"Where's that beer bottle of yours? Let me play with it again."
As soon as Niu Ma entered the lounge, he eagerly asked.
"What do you need it for, big guy?"
He asked.
"I've got this super hard walnut, I want to see which one is tougher."
Niu Ma lifted his hoof, revealing a walnut the color and luster of fresh pig's blood.
"Isn't this a collectible walnut? You can't eat it, why smash it?"
Liu Zheng recognized it at a glance.
The trend of playing with walnuts has existed since ancient times, reaching its peak during the Qing Dynasty, ranking among the Four Elegances (walnuts, bird cages, fans, gourds).
Around the 60s and 70s, collectible walnuts began to revive, peaking around 2013 when they could fetch sky-high prices of tens of thousands per pair.
However, after 2015, the price of collectible walnuts started to plummet, reaching the equivalent of cabbage prices.
The reasons are many, but the rise of industrialization and online shopping are definitely among them.
