Siheyuan: The romantic and suave Xu Damao

"Da Mao, what are you looking at?" Lou Xiao'e held a cup of freshly brewed pear water, gently placed it on the table, then curiously approached Xu Damao and reached out to snatch the list from his hand.

Xu Damao was startled and quickly explained: "Nothing, I just collect old things."

"Who are you kidding?" Lou Xiao'e pouted unhappily and glared at Xu Damao. "Do you think I'm stupid? There's a woman painted on it. How can it be such an old item?" She shook the list in her hand and handed it back to Xu Damao. "If you don't believe me, look for yourself!"

Xu Damao took the list reluctantly, and when he looked down, he saw a portrait of a graceful woman printed on the paper, with three big characters "Cui Xiang Yuan" next to it, and the address in small characters below.

He muttered to himself. Lou Xiao'e was quite sharp-eyed. He wanted to explain, but Lou Xiao'e suddenly snatched the list away again.

"You really want to watch it?" Lou Xiao'e rolled her eyes at Xu Damao in annoyance, "Aren't you afraid that I'll get angry?"

Xu Damao laughed dryly, scratched his head, and said awkwardly: "Hey, I was just taking a look. Don't be angry. Look at the back. It says that it collects old items! I didn't even look at this side."

Lou Xiao'e snorted and held the list high, deliberately making it invisible to Xu Damao. "Then tell me, what exactly is this?"

Xu Damao looked up at Lou Xiaoe with a wry smile on his face, thinking that this question was not easy to answer. He hesitated for a moment and decided to tell the truth. "Actually, this should be a flyer."

"Flyers?" Lou Xiao'e asked in confusion, "What flyers?"

"It's the kind of flyers that introduce entertainment venues or special services." Xu Damao explained in a low voice, "Like brothels, casinos, and the like. Just now, a sneaky guy passed by here and handed out one of these things to every stall."

Lou Xiao'e's eyes widened, she looked at Xu Damao in disbelief, and asked in surprise: "What did you say? Brothel?"

Xu Damao nodded and said innocently, "Yes, this kind of flyer is very common in the city. Many people have received it. Such places are either brothels or casinos, or a mixture of the two."

"Oh, so that's it, isn't this thing something that only existed in the past? I remember that such occasions are not allowed now?" Lou Xiao'e asked in confusion.

"Xiao E, these two types of places are difficult to eliminate regardless of the dynasty, including now, but they cannot be found on weekdays." Xu Damao explained earnestly.

"Oh, do you want to go there and take a look? Or have you been to that kind of place before? I heard that there are a lot of beautiful women there." Lou Xiao'e blinked and asked jokingly.

"I have never been to that kind of place. Besides, I dare not go there. It might be a trap." Xu Damao waved his hands quickly.

"What does 'honey trap' mean? Is it some underworld jargon? Damao, when I followed you out to sell things, I found that you really look like a veteran, not like a young man of 18 or 19 at all." Lou Xiao'e asked curiously.

Xu Damao chuckled and said, "This honey trap is a means of using women to defraud money. Those places look very tempting, but in fact they are full of traps. If you are not careful, you will be cheated badly. So, we can't try it easily." He spoke very clearly, as if he knew these things very well.

Lou Xiao'e suddenly realized: "So that's how it is! Fortunately we didn't go, otherwise we don't know what would have happened. But Damao, how do you know so much?"

Xu Damao smiled without saying anything, feeling secretly proud in his heart: he had watched a lot of TV dramas and read a lot of novels in his previous life, so he naturally had some understanding of these underworld tricks.

Xu Damao then pretended to be serious and said, "I have only heard some stories from others. In short, when we are out there, we must be careful and cautious and not put ourselves in danger."

Lou Xiao'e nodded, and she admired Xu Damao's knowledge even more. She felt that by following Xu Damao out to venture out, she could not only learn business skills, but also learn a lot of interesting knowledge.

The two continued to wander the streets, looking for the next business opportunity...

"Brother, how much do these dollars cost?"

Xu Damao squatted in front of a stall and asked Lou Xiao'e to hold a lantern to illuminate the way. He picked up the silver dollars on the stall and began to look through them.

"The old foreign dragon is five yuan each, and the big and small heads are three yuan."

The stall owner looked at Xu Damao and said with a smile.

"Hey, big brother, you have quite a lot of silver dollars. Where did you get them from? How did you sell the silver dollars?"

Xu Damao picked up a few silver dollars from another place in the stall. These silver dollars had bald heads on the front and a sailboat pattern on the back. They were the dollars issued during the Republic of China, also known as ship dollars.

There are some differences between these silver coins. The patterns are slightly different. Some of them have three seabirds under the boats, commonly known as the lower three birds, and only one has three seabirds on a sailboat, which is called the upper three birds.

Among them, the value of the three birds on the upper part of the ship is much higher than that of the three birds on the lower part. After all, this thing is relatively rare.

Xu Damao looked at the few silver coins in his hand, then at the other silver dollars on the stall, and thought to himself, "These silver dollars look pretty good, they should be worth some money. But this stall owner doesn't look like an honest man, so I have to be careful."

He raised his head and smiled at the stall owner, "Brother, you have a lot of silver dollars! Where did you get them from?"

The stall owner chuckled and replied, "I just ran around and collected them. They are all loose goods, not much."

Xu Damao nodded and continued to ask: "How much do you want to sell this ship of foreign currency?"

The stall owner stretched out his hand, made the number five, and said, "Five dollars each."

Xu Damao frowned, thinking the price was a bit high, and started bargaining with the stall owner.

"Isn't it too expensive? Can you make it cheaper? How about four dollars?"

The stall owner shook his head and said firmly, "No, at least four dollars and fifty cents."

Xu Damao hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to buy it.

"All right, four dollars and a half, then. Give me ten."

The stall owner counted out ten silver coins and handed them to Xu Damao. Xu Damao checked them carefully and paid forty-five yuan after confirming that there was no problem.

Then he asked the stall owner if he had any other good stuff.

The stall owner took out a small box from under the stall mysteriously. When he opened it, he saw some stamps, food coupons and other things inside.

Xu Damao's eyes lit up, and he was very interested in these stamps. As for the food stamps, the food in the portable space was already piled up like a mountain, so what was the use of it...

After some bargaining, he bought a whole book of stamps for fifty yuan.