in2ebook Chapter 507: Professional Enough
Chapter 507: Professional Enough
Wang Meng was speechless. If it weren't for the last bit of reason restraining him, he would have attacked the big carp in the Yellow River long ago.
"Ahem, give me some!"
"No, I ordered this for myself. Please wait a moment, the meal will be served soon!"
Ma Longtu, who was standing by, watched Monk Wei and Wang Meng arguing with each other, and he really couldn't figure out where these two people came from.
If they are the Eighth Route Army, these two people don't play by the rules and look like gangsters, so they don't seem like it!
If you say they are bandits, it seems that they are all full of sense of justice.
In short, I have no idea what to do, and if I really can't figure it out, I'll just leave.
Just when Ma Longtu, Wang Meng and Wei Heshang were thinking about their own things, the waiter pushed open the door of the private room and a man in a long gown with a pointed chin and monkey cheeks stepped in.
"Brother Ma, long time no see!"
"Brother Yue, how are you?"
The man with a pointed chin and monkey cheeks who came was Yue Bin, a very popular figure in Liulichang.
Yue Bin frowned as he looked at Wang Meng with a smile on his face and Monk Wei with a greasy face.
"Brother Ma, who are these two?"
"Oops, I forgot to introduce him. This is the partner who specializes in organizing stonemasons. His name is... Boss Wang!"
Ma Longtu thought for a long time before he vaguely remembered that someone once called him "Boss Wang". Fortunately he remembered it, otherwise he would have been exposed.
"Then who is this person next to you?"
"Uh, this is Boss Wang's subordinate, a monk who is here to help us determine which strokes are more valuable!"
Yue Bin immediately put his hands together and said “Amitabha”.
"Brother Ma, you are really professional! No wonder you are so successful in the antique industry in Luoyang. But you are breaking the rules. Upstream and downstream people cannot meet each other!"
Ma Longtu immediately filled the empty wine glass on the main seat with wine.
"Oh, Brother Yue, it's not actually a violation of the rules. From now on, Boss Wang will be my partner, and we'll take care of everything!"
Yue Bin glanced at Wang Meng, who was calm and composed, and Monk Wei, who was gnawing on a pork elbow, then nodded and sat down on the stool.
"Master, I didn't expect that you, a Buddhist, still eat meat? And you look like you enjoy it very much?"
Monk Wei licked the grease off his hands, drank another glass of wine, and burped loudly.
"That's right, wine and meat pass through the intestines, but the Buddha remains in the heart."
"Hahaha, what a good way to live a life of luxury. Let me keep you company!"
Yue Bin picked up the wine glass and gulped the wine down.
"Boss Yue, I saw you even chanted Amitabha. Are you also a person who worships Buddha?"
"Alas, we have done so many bad things in our line of work that we have to bow down to all the gods."
Wang Meng scoffed at this idea, which was obviously useless.
With all the bad things he has done, it would not be too much to send him to the eighteenth level of hell!
"Boss Yue, who are you going to give the goods to this time?"
Yue Bin shook his head. He would never reveal even a single word about his financial resources. What if these people bypassed him and contacted the buyers above? How would he make a living in the future?
"Boss Wang, I can't tell you this. It's a rule of the trade! Time is too tight this time. We have to work fast. In two or three months, we might not be able to carve it!"
After eating and drinking, Monk Wei was about to take out the pistol in his arms, but Wang Meng kicked him, signaling him to stop.
"Boss Yue, what do you mean? It won't be possible to carve in two or three months? Is the cave going to collapse? Or is there no buyer?"
Yue Bin drank another glass of wine, then picked up the eyes of a big carp from the Yellow River and put them into his mouth.
After a while, Yue Bin said slowly:
"It's not that the grotto is going to collapse, nor is it that we can't find a buyer, but the owner of this place is about to change! When that happens, we Chinese won't have the final say over the Longmen Grottoes!"
Yue Bin's mysterious words whetted the appetite of Wang Meng and the other two.
"Boss Yue seems to be very powerful. Let me toast you!"
After Wang Meng finished speaking, he picked up the wine glass and clinked it with Yue Bin's. Then he glanced at Yue Bin out of the corner of his eye and saw that the corners of Yue Bin's mouth were raised, so he drank it down in one gulp.
"I don't claim to have supernatural powers, but we do have some connections in various aspects. I'm not deliberately keeping you in suspense, it's just that this matter has such a huge impact that even if I tell you now, you may not believe me and think I'm bragging!"
Ma Longtu was also very anxious, feeling that this matter was indeed directly related to them, otherwise Yue Bin would not have come to Luoyang in such a hurry to supervise the work.
"Oh, my dear brother, please tell me quickly, I am so worried!"
"Deaf man, I'm telling you this because I treat you as my brother. Hurry up and pack your belongings and run as far as you can! But you have to finish chiseling the mural before you run away!"
Ma Longtu's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he was in dire straits?
Since he started this business, Ma Longtu has indeed thought about his tragic fate, so even if he is short of money, he will always ask for favors from passing gods during festivals. If for nothing else, just to have someone to help him if he gets into trouble one day.
"Brother Yue, you are still my younger brother. If you don't tell me, I will pack my luggage and leave after dinner. You should ask someone else to take care of your mural!"
"Oh, you're so anxious again! Didn't I tell you it's going to happen in two or three months?"
Seeing that his client was about to run away, Yue Bin quickly explained the whole story.
It turned out that Yue Bin had been in Peking for many years, and Liulichang was a place where all kinds of people mixed together. In particular, he often did business with many foreigners, including some Japanese.
Once when delivering ancient jade to a high-ranking official of the Japanese North China Front Command, he vaguely heard some shocking secrets.
It is estimated that in about three months, the Japanese will launch a major campaign against Henan Province, Hunan Province and Guangxi Province with the aim of opening up land transportation lines.
The Japanese will cross the Yellow River and launch a fierce attack on Zhengxian and Luoyang!
The Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang would either be destroyed by the Japanese bombing or artillery fire, or occupied by the Japanese and then packed up and sent to Japan.
Wang Meng was stunned for a long time. The battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi was actually brought forward by half a year!
It seems that the Japanese had to act in advance again under the pressure of the independent column. In response to the defeat in the Pacific battlefield, the North-South channel was opened up to break the dilemma of the cut-off of the sea transportation line, and the Kwantung Army was directly transported to the Southeast Asian battlefield and the Pacific battlefield.
"Boss Wang, what's wrong with you?"
Wang Meng's face looked extremely ugly now, which even scared Ma Longtu and Yue Bin.
Although this incident has a huge impact on them in Luoyang, most of these antique dealers are speculators. If they leave Luoyang, won't they still be able to find a living?
"Yes, Boss Wang, if it doesn't work, come with us to the northwest. The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang there are also great things! As long as the three of us join forces, we have people, guns, and sales channels. Why worry about not having a way to make money?"