boyutpedia Chapter 1441 It really can't be hidden anymore, someone's come knocking.
Chapter 1441 It really can't be hidden anymore, someone's come knocking.
With Li Juan engaged, the rest of the schedule will be much faster.
Both sets of parents felt that now that their jobs were stable, it would be best to hold the wedding as soon as possible, and the wedding was scheduled for August.
It's a pity that Li Qiang will have just been assigned to the army by then and won't be able to ask for leave.
When Li Long returned home, he and Gu Xiaoxia discussed what gift to give Li Juan. Li Long's idea was to simply give her a car.
Anyway, we have all kinds of cars at home. If all else fails, we can ask Liu Gaolou to get a new car from there.
As for the car brand, Li Long felt that since Li Juan was the first college student in the Li family, he should give her a Mercedes-Benz.
Gu Xiaoxia, being someone within the system, still had some concerns, feeling that Li Juan and her colleagues driving a Mercedes to and from get off work would be too conspicuous.
So they asked their eldest brother, Li Jianguo, for his opinion. Li Jianguo told Li Long and the others not to send a car, saying that as their father, he should provide it.
Li Long's idea was that since he had watched Li Juan grow up since she was a child, he should let his older brother's family handle the rest, while he would decide on the car.
A Mercedes was definitely out of the question. Li Jianguo also felt it was too conspicuous. He discussed it with Li Juan, but Li Juan shook her head vigorously, saying it was definitely not going to work.
In the end, Li Long and his wife decided to give Li Juan a luxury Volga.
That's how it was settled.
Li Long didn't need to get involved in the wedding arrangements at all; his relatives each took on their own tasks and took charge of them.
These past few days, Li Long has been paying close attention to his two sons. Mingming and Haohao are about to graduate from sixth grade and will be starting junior high school in September.
According to the division of the school district, they should go to No. 2 Middle School.
The teaching quality of No. 2 Middle School is very good. Although it does not have a senior high school, its junior high school is considered by some to be stronger than No. 1 Middle School.
The two children seemed troubled lately. Li Long asked them, but they wouldn't say anything. It was Gu Xiaoxia who subtly inquired at school and then told Li Long.
Li Long was both amused and exasperated when he heard this—both of his sons had good female classmates, but as far as they knew, these two girls were unlikely to get into the No. 2 Middle School because of their family's school district assignments, so the two brothers were quite worried.
That evening, Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia remarked with emotion, "Back when Qiangqiang was in school, let alone in junior high, even in high school, he didn't seem to have any particularly close female classmates."
He seemed completely clueless about relationships between men and women back then. Meanwhile, the two of us, still in elementary school, were already concerned about whether our female classmates could go to the same school…”
“A generation gap!” Gu Xiaoxia could understand, after all, she had been in school all her life and was quite clear about the students’ situation. “Qiangqiang is about ten years older than Mingming and Haohao.”
Besides, Hao Hao goes to school in the county town, while Qiang Qiang goes to school in the village/township, so they're not the same..."
Li Long had expected Gu Xiaoxia to say that education in the township wasn't as good as in the county, or that the township was backward, which, while true, would still make him uncomfortable. However, what Gu Xiaoxia said next was not what he expected:
"Children in the county receive more information, since their parents do all sorts of things. When students hear about these things, they share them in class, which helps them get more information."
The situation in the production brigade is different from that in the township. The parents of the students are mostly farmers, so they have limited access to information and learn less about relationships between men and women later in life.
Yes, that's fairly fair.
"Sigh, let them be. The two kids are just in a daze right now, they're still a long way from becoming sensible." Li Long didn't seem to care.
"We have to tell them, otherwise it will affect their final exams. Although they will definitely get in, and with compulsory education now, there's no worry about not having a middle school, if their grades are better, the teachers will pay more attention to them sooner if they go to middle school."
"Isn't that easy to say? Just tell them that although they might not be assigned to the same class in junior high, there's only one high school in the whole county, so they'll definitely be together in high school. Tell them to study hard, and if they get top scores in high school, they might be assigned to the same class. Otherwise, with five or six classes in high school, it wouldn't be good if they were assigned to classes far apart."
"That's true," Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile. "If that's the case, the two children might actually study harder."
It wasn't a big deal, and the two of them didn't take it too seriously, treating it as just a minor incident in their lives.
In June, the fritillaria season ended, and the purchasing stations collected less fritillaria this year than last year, with dried fritillaria weighing less than three tons.
The middlemen often chatted and gossiped in the front yard, and the reason was obvious long ago. The Forestry Bureau manages the mountains, and although they don't strictly regulate entry, harvesting medicinal herbs is prohibited.
Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult for those who dig for medicinal herbs in the mountains.
In addition, several factories have been set up in the county, which are hiring a lot of people. As long as you are willing to work hard, making money is not a problem. Therefore, some of the herb gatherers are no longer willing to go into the mountains to suffer.
Although the price of fritillaria is already very high, the number of people collecting it is decreasing year by year.
Li Long wasn't too concerned. He had foreseen this several years ago, which is why the purchasing station had diversified its operations: receiving supplies from Kazakhstan, selling and reselling agricultural materials, and the profits from these transactions had already surpassed those from collecting fritillaria and dried wild mushrooms.
For the first time, the harvest of dried wild mushrooms exceeded that of fritillaria. Li Long guessed that this was because the Forestry Bureau didn't care about this stuff, and even if they found it, they wouldn't confiscate it or impose fines, which is why the harvest increased.
On the 21st, two uninvited guests arrived at the purchasing station, specifically asking to see Li Long.
Li Long came out of the reception room and saw that the two people were unfamiliar faces; he had never seen them before.
One had his hair slicked back, and it was hard to tell if he was imitating Aaron Kwok or Xu Wenqiang. The other had his hair parted in a 4/6 ratio, had an ordinary appearance, and wasn't very tall. Both of them were carrying black bags, and they really did look like they were doing business.
"Hello Mr. Li, shall we find a quiet place to talk?" The man with the slicked-back hair said after seeing Li Long and confirming that this was the person he was looking for. "This place... isn't quite right."
"What business are we talking about?" Li Long was increasingly inclined to give up and wasn't interested in meeting just anyone.
"Jade." Seeing that Li Long seemed determined to make his move without seeing any immediate results, the man with the slicked-back hair uttered two words.
Li Long smiled and led the two men into the reception room. Although there was quite a lot of jade in the house now, and Liu Gaolou would occasionally bring over high-quality, large pieces of jade from Kazakhstan, who would complain about having too little good stuff?
Liang Shuangcheng brought watermelons with his men—early-ripening watermelons were already available, as well as fresh peaches. At this time, the famous May peaches were already being advertised on television.
"Mr. Li, let's be frank. We heard from Liu Yu that you have good jade material, so we came all this way. Don't worry, we have plenty of funds. As long as it's good jade, we can definitely afford a high price!"
"You want to buy jade?" Li Long immediately realized his misunderstanding and waved his hand, saying, "I don't sell jade. I thought you were selling jade. Sorry, I don't have any jade to sell here."
"How could there not be any?" The man with the 40/60 split became anxious as soon as he heard Li Long wasn't selling. "Liu Yu said his father sold you a lot of good jade, how could you not have any?"
Liu Yu?
Li Long suddenly realized, this must be Engineer Liu's son, right?
After the start of spring, Li Long went to Wucheng and actually saw Craftsman Liu on the jade street.
Liu had some small jade carvings he had made during the winter on display. He was very happy to see Li Long, but during their conversation, he also shared some of his worries.
His son, under the influence of someone, secretly took some good materials that Li Long had collected over the years and sold several pieces for tens of thousands of yuan, saying he wanted to invest in stocks.
"What a misfortune for my family!" Liu said with a bitter smile. "I never expected that my son would not only refuse to learn jade carving from me, but also try to squander all of my family's wealth... It's just that I discovered it in time and moved some of the jade I had stored to a different place, otherwise it would have been all wiped out."
Although Engineer Liu strongly criticized his son's behavior, Li Long didn't know how to respond. After all, it was someone else's son, and they could say whatever they wanted. If he interrupted, wouldn't that be considered stirring up trouble?
However, if Mr. Liu's son uses the money to invest in stocks, he might actually make some money.
Liu Gong wasn't too angry. He even told Li Long that it was because of this that he realized the market had changed a long time ago. The price of jade had gone up, and the best Hetian jade pebbles were now worth several times more than they used to be in the factory. So he was quite happy.
It was Li Long's suggestion that made his family wealth much better, allowing him to live a better life without relying on his pension.
Looking at the two people in front of him, Li Long was certain that they were the two who had instigated Liu Gong's son to sell the jade. Not only had they sold the jade, but they had also revealed their own secrets.
But it didn't matter, Li Long explained slowly:
"I like jade, and it's true that I bought quite a lot of jade from Mr. Liu. But I'm also a businessman, so I can't just hoard jade. That stuff is a burden, it ties up capital, you should know that."
So, I already sold off the carved jade pieces and some raw jade stones. While my connections aren't as extensive as yours, I have plenty of contacts, and I sell the jade all the way to Beijing.”
The two men were taken aback for a moment, exchanged a glance, and were also skeptical.
Seeing that they were still not giving up, Li Long named several jade and antique shops in Yanjing, and only then did the two give up.
They had heard of the shops Li Long mentioned; they were all well-known establishments, some even considered top-tier only by industry insiders. Knowing the names of these shops confirmed that Li Long was telling the truth. The two were extremely disappointed. They had thought that by taking advantage of their early start in this small town, they could make a quick buck, but it turned out that these shops weren't exactly established players either. It seemed they would have made a wasted trip.
After Li Long saw the two men out, a middleman at the door asked him what kind of business they were in. Li Long, wanting to spread the word, replied:
"Someone in the jade business heard from somewhere that I had acquired a batch of jade and wants to buy it. I have indeed acquired quite a lot of jade before, but the good stuff was all sold in Yanjing. How could I have kept it until now?"
"Mr. Li, haven't you been buying Mahe jade all along?" Someone familiar with Li Long's business asked, "Have you sold them all?"
“They don’t want that stuff.” Li Long shook his head. “Most of the jade we collect has ‘fly droppings’ in it. They want the kind that’s more transparent, like a beer bottle. If it has black spots, they say it’s substandard and won’t take it.”
At that time, white jade was considered a top-grade jade in the eyes of ordinary people. Although green jade was also good, it had to be of the finest quality. So when they heard what Li Long said, they understood.
"I've collected quite a lot, and they're all still piled up in the warehouse. Nobody's come to collect them," Li Long said, feigning disappointment. "I've basically thrown money into this. If they're not high-quality items, I won't collect them anymore. It's a pure loss."
The dealers exchanged glances and understood. This was the future trend; if there was any jade material that wasn't of good quality, there was no need to send it here.
Of course, they also knew that Li Long didn't have any extra jade; he had already sold it all.
These messages will soon spread through these middlemen, and although not everyone will believe them, it will at least save some trouble.
Li Long chatted for a few minutes outside, then returned to the reception room. His father, Li Qingxia, followed him and whispered:
"Little Dragon, is something wrong?"
"No, it's just that news of my jade possession leaked out, and some people might be eyeing it. These two were, but I managed to fend them off. There might be others in the future, but I'll just say no. Jade prices have been rising these days, so it's not worth selling now."
Li Long explained the situation in a few words, but his father, Li Qingxia, was still worried and asked, "What about the jade in your yard...?"
"It's alright. I've covered most of those jade pieces up. Except for the jade doll, most people can't tell the difference. Besides, those are big, and the door is locked, so they can't get them out through the wall."
Besides, our yard is so close to the police station, I'm not worried.
Li Qingxia was slightly relieved. When she went out to chat with the others, she subtly hinted that her family had lost money on jade purchases, that they didn't have any good jade, and that all the good jade had already been sold.
Li Long thought to himself that his father was trying to cover up his own mistakes.
The news wasn't believed by everyone. From late June to early July, two more groups of people came, both to buy jade.
One group of information came from Yu Sufu, and another group came from the jade carving factory. In any case, they knew that Li Long had jade and jadeite.
However, Li Long managed to fool all the visitors, saying that he didn't have any jade here and that he had sold it all in Yanjing, so those people wouldn't search his own home.
In early July, Li Qiang called to say that because of his good grades, he had been assigned to a research institute in Yenching University—meaning he was staying in Beijing.
This was unexpected good news for the Li family, since they had originally thought that Li Qiang would most likely be assigned to one of the launch centers or a ground mapping station after graduation.
There is a station in southern Xinjiang, and according to Li Long's thinking, he has the greatest chance of being assigned there.
Unexpectedly, he stayed in Beijing; it's quite a stroke of luck.
Li Qiang also mentioned on the phone that they had been given a reporting date after graduation, and he planned to go home for a visit. As for his sister's wedding, he would see if he could get leave after returning to work.
Because of the tight schedule, Li Qiang bought a plane ticket to return, enjoying the treatment afforded to him as a county-level official.
Li Qiang didn't stay at home for long. When he came back, he mainly talked about why he was able to stay in Yanjing—supposedly, someone had put in a good word for him, but Li Qiang himself didn't know the details.
Li Long jokingly asked if he had caught the eye of some girl from a wealthy family, which was why he was left in Yanjing. Li Qiang blushed and vehemently denied it, saying that nothing of the sort had happened.
That makes things a bit strange.
However, staying in Yanjing is a good thing. It's more comfortable to be a staff officer in the government than to stay at a front-line surveying station.
Of course, Li Qiang really wanted to go to the front line. He still had pure ideals. According to the actual situation of their school, usually more than 80% of them were assigned to surveying stations and command centers, and they were mostly in the Northwest.
Therefore, Li Qiang always had an attitude of obeying all assignments, thinking that he would just go wherever he was assigned, since he would most likely return to northern Xinjiang anyway.
To everyone's surprise, he ended up staying in Beijing, which astonished many of his classmates.
Even the officers in the cadet team looked at him strangely in the days leading up to graduation.
In any case, it's been finalized, and now it's time to get to work.
Li Qiang came and went in a hurry. When he returned, he left some unused items at home and then quickly went to his workplace with his letter of introduction.
Although Li Jianguo and his wife were somewhat reluctant, there was nothing they could do. Li Qiang was already considered a member of the country, and from now on, it all depended on his own efforts.
In mid-July, someone came to Li Long to discuss business again, but this time it was about antiques.
Throughout his two lifetimes, Li Long had always felt that there were very few, if any, people in the Northern Frontier who dealt in antiques, so he had never paid much attention to it.
Although he collected a lot of goods by running the purchasing station, he brought the better items back to his yard, and the rest were just piled up in the purchasing station's warehouse without any sorting or processing, just treated as inventory.
Since someone had come to collect it, Li Long didn't hide anything. After checking the other party's business card and finding out that he was from Wucheng and specialized in this business, he led his men to the warehouse.
Liang Shuangcheng and two workers helped out from the side.
Two people arrived; one appeared to be the boss, and the other was probably the appraiser. Upon entering the warehouse and smelling the peculiar odor, Li Long could tell that the appraiser was very excited.
The warehouse was a bit dark, so Li Long turned on the light. The shopkeeper then took out his flashlight, squatted down, and started rummaging through the pile of "junk."
The boss was also a shrewd and calculating man. While Li Long was chatting about business, asking about the origins of these things, he would occasionally glance at his subordinates' actions.
Li Long watched as the appraiser quickly shoveled several copper coins, two copper mirrors, three Buddha statues, and a copper object resembling a vajra from the pile of things.
"You have quite a few Buddhist items here," the shop owner remarked, looking at the goods.
“In the past, our northern and southern border regions were a Buddhist country. Before converting to Islam, everyone was a Buddhist,” Li Long explained, then said with a smile, “Mr. He, you must know that, right?”
"Yes, yes, we also went to Dama Valley to look, but that place has been searched many times. We've also been to several other Buddhist sites." Boss He showed off his insider status. "We have good stuff, but it's too expensive. And many of them have already been taken away. What a pity."
When the appraiser stood up again, there were already about twenty items of various sizes at his feet.
This surprised Li Long somewhat. It seems he was truly an amateur, unaware of the treasure he possessed.
But when you think about the things stored in the cellar of your own big yard, like gold plates and gold staffs, what you see in front of you really doesn't amount to much.
Next came the haggling.
Currently, treasure appraisal shows are not popular, and people's understanding of the value of cultural relics is limited to knowing that some are relatively valuable, but they basically don't understand the specifics of why they are valuable.
So Mr. He offered a very low price, but Li Long was no pushover. He wouldn't sell anything, not even copper coins, for less than a hundred.
Moreover, Li Long discovered that the appraiser was a true technical expert, not good at hiding his emotions. He could tell what was valuable and what was precious just by looking at his expression when he took things out.
So these twenty or so items eventually sold for more than 51,000 yuan—the most expensive was a bronze Buddha statue, which was said to be a special product of a certain era. The Buddha statue was gilded, but a layer of dirt covered it up, so this one alone cost more than 20,000 yuan.
Li Long would try to negotiate the price based on the technician's expression, and he could usually keep the price at the technician's maximum limit.
These things will definitely be worth more in a few years, but Li Long doesn't care much about that. He needs others to know that he has already released some things. Once this news gets out, fewer people will try to take advantage of him in the future.
After Mr. He left, satisfied yet with a touch of regret, the middlemen were also pleased to receive the message they were about to spread—the good old items that Mr. Li had collected over the years had all been sold.
That's good. (End of Chapter)