Chapter 54: Ghost Market
The car was driving on a road under construction. The van in front of us gradually stopped. At the end of the road in the distance, two rows of dimly lit tents could be seen. A number of cars were parked on a gravel beach nearby. An old man in a blue work suit was holding a flashlight and constantly gesticulating and shouting in an incomprehensible dialect.
"Hey, you guys are here quite early?" Zhang Dadao muttered.
Zheng Wen also smiled. "It's not easy for everyone. This business is not easy to do now . The big money is made by auction houses and black market operators. Those guys who write antique books are still trying to deceive people. Everyone wants to get a bargain. There are more and more dealers, and the competition is great~"
Zhang Dadao nodded and said, "This is normal. Controlling the market terminal always makes more money than the middle links. However, you middlemen are also the main reason for raising the final market price!"
Zheng Wen was so angry that he laughed: "Oh, aren't you studying medicine? Where did you learn these messed up things?"
Zhang Dadao smiled and nodded, "Ali 88's advertisement? I don't know which newspaper I saw it in, but it smells like a soft advertisement!"
After the van in front of him parked, Brother Long called everyone together and talked to a middle-aged man in the parking lot. After a while, he came over with a piece of paper and said, "I'm going to talk to some dealers I just met. Big Head, take your stuff to stall No. 13 and quote the price we agreed on."
After Wu Datou and the others agreed, Brother Long turned around and left. Wu Datou and Liuzi picked up the boxes and went to the tent, while Zhang Dadao and Zheng Wen waited there. After several trips, when most of the things were moved, Zhang Dadao said to Zheng Wen, "Come on, let's get the tank down first!"
The two of them went back to the back of the truck and took the tank down. Zhang Dadao looked around and saw a young man who was maintaining order in the parking lot walking past. He waved at him and said, "Hey! I'm calling you! Come over and help!"
Zheng Wen was also stunned? He looked at Zhang Dadao in a daze, thinking that Zhang Dadao knew the young man. The young man was also stunned for a moment, and came over with some confusion. When he arrived in front of Zhang Dadao, he also smiled when he saw the jar. He came closer to take a closer look, shook his head and said, "Brother? What are you doing? Isn't this funny? The pickled vegetable smell is still there! You don't think you can cheat money with that pickled vegetable jar, do you?"
It seems that the young man has heard and seen a lot, and he also has some knowledge of this antique. Not only did he not come up to help, but he laughed at Zhang Dadao. Zhang Dadao was not angry, but said happily: "I told you that this is for sale? I told you? You don't know anything, hurry up and help. If you are late and something goes wrong, your boss will not let you go!"
The young man was stunned, and looked at Zhang Dadao carefully again with some doubt. He whispered to himself in confusion: "Taoist priest? This is really weird! The boss invited someone here without telling me. It must be that bastard Zhuzi who wanted to see me in a mess."
Although the young man was mumbling, he still came up to help move the jars! Zhang Dadao was holding a bunch of things and watched Zheng Wen and the young man carry the jars to the front of the tents. Zhang Dadao and his friends came early. There were not many people in the tents at this time. Each tent was separated by some distance, and low-wattage bulbs were used. Under the dim light, a figure was faint, like a ghost. This ghost market seems to have originated from this.
"Alright, alright! Put it down here, just put it down!" At the entrance of the market, Zhang Dadao instructed the two to put the jar in the middle of the road.
The young man touched his chin in confusion and asked, "What are you going to do with it?"
Zhang Dadao happily took out the piece of rice paper he had written on and pasted it on the jar. He said to the young man, "Put a lamp here! Don't worry about anything else. If someone asks you, just say that this is the rule!" Zhang Dadao said, and took out a 100-yuan bill and threw it into the jar.
The young man was completely dumbfounded. He scratched his head and said, "Isn't this an entrance fee? Can you do it this way?"
Zhang Dadao walked happily into the market, and Zheng Wen also took out a piece of money and put it into the jar, and followed Zhang Dadao in a few steps. When he got to Zhang Dadao, he whispered, "There won't be too many people coming to the ghost market, I'm afraid I won't get much money. And aren't you afraid that the money will be taken away?"
Zhang Dadao said happily: "What are you afraid of? You know that the people here are all in the same trade. They don't even know the rules of antiques. I, the Heavenly Master, will go to their ancestral graves!"
Zheng Wen sighed helplessly and pulled Zhang Dadao to their own stall. Brother Long's group had a lot of stuff, and the stall was also very large, basically divided into three small stalls. Wu Datou had the most stuff on his stall, and all the real stuff was on his stall.
The other
Each of Brother Long's men is in charge of a stall, but there is no one to take care of Zhang Dadao. Everyone knows that this old man has abnormal brain circuits, so they just let him do whatever he wants.
Gradually, many people came to set up stalls. Zhang Dadao had never thought that such a remote place could attract so many people to set up stalls. Seeing that no one came to visit the ghost market, Zhang Dadao did not stay at the stall and started to wander around the ghost market.
The scale of this ghost market is usually not too large, but this ghost market is unusual. Although the intervals are still quite large, the overall distance is very long. Ghost markets of this scale are not seen everywhere. Of course, this is Zhang Dadao's first time in a ghost market, and he didn't think it was strange. He walked quietly along the side, and from time to time he took a look at the things on the stalls that had been set up.
"Sure enough, it's very difficult to find antiques in the middle of the night. They all look real from this perspective!" Zhang Dadao sighed. When he looked at them this way, he felt that the things on the stalls looked both real and fake.
Zhang Dadao was puzzled, and the vendors felt even more strange. It was really strange to see a man dressed as a Taoist priest in the ghost market. If Zhang Dadao hadn't been wearing hiking shoes, the vendors would have thought he was a ghost.
After wandering all the way to the entrance of the ghost market, Zhang Dadao saw that many people had gathered around the jar where he placed the coins. After watching from a distance for a while, Zhang Dadao was secretly proud of himself. People who deal in antiques are more or less superstitious. After watching for a while, all the people who came in actually threw money into the jar!
When Zhang Dadao was feeling proud of his unparalleled wit and intelligence, someone suddenly said from behind him: "Hey, you are here? Well, our boss said that you were not hired by him! Come with me, our boss is looking for you!" Zhang Dadao was stunned, and when he turned around, he found that the young man who helped him move the jar was staring at him angrily.
