After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

Ma Quezi, now brimming with energy after opening up a new supply channel through us, declared: "We've almost finished eating here. Let's go somewhere else to continue our drinks! I've already booked a private room at the club. Tonight, we're not leaving until we're completely drunk!"

"Master Ma, it's rare that you're in such a good mood, so I'd like to announce another piece of good news!"

Seizing the opportunity, I said, "My brothers and I just discussed it, and since you're aiming to take over the East China and North China regions, we've decided to show our sincerity by opening a mine in Luoyang. What do you think?"

The previously bleary-eyed, crippled man's eyes suddenly brightened: "You mean, you want to move the headquarters here?"

Song Laosan laughed and said, "It's not a headquarters. It's just opening a pit here. From now on, the goods that go through you will be produced locally. This will not only reduce transportation costs, but also avoid troubles and risks that may arise during transportation."

"This is a good thing!"

Ma the Cripple perked up: "To tell you the truth, a few days ago one of my junior high school classmates came to me, saying that his brick factory was not doing well and he hoped that I could help him attract investment or find a buyer! If you really want to open a pit here, I will just buy this brick factory and give it to you. That way, firing the kiln and opening the pit can be perfectly covered up!"

I thought to myself that this was certainly a good thing. Since ancient times, the skills of counterfeiting gangs have always been secrets that are not passed on to outsiders.

By opening a mine locally, we're essentially entrusting our lives and fortunes to Ma Quezi, putting his mind at ease.

However, since our goal was to drag the cripple into this mess, we could freely offer him empty promises.

...

The two sides quickly reached an agreement on in-depth cooperation.

While Ma Quezi went to talk to the brick factory, I also gave Monkey a holiday, using the excuse of going back to contact the craftsmen, and let him go back to his hometown for the New Year.

Song Laosan and I are both single, so it doesn't matter where we spend the New Year. After discussing it, we decided to stay in Luoyang and set up the pit as soon as possible.

Based on my guess, given Su Gouzi's cautious nature, he's probably planted a mole around Ma Quezi.

Previously, our deals with Ma Quezi were all verbal agreements. Only when he took some concrete actions could we possibly pass the message to Su Gouzi.

Ma Quezi bought the brick factory, and Song Laosan and I moved in.

This brick factory is located in a county near Luoyang, about five kilometers away from the town along a mountain road, in a very remote location.

That evening, Song Laosan went out to answer a phone call. When he came back, he looked at me with a worried expression: "The kiln workers we hired called back. Now that the New Year is just around the corner, they don't want to leave their homes and travel so far. It's hard to hire people before the New Year."

"What about raising the price?"

I sipped my liquor to warm myself up: "We made quite a bit of money selling those fake pottery pieces to Ma Quezi, so we still have plenty of funds. If these people are willing to come, we'll give them double the salary!"

"People in this line of work are generally quite superstitious. They usually shut down their kilns after the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and won't resume work until at least the 7th of the new year! Counterfeiting cultural relics is illegal, so why would a skilled master craftsman risk bad luck by going out during the Lunar New Year?"

Old Song clicked his tongue in worry: "Why don't we ask the Qing family for help? They're rich and powerful, and they have more connections!"

"It's no use. I've already called Qinghuai. Even if they wanted to help, they could only find local craftsmen, and their accents would give them away. Su Gouzi controls a huge market share, and his base is in Henan. Asking locals could easily backfire."

I thought for a moment: "If all else fails, we'll have to do it ourselves."

Old Song looked at me in surprise: "What, you can even apply pitting rust to bronze artifacts?"

"I understand the general method, but I'm not quite sure about the material ratios. The rust on bronzes is mainly divided into planted rust, adhesive rust, smelting rust, electroplating rust, transplant rust, and coating rust. What we call pit rust is planted rust, which is also a relatively simple and convenient type of large-scale rusting."

I licked my lips: "In simple terms, the process of pit rusting is to dig a pit, then tamp a layer of grave soil around it, then heat the soil, pour on aged vinegar, sprinkle caustic soda and sea salt, then mix the grave soil with chemical agents, and bury the bronze artifacts underneath to rust. It takes at least ten days to half a month for a batch of bronze artifacts to rust."

Song Laosan understood immediately: "You mean to take a gamble and see if Su Gouzi can find out that Ma Quezi is doing something underhanded behind the scenes?"

I nodded: "Since the Qing family was able to find out that Ma Quezi is Su Gouzi's distributor, they must also know his distribution channels, they're just keeping it from us. My idea is that we start the operation here first, and then have Qing Huai get the goods from Ma Quezi. As long as Ma Quezi sells the batch of goods I delivered before, it will definitely alert Su Gouzi!"

After thinking for a moment, Song Laosan slammed his hand on the table and said, "Let's gamble! If we use this method, we don't need to find real out-of-town actors. We can just hire a few migrant workers from other places to put on a show, and that will be fine."

...

On Lunar New Year's Eve.

"Crackling and popping!"

The sound of firecrackers echoed for a long time inside the brick factory, and in the row of earthen pits in front of us, burning charcoal was also emitting high temperatures.

Ma the Cripple stood beside me, looking at the six rust pits in front of him with a gleam in his eye, and asked the middle-aged man next to him, "Master, how many days will it take for the rust to cling to this batch of goods after we bury them?"

Seeing the middle-aged man's troubled expression, I stepped between the two of them: "Master Ma, according to the rules of the martial arts world, chatting with our craftsmen is suspected of stealing their skills! We've already shown enough sincerity by setting up our pit in Luoyang, so you can't just turn your back on us!"

The cripple laughed heartily: "You're overthinking it, kid. If I really wanted to steal your skills, why would I ask that question in front of you?"

"These few rust pits are my livelihood, so I can't help but be careful! Don't worry, Master Ma, my second batch of goods will definitely be unearthed before the end of the first month of the lunar calendar. Although the craftsmanship will definitely be very poor, just consider it as a hot pit!"

I was afraid the workers on site would blurt out something and expose my ignorance, so I quickly waved my hand and said, "It's almost done. Take the charcoal out and get ready to pour in the chicken blood and vinegar!"

Although Ma Quezi specializes in selling counterfeit goods, he clearly lacks experience in counterfeiting and keeps a close eye on every step of the process.

As soon as the bucket of vinegar was poured over him, he choked and tears streamed down his face. After receiving a phone call, his expression changed drastically, and he said to me, "Xiao Dong (my pseudonym), something urgent has suddenly come up at my company that I need to handle. You keep an eye on things here and let me know if anything happens!"

No sooner had Ma the Cripple left in a hurry than Song Laosan directed the workers to bring over a batch of unrusted bronze artifacts: "Hey? Ma the Cripple was watching here the whole time, practically staring into the pit. Where is he now?"

I shrugged slightly: "I just got a call saying there was an emergency at the company, so I left."

Just as Song Laosan was about to say something, his phone rang. After answering it and saying a few words, he called me aside and said, "Qinghuai just called me and said that Ma Quezi's Chuanshitang was vandalized. One of his trusted subordinates who was in charge of deliveries was also hit and killed by a fully loaded dump truck on the national highway half an hour ago."