Chapter 1610: 1610. Little Brick

Looking at the painting and Li Du with a pleasant smile, the hearts of the three of Sandler sank.

They realized at this moment that they had fallen into a trap.

The South American was still thinking about luck and asked, "How much is this painting?"

Li Du raised an index finger, still with a warm smile on his face.

The South American asked expectantly, "Ten thousand yuan?"

Li Du shook his head.

Sandler's face darkened: "Do you really want to buy one hundred thousand for a painting?"

Li Du continued to shake his head, and said, "It seems that your vision has limited your imagination. I mean, one hundred million dollars!"

The three gasped and shouted almost in unison: "WTF?! Are you crazy?"

Li Du said seriously: "Of course I'm not crazy, it's just that your vision limits your imagination. As far as I know, you haven't even entered the million-dollar club, have you? If I were you, I wouldn't be in a hurry Instead of taking risks, you should first find a way to improve your horizons."

Sandler said forcefully: "Stop haggling here, as if you know everything."

Li Du said: "I know more than you, and I'm not convinced? Okay, let's not talk about this painting, but about these things. What is this?"

As he spoke, he held up a small purple-red brick in front of him.

The three of Sandler wanted to prove that their vision was strong enough, but no matter how they looked, they couldn't see what these bricks were.

The foolish Batron was unwilling to fail, and even more unwilling to fail in front of an opponent like Li Du. He decided to take a gamble, and coughed: "This is a kind of gemstone, no, it should be said that they are a kind of natural gem. Spar is a type of feldspar."

Li Du looked at him in surprise and said, "How do you know?"

His expression made Batron feel overjoyed, but he guessed it blindly, and he couldn't tell the specific information, so he made a mysterious look and said, "Of course I know..."

"You know a hammer." Li Du didn't give him a chance to continue pretending. He opened the other boxes, revealing piles of purple-red bricks. "So many gemstones together? Dare the emerald mining area?"

"What do you mean?" Bartron asked unconvinced.

Li Du said: "This is an antique!"

A curious spectator next to him asked, "What kind of antique is this? Is it your Chinese porcelain?"

Pieces of small purple-red bricks exude a crystal luster in the sun, and they really look like finely fired porcelain.

Li Du shook his head and said: "No, don't you recognize it? But this thing hasn't been seen for a long time. This is a grape brick. It is estimated that there must be an antique grape brick that has survived for 70 or 80 years!"

"Grape brick?" Playboy asked subconsciously.

The magic hand showed a suddenly realized expression, and said: "I wanted to say this answer just now. This should be wine bricks, right? Things made from dehydrated grape juice were mostly used in wine during the Prohibition period in the United States. Production."

On January 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Prohibition Act, came into effect.

According to this law, it is illegal to manufacture, sell or even transport beverages with alcohol content exceeding 0.5%. It is not illegal to drink alcohol at home by yourself, but it is illegal to drink with friends or hold a banquet, and you can be fined up to $1,000 and imprisoned for six months.

The Prohibition Act has left a strong mark in the modern history of the United States, and many stories have been born as a result.

Li Du had come into contact with items created by the Prohibition Act before, such as a moonshine brewer. This time, the function of the wine brick was the same as that of the moonshine brewing tool, and it was also used for private brewing.

With wine banned, many winemakers continued to produce grapes, or cut down the vines and planted another crop, while others turned to vine bricks in order to continue to profit from the wine.

So much dehydrated grape must became popular, as bricks could be formally dissolved in water to make must or wine without official fermentation when prohibited, making winemakers who owned vineyards especially profitable.

Under Prohibition, grapes could be grown, but only if they were not used as a crop to make alcohol. Also, if winemakers sell grapes to others, they themselves could be jailed once they learn they are going to make wine from those grape bricks.

This means that winemakers must deny their grapes the ability to make wine.

To combat this, winemakers warn those who buy grape bricks not to leave the grape bricks in water for too long, or it will start to ferment and turn into wine.

However, because grape juice is made into wine bricks, its texture and taste will be greatly affected, so it is an immature wine substitute. It has not existed for a long time in history, and was later eliminated by the market.

None of the people present had experienced that crazy era. Grape bricks were not a famous character in that era, so few people knew them. If Li Du hadn't turned back time and saw the process of making them, he wouldn't have known about them. What is this.

These wine bricks were born in South America. After they were made, they found that the market effect was not good, so they were stored. Because they are made by dehydration, they have a long shelf life.

Of course, the shelf life is long, these grape bricks are not broken, but the taste is already very bad.

While introducing, Li Du took a piece and put it into a cup. After pouring hot water into it, the grape bricks melted and turned into purple-red grape juice. You can taste the sweet and sour taste after licking it with your tongue.

Grape bricks were not of great value at the time, but now, nearly a century has passed, and these things have become a rarity in modern times. Li Du thinks that putting them on the market should attract the interest of many nostalgics .

After confirming Grape Brick's identity, Sandler stared at Li Du and said, "I admit, man, your vision is better than ours, but what's going on with this painting?"

Li Du shrugged and said: "As you can see, I also bought a painting. My eyes tell me that this painting is worth hundreds of millions. It is not the work of a painter like the paintings you bought. In this way, this painting actually means nothing to you, you bought it in memory of a friend, right?"

Looking at Li Du's smile and the painting in his hand, Sandler felt chills all over his body. He is not stupid, on the contrary, he is very shrewd.

At this moment, he had already realized that they had fallen into a trap, and the painting in Li Du's hand was their goal. They spent hundreds of thousands to buy a pile of rubbish for nothing!

Bell also guessed what was going on, and sighed: "As I said, don't mess with him, I'm doing it for your own good!"