Chapter 721 Su Lei’s new business
This time, after Su Lei had sold off all the fur hides and received the money, he suddenly felt like he was living the dream.
Before this, he had never once thought he would have so much cash on him.
For the past two days, Su Lei slept with the money close to him until he finally deposited it into the bank account he had just opened in Fortress 178. He was the only one who knew the password.
After that, Su Lei started sleeping alone. When he slept, he would make sure no one was around him. He was worried he would reveal the password accidentally if he talked in his sleep.
Su Lei purchased a large quantity of daily necessities at Stronghold 144. These were the items the young man from the grasslands requested.
Last time, Su Lei was too poor and did not manage to get all the items. This time, in order to build a good relationship with the customer, he picked all the best quality items to buy. He believed the young lord was a smart person, and that when he saw these items, he would know just how much effort Su Lei had put in.
He had also considered what Zhang Gong told him. Even if he had bought cheap ironware to supply the customer, it was still ironware nonetheless. But every time Su Lei remembered the young man’s half-smile, he felt it was better not to deceive a smart person like that.
Not only that, Su Lei even purposely used a portion of the money he had received to buy gifts for the young lord from the grasslands. There was even an exquisite revolver among the gifts. Rumor had it that it used to belong to a high-ranking official of the Zong Consortium, and that he had sold off everything and fled to the Wang Consortium prior to Fortress 178 taking control of the Northwest.
Initially, that official did not want to sell this gun, but the people in the black market forcefully bought it from him anyway.
The black market’s boss even laughed and said, “You should have seen how cowardly that bastard was back then. He used to be all high and mighty, but he did not dare to make a sound even though he had a gun in his hand.”
Su Lei understood then that some people were born to be sheep. Even if they relied on their kin in the Zong Consortium and climbed to a high-ranking position, it would not change their natures.
Now that firearms were difficult to obtain, they should be in even shorter supply in a place like the grasslands, right?
Su Lei once thought about keeping the revolver for himself as he really liked it. But after some thought, he placed it back into the wooden box it came in. The bottom of the box was covered in velvet.
Compared to his future business, would a gun be more important?
Su Lei had been trying to establish a relationship with the garrison troops in Stronghold 144 for the past few days, but reality told him he was still only a small fry. No one cared about him a single bit.
“Boss, why are you always hanging around those Fortress 178 soldiers these days? We’re bandits, so we had better not get found out by them,” Zhang Gong said.
Next to them, Cui Qiang, who was polishing his dagger, said, “Boss has his own plans. Why do you care so much?”
Su Lei sighed. “That young lord in the grasslands definitely wants to get some firearms, and if we intend to sell firearms to him, it definitely won’t work without the support of the Fortress 178 troops. But it’s still early days, so let’s wait until a chance comes by in the future.”
Actually, Su Lei knew that his reselling of daily necessities was only a small business. A place like the grasslands would not have the ability to manufacture their own firearms, but which ruler would not want to have weapons so that they could stabilize their rule?
Therefore, only a future firearms business would allow him to reach the pinnacle of his life.
At this moment, a man suddenly sat down across from them and said with a smile, “Hello, are you Su Lei?”
When this man came over, Cui Qiang hid his dagger, and his muscles tensed. He was ready to pounce forward for the kill at any moment.
Su Lei patted Cui Qiang on the arm before turning to look at the man opposite him and said with a smile, “Yes, I’m Su Lei. You are?”
The man smiled and said, “Who I am is not important. I heard that you all came here from the steppe?”
“That’s not it. We only did some business with the nomads,” Su Lei said calmly.
“Oh.” The man took out 10,000 yuan and stuffed it into Su Lei’s hands. “Tell me about the situation in the steppe and this 10,000 yuan is yours.”
Su Lei frowned. He suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of pressure from the other party’s words. This person had just casually sat down in the wilderness outside Stronghold 144 without any fear that the several dozen of them would kill him.
Cui Qiang sneered, “You sure are ballsy, but why should our boss tell you that?”
“Because my fists are bigger,” the man said with a smile.
“Can’t you see how many people we have here?” Cui Qiang said coldly. “Oh?” The man smiled and said, “Then why don’t you turn and look outside?”
Su Lei looked back in shock. He was surprised to find they had been surrounded by dozens of plainclothes men armed with weapons at some point in time. The black muzzles were all locked onto them and within shooting range.
These were regular troops! They were definitely regular troops!
Could they be Fortress 178’s troops? No, if they were from Fortress 178, they would not need to be dressed in plain clothes to deal with bandits like them.
The man said with a smile, “Su Lei, in that bandit town in the Northwest, although it no longer exists, you all were the only ones that survived. You even managed to make a deal with the nomads.”
Su Lei said calmly, “Sir, have we ever offended you in the past?” “No.” The man shook his head.
“Then why are you threatening us like this?” Su Lei asked, “Since you’ve come to look for us, you must have a motive, right? Just tell us directly what you want. Our bandit lives are worthless.”
“Haha, what a straightforward person!” The man cut off a piece of meat from a goat leg. “Tell me about the steppe.”
“We didn’t go to the steppe. We only delivered some daily necessities to them at the agreed upon location. After that, they handed over the fur hides and other local specialties to us,” Su Lei said.
“Oh, do they have a very powerful force?” the man asked.
“I don’t know if they’re powerful or not, but I’m very good at judging people. The person making the decisions is extremely smart. I believe that even if they aren’t the most powerful force in the steppe, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future,” Su Lei said firmly.
“What does he want?” the man asked.
“Daily necessities, ironware, and medicine.” Su Lei said, “But with medicine being a controlled substance under Fortress 178, we can’t buy enough even if we had the money.”
“Don’t they want weapons?” the man asked.
“Yes, but we can’t get those,” Su Lei admitted honestly.
The man smiled. “Fortress 178 will not sell any weapons to you all to aid the nomads. That’s because once the nomads get stronger, they’ll become a threat to the Central Plains. Zhang Jinglin will definitely not want to see a bloodbath happen.”
When Su Lei heard this, he realized he was just a small-time bandit after all. He did not understand much about the situation or the important figures from the various forces, so he was unaware of something like that.
Only now did he realize that Fortress 178 would not possibly sell them any firearms. In that case, his business would have to be limited to reselling daily necessities. This left Su Lei feeling a little bad.
But the man changed the subject. “But while Fortress 178 will not sell you firearms, we can. Let’s start over and get to know each other again. Hi, my name is Xu Man.”