Merchant of the Underworld

The autumn colors are getting darker, and the sycamore leaves in front of the door have fallen layer after layer.

On this day, Li Mazi, who was bored, brought some river crabs and crayfish to my shop to taste Shaoxing rice wine. When the two of us were getting drunk, the door opened with a creak.

We both turned around and saw a foreigner with yellow hair and blue eyes squeezing in with a smile on his face. Then he glanced back furtively and closed the door tightly.

"Hello!" This guy waved to us and greeted us in half-baked Chinese.

"Hey, buddy, did you go to the wrong door?" Li Mazi glanced at him and said unhappily.

"Yes, yes, I'm here to sell things." After the foreigner finished speaking, he took out a small box from his arms and waved it in front of us: "I heard that you specialize in collecting some weird gadgets. Come here. See if you are interested in this."

"I'm not interested. What kind of magic weapon can you, a foreigner, have?" Li Mazi picked up the wine glass, took a sip and said disapprovingly.

"Let's see and then talk." The foreigner didn't feel angry at all. He came forward patiently, put the small box on the table, and slowly opened it.

The box was tattered, only as big as a fist, and gray-black in color, as if it had just been picked up from a garbage dump.

After opening it, there was a little man standing inside.

This little person is wearing a European-style floor-length skirt. He holds the skirt of the skirt elegantly with both hands and raises his head slightly, as if he is a little beauty who is singing loudly.

This thing was in poor condition, with paint peeling off in many places, and it also exuded a strange sour smell. Li Mazi immediately lost interest.

"What kind of crap!" He glanced at it with disdain: "Do you really think we are fools? Even if you throw this crap on the street, no one may be willing to take it, and you still want to sell it at a high price?"

"Don't worry." The foreigner said with a smile on his face and twisted the back of the box.

Crunchy...

With the sound of a clockwork turning, the box suddenly started spinning.

At the same time, the little man also started to move.

First, she held up her skirts and took a step forward. Then she slowly bent over and made a bow.

Then he started singing.

The sound was very loud and melodious, as if a dozen stereos were suddenly installed in my house. And it is very beautiful, sometimes tactful, sometimes high-pitched.

Along with the singing, the little man is still doing various actions, stretching his arms to wave, kicking and spinning, sometimes blowing kisses and winking, lifelike, as if someone is really holding a concert in front of us.

Li Mazi was fascinated by what he heard. He stared at the box with his two little eyes. He even forgot to eat the spicy shrimp balls in his hand.

The little man continued to spin and sang, as if they were all foreign national songs, one song after another.

After listening to four or five songs in succession, the foreigner closed the box with a snap and asked with a smile: "How is it? This thing is not bad, isn't it? Are you two interested?"

Li Mazi glanced at me and then at the foreigner: "This thing is really not that good. Besides, it's in such a broken state. It's worth a shit! But it's quite fun. What price do you want to sell it for?"

As soon as I heard him say this, I understood that Li Mazi wanted it very much.

There is a saying in this industry: It is the buyer who finds fault.

Anyone who talks about how something is not good or has defects is definitely a prelude to wanting to sell it and start bargaining!

However, the foreigner was obviously not a layman, and smiled slightly: "Boss, what we want to trade are antiques. Naturally, the older the antiques, the better. I want one million of your Chinese Mao Zedong."

"One million, I think you are crazy about money, right?" Li Mazi said, throwing the shrimp balls in his mouth, and looked at him sideways: "I think this thing is quite interesting. It’s not bad to keep as a decoration at home. One hundred thousand, if you want, you can keep it.”

"No, no, no." The foreigner waved his hands repeatedly: "One hundred thousand is too little, I can consider nine hundred thousand."

"Two hundred thousand." Li Mazi also added a fixed price.

"No, no, no, the price is too little, you are too insincere..."

"I can't accept 900,000. Be honest, how much is it?" Li Mazi kicked me under the table while bargaining with him on the price.

After he kicked me, he tapped me three times. He was secretly discussing with me and wanted me to help him grow eyes.

He estimated that this thing could be purchased for 700,000 yuan.

Li Mazi has a good eye. This is a clockwork music box from the seventeenth century, also called: rotating clockwork.

It uses the principle of clockwork to drive the little man inside to rotate, and also adds a miniature record. This thing was an extremely rare luxury item even in the upper class society at that time. It is rare for it to be passed down to this day. The normal price in Panjiayuan in old Beijing would have been several times higher.

However, this thing seems a bit evil!

From the moment I opened the box, I felt an extreme sense of uneasiness, but I couldn't tell what made me uneasy.

"Open it again and let me take a look." I pushed all the plates on the table aside and braced myself.

The foreigner was a little reluctant, but he still opened the box, but no longer twisted the clockwork.

I lay on the table, staring at the little person and observing carefully, and suddenly I found that her white dress was stained with many small black spots. I took out the magnifying glass from the drawer and looked carefully, and it turned out to be blood stains!

The blood has long since dried up and turned into jet black, which is difficult to detect if you don't look closely, and there is still an indescribable gloom lingering around.

"How did you get this?" I raised my head and asked the foreigner.

"Friend, I want to sell it and you want to buy it. It doesn't matter where this thing comes from, does it?" The foreigner chuckled and refused to reveal the truth.

"Okay then." I put away the magnifying glass and said, "We won't buy it. You can find another home."

Before the foreigner could say anything, Li Mazi hurriedly kicked me several times under the table, winked at me repeatedly, and whispered in my ear: "No, little brother Zhang! A friend said that there will be an antique auction in Sydney next month. It is said that most of the auction items are belongings to European medieval aristocrats. If we flip this thing over, we will definitely get a big price! It can be more than ten or twenty times! Just tell me whether this thing is real or fake, right?"

When it comes to distinguishing authentic and fake antiques and feints, Li Mazi is naturally far inferior to me, but when it comes to appraising antiques and reselling them, Li Mazi is much more professional than me.

Since he knew that this kind of thing was a hot commodity at the Sydney auction and would definitely fetch a good price once it was sold, he naturally would not give up the fat meat.

"This thing is really real, but it's just a bit evil. I suspect it's a shady thing whose details I can't figure out. I advise you not to buy it."

When Li Mazi heard this, he chuckled and said, "Brother, why are you getting so timid? What kind of business are we doing? What's not evil? What's not weird? Besides, no matter how evil or weird it is, it's not And you? As long as your antique shop is here, what will happen to this music box even if it causes a huge commotion? The money has been given to you, so there is no reason to push it out. "

"I've paid for the capital, and we'll share the profit!" After saying that, he slapped the foreigner: "I won't follow you anymore, it's only five hundred thousand. If you can sell it, I'll keep it. If you can't sell it, I'll keep it." , just pack it up and leave, and don’t delay us brothers from drinking - let me tell you this! If anyone knows that you walked out of our place and didn’t keep any goods, then you can’t even think of selling it in Wuhan. .”