Chapter 434: 433【Alas】

Rumble!

Thunder and lightning flashed outside the window, and in a short while, heavy rain poured down.

Cui Huifu hurriedly went to close the window of the study room. When she came back, she saw Zhou Hexuan's brush calligraphy just finished, and praised with a smile: "Mr. Zhou's progress is really fast, and he is very good at regular script and running script. Especially running script, he is quite famous. Demeanor."

"Miss Cui was joking. With my writing brush, I can only say that it is barely readable, and it is far from famous." Zhou Hexuan smiled self-deprecatingly, threw his pen and walked to the window, watching the storm outside and standing with his hands behind his hands.

Zhou Hexuan has practiced hard in regular script, running script, cursive script, and official script, among which regular script took the most time. But the most touching thing is running script. Zhou Hexuan is very handy in practicing it. At first, he imitated Yan Zhenqing, then Wang Xizhi, and now he has achieved a little success.

Cui Huifu said that Zhou Hexuan's running script is quite famous, not all flattery. Because after Zhou Hexuan mastered the basic calligraphy skills, he did not stick to the form when he wrote the brush characters.

Judging from the details of calligraphy, perhaps Zhou Hexuan is not as good as those who have practiced calligraphy since childhood, and it is inevitable that there are some technical flaws, but overall it has a unique charm.

Of course, this is only limited to running script, Zhou Hexuan's other calligraphy is still very bad - equivalent to the average level of the old imperial examination candidates.

Cui Huifu came to Zhou Hexuan's side and said with a smile, "Mr. Zhou likes to watch the rain?"

Zhou Hexuan sighed: "It's not raining here, it's a knife after another, stabbing thousands of ordinary people to death!"

Cui Huifu said with sincere admiration: "It turns out that Mr. Zhou cares about all the people in the world."

From the beginning of July, heavy rains began to fall in the south. Flooding occurred frequently in the Jianghuai area, and the whole area from Sichuan to Jiangsu became a flooded country. The Yangtze River, Jinsha River, Tuojiang River, Minjiang River, Fujiang River, Wujiang River, Hanjiang River, Huaihe River, Qiantang River, Minjiang River, Pearl River, and the Grand Canal all flooded, and tens of millions of people were displaced.

The flood in the south is not over yet, and it has begun again in the north.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were flooded, and the Northeast was not spared. The Liaohe River, Yalu River, Songhua River, and Nen River were flooded one after another, and more than 20 provinces were affected.

In the words of the reporter of "Shenbao", it is really "the water of the Yangtze River has not receded, the water of the Yellow River has increased, the disaster of Hankou has not been relieved, and the disaster of Luoyang has risen again."

The destructive power of such a huge national disaster far exceeds that of last year's Central Plains War. Because when the flood came, it happened to be in the summer harvest season, which would inevitably cause tens of millions of people to be displaced and live without rice, and the taxes of local governments could not be collected.

According to some statistics, the direct death toll of this flood was 140,000, while others said it was 400,000, and still others said it was 4 million!

Zhou Hexuan saw a photo from the "Declaration", which was taken by American pilot Lin Bai, and a certain county in Jiangsu has become a vast ocean. In a watery country, only sporadic tree crowns and roofs can be seen, and everything else is submerged underwater.

The people have no food, the government has no money, famine is everywhere, and diseases and epidemics are everywhere. How can they have the confidence to fight the Japanese?

The torrential rain in Tianjin lasted for two full days. The entire sky was shrouded in dark clouds, like a punishment from the gods and Buddhas. Zhou Hexuan really understood what it meant to be as dark as the wind and rain.

After the rain stopped, the sun shone, and it seemed that it had returned to the world.

Standing on the balcony on the second floor, Zhou Hexuan looked at both sides of the submerged Haihe River and said, "Tianjin is also submerged."

Cui Huifu said respectfully: "Thanks to Mr. Zhou, fortunately, you persuaded foreigners to dredge the river and build the Haihe River water conservancy reconstruction project. Otherwise, given the poor condition of the Haihe River over the years, this heavy rain may submerge half of Tianjin."

After hearing this, a smile suddenly appeared on Zhou Hexuan's face.

Yes, although he cannot change the general trend of the world, he can change the people and things around him. At least the flood situation in Tianjin has been alleviated a lot because of him.

Due to the continuous rainstorm, four women Zhang Leyi, Wan Rong, Meng Xiaodong and Liao Yaquan are playing mahjong at this moment. Seeing that the weather was clear, they went to the garden one after another to enjoy the rare clear blue sky.

Zhou Hexuan was bored and went downstairs, instead of disturbing his wives, he called Sun Yongzhen and said, "Come out with me, I'm going to be moldy!"

"Uh, let's drive!" Sun Yongzhen excitedly said, he was already suffocated.

Zhou Hexuan scolded with a smile: "Damn the car, maybe the streets are flooded."

Some streets in Tianjin were indeed flooded, but the water was not deep, and there were even many rickshaw drivers wading through the water.

For the poor people, the disasters brought by the floods are not limited to floods, but also delay their working hours. If the torrential rain falls for a few more days, the rickshaw drivers in Tianjin will be hungry, because even if they don't work to pull the carts, they still have to pay the fees to the dealers on time and according to the amount.

Rich people like Zhou Hexuan are much more comfortable, and can even travel with bodyguards. They sat in rickshaws and walked among the stagnant water, which made shopping more interesting than usual.

The Chinese are still very tenacious. Even in the face of natural disasters, they still live optimistically and tenaciously.

Some hawkers have started to set up stalls in the water, and even some idlers and children regard the flooded street as a fishing ground, shouting and laughing to catch fish on the street.

Gradually, we reached the streets with higher ground, and finally no traces of floods were seen. After the heavy rain, the streets became cleaner, except that some alluvial debris could be seen occasionally.

Zhou Hexuan took Sun Yongzhen out of the car and walked, walked slowly for two streets, and unknowingly came to Quanyechang in the French Concession.

This is the second tallest building in Tianjin, a large business district integrating commerce and entertainment, and one of the top ten shopping malls in the country at this time.

Perhaps because the rainstorm had just stopped, the business in Quanyechang was a bit deserted, and few customers could be seen.

Zhou Hexuan wandered all the way and came to the counter of an antique shop. The shop owner said enthusiastically, "Sir, what kind of antique do you like?"

"Just take a look," Zhou Hexuan said, "Do you have any good calligraphy and painting works here?"

"I really met you," the shop owner invited Zhou Hexuan to the innermost corner mysteriously, took out a scroll and said, "I just found a rare item, Wang Xizhi's original "Han Qie Tie"!"

Zhou Hexuan laughed and said, "You take me for a fool? Return Wang Xizhi's original work."

The shop owner patted his chest and said, "Really, I will never lie to you. If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself."

Zhou Hexuan didn't reach out to pick it up, but asked the shop owner to open the scroll by himself. Although his own calligraphy is still lacking, but his appreciation ability has already been cultivated. The moment he saw "Han Qie Tie", his eyes lit up, and he pretended to be calm and said: "This should be a copy of Ming and Qing Dynasties."

When the shop owner heard this, he smiled and said, "Yo, so you are an expert."

"No, no," Zhou Hexuan shook his head again, "There is a seal left by the Tang Dynasty on it, either it is a copy of the Tang Dynasty, or it is a modern imitation."

The shop owner spared no effort to sell it: "Of course it is a treasure from the Tang Dynasty, how could it be a modern forgery?"

Zhou Hexuan belittled and said: "If it is really a treasure of the Tang Dynasty, it is qualified to be put in the Palace Museum, and it will be sold in your shabby shop? I think this imitation is of a high enough standard. It is okay to take it back for fun. You can give me a price." Bar."

"Look at what you said, can I still sell fakes in such a big antique shop?" The shop owner put away the scroll and said, "If you buy it sincerely, don't talk so much nonsense."

Zhou Hexuan laughed and said: "If it were replaced by 'Da Luotian', I would still believe it. You are here in Quanyechang, and it would be difficult for you to be genuine."

During the period of the Republic of China, the antique trade was very crazy. There were antique trading venues in all major cities, especially Beiping, Tianjin and Shanghai. The original antique shops in Tianjin were concentrated in Guyi Street, Guodian Street, Beimenli, and Dongma Road. As warlords and politicians, upstarts of the Republic of China, and literati came one after another, the antique market in Tianjin became more and more prosperous. The most famous one was the "Da Luotian" in the Japanese Concession.

There are not only treasures in "Da Luotian", but also fine products brought out of the imperial palace. The old and young of the former Qing Dynasty lived by selling cultural relics.

As for the Quanyechang in the French Concession, hehe, most of them are fakes made by foreigners.

Everyone knows that foreigners like Chinese cultural relics, and most of them have poor appreciation ability.

For example, there is a man named Yue Bin in Beiping who bought seven Northern Wei stone Buddha heads from Shanxi at the end of the Qing Dynasty. They have been sold for 20 years and still have not sold out. It's not that the business is bad, there are many foreigners who buy Buddha heads, Yue Bin asked craftsmen to reproduce and imitate them, and he has already made a fortune by relying on this stuff.

Haha, most of these Buddha heads were sold to Western archaeologists, and foreigners bought them back for serious research and wrote many papers with international influence.

Zhou Hexuan glanced at the profiteer in front of him, and said impatiently: "Whether I can sell it for a certain price or not, I just ask if it is a good imitation."

"Hey, look at what you said," the shop owner said reluctantly, "1000 oceans, and my purchase price is 800 yuan!"

"100 yuan, whether you like it or not!" Zhou Hexuan said angrily.

The shop owner said sadly: "800 yuan, I'll sell it to you at the original price... wait, don't leave, the real price is 500 yuan... 300 yuan, no less!"

Zhou Hexuan took out three banknotes, carefully put away the scrolls, and happily left Quanyechang.

Sun Yongzhen asked puzzledly: "Sir, you know it's fake, why do you still buy it?"

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "If you look at Wang Xizhi's authentic works, they are of course fakes. But the fakes from the Tang Dynasty are still the best among the high-quality goods. Believe it or not, if I take it out and shout it, someone will snatch it for 10,000 oceans." Want to."

Sun Yongzhen slapped his head violently: "It turns out that the boss is an idiot!"

A copy of Wang Xizhi's "Han Qie Tie" in the Tang Dynasty is a treasure in any museum.

Zhou Hexuan went home humming a ditty, carefully kept "Han Qie Tie" away, and went out to find Yuan Kewen the next day, planning to talk about fundraising for disaster relief.

As a result, as soon as he reached Yuan's house, he heard a crying voice from inside—Second Master Yuan, he is dead!

And he was so poor that his family rummaged through boxes and cabinets and only found 20 yuan in his pen holder...

On the day of Yuan Kewen's funeral, all the prostitutes (harmony) in the city mobilized together. There were thousands of people in the funeral procession, and more than a thousand prostitutes (harmony) voluntarily tied white ropes and came to cry at the grave.

Woah!