Riding the wind of rebirth

However, the body of this small jar is also rounded and full, especially the lotus leaf-shaped lid, with naturally curled edges, as if it had just been taken out of the water. The glaze is emerald green and dripping, showing the ultimate beauty of Longquan kiln's "thousand peaks of emerald green".

The artifacts unearthed in Hejia Village were not buried in a dedicated tomb. The porcelain pieces were wrapped in bamboo and straw and buried directly underground. Therefore, the archaeological community generally speculates that the porcelain pieces were hastily buried by local wealthy merchants or porcelain dealers to avoid the ravages of war and protect their property when the war approached Suining at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty.

Most of the porcelain pieces show no signs of use, are well-shaped, and have intact glazes. Some even retain their original state from when they left the factory, suggesting they were likely high-end items for sale. This indirectly confirms the prosperity of Suining as a major commercial town in central Sichuan during the Southern Song Dynasty.

The porcelain piece in front of us shows signs of use and handling upon closer inspection, clearly indicating that it was used as an everyday item for a period of time after it was unearthed.

"Fortunately, it quickly fell into the hands of an expert." Master Ma looked on with lingering fear: "If it had been used for a longer period of time, it might have broken. How much did you pay to acquire it back then?"

"Fortunately, it quickly fell into the hands of an expert." Master Ma looked on with lingering fear: "If it had been used for a longer period of time, it might have broken. How much did you pay to acquire it back then?"

"Six or seven years ago," Zhou Zhi said, "this plum-green lotus leaf covered jar, that Yuan blue and white dragon-patterned lotus leaf covered jar, a Kangxi Lang red small garlic-shaped flower jar, and that Bada Shanren's 'Lotus, Stork and Light Fish' painting, cost a total of six thousand yuan."

"Six thousand? That's a steal! How did you have so much money back then?"

“I helped my sixth cousin steal her household registration book to register her marriage, and I also hosted her wedding. Afterwards, my sixth cousin gave me a big red envelope of 5,000 yuan. Combined with the income from my part-time job during the holidays, it was just right,” Zhou Zhi said. “I suspect that my fourth cousin was worried that I had too much spare change and would cause trouble for the family, so he came up with this idea, but I have no evidence.”

"Sixth Sister?" Master Ma was confused. "Your eldest aunt and Sister Xiao Juan are quite wealthy."

“My eldest aunt and Sister Xiaojuan were so poor back then.” Zhou Zhi shook his head: “Sixth Sister was the first to get rich. She’s now the supervising director of Laojiao Distillery. Her husband is even more impressive. The Moutai liquor he usually gives her is all obtained by Sixth Sister.”

"Oh, it's her. I vaguely remember her." When it came to Maotai, Master Ma's memory returned: "You've mentioned this before."

"Seven years, how many lucky breaks have you picked up..." Yan Zhenwei exclaimed in amazement.

"Zhouzi has had family training since childhood, and he also has benefactors who value and support him as he grows up." Speaking of this, Master Ma also said with envy: "He has never taken a wrong turn, and all his skills are passed down through his meridians."

"Go back to the Ghost Market and see how many guys who have been in the sex industry for ten or twenty years have never even touched a piece of Qing Dynasty imperial porcelain, and can't even properly break a piece of folk kiln blue and white porcelain? They've wasted their whole lives."

"It's mainly a hobby; I personally enjoy these things," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "I never expected that these hobbies would cost so much money."

"With so many things, it must have cost quite a bit," Yan Zhenwei said with a smile.

"There are still quite a few things about the pork knuckle that haven't been exhibited yet." Master Ma also laughed: "I remember you have a large Ding kiln bowl with a gold rim from the Fengxian Hall dating back to the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, as well as Jun kiln imitations of Jun kiln porcelain made from the Jin and Yuan dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty, right?"

"No, no..." After a moment's thought, Master Ma remembered something else: "You also have a large collection of fifty-seven monochrome glazes from the official kilns of the Qing Dynasty, and oh right, regarding porcelain making, I haven't seen your twenty-scroll 'Illustrated Explanation of Pottery Making' displayed..."

“Small monochrome porcelain pieces are the real gems; many of them are in my mother’s possession,” Zhou Zhi said. “I asked Sister Wanqiu to collect the larger pieces, which don’t look good displayed in a design with an elegant theme. There are still a few paintings in ‘Illustrated Explanation of Pottery Making’ that haven’t been finished, so they can’t be displayed yet.” “What a pity. I was really looking forward to ‘Illustrated Explanation of Pottery Making’,” Master Ma said, rubbing his hands together.

“There will definitely be special exhibitions in the future, but that’s Wanqiu’s business.” Zhou Zhi laughed: “As I just said, she is in charge of everything from design to exhibition setup, so I’m just a hands-off manager.”

"Speaking of which, I'm really curious. How come Wanqiu is so obedient to you?" Master Ma said, stepping towards the elevator. "Let's go up and see what's going on."

The answer is very simple, because the moment the elevator doors opened again, a striking logo appeared at the end of the corridor – Hanhai Cultural Art Products Co., Ltd.

"What's going on?"

"This is Sister Wanqiu's strategy. In the future, in addition to auctioning ancient artworks, Hanhai will also expand its business into the precious metals, jewelry and jade processing industry. This part of the business mainly targets merchants from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Backed by the Suzhou jade craft base, we plan to open a branch here."

"Isn't it more about using her influence to make a big splash?" Master Ma understood: "The bidders who came up from downstairs and saw those things might think it was a sign of her strength."

“If someone else made such a request, I wouldn’t agree either,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “So this really is a testament to Sister Wanqiu’s abilities, right? Besides, I’m her chief appraisal consultant.”

This connection is indeed quite deep. Zhou Zhi is not only Lin Wanqiu's appraisal consultant at Hanhai Auction House, but also her major client. When searching for overseas collections, Zhou Zhi now rarely appears in person, but entrusts Lin Wanqiu to act as his agent.

Meanwhile, Zhou Zhi has a large amount of Hetian jade, Southern Red agate, and non-green jadeite resources. After processing, these resources also need to be packaged, advertised, and even hyped by Lin Wanqiu, whose stepfather's Wansheng Jewelry Store in Hong Kong Island is responsible for the production and sales. This represents a deep cooperation between the producers and sellers.

Zhou Wansheng has his own biological children, but those second-generation rich kids who grew up on Hong Kong Island are all arrogant and incompetent. If he entrusts his jewelry store to them, Zhou Wansheng is worried that he will go bankrupt after retirement.

The daughter brought by the second wife was capable and ambitious, and she was just as successful in running an art auction house, but she never showed any interest in the jewelry and silver shop industry.

As for the infighting among children in wealthy families, it doesn't exist in Lin Wanqiu's family. The reason is that in addition to her own abilities and her stepfather's support, the power of her mother and husband's family is also too strong. It might have been possible when she was a child, but now Lin Wanqiu is not even in the same league as those spoiled brats.

So Zhou Wansheng finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly seized this opportunity to gradually enter the mainland market, while handing over the management rights of the industry to Lin Wanqiu.

In addition, Lin Wanqiu's husband is Li Lao Er, who is most concerned about mobile communications. The future strategy of Yangtze Communications Group is to rely on the Tianxing Diwang project. A large number of intellectual property packages and system products of the Tianxing Diwang system belong to several national ministries and the Clover Group.

Furthermore, the information exchange of the ground system relies heavily on the Clover Group's supercomputing engine.

Taking this relationship into account, the bond between Zhou Zhi and Lin Wanqiu had long since formed an unbreakable "connection of interests." (End of Chapter)