When Xue Chen and Tao Sihai entered the yard, they got closer and could vaguely see the general situation in the yard. There were rows of stalls scattered in a large open space. Some people were holding flashlights or
I used my mobile phone to illuminate it and walked back and forth in front of each stall to select the items on the stall.
Xue Chen saw two men holding hands in front of a stall a few steps away, bargaining silently, giving off a mysterious atmosphere from the old days.
He also found that there were many stalls selling goods in the yard, but no one said anything. They all sat there without saying a word and motionless. When he flashed the light of his mobile phone, it was easy for people to notice all these people.
It becomes a sculptural illusion.
There were definitely a lot of people in the whole courtyard, at least two to three hundred, but they were surprisingly quiet, which gave this ghost market a somewhat mysterious feeling.
After walking a few steps forward, Xue Chen squatted in front of a stall. He first raised his head and glanced at the stall owner sitting on a small horse. He was an old man in his fifties or sixties, with a wrinkled face and a headband.
Wearing a black hat.
The things on the stall are also miscellaneous, including two brown gourds, a wooden box with no apparent purpose, a wooden comb, a snuff bottle, white jade jewelry...
Xue Chen picked up a white jade Guanyin statue and heard the little old man whisper in a slightly hoarse voice: "Friend, you know the goods very well. This is authentic Hetian jade."
"Hetian jade?"
It doesn't even count.
The little old man coughed slightly and said awkwardly: "If you see through it and don't tell it, you will only make ends meet."
Xue Chen smiled and said nothing more. He put back the fake Guanyin pendant, and briefly glanced at the other things on the stall. When he saw that there was nothing worth getting his hands on, he stood up.
walked away.
Tao Sihai followed closely with his hands in his pockets, looking left and right with interest.
Xue Chen walked around, not looking at the stalls one by one seriously, because he was not here to pick up the stalls, but mainly wanted to see the legendary ghost market.
When he reached the corner of the yard and passed by a small stall set up by a woman, Xue Chen took a casual look, felt something in his heart, and squatted down.
The stall was very small, just a one-meter-square piece of yellow cloth spread flat on the ground. The woman was about forty years old. She looked like she came from the countryside. Her face was red and black from the sun. When she saw Xue Chen squatting
He looked at the front, looking a little nervous.
The items on the stall were very simple, only a pair of shoes, more precisely, a pair of bow shoes, which were the shoes worn by women with bound feet in the feudal period.
Xue Chen held it in his hand, and the look in his eyes fluctuated.
This pair of bow shoes is very small, less than the size of his palm. It is dark purple in color and is less than a handhold. The front end is as sharp as the tip of a bamboo shoot. There is a blooming peony flower embroidered with golden silk thread on it.
There are also a few small pearls embroidered in various places, and the base is made of sandalwood.
Xue Chen stretched out his hand and wanted to negotiate with the woman, but the woman was a little embarrassed and whispered: "It's my first day here. I won't touch the road here, so I'd better talk with my mouth."
"Okay." Xue Chen nodded kindly.
The woman hunched over and explained in a low voice: "This was passed down to me by my grandma. It has been kept under a box at home. My daughter went to college this year, so she wanted to take it out and exchange it for money. After hearing about it, she came here to sell it.
.”
"Oh, how much do you plan to sell it for?" Xue Chen only believed the woman in front of him. The money he sold was true. As for whether it was to pay for his daughter's tuition, that was a different matter. He couldn't believe it at all.
The woman looked at Xue Chen for a few times, shrank her hands in front of her body, hesitated for a long time, and said in a very low voice: "Forty thousand!"
"forty thousand……"
Xue Chen hesitated for a moment. This pair of bow shoes was naturally genuine and from the early Qing Dynasty. Otherwise, he would not have had nothing to do with this woman. The price of 40,000 yuan was not bad. It was rare to see bow shoes in such good condition.
of.
In particular, the uppers of the bow shoes are embroidered with gold thread and pearls, which shows that these shoes must have been worn by ladies from wealthy families at that time, and they were also considered high-quality among bow shoes.
It's not a problem to buy it for 40,000 and resell it for 60,000 or 70,000. Of course, he has no intention of selling it in a hurry. It is also a good choice to go back and collect it.
When Xue Chen was discussing the price with the woman, at some point, a man came up to him. He had been watching from the side and seemed to be a little interested in the pair of bow shoes. However, seeing that Xue Chen had already negotiated the price with the woman,
Having already taken the money, I couldn't help but sigh.
Xue Chen had prepared 100,000 yuan in cash before he came. It was absolutely impossible to swipe a credit card in this ghost market.
The woman took four bundles of cash, and her hands were trembling with nervousness. Xue Chen saw that the woman was really not from this circle, so he kindly reminded her, took the money and left quickly to find a hotel to stay.
The woman nodded gratefully, grabbed the yellow cloth on the ground, rolled it up and held it in her arms. She immediately got up and walked away quickly.
When Xue Chen got up and was about to walk away with Tao Sihai, the man who had been watching for a long time stopped him: "Friend, do you have any idea of changing hands? I want this pair of fragrant shoes for 60,000 yuan."
This person is right to call bow shoes fragrant shoes, because there is an interlayer between the sole and the upper of bow shoes, and various spices are usually stuffed inside, so the shoes will be very fragrant, so they are called fragrant shoes, and their names are also better than
Bow shoes sound much better.
Xue Chen turned around and glanced at the person who stopped him. He was a man in his forties. Without thinking much, he shook his head and said sorry. He bought it for fun, and he didn't intend to make a profit from the price difference.
After buying the pair of fragrant shoes, Xue Chen and Tao Sihai walked around twice more. Basically their interest in the ghost market was satisfied, so they left the yard, took a taxi nearby and returned to the hotel.
It was almost three o'clock when he arrived at the hotel, and the sky was already dark. He put the pair of bow shoes on the bedside table and fell asleep. At noon the next day, the four of them left the guest room and prepared to leave.
After getting in the car, Yan Ruxing shook his bald head, sighed deeply and said, "This trip was in vain. I met a bunch of scammers. I was so unlucky that I spent a lot of money on gas and food and accommodation."
Thousands."
Tao Sihai grinned and said: "Uncle Yan, stop complaining. Just like Brother Xue said, just treat it as a trip."
"Bah, what's so interesting about this poor place like Pinghe? Who would come to visit this place?" Yan Ruxing said dissatisfied.
Xue Chen did not interrupt, but put a plastic bag on his knees, took out another fragrant shoe inside, and looked at it. At this time, he saw that it was more beautiful than when he saw it last night, and it didn't look like a shoe.
It's more like a piece of art.
Yan Ruxing took the other one and said: "Is this what you got from going to the ghost market last night? Oh, the style should be fragrant shoes from the middle and late Qing Dynasty, with gold thread, pearls, peonies, oh, or the rich and powerful
What are the clothes worn by ladies from noble families? How many of them were purchased?"
"forty thousand."
"That's right, you're guaranteed to make a profit without losing any money. It's a small mistake. You're really lucky. Such good stuff is not common in the ghost market." Yan Ruxing said very tactfully.
Xue Chen held the fragrant shoes in his hand, picked them up and looked at the junction between the sole and the upper. There should have been a small opening there to put some spices inside, but it had been sewn shut, so he easily
He reached into the shoe and touched it.
His original intention was to feel if there were really spices in the mezzanine. Although the spices were not touched, he still felt something that seemed to be sandwiched in the mezzanine. The thing seemed to be very thin. If it was padded in the mezzanine, it could
Feel a slight bulge.
"what?"
Xue Chen felt curious.
"Xiao Xue, what are you touching? Could it be that through this pair of fragrant shoes, you are imagining the beautiful face and delicate figure of the lady who once wore these shoes?" Yan Ruxing joked with a smile.
Xue Chen glanced at Yan Ruxing, but he didn't expect that the owner of the largest antique shop in Haicheng had such an old and crooked side. He shook his head and said seriously: "Uncle Yan, I feel like there is something in the spice layer on the sole of the shoe?
"
Yan Ruxing's eyes moved and he looked at Xue Chen in surprise: "What is it?"
"I don't know, I have to take apart the seam to see." Xue Chen remembered that Tao Sihai had taken a finger-long knife to play with, so he borrowed it and carefully used the blade to open the seam.
Not only Yan Ruxing, but also Tao Sihai and Yu Qiang also turned their heads to take a look from time to time, curious about what was stuck in the middle of the soles.
After opening an inch-long hole, Xue Chen took a look along the light and saw that there was indeed something strange inside. He put his fingers in and twisted it out bit by bit.
When the contents of the mezzanine were pulled out, Yan Ruxing exclaimed: "It's gold leaves!"
Astonishingly, they were two brown-yellow square gold foils, which were a currency called gold leaves during the Ming and Qing Dynasties!
"Golden leaves..."
Seeing the gold leaves pulled out from the interlayer, Xue Chen's eyes became strange because he really couldn't figure out why the soles of the shoes had this thing. He had never heard of this custom.
"Wow, it's gold, Uncle Yan. It must be worth a lot of money, right?" Tao Sihai asked in shock.
Yan Ruxing thought about it and said: "In general, it's not too valuable, but it may not be as valuable as this pair of shoes." The reason why he exclaimed just now was because he was thinking the same as Xue Chen, but he didn't expect it. It was not because the value was very high.
high.
Xue Chen carefully held the gold leaves and turned them around. He felt that they were two to two, which made him even more confused. In the past, these shoes were definitely worn by women from wealthy families, and they would not be able to look at the two gold leaves.
It's so heavy that it's specially sewn into the shoe.
This is like Ning Xuanxuan carefully hiding 100,000 yuan. This is simply unreasonable. (To be continued)