Ji Xiangjun smiled faintly: "Last year, the price of gold was five yuan per gram. This year it has increased by fifty cents. Let's use five yuan as an example. Two hundred thousand yuan can be exchanged for forty thousand grams, which is forty kilograms of gold bars."
"We currently have about 20 kilograms of gold and half a box of jade. I'll show you the quality later and then we can decide what to do."
Although they are siblings, Ji Xiangjun is willing to give his younger sister more, but since these old items belong to Sun Xiaoyu, Ji Xiangjun cannot be too generous.
Ji Xia opened the gift Sun Xiaoyu had given her today and saw that it was a very clear and beautiful red jade. She was immediately captivated.
The red jadeite is a clear, translucent red, and completely pure without any impurities. Although I don't know much about jadeite, seeing such transparency, it must be at least an icy or high-icy type.
She carefully slipped the bracelet onto her wrist; it was a little loose, and under the light, her fair wrist appeared as white as jade. Chen Jing couldn't help but chuckle, "This bracelet looks quite pretty on you; you should wear it from now on."
"It's inconvenient for me to wear this to school. But I can keep it for later."
Ji Xia admired the red jade bracelet for a while, then took it off: "Just leave it here. We have too many at home. We can match them with our clothes, one bracelet for each outfit."
The group couldn't help but laugh upon hearing this.
The four of them returned to the Ji family's small courtyard in the city overnight.
Since Ji Xiangjun and Sun Xiaoyu are rarely home, this courtyard is basically Zhang Hong and Ji Zhijun's.
Looking around the yard, Ji Xiangjun turned back and said, "If you have anything else, tidy it up. I'll transfer ownership of this place to my older brother in a couple of days and give it to him."
"You're giving this courtyard to your elder brother?"
Ji Xia wanted to say she was interested, but then she thought about how her older brother was still farming in the countryside, and they had hundreds of thousands in assets, so she should take care of them too.
Moreover, Zhang Hong works in the city, and her child will need a house to study there in the future.
She let Chen Zhang and Xu Yufen live in her own house in the city, so there was no need for Ji Xiangjun to live there as well, and she gave up the idea.
However, if the house is to be given to Ji Zhijun, then the boxes that Ji Xia originally hid in her room should also be taken out and taken away.
Sun Xiaoyu brought out a suitcase from the room. It was about 35*50*30 cm in size, more than twice the size of the suitcase she had bought last year.
Ji Xiangjun lifted the box and placed it on the table, feeling the tension in his arm muscles and inexplicably noticing how heavy it was.
Sun Xiaoyu opened the box, and in an instant, the box was full of things, the shiny objects inside almost blinding her.
The box was divided into two layers. The top layer was full of jade artifacts and jewelry, including jade bracelets, jade pendants, jade rings, and safety buckles, as well as gold and jade jewelry, gold hairpins, jade hairpins, gemstones, corals, and so on, densely packed on the top layer.
Ji Xiangjun moved aside the top layer, revealing a bottom layer filled with thin, rectangular gold bricks, each about two fingers wide, resembling gold medals.
"Each of these gold bars weighs 100 grams, and the total weight here is about 21 kilograms. If we consider five bars per gram, the value is 105,000!"
"The top section contains jade items, including mutton fat jade, jadeite, and other common jade, totaling about 183 pieces; gold items, 59 pieces; and pearl, agate, coral, and other ornaments, 72 pieces, for a total of about 310 pieces."
Ji Xia calculated that there were 310 items, totaling 95,000, which averaged out to a little over 300 items per piece.
A piece of jewelry and jade worth more than 300 yuan in the 1970s and 80s would be worth at least 5,000 or 6,000 yuan 20 years later. Some of these pieces of jewelry and jade are worth barely 300 yuan, but on average they are worth more than 300 yuan.
Ji Xia picked up a few jade bracelets and pendants and looked at them. Some of them were particularly warm and beautiful, probably the mutton fat jade that Sun Xiaoyu had mentioned. The others were only of average quality.
On average, each piece costs over 300 yuan, especially coral and agate bracelets, which seem a bit overpriced.
However, Sun Xiaoyu and Ji Xiangjun were, after all, her second brother and sister-in-law, so she looked at Chen Jing with a troubled expression.
Chen Jing picked up a few jade bracelets and pendants and looked at them: "Second brother, I've bought these kinds of bracelets on the black market. A good one like this costs about eighty, and another one like this costs fifty. A good pendant like this costs about thirty."
"As for these—" He grabbed the bracelet, smiled faintly, and shook his head: "Five yuan can easily buy one piece, three hundred pieces would cost ninety thousand yuan, that's an average of three hundred yuan each, the difference is too great."
Ji Xia didn't dare to speak up. When buying goods on the black market, others would naturally sell them for much less. However, these items, averaging over three hundred each, were indeed too expensive.
Although some fine jade pieces can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars after being stored for one or two decades, she doesn't know much about jade. How many good pieces are here? She doesn't know.
How can 100,000 in the 1970s be compared to 100,000 twenty years later?
Nowadays, you can build a beautiful courtyard with red bricks for only three or four hundred yuan.
Twenty years later, in the year 2000, 100,000 yuan would only be enough to build one or two stories. To build a nicer courtyard and improve the exterior walls and floors, it would cost at least 300,000 yuan.
Ji Xiangjun glanced at Sun Xiaoyu subconsciously. Sun Xiaoyu pursed her lips and said, "I'll give you some more. No, I'll pick out the best jade pieces and give you an extra box."
Ji Xiangjun glanced at Sun Xiaoyu subconsciously. Actually, she still had gold nuggets; he couldn't understand why she insisted on exchanging them for jade.
Sun Xiaoyu bit her lower lip. "In prosperous times, jewelry is precious; in chaotic times, gold is precious. In this era, gold is a better store of value."
What her ancestors left her consisted mostly of gold and jade jewelry and antiques. Since the future was uncertain, she preferred to exchange more for jade items, and it was better to keep the gold in her possession.
Ji Xia readily agreed, signaling Chen Jing to carry the box back to the room, and also to tidy up the clothes in the room and dig out the small box hidden in the wall.
Although that small box wasn't as big as today's boxes, it contained dozens of jade items. Last year, it was exchanged for three hundred dollars and a job, which was equivalent to a thousand dollars.
One thousand yuan versus two hundred thousand yuan, that's twenty times. Apart from gold, the jade pieces aren't much more expensive, and the jade bracelet and pendant I got last year are of better quality.
Seeing the small box from last year, Chen Jing smiled meaningfully at her.
He opened it and looked inside. Not only were there old items he had replaced last year, but also things he had bought on the black market and things he had brought back from Huacheng last year. Ji Xia had put them all into the box.
"We'll move over there tonight, find a place to bury it, and hide it well."
Chen Jing gave a salute: "Don't worry, my dear wife, I guarantee I'll complete the mission."
Ji Xia smiled and playfully spat at him.
Chen Jing pecked her lips with lightning speed: "Give me a reward, and I'll definitely do even better."
He chuckled and dodged away.
The two boxes were quite heavy, but to avoid attracting attention, they were placed in two baskets and some scraps of cloth were put on top.
Ji Xia's room contained some winter clothes, daily necessities, and two newly made quilts.
I packed the clothes and other daily necessities into a large bag, leaving the quilts, mats, pillows, and other items for my sister-in-law; I didn't want them anymore.
He moved his belongings to his yard overnight, walked around the house and finally decided to build a cellar in the kitchen.
He moved the water vat aside and used a pickaxe to dig a pit about 80 cm wide and 1 meter deep under it.
When they had almost finished digging, it was past midnight when a dull knocking sounded at the door.
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