The earthen house was shabby and old.
Huang Youlai lay drowsily in bed, while Hu Xiuying looked anxious.
Lu Fei sat in the candlelight, the dim yellow glow adding a hint of mystery to him.
"What shall we talk about? Aren't you here to collect antiques?"
This strange atmosphere made Huang Laosi sober up considerably. He took a half step back and looked at Lu Fei suspiciously.
This man had a face full of horizontal flesh, a pug nose, and triad eyes.
He was the typical picture of a selfish and crafty person.
"Exactly."
Lu Fei, with a smile, pushed the plastic bag containing the red cloth shoes to the front of the table.
"May I ask, brother, where did these shoes come from?"
"When you're taking things, why do you ask so many questions! Are you here to do business or what?" frowned Huang Laosi.
"Old items are valuable because they have special historical and cultural significance. If their origin is unknown, how can we determine their value?" said Lu Fei in a calm and steady tone.
"Didn't you already say that the shoes could be resold for tens of thousands? I have a few other old items at home; if the price is right, I'll give them all to you."
"They are only worth tens of thousands now, but once we figure out their origin, they might be worth hundreds of thousands!" Lu Fei laughed.
"Hundreds of thousands?!"
Huang Laosi's eyes were wide open, and his mouth remained agape for a long time.
After a moment, he swallowed hard and leaned in earnestly toward Lu Fei.
"So much money, you're not kidding me, right?"
"Why would I deceive you? Is something worth a few ten thousand yuan worth my while to come all the way from Jiang City?" Lu Fei casually tossed the car keys onto the table as if it were nothing.
Huang Lao Si, upon seeing the logo on the car key, immediately believed him to the extent of eighty or ninety percent.
"Turns out you're a big boss! To be so young and have so much money, my apologies, my apologies! I'll go and fetch all the old items from my house for you right away!"
With that, he was about to head out.
"No rush, first tell me clearly the origin of these shoes. If they have special value, then you can go back and get the other things. If not, there's no need to waste your effort." Lu Fei waved his hand lightly.
"This..."
Huang Lao Si's eyes spun, and he smiled, "Big boss, they're all inherited from my family, guaranteed to be old objects!"
"These shoes are at most a decade or so old; your family tree seems a bit short, huh?" Lu Fei laughed.
Huang Lao Si forced a smile, looking a bit embarrassed, and asked, "So, what exactly do you mean by 'special value'?"
"Let me put it this way, I need to make sure if these shoes are from a dead person," Lu Fei said, tapping the plastic bag with his finger.
Huang Laosan's face slightly changed, and he looked at Hu Xiuying, who was looking very uncomfortable, and became instantly wary: "Who would spend hundreds of thousands to buy something from a dead person?"
"You don't understand. What good things haven't rich people seen? Ordinary antiques no longer satisfy their appetites!" Lu Fei said with a mysterious smile.
"Rich people nowadays just like these special old items."
"You know about Kapala in the antique world, right?"
Huang Laosan shook his head.
"It's a necklace made from the bones of a dead person. Many rich people nowadays like to buy and wear them for fun! And have you heard of Aji drums?"
Huang Laosan shook his head again.
"They're drums made from human skin! And there's blood jade, which is jade stained red by the blood of a dead person; the redder, the more valuable! You must know about Thai amulets, which contain corpse oil inside."
"Things like coffin wood bracelets, jewelry that the dead wore... there are plenty of them! The richer the people, the more they like these old objects related to the dead, the more ominous, the better!"
Lu Fei was serious.
Huang Laosi was dumbfounded and couldn't help but exclaim, "Goodness me, you city folks sure know how to play!"
Hu Xiuying beside him also looked greatly shocked.
"Well, old man, are you willing to talk now?"
Huang Laosi's eyes rolled, and he put on a friendly smile, saying, "Boss, you are a guest brought by Youlai. He and I are cousins, we are all family, so I must make it clear, right?"
"But this shoe is the one I lent to Youlai's family. If it really sold for several hundred thousand, how should the money be divided with me?"
Hu Xiuying immediately became anxious upon hearing this: "What do you mean 'lent' to us? You sold them to us! The two shoes cost us several thousand yuan in total!"
"When did I ever say I sold them to you! Where's the money? Did I give you a receipt?" Huang Laosi spread his hands, playing the part of a scoundrel.
"You can't deny the deal!" Hu Xiuying, naturally, couldn't produce any receipts or transfer records, as they had paid in cash. She was so anxious that she stamped her feet.
"Sister Xiuying, you must have misunderstood! I said I lent them to you, not sold them!" As Huang Laosi spoke, he clutched the red cloth shoes to his chest, afraid that Hu Xiuying might try to snatch them from him.
"You..." Hu Xiuying stretched out her hand, then immediately pulled it back, her face turning red with embarrassment.
Even a harmful and dangerous object is worth grabbing. This Huang Laosi must be a man who values money more than his life!
Lu Fei gestured for her not to worry, and spoke to Huang Laosi in a friendly manner: "To me, it doesn't matter whose item it is, as long as it can fetch a good price, you will naturally get a good share, Old Brother!"
"Still, the big boss really knows how to do business!" Huang Laosi's eyes sparkled, extending his rough palm, "I want fifty percent!"
"At most thirty percent!" Lu Fei said calmly.
"Forty percent!"
"Twenty percent!"
"Hey hey hey, why are you still cutting it down?" Huang Laosi frowned, making a move to leave, "If you're like that, I won't sell it! And I definitely won't tell you where this thing came from."
"Do as you please! Besides me, who else would take this kind of thing? If you step out that door and want to come back, there will only be ten percent for you." Lu Fei made an indifferent gesture of invitation.
Huang Laosi paused, seeing that Lu Fei really didn't seem to want to keep him, and quickly put on a smile again.
"Alright, alright, 20% it is! It's our first deal, let's just consider it as making a friend with the big boss!"
He held the red cloth shoes and pulled over a stool to sit down.
"Big boss, listen, I guarantee these red shoes were worn by a dead person!"
"How can you be sure?" Lu Fei looked at him.
"Didn't it rain heavily a while ago? A few abandoned graves on the back mountain collapsed, and the coffins and bones were exposed. I couldn't bear to see it, so I helped to tidy things up and rebuilt the graves. After I finished, I found these red cloth shoes."
"I think, this is the dead person's way of thanking me, giving me a gift!"
"They say, good people get rewarded!"
Huang Laosi spoke vividly.
But these words, even Hu Xiuying might not believe them.
"Big boss, do you think rich people would like these dead person's shoes?" he asked eagerly, looking at Lu Fei.
Lu Fei sneered inwardly, but he still nodded on the surface: "It sounds fine, but I need to see the grave before I can be 100% sure."
"The grave is on the back mountain! But it's getting late today, how about I take you there tomorrow? It's so inauspicious to go to a graveyard in the dark!" Huang Laosi said with excitement all over his face.
"That works."
"Then I won't disturb the big boss's rest anymore, I will come and get you tomorrow!"
Huang Laosi added a few more flattering words, then happily prepared to leave with the red cloth shoes in his arms.