Chapter 72: Ghost Market (Middle)

  This market is generally held at night or in the early morning before dawn, on a vacant lot where goods of unknown origin (or obtained through illegal means) are traded.

  Moreover, such transactions often take place in the dark of night, and over time, people who love to give nicknames have given this market a figurative name "Ghost Market". Later, "Ghost Market" became a proprietary synonym for the antique market.

  Due to well-known reasons, the "Ghost Market" disappeared from the 1950s to the mid-1980s. It wasn't until the late 1980s that it re-emerged in Shanghai and Beijing's Panjiayuan area, and now only a few major cities have ghost markets.

  However, unlike the old society, the "ghost market" for antiques among the elderly sold mostly second-hand goods, whereas today's antique "ghost markets" are largely selling new, fake, and imitation goods.

  However, even so, the proportion of genuine goods in the ghost market is still higher than that in ordinary markets. The key is that the prices are cheap, and the same things can be half cheaper than in stores.

  The ghost market is not unfamiliar to Chu Chen, let alone Panjiayuan, which also has a ghost market every weekend. He often goes early to pick stalls, not to mention Zhou Wenping on the side, so he still knows the door here.

  Like now, although there are indeed genuine goods in the ghost market, but he has rarely seen a few times, and the prices are not cheap. Moreover, some unscrupulous merchants take advantage of the darkness to sell some counterfeit goods that cannot be seen, and customers are easily deceived.

  So, without a discerning eye, just relying on old-fashioned ways of speaking, going to the ghost market is not acceptable in today's society. Of course, it's also very common for vendors not to recognize valuable items and sell them as trash, so some players still enjoy browsing the ghost market.

  Hou Yuanming smiled and said, "Ghost Market, Xiao Chu, you must know that I've also been to the Ghost Market in the capital city. However, when it comes to the proportion of genuine goods, it's not as high as Baixian An. Tomorrow is Sunday, do you want to go take a stroll?"

  As for the proportion of genuine goods, Baixian An antique market is indeed higher than Panjiayuan's. Chu Chen observed this in the morning and it was true. However, this is also because Panjiayuan has a larger base, so the proportion of genuine goods is naturally smaller.

  Although the base is small, there are advantages to having a small base. The effort spent is undoubtedly smaller, and this point is just suitable for the use of heteropathy. Moreover, it's not easy to come to Xijing, and since I'm in the antique business, the Ghost Market is definitely not to be missed.

  Chu Chen readily agreed: "It's rare to come to Xijing, and the Ghost Market is definitely not to be missed. However, I don't know much about the Ghost Market here either. When should we go?"

  Hou Yuanming thought for a moment and replied: "It's summer now, let's set off at four o'clock?"

  "That's good, Xiao Lan, are you going tomorrow? If so, don't sleep in!" Chu Chen asked others again.

  At this time, Chu Yulan and the others had already learned about the situation of Ghost Market from Zhou Wenping, their curiosity suddenly increased, and they all agreed to go together.

  At this time, Chu Yulan asked: "Chu brother, who was that Zhao brother on your phone just now?"

  This question made Chuyan slightly stunned, it was strange that she would ask this question, which was somewhat impolite, but there was nothing that couldn't be said, so he replied strangely: "Oh, that's Zhao Qirui, the boss of Huitrade, Xiaolan, how did you think of asking about this?"

  "Oh, I said it sounds a bit familiar, that's my uncle." Chu Yulan said with a hint of surprise.

  "What, the boss of Whitetrad is actually your uncle Xiao Lan?" Li Guodong said in surprise. He had also known before that Chu Yulan's family background should be very good, but he didn't expect it to be so good. He had occasionally heard that Zhao Qirui's father was a founding general, with an extremely prominent status, and unexpectedly, he was Chu Yulan's maternal grandfather.

  "How is it that Director Zhao has so much power?" Asked Hou Yuanming with some surprise.

  Li Guodong explained: "Zhao is originally a billionaire and his family background is extremely prominent."

  Li Guodong didn't reveal everything, but even so, Hou Yuanming roughly understood that his mother's family was like this, and the main family wouldn't be much worse off either, maybe it was also a red family.

  Hou Yuanming thought of this and looked at Chu Yulan's eyes, which had a hint of reverence. He used to work in the system too, so he knew that as long as there was still a leader in this red family, their energy would not be small. Moreover, no matter what, a dead camel is bigger than a horse.

  Chu Yulan smiled slightly and said, "My home is my home, I am me, please don't look at me with colored glasses. Chu Ge, can you tell me how you know my uncle? I'm really curious, my uncle isn't the kind of person who lets others call him 'brother' easily."

  Chu Chen was also very surprised when he heard that Zhao Qirui was Chu Yulan's uncle. He didn't expect the world to be so small, and his uncle and niece would get to know him one after another. Now thinking back to the train station, it wasn't surprising that he could easily resolve that trouble. So he simply told the story of how he got to know Zhao Qirui, and at the end, he even laughed and said:

  "Xiao Lan, I didn't expect we'd really have a connection!"

  Chu Yulan nodded with a smile, thinking to herself, indeed very fate, and too much fate, but why would her uncle be like this? Could it be that she had guessed wrong? This shouldn't be the case! Never mind, no use thinking too much, let's take things one step at a time.

  "Oh, I just thought of something really fun! Chu Ge, you're called Uncle Zhao by Xiao Lan's uncle, and Xiao Lan calls you Chu Ge. Your relationships are really complicated!" Wen Yuting burst out laughing on the side.

  Everyone thought about it and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  Chu Chen saw this, and with a somewhat awkward scratch of his head, said: "Can't we just mind our own business? Besides, even if I wanted to call Zhao 'Uncle', he wouldn't agree!"

  "Chu Ge, next time you see my uncle, tell him that, he might just let you call him uncle." Chu Yulan said jokingly, with a hint of slyness in her eyes.

  "Never mind, I don't dare," Chu Chen said with a smile.

  Then everyone chatted from all over the world, and after a while, Hou Yuanming drove them to that famous Western-style restaurant in Xi'an for dinner.

  Calabaza chicken, three-peel silk, hoof tendon soup, lotus leaf steamed meat and so on. Each dish is made with great care and attention to detail, not only looking good but also tasting better, with rich connotations, fully demonstrating the elegance of Shaanxi cuisine.

  After having enough wine and food, everyone returned to the hotel. In Chuyan's room, they admired the glass-embedded grandmother green jade again before returning to their respective rooms to rest. The two girls left with a reluctant expression, wondering when they would see such jade again.

  It was just past three o'clock when Chu Chen got up. He had already made an appointment with Hou Yuanming yesterday to take the jadeite to the safe in his store first. Perhaps because this piece of jadeite was opened by him, there was no loss at all during the absorption of its power, and the progress accumulation was normal, which gave him a small surprise.

  When they returned to the hotel, Li Guodong and others also got up one after another. Zhou Wenping was still in good spirits due to his years of habit. Li Guodong and the two girls, perhaps because they had strolled through the antique street yesterday, were more excited this afternoon, now all with a drowsy look.

  "I'm telling you, can't you guys cheer up a bit? We're going to explore the ghost market later, it's dark and eerie, don't eat anything that's been drugged."

  Chu Chen saw this and started joking around.

  But the fact is that it's really dark and gloomy, and my eyesight has already been compromised to a certain extent. In this state, if I go digging for things, it's not going well even without taking medicine. What's meant by "taking medicine" is what was previously mentioned as "hitting the eye", or it can also be said that eye drops were used.

  "Nothing's wrong, Brother Chu, don't worry. Once we get there, I'll definitely wake up."

  As soon as the words fell, the other two also nodded repeatedly. Seeing this, Chu Chen and others could only shake their heads.

  When they arrived at the Ba Xian An Antique City, the scene in front of them suddenly left Chu Yulan and the others a bit stunned. The Ba Xian An was still the same Ba Xian An, but on both sides of the street, there were many small stalls arranged in an orderly manner, each with a dimly lit small electric lamp hanging above.

  At this time, there were already many players in front of the stalls, shining their flashlights, observing, asking prices and trading in front of their favorite items, a bustling scene. The whole scene was like an ordinary market, very lively.

  Wen Yuting said blankly: "Is this the Ghost Market? Why don't I feel any eerie atmosphere at all?"

  "This is the Ghost Market, did you think it would be like those ghost streets depicted in movies? It's a new century now, everything needs to have some standards. But remember, don't make too much noise here, lest you disturb others."

  However, Li Guodong became excited when he saw this scene. In the past two days, he had not gained anything, so he took advantage of this opportunity and rubbed his hands together, saying: "Let's go, let's take a look inside quickly. As the saying goes, 'the quick get it, the slow don't'."

  Chu Chen hastily stopped him: "Li Ge, calm down a bit. Look around and see how many people are like you, so anxious that they can't even think straight. Even if you do find something good, with your appearance, who would dare to rob you? Let's go, let's not split up. This place is the easiest to encounter pickpocketing."

  They first strolled to a stall selling ancient jade, which looked pretty good at first glance. However, Chu Chen took a look and pulled everyone up, then walked while quietly asking them:

  "Did you just smell something?"