lin Yue wanted to change that he couldn't help but grab her hand.
Lin Yue glanced at her hand that had been grabbed, feeling a little awkward. She used a clever trick to pull it away before saying, "Yes, I like this calligraphy and painting. It's quite beautiful. How are you planning to exchange it?"
When the old man saw Lin Yue withdraw her hand, he felt quite embarrassed. Hearing that she only thought the calligraphy and painting were beautiful and didn't seem to understand their value, he felt a little sad.
But the current situation leaves him no choice; he can't just starve to death with all this stuff on his shoulders.
“These paintings on the stall cost one jin of good rice per painting, one and a half jin of less good rice per painting, and if they are made of sweet potato or potato, they will cost two jin per painting. Is that alright?” the old man said softly.
He hasn't been able to sell his rice for days. Even when people come to visit, they're only willing to give him half a sweet potato to buy some fuel. He's completely given up hope on his original two pounds of good rice.
Lin Yue was surprised.
So cheap?
But then I thought about it again and realized it was quite normal. These things are valuable in prosperous times, but in times of decline, they are indeed less useful than a pound of rice.
After considering it in her mind, Lin Yue felt that the price was acceptable and she didn't plan to bargain. She didn't need that much rice anyway, so she just considered it an occasional act of kindness and doing a good deed.
Moreover, even if she consumes the space, she will still receive tangible benefits, so it's not a loss for her.
She did manage to snag a bargain.
"Okay, I'll exchange all five paintings on your stall. Of the four you mentioned earlier, which ones would you like to exchange?"
The old man was taken aback when he heard Lin Yue say that she not only wanted to replace the rice, but to replace it all. He then replied, "Replace one pound of good rice with the rest of the inferior rice."
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com