You Were Fooled
TL: Hedonist
"Young Friend, you do sincerely came to Old Man Pang for that thing, did ya?" When Pang Guojun saw the black card, a big smile blossomed on his face.
"Mr. Pang, let's stop wasting time. Where's that thing?" Guo Huai asked as he squinted.
Pang Guojun lead Guo Huai to a remote cabin and pushed open the door. It was pitch-black inside the cabin, but a very familiar sensation made Guo Huai very excited. Indeed, it was that thing.
Ting! The lights in the cabin were switched on. A big pool water could be seen with something like a huge chunk of rotting flesh placed inside.
"Young Friend, I believe I don't have to introduce you what this is, right?" Pang Guojun said with a smile.
Around a month ago, Pang Guojun went to Dove Island to collect medicinal ingredients. When he went past a small village named Longshigou, he saw an old man pushing a chunk of rotten flesh. Suddenly, at that moment, he recalled something that his teacher who taught him about medicinal ingredients had said. A long time ago, Tai Sui used to be found in Longshigou. Its exterior looked like rotten meat, and it's a treasure that's hard to come by.
[TL note: Tai Sui is a variety of Ganoderma lucidum fungus]
Pang Guojun followed the elderly man to his home, and purchased the 65kg Tai Sui at the rate of 14 cents per kg. He knew in his heart that he can't let too many people learn of it. How much could it be worth? One million? Five million? Ten million? As long as he could meet the right buyer, he could sell it for a sky-high price. And when Guo Huai came, he felt that the right buyer has arrived.
"65 kilograms of Tai Sui." Guo Huai squinted his eyes as he looked at the huge thing inside the pool of water, as he exerted all his strength to conceal the happiness in his heart. Normally, a regular Tai Sui won't weight more than 50 kg. The father of his Third Brother Wang Sheng, owned a Tai Sui as well. He grew it nine years and it only weighs 49.5 kg.
"Young Friend, now you've seen it with your eyes. I believe you could easily tell if it's genuine or faked," Pang Guojun said smilingly.
"Mr. Pang, please name me a price." Guo Huai grew even more straightforward, and said with a smile, "This thing isn't small, but not all things are the bigger the better. For example, there, those ginseng with the thickness of a thumb in your courtyard, they are in fact only as potent as a white radish.
"Ahem, Ahem. Young Friend, I bought this thing for 100 thousand yuan per kg. Take a closer look and name me your offer, just think of it as us making friends. As Young Friend here is operating a clinic, we will have dealings with each other for a long time to come," Pang Guojun said with a smile. He knew that Tai Sui is some really good stuff, but there has been quite some news coverage about Tai Sui in the country, which reported that the price ranged from 20 thousand yuan per kg all the way up to 80 thousand yuan per kg. Moreover, given that Guo Huai was somethat who know the ropes, it'd be hard to sell it for some ridiculously high price.
You little shithead, you bought it for 14 cents per kg and now you want to sell it for 100 thousand per kg? It seems that even I'm not as bold as you are when it comes to doing business. Guo Huai thought in his heart. Fine. 100 thousand it is then. This King of Tai Sui can be used to refine Skin Whitening Pills. 0.5kg can produce a thousand of those pills, and each of them can sell for ten million yuan. The profit margin seems pretty good. Pang Guojun saw that Guo Huai was somewhat hesitating, and thought that the price he asked might had been too high.
"Young Friend, today is the first time I've met you, but you and I are like old friends from the start. Therefore, I shall offer you a friend price. It's better to make friends than to make money. How about 60 thousand per kg?" Pang Guojun said smilingly. Actually, it was Guo Huai's statement that not everything is the bigger the better, that made Pang to have second thoughts, and greatly lowered his expected value of the Tai Sui.
"OK, I'll accept your offer. In addition, I will take all the Chinese medicines in your courtyard. Name me a fair price for them. We shall cooperate with each other more oftenly in the future," Guo Huai said with a smile. He did not expect just because he thought for a while longer, that inaction alone saved him a little less than 3 million yuan.
"Alrighty, I will deliver them to your clinic very soon. May I know where's Young Friend's clinic located?" Pang Guojun asked with a smile. 60 thousand yuan per kg? He just made a fortune!
"Clinic of No Treatment, No. 388, Xinglin Street. I won't trouble Mr. Pang for this huge thing, I'll take care of this myself. As for those Chinese medicines, have your men deliver them to me after they've been packaged," Guo Huai said with a smile.
What happened after that gave Old Man Pang yet another shock of his life. 65kg of Tai Sui adding to the pool of water weighs would around 150kg. Guo Huai and Jade each grabbed one side, and easily carried the whole thing away. That made Old Man Pang to take another good look at the duo.
"Mr. Pang need not to send us off. I will come back to swipe my card in a while," Guo Huai said. The two hurried to beside their vehicle, and the massive black plastic bag then disappeared. Of course, Guo Huai stored it in the Laojun Gourd.
"Today is really a lucky day, I didn't leave this place empty handed. Haha." Guo Huai held Jade's hand and returned to Pang Guojun's shop. Taking those Chinese medicinal herbs into consideration, they altogether costed 5.8 million yuan. Old Man Pang sent Guo Huai and Jade off like how he'd send his own father off. Although he did not manage to get rid of those poor quality medicinal herbs, it was a huge relief to have sold the Tai Sui for a good price.
"Fellow students, take a good look at this ginseng. I think your teacher should had mentioned this to all of you. This is a wild ginseng. It takes ten years just for it to grow to this tiny. Ten thousand yuan. I can't give you any price lower than this. If Young Friend takes this, I will also give you this package of ginseng as a present," a middle aged woman said smilingly as she was trying to make Chen Jiadi accept the offer.
Chen Jiadi looked at the women in front of him, who was from the same hometown as his, and finally nodded his head. He purchased that thirteen years old wild ginseng for ten thousand yuan. His action caused one of the student from Chinese medical school beside him to shout in his heart the word 'dumb fool!'.
In those three hours of their stay, the eighteen students had purchased quite a lot of stuffs. Guo Huai took a quick look at those goods. Those from Chinese medical school did okay. At least they did bought some good Chinese medicinal herbs. Although they weren't cheap, Guo Huai could accept that. On the other hand, students from Western medical school didn't spend less than their counterpart, but what they purchased basically could only be fed to pigs. No, perhaps pigs can't consume those either, it might kill them.
Twenty something people then left the Xiafeng Chinese herbal medicine wholesale market. The owners of those shops they visited, all had the same red happy face. That was because they all had earned quite some amount of cash from these groups of students.
When Gua Huai and his students drove and arrived back at the Clinic of No Treatment, Zhou Tianyang was making preparations to start cooking their meal. Zhou Tianyang had bought many cooking ingredients in his trip. Apart from some fresh fish and fresh chicken, most of the cooking ingredients had been washed, prepared, and placed on table.
"Little Huai, since you guys are back, I will start cooking now. There will be chicken and fish. Although this obviously can't compare with the meal in the midday, it definitely will taste better than those restaurants out there. If there's something you guys want to it, you may propose it now," Zhou Tianyang said with a smile.
"Uncle Zhou, today we bought quite a lot of Chinese medicinal herbs. Why not make some medicinal cuisines for tonight?" Guo Huai said with a smile.
"Haha, sure. Actually I do know some recipes for medicinal cuisines. What did you all purchase? Let me have a look," Zhou Tianyang said with a smile. He then opened each and every bags and looked inside. At first, he was slightly nodding his head. But soon after he started to knit his brows instead.
"Who bought this ginseng? Spent quite a lot did ya?" Zhou Tianyang picked up the 'wild ginseng' Chen Jiadi bought and asked with a smile.
"Uncle Zhou, it was me, I bought this ginseng from someone from someone from the same hometown as mine. It's only ten thousand yuan. Cheap right? They even give me a bag of ginseng for it." Chen Jiadi replied smilingly.
"A thirteen year old ginseng for ten thousand yuan. That is no different than just giving it away to you." Zhou Tianyang continued, "Ten years ago I bought a nine year old wild ginseng. The elderly man sold it to me for 180 thousand with great reluctance."
"Hmm then how much could this thirteen year old ginseng sell for?" Chen Jiadi asked excitingly.
Smilingly, Zhou Tianyang raised his index finger and kept silent.
"One million?? It can fetch such a high price?? No wonder Chinese medicine did not decline for all these years! The profit margin is so great! Much higher than that of Western medicine," Chen Jiadi mumbled.
"Youngster, take out four zeros. You were fooled," Zhou Tianyang said and shook his head.