Golden Pupil

Chapter 47 Red Sandalwood

"Ha ha, brother Zhuang, I haven't seen you for a day. I won't recognize my brother."

The man who walked out of the door laughed loudly, but this man was the Song Jun who bought Zhuang Rui's Wang Shizhen manuscript yesterday.

Zhuang Rui was slightly stunned and relieved. Among other things, it is only the identity of the shareholder of Tiandu Hotel. It is reasonable to have a villa here. What's more, although Song Jun is close in words, he has a momentum of not being angry and powerful. Presumably, there are other bodies that he does not know. Part.

"Dachuan brought me here and didn't say that he came to see you, Brother Song, but we are evil guests. I want you to invite you for dinner today..."

Zhuang Rui joked that although he was born in a Ping family, because of his mother's education since he was a child, he has always been neither humble nor arrogant to people. Maybe this society has a class, but this can never be reflected in Zhuang Rui.

Song Jun was stunned when he heard the words. It seemed that no one had spoken to him in this tone for a long time. It was a little novel. He couldn't help patting Zhuang Rui on the shoulder affectionately, hugged him and walked to the villa. As he walked, he said, "Ok, let's go to Tiandu today. It's all green. My brother asked you to eat back what you spent yesterday. That's all right.

"Hey hey, Brother Song, just lend us your car. I'll treat you to dinner. Do you think..."

Liu Chuan followed him and said with a needle in his eyes.

"You son of a bitch, it's a big deal. You've been working with me for more than half a month. It's okay. Today, for the sake of Brother Zhuang, the car is used for you. D, I haven't driven it several times. Don't give me a whole mess. Also, if I'm not satisfied Ah..."

Song Jun turned his head and looked at Liu Chuan's vicious words, but with a smile on his face. Obviously, he was not really angry. Zhuang Rui also understood that the old customer in Liu Chuan's mouth was actually the one in front of him.

It's easy to understand if you don't give it. On the way here just now, I saw a fierce wolf dog tied in several villas and courtyards. When I saw strangers walking in, the cracked teeth and mouth was very frightening. Presumably, those thieves would avoid it far away when they saw it.

In fact, Zhuang Rui doesn't know that in this well-security villa area, raising these things is not just for theft prevention, but more to reflect a symbol of identity. In private luxury villas in some big cities, some people even raise some large carnivores such as panthers and crocodiles.

After entering the villa, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but lit up. It was not how luxurious the decoration inside, but very distinctive. Right facing the gate, there was a huge mahogany screen about two meters high, which was divided into twelve fans, carved with dragons and phoenixes on it, which well isolated the room from the outside world.

Bypassing the screen, Zhuang Rui found that the area of the hall was about fifty or sixty square meters, and the surrounding walls were inlaid with a kind of purple wood, and emitted a light fragrance, which made people feel quiet unconsciously.

The decoration in the hall is also very simple. They are all old-fashioned antique furniture, so it is antique, because these furniture seems to lack the breath of time precipitation. If you look carefully, you can see that it is newly made, and there is no one in the whole hall. As soon as the traces of modern electrical appliances came in, Zhuang Rui actually had a sense of space-time transformation, which seemed to return to the residence of the ancients hundreds of years ago.

Zhuang Rui stared at a four-square table of red sandalwood beside him. Sure enough, there was no aura in it, which also proved that although the materials of these furniture were very precious, they were made in modern times.

"Brother, how about me here? Is it more ancient than the box in the tea room? I have spent a lot of effort on these red sandalwood furniture."

Song Jun's tone revealed a trace of pride. When he bought this villa, he spent about 20 million RB, but the money he only spent on decoration has now reached 30 million RB, and most of the money was spent on these red sandalwood, which he personally went to Southeast Asia to buy. The top-quality large-leaf red sandalwood, these red sandalwood have disappeared in many places. It took Song Jun a lot of effort to hoard goods bought from some people at a high price, and then invited skilled woodworkers to make them.

"Brother Song is really generous. I'm sure you can't find a second room in the country."

Zhuang Rui's compliment was from the bottom of his heart. He estimated that only these red sandalwood furniture would be worth millions, but he didn't know that he still underestimated the value of these objects.

Red sandalwood is a century-old hardwood. At present, it is rare to see a red sandalwood tree in the world. A Chinese red sandalwood table made during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century was sold at a sky-high price of more than 35 million US dollars at an auction at a Sotheby auction house It is not an exaggeration to say that its value is far beyond Zhuang Rui's imagination. Even if it is not an antique from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the price is extremely expensive and cannot be used by ordinary people.

The wood of red sandalwood is hard and heavy, and it sinks when it enters the water. The utensils made of it show a natural dark brown without painting. In addition, the origin is remote and extremely difficult to make materials, so it has been praised as the "king of wood" by all dynasties. In those dynasties before the Ming Small chess games, drawing axes, song boards, small shelves, etc.

Until Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, ascended the throne, in order to publicize the national prestige of the Celestial Empire, he sent the eunuch Zheng He to lead the fleet to the West, loaded the ship full of tea, silk and other gifts, and gave them to the country where he arrived along the way. On the way back, The cabin.

Zheng and them found that some countries have very solid and heavy purple wood, so that people can cut down the wood for ballast. After returning to China, some royal nobles began to use these "ballast wood" to make furniture. Later, people found that this kind of wood was strong and hard, not afraid of water and insect-proof, so it became more and After that, large-scale logging began.

In fact, there used to be red sandalwood in the Liangguang region of China, but because of the scarce quantity, it was soon lit. After that, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty sent people to Nanyang to collect it. According to the records: "As of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the vast majority of the red sandalwood The cutting was excessive in the Ming Dynasty, and it had not been resurreted in the Qing Dynasty, and the source was exhausted.

In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong also sent people to Nanyang to collect sandalwood, but most of the red sandalwood trees were thick and had not yet become materials, so they had to give up. Therefore, the red sandalwood used to make furniture by the royal family in the Qing Dynasty was the inventory of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty. Later, there was a shortage of sandalwood to the point that it had to be bought at a high price from private merchants. According to the unofficial rules at that time, no matter what level of officials, as long as they saw The privately collected wood was also cleaned up. After the 60th birthday of Cixi and the marriage of Emperor Guangxu, there was little wood left in the Da Nei, but in the end, it was used up by Yuan Shikai, who was restored to the throne.

Before the Qing Dynasty, people in Europe and the United States always thought that red sandalwood had no big material, and could only be used as small utensils. Even in the early Qing Dynasty, a large number of Western missionaries came to China. After seeing many red sandalwood weapons, they were all surprised. They knew that the red sandalwood elites were in Only buy cabinet doors, box surfaces and other patterned components, and put wooden frames of other materials for decoration. Now in the hands of some foreign collectors, there are mostly red sandalwood items at that time.

Moreover, it is quite time-consuming to make red sandalwood furniture. If you want to make outstanding red sandalwood handicrafts, each piece of artifact must be handmade. A large piece of furniture often takes more than a dozen craftsmen seven or eight years to complete, but the objects in this hall are not large, and the production process is not particularly complicated. Miscellaneous.

There is a saying of "one chisel, two moments, seven polishing" in the production technique of red sandalwood. Polishing alone takes up seven-tenths of the whole production process, and the tools used for polishing are also quite strange. First, apply wax, and then rub it repeatedly with knotweed and fine gauze until it is polished as bright

When Zhuang Rui first entered the door, he judged the age of these red sandalwood by the new and old, but he did not know that the well-maintained red sandalwood furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, compared with the newly created red sandalwood, from the appearance is not too much.

"Hahaha... Brother, you flattered me. Compared with the Red Sandalwood King, I can't take out these things."

Song Jun was very happy to hear the words, but he waved his hand repeatedly and did not dare to praise Zhuang Rui like this. What he said was the "King of Red Sandalwood", which was the curator of the Chinese Red Sandalwood Museum. Ms. Chen Lihua, the richest woman in China, was worth more than 5 billion yuan. Song Jun was Thousands of exquisite red sandalwood tables, beds, cases, and several, I also know that these things alone are far from Chen Lihua.

It was after Song Jun saw the red sandalwood collected by Ms. Chen Lihua that he tried to make his living room look like this, because red sandalwood also has a magical effect of nourishing people. After a long time of contact, it is of great benefit to the body. For example, when Chen Lihua made red sandalwood furniture, the yellow The teeth became very white. An old craftsman in his 70s turned white hair to black, and for a moment, he rendered the red sandalwood with a trace of mystery.

"Wood, let me tell you, Mr. Lv has never been to this place. I told Brother Song yesterday that you wanted to come, but he agreed. Your face is not small..."

Although Liu Chuan is not very old, he is cheerful and has the same temper as Song Jun. Only in this way can he enter this villa. Throughout Pengcheng, there are absolutely no more than ten people who have come to Song Jun's villa.

"Ok, it's all my brothers. What are you talking about? Liu Chuan, when did you behave in front of me?"

Song Jun waved his hand, interrupted Liu Chuan's words, and pulled Zhuang Rui to introduce the red sandalwood furniture in the room, but he did not know that Zhuang Rui's mind was not here at all.

"Brother Song, I heard from Mr. Lv that your favorite things are calligraphy and painting. You must have got a lot of high-quality products over the years. Can you open your eyes..."

After more than half an hour, Zhuang Rui patiently listened to Song Jun's explanation, and then asked. This was obviously Song Jun's residence in Pengcheng. Naturally, Zhuang Rui would not enter Baoshan and return empty-handed. When he first saw Song Jun, he had this thought.

After hearing this, Song Jun's face showed a trace of embarrassment on his face. He said, "Brother Zhuang, I like calligraphy and painting antiques, and I have indeed collected a lot of fine works in this regard. However, except for your manuscript yesterday, these objects are not in Pengcheng now, but in my grandfather's residence in The old man robbed all the treasures in my collection, and the whole old man did not repair..."

When Song Jun mentioned his grandfather, he seemed to be angry. There was a deep resentment in his tone. Naturally, Zhuang Rui next to him did not know that the old disrespect in Song Jun's mouth was an old general who dominated the battlefield. Even now, he is a figure who can shake the imperial city with a stamp his feet.

"But don't be disappointed, Brother Zhuang. When you have time to go to the capital, I'll take you to the place where Grandpa lives. At least more than half of those things are mine, and the old man will still give me this face."

Seeing the look of disappointment on Zhuang Rui's face, Song Jun quickly said, but he was not sure whether the unreasonable grandfather would give himself this face. As the saying goes, when his father saw the old man, he was like a mouse and a cat, and the old man kissed him, but he also took him for many years. The hidden treasures are all taken for themselves.

"Yes, with the words of Brother Song, I must visit him some other day..."

What Zhuang Rui said was definitely not polite. For the sake of the aura in his eyes, he would also find a time for Song Jun to visit in the capital.

"All right, you two don't get sour, wood. I said I'd give you a surprise yesterday. Now I'll take you to have a look."

Liu Chuan sat on this red sandalwood stool. He felt far less comfortable than sitting on the sofa. He had been impatient for a long time. At this time, when he saw that Song Jun had finished introducing Liu Chuan, he quickly pulled Zhuang Rui out of the door.