The weather in July is even more capricious than in June, and it can change at any time. Just a moment ago, the sun was blazing, and with a thunder, raindrops as big as peas fell instantly.
"No, the windows in the store are not closed yet. If those ancient books hanging by the window get wet, I'm afraid they will be ruined. They cost more than 3,000 yuan..."
Thinking of this, Shen Yu spread his legs and ran.
Ten minutes later, Shen Yu was already standing in front of a nine-story antique building.
The building has cornices and brackets, carved beams and painted pillars, white jade steps and glazed tiles, completely inheriting the beauty of Chinese classical architecture.
There is a huge solid wood plaque in the middle of the third floor of the building, with five gilt characters engraved from right to left: "Chuzhou Antique City".
The small shop where Shen Yu now lives and works is on the second floor of this antique city: the miscellaneous area.
The Antique City is only two kilometers away from the flea market, so it’s close to each other.
This also makes many people, especially foreign tourists, mistakenly believe that Chuzhou Antique City and Chuzhou Antique and Flea Market are together, but in fact this is not the case.
The antique city and the flea market belong to two separate management offices and are completely different things.
When he first came to Chuzhou, Shen Yu originally wanted to rent a shop in the flea market, but he wandered around the market for a full week without finding a suitable shop.
It’s not that there are no transfers or leases, it’s mainly because it’s inappropriate.
Many of them are in bad locations, either next to a public toilet or in a corner.
Some are so aggressive that they ask for a sky-high transfer fee that can buy half of a shop.
In desperation, Shen Yu went to Li Hanlin's place. Li Hanlin said nothing, put on his reading glasses, found the phone book, and made a phone call.
This fight lasted more than two hours, but the result was not satisfactory.
Although Li Hanlin has a high prestige in the antique market, once something involves money, it is not so easy to negotiate. If someone doesn’t want to transfer it, you can’t force them to transfer it based on your qualifications, right?
Of course, Li Hanlin's connections and status still played a big role. Among the information he collected, there were three shops that had property rights disputes, so they were directly crossed out by Li Hanlin.
If it weren't for Li Hanlin, Shen Yu's business would not be stable if he rashly rented it.
These three shops all have one thing in common: they are all grandfather's shops, and they have many descendants.
Who do you think it is appropriate to give the rent to? Those who have received the rent are certainly satisfied, but those who have not received the rent are still causing trouble for you all day long?
Is the business still open?
There is also a so-called shop with bad Feng Shui and the rent is very cheap.
Shen Yu didn't believe this, but in the end it was crossed out by Li Hanlin.
In Li Hanlin's words, whoever opened the store would pay the compensation, and some of them were seriously ill. Even if you dared to rent, no one would dare to come to your store to buy antiques.
As a store owner, you don’t have to believe this, but if many collectors believe it, then you have to pay attention to it.
When doing antique business, the buyer’s thoughts must be considered. If you don’t consider the buyer’s feelings, you will not be a successful antique dealer.
This can also be regarded as a lesson for Shen Yu.
In the end, Li Hanlin chose two suitable shops, and the transfer price and rent were much lower than what Shen Yu had negotiated, a six-digit reduction.
But Shen Yu still can't afford the rent.
Just kidding, the minimum transfer fee plus rent for a room starts in the millions. Where can he get so much money?
Although Li Hanlin made it clear that money was not an issue and he would ask his second son to transfer the amount to his card now, Shen Yu still refused.
Having no other choice, Li Hanlin thought about it and took the next best option and led Shen Yu to the antique city.
Chuzhou Antique City was developed six years ago by Chujian Group, the largest local real estate developer in Chuzhou. A lot of effort was put into both the design and construction.
It can be said that everything as small as an antique brick or a piece of glazed tile is carefully selected and the best is selected from the best.
Of course, Chu Jian Group’s hard work has not been in vain.
After the antique city was built, it won the first place in the selection of the most beautiful buildings in Chuzhou for five consecutive years, attracting countless tourists to check in.
Perhaps because of their good looks, the antique city has diverted many buyers from the flea market.
After Shen Yu spent three days calculating the passenger flow of the antique city in detail, he rented a shop long-term from his old friend through Li Hanlin.
As for why Shen Yu did not choose to start from a street stall and gradually accumulate experience, but chose to open a store directly, he also considered it carefully and even sought Li Hanlin's opinion.
Shen Yu is not afraid of the hard work of setting up a stall. Ever since he was in high school, he has gone to the Qingniuguan Antique Market in Dongjiang downtown every winter and summer vacation to set up a baggage stall.
What he sells are some knickknacks that he bought and exchanged for himself, which can be regarded as a kind of hoarding. In these years of street stall career, Shen Yu has also accumulated a lot of business skills.
There is a saying in business: "The wind blows half the damage, and the rain stops everything."
The meaning is very simple. When setting up a stall, you need to look at God’s face. You can’t do business in rain or shine.
Although many antique markets have sunshades and awnings in the stall areas, when the weather is bad, such as rain, snow, strong winds, heat, and extreme cold, buyers will definitely not come to the stall areas.
If no one comes, who will you sell to?
But it’s much better to have a shop. If customers want to buy something from you, they can just come directly. They don’t need to call you to ask if you are leaving the stall or when.
And sitting in the store, where the wind is out of the way, out of the rain, neither cold nor hot, you can pour a cup of hot tea and negotiate the price for as long as you want.
And the antique business is somewhat different from other businesses.
In the antique business, one-time transactions are the most taboo, and repeat customers are very important.
For example, Shen Yu had a customer come to the store a while ago and asked him directly if he had any real calligraphy and painting from the Qing Dynasty.
Shen Yu took out a collection of "Penglai Wonderland" painted by an unknown painter in the late Qing Dynasty and imitated it by Yuan Jiang. The other party, an expert, touched the painting paper and directly asked for the price.
This painting is also the result of Shen Yu's hoarding. He exchanged it with other collectors for a jade thumb ring and 2,000 yuan at the Qingniuguan Antique Market in his sophomore year.
When I got it, the painting was in terrible shape, as dirty as a rag. Shen Yu paid a high price to have it re-framed before it had the splendor that an ancient painting should have.
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The final calculated cost was almost 15,000 yuan. Shen Yu tentatively quoted a price of 100,000 yuan, but the other party did not counter-offer. After writing the transfer agreement, he transferred the money to him on his mobile phone at that time.
Later, this person successively bought a rosewood carving from the late Qing Dynasty and several rare ancient coins from the Song Dynasty from Shen Yu.
It was a coincidence that every time this guest came, it was either windy or pouring rain. If Shen Yu didn't have his own shop, he would definitely not be able to do these businesses.
Of course, if you want to have repeat customers, you must do business conscientiously. If you cheat people, you will never have repeat customers.
Another very important point is that picking up items on Taobao is not just about going out to buy and exchange them. The most important thing is that you have to have people come to sell them. Therefore, if you want to do antique business for a long time, you must have your own shop, because most people still sell antiques. I like looking for antique shops.
First, if you run away, you can’t run away from the store.
Second, those who can open antique shops must be richer than those who set up stalls in the minds of many people.
……
The first floor of the antique city is the jewelry hall, where all well-known jewelry brands at home and abroad have counters.
There are eight elevators and two escalators in the lobby. Shen Yu walked up the escalator and climbed leisurely to the second floor.
The layout of the second floor is completely different from that of the first floor. The hall becomes smaller, and then there are more partitions. There are antique shops on both sides of the wide corridor.
"Lantingju" opposite the escalator exit on the second floor is the antique shop opened by Shen Yu.
Shen Yu took out the key to unlock and skillfully pulled up the rolling shutter door.
At the moment when the rolling shutter door was raised, Shen Yu was obviously relieved. He was lucky. The wind was blowing from the north today. Although the windows were not closed, there was no rain entering the house. Several ancient books were safe and sound.
Shen Yu's shop is not very big in the antique city, but it is not too small either. It is considered a medium-sized shop, with an area of over 100 square meters.
Compared to those large antique merchants who only occupy two to three hundred square meters, or even seven or eight hundred square meters.
But it is much more spacious than some of the bead-selling shops that only have an area of less than ten square meters.
But one thing is that the location of Shen Yu's store is one of the best among the two or three on the second floor of the entire antique city.
First of all, it is facing the escalator. As long as tourists come up by the escalator, the first thing they see is Shen Yu’s "Lanting Residence".
What makes Shen Yu most satisfied is that his shop faces south and faces north.
Because there are windows on the south side, there is plenty of light during the day without feeling oppressive.
Of course, the price is also expensive. Compared with the same area of a store facing north and requiring lights to be turned on all day long, the rent is a full 2,000 yuan more per month.
The weather outside was gloomy, but Shen Yu turned on the light.
The moment the lights came on, the furnishings in the store were also revealed. In Shen Yu's own words, the interior furnishings can be described as elegant and elegant.
The design of Shen Yu's small store was completely done by himself. It is divided into two parts from south to north. The place next to the rolling shutter door is the reception room, and the back is the sales area.
The reception room is not big, only 18 square meters, and is surrounded by high-strength soundproof tempered glass.
There is a copy of Wang Ximeng's "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" hanging on the east wall of the hall. Of course, this is a mini version. The original is 12 meters long, so it is definitely impossible to completely copy it.
The painting is as majestic as a rainbow, ranging from high mountains and rivers to small fishing boats, small bridges, and thatched huts and thatched huts.
The free and flowing brushwork looks like the work of a famous artist, but it was actually copied by Shen Yu himself, which took him two months.
There is a square elm table at the bottom of the picture, with a crane-billed copper stove placed on it. After taking off the stove cover, Shen Yu lit a plate of osmanthus-flavored incense and put it in.
After more than ten seconds, a faint mist emerged through the stove cover, and the store was filled with aroma.
There is a peach wood Taishi chair on each side of the square table. Judging from the wear and tear, it must be at least a hundred years old.
On the west wall opposite, there is a cute and cute Lucky Cat, with two wooden red rosewood decorative panels on both sides, with a couplet hanging on it.
First couplet: Everything is destiny.
Second line: Nothing is up to mortals.
The banner means something: "Someone doesn't believe it."
Opposite the reception room is the bathroom, which saves the time and congestion of going to public toilets.
Naturally, the sales area occupies the largest area in the store, with a number of antique glass display cabinets arranged in a several-digit pattern.
The cabinet is neatly placed with hundreds of small items such as jade pendants, ancient coins, seals, ancient ink, inkstones, lacquerware, bronze mirrors, wood carvings, gold and silverware, antique beads and other items.
It can be said that all the objects that can be found in antiques and miscellaneous items are here.
Behind the display cabinets, there are several customized top-to-top architrave racks against the walls on the east and west sides.
One side is filled with various ancient scrolls.
On one side are various jade and porcelain items.
Finally, there is a wooden single bed and a datewood clothes hanger on the south wall by the window.
Except that Shen Yu's shop cannot be turned on for cooking, it is already his home.
Putting the ancient inkstone in his hand on the bedside table, Shen Yu first carefully put away the few ancient books drying in front of the window.
After carefully checking to make sure they were not contaminated by rainwater, Shen Yu gently placed them on a shelf somewhere on the east side.
He just collected these ancient books from the countryside a few days ago. The seller may have put these books in a damp corner before selling them. Not to mention the musty smell, it can make people vomit.
After everything was sorted, Shen Yu took a towel from the clothes hanger next to the single bed and wiped his hair.
The rain gradually stopped, and the wind blew in, making the house extremely cool.
When I walked to the window, there was a drop of rain falling from the eaves outside the window. When it landed on the edge of the window, it turned into countless beads and jade splashing down.
Shen Yu looked up at the sky, and the sky was still very gloomy at this time.
"It's a hot day today. It's been a full year since I left Baoyu Xuan. I don't know when I will be able to pay back the losses I caused to Uncle Chu.
"Hey, things have been going very hard recently. I hope I will have good luck in the future."
