Chapter 592: Wang Meilan: I'll Take It All

So, Dou Baoguo said enthusiastically to Xue Liwei, “Why not? You can stay at my shack for as long as you want. I’ve got all sorts of food there.”

“Ah! Thank you, Dou Leader!” Xue Liwei was overjoyed and hurriedly thanked Dou Baoguo.

Dou Baoguo laughed. “What’s this ‘Dou Leader’ business? Call me Uncle Dou!”

Yu Quanjin was quite pleased to see this. As Zhou Chunming’s secretary, he knew National Day was just around the corner. At such a critical time, they absolutely couldn’t let that wild boar harm anyone else.

Therefore, someone had to eliminate it. As for who did the deed, that didn’t matter.

…

Meanwhile, inside the Lingnan Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Wang Meilan was out front spending money like water. Cases of soft drinks, sodas, and white liquor, along with sacks of candy and entire cartons of cigarettes, were all being loaded onto the truck.

But the speed at which she was spending money was nowhere near the speed her son was making it in the back.

Staring at the row of Ginseng laid out before them, Sun Haizhu and Sun Desheng were both stunned.

“Brother-in-law, Second Brother,” Jie Chen said to them with a smile. “You’ve got to give us a good price. I’ve got a share in this too.”

Hearing this, Zhao Jun, who was sitting in an armchair, let out a soft chuckle but said nothing.

“Huh?” Sun Haizhu looked at Jie Chen in astonishment, asking in disbelief, “Xiaochen, I heard from Mom that you only just went over a few days ago, didn’t you?”

“Yeah!” Jie Chen nodded, then pointed at the Ginseng. “And that’s with us being tied up at home. Otherwise, we would’ve been here sooner.”

“Wow!” Sun Desheng looked at Zhao Jun with envy. “Brother Zhao Jun, you must have gone into Elder Anzi, didn’t you?”

Zhao Jun just smiled and nodded, which was as good as an admission.

“Second Brother!” Sun Haizhu said to Sun Desheng. “Go get the tools. We need to weigh these Ginseng stalks one by one so we can settle the bill for our brother here.”

At this, Sun Haizhu turned to Zhao Jun and Jie Chen. He gave them a slight nod and a wink, signaling that they shouldn’t worry about the price.

With Jie Chen present, Zhao Jun was naturally at ease. He didn’t even need to exchange pleasantries; Sun Haizhu would have to give him the highest price.

Before long, Sun Desheng returned, carrying a small wooden box that held a balance scale.

Sun Desheng came in, placed the box on the desk, opened it, and took out the scale. He began weighing each stalk of Ginseng and assigning it a price.

Meanwhile, Sun Haizhu took out a pen and notebook. As Sun Desheng called out the weights and prices, he recorded them.

Sun Haizhu’s desk was long and narrow. Sun Desheng worked on one side, while Zhao Jun and Sun Haizhu sat facing each other at the other end.

There were two stalks of Second-class Ginseng, both weighing around six grams. Based on their quality, Sun Desheng priced one at forty-eight and the other at forty-five.

But Zhao Jun saw that in the notebook, Sun Haizhu recorded the prices for the two stalks of Ginseng as fifty and fifty-three.

For the four stalks of Lantern Platform ginseng, Sun Desheng quoted prices between seventy-five and eighty, but when Sun Haizhu wrote them down, he recorded eighty for all of them.

Then there were the two stalks of Fourth-grade leaves, both over 10g. Sun Haizhu appraised them by quality: the smaller one, though small, was of good quality, while the larger one, though big, was of poor quality.

Sun Desheng looked at the three of them and said with a smile, “We’re all friends here. For these two stalks of Ginseng, let’s just do two hundred yuan each.”

“Alright!” Sun Haizhu agreed with a laugh, but in his notebook, he recorded the price for both stalks of Ginseng as one hundred and fifty each.

Zhao Jun saw this but didn’t say anything. He just looked up and met Sun Haizhu’s gaze. When he saw Sun Haizhu nod, Zhao Jun gave him a smile.

“Brother-in-law.” But Jie Chen, beside Zhao Jun, couldn’t hold back. ‘A difference of fifty for one stalk means a hundred for two!’

After they had gotten the Ginseng, Zhao Jun had told Jie Chen that if three people harvested it, the three of them would split it evenly; if four people harvested it, the four of them would split it evenly.

He didn’t care how other Leaders did it; this was always how the Zhao family divided their Mountain Wealth. They would never go mountain-running with people they weren’t close to. But as long as someone went up the mountain with them, they were brothers, and whatever they found, they would split it all equally.

This was something Jie Chen had never expected. It made him admire Zhao Jun from the bottom of his heart and solidified his resolve to follow Zhao Jun’s lead from now on.

Previously, Sun Haizhu had added extra money for each stalk of Ginseng, which made Jie Chen very happy. But he wasn’t happy just because of the extra money; he was happy because he felt that his family could help Zhao Jun.

So, even an extra few yuan made Jie Chen feel proud.

But now, Sun Haizhu had just shaved one hundred yuan off the price of the two stalks of Ginseng, and Jie Chen’s face instantly turned red.

But just as he started to speak, Zhao Jun grabbed his arm. Jie Chen blinked a couple of times before realizing he had been too hasty, and he sat back down next to Zhao Jun.

Looking at Sun Haizhu, he hadn’t even glanced at Jie Chen. He just looked at Sun Desheng and smiled. “Second Brother, what about those two big ones?”

“These two…” Sun Desheng mulled it over for a moment, then looked up at Zhao Jun, pointed to one of the stalks of Ginseng, and asked, “Is this a Fifth Grade? Or a Sixth Grade?”

“Sixth Grade!” Zhao Jun saw that Sun Desheng was pointing at the leafless stalk of Ginseng. Since Sun Haizhu was there, Zhao Jun didn’t hold back and just quoted the higher grade.

“The quality of this one is a far cry from the last one,” Sun Desheng commented. Then he said to Sun Haizhu, “At the absolute most, we can give a thousand for it.”

Then, he pointed to the stalk of Fifth-grade leaves. “This one won’t go for more than six hundred.”

Hearing this, Sun Haizhu retorted, “So, six hundred it is, then.”

“Mhm,” Sun Desheng nodded.

“Alright.” Sun Haizhu stood up, snapped his small notebook shut, and clutched it in his hand. He clapped Sun Desheng on the shoulder and said, “Second Brother, you clean up here. I’ll take them to get paid.”

Then, Sun Haizhu jutted his chin at Zhao Jun, signaling for him to follow.

Zhao Jun got up and said to Sun Desheng, “Second Brother, thanks for your trouble again today.”

“What are you talking about, brother?” Sun Desheng said with a shake of his head and a smile.

Jie Chen also thanked Sun Desheng, and then he and Zhao Jun followed Sun Haizhu out of the office.

Arriving at the finance office, Sun Haizhu rapped his knuckles twice on the wooden counter. “Put two thousand eight hundred yuan on the books for me,” he said.

The moment Sun Haizhu said this, the cashier behind the counter acknowledged him. But Zhao Jun and Jie Chen, who were standing behind Sun Haizhu, exchanged a shocked glance.

According to Sun Haizhu’s notebook, the two stalks of Second-class ginseng were fifty and fifty-three yuan respectively; the four stalks of Lantern Platform ginseng were eighty yuan each, for a total of three hundred and twenty; and for the two stalks of Fourth-grade leaves, Sun Haizhu had recorded them at one hundred and fifty each, which was three hundred.

Fifty plus fifty-three, plus three hundred and three hundred twenty, comes out to seven hundred and twenty-three.

Adding Sun Desheng’s pricing from just now—six hundred yuan for the Fifth-grade leaves and a thousand for the Sixth-grade Leaves—the grand total should be two thousand three hundred and twenty-three.

But now, Sun Haizhu turned around and handed the entire two thousand eight hundred yuan he’d just received from the cashier to Zhao Jun.

That was an overpayment of four hundred and seventy-seven yuan. Even after accounting for the one hundred yuan he’d shorted them on the two stalks of Fourth-grade leaves, it was still an extra three hundred and seventy-seven.

“Brother,” Sun Haizhu said, pointing to the thick wad of cash in Zhao Jun’s hand. “Count it. It’s two thousand eight hundred.”

As he said the final number, Sun Haizhu glanced at Jie Chen.

Jie Chen broke into a wide grin. His brother-in-law’s actions had given him a lot of face in front of his friend.

At that, Zhao Jun laughed. “You’re the one giving it to me, brother-in-law. Why would I need to count it?” With that, he opened his satchel and stuffed the money inside.

Seeing this, Sun Haizhu smiled and nodded at Zhao Jun.

No one said another word in the finance office. It wasn’t until they were outside that Zhao Jun asked Sun Haizhu, “Brother-in-law, is this alright?”

“It’s fine.” Sun Haizhu shook his head with a smile. “Our Supply and Marketing Cooperative can’t compete with the pharmacies when it comes to buying Ginseng. So when we come across good ones, we have to offer a little extra, don’t we?”

He then added, “Besides, I make money for the co-op, too. Those two stalks of Fourth-grade leaves will earn us at least one hundred yuan.”

Zhao Jun smiled at his words and didn’t press the matter.

As the three of them walked from the back to the front of the store, they heard a lot of people chattering. Zhao Jun listened closely and realized they seemed to be talking about some rich person who had come to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to buy out their stock.

Zhao Jun smiled at Jie Chen. “There are still rich folks like that these days?”

“I know, right?” Jie Chen said. “And would a rich person even shop here?”

“Hey, what kind of talk is that?” Sun Haizhu said to Jie Chen with a laugh. “Are you looking down on us?”

Zhao Jun and Jie Chen both burst out laughing. But suddenly, Zhao Jun heard a familiar voice.

“Bag all of that up for me! I’ll take it all!”