In the carriage, Zhou Jiao drew the word "buy" on Zhang Guoqing’s palm. Seeing his confused face, she winked at him and continued to draw: "cheap."
Zhang Guoqing rolled his eyes at her speechlessly but eventually nodded. In his heart, he was planning to buy mature cultivated ginseng; younger ones were no better than radish.
Zhou Jiao knew what he was thinking and said in a low voice: "No catalyst, no contamination, it’s worth it."
Zhang Guoqing nodded.
Worried that his standards were too high, Zhou Jiao, still uneasy, took out a purchase list from her pocket and handed it to him, signaling him to take a look.
Zhang Guoqing glanced at her, took it, and saw it was densely packed with small writing: items like Heshma Oil, Hericium Mushroom, Schisandra, Rhodiola, and even deer tendons and deer penises...
There were so many parts derived from deer, and also bear paw, bear gallbladder, tianma, pine nuts, soft kiwifruit, embroidered pillowcases, and so on... Luckily she rembered all these nas.
If not for the presence of outsiders, Zhang Guoqing would have laughed out loud. Why didn’t his wife include the wild grasses of Changbai Mountain?
Seeing his expression, Zhou Jiao pinched a bit of at on his waist furiously. Don’t think she didn’t notice his smiling eyes; why were they amused? Since they had co, she wasn’t planning on backing off. In a few years when the situation tightens, money will be even more useless.
Zhang Guoqing glanced at Uncle Wang, who was snoring, and reassuringly patted his wife’s head, giving her a firm nod. This little wildcat sure had nimble claws!
The couple silently engaged in humorous banter as the long three-hour-plus journey eventually led the cart to a farmhouse at the foot of Dashan.
Lin Quan called out from outside the courtyard, and from inside ca out a middle-aged woman with a face full of smiles. Looking at her clothes which had no patches, it was clear that Lin Quan’s family’s financial situation wasn’t bad.
Particularly when the couple ntioned their children all attending school in the town, whether boys or girls, and how Lin Quan was the only one in the production team driving the horse cart and serving as part-ti accountant.
As they entered the outer house, Zhou Jiao first noticed the ga hanging on the pillar and then the aroma of chicken stew with mushrooms. Upon entering the bedroom and seeing a sewing machine, she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
After getting familiar with Aunt Lin, learning that she worked in the town’s sewing office when not busy farming, Zhou Jiao wasn’t surprised anymore. This family’s conditions were high-class by any standard.
"Uncle, you’re growing younger by the day. Stay a bit longer this ti, my father will be back soon too. Then you brothers can et up."
Mr. Wang understood that Lin Quan’s wife’s ntion of "father" referred to his older brother. His brother was used to freedom, never married in his life, adopted Lin Quan both as a son and a disciple.
Hearing this, he smiled and shook his head, "Seeing him always annoys ; where has that old fellow run off to this ti?"
Aunt Lin laughed: "Haha... For the past two years, my father didn’t go out because of the bad annual conditions. Just months ago, he ntioned going to check on the little uncle."
Mr. Wang muttered: "That old devil didn’t even ntion it to . I also want to visit little brother."
Lin Quan gave his wife a look, signaling her to go out and prepare the dishes.
"Uncle, have a cup of water first. I’ve cooked your favorite chicken and mushrooms, we’ll start eating soon."
Mr. Wang nodded with a smile, "No need to prepare specially. This is my eldest, and this couple is the grandson of my lifelong friend, all family, don’t overdo it."
After Uncle Wang greeted them, Zhang Guoqing and his wife also exchanged pleasantries with them.
After lunch, Lin Quan let Mr. Wang and his son rest in his master’s east room, vacating his eldest son’s bedroom for Zhang Guoqing’s family.
After making arrangents, he himself went to several nearby households before going to work in the afternoon, asking them to bring their goods over after everyone headed off to work.
After eating to satisfaction, everyone took a nap until after 2 p.m., awakening to find Lin Quan’s wife had prepared mountain tea and hot water. Seeing them co out, she quickly smiled: "Uncle, I have to go to town later. The children’s father will be back within half an hour. If you need anything, just look for it inside."
Everyone coming out understood she was avoiding the arrival of a few people for the transaction. Though feeling her cautiousness was unnecessary, they all looked at Mr. Wang, waiting for his decision.
Mr. Wang nodded: "Co back early. If the kids at their grandmother’s place have nothing to do, let them co over for to see."
"Alright. I got it."
After she left, Mr. Wang spoke to Zhang Guoqing: "When they co over later, decide what you want and the price together as a couple. If you encounter bad goods, don’t be embarrassed and suffer a loss."
Zhang Guoqing nodded: "Alright, I’ll see what you an by then."
Mr. Wang smiled, "How much cash did you bring this ti? If it’s a lot, press down so prices."
Zhang Guoqing had long thought of what to say and awkwardly touched his head: "Quite a lot. On this trip back from Beijing, besides several relatives and elders, a few close classmates also entrusted quite a bit of money for to bring goods. It all added up to quite a sum, plus I plan to buy so myself, there’s several tens of thousands of yuan."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Wang wasn’t surprised at all; on the contrary, Uncle Wang next to him choked on his tea upon hearing, prompting his father to scold laughingly: "Look at you, if it were less, would we make this trip far?"
Uncle Wang cleared his throat, "Dad, that’s over ten thousand yuan, not small change. Didn’t you see they brought only two bags with a child? Their nerve is certainly big."
"Uncle, I put half in the kid’s backpack and sewed most into the luggage compartnt, generally people won’t find it. Actually, ten thousand yuan sounds like a lot, but if you really find wild ginseng over three or five hundred years old, you can’t buy many roots."
Here Zhang Guoqing tried to obscure the amount of money, but he was not worried about arousing jealousy from Mr. Wang and his son. Before sleeping, Zhou Jiao ntioned to him, judging by Mr. Wang’s bloated belly and Uncle Wang’s frequent belly-touching act, the Wang family must have brought at least twenty thousand yuan this trip.
With their family taking out twenty thousand yuan, and combining with friends and relatives having sowhat around fifty thousand yuan wasn’t surprising. What’s left, Zhang Guoqing planned to conduct alone in the coming days.
When the agreed ti arrived, Lin Quan first returned ho from the production team, and subsequently, many people ca with black bags.
In the east room, Mr. Wang and Zhou Jiao appraised the dicines, after which Lin Quan haggled over the price quoted by the counterparts. Actually, those who ca were all familiar with each other, so prices wouldn’t be too outrageous.
These people, besides selling at low prices to the acquisition station, also had dealings with provincial city black markets within the city. But in addition to the high risk of getting caught, they feared getting scamd while trading outside their region.
Throwback to a few years ago, every August and September, many foreign drug rchants would co to purchase, even at the lowest prices, it was still quite higher than acquisition station’s purchase price. Nowadays, those people are unknown to have gone where? There’s been no major rchant in consecutive two or three years.
Those with foundations couldn’t bear selling at low prices to acquisition stations. For wild ginseng and deer antlers these precious herbs, once made into a finished product, with proper preservation won’t spoil. At crucial monts they can save lives, thus unless soone offers above acquisition price, they simply don’t bother selling at low prices.
This ti, upon hearing from Lin Quan that no matter how much, it would be acquired, they realized they encountered a big buyer, each coming with various motives, quoting prices one-tenth higher than acquisition station.
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