59 years after its opening, people are still in Nanluoguxiang.

Chapter 718: A villain is far more useful than a gentleman

Seeing that he didn't speak, the old man thought he was hesitating, so he smiled and taught: "Confucius said, be close to gentlemen and stay away from villains. But if you look at the history books, you will know that real villains are far more useful than gentlemen."

"For example, Emperor Tianqi, who used Wei Zongxian, stopped the invasion of the Later Jin Dynasty and saved the country, while Emperor Chongzhen, who was close to the gentlemen of the Donglin Party, deceived everyone and hanged himself."

"For example, Wu Mei Niang appointed cruel officials to suppress the opposition in the court, which actually consolidated her power!"

"As long as you are strong enough to subdue the villain, they are the best knives."

As the old man was talking, he sighed for no apparent reason. He thought of the many villains currently in power, all of whom had come to power in the past few years.

Chen Feng has realized his mistake. Yes, villains are far more useful than gentlemen.

To put it bluntly, when a gentleman has different positions or interests from you, he may become your enemy. But a villain is different. Not only is he the best scapegoat or temporary worker, he can also do anything and is willing to do it!

"Grandpa, I understand. Yan Song is definitely better at doing things and being a human being than Gao Gong or Hai Rui!"

The old man smiled, but with a hint of teasing and helplessness in his expression.

“Sometimes, I also think life is a little ridiculous.”

"Life is not the funny thing!" Chen Feng shook his head and said, "The funny thing comes from those funny people!"

"What did you two say?"

The old lady came back with a bag of vegetables, followed by Meng Xiaozao, who was also carrying a bag of vegetables.

"Are there still vegetables for sale in the market now?" the old man asked curiously.

The vegetable markets nowadays are not like those of later times. After the markets open early in the morning, everyone rushes to buy vegetables, and by the afternoon, the only vegetables left are those of poor quality, crushed, and unwanted vegetables.

That’s still good!

By four or five in the afternoon, they were basically sold out.

"No, my father went to the countryside to show movies and brought back a lot of vegetables, all donated by the commune. We couldn't finish them, so my mother said she wanted to exchange them with my grandmother's family for some dried fish."

Meng Xiaozao explained.

The old lady was very satisfied with the exchange and said, "One pound of dried Spanish mackerel for ten pounds of vegetables is not a loss at all."

How can it not be a loss?

Chen Feng and the old man looked at the old lady, and the old woman smiled and took the vegetables into the kitchen.

After Meng Xiaozao went back and Chen Feng entered the room, he realized why he was not at a loss.

"Grandma, where did Xu Damao get the yam?"

Chinese yam, known as the best tonic in autumn, is one of the ideal tonic ingredients in autumn.

This thing is very common in later generations, but there are not many artificially cultivated yams at present. This thing consumes a lot of nutrients from the land (even with fertilizers in later generations, it has to be planted every six years). If you have this good land, it is better to plant high-yield crops such as rice, wheat, sweet potatoes, etc.

The old lady smiled and put the vegetables on the surface of the bag aside, and took out the yams one by one.

Currently, this thing can only be bought in pharmacies, and the price is not low.

Chen Feng took the bucket, drew a bucket of water from the pool outside, and washed the yam with the old man.

The dirt on it was not washed off.

"I didn't ask. Knowing too much is not a good thing. It's not a loss to exchange three catties of Spanish mackerel for six catties of yam. It's just right for you to replenish your bodies. I happen to have Spanish mackerel, tofu and red dates at home."

Chen Feng smiled and said, "I'll go get a pheasant. Yams are best paired with chicken and red dates."

Yam cooked with fish and tofu is also good, but I’ve been eating a lot of Spanish mackerel these days and I’m a bit tired of it, so it would be more appropriate to change to chicken soup.

"That's fine." The old lady smiled and said, "It just so happens that your mother's belly is getting bigger and bigger. She's going to give birth in October. You should nourish her more and give birth to a big fat boy."

Chen Feng didn't say that it might be his younger sister. The two elders in the family were somewhat patriarchal, so only Chen Jianjun didn't care.

In the past, there weren’t many supplies at home, and the symptoms were very obvious.

Now there are more good things, and the distribution among grandchildren is fair. The little girl is also very close to the old man and the old lady.

"By the way, Xiaohua has something to do today, so go pick up Lily later."

"Ok!"

After helping the old lady kill a frozen Spanish mackerel, cut tofu, select red dates, wolfberries and other ingredients, and light the coal stove, I went to pick up Chen Li.

The sports school is still very crowded after school.

He simply sat on the motorcycle and chatted with Zheng Erniu.

"Zheng Erniu, food prices have dropped, but why are the steamed buns here still the same price?" An old man came over and started complaining when he saw the prices on the wooden sign hanging on the wall.

Zheng Erniu was discussing with Chen Feng how to go up the mountain to hunt. When he saw the old man, he squinted and said, "You can buy it or not. If you don't want to buy it, get out!"

"Hey, what kind of service attitude is this? Believe it or not, I will complain to you!" said the old man angrily.

Zheng Erniu sneered: "I serve the people, not a traitor like you who surrendered to the devils!"

The old man's face turned black, but he didn't dare to curse, so he could only leave angrily.

Chen Feng asked curiously: "Is he a traitor?"

Zheng Erniu nodded. "This guy followed Puyi to restore the Manchus. Although he didn't do many bad things, he was timid at the time. It's not that he didn't want to. It is said that he almost went to Gongdelin. He was pardoned last year and now he has been assigned by the street office to sweep the streets in this area."

Chen Feng became even more curious.

"You're already in prison, and you still have money to buy steamed buns?"

Even in state-owned restaurants, steamed buns are not cheap. A small steamed bun mixed with grains costs 5 cents. At the same time, due to the food stamp policy, a corresponding 2 taels of food stamps are required.

Two steamed buns cost 1 cent and 4 taels of food coupons, which ordinary people would definitely not be able to afford.

"I'm not sure about that. Maybe he made some arrangements before going to prison." Zheng Erniu was also very confused. Everyone said that these big criminals had their homes confiscated, but the man in front of him had come to their place to eat several times and didn't look like a penniless person at all.

"Well, it's possible!"

Chen Feng nodded. The people from Gongdelin were almost pardoned this year (the first batch in 59). General Chen also invited Song Xilian to dinner in April, which caused quite a stir in public opinion.

Li Yunlong came to Chen's house for dinner before and complained about this matter. How could General Chen take it out of proportion by inviting his savior to dinner?

"Tsk tsk, you are indeed an old man. You have fallen to the point of sweeping the streets, but you can still buy steamed buns every day."

"I heard that before they were driven out of Beijing by Yuan Shikai, they took a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry to Tianjin and secretly buried the treasures in the ground."

Zheng Erniu recalled the rumors that everyone knew about, and said, "I heard that the government found thousands of kilograms of gold and tens of thousands of taels of silver when they dredged the river and cleaned up the lake. Shichahai used to be the site of the Grand Canal wharf. I wonder how much gold and silver treasures are inside."

"No, it's mostly bones and some antiques, not that much gold and silver."

The origin of this matter is very clear, because Chen Jianguo happened to be the one supervising the dredging project of a certain section of the river.

The corpses in the river need to be collected. Ordinary people don't have the courage to do so, so they can only be dealt with by special public officials like them.

(During the dredging in 2013, another batch of antiques were unearthed)

Zheng Erniu said enviously: "Antiques are not bad either. If you sell them to Liulichang, you can earn a few dollars."

"Mr. Zheng, you think too much." A regular customer in the restaurant interrupted, "A few cents for an item is considered good. Good things that used to sell for hundreds of dollars are now only a few cents."

"The black market is full of fakes. If anyone dares to sell the real thing, we'll kill them if we catch them!"

Chen Feng almost laughed out loud.

But the truth is there!

Ever since some antique dealers were shot, not many people in Beijing dared to seize the business of the state-owned stores in Liulichang on a large scale.

It would be fine if he sold one or two ordinary items in private, but if he sold too many, or they were good things and were discovered, it would be a disaster!

You cannot escape the crime of speculation, and because the prices of cultural relics are high, the crime is greater!