Chapter 61 What did you do before? Zhou Yimin took a closer look and found that it was a box, 53 cm long, 32 cm wide and 23 cm high, locked with a lock. Everyone's eyes were focused on it. "Is there a treasure inside?" "It's possible. Gold is best." "What are you daydreaming about? Gold." In the eyes of many Chinese, gold is the most valuable. Its value has not changed from ancient times to the present. "Wouldn't it be easy to find out if you pry it open?" …… Others couldn't see it, but when Zhou Yimin saw the box, he knew it was not simple. So Zhou Yimin hurriedly stopped the people who wanted to pry open the box. "Don't pry. Who can open the lock? Or, just remove the lock. Don't damage the box. I think it is worth a few dollars." Zhou Yimin said.
When everyone heard this, they immediately gave up the idea of violently unpacking the boxes. A few dollars is not a small amount for rural people. "Lao Liu, where is Lao Liu?" the old branch secretary shouted. "I'm coming." A little old man squeezed in. He just took a piece of iron and wiggled it a few times, and the lock opened. Zhou Yimin was very surprised and asked, "Old man, what did you do before?" It really makes one wonder if he has any side job. The old man smiled awkwardly: "Uncle Sixteen, I used to be a locksmith, but now I have no use for my skills." Zhou Yimin: “…” Good fellow! Even at this age, he still calls him Uncle Sixteen. The profession of locksmith has always existed, and even in the 21st century, they are still active in society. Moreover, Zhou Yimin believes that locksmiths are one of the people who keep up with the trend of the times. Locks are constantly evolving. If you don’t keep up, you won’t be able to open the lock, and unemployment will be a natural outcome. The lock on the box was opened, and Zhou Yimin opened the lid in front of everyone. What caught everyone's eyes were countless seals of different sizes. "Is it made of jade? Is it valuable?" someone asked. Although the villagers didn't know much about it, they had heard of jade. The old branch secretary was more knowledgeable and said regretfully: "In the past, this kind of thing was quite valuable, but now it is not valuable." In the past, antiques and curios were only played by the rich and powerful, so of course they were valuable! But now the times are different. People can barely afford to eat, so why would they play with antiques? Besides, the country does not advocate it. The villagers were disappointed, they thought they had found a treasure! What a waste of their expression.
However, Zhou Yimin recognized the origins of these seals. He learned about this thing by accident in his previous life. It was called the "Yuan Yin Shou Die" seal set. It is said that on Emperor Qianlong's 120th birthday, Heshen, the Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace, and Jin Jian, the Minister of Works, selected verses with the characters "福" (happiness) and "寿" (longevity) from the poems written by Emperor Qianlong and engraved them into seals each. The seals with the character "寿" (longevity) are called "元音寿鉒". At that time, three sets of "Yuan Yin Shou Die" seals were made of different materials and presented to Emperor Qianlong in the name of Heshen and Jin Jian respectively. The button-style carvings include landscapes, animals, flowers, etc., and the seal surfaces can be rectangular, square, oval, etc. In other words, there were three sets of this kind of seal. But in fact, this was only the ones on the surface. With Heshen's personality, he must have made one or two sets for himself to play with in private. Even other officials might have found materials to carve a set for fun in private. In ancient times, the emperor was the trendsetter. If the emperor plays with something first, the officials below will follow suit, and then the merchants and other wealthy families will follow suit. If Zhou Yimin is not mistaken, this should be carved from Tianhuang stone. There is no need to say much about the value of Tianhuang stone. There was a saying in the past that "one ounce of Tianhuang is worth one ounce of gold". In later times, one gram of Tianhuang could even cost tens of thousands of yuan, a hundred times more expensive than gold. In particular, antique artworks carved from Tianhuang often fetch sky-high prices. "It's still worth some money. Antiques shops will buy it for three or five yuan each," said Zhou Yimin. He is not lying. For example, the Beijing Cultural Relics Store, which was established only this year, charges a few yuan for each cultural relic. The specific value depends on the value of the cultural relic itself, but it rarely exceeds ten yuan. After all, the cultural relic store only sells it for ten or eight yuan. The shops that sell cultural relics are all state-owned. They are screened by experts and those cultural relics that are deemed salable are put on sale in the shops to generate foreign exchange. Most of the customers who enter the shops are foreigners. Zhou Yimin knew that this was not the cheapest time. In a few years, cultural relics will be even less valuable. "Really?" Everyone's eyes lit up. There are quite a lot of stamps in this box! Not to mention five yuan each, even if they are three yuan each, they can still be sold for hundreds of yuan. For Zhoujiazhuang, it is a huge income. "Okay, stop thinking about it. This little thing is sold at 1 yuan each in the antique shop, which is already very good. If there are too many, it will be worthless. Don't you understand? In my opinion, you should just give it to Yimin as payment for the seeds. Yimin, do you think this will work?" the old Party secretary asked. I was just worrying about how to repay Zhou Yimin! He lied to the villagers a little. Actually, it was not a complete lie. If he took hundreds of seals to sell at a cultural relic store, it would be strange if the store didn't bargain for him. The captain agreed: "I think it's okay." In their view, food is the most important thing, not the box of stamps. The other villagers thought about it and felt that what the secretary said made sense, so no one objected. Besides, what’s wrong with letting Yimin earn some money? Recently, Yimin has done a lot for Zhoujiazhuang. The riverbed that is being reclaimed was his idea, and the school was reopened at his suggestion.
Not to mention the previous change to sweet potatoes. Without him, everyone in the village would have starved to death. In short, they had no objection to giving the box to Zhou Yimin, and they were willing to do so. Zhou Yimin thought about it and said, "How about this! I'll take care of it. I plan to use the extra money to buy some food and put it in the school cafeteria. This way, the village cafeteria won't have to distribute food to the school." He planned to charge them at 3 yuan each, deduct the money for seeds, and use the rest to buy food. This will benefit all the children in the village. After hearing this, everyone applauded. They admired him in their hearts, thinking that he was worthy of being Yimin. If they gave him a chance, he would not take advantage of the villagers. (End of this chapter)
