C5

The old man who rented the house had the surname of Shu. Even now, Lin Xi still did not know his real name, and had always honorably addressed him as Elder Shu.

It was only later that Lin Xi found out that the children of the Elder Shu had already built their families, and had made a name for themselves and had their own businesses. He was the only one left to live in the Old Residence.

A few years ago when his wife from Elder Shu passed away, he was the only one left in this house, so he wanted to rent out the extra small rooms in order to find someone to accompany him. As for the rent, he did not care, he did not need that money.

In the past, there were people who went to the Elder Shu to rent a house, but when they saw how remote the place was, they all gave up on the idea of renting a house.

Although the location was so remote that not even public transportation could reach, this was not a problem for Lin Xi. On the other hand, when Elder Shu saw that Lin Xi was just a sunny boy, he was willing to rent the house to him, saying that he could live there for as long as he wanted, but could pay the rent later.

Elder Shu was someone who had experienced much in the past, and was well aware of how difficult it was to be a youngster who had come out to fight.

When Lin Xi was free, he would always accompany the Elder Shu. Sometimes he would chat, sometimes he would play chess, sometimes he would cook for the Elder Shu.

That room was naturally treated by Lin Xi as his own home in the Ming Zhou. Even his job in the pawnshop was recommended by the Elder Shu.

Lin Xi leisurely walked home, while thinking about his own matters. He thought about how much money he should give as a gift for his fellow student's wedding, it didn't seem like a good idea if he had more, but he also thought about his future plans.

Suddenly, a burst of noise attracted Lin Xi's attention. He liked liveliness to begin with, and after staying in the hospital for ten days, he had already suffocated.

The place where the noise came from was a street stall, and there were many people pointing fingers at the place, but most of them were just like Lin Xi and wanted to join in on the fun.

"Boss, this is a real antique. No matter how you look at it, it's fake. If it's real, why are you still setting up the stall?"

The moment Lin Xi got closer to the crowd, he heard questioning voices, which then attracted many laughter from the onlookers.

After squeezed through the crowd, Lin Xi saw that there were a lot of items on the stall. There were porcelain, jade artifacts, coins and red seals, there were more than a hundred items in total.

The owner of the stall was a middle-aged man. He had a smile on his face the entire time to keep everyone smiling, afraid that he would offend any customer. It wasn't easy for him to earn a living.

"Brother, don't believe me. These items were obtained by me after much effort."

The crowd once again burst into laughter. Everyone had been muddling along in society for so many years, and this boss was still dishonest enough to try and deceive everyone. If it really was an antique, would he be willing to move here to sell it?

Even though no one understood antiques as well as being an outsider, they knew that antiques were priceless objects and the only things that could be sold here were some imitation crafts.

Some people retreated when they saw the boss's dishonesty, but the boss was not angry. He was still smiling happily. He understood that failure to buy or sell was a matter of kindness and righteousness, but there were still people browsing through the stalls.

Even if there weren't any real antiques, it would still be nice to use it as a handicraft.

After watching the show, Lin Xi did not leave with the crowd. Instead, he squatted in front of the stall and picked up an item to look at, and the more he looked, the more he liked it.

The object was a small Calabash Bottle, no taller than 10 cm, but it was quite heavy. Its entire body was a lemon yellow, its glaze was well-proportioned, and its luster was extremely bright.

Lin Xi remembered that this old man had a gourd in the past, it was only used for drinking on the gourd vines, but the gourd for storing wine was about the same size as this Calabash Bottle and its color was also quite similar. Lin Xi couldn't help but recall it.

After the boss saw Lin Xi taking the bottle gourd into his hands for a long time, his eyes revealed a strange light. He walked over and laughed: "young brother, have you taken a fancy to this Calabash Bottle?"

Lin Xi came back to reality and thought for a while, "Boss, how much are you selling this Calabash Bottle for?"

"If young brother likes it, I'll give it to you for 500 yuan."

Lin Xi was a little hesitant: "Mn, 80 pieces."

The owner's smile froze and he sulked, "young brother, you must be joking right? How could 80 credits buy such a good Calabash Bottle, look at the color. If young brother is sincere, I'll take 450 yuan. "

"Seventy dollars."

"young brother, if you don't want it, you can put it down. The lowest is four hundred!" The boss' expression was a little ugly, and his tone was also a little unfriendly.

"60 dollars."

"young brother, it's not easy for us to support our families, why are you talking about the price so low?"

"Fifty dollars."

"Deal!"

Lin Xi contentedly played with the Calabash Bottle in his hands, and then he went to take out the money. The owner bitterly smiled as he said, "young brother, you really know how to do business, your price is even higher than an auntie's. I won't dare to meet you again in the future."

Lin Xi was noncommittal. He picked up the Calabash Bottle and laughed: "Boss, you're not losing out, a small thing is fifty pieces. If you sell ten pieces a day, you will earn a lot in a month."

The owner's face once again revealed a happy smile, as if he had forgotten about the previous matter. "young brother, you don't know our hardships, it's fine if we can sell it, but if we can't sell it, we'll have to drink it."

"Then I wish the boss a flourishing business."

The boss was secretly happy as he saw Lin Xi's figure leave. A mere thing like that was sold for fifty yuan.

He remembered that Calabash Bottle was brought back by his son, saying that it was picked up from a garbage dump. Originally, he thought that he really met a real antique, but after cleaning it and seeing its bright color, he immediately rejected the idea of an antique.

Originally, he had wanted to give it a try. Who knew that it would actually sell today? This was equivalent to picking up fifty yuan for free. How could he not be happy?

The only regret was that the young man was too cunning. If it weren't for the fact that he made the deal in time, he probably wouldn't have bought the Calabash Bottle.

But how would he know that the reason Lin Xi lowered the price was because he had seen through his tricks.

But Lin Xi really did like this Calabash Bottle. Not only because it made him think of this old man, but also because the more he looked at this, the more he liked it, and it felt like he was searching for thousands of miles.

Lin Xi played with the Calabash Bottle in his hand repeatedly, and quickly returned to his living quarters to look down on the people. He saw two familiar figures playing chess in the pavilion downstairs of the small courtyard.

Lin Xi didn't even think before walking over, and greeted him from afar: "Elder Shu is playing chess, I won it today or I lost."

Among the two chess players, one of them was a skinny old man.

Opposite the old man was a pot-bellied middle-aged man. He looked to be no older than fifty years old, but he had a square head, and when he saw Lin Xi, he smiled like a Maitreya Buddha.

This Maitreya Buddha's name was Lee Binn, and Lin Xi wasn't very clear about its origin, but ever since he came to live here, he had frequently seen Lee Binn and Elder Shu play chess.

Moreover, the chess they played was not chess, but Go!

"It's Lil 'Lin. I heard you were hospitalized, is that alright?"

Lin Xi smiled as he greeted Lee Binn, "Nice to meet you, Uncle Lee. Didn't you just leave the hospital today?

"What are you making such a ruckus about? You're disturbing me, causing me to think about chess. I was thinking about everything, but now you've disturbed me!"

Lin Xi smiled as he glanced at the chess board, only to see that Elder Shu's chess game was already in a precarious situation. His dragon was being firmly besieged, and Lee Binn only needed to slowly grind down his dragon to ensure that he would lose.

However, it was not like there was no turning point.