Three smiles

The two parties sat down, Wang Sanxiao didn't talk too much nonsense and went straight to the topic: "Mr. Wei, did you bring the painting?"

Wei Cong made a gesture, and Hou's waiter at the door came in immediately and cleaned the tea table. Zhao Liang put on his gloves and took out a picture scroll from the safe, and unfolded it on the table.

"Guo Xi's two most famous paintings are undoubtedly the "Early Spring" of the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the "Tree Colors and Pingyuan Picture" of the Metropolitan Museum of New York. It is recognized that the picture is full of literati elegance." Wang Sanxiao bowed his hands and looked at the scroll leisurely with his head down, explaining, "This painting can be considered as both "Early Spring" and "Tree Colors and Ping Yuan" Characteristics."

Although Mu Xixi is young, he is quite insightful in appreciating calligraphy and painting. He looked around the scroll for a while, and commented: "The painting method of this painting is different from Guo Xi's other famous works. The branches of the trees are clear, while the rocks It's blurry, with a lot of rendering, and not much pen."

"Guo Xi once held the highest position in the Hanlin Academy of Painting and Calligraphy, and his painting skills were quite superb at that time," Wang San said with a smile. Drying and dyeing, ethereal, smoky and misty, beautiful and moist, everyone's style." Take out a magnifying glass and hand it to Mu Xixi, "You can magnify it 20 times and see, the ink seeps into the paper fibers Manga, even after all these years, the color transitions and adherence are still very clear.”

Mu Xixi took the magnifying glass and looked at it inch by inch: "The charcoal black of the ink stains in the longitude and latitude lines has not diminished at all, which is consistent with the few Song Dynasty samples I have seen before."

Standing by the side, Wei Cong watched Wang Sanxiao and Mu Xixi leaning over to look at the painting with indifferent eyes, as if he didn't care much about the appreciation process, he turned his head and whispered something to the waiter, who nodded and left.

"How is it?" Wei Cong asked, "Is Mr. Mu Xiao satisfied with this painting?"

"Of course I am satisfied!" Mu Xixi turned around, his eyes sparkled, and he said excitedly, "This is the most perfect ancient painting I have ever seen, Mr. Wei, please make an offer!"

Wei Cong couldn't help laughing, and said slowly: "This painting is a gift from my father, and I have always cherished it very much. Although I am not a collector, I still take it out every now and then to enjoy it. , not only can feel Guo Xi’s superb painting skills as a court painter, but also think of the scene when my father gave the painting.”

"Uh..." Mu Xixi's mouth twitched.

Wang San laughed softly. He leaned idly against the wall with his hands in his sleeves. Hearing this, he raised his eyelids and looked at Wei Cong with a smile. Mr. Wang was fortunate to have had several contacts with Mr. Wei, and the old man praised Mr. Wei all the way, and he was very proud."

"This... this..." Mu Xixi was obviously very uncomfortable with the ways of these two, and his face was full of "what are you talking about, hurry up and ask for a price and don't talk about him".

Wang Sanxiao turned a blind eye to his begging eyes for help. He thought he was a scholar who had read "Friends" and spoke very elegantly. With a smile on his lips, he continued: "Seeing the respect Mr. Wei has for your father now, I was very moved in my heart, it was really admiration, it moved the heavens and the earth.”

Wei Cong nodded with a smile, "That's ridiculous."

Mu Xixi had an expression of "hurry up and kill me", and said dumbly: "Yes, yes, I am also very touched, Mr. Wei, let's make an offer."

"The painting method, artistic conception, size, and appearance of this painting are all outstanding among Guo Xi's paintings," Wei Cong said slowly, "for me, there are reasons why I can't give up, so I I think it's lower than... Hey, young master San, what do you think the base price is more appropriate for?"

Wang San smiled and waved his hands again and again: "I'm only responsible for making connections, and you can negotiate the price yourself."

Wei Cong looked into his eyes and said gently, "It doesn't matter, I trust you very much."

Mu Xixi said loudly: "Brother Xiao, tell me, I believe you too!!!"

"Tsk," Wang San smiled fondly and nodded his nose, thought for a moment, walked over slowly, pointed at the picture scroll, and said indifferently: "There are not many works handed down by Guo Xi. In the past ten years, only After five times, three pieces were sold, with an average price of about 2 yuan per square foot. This picture scroll is 26 cm high and 206 cm long, and its size is the largest among the works. This is on the one hand, on the other hand, Considering that this picture scroll is painted in a different way and its features are very interesting, and there are postscripts written by Wen Jia, Wang Zhideng, Dong Qichang, Chen Meng, etc. after the scroll, the price will increase slightly, what does Mr. Wei think?"

"Your opinions are always the most comprehensive," Wei Cong admired softly, and said to Mu Xixi, "Based on the aspects mentioned by San Shao just now, I think this painting is less than 300 million, and I will not sell it. .”

Wang Sanxiao, who had been looking down at the ancient painting, suddenly raised his head, stared into his eyes, and asked wonderingly, "How much?"

Wei Cong's words are correct: "300 million."

"You really dare to speak," Wang San mocked with a half-smile, and stopped talking, looking at the picture scroll thoughtfully indifferently.

Mu Xixi was speechless, and was immediately dumbfounded. He opened his mouth wide, looked blankly at Wei Cong, who was indifferent, and then turned his head to look at Wang Sanxiao, who seemed to be smiling but not smiling. After a while, he finally found the words, nah Na said: "In 2013, the hand scroll of Guo Xixuefeng's travel picture auctioned by Poly, the transaction price was only 6..."

"Hand rolls are much smaller in size."

"That can't be 50 times smaller."

Faced with doubts, Wei Cong reminded very kindly: "This painting means a lot to me, so the asking price is a little higher."

Wang Sanxiao interjected coolly: "Others sell paintings based on size, but you sell paintings based on feelings, awesome!"

Wei Cong didn't pay any attention to his sarcasm, instead he said straightforwardly: "As I said just now, I am not a serious collector, but a businessman, and a businessman is naturally greedy for profit."

"Uh..." Mu Xixi was shocked by his shamelessness.

"Otherwise," Wei Cong asked, "Mr. Mu Xiao, what price do you think is appropriate?"

Mu Xixi stared at him blankly, and said dumbly, "...Three, 30?"

Wei Cong suddenly smiled, his face darkened, and he said coldly, "Mr. Mu Xiao is too insincere!"

"!!!" Mu Xixi's face was full of shock, obviously he didn't expect this person to beat him up, and it was you who opened his mouth like a lion, and dared to say that others were not sincere! ! !

Wei Cong didn't take his shock to heart at all, turned his head to Zhao Liang and said indifferently: "In this case, put away the painting, today's transaction may not be successful."

"Hey, how could it be like this!!!" Mu Xixi broke down and grabbed Wang Sanxiao's hand forcefully, "Brother Xiao, look..."

Wang San smiled with a face full of honor and disgrace like an eminent monk, patted the back of his hand, and comforted him gently: "Come on, life is unsatisfactory nine times out of ten, not every transaction can be successful, the good thing is It's going to take a while, come on, let's just come here for tea today, I heard that the frozen top oolong here is very good."

The picture scrolls were put away, and the waiters came in one after another, bringing in kettles, tea stoves, tea cups, teaspoons, scented cups and other utensils, and arranged them neatly on the table of Hainan Huanghuali.

Wang Sanxiao casually sat down at the table, opened the tea pot and took a look: "Tsk, Cao Cao Cao Cao will be here soon. This is the latest winter tea baked by Dongding Mountain in Taiwan. Mr. Wei will enjoy it."

The waiter started to boil the water, and amidst the mist of water, Wei Cong said indifferently: "Nine times out of ten, life is unsatisfactory, and we can only enjoy it in the place we wish."

Wang San smiled whether he was sitting or not, with his arms resting on the table, leaning against Mu Xixi as if he had no bones, and said lazily: "You have a noble status and a successful career. You can be called the fifth son of a diamond. Unsatisfactory place? What a strange story!"

Wei Cong stared at him: "You are smooth sailing, your hands and eyes are open to the sky, don't you have any regrets in your life?"

"Haha, life?" Wang Sanxiao laughed as if he had heard some joke, and rubbed the beautifully patterned tabletop of Hainan Huanghuali vigorously with his fingertips, and said with a smile, "I have only lived one third of my life. You haven't even had a life, what kind of life are you talking about?"

Wei Cong was amused by him: "After that, when you have enough time to talk about life..."

Wang Sanxiao waved his hand suddenly, and said with a carefree smile: "Whether I talk about life enough or not, I won't talk about it. It's enough to look forward in this life, and I don't have so much energy to look back at the regrets I left behind."

After the group finished drinking Kung Fu tea, Wang Sanxiao took Mu Xixi and left first. Wei Cong kept the ancient painting gifted by his father with a calm and shameless face. Very happy.

Instead, Mu Xixi was weeping, as if he had been robbed of his child bride-in-law.

Wang San glanced at him with a smile, raised his hand and rubbed the back of his head: "Don't give me a frowning face, isn't it just a painting? Uncle has thousands of ancient paintings in his hands, and he doesn't like the one surnamed Wei. The one in your hand."

Mu Xixi looked at him miserably: "But I like it very much..."

"It's useless if you like it, they won't sell it to you."

"Ah ah ah ah..."

Seeing him crying miserably, Wang Sanxiao's always depressed mood became clear: "Come on, Beijing is full of treasures. Believe it or not, I can find you one tomorrow with better appearance and better painting style." Prominent? We don't care to look up to him!"

Mu Xixi flattened his mouth: "I'm very rare..."

"You..." Wang Sanxiao pinched his cheeks and shook them twice, grinning grinningly, "Are you just looking for trouble for me, kid?"

Mu Xixi grabbed his hand and said solemnly: "Brother Xiao, I fell in love with that painting at first sight, you must buy it for me, I call you uncle! Grandpa! No, I don't care Call grandma!"

"Call you uncle!!!" Wang San laughed and kicked him away, thinking to himself who the hell is this unlucky kid, who choked his brain from drinking milk when he was young!

Depressedly, he returned to the hotel, poured a glass of water before he could drink it, Wei Cong's call came after him, Wang Sanxiao looked at the name on the screen, he didn't want to answer his call, it felt like he hadn't seen him for a few years , more and more scumbags, the words "no business, no adultery" have been deeply engraved into his bones!

But in order to study the ancient paintings of the little idiot, he still held his nose and answered the phone: "Hello?"

"Third Young Master, I just went back to the old house and saw Zhaode Auction House sent an auction catalog to my father," Wei Cong said slowly, "I flipped through two pages when I had nothing to do. Unfortunately, I saw a Nanhong pendant, very familiar..."

Wang San smiled and raised his spirits: "What Nanhong pendant?"

"I'm a layman, so I don't know how to do it. I just think it looks very familiar. The introduction below says it's called 'Five Blessings Holding Longevity'. It is carved from a single piece of raw material. The color is very red, which is both beautiful and auspicious..."

Wang Sanxiao impatiently listened to his long description, interrupted him: "What do you want to do?"

Wei Cong asked gently: "The auction will be held at the World Trade Center Hotel this weekend. I would like to hire San Shao as my personal art collection consultant to attend the auction together."

Wang Sanxiao was staring at him, and said decisively: "No, I'm busy with work."

"That's really a pity," Wei Cong said, "I'm also very sorry about today's incident, probably because there is no fate, in fact, more antique collections are due to chance, I was thinking on the way back, my appreciation ability is very limited , if I can meet someone who really loves ancient paintings..."

"Wait," Wang Sanxiao changed his words suddenly, "I'll go."

After hanging up the phone, Wang Sanxiao stared at Wei Cong's name on the screen in a daze, thinking that Wei Laoqi had been practicing in the mall for many years, and became more taciturn every year. This is called silence?He has almost become a Tang monk!