Chapter 1419 Return to Tokyo

Monday, November 30, 1987.

On this day, almost everyone in the world focused on the Korean Air Flight 858 crash that happened yesterday.

Especially the Japanese people, everyone was speculating whether the two terrorists who carried out the sudden terrorist attack yesterday, which blew up the plane and killed all 104 passengers and 11 crew members on board, were Japanese.

You know, although the father and daughter, Shinichi and Mayumi, were successfully intercepted when they tried to escape from customs after doing this, according to their passports, their names and nationalities were shown as Japanese.

However, the South Korean police who were in charge of detaining them and stepping up the interrogation revealed to the news media that they suspected that they were North Korean agents who smuggled into Japan and obtained legal status.

Therefore, all this made this tragedy full of confusion and caused people to worry about the intensification of friction between North and South Korea.

However, at this time, Ning Weimin could not care about these gossips, and he had no intention of worrying about the situation that North and South Korea seemed to be about to accidentally fire.

This is not only because he has long known that these two little Karami are cowards who can only curse and never fight, and the peace in Asia is as stable as Mount Tai.

It is also because he is actually very tired in France, exhausted both physically and mentally.

After returning to Tokyo today, he actually just wants to be lazy for a few days, to live a simple life where he can hug his wife when he goes to bed and find shoes when he gets off the bed.

He is only willing to enjoy the comfort of having clothes and food provided, and he doesn't care about anything else.

Even his antiques, he doesn't want to play with them recently, and it gives him a headache to look at them. He begins to feel that these things are a bit annoying, a burden and a drag.

This is not his hypocrisy, but his true feelings.

Because to be honest, he has been so tired in France recently, and a large part of the reason is because of these antiques.

It turns out that when he was in France, Ning Weimin's initial schedule was that he, Alain Delon and lawyer Henry would tour his territory together.

Then, after completing the legal transfer procedures for these properties, he left here and flew back to Tokyo from Paris.

But when he arranged to renovate the castle and returned to Paris alone, booked a plane ticket, and returned to the Champs-Elysées apartment he had been given to rest, Ning Weimin actually found that there had been earth-shaking changes here.

This new change caused him to refund the ticket directly, and he didn't leave at all.

What changes?

It turned out that Henri Lacamier still felt that the gift he gave to Ning Weimin was a little light, fearing that he would not like the ancient castle.

Because I remembered hearing Pierre Cardin say that Ning Weimin liked Chinese antiques and artworks very much, so the old man remembered that his family seemed to have a lot of things related to China.

He suddenly had an idea and asked people to find all these things from his home and warehouse, most of them were packed and sent to Ning Weimin's apartment.

Then he used these things to redecorate Ning Weimin's apartment in Paris.

So you can imagine what Ning Weimin's reaction would be when he came back and saw the brand new apartment.

He had almost no other thoughts at the time, except that he might have walked into the wrong house.

He didn't know what was going on until he went to the administrator to confirm it.

When he walked into his apartment again, he was gradually amazed by the unexpected gift from Henry, the old naughty boy.

Let's not talk about anything else, just say that this apartment was tidied up by Henry Lacamier, and it became more comfortable.

The key is that Henry Lacamier integrated these antique collections given to him into his life, which seemed to have surpassed the collection itself.

You know, Henry Lacamier, as the head of LV, has an extraordinary cultural taste and aesthetics that are not comparable to ordinary people.

He is recognized as the most discerning and tasteful "old money" in the Paris fashion and art circles, and it was he who made LV's more secular brand image artistic.

Although it was just a spontaneous act, he easily used balance, juxtaposition, contrast, and contrast to create a living art museum that spans Eastern and Western cultures and is unrivaled in ancient and modern times.

He is particularly good at combining furniture of different cultures, ages, and styles, and he is very clever in the way he arranges them.

So in Ning Weimin's eyes, the design sense of the layout and decoration of this apartment is actually comparable to that of Yves Saint Laurent's home.

This made him, who had visited Saint Laurent's mansion and had always been a little envious in his heart, feel balanced all of a sudden.

That's not all. When Ning Weimin slowly saw the things in this room, he was even more shocked.

Because although Henri Lacamier was more proficient and loved Western art more.

It seems that he himself did not know much about Chinese antiques, so he placed some Thai furniture, Burmese Buddha statues, and jade that may come from Vietnam in Ning Weimin's apartment.

However, most of the objects here are still Chinese things, and there are many precious things.

Soon Ning Weimin discovered that a purely Chinese-origin, most likely a Western Han Dynasty gilded bronze bear statue, was placed on the Huanghuali table in the apartment from the late Qing Dynasty.

Not long after, he found a 15th century seated statue of a "great achiever" from the XZ Dynasty in his study.

Looking down, the floor of the apartment was covered with a Qing Dynasty court carpet.

Going to the study, a Tang Dynasty stone-carved Bodhisattva was placed on a long table

A Tang Dynasty pottery figurine stood by the door.

The bookcase and desk are made of rosewood, and the two chairs are made of chicken-wing wood.

The ancient painting on the wall of the living room is Chen Ruyan's "Fairy Mountain Picture" from the Yuan Dynasty, and there is also a "Flower Picture" by Chen Zun of the Ming Dynasty in the study.

There are also Ming Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup and Yuan Zhizheng 11th Year Blue and White Cloud Dragon Pattern Elephant Ear Vase on the desk.

He even saw Jun kiln and Ding kiln in the bookcase, which his current appreciation ability is not enough to distinguish between true and false...

Too many!

Too beautiful!

It can be said that the variety and quality of these things are so rich that even he has to be dumbfounded.

Originally, Ning Weimin thought that since he had seen those modern calligraphy and paintings that were gathering dust in the museum warehouse a few years ago, he would never have the feeling of entering King Solomon's treasure house again in this life.

Unexpectedly, he actually had this similar feeling again while standing in the apartment on the Champs Elysees.

What a surprise, what a shock!

He had to admit that "old money" was "old money". Even for someone like Henri Lacamier who didn't know much about China, the relics left by his ancestors were better than those in some museums in China.

Not to mention, he had learned more about the Champs-Elysees through Alain Delon and his lawyer.

He already knew that this place was not a good location in the ordinary sense.

Since this was the first avenue where the dignitaries of Paris, France, had lived for generations, even a small apartment was a scarce resource.

Let alone buying a house here, there would be hundreds of people queuing up behind to rent it.

If Henri Lacamier hadn't inherited the "old money" of two families in France and his ancestors had left behind many such properties, Ning Weimin would not have been able to settle down in such a place.

This was not about money.

Even if LV hadn't initiated the establishment of the Champs-Elysees Committee after entering this avenue in 1914.

And the leaders of LV company from generation to generation have always led the more than 400 members of this street to "defend the reputation of the most beautiful promenade in the world".

It was difficult for a foreigner like Ning Weimin to rent a house here.

So, at this time, Ning Weimin was really grateful to Henry Lacamier.

He went to thank him the next day.

Although he knew that many of the antiques in the house might have been looted by the British and French forces, they were not good things.

But he was so generous to give them to him for free without asking him for a penny, what else could he say?

On the contrary, he felt a little sorry, and felt that he had taken such a big advantage.

So in the principle of fairness, he told Henry frankly that many of the gifts he gave him were extremely rare treasures.

In order not to let the other party suffer a loss, he also took the initiative to offer to buy them for 100 million francs.

But even so, he knew that the value of these things was far more than this figure even at present.

He had roughly counted these things, and there were 44 rare porcelain pieces, including five from Ru Kiln and Jun Kiln, all of which were complete, rare, and of excellent quality.

There were 11 scrolls of calligraphy and painting, 39 large wooden furniture, and many other miscellaneous items.

He had no time to carefully calculate and classify them, because the money was not much anyway.

But who knew that even if it was hundreds of millions of francs, Henry would not be interested, and actually shook his head and refused.

"Young man, what I gave you is a gift, not a deal. The most important thing about giving a gift is to make the recipient happy. Now I know that you are very satisfied, and that is enough for me. Especially now that I know through this incident that you are honest enough to treat your friends, and your character is just as I believe, then I am even happier. I don't need money. Since you told me that I don't know the value of these things, you can just keep them with peace of mind. To be honest, you have solved a problem for me. Otherwise, when I make a will, I am afraid I will have to worry about how to properly deal with these things..."

Similar words, similar thoughts, just like what Kang Shude once said to Ning Weimin.

Maybe "a white hides a hundred ugly things".

When Ning Weimin saw the completely different side of Henri Lacamier from what he knew, all the negative views of this French "old money" disappeared.

Of course, maybe it is also "eat someone's mouth and take someone's hand".

Even though he had previously disliked his arrogance and pride, and could not stand his ignorance and self-righteousness, Ning Weimin felt that he was amiable and respectable after receiving so much benefit from him this time.

Afterwards, Ning Weimin went back and carefully counted the things in his room again. The more he looked, the more excited he became.

Needless to say, he was definitely not at ease leaving those exquisite small items and porcelain in France. If they were really lost or broken by the maid when cleaning the room, he would have no place to cry, and he would become a national sinner.

So in the following days, he packed the most fragile and important things among these things and wanted to take them back to China.

Just buying cardboard boxes and soft packaging for filling and shock absorption cost him more than 100,000 francs, and he had to do it himself to seal all the things he wanted to take.

That's not all. How to get these things out of customs and how to take them away was also a hassle.

According to the specific situation in France, it was impossible for him to bring his treasures back to China by air transport. If he was intercepted by French customs, he would be accused of being a cultural relic dealer.

Moreover, due to different ideologies, the inspection from Western Europe to the mainland was particularly strict, and it was difficult to pass off fakes as real.

Later, Ning Weimin, who had been thinking about it for a long time, still consulted lawyer Henry and got a solution, that is, he had to spend money, spend a lot of money, to save the country in a roundabout way.

He spent 5 million francs to charter a special plane from Paris to Tokyo.

Then he sent the various gifts given to him by LVMH and the packaging boxes of these porcelains on the plane, and declared them in the name of commercial samples and personal belongings, and passed the inspection smoothly.

In this way, on November 30, he finally left France and returned to Tokyo with these precious treasures and a large number of LVMH luxury goods and wines.

As for how to get these cultural relics from Tokyo to China, that would be something he would continue to worry about in the future.

Anyway, Ning Weimin has been buying things in Tokyo all the time, and Japan is closer to China than France in terms of distance.

Get the things there first, and then find another way.

In fact, it can be said that Tokyo has not only become Ning Weimin's private bank, but also a transfer station for him to bring cultural relics back to China.

As for this flight, it must be the most decent one for Ning Weimin so far.

This time, let alone first class and business class, Ning Weimin even stayed in the captain's cockpit.

Three French flight attendants served him alone, and the whole plane listened to his command when he wanted to take off.

This feeling, that's really cool.

Ning Weimin, who has experience in chartering cars, realized why rich people like to buy private planes when he got on a charter plane for the first time. This taste is really cool.

It's a pity that packing these antiques is really a physically demanding job. Ning Weimin was so tired that he fell asleep not long after getting on the plane.

Otherwise, he really had to experience the feeling of having three blonde maids busying around him.

Bian Gang and Zheng Qiang were responsible for the airport pick-up.

They brought their acquaintances from the embassy with them to help with the customs clearance procedures for the goods.

So after getting off the plane, Ning Weimin was truly relaxed. It felt good to be back to his "overseas military base" and no longer have to take care of these trivial matters.

In addition, he also learned from his two subordinates that the branches of Tan Gong Restaurant in Osaka and Kyoto had basically resumed operations.

What made him most overjoyed was that Bian Gang told him that 500 kilograms of new rouge rice sent by the Agricultural University from Beijing, as well as a ton of dried chestnut mushrooms that had been cleaned and sealed in plastic, had been sent to Japan.

They are now in the warehouse at the port, waiting for him to pick up the goods.

At the same time, there was another piece of news that Ning Weimin disdained the most, but was fully expected.

Bian Gang told him that the Guo family, Asia's sugar king, had tried various methods to contact him, and even asked the embassy to contact him on their behalf.

Is this panic?

Now, it was finally the other party's turn to suffer.