Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

Faced with Li Xiangdong's dual desires, Ququsun's mind didn't immediately process it.

"What exactly do you mean by this, kid?"

Li Xiangdong pulled his grandson, Ququ, further into the house. It was better to keep some things private from Old Man Li and the others at the main entrance.

"Uncle Sun, when I say old-fashioned, I mean old-style, not old. I'm not collecting old furniture; I'm planning to use it in my own home."

"Can't old furniture be used?"

Seeing that Cricket Sun was even more confused, Li Xiangdong could only explain it more bluntly.

"Antique furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties is fine, and it's worth collecting, but I don't want to use it. Let me give you an example: how many people have slept on a Luohan bed from the Ming dynasty? Can you calculate how many people have passed away on a bed that's hundreds of years old?"

Having made it so clear, Cricket Sun understood what Li Xiangdong was thinking, and he looked at Li Xiangdong with disdain.

"What nonsense are you thinking, kid? My house is full of old furniture."

Li Xiangdong glared back at him, utterly speechless!

“You told me before that not all of your old furniture was collected, but mostly it was passed down from your ancestors. How can that be the same? If it were me, I wouldn’t look down on things left by my ancestors!”

Cricket Sun gave a wry smile and retorted, "Are you really that timid, kid?"

"Is this a matter of being brave or not? If you are brave, then imagine having a Ming Dynasty Luohan bed in your own house, along with an early Qing Dynasty mahogany screen, and an eight-immortal table and armchairs that are hundreds of years old. If you were alone in the house at night, wouldn't you feel creeped out?"

"If one night a gust of wind is blowing outside and there happens to be a power outage, wouldn't you feel like someone is in your bed? If your vision is blurry, you might even see an elderly man in a red court robe and a Liang crown sitting in a grand chair!"

As Li Xiangdong spoke, he deliberately moved closer to Ququ Sun and gently blew a breath on his neck.

A blast of sweltering heat blew over, and Ququ Sun, who was engrossed in Li Xiangdong's words, shivered!

"What are you doing, you little rascal?"

Ququ Sun slapped his neck a few times in annoyance, rubbing it as he moved away from the rambling Li Xiangdong.

"Fine, fine, I give up. You mean you want me to go to the mahogany furniture factory and buy ready-made furniture for you, right?"

"You are wise, that's exactly what I meant."

Hearing that Ququ Sun had hit the nail on the head, Li Xiangdong flattered him.

He always travels to other places by car, so he doesn't have time, and he doesn't know what to buy. The arrangement of furniture in a courtyard house is very particular, and not only does he not know it, but no one in the Li family knows it either.

Of all the people in his social circle, Li Xiangdong knew that Ququ Sun was the best at this.

"Uncle Sun, I'm counting on you for this."

This is not a difficult thing to do. After Ququ Sun stopped setting up his stall, he himself felt that he was too idle all day. He found something to do and slept well at night.

"I can handle it for you, but do you have enough tickets? Those furniture pieces all require tickets."

"Isn't it because of you?"

Li Xiangdong smiled and leaned closer again, raising an eyebrow at Cricket Sun.

"Actually, it's okay if you can't get the invoices. Those mahogany furniture factories are almost broke. When a big customer like me comes to their door, they can just figure out how to do the accounting themselves."

The popularity of Ming and Qing dynasty furniture in later generations was due to the resurgence of traditional culture among the people and the country's advocacy of cultural confidence, which enabled the rapid development of rosewood furniture with Chinese traditional cultural attributes.

The most typical example is the late 1990s. With the rise of antiques, collectors from Hong Kong and Taiwan entered the antique furniture circle, and suddenly Beijing was swept up in a craze for antique-style furniture. The antique-style furniture street in Gaobeidian, Beijing, took advantage of the good times and grew rapidly, which gradually developed into the scale it is today.

Nowadays, old-fashioned mahogany furniture is almost facing a situation where no one wants it.

If you buy new furniture, you will naturally need to get a receipt when you pay for it.

However, due to the humanitarian surge of previous years, coupled with people's current pursuit of new-style furniture, the market has become more competitive.

If you count them all in the capital, there are only a handful of mahogany furniture factories left. Even those that haven't closed down are living hand to mouth, relying on government funding to make ends meet, and they're having trouble even paying wages.

They can't sell the wood, but they can't stop production; the warehouses of those mahogany factories are already overflowing.

To be honest, there's no need to raise prices. You can even get a discount, like 50% off, if you buy a lot!

Ququ Sun understands wood and collects antique furniture. He has some knowledge of the current state of mahogany furniture factories in Beijing. After thinking about what Li Xiangdong said, he understood the key point immediately.

“Okay, no problem. When you come back from Fujian next time, I’ll make sure to give your new home a complete makeover.”

“I believe that, Uncle Sun. But when you go, could you please take my grandfather with you?”

When Ququ Sun heard that Li Xiangdong wanted him to bring someone along when he asked him to do the work, he immediately became furious.

"What? You think you can look down on me? Worried I'll embezzle your money?"

Li Xiangdong didn't mean that. There were receipts for the furniture purchase, and Ququsun wasn't that kind of person.

"No, Uncle Sun, what are you saying? The weather is nice now, and my yard is big. You like to go out for walks, right? I was thinking of having you take my grandfather out for a stroll."

“He’s getting old and doesn’t have any hobbies. At most, he plays chess in the alley. Since you’re good at it, why don’t you take my grandpa to buy a bird or a fish? It’ll help him develop some hobbies and relieve his boredom. If he’s happy, his health will also improve.”

"Oh, that's how it is."

Ququsun understood. Before Li Xiangdong finished speaking, he was thinking, "Why would a perfectly good working-class family with a clean social class let his old man play those things?"

Is the intention to cultivate a Manchu nobleman who does no productive work and only knows how to drink tea, walk birds, and fight crickets?

After listening to Li Xiangdong's words, his mindset changed again. Li Xiangdong was indeed cunning and scheming, but this kid was also genuinely caring.

Cricket Sun chuckled and teased, "Have you forgotten what your uncle does? Actually, what your Uncle Sun is best at is playing with crickets. Do you want me to play with your grandpa too?"

"Cricket fighting is out of the question!"

Li Xiangdong refused without hesitation. Keeping birds and fish was relaxing, but cricket fighting was out of the question. Those things were too addictive; if Old Man Li got carried away and lashed out, his father would skin him alive...