Pick up bargains in Chinatown and make 10,000 times the profit at the beginning

Chapter 71 Eighteen Sons

While Lin Yuan was explaining to everyone, Li Qiu Shui and Huo Qingtong fell behind. They saw something they liked and thought it was a treasure.

The stall was selling bracelets. The owner was a middle-aged Chinese woman with thin lips, giving people a sour and mean feeling.

Li Qiu Shui picked up a bracelet and put it on her wrist. It was a little big.

This bracelet is made up of eighteen beads, which are yellow and slightly transparent. There is a gourd-shaped object at the end of the bracelet.

If I remember correctly, this thing often appears in costume TV dramas and movies, and it's called Eighteen Sons.

"Qingtong, how about this one?" Li Qiu Shui stretched out her wrist with the bracelet.

Huo Qingtong took a glance and said, "Not bad. Do you like yellow?"

"It doesn't matter what color it is, this bead is pretty good!" Li Qiu Shui turned her wrist.

After saying that, Li Qiushui looked up at the stall owner: "Sister, how much do you sell this for?"

The curly-haired lady opened her palm and said, "Five hundred dollars. Your necklace is made of beeswax. I tell you..."

She started to brag about the thing, praising it to the skies. If you didn't know, you would have thought it was some kind of innate spiritual treasure!

Li Qiu Shui had heard of beeswax, but didn't know the specific market price. She thought that she couldn't buy the authentic one for $500, right?

"50 for sale?" As a Chinese, Li Qiushui's bargaining gene has not changed. Moreover, she has learned a little bit from following Lin Yuan in the past two days.

Start by bargaining by a single digit.

"Pay the money!" the aunt said readily.

Li Qiushui: "..."

She realized that she was too kind when bargaining.

Li Qiu Shui had no choice but to take out $50 and hand it over.

Huo Qingtong chose a bracelet made of cat's eye stone and put it on her hand, but she found that it was also too big. In fact, the bracelets on the entire stall didn't fit her hands well, which made Huo Qingtong a little puzzled.

"Sister, how about this 30?"

The aunt smiled and said, "It's also 50, the lowest price."

"Her piece is made of beeswax, but mine isn't. Why do you want so much?" Huo Qingtong didn't mind the $20, but she still bargained out of habit.

Sometimes, when women bargain, what they care about is the sense of accomplishment of getting a few cents off, rather than the fact that they are really short of three or five dollars.

"Yours is even more amazing. You know cat's eye, right? But to be honest, these cat's eyes have flaws, otherwise how could you buy them for $50?" The aunt seemed very frank.

"If you don't believe me, you can check it yourself," the aunt added.

Huo Qingtong was speechless.

What to check?
Cat's eye is precious, she knows that without checking. The key is, is this really a cat's eye?

“Save it for $10!”

The aunt shook her head: "I can give you a discount of 5 dollars at most."

After some competition, the bracelet was sold for $45.

The two girls looked up and found that Lin Yuan and the others had already gone far away, so they hurried to catch up with them so as not to miss out on the "one hundred million".

"Brother Lin, how about my bracelet?" After catching up with Lin Yuan, Li Qiu Shui shook the bracelet on her wrist.

Lin Yuan had already noticed that Li Qiu Shui and Huo Qingtong were lagging behind.

He looked at what the two men bought and said, "This is the Eighteen Sons."

"Eighteenth son?"

Except for Lin Yuan and his uncle, everyone else heard it for the first time. His uncle explained: "This is a small bracelet that is very popular in the aristocratic circle in addition to the official system of the Qing Dynasty. It is called the Eighteen-Seed Bracelet. Generally speaking, eighteen bodhi seeds are selected and strung together.

Later, the restrictions on bodhi seeds were lifted, and other things were also accepted.”

When Huo Qingtong heard this, she quickly counted them and said, "I only have 16."

Lin Yuan told her that "Shi Ba Zi" is named after the main beads, which are often 18 in number. Shi Ba Zi evolved from Buddhist beads and is a type of Buddhist beads. Generally, small round beads are selected, with two exquisite Buddha heads, a Buddha head tower and a pendant in the middle, so it is also called Shi Ba Zi.

The 18 beads represent the realms of Buddhism, namely the "six senses", "six dusts", and "six colors".

However, it doesn't have to be 18 beads.

"Eighteen is not a fixed number, just like Tang Sancai, it does not necessarily have three colors." Lin Yuan said.

Qiao Yufan was puzzled: "Why is it so big? How do I wear it? Whose hands are so big?"

Especially for women to wear.

"This kind of bracelet is not meant to be worn. It can be held in the hand, tied around the wrist, or hung on the buttons of casual clothes. It is a more flexible type of jewelry."

As far as Lin Yuan knows, the Eighteen-Bead Bracelet and Court Beads were both accessories of Qing Dynasty clothing. However, Court Beads were included in the ritual system, while the wearing of the Eighteen-Bead Bracelet was not restricted by rank and was more free and casual.

This thing was particularly popular in the Qing Palace, especially among the concubines.

As everyone knows, the Qing Palace worshipped Buddhism. Coupled with the boring life in the harem, chanting scriptures and reciting Buddha's name became a hobby for concubines to pass the time.

In addition, in the harem, mothers are honored by their sons, so the concubines are particularly eager to give birth to princes, so they call the beads on their bracelets "zi", which means many sons and good fortune.

After hearing what Lin Yuan said, Huo Qingtong and Li Qiu Shui remembered that in the TV series, this thing seemed to be able to be used to hang on clothes.

"The old lady said that this is made of beeswax." Li Qiu Shui said to Lin Yuan.

Beeswax?

Of course Lin Yuan knew about beeswax.

Before he could say anything, my uncle said, "If this is beeswax, I'll eat it."

OK! Another cheater.

"This is amber, not beeswax. Beeswax is opaque." Lin Yuan told her.

“Are transparent ones more expensive?”

In everyone's mind, transparent things look better, just like jade and other gemstones. The higher the transparency, the rarer and more valuable they are. This is almost a law.

“Generally speaking, amber is not as expensive as beeswax.

In fact, beeswax is also a type of amber, but it is rarer and its color is closer to the bright yellow color that we Chinese like, so beeswax is usually more valuable than amber.”

The production of amber is very large now, and it is similar to agate and crystal and is not very valuable.

As we all know, amber is a transparent biological fossil. It is the resin fossil of plants such as Coniferaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, and Araucariaceae. The resin dripped and was buried underground for tens of millions of years. It was petrified under the action of pressure and heat, so it is also called "resin fossil."

In ancient China, amber was believed to be the spirit of a tiger that entered the earth and turned into stone after its death. Another saying was that it was "tiger's tears". These legends contain the ancient Chinese people's speculation and pursuit of amber. People believed that amber had the function of bringing good luck, avoiding evil, and calming the home.

"Not worth money?" Li Qiu Shui was a little disappointed.

Lin Yuan nodded: "Yeah! It's not worth much. How much did you pay for it?"

"$50."

"That's okay! You won't lose anything."

Indeed, it’s only $50, so what if it’s fake?

The tuition fee is not expensive, so I don’t feel bad about paying it.

(End of this chapter)