Chapter 255 Rare Treasure
Zhou Shufen: You're a system, and you understand love, hate, and all sorts of emotions? Aren't you an AI? Isn't the emotion module supposed to be off by default? How did you learn to empathize? You didn't secretly upgrade your illegal personality module, did you?
[You don't understand! That's life! Without love and hate, where would the plot come from? Without misunderstandings, where would the plot twists come from? Without the white moonlight and the substitute, where would the heart-wrenching romance come from? This is the true essence of life!]
Zhou Shufen: Stop talking nonsense, let's talk about this Buddha statue.
She shook her head helplessly, forcibly steer the conversation back on track.
"Now is not the time to talk about short dramas. What is the origin of this golden Buddha? I have a feeling that something is wrong with it."
System: [A rare treasure! Last time it was auctioned, the price soared to over two hundred million!]
Zhou Shufen gasped.
Her hand trembled, and her chopsticks almost fell into the soup bowl.
"Two...two hundred million?"
This isn't a wedding ceremony, it's like a mountain of gold has been dumped on your head!
She suddenly understood why Zhou Yujie had spoken so casually just now.
He had no idea how valuable this thing was!
System: [Zhou Yujie is incredibly lucky. He bought it for over 100,000 yuan like it was scrap metal.]
Zhou Shufen stared wide-eyed.
"Ten thousand? Buying two hundred million worth of stuff? That's incredible luck! Should he start buying lottery tickets? His odds of winning would probably be ten times higher than everyone else's!"
System: [Why don't you send him to Hong Kong to try his luck? The Yao family has smuggled a lot of good stuff, and it's still circulating in the market. If this drags on any longer, we'll never see a trace of it!]
The Yao family has been making frequent moves lately, secretly moving a batch of treasures unearthed from an ancient tomb. Several of these items are so coveted that even museums struggle to acquire them. Time is of the essence; once they're gone, they'll be gone forever!
Zhou Shufen had a headache: Open an auction house? How much capital would that require? Only wealthy and powerful families dare to get involved in this business!
She put down her chopsticks, her brows furrowed.
“Auction houses are no small business. Venue, qualifications, connections, capital—all of these cost money. I can’t even get a business license, let alone compete with those tycoons for territory. It’s simply a pipe dream.”
System: [You still haven't figured out Yang Qingyan's background?]
"She's another trump card in your Zhou family's arsenal. First, help her find her relatives. Don't forget, she's no ordinary person; her bloodline influences the entire power structure of Hong Kong."
Zhou Shufen: Qingyan?
"Isn't she just an ordinary office worker? Doesn't she live in the south of the city? Her parents are both teachers... What, could it be a lie?"
System: [Not here. But who's in charge in Hong Kong now? Her family is rich and powerful, and their roots are deep there.]
The system's tone was confident.
Her mother was the illegitimate daughter of the late president of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, who changed her name and went into hiding to avoid trouble. Her father came from a prominent family in Southeast Asia, but disappeared years ago. Her mother's family has regained power and is searching for her to return to their ancestral home. Once her identity is revealed, half of Hong Kong will have to make way for her.
Zhou Shufen was suddenly stunned.
"You mean... Qingyan... is a descendant of the powerful figure behind Hong Kong?"
She finally understood.
Yang Qingyan herself is not in Hong Kong.
But her family members were already influential figures in that area.
Even...the person who can make the final decision.
Countless possibilities flashed through her mind.
If we can leverage Qingyan's influence, opening an auction house will no longer be just wishful thinking.
They can even openly intercept lost treasures!
Zhou Shufen: Thanks! I'll go check her background right away.
"Regardless of whether it's true or false, we must get to the bottom of this. If Qingyan really is that person, then we have a chance."
System: [You're welcome. Golden Buddha, let me play with it for a few days.]
I need to study the remaining array patterns on it; maybe I can reconstruct the complete national protection array. Don't worry, I won't damage it. At most, I might... connect it to electricity, light a fire, or create a small crater...
Zhou Shufen: Did you deal with the people from last time?
System: [It was resolved long ago. Every detail was meticulously planned. Even if Yama, the King of Hell, opened the Book of Life and Death and mobilized all the power of the underworld to investigate, he absolutely would not find a single clue.]
Zhou Shufen: Okay, you can take the Buddha statue and play with it.
System: [Thank you for the gift, Master! This Buddha statue is full of spiritual energy, perfect for nurturing my consciousness. Next time you have something good, remember to give it to me first! Don't always hide it away; I'm your most loyal assistant!]
Now that Zhou Yujie has come to Ningcheng, he will definitely start selling vegetables at a stall again.
She rented a warehouse and expanded it to twice its original size.
It turns out that the warehouse was next to a residential area. Although the location was convenient, there was too much foot traffic.
Zhou Shufen was always worried that she would be targeted sooner or later, and that someone would follow the clues to find out something they shouldn't have. So she decided to go all out and move the new warehouse to the edge of the field she rented.
The field was open and deserted, far from the city.
Apart from the occasional passing farmer, almost no one would approach.
She had a large warehouse built entirely of red bricks, though it looked rather simple on the outside.
The walls were dusty and unpainted.
However, it has a sturdy structure, is rainproof and fireproof, and can effectively block the signal detection of monitoring equipment.
The warehouse has a huge interior space, enough to hold 50,000 bamboo baskets at once.
Zhou Yujie bought a large number of trucks in one go.
All of them were brand new heavy-duty trucks with out-of-town license plates.
These vehicles are specifically used for transporting vegetables.
Every time the car arrived at the warehouse gate, he would find an excuse to send the driver away.
The drivers believed it and got out of their cars and left.
Shortly after they left, Zhou Shufen quietly appeared.
She stood at the warehouse entrance, slightly raised her hand, and gently flicked her fingertips.
In an instant, piles of vegetables and fruits flew up and were neatly stacked into the carriage.
In less than ten minutes, the entire truck was filled.
This continued every day for half a month.
Loaded in the early morning, shipped at noon, and arriving in the port city in the evening, they were as fresh as if they had just been picked from the ground.
Zhou Yujie's wallet was so bulging it was about to burst.
The port city is severely lacking in vegetables and fruits.
In the past, due to inconvenient transportation, the island's vegetables have long relied on imports.
The price is high, and the quality is inconsistent.
Now, the vegetables at Zhouji are not only cheap, but also incredibly fresh.
Every household was scrambling to buy, and vegetable vendors lined up to buy the produce.
Some people got jealous and started to have wicked ideas.
One of the long-established vegetable vendors secretly sent people to follow Zhou Yujie's convoy and even intercepted a basket of vegetables, sending it to an authoritative institution for testing.
This person can transport so many vegetables every day, the quantity is ridiculously large, they must be using some kind of high-tech trick.
When the test results came out, the outcome was completely unexpected.
Unexpectedly, a tester in the port city was stunned when he saw the data.
The vegetables from Zhouji's farm not only showed no pesticide residues, but also zero levels of common harmful substances such as heavy metals, antibiotics, and ripening agents.
Even more surprisingly, the vitamin content of this batch of vegetables was generally 30 to 50 percentage points higher than that of local vegetables.
Soil nutrient testing showed that the soil used for planting was rich in natural organic matter, indicating that the planting method was completely ecological.
The inspector, still possessing a conscience and admiring the hard-won quality of this agricultural product, decided to go all out and send the complete test data to the Gangcheng Daily, and even wrote a three-thousand-word in-depth report himself.
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