1979: Literary Master, Starting from the Return of Educated Youth

Chapter 8: The Legend of Wealth, Starting from Five Cents

The two of them enjoyed the braised beef in a can. Two dishes, cream of mushroom soup, pan-fried cod, and the borscht ordered by Chen Qiaoqiao were served.

"Mushrooms can be grilled with butter, which is really fresh."

"Mmm...it's really delicious."

Chen Qiaoqiao found the Russian cuisine very new and praised it highly after tasting the soup.

Xu Yuexin ate a piece of tender and delicate cod meat and also felt that it tasted very good.

"It tastes really good. I'll bring you here more often in the future."

Xu Yuexin took the cream of mushroom soup that Chen Qiaoqiao served him, drank two sips and said.

Chen Qiaoqiao quickly shook her head: "No, no, it's too expensive. This one time today is enough."

When ordering food just now, Chen Qiaoqiao saw the prices on the menu and discovered that any single dish would be enough to cover an ordinary person’s living expenses for several days, and she felt very distressed about it.

"I quit my job to create, just so that we can eat whatever we want and buy whatever we want."

Xu Yuexin made a bold statement, "I am confident that with my writing output, I will have no problem eating here every day in the future."

Keep a low profile when nothing happens, and never show shyness when it's time to show your strength. This is Xu Yuexin's principle in life.

Chen Qiaoqiao burst out laughing. She thought Xu Yuexin looked very courageous and handsome just now.

"You earned a lot of money this time, right?"

Chen Qiaoqiao asked curiously.

"651 yuan."

Xu Yuexin said calmly, "This is just the beginning."

"What a high fee."

"This shows that you are extremely talented. As long as you keep working hard, it will be just like you said. This royalty fee is just the beginning."

Chen Qiaoqiao opened her almond-shaped eyes wide and encouraged Xu Yuexin with a sweet smile.

Chen Qiaoqiao initially thought that Xu Yuexin was like her classmates, publishing articles of several thousand or tens of thousands of words in People's Literature.

Judging from his royalties, his works must be at least tens of thousands of words long, and the difficulty of creating them cannot be compared to a piece of tofu of a few thousand words.

Thinking of this, Chen Qiaoqiao was even more attracted by Xu Yuexin's talent, and her eyes could not be taken away from him.

After a while, the food on the table was finished by the two people, and Xu Yuexin went to the counter to pay.

The total amount was six dollars and fifty cents, plus eight taels of food coupons.

In the past few years, when educated youth went to the countryside, their hometown government would provide a one-time subsidy of a certain amount of food coupons, and the local government of the place where they were sent to work would also give the educated youth some grain, oil, and cloth coupons depending on the local economic strength.

Xu Yuexin was sent to work in the Northeast, where living conditions were relatively good and the food distributed by the production team was enough for him to eat, so he hoarded all the food coupons and has now become a small wealthy man.

After paying the bill, Xu Yuexin took Chen Qiaoqiao's hand and walked out of the restaurant, strolling in the April sunshine.

The warm spring breeze ruffled the ends of Chen Qiaoqiao's hair. As Xu Yuexin breathed in, he smelled a fresh and alluring girl's body fragrance.

He took a sip of the Arctic Ocean soda he always carried with him. At this time, Chen Qiaoqiao spoke up: "I'm a little thirsty."

Xu Yuexin handed the soda over naturally. Chen Qiaoqiao took it and drank two small sips through the straw.

Looking at Chen Qiaoqiao's cheeks slightly puffing up when she drank water, Xu Yuexin found it a little cute.

Wait…she and I shared a straw, so that counts as an indirect kiss?

Xu Yuexin thought to himself.

After a while, the two shared the soda, took the bottle to the newsstand and received five cents.

Xu Yuexin put the coins in his pocket, led Chen Qiaoqiao to a nearby dispatch point, called a taxi, and headed to Shichahai Park.

Speaking of which, Shichahai Park and Lao Mo were both places that were fought over by the kids from the compound and the gangsters, and fights would break out there every now and then.

As these two groups of people were later sent to the countryside or jailed, the situation finally calmed down. Now, you can only see the Buddha picking pockets from time to time, but no more group fights.

Outside Shichahai Park is a shed for storing bicycles. It costs two cents for no time limit, and there will be an old man to watch over you.

Xu Yuexin and Chen Qiaoqiao got out of the car and walked inside, and saw many small stalls on both sides of the road.

Near the park entrance, the stalls sell popsicles, soda, and candied haws. Going further in, the items sold turn into various antique collections.

As a student of Chinese language, Chen Qiaoqiao had studied traditional culture and was very interested in these antique stalls. She would stop from time to time to take a closer look at the porcelain bottles and furniture on the stalls. Xu Yuexin had often watched treasure appraisal live in his previous life, so he took advantage of this opportunity to train his eyesight.

New, new, all new...

After passing by several stalls, Xu Yuexin shook his head repeatedly in his heart.

There is no such thing as picking up bargains in the 1970s and 1980s. The counterfeiting and selling of antiques has been a hot industry since ancient times. Especially during the Republic of China period, it reached a new peak.

Perhaps among the vendors in front of me, some have paid the tuition fee because they are not skilled enough and are now turning around to sell the goods to the next person.

If you want to buy genuine things right now, there are only two mainstream ways: go to Rongbaozhai to buy them, or go to the countryside to collect them.

Rongbaozhai is basically authentic, but the problem is that it is very expensive. If you have that much money, you might as well buy a house within the second ring road, where the appreciation rate may be even greater.

Going to the countryside to collect them is like being a professional collector. In an era without highways and cameras, long journeys are hard and unsafe.

Apart from this, only the once wealthy families were left to sell their ancestral properties. However, Xu Yuexin doubted how many good things the so-called wealthy families would have left after the previous chaotic years.

Having said that, Xu Yuexin is not in a hurry.

Even if you look at thousands of pieces, you will always come across one or two new ones, and you will make a fortune if you buy them.

"Selling old books, selling old books."

At this time, a weak shouting sound from the front attracted the attention of Xu Yuexin and Chen Qiaoqiao.

The hawker was a skinny middle-aged man wearing glasses. He was squatting on the ground with a sack in front of him and a broken wooden box on top of it. The box contained a pile of books.

Selling antiques is not like selling watermelons. No one will shout loudly. This person is breaking the rules.

"Go and have a look."

Xu Yuexin said to Chen Qiaoqiao and walked to the stall with her.

“I’m not selling antiques.”

When the middle-aged man saw Xu Yuexin and Chen Qiaoqiao coming up, he explained, "We are moving, and we want to get rid of the old books."

Xu Yuexin took a quick look and found that the books placed in the wooden box, such as "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", had worn covers and looked unremarkable.

"Why don't you send it to a scrap yard?"

Xu Yuexin looked at the middle-aged man, smiled and asked.

The middle-aged man spread his hands and said, "If I send it over, I can only sell it as waste paper. One cent for two kilograms, I don't think it's worth it. After all, it's a classic book, right?"

"Too."

Xu Yuexin seemed to speak nonchalantly, his eyes sweeping over the broken wooden box.

At first glance, it looks like just an ordinary poplar box, only worth chopping into firewood for cooking.

However, Xu Yuexin could still see its unusualness with his eyes.

The wood on the front of the box is thin, and the wood on the bottom is thick. When Xu Yuexin bent down to pick up a book, he casually tapped the box with his fingers and found that the bottom was hollow.

The only purpose of this design is to hide things.

And judging from the echo, there was indeed something stored in the hollow bottom of the wooden box, but we didn't know what it was.

It is definitely not an ordinary object, at least it is an interesting one. The ancients would not be so bored as to hide it just to play a trick on the later generations.

"How to sell it?"

Xu Yuexin asked.

"I'll give you two cents for the box, and I'll sell you the books at one cent per pound. How do you think?"

The middle-aged man asked tentatively.

"Okay, weigh it."

Xu Yuexin said casually, and when the middle-aged man took the books to weigh them, he picked up the box casually.

When he lifted it, Xu Yuexin clearly felt that the weight was not right.

The things hidden inside are not light.

(End of this chapter)