Chapter 696: 696 Relax
The old lady with bound feet nodded excitedly, "Okay, okay, I’ll sell them all to you."
"Alright, ma’am, there are eight pieces in total. I’ll give you 130 bucks. I’ll also give you an extra dollar for this box."
"Okay, okay."
Su Yuanyuan counted out the money and handed it to the old lady. "Ma’am, please count it. We have a rule that once we leave, we’re no longer responsible, so please count it face to face, everyone is here as a witness."
"I’ve counted it clearly. Young woman, don’t worry, none of us are unscrupulous people.
Also, I have many paintings and books at home, I’ll go get them now."
"Alright, take your time, ma’am, no need to rush. If it’s too much trouble, we can go and get them."
"No need, no need, I’ll go get them."
The third person who came over was carrying two vases, and from what Su Yuanyuan knew about Zeng Hongling, the girl’s eyes were practically glowing green.
"Comrade, do you want these vases? They look good to me, but I don’t dare display them at home with so many kids around. I’d feel awful if they got broken."
This was a middle-aged woman who wanted to place the vases on the table, but Zeng Hongling quickly took them over.
"Yuanyuan, offer her a hundred for the vases. Ask her if she wants to sell them."
Su Yuanyuan really didn’t know what to do with her. "Big sister, we’ll take the vases. How much would you like to sell them for?"
"Comrade, I don’t know. How much are you willing to offer?"
"How about a hundred bucks? That’s the highest price we can offer."
"Okay, okay, a hundred it is."
Su Yuanyuan watched as Zeng Hongling carefully placed them into the box, wrapping them tightly.
She counted out a hundred dollars. "Big sister, you heard the rules earlier; please count it clearly here because once you leave, we’re not responsible."
"Okay." The middle-aged woman was also a bit excited. She counted it twice, "Yes, there’s no difference.
Comrade, we also have an ancestral soy sauce jar that was passed down with the vases. I’ll bring it over for you to have a look."
The next person was a middle-aged man who placed two strings of copper coins on the table.
"Friend, we’re offering five cents per copper coin. Can you accept this price?"
Each string of copper coins consisted of a hundred, so two hundred would be ten dollars.
"Comrade, do you accept silver coins?"
"Yes, at face value plus ten percent, meaning we’ll give you one dollar and ten cents for each dollar."
"Alright then, I’ll sell them to you. I have twenty dollars in silver coins here, ten dollars in five-dollar pieces and ten in one-dollar pieces."
Su Yuanyuan didn’t waste any words and started counting the money while Zeng Hongling checked.
"Friend, count it. It’s seventy-six dollars in total."
Subsequent items included quite a bit of copper coins and silver coins, and once Zeng Hongling finished counting, she tossed them aside into the basket.
About ten people had come by when the person who mentioned bringing the soy sauce jar returned.
Zeng Hongling picked it up and examined it carefully.
"Yuanyuan, we can offer twenty for this jar, although it’s a centuries-old item, it’s just coarse porcelain."
They couldn’t understand what Zeng Hongling was saying, so Su Yuanyuan repeated, "Big sister, if you’re willing, I’ll give you twenty bucks; if not, that’s fine too."
"Sold to you." The woman knew in her heart that a new jar of this coarse type would only cost a little more than a dollar, and selling it for twenty meant she could buy twenty new ones.
It was almost noon. There weren’t many people around because everyone had to get back to work. You can’t always keep taking leave, right? Besides, it’s noon, and meals have to be cooked and eaten.
The two of them teamed up with Widow Li for lunch, just paying her for the convenience.
During the break, Zeng Hongling laughed out loud.
"Never thought a small village would have such good stuff. We haven’t come in vain this time."
"As long as you’re happy."
As they were talking, they heard voices from outside.
Before long, Widow Li called them from outside, "Comrades, my Third Aunt is here. Come out and take a look."
The two of them went out to the courtyard and saw the elderly woman from the morning with some bruising on her face and looking very haggard.
"Young woman, I’ve brought the paintings and calligraphy over. Can you see if they can be exchanged for money?"
The old lady’s voice was not as confident as it had been in the morning.
"Ma’am, let’s move inside to take a look."
Widow Li helped by lifting the items directly into the house.
Zeng Hongling started checking, as they were all packed in woven bags, so when she took them out, she was extremely cautious.
She first pulled out a scroll. The preservation was not particularly good, but there was no major damage.
Widow Li brought a stool over for the old lady, "Third Aunt, have a seat."
"Oh, Lan Hua, you sit too."
"Third Aunt, are you upset again?"
"Isn’t that right? Married two calamities, bad luck for the family, bad luck!"
Su Yuanyuan just stood by watching Zeng Hongling check.
Those were personal family matters; it was better to not get involved.
"Yuanyuan, these ten paintings can go for a hundred bucks. If they were better preserved, we could offer two hundred."
"Check the books again, will you?"
Su Yuanyuan saw that the two women were still chatting and didn’t go over to interrupt.
"Third Aunt, don’t get upset. Nothing is more important than your health."
"How could I not know? The hundred-odd dollars from this morning was snatched away by those two heartless wretches. They’ve always had an eye on these things of mine; now that it’s turned into money, they wouldn’t miss it."
"Third Aunt, actually you’re doing the right thing by coming over now. This way others won’t know how much you’ve sold these items for. You can still keep some for yourself."
"Yes, that’s what I thought too. It’s truly unsettling. What will I do in the future when I can’t move anymore?"
They whispered to each other on the side about the old lady’s bitter life.
At this moment, Zeng Hongling had already done a simple check on all twenty-six books. These weren’t particularly well-preserved either, but they were old and all by famous authors.
"Yuanyuan, these books can’t be priced. I think they’re priceless.
How did this little village end up with these items?
Her jewelry is also very exquisite."
"Maybe she was from a wealthy family in the past."
Widow Li saw that the two girls had paused and were whispering. She stood up, "You chat. I’ll go out and get some cold water to drink."
Su Yuanyuan really didn’t expect this woman to be so emotionally intelligent and understanding.
Now there were only three people left in the room.
"Ma’am, I can offer you ten bucks per painting."
"Okay, there are ten paintings in total. What about the books? Do you want them? If not, I might as well give them to you. Otherwise, they’re wasted with me, and they’ve already ruined quite a few."
Zeng Hongling felt a pang of heartache hearing this.
"Ma’am, we don’t know how to price the books. We want them, but we don’t know how much would be fair to give you." Su Yuanyuan wouldn’t stoop to lying.