Chapter 3 Chapter Three

Not long after, the grandfather was eager to miss her daughter, and rushed to Dabagou from Beijing on purpose. After several rounds of instigation, he finally persuaded his mother to return to Beijing, and his father followed him, and became a temporary worker in the institute where my grandfather worked.However, facing boring copying all day long, my father's ambition is not rewarded, and he sighs when he will be able to break the wolf curse.Just when he was disheartened, a piece of news revealed by his grandfather changed everything. Perhaps it was planned in the dark. That year, the institute organized a "Minority Culture Research Office", which was just what my father was good at. He begged his grandfather for help to recommend it.Because of his special understanding of the northern nomads and the scarcity of talents, after several assessments, he was finally accepted as a staff member by exception.

With the right job, my father was driven and successful.Later, due to the integration of departments, he transferred to the Archaeological Institute of the Institute of Ancient Culture, and since then began field archaeological research work. Although my father has become famous, my mother still took me back to Dabagou. The reason is very simple and heartbreaking-my father is almost thirty-five years old, and that will be the end of the "Wolf Curse".She has been waiting, looking forward to, hoping that one day Liu Ye will return to the village with the good news of breaking the curse.It's a pity that the sky didn't go as planned, there was no news from Liu Ye suddenly, as if the world had disappeared, and there is no news of him until now, but the tragedy that should have happened still happened...

I was only thirteen years old that year, and it was the Mid-Autumn Festival. My mother began to fidget from early in the morning. In the afternoon, she carried a basket of fruit and said she was going up the mountain to worship Buddha, praying for my father's safety outside.Perhaps influenced by my mother, I also had an ominous premonition, which became stronger and stronger. In the evening, the wooden door of the outer courtyard slammed, and then a ragged figure rushed into the house. His walking movements were quite strange, as if he was bending over and jumping.Before I could see clearly, the man had already rushed to the top of the kang, tremblingly pulled out the small wooden box hidden in the closet, dumped the books and notebooks inside on the kang, and while he was burying his head in copying, he shouted hurriedly: "Tianhua , quick! Turn on the light..."

"Father, you are back!" I pulled the power switch and stood behind him helplessly. At this time, my father was trembling all over, and he couldn't straighten his feet. He was lying on the kang like a wolf, making a weird "uh uh" sound, but his hands were still turning the pages of the book.I immediately understood that my father had suffered from the "Wolf Curse".Thinking of the past at this moment, he always took out the medicine from his pocket and swallowed it, and then asked my mother to tie him up.So I leaned over, cried and said, "Hurry up and take your medicine!"

"Uh...no...it's useless." The father reluctantly responded, and continued to copy, and the frequency became faster and faster, until he almost lost control, causing paper leaves to fly all over the room.Suddenly, he stopped, and after yelling "uh uh" a few times, he forced himself to turn around, and I saw that he was holding a book tightly in his twisted hands, his eyes were full of pain and joy.Just when I was stunned, my father crawled over staggeringly, held the book in front of me, raised his head, and struggled to squeeze out a vague sentence-"Bei Shanyu of the Xiongnu...the golden coffin...here, in Wu Rilla... undo... undo the curse..."

Before he finished speaking, his father's face began to contort, his eyes became blurred, and then he frantically bit the book in his hand... I knew he was delirious and was crying when my mother suddenly came into the room and saw At the scene in front of her, she suddenly understood that her father's time had come and there was no way to save her, so she hugged me without saying a word, and the two of them buried their heads in tears. After an unknown amount of time, the father who fell on the ground and twitched suddenly got up and howled sharply out the window. Just like that, he stopped breathing during the yelling, and he kept squatting like a wolf until his death...

After my father died, my grandfather took our orphans and widowed mother to Beijing. With his arrangement, my mother remarried soon.My stepfather is a small cadre, wearing glasses, and looks gentle, but for some reason, every time we meet, I always have the urge to slap him in the face, especially when he speaks in a sissy tone, I really want to put it He pulled his tongue out.In short, he has never given him a good face. But my mother saw everything in her eyes, and she was at a loss, so she had to help me rent a house outside. When the four-eyed stepfather heard about it, he went to my grandfather to sue, and since he learned that my father died of poison After cursing, my grandfather hated the Geng family. He always felt that his daughter was deceived by his father, so he vented all his grievances on me. In a fit of rage, he shouted to sever the relationship and let me fend for myself... ...Later, they really did what they said, and never communicated with each other again.

At that time, my four-eyed father lived on Xuanwumen Street, and my mother secretly rented a bungalow for me in Liulichang not far away. After that, she asked people to find connections, and finally arranged for me to study in the nearby Gongnong Middle School. I also sent me some living expenses every month.From then on, I started to venture into the "jianghu" alone. In the academic circles in Beijing at that time, Gongnong Middle School was scorned by others, and the poor style of study was well known.In fact, it is no wonder that the school is located in the hinterland of the "Eight Hutongs" in the south of Beijing, and most of the students come from poor peasant families nearby. It is almost a consensus that reading is useless.As a result, fighting and jumping over the wall to play truant became a scene in the school.But for me who was a bit rebellious, I got used to this kind of environment very well, and it can even be described as like a fish in water.

... Sunrise and sunset, in the blink of an eye, three years of junior high school have passed like this. I don't think I have learned much, but the level of cheating and fighting has improved a lot, and I am quite "famous" in the vicinity of the school.That year, the Liulichang where I worked suddenly became lively. First, some time-honored shops specializing in the four treasures of the study and antique calligraphy and paintings resumed their old businesses, attracting players from all walks of life to find customers. Later, even the Nanliu Lane at the entrance of the alley where I rented was transformed into a whole row of antique shops.

In this situation, it is difficult for people who rent houses nearby to watch the rent double.My landlord is an old man surnamed Joe, but he has never mentioned the rent increase. At first I thought that the old man knew my details and didn't want to get into trouble with a gangster for a few money.It was only later that I realized that he had already made up his mind. Old man Qiao also runs an antique shop. There is only one daughter in the family. Every time he goes out to receive the goods, the business in the shop is taken care of by her daughter alone. And this kind of place is mixed with dragons and snakes. He is somewhat worried and has been looking for a "Don't cause trouble if you have nothing to do, and don't be afraid of trouble if you have something to do" to support the scene.I was the first person who caught his "eyes of justice". After three years of dealing with him, he saw that I was not a bad hearted person, but I also had a bit of a temper, and I was clever and aggressive.So as soon as I graduated, he invited me to his "Zhengtianzhai", calling me a distant relative of the partnership, but in fact, I was doing odd jobs and security guards.

"Zhengtianzhai" is an inconspicuous antique shop in Xiliulichang. The dilapidated facade is comparable to the antiques in the container, but old man Qiao is proud of it, boasting that it is a century-old shop with authentic taste, Show off to me whenever you have free time——"In Liulichang, those who can carry the word 'Heaven' in their names must have a lot of background, either they have ties to the imperial court, or the boss is a leader in the industry..." Outstanding?But I just couldn't see what was so special about this old man, but his daughter surprised me.This girl named Qiao Niyue is only two or three years older than me, but she knows all kinds of ancient and modern objects, and she knows all kinds of antique artifacts, whether it is clay, gold, copper, or jade calligraphy and painting, she can tell the authentic from the fake at a glance. The origin, coupled with the smooth tongue, and the ease of doing business, really made me admire. That is Miss Qiao, who aroused my interest in this line of work, and even changed my destiny. That afternoon, an old country man brought some porcelain bowls, saying that they were distributed from the landlord's house at the beginning of liberation, to see if he could exchange some money.Ms. Qiao glanced at it casually, and said with disdain: "This kind of crap is all over the street, and I have several stacks in my warehouse! Don't want it." After finishing speaking, she continued to cut her nails.When the old man heard it, his entire face immediately looked like a wilted eggplant, and he was lowering his head to tidy up. Miss Qiao spoke again, her tone was quite sincere—— "It's not easy for you to travel all the way, and these porcelain things don't take much trouble. Forget it! I'll buy them for ten yuan each." As soon as the old man left, Ms. Qiao immediately ordered the door to be closed, and then a few buyers were attracted. A group of people gathered around the porcelain bowl, from the pattern of the carcass to the bottom of the foot, while identifying and whispering, their expressions were like staring at each other. A wolf with a piece of meat.Then it was Ms. Qiao's turn to make an offer, so these broken bowls, which were not even as good as beggar's bowls, immediately became in her mouth the masterpieces of a certain emperor's royal use and official kiln autocracy, and the buyers nodded repeatedly. , and finally got a blush.Just when I was dumbfounded, Ms. Qiao's money was already in her pocket, and she became a ten thousand yuan household just by entering and exiting. This money is enough for old man Qiao to pay me ten years' salary... It turns out that making antiques is so expensive!I couldn't help being a little moved, but I also understood that without Miss Qiao's skills, it would be impossible to rely on blindness.In the next few days, I was a little out of my mind, thinking about how to ask her for advice.How smart Ms. Qiao is, she quickly understood my psychology. She smiled and said: "Every antique has its own history, because things don't come out of thin air. Therefore, appreciating ancient relics is appreciating history. You must First understand history, read history, especially those wild anecdotes. Of course, if you want to do business in the countryside like my father, you must also be familiar with all kinds of strange arts..." It is really a word that awakens the dreamer, thinking that my Geng family has traveled around to break the "Wolf Curse" for generations, and my father is an archaeological expert. They must have left a lot of notes.right!Isn’t there a small wooden box in the old house in Dabagou? My father always regarded it as a treasure during his lifetime. Those materials may be stored in it. Why don’t I go back and have a look, maybe it can come in handy. I am an impatient person, and when I think of the box in my hometown, I feel itchy. It's just that the old man Qiao has not come back to collect the goods, so he is embarrassed to get away for a while.Ms. Qiao was reasonable. When she heard about the situation, she gave me two hundred yuan without saying a word, and told me that she must come back in a week. After taking the money, I ran home to pack a few clothes, and I didn't bother to say hello to my mother, so I went straight to the department store. Thinking that there were many cousins ​​in the village, I bought more than ten catties of candy and a whole bag of nylon bag, which made the salesperson auntie stare at me, thinking that it was some kind of idiot from the mountains. After rushing to the train station, I realized that the train has a fixed departure time, not just sit and go as I imagined, and it is far less convenient than my grandfather's special car.At a loss, the conductor, who was lying on the ground laughing, climbed up, covered his stomach, and tapped the train timetable on the glass with a pen. It was also a coincidence that there happened to be a bus to Baotou in the afternoon, but I needed to check certificates, letters of introduction and other things to buy tickets, and I didn’t have anything on hand, so I had to stuff a handful of candies with a smirk.Maybe it was my "sugar-coated bullet" that hit me, or maybe it was because I didn't look like a bad guy. The conductor tore the ticket to me without thinking too much. She was still covering her mouth and smiling when I turned to leave.