Siheyuan: The romantic and suave Xu Damao

With a slight "creaky" sound, the door of the main room opened a gap of about one foot long.

"Hehe! This door really doesn't have a reverse role. Sister Li is really waiting for me to come over!"

Xu Damao raised the corners of his mouth and slowly walked into the room. Under the dim moonlight, he saw Liu Lili lying quietly on the bed with her back to him.

Sister Li must have heard the noise of the door opening just now and knew that I was coming over. Now she must be pretending to be asleep. In that case, I just have to cooperate with her.

He closed the door quietly and locked it, then walked into the bedroom...

……

"Sister Li, I can see that after so much time has passed, you are also very depressed living alone. Why don't you find a man to live with?"

"Alas, little brother, you don't know that ever since my man passed away, I have been labeled as a husband-killer. There are very few men out there who really want to live with me."

After Liu Lili finished speaking, she made a face at Xu Damao and stuck out her tongue cutely.

"By the way, Sister Li, how are you doing on your own? Do you have any money?"

"It's OK. Although it's not much, it's enough for the village. My family gave me some money when I got married. But the work in the fields is not easy. It's too tiring to do it alone..."

"Sister Li, your family is a wealthy one. If you have any valuable dowry, I will buy it at a high price. Then you can have money and hire people to work in the fields with you. It won't be so tiring."

Xu Damao gave Liu Lili some advice.

"I can't afford to hire anyone with the little money I have. There doesn't seem to be anything valuable in the dowry, just some silver jewelry and some sundries."

"Let me see. Don't look at my young age. I am a master of identification."

"You are the master of appraisal, you are such a joke, little brother!"

"Then bring the things over here!"

"Okay, I'll get it."

Liu Lili walked directly to the cabinet beside her and started searching inside.

"Remember to bring them all, including the sundries. There might be something valuable in there."

"Okay, I'll put the sundries in a box and show it to you."

A few minutes later, Liu Lili came over holding a big box.

Xu Damao also sat up and began to check the items inside.

"These silver bracelets and hairpins are from the Republic of China period. They are beautifully made, but not valuable."

"This jade bracelet is OK, the color is nice, but the quality is very poor, so it's not worth much, at most a dozen yuan."

This is also a common problem of old jade bracelets in the past, where only the color was selected, not the water quality.

"Is that all?"

"That's all."

"Didn't you say you brought some sundries with you? Why aren't you here?"

"I didn't think those things had any value, so I didn't take them."

"Sister Li, what did I tell you? As long as it's something from your mother's house, bring it all over. Who knows, there might be something good there!"

"Okay, I'll go clean it up. You're always so fussy!"

Liu Lili stretched out her index finger and tapped Xu Damao's forehead, then turned around, picked up a basket, slung it over her elbow, and went to pack her things.

A few minutes later, Liu Lili came back carrying a basket.

"Clang!"

He put the basket on the bedside table to express his dissatisfaction.

"Ouch, be gentle, there is a real treasure in here, don't break it."

"What treasure? I don't think it has anything valuable."

"This is it!"

Xu Damao took out an object from the basket that was about 30 centimeters tall and had a base that was more than 20 centimeters wide.

"This, this is something placed on my father's bedside. I thought it looked pretty so I took it. This thing is made of wood with a stone in the middle. Is it valuable?"

"It's very valuable, more valuable than your silver jewelry and that jade bracelet combined!"

"Ah, what is this?"

Liu Lili opened her eyes wide, picked up the object and examined it carefully, but still couldn't figure out what it was.

"This thing is called an interlayer! Does it look like a small folding screen?"

"Oh, they do look alike."

"I won't talk about the preciousness of this hollow carved rosewood frame. I will tell you about the tile in the middle, which is what you call stone, Sister Li."

"What else could this be but stone?"

"This is a genuine piece of Hetian jade! Why do I call it a tile? The jade tile refers to the jade ruyi!"

"This piece on the screen is derived from the Ruyi head of the imperial court Ruyi! It is the head with three inlays!"

"Tsk tsk! Look at the craftsmanship on this jade tile. How delicately it is carved! Look at the precious aura of this piece of jade."

Seeing Liu Lili's confused look, Xu Damao had no choice but to continue explaining.

"The precious light of jade is the light that forms after the jade is carved and undergoes hundreds of years of oxidation or polishing. It has a soft light that is hard but restrained and not dazzling! It is similar to the precious light of porcelain!"

"This is an old jade. Look at the workmanship. It's all handmade, and it's a relief carving! It's very rare. The entire base has been removed! Sister Li, did you notice that all the places with patterns are relief carvings?"

"Do you know how much effort was put into it? Look at the wrinkles on it, it's like it's alive! Look at the base, there's not a single smooth spot. It looks smooth, but there's not a single spot that's smooth!"

"This was created bit by bit by the famous jade craftsmen in the imperial palace during the mid-Qing Dynasty."

"Then why is it so expensive?"

Liu Lili still looked confused...

"Well! Playing the lute to a cow..."

"First, Ruyi is the highest grade jade in the palace! Second, it is the standard workmanship of Emperor Qianlong! Look how delicately it is carved! Hetian jade, such a large piece of material! This small screen is a must-have item on the desk of the royal family!"

"The swallows that used to fly in front of the halls of the rich and powerful now fly into the homes of ordinary people! In the feudal society of the past, ordinary people like us would not even dare to think about this!"

"Ah, how much is it worth?"

"At least two hundred dollars!"

"Ah! So high?"

Sister Li, I can give you the money now to buy this thing!

"Okay... you didn't lie to me."

"No, it's really worth that much! I'll take the money now..."

……

"Brother! Brother, wake up!"

Xu Damao was sleeping soundly, and was woken up by Sister Li in a daze.

"Why did you wake me up so early? It's not even daybreak yet and I'm so sleepy..."

"Hurry up and get up. The village chief usually gets up very early. If he gets up and finds that you are not at his house..."

"Sister Lili, I'm leaving now. You should have a good rest. You're right. I think it's time for the village chief to get up.

"Sister Li, next time I come over to show a movie, I'll also have dinner at your house."