Just after noon, the wooden sign of Chunfeng Teahouse was so dazzling that it made people dizzy.
When Chen Changyuan stepped over the threshold, he was almost choked by the water pipe. The room was filled with noises like an ant nest in a boiling pot.
Mr. Wei's silk jacket was dazzling in the corner, and he was arguing with a few big-bellied men, spitting all over the place.
“Yoho!”
Mr. Wei slammed his tea bowl onto the table, and his gold ring made a crisp sound. "Isn't this the golden phoenix that flew out from our mountain valley?"
The bamboo chair creaked when he stood up, but his sleek slicked-back hair didn't move at all.
Chen Changyuan wiped the sweat from his neck and said, "Uncle Wei is still so energetic."
It felt like there was a handful of mugwort stuck in his throat, and he forced himself to smile.
As soon as the curtain of the private room was drawn, the noise outside seemed to be paused.
Mr. Wei crossed his legs, scraping the lid of his tea bowl in circles. "Tell me, what rare find are you going to get this time?"
"I heard that people from the south came here to buy Dendrobium officinale seeds."
Chen Changyuan went straight to the point, "I want this amount."
His fingers tapped a secret signal on the sandalwood table.
Mr. Wei's cheeks puffed up, and he raised his tea bowl mid-air, then stopped. "Now the investigation is tighter than a sieve. Those bastards on the street are as cunning as monkeys..."
He suddenly leaned forward, his big gold teeth almost blinding everyone, "Really want to fix it?"
"Just build a bridge."
Chen Changyuan took out a cloth bag and pushed it over, and the silver coins made a dull sound when they hit each other. "I know the rules."
Mr. Wei tapped his fingers on the cloth bag like he was dancing, and suddenly he slapped his thigh and laughed out loud: "I'll take you to see the master tomorrow!"
He paused and added, "We will go to meet that person tomorrow. You can rest in the city for one night first."
"Okay, I'll follow your instructions."
Chen Changyuan spent the whole night making pancakes on the hard bed in the guesthouse. Just as dawn broke, he heard the rumbling sound of a tricycle downstairs.
Mr. Wei, wrapped in a coat with a mink collar, looked like a bear just out of a cave.
"This place is quite remote."
Chen Changyuan looked at the increasingly dense reed marshes outside the car window. The sound of the wheels rolling over ice chips was like chewing glass shards.
Mr. Wei, cigarette in hand, laughed, "Who wants to talk serious business in a busy street? You'd better be careful when you meet people later."
The iron door of the warehouse was rusted like a blood clot, and a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit was squatting on the threshold, eating melon seeds.
Chen Changyuan's pupils shrank - this man had half of his left little finger missing. He was none other than Zhang Mazi, the "Nine-Fingered Yama" who was executed for trafficking banned drugs in his previous life.
"Old Wei, I don't recognize this little brother of yours."
Zhang Mazi spat out melon seed shells and scratched Chen Changyuan's body with his triangular eyes.
A strange smell of rust and mildew wafted through the warehouse, and piles of sacks formed small hills in the shadows.
Mr. Wei took out a large bag and handed it over: "The Yangtze River's back waves push the front waves. My little brother is a walking map of the mountains."
Chen Changyuan replied at the right moment: "Uncle Zhang, I heard you have some top-quality Dendrobium officinale seeds?"
"Oh, you even know the jargon."
Zhang Mazi straightened up and patted the sack with his fingerless hands. "The seeds from Yandang Mountain will germinate even after three soaks. But..."
He suddenly grinned, "This price..."
Chen Changyuan squatted down, picked up a seed, and squinted at it in the light leaking through the skylight. "Yandang Mountain? Uncle Zhang, you're joking. This embryo is blue with purple spots, clearly a wild seed from the north slope of Wuyi Mountain."
He rubbed the seeds with his fingertips, and they crumbled into powder. "Last year, the frost came early. The survival rate of seeds grown in Wuyi Mountain was less than 40%, right?"
Zhang Mazi's face suddenly changed, and Mr. Wei's cigarette ash fell to the ground.
Dust danced wildly in the beam of light leaking through the warehouse ceiling. Chen Changyuan leisurely pulled out a leather notebook: "This is data from the Provincial Agricultural Science Institute. If Uncle Zhang doesn't believe it..."
"The young are truly formidable!"
Zhang Mazi suddenly laughed out loud, and slapped Chen Changyuan's shoulder with his fingerless hand. "Name a price?"
"30% of the market price."
Chen Changyuan brushed his shoulders and said, "You need to keep this batch of seeds for another half a month..."
The seed fragments from Chen Changyuan's fingertips fell down, emitting a strange purple-blue color in the sunlight.
Zhang Mazi's triangular eyes narrowed into slits, and his missing little finger suddenly twitched twice. "Young man, where did you get this account book?"
"Director Wang of the Provincial Agricultural Science Institute is my cousin."
Chen Changyuan lied calmly, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Mr. Wei's mink collar tremble.
I have been working in the medicinal materials market for twenty years in my previous life, and these data are already engraved in my bones.
Zhang Mazi suddenly picked up a shovel and plunged it into the pile of sacks. Dozens of oil-paper packages rolled out. "Wuyi Mountain North Slope goods, dare you take them?"
He spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm. "Last year, the mountain was closed due to a snowstorm. Now there are still icicles hanging on the cliff."
Mr. Wei's cigarette butt flickered in the dim light: "Long-term, this business..."
“Go into the mountains in the spring.”
Chen Changyuan grabbed a handful of dirt and rubbed it between his palms. The damp earthy smell mixed with the chill of ice rushed into his nostrils. "Twenty people, half a month's rations, you pay 30% profit."
Suddenly, the sound of wild cats fighting could be heard from the warehouse ceiling. Zhang Mazi's fingerless hand suddenly pressed down on Chen Changyuan's shoulder: "I heard that there is an overseas Chinese named An..."
His nails almost dug into his cotton-padded jacket. "He wore gold-rimmed glasses and drove around the county in a small car."
The hairs on the back of Chen Changyuan's neck suddenly stood up.
The memory suddenly flashed back to that night half a month ago, the hem of the girl's skirt exposed under her coat, and the jade pendant she was holding in her hand - engraved with the complex word "An".
Chen Changyuan rubbed the edge of the oil-paper bag with his fingertips. The cold touch reminded him of the copper coins that were stained with palm prints when he was struggling in the medicinal materials market in his previous life.
Zhang Mazi suddenly poked his chest with his missing little finger: "Young man, it's easy to choke if you know too much."
"Uncle Zhang is joking."
Chen Changyuan smiled and took a half step back, his cotton jacket rustling as it scraped against the rusty iron frame. "My cousin always said that business requires mutual consent."
He deliberately slowed down the action of putting the leather book into his arms, and sure enough, he saw Zhang Mazi's Adam's apple roll twice.
Mr. Wei took out his abacus and started clacking away, "30% profit, after deducting the shipping and labor costs, Brother Zhang, you can earn at least this much on this trip."
He held up three fingers wrapped in gold rings and waved them in front of Zhang Mazi.
Suddenly, a wild cat howled shrilly from the warehouse ceiling. Zhang Mazi suddenly picked up a shovel and pounded it into the ground: "Deal!"
Chen Changyuan turned and spoke to Mr. Wei.
"Please send Brother Wei's carriage twice. The cellar of the Spring Breeze Teahouse is warm enough."
After the last bag of seeds was loaded onto the cart, Mr. Wei asked Chen Changyuan, "Brother Changyuan, how many days are you going to stay in the city? A new group of Suzhou embroiderers have arrived in Chunfeng Lane..."
"I heard that the aroma of Quanjude's roast duck is so good it can be smelled all over the place."
Chen Changyuan tucked his frozen fingers into his sleeves and caught a glimpse of a flash of peacock blue at the corner of the street - that night half a month ago, the satin lining under An Caicai's coat was exactly this color.
Mr. Wei laughed heartily, his gold teeth gleaming in the twilight. "Let's go! We'll have plenty of roast duck tonight, and the hot and sour soup made with the duck bones will make your eyebrows drop!"
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