He held a box one and a half feet long in his arms, looking around with a stern look, like a thief.
After he got into the restaurant, he immediately asked the restaurant owner to close the door.
When there were knocks and shouts outside the door, he remembered that there were two people carrying pens, ink, paper and inkstones that he had thrown outside.
"You go and arrange for them to come in before anyone finds them. I'll go up first."
Liu Heng told the shopkeeper to pick up the people outside the door. He held the box and went up to the second floor of the restaurant first.
Kou Ji sat in front of two tables side by side. Seeing Liu Heng's thieving attitude, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "How can you act like a thief when you take things from your own home?"
Liu Heng rolled his eyes, sat across from Kou Ji, carefully put down the box in his hand, and said: "You can stand and talk without pain in your back. Is this an ordinary thing? If there is something wrong with this thing, not only my father will do it." Even if we get angry, my aunt will not let us off lightly."
Liu Heng's words made Erbao laugh.
When Liu Heng saw this, he just glanced at Erbao, but he didn't treat him like he was a member of the imperial army.
The reason for this is because Liu Heng has developed a close feeling towards Kou Ji.
Two people, especially two men, may not necessarily feel close to each other when they do good things, but when they do bad things, they can easily feel close to each other, thus bringing the relationship closer to each other.
"Open it and take a look..."
Kou Ji's eyes fell on the box that Liu Heng was guarding tightly in his hand, and he said with a smile.
Liu Heng glanced at him warily, covered the box and said, "Don't move, I'll take it out for you to see."
Under Kou Ji's watchful eye.
Liu Heng, as if he was holding a peerless beauty, carefully opened the box and took out a scroll of paintings.
Along the long table, the painting was unfolded bit by bit.
Kou Ji stared at the painting with bright eyes.
This painting has aroused different opinions in later generations, but no one has seen its true appearance, and it is said to have been lost.
Now that he can see the true appearance of this painting, Kou Ji feels a little excited.
The scroll was slowly unfolded, and a painted figure appeared on the paper.
Kou Ji was stunned for a moment when he saw the content on the scroll.
There are two figures in the painting, a man and a woman. The man has straight facial features and is wearing a bright yellow gown, lying on his side on a brocade couch. The woman is beautiful, wearing a green skirt spread on the ground, nestling in the man's arms, helping. He feeds grapes.
Throughout the painting, the characters are lifelike, with natural expressions and bright colors. It is a rare masterpiece.
But Kou Ji couldn't hide his disappointment.
The reason why I am disappointed is because this painting has a reputation in later generations as the No. 1 Erotic Palace in the world.
Now it seems that the title of the world's number one erotic palace is somewhat undeserved.
But after thinking about it, Kou Ji felt relieved.
After all, in later generations, this painting has been lost, and most of the rumors about this painting are just speculation.
"What's that look in your face? Do you suspect that I gave you a fake painting?"
Liu Heng couldn't guess what Kou Ji was thinking, but his disappointed look couldn't escape Liu Heng's eyes.
Hearing this, Kou Ji shook his head and said with a smile: "I am a little disappointed, but it has nothing to do with the authenticity of this painting."
Liu Heng was stunned for a moment, raised his eyebrows, and looked at Kou Ji in disbelief, "You didn't believe the rumors and thought this painting was an erotic painting, right?"
Kou Ji nodded calmly.
Liu Heng cursed loudly: "You can believe the rumors in the market. If this painting is really an erotic painting, do you think my aunt can give it to my father?"
Kou Ji laughed dumbly, and after a long time he nodded and said, "I was overthinking it. Thank you Brother Liu Heng for the suggestion."
Liu Heng hummed and waved his hands: "Don't say these useless things. Have you finished reading the painting? I will send it back after reading it."
Kou Ji smiled slightly, "Don't worry, the painting has been taken out anyway, it won't hurt to leave it for an hour longer. The second treasure, pen, ink, paper and inkstone will be at your service."
"Here comes the young master..."
Erbao Diandian ran forward, snatched the pen, ink, paper and inkstone from the hands of Liu Heng's attendant, and spread it on the blank table.
Seeing this, Liu Heng gritted his teeth bitterly, "Are you trying to fake it? You don't have three or five days to imitate such a painting. It's impossible."
What Liu Heng said is correct.
Creating a painting can be completed in a few hours.
You can copy a painting, especially if you want to copy both the spirit and the form, which often takes more time.
While Liu Heng was talking, Erbao had already helped Kou Ji spread out the paper and polished the ink.
Kou Ji randomly picked up a good langhao pen, moistened the pen, dipped it in ink, and the words came out.
"For me, it only takes an hour."
As soon as he finished speaking, Kou Ji had already drawn a few strokes on the paper.
Liu Heng didn't know how to paint, but seeing Kou Ji strolling around in the garden with a confident look on his face, he felt a lot more relieved without realizing it.
Kou Ji continued to paint without stopping the words in his mouth.
"I have to say that your father has preserved this painting very well. It is obviously a painting from decades ago, but there is no trace of time on the paper. The old paper from decades ago is different from the new one this year.
Paper, the difference is only so slight.
It only needs to be baked for a period of time after the new painting is made, and then dried in the shade, which is enough to make it look like the real thing.
It saves me the time of aging the paper and gives me an extra day to breathe.”
Liu Heng stared at the painting written by Kou Ji and asked in a deep voice: "What happens next?"
Kou Ji raised his head and glanced at him, rinsed the brush in the brush washer, used a dry sweat towel to absorb the water in the hair, dipped it in paint, and started writing again.
"After that...you, the prodigal son, went to Donglai Pawn Shop to sell paintings."
Liu Heng frowned and said, "That's it? It's easy for people to see the flaws."
Kou Ji smiled and said: "So I have to prepare a few more paintings for you. Mix the real and fake together to attract people."
Liu Heng raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "As long as you are prepared."
After a pause, Liu Heng asked: "How do you predict that Wu Xian will definitely take the bait?"
"Listen more and watch more..."
Liu Heng couldn't help but rolled his eyes.
Kou Ji explained with a smile: "I have heard in the public that Wu Xian has saved a lot of money during his years as an official and opened several shops, including one grain store, two cloth stores, and a gambling shop.
There are three pawnshops.
The business of this pawn shop is far less profitable than the other four shops, and it even cannot make ends meet, so it still needs support from the other four shops to survive."
Liu Heng immediately heard the problem and immediately glared and said: "That shouldn't be the case. I don't know how the other businesses in Bianjing City are, but the business of this pawnshop has always been booming. How could his pawnshop not make money?"
There must be something wrong."
Kou Ji nodded and said: "There is indeed a problem. I thought about it carefully, and the only possible explanation is that Wu Xian likes antiques, calligraphy and painting, so he often uses pawnshops to help him collect antiques, calligraphy and paintings. This causes the pawnshop to suffer losses and cannot make ends meet.
situation.
The Wu family's three pawnshops have been unable to make ends meet, and Wu Xian has never planned to close them, which just illustrates this point."