Volume 2 Chapter 45 Encounter
Xuě ní zhāi is located in the middle section of Jiangzhou North Street, with a very eye-catching location. The store occupies nearly 300 square meters and appears to be very spacious, with a strong momentum and an impressive atmosphere.
On both sides of the door hangs a couplet: Spring, summer, autumn and winter have ink treasures, east, south, west and north have no white spots.
Horizontal inscribed board: Flying swan treads snow.
This couplet is the handwriting of Fu Shan, a famous calligrapher of the time, worth thousands of dollars, and it is the signboard that Xue Ni Zhai is proud of. Usually, there are often scholars who come here to study the handwriting of famous people, standing at the door, looking up and admiring, in order to learn from them, and being inspired by them.
Inside the shop, the walls were hung with all sorts of paintings and calligraphy, each one neatly displayed; while customers stood below to admire them, some liking what they saw, others wanting to make a purchase, would ask the salesclerk to take it down.
Xue Ni Zhai has three floors. The first floor displays and sells works of calligraphy and painting that are mostly on consignment, with relatively low prices. The second floor sells works by artists who have some reputation, so the prices are naturally much higher. As for the third floor, only the works of famous masters can be displayed there, and ordinary people cannot go up.
A three-story building, each floor managed by a different shopkeeper.
Wang Fu knew that the first floor shopkeeper, Li Xueye, had a very elegant name. He was also a scholar, but after taking more than ten exams and failing to pass, he gave up his hopes of becoming an official and came to work as a shopkeeper at Snow Mud Studio. Although his monthly salary was not high, he had a lot of extra grey income, so his life was quite good.
Upon hearing Wang Fu's recommendation, Li Xueye raised her head and glanced at Chen Jianchen with a faint smile, saying: "Then please show me your calligraphy, Mr. Chen."
His attitude was not enthusiastic, nor could it be said to be indifferent, but rather mediocre and perfunctory. In fact, he had little interaction with Wang Fu, who often came here to buy calligraphy and paintings, and was just a regular customer.
Such a person's face is already thin, let alone Chen Jianchen being just a poor scholar? If it weren't for the reputation of being the first in the imperial examination, he might not even bother to use the word "please". You know that those scholars and literati usually have to smile and flatter to get their works displayed on the walls of Xue Ni Zhai.
Chen Jianchen was a man of two generations, with a city in his chest. He saw everything with his eyes, and quietly passed the letter over without making a sound.
Li took it, spread it out to take a look, and after a moment's hesitation, was just about to offer his evaluation when he happened to see a group of people walking into the store. He hastily threw down the brush in his hand and quickly went forward to greet them, bowing and scraping as he said: "Young Master Wu, you've arrived."
He casually threw the letter and ink, fortunately Chen Jianchen was quick to catch it, otherwise it would have fallen to the ground. Chen Jianchen's anger rose, in fact even if Li Zhang said that the letter and ink were not good enough, he wouldn't think there was anything wrong with them, but the other party's careless treatment of his hard work made him feel disrespected, and his face turned cold.
Li Zhuanggui didn't notice him at all, his full attention had already been focused on the rich young master in front who was being surrounded by four servants.
This young nobleman wore a luxurious silk robe, with a sash made of silk gauze around his waist, and hung a piece of Hetian jade the size of a palm, on his head he wore a Confucian hat, inlaid with a piece of orange-yellow jade that shone brightly.
The young master's appearance was quite elegant, his stature very tall. Standing there, he seemed like a jade tree in the wind. However, the natural air of arrogance on his face made others dare not approach him slightly.
Bang!
The young master opened the folding fan in his hand and gently shook it, saying proudly: "Li Zhuanggui, business is pretty good today."
Li Zhuanggui smiled and said: "Thank you, young master, for your praise! I dare to ask, have you brought the ink treasure today? You don't know that Zhang Gong in the south of the city and Yang Gong in the west of the city are all eager to buy your ink treasure, and they have already paid the deposit."
Gongzi said with a smile: "I'm in a good mood, so I'll write a few words... That's what I came here for today, to have a good impromptu writing session."
Li Zhuanggui was overjoyed: "Please, young master, please go to the third floor."
Ran ahead to lead the way, looking at his diligent appearance, if there was no rule, I'm afraid he would have taken me upstairs directly.
It wasn't until a while later that Li Zhuanggui returned to Chen Jianchen's side, immediately putting on his "business as usual" face. He spoke slowly and deliberately: "Young Master Chen, this piece of calligraphy is quite decent. Our store can take it in for consignment sale. So, how do you plan to price it?"
Chen Jianchen suppressed his anger and said in a low voice: "Agreed."
One thousand wen was equivalent to one yuan of silver. This price was considered very high in the pawnshop's terms.
Li looked at him with some surprise, and then sneered coldly in his heart: Another ignorant young man who doesn't know the height of the sky or the thickness of the earth, just out of the thatched cottage, thinking that everything he writes is a treasure. Hum, you have no reputation, no background, even if your writing is good, who will appreciate it? Spending so much money to buy this? Wait until your writings are ignored and become waste paper, then you'll know how difficult the world is...
However, the author set the price, which was purely voluntary, and he didn't say much about it. He had seen many such examples before, and in the end, they all ended up with a dismal outcome.
Manager Li immediately wrote a contract, and after both parties had no objections, they signed and stamped it on the spot.
According to the agreement, Chen Jianchen's calligraphy was priced uniformly and could be sold at Xue Ni Zhai for ten days. If it was sold, Xue Ni Zhai would receive a commission of 100 wen. During this period, Xue Ni Zhai had to protect the consigned works well. If there was any damage or loss, compensation would be made at half price...
The agreement also stipulated that Chen Jianchen had to pay fifty wen for framing fees.
Once the payment is made, the agreement will come into effect officially.
Chen Jianchen and Wang Fu bid farewell and left.
As they went outside, Wang Fu whispered: "Liu Xian, that young master just now was Wu Da Gongzi."
"Prince Wu?"
"It's our classmate, the former prefect and current Minister of Rites in the imperial court, Wu Wencai. I don't know why he hasn't reported to the academy yet."
Chen Jianchen hummed in response, asking: "His calligraphy is very good?"
Wang Fu looked around and said in a low voice: "He wrote all in cursive script, it is said that after writing, basically no one can recognize."
When he heard this, Chen Jianchen couldn't help but laugh: although Wang Fu's words were very subtle, the meaning was extremely clear. After thinking about it for a moment, he understood the key to it: it turned out that those buyers who competed to buy Wu Wenchang's son's characters at high prices actually had ulterior motives and cared about personal relationships.
A word, a stroke of money, an act of kindness.
The winding roads inside are very clear.
Wang Fu said: "It is said that Wu Gongzi can be a tribute scholar and go to the capital to study at Guozijian, but he stayed in Jiangzhou, presumably for the sake of Nie's daughter."
Chen Jianchen smiled and said: "Brother Fu Tai, you seem to understand very clearly."
Wang Fu said with some embarrassment: "Don't listen to rumors."
