Two days later,
late at night,
A truck drove into the backyard of Hardy Auction Company. A middle-aged man got out of the truck and ordered someone to carry four wooden boxes upstairs.
The wooden box didn't look big but it was extremely heavy. It was very strenuous for two people to lift it. The box made a heavy sound when it was placed on the ground.
The middle-aged man opened the wooden box, revealing the golden bricks inside.
"Mr. Victor, here are 240 kilograms of gold, all standard Treasury bricks. You can count them. These gold can be worth 300,000 US dollars."
The current price of US dollars and gold is 35 US dollars per ounce, which is 35 US dollars per 28 grams. One gram of gold is equivalent to 1.25 US dollars. The current US dollar is real US dollars.
Victor asked people to come forward and count them quickly. After counting them clearly, Victor asked people to move the gold to the vault. The middle-aged man felt very painful when he saw the Americans moving the gold away.
"For the remaining three hundred thousand, I brought 100,000 US dollars in cash and 40,000 British pounds. As for the rest, I brought a few boxes of antiques in the car. You can ask the appraiser to appraise and value them." said the middle-aged man.
Victor immediately asked people to go downstairs to move the antiques from the truck. Large wooden boxes were unloaded from the truck. When they were opened, they were found to be boxes of different sizes filled with antiques.
Several appraisers began to get busy.
“Qing Dynasty, Imperial Court, Carved Ivory Ball with Cloud and Dragon Pattern, Price: $350.”
"A scroll of the Ming Dynasty Wen Zhengming's Thousand Character Classic in small regular script can be sold for $800."
"Tang Yin's Ladies, priced at $1,260."
"Suede-fat jade vase, priced at $1,680."
"A top-quality jadeite bracelet, priced at $2,400."
"A small colored glaze bowl from the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, priced at $185."
"A picture of Qibaishi shrimps, priced at $600."
"Qi Baishi Chrysanthemum Painting, Priced at $320."
"Qibai stone insect and bird painting, priced at $380."
"Qi Baishi landscape painting, priced at $310."
Victor looked at the middle-aged man in confusion, "When was this Qi Baishi a painter? Why does he have so many paintings?"
The middle-aged man smiled and said, "This old man Qi Baishi is the most famous painter in our country. His artistic achievements are extremely high. One of his paintings can easily be exchanged for a house in a big city in China."
The middle-aged man spoke very artistically, completely avoiding the main point. He was afraid that if the foreigner knew that Qi Baishi was still alive, he would not be able to offer such a high price.
In order to raise money, he bought dozens of Qi Baishi's paintings in one go. His idea was simple: Qi was still alive, so the worst that could happen was that he would just paint another batch of paintings. These paintings could be sold at a high price, and it would all be a contribution to the country.
After counting,
The middle-aged man brought a total of 465 antiques, with a total value of 316,000, which was much higher than he expected.
The middle-aged man thought that Victor was a very honest businessman. He asked someone to estimate the price when he came. The gold, cash and antiques he brought were almost exactly worth 600,000 US dollars. He did not expect that the price given by Victor's auction house was much higher than he expected.
"Mr. Victor, can I take the cash back and use the antiques to pay off the debt?" asked the middle-aged man.
"Of course." Victor said.
The middle-aged people are very happy because the US dollar and the British pound are now hard currencies and can be used to buy anything. But it is not the same with antiques. If you go to buy other items, people will definitely not want antiques.
"What about the extra ten thousand dollars?" asked the middle-aged man.
"I'll give you cash or you can take back some antiques." Victor said nonchalantly.
"I want cash." The middle-aged man said quickly.
It is impossible to get such a high price anywhere else. During the war, the value of antiques has plummeted and many people want to exchange them for banknotes. Hardy's Auction House is the fairest and highest-priced company he has ever seen.
Middle-aged people have ideas.
"Mr. Victor, my friend also has antiques. Can he bring them over to sell as well? Is the price the same?" the middle-aged man asked.
"Same, as long as the stuff is good." Victor said.
......
More than thirty cartons of penicillin were loaded onto the truck. The middle-aged man smiled and said goodbye. Victor smiled after he left.
Do you really think you don't understand?
He is just playing the long game.
Once his reputation spreads, people will flock to his place to sell antiques, and he will be able to purchase more and better antiques.
He didn't know why Boss Hardy liked these things. Maybe he wanted to please the boss' wife, Han Ye-jin. After all, Miss Han was Chinese.
But no matter what, as long as the boss likes it, that is his motivation for work. The boss is so rich, and he probably doesn't care if I save him tens of thousands of dollars. But if the boss sees so many beautiful antiques, he will definitely know that I am working hard.
Victor and his gang have studied human nature very thoroughly.
Two days later,
A middle-aged man in his thirties walked into Hardy Auction House.
"Sir, do you want to sell antiques?" asked the shopkeeper.
"I want to see Mr. Victor. Please help me inform him," the man said.
The shopkeeper looked at the man, who was wearing a grey robe and a top hat. He spoke politely with a pure Hong Kong accent.
"Okay, sir, please wait here for a moment. I will go and inform the boss."
The shopkeeper informed Victor not long after, "Sir, our boss wants you to go upstairs."
The man thanked him and went upstairs.
Victor looked at the person who came and asked, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
The man took off his hat and said politely, "Hello, Mr. Victor, my last name is Xu, and I would like to buy a batch of penicillin from you."
Victor was a very smart man. He immediately realized that this man was probably in a similar situation to the middle-aged man who came in the previous wave, but the two were definitely not from the same wave.
"Penicillin is sold out," said Victor.
Mr. Xu was stunned, with an anxious look on his face, "It's sold out, can you get it again, Mr. Victor?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait until next month. How much do you want to buy?" Victor said.
Mr. Xu heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this. He thought that as long as the product was in stock, it would be fine to wait a few days. "I wonder what the price is?"
"Fifteen dollars a pop."
"Can it be cheaper? I plan to buy 20,000 of them?" Mr. Xu said.
"13 dollars, it can't be any cheaper." Victor said.
Mr. Xu knew that another group of people also bought at this price, and he knew that he probably couldn't bargain down the price, so he nodded and agreed.
“Don’t know how to pay?”
"Don't need French francs. Dollars, British pounds, and gold are all fine. Jewelry, jade, and antiques are also fine. This is an auction house, and we can appraise and price them." Victor repeated to Mr. Xu what he had said to the previous middle-aged man.
"Okay, Mr. Victor, I'll go raise money now and come back in half a month." Mr. Xu said and stood up to say goodbye.
After this person left,
Victor had guessed 80% of his identity.
"It's obvious they're poor, otherwise they wouldn't want just 20,000. And the other group came and asked for as many as they could get." Victor muttered to himself.
......
Ten days later, the second batch of goods arrived in Hong Kong. Victor sent someone to bring the penicillin back to the auction. The next day, the middle-aged man surnamed Xu came to visit.
"Mr. Victor, I'm here to pick up the goods."
The middle-aged man took out a check and said, "Mr. Victor, this is a Citibank cashier's check for $260,000."
Then he pushed the check in front of Victor.
Victor was a little surprised. He originally thought that the other party would also bring a lot of gold and antiques, and it would be difficult to raise the money for the medicine. He never expected that the other party would directly take out a bank draft. He picked up the draft and took a look.
“I need to go to Citibank to verify it.”
He had played with fake checks before and was afraid that the check the other party brought was counterfeit. If that happened, the loss would be huge.
"Sure, go ahead."
Victor drove to Citibank and went straight to the bank manager Carlson. The two had a great conversation at the last cocktail party and seemed to have become friends.
"Carson, help me check this check."
After checking the check, Carlson and two salesmen said it was authentic and the account number matched.
"Carson, where did this check come from?" Victor asked.
The bank needs to maintain confidentiality for its customers, and originally these things could not be said, but now that the check was brought by Victor, Carlson can be sure that Victor is the owner.
"This promissory note is from the San Francisco branch," said Carlson.
Victor thanked him and returned to the auction with the check. Mr. Xu was still sitting in the guest seat drinking tea. It seemed that he had not moved at all during the more than one hour that Victor was gone. He had great concentration.
"Mr. Victor, is there a problem with the check?" Mr. Xu asked.
Victor smiled and said, "That's absolutely fine. You can pick up the medicine anytime you want."
"Since the check is fine, we will come to pick up the goods later. Thank you, Mr. Victor." Mr. Xu stood up.
“This is business,” Victor said with a smile.
......
Hardy was also very busy during the period after the New Year.
In the blink of an eye, it was 1948.
Hardy has been in this world for three years.
On January 8, Hardy formally applied to the Las Vegas City Government to establish the "Hardy Group" in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas government warmly welcomed the Hardy Group's settlement in Las Vegas. Every place hopes to develop, not just in terms of tax revenue. Sometimes a large company can boost the economy of a region.
A few days later.
The Hardy Group held a grand group company establishment event at the Hardy Hotel, and ABC TV and Las Vegas TV broadcast the entire establishment event live.
Almost all city government officials were present.
A congressman from Nevada also came to congratulate. This congressman is a friend of the mayor. Last year, he brought his family to Las Vegas for a trip. Hardy's Hotel provided free accommodation, and Hardy also became friends with this congressman.
At the event, the mayor gave a speech, saying that the arrival of the Hardy Group in Las Vegas will definitely inject more vitality into Las Vegas and take the city's development to a higher level.
Hardy said that Hardy Group will invest in the construction of two large hotels in Las Vegas in the near future, with an investment of 200 million US dollars. After completion, Las Vegas will become a real tourism and entertainment capital.
One of these two complexes is called "Caesar Palace Hotel" and the other is called "Venetian Hotel". Both are complexes that integrate shopping, entertainment, gambling, accommodation, tourism, and international exhibitions.
Construction is expected to take 2 years.
At the same time, the Hadi Group will invest in the construction of the 'Hadi Group Building', which is expected to have 69 floors and a height of about 230 meters.
At the same time, a hospital covering dozens of acres will be built for Las Vegas to improve the city's overall treatment level. The first university in Las Vegas will also be built. An agreement has already been reached with the University of Nevada State, and the University of Las Vegas will become a branch of the University of Nevada State.