When Song Wenjing returned to the rental house, he eagerly placed the painting "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" on the dining table in the living room and admired it carefully.
This was the first work by Zhang Daqian that he got, so he naturally wanted to take a good look at it.
Half an hour later, Song Wenjing finally straightened up and put the painting away with satisfaction.
The question now is where to put this painting. In the rental house, he is only home at night every day and is outside the rest of the time. He does not dare to put his valuables here.
Finally, after thinking about it, I can only go home once tomorrow and leaving it at home is currently the safest way.
Now, he desperately wants to have a house of his own, where he can display all the treasures he has recovered. If he can walk into the house and appreciate it every day, he will feel more comfortable than drinking a glass of fine wine.
Unfortunately, in the 1980s, commercial housing had not yet appeared. Most urban workers were allocated housing by the public. But Song Wenjing could only be regarded as an unemployed vagrant, and he still had a rural household registration, so he was not qualified to be allocated housing.
Of course, there is another way, which is to build a new building at home. Unfortunately, funds are not enough. Even if prices are cheap now, it will cost tens of thousands of yuan to build a two-story building.
And all the cash he had on him totaled only more than a thousand dollars.
There is no other way. For now, we should focus on taking back those precious old items as an early investment. After a few years and the policy is liberalized, we can then think of ways to start other businesses.
Early the next morning, Song Wenjing pulled a cart home. In addition to sending back the painting "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" to hide, he also planned to bring back the eggs that had been collected recently.
For this reason, he went to the meat stall and bought two kilograms of pork and brought it back. He planned to have a meal of braised pork for the whole family at noon.
When Song Wenjing was not at home, Zhou Lijuan was not willing to buy meat to eat. Only every time Song Wenjing went back, he would take the initiative to bring some meat back to satisfy his brothers and sisters' greed.
Both children are growing up, and their nutrition still needs to keep up.
Especially his younger sister Song Wenfang, who will graduate from elementary school in one month and will go to junior high school in the town in the second half of the year. Song Wenjing also plans to discuss with his parents and buy a bicycle for his sister to save him from having to walk at least 100 meters to school every day.
It takes more than half an hour to walk.
At home, Song Wenfang is very sensible and never makes demands from the family. But as the eldest brother, and with what he has on hand, of course he has to consider these things for his sister.
In fact, the money in Song Wenjing's hands has already been put to use.
When he learned at Professor Zhang Wenyuan's home that there were still two works by Wen Zhengming in the hands of descendants of the Wen family, he made up his mind to win them over in one fell swoop.
But according to Zhang Wenyuan, the price offered by the other party would not be cheap, so he kept dragging the matter. At that time, he had only two to three hundred yuan in capital and was unable to purchase it.
In the past six months, in addition to collecting some other objects, Song Wenjing had been frugal in order to acquire the two so-called works by Wen Zhengming. Although so far, he has not even seen the shadow of the works.
He believed that Professor Zhang Wenyuan would not lie to him. If he said it was true, it would be true.
According to his initial estimate, the two works can be obtained for 1,500 yuan. Currently, he only has less than 1,200 yuan. In just one or two months, he will prepare to make a trip in person to talk to the other party.
Unfortunately, now that Song Wenfang is going to junior high school, it is normal for the eldest brother to buy him a bicycle.
The acquisition of Wen Zhengming's calligraphy and painting can only be postponed again.
When he returned home that morning, the two children had not finished school yet. Song Wenjing handed the meat in his hand to Zhou Lijuan and asked him to make a delicious meal for lunch.
"Wen Jing, yesterday your second uncle told your father that he was going to pay us back the 400 yuan he owed us this month." Zhou Lijuan took the pork from her son's hand and told him a piece of news.
"Oh?" Song Wenjing looked a little surprised, "Second uncle is rich?"
While Zhou Lijuan was busy, she replied: "You will know it if you do the math. If you ask him to collect eggs, he can earn 6 cents per kilogram of eggs. Basically, he can collect about 50 kilograms a day. Calculated in this way, every day You can earn three yuan. It’s been almost half a year. Excluding the expenses at home, it should be about the same.”
Song Wenjing did the math, and it seemed that this was indeed the case.
"Besides, Wenxia is about to graduate from junior high school. With her grades, she will definitely not be able to pass into high school. After she comes back, there will be another labor force in the family. Your second aunt is much better now, and she doesn't have to lie in bed often. Although it is a heavy workload I can’t do it, but housework is still no problem.”
Zhou Lijuan continued to chatter, feeling happy for Song Jianping's family in her heart. Because of these, it was her son who allowed their family to live a new life.
Song Wenjing didn't think too much about it. Since his second uncle had money to pay off the debt, he was willing to pay it off immediately, which was also a good thing for him. After all, he was also short of money now.
But if the second uncle's family has no money, or if it can't be paid for the time being, it doesn't matter to him. It won't be a big deal if his plans are postponed.
"Mom, if my second uncle is temporarily inconvenient, you must not ask about it. If he returns it, I mean to buy Wenfang a bicycle for him to go to school. As for the remaining money, I still have it. For other uses, don’t use it for the time being." Song Wenjing specifically instructed.
Zhou Lijuan has always been a sensible person. In the past, her family was poor and she was always saving money. She wished she could break a penny in half and spend it. Now her son gives 50 yuan to her family every month, which is enough for their family's expenses, and there is even a lot of surplus. So. , naturally had no objection to Song Wenjing’s request.
At noon that day, Song Wenjing finished dinner at home and returned to the city with the eggs.
After the eggs were disposed of, it was already late, and there was not much time to collect the trash.
So I simply put the cart in the rental house and planned to visit Mr. Zhang Wenyuan. By the way, I wanted to learn about the trends of the two Wen Zhengming calligraphy and paintings, so as not to let others get there first.
"Dong dong dong..." There was a knock on the door.
Song Wenjing came to Professor Zhang Wenyuan's house with a big watermelon in his arms.
"It's Wenjing. Come in quickly, I haven't seen you for a while."
The door opened quickly, and Zhang Wenyuan also turned sideways to reveal half of his body. After seeing that it was Song Wenjing, he greeted him warmly.
"Old man, it's a hot day. I figured you were at home, so I came over to see you. Hey, there are guests at home. I'm sorry to bother you."
As soon as I walked into the living room with the watermelon in my arms, I saw an old man with white hair sitting on the sofa.
Although he has white hair, his face looks like he is in his 60s, and he is probably a friend of Zhang Wenyuan.
"Come on, brother Shaohua, let me introduce you. This is a friend I just met last year, named Song Wenjing. Don't look at him because he is young. His knowledge in antiques surpasses mine in many aspects.
The "Picture of Ladies" I told you about before belongs to him."
Without waiting for the old man to speak, Zhang Wenyuan continued to introduce: "Wen Jing, this is my good friend, Shang Shaohua, the leading sculptor in Su Province, Master Shang."
After hearing Zhang Wenyuan's introduction, Song Wenjing immediately bowed respectfully to Shang Shaohua: "Hello, Mr. Shang! I am Song Wenjing, you can call me Xiao Song or Wen Jing."
Shang Shaohua, who was sitting there, quickly stood up and helped Song Wenjing, "Xiao Song, don't listen to Wen Yuan's nonsense. How dare I call myself a master? I am just an ordinary carving craftsman."
Zhang Wenyuan, who was standing aside, suddenly became unhappy when he heard what Shang Shaohua said, "Shaohua, you don't have to be so humble. Your wood carvings were even given to foreign friends by national leaders. You are not a master.
Who is qualified to be called a master? If he hadn't been devolved more than 20 years ago, who knows what would have happened."
"Hey," Shang Shaohua sighed, "Wenyuan, there is no need to talk about the past things. If you talk too much, you will be laughed at. Now that I have retired, I can return to Shuzhou to live my old age.
good."
Decentralized? More than 20 years ago? Back to Shuzhou? When he heard these words, Song Wenjing could roughly guess what the situation was.
But this is a matter for the older generation. Since they don't want to say more, it's not convenient for him, a young man, to take the initiative to mention it.