Chapter 39 Antiques in prosperous times, Gold in chaotic times
They continued walking forward, and there was still a long way to go, lined with various stalls.
Suddenly, Mu Mu said to Bai Tang in Bai Tang's space, "Sister Tang Tang, I sense there are antiques and gold in the area ahead!"
Bai Tang instantly understood what Mu Mu meant and led Gu Yanxu and the others toward the stall Mu Mu had mentioned.
The stall displayed antiques, which Bai Tang knew nothing about, so she could only ask Mu Mu for help.
"Mumu, can you see any items in your spatial dimension that have spiritual power? Tell me, and I'll buy them."
Mu Mu answered Bai Tang, "Sister Tangtang~ This old man's stall is full of genuine antiques, and he even has quite a few~"
Bai Tang understood what Mu Mu meant; she wanted it all.
Having no other choice, Bai Tang could only ask the old man who ran the stall.
"I'd like to ask, how much are the antiques you sell here?"
The old man clearly hadn't expected anyone to be interested in antiques; he was just setting up his stall to try his luck.
When someone asked, he quickly said, "A small one is half a pound of grain, a large one is a pound of grain. I only want the grain, nothing else."
Bai Tang didn't hesitate and said to the stall owner, "We'll take everything here. Give me a total price."
The stall owner was surprised that this young girl wanted to buy all his antiques. Although there weren't many items on the stall, they would amount to a considerable sum when converted into grain.
The stall owner quickly calculated: four small items and three large items, totaling five jin of grain.
The four small items are: two pieces of ancient jade and two small trinkets carved from ancient agarwood.
The three main items are: two ancient paintings and one ancient porcelain vase.
After hearing the shopkeeper's price, Bai Tang didn't haggle. After all, she knew that the value of these antiques was actually far greater than five catties of grain. It was just that now that it was the apocalypse, no one treasured these antiques anymore.
Bai Tang asked Bai Jiyang to take a five-pound vacuum-packed bag of rice from his backpack and hand it to the shopkeeper to pay the bill.
The shop owner didn't expect to sell several antiques so quickly.
He was reluctant to sell at first, but his wife at home was almost starving, so he had no choice but to reluctantly take out his treasured antiques to set up a stall, hoping to exchange them for some food.
Li Ping, watching from the side, was also confused. Buying antiques can't put food on the table these days, so what was this woman doing?
Bai Tang explained to them, "Grandpa Gu likes these little trinkets, and I also find them appealing. I'll buy them now so they can be a nice gift when I meet Grandpa Gu someday."
Bai Tang thought to herself: I'm sorry, Grandpa Gu, since you're not at the Shengshi base right now, I'll just use your name for now.
The old master of the Gu family was far away at the base in Beijing when he sneezed.
I thought to myself: Is that brat thinking about me? He's forgotten his grandpa now that he has a wife.
They didn't say anything to Bai Tang, since the grain belonged to Bai Tang and they could decide how to spend it.
After Bai Jiyang handed the rice to the shop owner, the owner put the rice into his bag and then said to Bai Tang and the others, "Would you like me to help you move these things to your house?"
Bai Jiyang and the others quickly said, "No need, no need, we brothers can carry it ourselves, there aren't many of us anyway."
The stall owner said, "I actually have some antiques at home. I have a few pure gold fish in my hand. I wonder if you guys would like to buy them."
As the saying goes: antiques are valued in prosperous times, while gold is valued in chaotic times.
The old stall owner knew that in these chaotic times, gold would still be in demand, but he didn't display it openly for fear of attracting unwanted attention.
Seeing how swiftly Bai Tang and the others acted, he said something to them.
Bai Tang asked, "How many fish do you have?"
The stall owner said, "There are only about ten, but I didn't bring them all with me. Why don't you come back another day? I'll pack up the rest of the things and bring them over. Then you can see if there's anything you like."
Bai Tang said, "Okay."
The two parties agreed to meet at the stall the day after tomorrow morning to complete the transaction.
Bai Jiyang, Lin Fan, and Lin Feng packed up the antiques they had bought and put them back in the car.
Bai Tang, Gu Yanxu, and three others continued browsing, hoping to find something else they could snag.
After browsing around, Bai Tang bought a few tables and chairs that looked pretty good and planned to put them in the living room. After all, she couldn't use new things for everything in the house.
Bai Tang planned to take out their old beds, mattresses, and blankets and continue using them in their bedrooms.
In any case, unless there are special circumstances, they won't go into other people's bedrooms when guests come to visit.
Try to find some external items for entertaining guests here.
After wandering around for half a day, Bai Tang asked Lin Feng to take Li Ping home.
Then the rest of them returned to the newly bought courtyard and used the keys to open the door of the new house.
The first thing Bai Tang did after arriving home was to have Lin Zhou change the lock on the front door.
Then they hung blackout curtains on the windows and balconies of each of their rooms, so that they could both block out the light and prevent others from peeping.
Apart from the gate and windows, the courtyard was an empty, unfinished house.
However, they still carefully looked around the room to see if there was anything that shouldn't be there.
After a thorough inspection, Bai Tang took out some items that could be made public from her spatial storage.
Of course, they stayed at Pingping's house that night. After all, to outsiders, the house looked newly bought and was practically empty.
When Lin Feng returned, the group had a simple meal in the living room.
She also prepared canned cat food and some venison for it. Now it can eat raw meat and bones, but Bai Tang didn't dare to feed it too much.
After dinner, Bai Tang asked them to put the antiques they had bought that morning in her and Gu Yanxu's bedroom.
Then Bai Tang returned to the empty bedroom, put the antiques into her spatial storage, and then entered the spatial storage herself.
When Mu Mu saw Bai Tang come in, she happily said, "Sister Tang Tang~ I saw that those antiques have a lot of spiritual energy on them, they're real. Can I absorb a couple of them?"
Bai Tang pushed the antique in front of Mu Mu and said, "I bought it for you."
Then Mu Mu said shyly, "Didn't my sister say she was saving it for that old man from the Gu family?"
Bai Tang was taken aback, then said, "That's just an excuse. You can absorb these without worry. If you really want to give Grandpa Gu antiques, my parents still have quite a few left over."
Mu Mu nodded and said, "Thank you, Sister Tangtang~ You're the best to me~"
After giving the antique to Mu Mu, Bai Tang left the space.
Bai Tang walked out and looked at her own courtyard. It was quite big, but she didn't know if it could fit three cars.
After all, parking your car in a parking lot isn't a foolproof solution, and in the end, you should assume the worst about others.
So Bai Tang plans to drive all three cars from the parking lot home and park them in her own yard later, so she can feel more at ease.