Siheyuan: The romantic and suave Xu Damao

"So it was the jade carving master in person. I am so sorry for my disrespect."

As Xu Damao spoke, he stood up, clasped his fists and bowed.

"I don't deserve it, I just want to make a living."

Upon seeing this, Gao Yang hurriedly clasped his fists in return.

"I am lucky to meet you today. I will not hide anything. Actually, I also like Hetian jade seed material very much. How about this, I would like to ask you to carve a Guan Gong handle for me with this material?"

"This... I don't know what the inside of this material is like..."

"Master, don't worry. I can't even compare to you in terms of carving skills, but when it comes to identifying seed materials, I'm going to say something arrogant. Even though I'm young, there are really few people in the whole capital who are better than me."

"I can conclude that this piece of material contains 90% of the jade flesh of mutton-fat jade."

Since the master is a master of carving, he should also know that 99% of the Hetian jade on the market that is called mutton-fat jade can only be called mutton-fat white jade. It is not that it cannot reach the level of fineness of sheep tail oil. "

"I told the master how to carve this piece. This half of the sand pear skin will be completely preserved, and the other half will definitely have brown-red skin inside. The red-skinned face will be carved into Guan Gong, and the brown-red skin will also be preserved on the upper body. The lower body can be dug deeper to reveal the white jade flesh inside."

"As for the labor fee, the maximum I can give the master is one hundred and fifty dollars!"

After Xu Damao finished speaking, he quoted an extremely high price for the work.

"Thank you for your appreciation. To be honest, I am really tempted by such a high fee."

"Then the master agrees?"

"Let me think about it. Since you know so much about seed materials and are willing to spend so much money to let me carve them, I believe you must like jade very much. Do you have any better jades for me to see?"

"I don't have much seed material, and this is the only one I can show off."

Xu Damao's mind moved, and he took out the Tiandipi and Hetian seed material he had obtained before from his personal space, and then handed it to Gao Yang.

"Huh? This thing is quite rare."

Gao Yang placed a piece of Tiandipi and Hetian seed material, which was only the size of the belly of his thumb, in the palm of his hand and looked at it from left to right. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it.

"This piece of seed material is really rare! Both ends are covered with brown-red skin, just like two lids, and the middle part is extremely fine mutton-fat jade, so beautiful!"

"Master, please give it back to me. This thing cannot be carved."

"Yes, let alone carving it, even if you carve it once, it will be enough to affect its value!"

Gao Yang said this and reluctantly returned the piece of seed material to Xu Damao.

"Master, what do you say? Can this piece of sand pear peel of mine be carved?"

"Okay, Guan Gong, right? But I have one condition. How you carve Guan Gong this time is up to me, but I can guarantee that I can carve it well!"

Gao Yang said this, naturally agreeing to Xu Damao's request.

"The master is an expert in the field of jade carving, so how he carves is up to his own wishes."

Maybe some friends think that the carving fee for this piece of jade is a bit high, but Xu Damao knows in his heart that the labor fee of a senior jade carving master is just that high!

In his previous life, Xu Damao knew very well that to hire a top jade carving master to carve Hetian jade, the cost of a pendant would be thirty thousand, a handle would cost sixty thousand, and as for an ornament, it would cost two hundred thousand!

That’s right, the labor cost is so high, and if you don’t have any connections, people won’t be willing to carve for you!

Just when Xu Damao was about to take out the money, he was stopped by Gao Yang.

"Little brother, you don't have to pay me for the carving yet. Wait until I finish carving."

"How can this be possible? This is not in accordance with the rules."

"Um... let's put it this way, brother, I really like this pen holder. The carvings on it are very exquisite. Maybe there is something I can learn from it. If I go back and study it, it will greatly improve my carving skills."

Gao Yang gestured to Xu Damao in a meaningful way.

"Haha, I thought it was something else. This is a bamboo pen holder from the mid-Qing Dynasty. The carving is really excellent. I'll give it to Master Gao."

"Thank you for your willingness to give up my love. I currently live in xxxx. You can visit me there in a month."

"Okay, Master, thank you for your hard work!"

Gao Yang left with the bamboo carved pen holder, sand pear peel and Hetian seed material. Xu Damao looked at Gao Yang who was leaving and always felt that he seemed to have forgotten something.

"That's right! Gao Yang took my two treasures without paying a cent... What if he refuses to admit it? Wouldn't I lose my two treasures in vain?"

……

"Jingle Bell!"

A crisp sound came.

"Little brother, what's the price of this thing?"

An old man in a grey Mao suit asked, playing with the small pile of silver dollars.

"Five yuanbao (Guangxu and Xuantong yuanbao), and three other silver dollars!"

Xu Damao quickly gave his price.

"Alas, your price is much higher than the exchange price at the bank. At the bank, one silver dollar is exchanged for 2.5 yuan."

"That's not true. If I can exchange it at the bank, why would I sell it here? This thing will not be produced anymore, and it will only become less and less."

"The coins of the previous dynasties can also serve as a testimony to history. If the old man likes them, then this is the price. If it's a few years or even decades later, it won't be this price anymore."

"What you said makes sense. Give me these silver dollars!"

The old man was not short of money, so he waved his hand and bought all the silver dollars on the stall.

Xu Damao skillfully took out a blue cloth bag and put the silver dollars in front of the old man. Each silver dollar passed through the old man's hands and was put into the cloth bag.

"Twenty-seven silver dollars, eight of which are ingots, a total of 97 yuan."

"You can calculate so quickly without an abacus. You are quite good at it, little brother."

The old man took out ten big unity notes and handed them over.

"One hundred dollars, three dollars in change."

Xu Damao said this as he prepared to take out the change.

"No need to give me the change. Just give me the three dollars for this small mirror. I'll buy it for my niece to play with."

After the old man finished speaking, he was about to put away the mirror he was playing with, but was stopped by Xu Damao.

"Old man, even though this mirror looks small, it can't be used to match your head."

"I have two wild turtles in this pot. They are very delicious when stewed into soup. You can take one."

"Or you can choose one of the three birds in the cage. The original price is five dollars, but since you spent a hundred dollars on something from me, I'll sell it to you for three dollars."

"Forget it. Your way of selling birds has spread all over this area. I won't be fooled by you. Brother, you have sold a lot of birds with this bird cage, right?"

"Hehe, the old man has a good eye, and he did sell quite a few. But it was all a matter of willingness. I didn't force them to buy my birds, it was all their own will."

"You are quite shrewd. There are so many people in this ghost market who want to pick up bargains. Who would have thought that they would meet you and suffer a loss."

"Little brother, you should give me back my three dollars in change. You can't take advantage of me at all."

The old man put the small mirror on the stall, shook his head with a wry smile, took the three dollars handed over by Xu Damao, shook his head and left.