Chapter 16 Once

  No longer going to bother with that middle-aged man who is carrying a Luo Han bed and loudly claiming it's the one from Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts", for the rest of the time,

  Zhou Ming Luo accompanied Bi Lao into a shop on the side of the street.

  Whether watching or appreciating, the whole person is immersed in the world of antiques. Throughout the process, Zhou Ming Luo also deeply experienced what it means to be knowledgeable and erudite. The furniture can be roughly divided into beds, chairs, tables, screens, and other miscellaneous items, each with its own detailed classification.

  For example, beds can be divided into soft beds, Luohan beds, frame beds, and step beds. With so many categories, Old Bi can almost detail their origins, historical reasons, and his explanations are not dull, often mixed with some interesting stories to embellish, listening to Zhou Ming's mouth watering.

  Not only did I gain a lot of knowledge about furniture in this short period of time, but also made significant progress in my understanding of furniture.

  He wasn't completely clueless before, he was quite clear about identifying furniture materials, and also had some knowledge of methods to distinguish fakes. Now with Bi Lao's guidance and the help of [Wen Wen Fu], he can determine the material and age, Zhou Ming Luo's gain is indeed not small.

  Time passed unknowingly, and Zhou Ming Luo still saw Bi Lao picking up a leak in the antique city.

  A bright yellow huanghuali armchair with four protruding heads, simple in shape but full of charm.

  After picking up the leak, Bi Lao's mood became more and more open-minded. When he saw Zhou Ming Luo's serious and studious appearance, he specially recommended a few books on furniture collection to him.

  Fortunately, the Nan Ancient Play City already had a book city, so Zhou Ming Luo almost bought all the books he needed while strolling around. It wasn't until after lunch that they wandered around the antique city for a few more hours, and then Bi Lao finally showed a hint of fatigue, and was sent back to the hotel by Zhou Ming Luo.

  Before leaving, Old Bi said he would leave Linchuan tomorrow, which made Zhou Ming feel a great sense of regret and he really wished to learn more from him.

  However, he didn't force the issue either, because he knew that their relationship wasn't deep to begin with. He was only able to point him out once because of that blue and white porcelain brick, which had made the other person feel a sense of nostalgia.

  Seize the opportunity when you can, and don't force it when it's time to let go.

  Bid farewell to Bi Lao and return to the North Ring community, Zhou Ming first went to see Xiuniang, then returned home to recall the gains of the day, after recalling, he took out the books bought during the day.

  He knew he was shallow, and that he not only genuinely liked antiques, but also the thrill of searching for them. He was equally fascinated by the rich cultural heritage hidden within various types of antiques. Now, to expand the Yellow Skin Book, he needed real antiques, so he had to work hard.

  Only through continuous effort and learning, continuously absorbing various knowledge, can one become knowledgeable and achieve everything they want to do.

  …………

  A new day.

  The sun shines all over the ground, inside a clean glass window, a long shadow lies flat on the bed, sleeping soundly, seemingly not noticing the dazzling sunlight at all. Just in a quiet atmosphere, a pleasant mobile phone ring suddenly sounded in the empty room.

  The phone rang for half a minute before the figure that had been motionless suddenly moved and reached out to grab it.

  At the moment of connection, a slightly hoarse voice came from the other end.

  "Hey, are you Zhou Ming Luo?"

  "Who are you?" His brain was still a bit drowsy, Zhou Ming Luo had been reading books all night until 1 am, and then spent another hour and a half in a half-asleep state to redraw the new day's "Mò Wén Fú" and "Jīn Gāng Fú".

  So even if he rested until now, he still felt somewhat tired.

  "Ah, it's really you! I'm Yang Dan, do you still remember me?" After Zhou Mingluo finished speaking, the voice on the other end of the phone suddenly became excited.

  But this sentence also made Zhou Mingluo pause for a moment, and all his drowsiness suddenly cleared up halfway. Yang Dan?

  "Yang Dan? Is that you?" Confirming that the voice was indeed familiar, seemingly the same as Yang Dan's in his memories, Zhou Ming Luo suddenly sat up from bed, full of surprise.

  "Really? Haha, I heard you're in Xinkuan? I'm also in Xinkuan."

  Across from him came another faint smile, a very relaxed laugh, and instantly stirred up countless memories of Zhou Ming's fall.

  Yang Dan is his former classmate. Speaking of it, the two people's classmate relationship is really not shallow, and they have known each other since the first grade of elementary school.

  His hometown is in a rural area deep in the Pingyang Plain of Zhonghe Province, where at that time three or four villages formed a large team, and only one primary school was available for each large team. A township usually had only one or two middle schools, and then there were more high schools in the county seat, but usually only three or four.

  Zhou Ming Luo and Yang Dan were in the same big class, from neighboring villages. From elementary school first grade to graduation, they were in the same class due to only one class per grade level. They even sat together for a year or two. In junior high school, there were more classes, so they weren't in the same class, but in high school, they both attended the same school and were even assigned to the same class in their third year. At that time, their relationship was also very good. However, Zhou Ming Luo dropped out of school halfway through his third year of high school and didn't take the college entrance exam. After that, they lost contact.

  He dropped out of school very suddenly and was expelled from school back then.

  Everyone has a rebellious period, and Zhou Ming was no exception during his youth. Before high school, his grades were always good, but after entering the county town to attend high school, he became bad. This "bad" didn't refer to other aspects, just that he didn't like studying anymore. Every day in class, even if nothing was happening, he didn't want to study, and his grades kept slipping. In class, he was often at the bottom of the list, and occasionally he would follow a few older students to smoke a cigarette or two for fun. He wasn't addicted to cigarettes, but at that time, it just seemed cool.

  Unfortunately, in the third year of high school, there was an extracurricular activity where he hid in a dormitory to smoke. After smoking, one of the old boys didn't clean up the cigarette ash and burned a classmate's quilt on the lower bunk. It wasn't until after class that a big fire broke out in the dormitory and people found out. As a result, all four male students who participated in smoking during extracurricular activities, including him, were directly expelled.

  But tragically, later on, among the four of them, only he was unable to re-enter the school gate again. The other three all returned to campus after being beaten at home, while his father ran back and forth between the county town and their hometown almost every day, exhausting himself but still unable to get him back in. At that time, he couldn't bear to see his father so miserable, so he finally made up his mind to drop out of school.

  At that time, Zhou Ming Luo's memory was very deep and began to mature. After being idle at home for more than half a year, he came alone to work outside.

  It was also the growth of that period of time that made him realize what he had missed, so when facing new learning opportunities, he would always cherish and work harder.

  But he really didn't expect Yang Dan to suddenly call him, and even more unexpected was that she was also in Xinkuan.

  But this is not an exaggeration, among the young men and women in their hometown, almost 7 or 8 out of 10 who dropped out of school or graduated came to work in the southern coastal areas, mostly in cities like Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Xinkun.

  In Zhou Ming's memory, Yang Dan was very beautiful, except for a slightly hoarse voice that wasn't pleasant to listen to. By the third year of high school, she had already developed well, with a height of around 1.7 meters and a slender figure. Although she came from a rural area, her skin wasn't particularly pale, and there were even a few freckles on her face, but that face was very striking. She had once captivated a large number of young boys in the high school campus. He still remembered that at the time, there were dozens of boys in his dormitory who asked him to pass on love letters written for Yang Dan.

  Because at that time many people knew that Zhou Ming Luo and Yang Dan were once elementary school deskmates and got along well.

  "Ah, you're in Xinkai too? How did you think of calling me?"

  A flood of memories, Zhou Ming's drowsiness completely dissipated. After a moment's thought, he roughly understood how the other person got his phone number. In this era of highly explosive information, even rural areas have access to the internet. Several children in their village had set up a QQ group with dozens of people from surrounding villages, and Zhou Ming was one of them.

  Although he rarely goes online, if Yang Dan is in a group, just grab someone and ask, I'm sure you can get his phone number.

  But understanding this point doesn't mean he's not suspicious, it's been three or four years since they last met, and the other person can still find his number? Could it be... For a moment, thinking of the beautiful figure in his memory, Zhou Mingluo couldn't help but have some wild thoughts.