The gentle sea breeze, mixed with drizzle, swept through the streets and alleys, bringing bursts of coolness to this coastal city. People walking on the streets lowered their heads and walked forward, speeding up their pace, hoping to catch up before the heavy rain came.
, find a shelter from the rain and wind.
"Bata..."
Big raindrops fell on the glass, flowing in a meandering way, as if to prove that it had been there, leaving crisscross traces on the transparent glass.
Although it was raining outside, Shenzhen still seemed sultry in July, like a steamer. The electric fan blew out hot air. My eyes were dull, and I lay paralyzed on the couch in the store, staring blankly at the antique city outside the window.
The heavy rain blurred the streets, and now there was not even a ghost to be seen on the streets that were already empty of people.
"Crunch..."
Just when I was drowsy and about to fall asleep, there was a harsh sound of pushing the door open. With an excited look on his face, Shale pushed open the glass door of my shop and rushed in. Most of his clothes were soaked by the rain. As soon as he came in,
He sat down on my recliner as soon as he could.
Your uncle! I was very speechless in my heart. His huge body blocked the wind from the electric fan, but his butt was directly touching my face, and water was still dripping from his body. It was so disgusting that I had to stand up with difficulty.
Shale’s real name is Gao Le. He is twenty-six this year and a few years older than me. He is a tall man, about 1.9 meters tall, a whole head taller than me. He works in a shop on the main street of the Antique City. To put it bluntly,
Yeah, just a handyman.
He has a somewhat honest and dull personality. He is reticent and a bit shy when it comes to people he is not familiar with, which is inversely proportional to his sturdy body. But once you get to know him, he seems to be a different person, and his mouth feels like it is stuffed.
He quacks like five hundred ducks, which is a huge contrast. Every time he sees me, he always looks silly with a smile on his face, as if he doesn’t know the sufferings of the world, so I always like to call him Shale.
"Fuck! Don't block the little master's wind." I pushed away Shale's body, which was as burly as a hill, and then paralyzed weakly. In order to prevent Shale's butt from sticking to him again, I pushed his head with my hands.
All empty spaces next to it are blocked.
My real name is Ye Xiao. A few years ago, when I first came to the antique city to help my aunt look after the store, I followed the principle of being modest and low-key. I called myself Xiaoye when I met everyone. But my southern accent was similar to Xiaoye. They
They always think that I do it on purpose and want to take advantage of them.
Later, someone saw me sitting in front of the shop most of the time in a daze, so they called me Xiaodaiye, but the pronunciation of Xiaodaiye and Xiaotaiya are almost the same, and they sounded very comfortable to me, and they were also catchy when spoken.
From then on, I called myself Little Grandpa, but I couldn’t care less about whether others liked it or not.
Silly Le stood up with a smile and said: "Brother Ye Zi, a customer came to the store and brought a cup to sell to Boss Wu. Boss Wu is not sure and wants your help."
Shale is older than me, but he always calls me Brother Yezi. This has nothing to do with age or anything, it’s just a person.
It's just a slightly respectful title.
I asked: "Why didn't you call?"
"I called, but you didn't answer, so I came here to take a look."
Shale said: "Boss Wu wants me to see if you are in the store, haha..."
I took out my cell phone from my pocket, and sure enough, there were three missed calls, all from Lao Wu, but I didn’t know when I turned it to silent, so I didn’t hear any of them. I immediately changed it to the ringtone mode and said: "Lao Wu when?
I want to collect tattered ones, and I want cups too! Disposable plastic cups, or enamel cups from the 1980s? I have a pair of underwear here, which I have worn for less than a year, and there is a huge hole in the front.
But the fabric is at least 70% new, so help me ask him if he will accept it!"
Shale knew that I was teasing him, but he was not angry and said: "It's not the ordinary cup we drink tea from, it's... it's... the cup that ancient people used to drink on TV, made of copper, with three legs."
I rolled my eyes at Shale speechlessly and said, "After all, your kid has been hanging out in the antique city for more than two years. Can you speak more professionally? That's called Jue, Bronze Jue!"
"Yes, yes, it's Jue."
Silly smiled and said: "I was afraid that you wouldn't understand, so I said it was a cup."
I almost spit out my blood on the spot. My brother-in-law is the director of the Shenzhen Museum, and my aunt is the deputy director of the Cultural Relics Bureau. I have learned knowledge about cultural relics and antiquities from them since I was a child. I have been immersed in them for so many years, and I learned them in college.
Three years of research and appraisal of cultural relics, and I will graduate in one year. I, a college student with extremely high talent, hard work, and such a bright and handsome boy, was actually stumped by a handyman in my professional field.
You can't refute, otherwise you will appear to be downgraded.
Lao Wu and I both run antiques and antiques businesses in the Antique City, but he was on the main street, and I was on the corner near the public restrooms.
The so-called jealousy of peers, logically speaking, businesses in the same circle are competing with each other and are on guard against each other, but the antique city in Shenzhen is a little different.
When I entered high school, which was also when the Antique City was newly built, my aunt and her family spent most of their life savings and borrowed a lot of money to build a corner store here.
When the Antique City was built and opened, the place was bustling with people and business was booming. People who really liked antiques, arty people, and people who didn't know how to watch the excitement were all in it. In addition, among the businessmen and high-ranking officials at that time, there was a popular
Antiques are given as gifts, and some tour groups use the Antique City as a small attraction, so the whole street is crowded with people. I go to the store to help every day after school and on weekends until about nine o'clock in the evening.
Only then could I call it a day, it was so tiring that both my kidneys ached.
It's just that everything will always return to its essence after being exaggerated. After all, Shenzhen is just Shenzhen, it is not the capital, and the antique city is just an antique city. It is not Panjiayuan. There is still a certain difference in the city's heritage and cultural connotation.
Differentiated.
The popularity of the antique city began to fade after about two years. Although Shenzhen is a city with rapid economic development, it is an emerging immigrant city after all, and its cultural heritage in cultural antiques is slightly lacking.
Even if there is a little bit of background, it has been filled up by the batches of brothers and sisters who come from all over the world to work hard. It is like a pot of hodgepodge with all kinds of flavors, but when you taste it carefully, none of the flavors are pure.
In addition, with the development of Internet technology, the prices of many cultural and antique items are becoming more and more transparent, and the profit margins have been greatly compressed. It is not uncommon for a broken inkstone that used to cost a few hundred yuan to sell for tens of thousands, and the profit can reach dozens of times.
, even hundreds of times, but now even if you have an object with a large door in your hand, you may not be able to sell it for a good price. In addition, the country’s anti-corruption efforts are increasing day by day, and various reasons have made the business in the antique city difficult.
It's getting harder and harder to do.
It was also in this environment that my aunt wanted to transfer or rent the shop, but she could never agree on the price, so she simply handed over the shop to me, as long as I could maintain my basic expenses. Fortunately, she
I bought the store, with 40 years of property rights. I only need to be responsible for some small expenses such as water, electricity, property and sanitation fees. The pressure is not great. The monthly profit can cover the expenses, and there is still some surplus to buy a bowl of porridge.
drink.
When business is good, most stores will hire senior experts to sit in the store to help with inspection, valuation, receiving goods, contacting the next shop, etc. But now the overall market is not optimistic and business is failing, so we simply cannot afford to hire these experts.
The shops in the antique city compete with each other and help each other at the same time. Just like Boss Wu, he is proficient in ancient jade and has deep attainments in calligraphy and painting, but he is not very good at bronze and ironware, so he
They would ask me to help with the palms and eyes. This was also a helpless approach. Only by hugging each other and helping each other to keep warm could there be room for survival.
Boss Wu is pretty good, at least he is still maintaining his old business. Many shops in the antique city are in sluggish business and have changed their professions. They sell tea sets and tea leaves, handicrafts, and root carvings. There are all kinds of them. Even my own shop
Started to diversify business, making antiques and selling citrine jewelry. This citrine is different from ordinary gold. It is actually a natural quartz stone. It is very shiny and beautiful. It is still attractive to white-collar women in nearby office buildings.
.
I yawned for a long time and rubbed my sore eyes. Although I was very reluctant, others came to the door. I had to help. I got up from the recliner and took out my own from the counter.
Shoulder bag, looking at Sha Le’s still soaked clothes, he said, “It’s raining heavily outside, why didn’t you bring an umbrella?”
"Bring it."
Shale rubbed his hands and said sheepishly: "The wind was too strong on the road and it blew away. I couldn't catch him."
"Um...okay!"
I looked around my shop, and there was no umbrella. "Then... let's rush over. You're already soaked anyway, so you rush forward and help me block the rain."