Chapter Nineteen: Many Extraordinary Scholars on Ordinary Streets

  Xue Xiang didn't chat with the others for long, and directly asked Sun Qianjin to lead the way to Hualian Wood Factory to find Old Man San. The Hualian Wood Factory was located at the corner of Taiping Street in Dongcheng District, only a dozen or so miles away from Xue Xiang's home. After chatting and laughing for a while, they arrived at the gate of the wood factory. Next to the iron gate of the wood factory, there was a small ear house, which seemed to be the residence of the gatekeeper.

  Several people entered the gate together, and as soon as they stepped inside, they heard someone shouting "register". Xue followed the sound to find the person who made it, and saw a half-white head sticking out of the window of the ear house. The face was quite young, looking like it was in its thirties, but with a lot of white hair, presumably this was Lao San.

  Sun Qianjin said: "What a farting record, I don't even log in eight trips a day. Today, I brought my third brother over, and it's just to find you."

  Lame Old Three's face changed dramatically, his voice trembling: "Comrades, I, I confess, I surrender, I resolutely draw a line with this anti-Party element Xu Haogu, I have fully recognized his true anti-Party face..." Xu Haogu was Lame Old Three's father, who had been killed at the beginning of the disaster. Lame Old Three was originally named Xu Bogu, but later changed his name to Xu Tongjin to distinguish himself from a fellow comrade with the same name within the party. Lame Old Three had two older brothers who died young, and he was the third in line, but after being beaten and crippled, people started calling him Lame Old Three, forgetting his real name. At this moment, seeing a group of young people in military uniforms arrive, Lame Old Three thought it was another visit from the "little generals" and hastily made a confession.

  Xue Xiang waved his hand to interrupt him, saying: "We are not small generals, the small generals have ended early. Don't be afraid, we came to ask for your help today. We know you make a living by your skills, so asking for your help is also borrowing your skills to give us a hand. Of course, we won't let you work for nothing."

  Lao San, who had heard that he was not a young general, calmed down and waved his hand: "I've lost my skills long ago, I've drawn a clear line with the bourgeoisie, now I'm an honorable proletarian, comrade worker, is..."

  "Are you annoyed or not, my third brother asked for your help to give you face, but you're still being arrogant. You dare to talk nonsense again, I'll immediately make sure you can't work as a laborer anymore." The one speaking was Sun Qianjin, and Xue Xiang didn't dare to speak first. According to his personality, he wouldn't waste words with Lao San, just call him over and order him around. Seeing Lao San being hypocritical again, he had already been annoyed for a while, so he scolded him.

  Lao San saw Sun Qianjin get angry, lowered his head and didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore. He knew the relationship between Sun Qianjin and their factory director, fearing that if he really angered Sun Qianjin, this job of watching the gate that he had finally begged for would be gone.

  Xue Xiang saw the situation and said, "Don't worry too much, we're just asking for your help, it's paid work, not something that goes against heaven and reason. As long as you watch from the side, nod or shake your head, you don't even need to speak."

  Lame Old Three saw that the conversation had reached this point and didn't dare not respond. Lame Old Three nodded: "What is it, you speak."

  Xue Xiangdao said: "What's up, I won't say for now, let me test your water first."

  Lao San's eyes flashed with a hint of disdain, clearly confident in his ancestral craftsmanship. He snorted and said, "Bring it out, I'll take a look."

  Sun Qianjin had never seen Lao San dare to speak like this, and was about to scold him when Xue Xiang stopped him. Xue Xiang opened the cloth bag, took out a piece of ceramic tile about the size of two palms, and handed it to Lao San. Lao San took the ceramic tile, and as soon as he saw it, he seemed to have lost his soul, staring straight at the tile with his eyes wide open, gently stroking it with his palm, as if caressing a beautiful woman's skin, without saying a word.

  Sun Qianjin couldn't take it anymore, and scolded Lao San: "You dare to play deep with me? Can't you see that I'm not someone to be trifled with? If you don't come up with a good explanation today, you can just pack your bags and leave!"

  Lame Old Three suddenly remembered that there was still a living Yama standing beside him, and hastily said: "I see, I see, this is a treasure, this is Jun porcelain, do you know what Jun porcelain is? That's imperial porcelain, one of the five famous kilns in our country during the Song Dynasty..."

  "Alright, alright, we don't have time to listen to your lecture, just tell us how much it's worth." Sun Qianjin didn't have the patience to listen to his nonsense and interrupted him.

  Lao San said: "I have to take a look at the size of the device, just based on this piece of porcelain, it's hard to estimate the price, if you ask about this piece of porcelain, it might be worth around 100-200 yuan."

  "This broken piece of porcelain is worth so much money? Sun Qianjin's mouth was agape, seemingly unable to comprehend that the value of a broken piece of porcelain could be compared to over a dozen pig legs. The others were no better off, everyone's mouths hanging open as if they saw countless pig legs and roasted chickens, only Xue's expression remained unchanged, he had long known it was a treasure and thought the price was too low."

  Xue Xiang handed the sack to Lao San, letting him see for himself. After Lao San finished looking, he sighed and said: "What a pity! What a pity! Such a good, such a large-scale 'Zhuge Liang's Six Visits to the Thatched Cottage' porcelain vase was ruined like this, it's really a pity." Lao San repeatedly exclaimed "what a pity", his face flushing with excitement.

  This time it was Xue Xiang who interrupted him, Sun Qianjin seemed to still be calculating how many pig legs that piece of porcelain was worth and hadn't come back to his senses yet. Xue Xiang asked: "How much do you think it can sell for?"

  Lame Old Three said: "If it's undamaged, a large piece like this with a story behind it, a character porcelain vase can sell for at least 10,000 yuan. I'm talking about the current market price. If it were ten years ago, it would be even more valuable. My father told me that my grandfather once collected a similar character vase, although not as large as yours, and spent 5,000 silver dollars on it during the Republic of China era. However, nowadays these good things are undervalued and mostly destroyed. Do you plan to sell the porcelain shards? If you break them up and sell them separately, you can only get around 600 yuan at most, and that's if you sell them to someone who knows their value. If you take them to a pawnshop, they might give you just a few dozen yuan."

  Sun Qianjin was shocked when he heard this and shouted: "Several tens of dollars? How can that be, Lame Old Three! You just said a piece of porcelain is worth over a hundred dollars, how come six or seven pieces are only worth several tens of dollars now? Are you fooling me? Hurry up and think of a solution, if not I'll sell it to you!" This guy was playing a trick on him.

  Lame Old Three was in a great hurry, saying: "Comrade Sun, I really can't afford it, aren't you making things difficult for me? Let me think of another way, let me think of another way." For a moment, Lame Old Three's face was covered in sweat. After a while, he finally looked up and stared at Xue Xiang, asking: "Is this a broken gadget? Are the fragments all in the bag?"

  Xue Xiangdao said: "It's all here, and the fragments in the bag are also complete."

  Lao San let out a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his brow, and finally didn't have to spend his own money: "There's a way now, this big jar being broken isn't too serious, it can be repaired. If it's repaired well, it can sell for a good price."

  As soon as this was said, everyone's face lit up. Sun Qianjin was the most anxious: "Then hurry up and fix it, once you've fixed it, I'll get my aunt to raise your salary by one level." Now that the pig leg is in sight, it seems that buying a whole pig has also become possible, Sun Qianjin's tone improved a lot, even using this tempting trick.

  Lame Old Three said: "My ancestral skill is appraisal, I won't be able to repair it." He saw Sun Qianjin's face change suddenly and quickly added: "I won't be able to do it, Li Siye from Huayang Steel Factory has the same ancestral skills as me, he is exceptional at repairing this kind of thing. Recently his wife was hospitalized, he took leave to take care of her, urgently needs money, you find him, he will definitely agree."

  Xue Xiang told Lao San that Li Siye was an acquaintance, who was a worker in his parents' unit before they passed away. He had five children and his wife's health was always poor, so the family burden was very heavy. Xue Xiang thanked Lao San again and told him about the demolition of the old house, promising to pay him a year's salary after it was done. On one hand, there was coercion, on the other hand, there was temptation, Lao San had no choice but to agree, repeatedly saying to Xue Xiang: "This is a deadly business, you must keep it secret, absolutely secret." Xue Xiang nodded in agreement, and several people in their hearts thought it was funny, thinking that they didn't have to worry about him leaking the secret.

  Xue Xiang led a few people to Li Siye's house, which was located at the entrance of the factory's residential area. It was a small courtyard with a single gate. When they arrived at the door, Li Siye was squatting on the threshold smoking. In Xue Xiang's memory, Li Siye had gray hair, but now his hair was as white as snow. Only from his facial features could it be seen that he wasn't an old man in his nineties. Xue Xiang greeted Li Siye and handed him a cigarette. Li Siye obviously still remembered the son of the former deputy factory director, and a rare smile appeared on his worried face. Xue Xiang explained the purpose of their visit, and Li Siye agreed without hesitation. After all, his wife was in the hospital and needed money, his children were studying and eating, everything required money, and relying on his meager salary, his family was already on the verge of bankruptcy. Now that Mr. Qian had come to his door, there was no reason to push him away, even if it was a deadly business, let alone just repairing something, which was like replacing someone's tire.

  Mr. Li let the few people in, poured them water, and then asked Xue to take out the things. Xue handed over the cloth bag to him, Mr. Li opened it and took a look, his eyes were like Lao San's. As old craftsmen who have been in this line for many years, they would be as excited as a lustful wolf seeing a beauty when they see something interesting. Mr. Li didn't come back to himself until after a long while, said "wait for three hours", and then went into the room, locking the door behind him.

  Two hours later, Old Man Li opened the door and invited Xu Xiang and others to enter. As soon as they entered, they were stunned. On the large square table, a large vase of sky blue color was placed. The vase was about 50 cm high and had a maximum diameter of about 40 cm. Under the 60-watt white light bulb, the characters' eyebrows, eyes, and expressions on the vase could be clearly seen, shining with a moist luster, truly lifelike. Xu Xiang's eyes were close to the vase, and he saw Zhuge Liang's face full of worry and his firm eyes, which was extremely vivid. Xu Xiang carefully searched for any signs of repair but couldn't find any even after straining his eyes. If it weren't for Xu Xiang personally handing over these broken ceramic pieces to be repaired, he probably wouldn't have believed that the beautiful vase in front of him was made from the fragments in the cloth bag. After finishing admiring the vase, Xu Xiang stepped aside, and Lei Xiaotian and others had been waiting impatiently. Xu Xiang gave a thumbs-up to Old Man Li: "Unbelievable! It's truly a masterpiece, divine craftsmanship."

  Mr. Li said humbly, "It won't do, I'm old and haven't done this for many years, my skills are rusty. In the past, it didn't take so long to do this. Besides, a repair is always just a repair, one look with this and you can tell." As he spoke, Mr. Li handed Xue Xiang a magnifying glass.

  Xue Xiang squeezed in with a magnifying glass, brought the magnifying glass close to the big jar, and after searching for a while, he indeed found several fine lines. Xue Xiang said: "Being able to repair it to this extent is already an unexpected joy for me, Uncle Li, name a price."

  Mr. Li said: "Now craftsmanship is worthless, you give two dollars, at home it's really inconvenient, if it were usual for you to ask me for help with this, how could I have the nerve to want money."

  Xue Xiangdao said, "How can this be, Auntie's body is not good I also know, the actual value of this big jar I understand, your help here, at least increase its value several times. How about this, I'll give you 20 yuan first, and after I deal with this big jar, I'll supplement it for you." As he spoke, Xue Xiang took out the last two large denomination bills from his wallet and handed them to Li Siye.

  Mr. Li waved his hand repeatedly and said, "No need for so much, I used to eat this bowl of rice, but now I'm not doing it anymore, I can only count as helping out. Even if I, an old guy, had the nerve to take money, where would I dare to want so much?"

  The two men pushed and pulled, but Li Siye still couldn't get the better of Xue Xiang. Adding to that, his family was in urgent need of money, so he reluctantly accepted it. Li Siye repeatedly stated that this was already too much, and how much the vase sold for had nothing to do with him. Xue Xiang then mentioned to Li Siye about digging up the old house and asking him to supervise, and the old man didn't say another word, patting his chest in agreement.

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