The flower and bird market that Guo Hai mentioned is actually Huakang Market in Tianzhong City. Huakang Market is on Jianjian Road, which is near Jingyu Square.
The farmer's market is divided into several areas, including a vegetable area, a fruit area, and a pet area. The largest one is the flower and tree sales area.
It is holiday time now. Although it is only around eight o'clock in the morning, people are already coming and going in the market. Trucks carrying vegetables or flowers and trees are constantly entering the market, which makes the streets crowded. Chen Ran and
Guo Hai could only squeeze through from one side.
In the flower and tree sales area, there are indeed two or three antique shops. One sells calligraphy and paintings, one sells weapons, and the third sells stone carvings, root carvings, or wood carvings.
In the calligraphy and painting shop, Chen Ran also went in and took a look. There were quite a lot of paintings in the shop, but most of them were modern paintings. There were very few ancient paintings. Even if they were there, they were copied, or they were completely modern handicrafts. In antiques,
In the collection, calligraphy and painting are undoubtedly the most difficult to preserve. Naturally, it is impossible for the shop owner to just hang the precious ancient paintings in the store.
After walking around the Huakang Market twice, Chen Ran found the antique area. At first glance, there was an antique street, and then there was a small courtyard. There seemed to be antique shops in the courtyard. Compared with the vegetable selling area outside,
Or the flower and tree area, the antique area has much more pedestrians, and is even overcrowded. This is because people who come to Huakang Market to buy vegetables or flowers and trees cannot come here so early in the morning, but the antique area is different.
, it is normal for people who play antiques to get up early and wait until late, especially in many places, there is a morning market.
The morning market is a written term. In the past, it was also called the ghost market. The ghost market was formed before liberation and is a collective name for illegal antique trading markets. The term ghost market sounds scary, but it is actually very simple. It is to evade urban management.
, the Industry and Commerce Bureau, the Cultural Relics Bureau, and the Cultural Inspection Team cracked down on this illegal antique trading market only in the morning and evening. Once the agreed trading time comes - mostly at dusk or evening, after the law enforcement agencies get off work, some
Vendors with unknown origins emerged from everywhere. They occupied the open space on both sides of the street, put down their sacks or snakeskin bags, and took out some second-hand goods to set up stalls on the spot.
This is a traditional ghost market. Today’s ghost markets are no longer like this, but they still retain a lot of rules. The starting time of the ghost market is also not certain. In some places, it starts at three o’clock in the morning. Usually it is
It ends at seven or eight o'clock, but in some places, it is normal until eight or nine o'clock.
Seeing so many people in the antique city, Chen Ran guessed that Huakang Antique Market had also formed a ghost market, which immediately interested him. He had never visited a ghost market before.
As soon as we entered the antique area, it suddenly became lively, but the excitement was only the street stalls in the small courtyard of the antique area. The regular storefronts on the antique street that we passed when we entered the small courtyard were deserted, with not many tourists.
In fact, the reason for this is very simple. Nowadays, there are roughly three types of people who go to the antique market early in the morning to visit the ghost market. One is antique dealers, the other is antique collectors. They are discerning and will take action when it is time to take action. The third is antique lovers.
, they don’t buy antiques or chat, they just regard visiting the antique ghost market as a kind of fun and a life hobby.
As for tourists, they are somewhat rarer.
There are a lot of stall-style shops on the ground in the small courtyard of the antique area. Some nearby people even brought tables and the like, and some just put a layer of cloth towels on them, or even just put things directly there.
On the ground, whether it is finished jade or something else, there is a dazzling array of things. It can be said that there is everything.
Chen Ran didn't have any goals, so he just followed the flow of people. Guo Hai followed Chen Ran and looked left and right. Whenever he encountered a lively place, he would join in the fun. Chen Ran told him that he only wanted to
After you can see that you must not take action, you will no longer care about him.
In front of each stall, Chen Ran would stop and observe. The stalls that sold the most were jade pendants or bracelets. These jade items looked deceptive at first glance. Regardless of the carving skills, they were basically carved from fake jade.
Yes, of course, such things are naturally very cheap. You can get them for ten yuan at a very high price, and only tourists will buy them.
In addition to jade, the most popular items are ceramics, which can be found everywhere in the rows of stalls.
Chen Ran just wandered around casually. Only when he saw something interesting would he squat in front of the stall, ask about it, touch it, ordinary objects, and crude objects that were fake at a glance. He didn't even touch these things.
He didn't even think about it, he just looked at the ones that looked fine. If he couldn't tell the real thing from the fake one with his eyesight, he would use the energy aperture to detect it. However, there were not many such opportunities. Although the ghost market was lively, the real things were not.
not much.
At this moment, Chen Ran was attracted by a stall. In fact, this stall not only attracted him, but besides him, there were many people who stopped to take a look when passing by, but most of them
They just asked, shook their heads and left. There were many people interested, but very few actually bought it.
This stall sells a very rare thing. Although the thing is rare, everyone has heard of it, that is, the longevity lock.
The longevity lock is a unique ornament of the Chinese people. Even overseas, you can see this kind of ornaments in areas where Chinese people gather. This may be the significance of the longevity lock collection.
The longevity lock is also called the "name lock". It is a kind of decoration hung around children's necks in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. According to superstition, as long as this kind of decoration is worn, it is not only for decoration, but also to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune.
Because of this, many children wear such ornaments from soon after their birth until they reach adulthood.
In China, the custom of wearing longevity locks is very widespread. In ancient times, from the sons of princes and nobles to the sons and daughters of common people, they would wear longevity locks after birth. This can be evidenced by its material.
The selection of materials is very wide. Precious materials include gold, silver, ivory, jade, coral, tortoise shell, etc. Ordinary copper, iron, and even wood, stone, etc. can be used to make them.
It is a rough estimate that there are at least two to three hundred longevity locks on display at this stall, including gold, silver, copper, jade, ivory, wood carvings, stone carvings, and coconuts.
The leather carvings, etc., look extremely spectacular.
But obviously, if this thing is placed in a busy city, it will definitely attract the attention of many children and women. But in this antique market, it is still a ghost market. Although it can attract people, the real people who buy it are
But not much.
After all, at this time of day, most of the people walking around in the ghost market are Taobao people. As for the longevity lock in front of me, the stall owner has collected so many, so he must have studied it very much. No matter what kind of material it is carved from, it will not work.
If it is sold at a low price, there will be no leaks to pick up. Furthermore, there are not many people who know about longevity locks.
Chen Ran was not interested in the longevity lock, he was interested in the longevity lock carved from jade and ivory. Just when he was observing the longevity lock carved from ivory, Guo Hai also ran away.
When he came over, he saw that Chen Ran was actually looking at the longevity lock, so he couldn't help but joked: "A Ran, you wouldn't be thinking about buying a longevity lock for your son so early, would you?"
Chen Ran ignored him, put down the ivory carved longevity lock in his hand, and picked up a jade carved longevity lock. The longevity lock has only been gradually accepted by collectors in recent years. As the collection of longevity locks gradually
Hot, there are many imitations on the market.
Chen Ran remembered that in the diary of antiques written by a collector he read, there was this sentence: Currently, there is only one way to identify longevity locks, and that is if you see two identical ones.
The lock plate must be fake, because the previous longevity locks were all handmade, and even the same craftsman could not make two exactly the same lock plates.
"A Ran, if you want to buy it, pick one for me and I will take it back to your Aunt Yun. She will definitely be very happy." Guo Hai knelt down and put his arms around Chen Ran's neck, looking at the longevity lock in front of him.
I'm also interested.
Chen Ran turned back and stared at him, and said angrily: "Aunt Yun is so happy, it's time to urge you to find a wife as soon as possible!"
When Guo Hai heard this, he immediately became confused. This was not asking for trouble for himself.
Putting the longevity lock in his hand on the stall, Chen Ran stood up and was about to leave. But just as he was about to leave, the stall owner suddenly stopped him: "Wait...little brother, what is your name?"
Really?"
Chen Ran was startled, then nodded. Guo Hai called his name just now, so it's not surprising that the stall owner would know.
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Guo Hai also looked at the stall owner strangely.
The stall owner was a middle-aged man about forty years old, with a thin body and a pair of small eyes. He looked at Chen Ran and said with a cheerful smile: "Little brother, wait a moment, I have one here.
A longevity lock carved from ivory, see if you are interested in it?"
Chen Ran did not comment, but looked at the stall owner, and felt a little strange in his heart. What did this ivory longevity lock have to do with his name? The stall owner seemed to know that he would be interested...
The stall owner smiled, stood up, and opened the box he was sitting on. There were quite a few things in the box, including a steel bottle, a kettle, and a porcelain tea cup. The rest were all
There are a lot of miscellaneous old things that look quaint in style.
The stall owner was rummaging among the piles of miscellaneous things, and from time to time he found a longevity lock. After looking at it, he put it into the box again, and then found another longevity lock. He took it out
Longevity locks are also carved from ivory.
Chen Ran saw that in addition to the longevity lock, there were many small things in the stall owner's box. These small things must have been collected by the stall owner himself when the ghost market first started.
Thinking of this, Chen Ran took a step forward and flew out an energy aperture to detect it to see if the stall owner had received anything good...
Unexpectedly, what happened when he explored it immediately stunned him!
