Boeing pa.s.senger planes from New York, USA to London, UK stop at London Heathrow Airport.Chen Rui walked off the plane.
"Mr. Chen?" A tall suit, sungla.s.ses, and a tall man with a cold expression came over and asked Chen Rui.
"I am."
"The Earl of Hill asked me to pick you up, please come with me."
Chen Rui followed the men in black sungla.s.ses and came to a luxurious car.
The man opened the rear door and let Chen Rui sit in.
Then pull the front door open, sit in the driver"s seat, and drive the car to the London area.
After half an hour.
The car stopped before it reached a manor.
There was a black bodyguard waiting here, seeing the car stop, and quickly walked up to help Chen Rui pull the door.
Chen Rui got off the bus and looked around.
This is a medieval-style manor house with large stone pillars carved with statues full of medieval style.
The wall is made up of large, small, and chaotic rocks. It has an irregular beauty. This irregular beauty is like the "gold wire" on the kiln, the pathological incomplete beauty, the pathological defect. Beauty gives people a different sense of aesthetics.
The wall has been hit by the wind and rain, and the erosion of the years, looks mottled, old and vicissitudes.
Through the mottled walls, people can intuitively feel the long history of the manor and the cultural precipitation.
"Mr. Chen, I am the steward of the count, Burke Wise, the Earl is waiting for you in the living room, please come with me." A middle-aged man in a tuxedo, very medieval gentleman, came over, against Chen Rui Said.
Approaching HIll Manor with Burke.
The black bodyguards in the manor looked cold.
Several dog handlers held four German shepherds in each hand to patrol.
In one corner of the manor, several huge iron cages, each with a wild, untrained fierce cheetah.
Sitting on a battery car with Burke, along the aisle of the lawn leads to the main building in the middle of the manor.
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Chen, you are welcome to my manor."
"Thank you for the invitation."
"Sit down."
Earl Hill and Chen Rui sit down.
"Like tea or coffee." Earl Hill asked Chen Rui.
"Drink tea."
The Burke butler next to the silence whispered to the maid.
Soon, the maid came to a tea set and a pot of tea.
Earl Hill personally poured a cup of Chen Rui and poured himself a cup.
"This is the West Lake Longjing produced in your China. It has a flat and beautiful appearance, a green color, a good taste of the afternoon, soaked in the cup, and the leaves are green. It is "green, fragrant, sweet and beautiful. Is absolutely famous, this small tea is the best tea produced in Longjing, and the 18 teas leaves are the finest buds plucked before the rain." Earl Hill is very familiar with Chinese tea culture.
I used to go to college, and an old professor who had brought Chen Rui loved to drink tea. When I was free, I talked to Chen Rui about some knowledge about tea.
Eighteen pieces of royal tea and fine buds before the rain, Chen Rui knows a little.
It said in legend, a monk presented the tea leaves to the Qianlong Emperor as tribute.
On the way home, the Longjing tea was brought back to the Queen, and the Queen Mother"s liver sick was wiped out after drinking. Even said that this Longjing tea is like a panacea.
Qianlong Emperor immediately pa.s.sed the decree of sealing the eighteen tea trees in front of the Temple of "Royal Tea", which was collected annually and was exclusively for the Queen.
The fine buds before the rain take a shot and a shot, and the annual output is particularly small, very precious.
In 2005, in the West Lake Longjing Tea Garden, 100 grams of 18 teas were ordered at a price of 728,000 yuan a pound. After 10 years, the price has not only increased several times.
Chen Rui took the teacup and looked at it.
The tea leaves are soaked in water and the leaves are green.
The water is clear, green and bright.
Smell it with your nose, the aroma is tender and fragrant.
In the end, Chen Rui took a sip of the teacup and tasted it fresh and sweet.
"Sure enough, it is the best tea." Chen Rui said.
After drinking the tea, Chen Rui"s eyes suddenly attracted the cup on his opponent.
The cup is in the hand, light and clever, with a sense of lightness.
The body is exquisite and thin, giving a kind of awkward transparency.
The texture is warm, and through the light, you can see the green tea inside.
The ornamentation of the cup is also very beautiful. The cup is carved with a variety of art combinations such as round carving, embossing and hollow carving. The pattern of the leaves is painted on the table with the technique of smear, which is the first time to sculpt the carving. The bas-relief pattern creates a visual contrast between the b.u.mps and enhances its artistic expression.
The carved lotus flower buds contain sputum, as fine as hair, and there is no axe and chisel.
This is a white jade teacup carved from a whole piece of white jade.
Chen Rui thought of a jade, called the trace of Stan Yu, also back, teach jade or Islamic jade.
During the Qing Emperor Qianlong, the House of Internal Affairs set up a workshop dedicated to the imitation of the traces of Stan Jade, which absorbed the advantages of the unique shape, smooth pattern and thin body of the traces of Stan, and combined with the traditional methods of Chinese craftsmanship, created with unique style jade.
Chen Rui carefully admired the blue and white jade cup in his hand with appreciation.
"Mr. Chen is also not interested in antiques." Earl Hill saw Chen Rui appreciate the cup in his hand with a look of appreciation, asked with a smile.
Chen Rui put down the white jade cup and said with a smile, "Antiquities is the history in hand. I think that antiques is the carrier of culture, the testimony of history, and the information of past history and culture can be understood through every antique indulge in it.
Moreover, through "antique", you can taste a person"s sentiment."
At the time of college, Chen Rui was very interested in antiques at an accidental opportunity. Since then, he has time to go to school. The nearby antique street and antique city feel the vicissitudes of life and culture that are revealed from each antique.
It is endless.
Earl Hill is also an antique fan.
He has a deep knowledge of art appraisal and appreciation.
What Chen Rui is different, Earl Hill has money and he can buy any artwork he likes.
In his family"s collection, he has collected more than 2,000 pieces of British and foreign art from more than 500 years, from medieval furniture and decorations, paintings, neocla.s.sical sculptures, books and other works of art, including four Pica.s.so painting. The works of Andrew Wise and Monet also include ancient Chinese ceramics, cloisonne, and tomb sculptures of the Tang Dynasty.
The two talked very much.
Earl Hill visited Chen Chen with his estate.
The manor is large, more than 1,000 acres, including the main building, the living room, the collection room, 11 manmade lakes, green lawns, ponds, woods, gardens, sloping fields, mountain rivers, horse farms, etc.