The atmosphere here was like that of an underground factory.
The deeper one walked inside, the heavier the air beca with dampness and mold, causing so discomfort.
Song Heping advanced cautiously, afraid of stepping on sothing slippery or touching sharp rocks on the cave walls.
The echo inside the cave made every footstep sound especially loud, as if reverberating in the spacious cavern.
"First, let's take a look at our raw material warehouse. We've had a good harvest this year, with one thousand five hundred tons of raw material stored here. This year, our production of opium by the Revolutionary Brigade is estimated to account for about 35% of the entire Golden Crescent region, making a partnership with us definitely Boss Han's best choice..."
Song Heping actually wasn't interested in Hula's boasting.
He kept his attention on the surrounding terrain.
He soon noticed an interesting phenonon: the deeper they went, the more frequently they passed through doors at certain intervals.
And the solidity of these doors seed to be increasing.
Perhaps the areas further inside were more important, hence the security level was stepped up gradually.
Inside the cave, they occasionally encountered soldiers ard to the teeth, unlike the busy workers, they were not involved in production but were responsible for security.
After walking about four hundred ters, under Hula's guidance, they stepped through an iron door and the space suddenly opened up before them.
At the end of the corridor was a massive warehouse.
They had hollowed out the mountain, encompassing thousands of square ters, filled with various wooden crates neatly stacked on the ground.
Hula asked Song Heping, "Does Boss Han want to take a look at the goods?"
Take a look at the goods?
Song Heping really didn't understand this.
He was just an impostor.
But he still had to pretend.
So he walked over to Hula, nodded, and said, "Yes, I want to see the goods. After all, my annual sales volu is not small, and you, Deputy, must ensure a steady supply every year, otherwise if my buyers can't get the goods, they would hold it against ."
Hula made a signal, and a guard ca up to pry open one of the boxes.
Song Heping saw that it was filled with a blackish substance.
"This is raw opium, simply processed. Every year we go to various villages in the south to collect these raw materials, which have undergone simple processing, then we refine them further here before finally packaging them..."
"Deputy," Song Heping interrupted, "I don't know about the quality of your production process. What is the purity of number four? How high can it reach?"
Song Heping was practically dealing in real-ti; a lot of his knowledge on the subject was learned just a few days ago, all provided by ISA in so packaging materials.
For instance, when he asked about the production standard, he was actually referring to the purification process.
H has several grades, commonly known as levels.
Number one and number two have a crude appearance similar to grey-brown bricks, known as "green skin," "yellow skin," or "black skin," and are usually smoked in a heated state.
Number three, also known as "brown sugar," "white dragon beads," and so on, sotis cos in powder form, with colors ranging from light brown to dark grey.
The morphine acetyl compound in number three usually ranges from 25-45%, and the caffeine content from 30-60%, often with impurities mixed in.
Number four can have up to 98% diacetylmorphine content in its pure state and should be a white powder.
But if made poorly, it can be a light yellow, pink, sandy, or brown coarse powder or granules.
Generally speaking, buyers always ask about purity.
Because although the highest purity of number four is 98%, the minimum standard is 80%, and there's a large range of variance therein.
This huge range provides a vast profit margin for buyers.
Because at every stage of distribution in the market, the purity of H decreases by one level, until it reaches the hands of the addicts. By then, anything over 50% purity is considered decent, and many would directly adulterate it with all sorts of miscellaneous substances. The lowest-level dealers may even crush so white cold pills bought from a drugstore and mix them in.
This kind of trickery is very common.
Hence, the higher the purity of the goods one gets firsthand, the greater the proportion of adulteration possible, and therefore, the larger the profit margin.
For this reason, the quality of the goods produced in various locations varies greatly.
As for the varying levels of quality, that depends on the technique or professional "ethics" of firsthand suppliers like Hula.
"You can rest assured about the purity!"
Hula was full of confidence.
"In the entire Blue Star, our Golden Star Moon's product is the best. In the Golden Crescent region, no one dares to claim they're first if our Revolutionary Brigade says we're second!"
"So what's the purity?"
Song Heping's performance was very successful.
"No matter how much you boast, I have to verify the purity."
"Purity is the key."
"Only an old hand would catch such a crucial point."
Indeed, Hula squinted his eyes and started to smile.
"Boss Han is really an expert, but you're in luck. Just last year, we hired an engineer, and his craftsmanship is better than all the previous ones. We can achieve a purity of up to 99%, only thing is..."
He chuckled heh-heh.
"Good stuff doesn't co cheap."
"I want the good stuff, the price is a separate matter. As long as it's reasonable, I'll take the best stuff." Song Heping put on his full act: "Deputy doesn't matter what you say; I need to see the goods."
"Fine." Hula made a welcoming gesture: "Follow , let's go to the final packaging area and have a look."
The packaging area?
Song Heping was really eye-opening.
Damn.
It was pretty formal.
The group left the raw material warehouse, and after a series of twists and turns, arrived at a spacious cave.
The entrance to this cave was tightly closed, with the ventilation system humming. Two guards stood at the door, and before entering, you had to put on a gas mask.
This place was no smaller than the previous warehouse, but inside were all kinds of machines and long tables.
Next to the tables were workers all wearing gas masks.
On those long tables were big plastic boxes filled with white powder.
Different workers filled them, then passed them to the brick pressers, who used machines to compress the powder into bricks, then sealed them in bags just like packaging products before putting them into the final moisture-proof boxes...
Besides these workers, there were also technical staff responsible for quality inspection, constantly sampling and supervising the work of all workers.
If it weren't for the fact that he saw these white powders on the tables, Song Heping would have thought he had arrived in a production workshop of a large factory.
Actually, Song Heping intended to see this final packaging process as a deliberate act.
Because usually, such packaging areas would require masks, Adrian was about to arrive, and wearing a mask could at least buy him so ti to look for a better assassination opportunity.
Song Heping deliberately dawdled in the workshop, looking here and there, going through the entire packaging process, and then looking at the final packaged product.
While looking, he played the expert, praising the product.
"Hmm... This quality is not bad."
"Hmm... The quality is good, but your quality control has so issues. Deputy, co here, look, is the color of this brick a bit off? And here, see the dust? You need to pay attention to quality..."
From the mont he entered until now, Song Heping had dawdled the longest in this place.
"Deputy!"
Soon, a guard walked in from outside and whispered sothing to Hula's ear.
Rabbani seed a bit unsettled.
He glanced over at Song Heping several tis.
Although he didn't know what the guard said, Song Heping vaguely guessed that it was probably Adrian's arrival.
As expected, after Hula heard the guard's report, he turned to Rabbani to translate.
"Mr. Adrian has arrived. Boss Han, don't you want to go out and see?"
Shaking his head with the gas mask on, Song Heping said, "Let him co straight here, I'm looking at the goods!"
"Alright then."
Hula thought Song Heping must have been captivated by the quality of the goods here.
Having Adrian co here wasn't a bad idea; he also wanted to show Adrian the craftsmanship of the new engineer they hired and the quality of this year's product.
"Go, tell the boss that Boss Han is inspecting goods in the packaging workshop, and have them co straight here to see this year's product."
"Yes, Deputy."
After the guard left, Song Heping turned to Mist, and through the gas masks, their eyes t, exchanging a look that said they had an unspoken understanding.
Finally, the ti for action was near.
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