"You are right to do this. It is better to make less money than to lose money. I have heard from my grandfather before that some unscrupulous drug dealers use rhubarb... turmeric powder and other ingredients as the main ingredients, supplemented with egg yolk, starch, ox bile, and egg white to imitate bezoar.
The bezoars imitated with these things look very similar in appearance, but they are solid and have a slightly bitter taste, without the unique fragrance and cool feeling of the authentic bezoars. "
"These scammers should be paraded through the streets after they are caught, just like in the past campaigns. Put a sign on them saying they are fake medicine dealers."
"I'll do as you say if I catch you next time."
Wang Zhen turned on the desk lamp, opened the cotton cloth bag containing the bezoar, picked up the thing with a layer of shiny black film on the outside, and said to Zhou Huaian:
"This oval-shaped one is the same as the one your family sent last time. Both are called bezoar. This thin film is commonly known as "black gold coat" in the industry. It is one of the main characteristics for identifying bezoar. After being cut, the cross section is golden yellow or brownish yellow, and you can also see dense and delicate multi-layer concentric ring patterns."
He took out a long needle and said to him, "Then here is the method of identifying bezoars. Remember it well."
"Wait a minute!" Zhou Huaian was worried that he couldn't remember it, so he took out a pen and paper. "A good memory is not as good as a bad pen. I'd better write it down."
"Okay, I'll talk slower!" Wang Zhen smiled and waited for him to take out the paper and pen. "This is the dyeing needle method. If there is no yellow color when the needle is inserted and pulled out, it is real bezoar."
"Let me see!" Zhou Huaian looked at the long needle in his hand and saw that there was indeed no yellow on it. "It's the real thing!"
"Hmm!" Wang Zhen put the needle under the alcohol lamp and heated it red. "This is the needle probing method. After the needle is heated red, it is inserted into the bezoar. If the bezoar cracks, the fracture is obviously layered, the texture is fine and crisp, and there are white spots and a fresh fragrance inside, then it is the real thing.
If it does not split after being pierced, and the inner layer does not show layered lines after being cut open, and there are no white spots in the heart, and it smells slightly foul, then it is a fake. Then there is the nail dyeing method..."
Zhou Huaian carefully wrote down several methods of identifying bezoars, and said with a smile: "If I continue to learn from you for a few more years, I can also be a medicinal material appraiser."
"Then you must study hard. I will test you in two years." Wang Zhen said to him, "You will be the one to identify these small ones."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian put down the paper and pen, and nervously did what he had just taught. "How did I do?"
"It was a bit clumsy at first, but it got better later." Wang Zhen took out the scale and said after weighing, "A total of 217 grams..."
"217 grams!" Zhou Huaian took out a list and handed it to him. "Look, the 4 liang and 3 qian we weighed with a beam scale only converts to 215 grams. Two grams costs more than 100 yuan. It's a bit of a loss to weigh these valuable things with a beam scale."
Wang Zhen smiled and nodded, "The current purchase price is 92 yuan per gram, so two grams is 172 yuan."
"Oh my god!" Zhou Huaian looked at him with heartache, "It's only been over a year and the price has gone up by 14 yuan per gram. 100 grams is 1,400 yuan. In just over a year, the price has dropped by more than a thousand yuan. I'm so heartbroken!"
"If you keep it going, it will go up even more!" Wang Zhen smiled and picked up the abacus, "217 per gram, 92 per gram, a total of 19,964 yuan."
"Fuck! It's almost 20,000 yuan." Zhou Huaian smiled and shook his head, "They said they would give them a maximum of 65 yuan per gram. One gram is 27 yuan short. They are really wicked!"
Wang Zhen glanced at him with a smile, "So how much can you earn this time?"
"I'll take 8% of 19,964." Zhou Huaian calculated, "This time, just from these bezoars, I can earn 1,597 yuan, which is not bad."
Wang Zhen handed him the list with a smile, "Brother-in-law, you are really a nice person!"
Sometimes he also admired Zhou Huaian very much. Since he started collecting herbs, he knew that some of the precious herbs sent by the mountain people were different from the purchase price here, and the price difference was quite large, but he was still not greedy, still sympathized with the poor and the suffering, and kept his original intention in doing things. It was really rare.
Zhou Huaian took the order embarrassedly, "Those people have a hard time too. My family now has a way to make money, and I don't want to earn more of their hard-earned money. If my family was still as poor as before, I wouldn't be so nice!"
"You have a point!" Wang Zhen said after packing the bezoars. "Brother-in-law, I believe the price of natural musk and bezoars will only get higher and higher. Now you can identify them. When you see good ones, stock up and sell them in two years."
"This thing is rare, so it doesn't matter if you make money or I make money." Zhou Huaian took out the bear gallbladder with a smile, "And these two things, I think the quality is not very good, how much do you think they are worth?"
"Let me see!" Wang Zhen took it and looked at it and said, "You are right, these two pieces of bear gall are not very good. We will not accept them. You can take them back and give them back."
"Fortunately, I accepted the two thousand and one cents he asked for, otherwise this trip to collect the bezoar would have been in vain."
"If you don't be greedy, you won't lose!"
"Yes! There is also this bamboo ginseng. They said that the medicine dealers in Chuancheng charge four or five yuan per pound. How much can we sell it for here?"
Wang Zhen poured out the bamboo ginseng and examined it. "These things are of good quality. The youngest ones are more than 20 years old. I bought them at 8 yuan per pound."
"Okay!" Zhou Huaian poured it out and weighed it, a total of 23 kilograms, "There are still some Coriolus versicolor, I will take it back and store it, and sell it when the price goes up!"
"Okay!" Wang Zhen handed him the order. "Luckily the department store is doing good business today, otherwise I wouldn't have any money to pay for the herbs tomorrow morning, in addition to the money for the truffles!"
Zhou Huaian was also happy for him, "When I came here, I saw my little sister selling TVs. She can make some extra money in the next two days at the end of the year."
"We got a batch of black-and-white and color TVs this time, and everyone wants to buy some to celebrate the New Year."
"I don't have electricity there. If I had, I would get one back."
"We'll put up the power lines next year, and if we're quick, it'll be finished in a few months!"
"I hope so. Kerosene lamps are no different from fireflies. They are not convenient at all."
"That's true!" Wang Zhen went out with him and took the cloth, clothes and shoes that he had helped buy from the main room. "The bracelet and necklace won't be available until tomorrow morning. I'll send them to my mother-in-law's house before I leave. You can pick them up there."
Zhou Huaian put the things in his backpack and asked, "Isn't my little sister going to the provincial capital with you?"
"That girl doesn't want to go. She said she would go with me after the wedding." Wang Zhen paused and said a little embarrassedly, "If she goes, I won't be back on the second day of the Chinese New Year."
"It's almost time. It's already the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. We'll have the wedding after the Chinese New Year."
"Sometimes I feel like the days are going by very slowly, and sometimes I feel a little bit..." Wang Zhen felt that he couldn't describe it, "In short, I can't put into words what it feels like!"
Zhou Huaian looked at him with a smile after hearing this, "I know, it's the kind of feeling of anxiety, fear, and indescribable nervousness, right?"
Wang Zhen thought for a moment and said, "It seems so. Anyway, it feels quite complicated."
"Don't think about it. I tell you, when we get married, all you can hear is your heart pounding. Your head will be dizzy and you'll be filled with excitement. Haha..."
"Brother-in-law, you..." Wang Zhen blushed and didn't know how to respond to him. He turned around, closed the gate and locked it.
Seeing that he was embarrassed, Zhou Huaian didn't say much. He felt that he was an intellectual after all, and was different from him and Ding Ding Cat who talked nonsense all day long.
The two men came out together and saw Zhou Huairong holding a porcelain jar and leaning against the tractor, watching the TV in the store with great interest. It was almost ten o'clock and there were still two or three customers in the store.
Seeing him coming, Zhou Huairong pulled him over and said, "Youngest, no wonder the third child said he wanted to buy a TV. It's much more interesting than listening to the radio."
Zhou Huaian looked over and saw a little monk wearing slippers. "Next year we will have electricity there, and then we can buy one."
After hearing this, Wang Zhen said cheerfully, "Brother Zhou, when the electricity is turned on, let me know and I'll buy you the latest model."
Zhou Huairong said gratefully: "Thank you, Dr. Xiao Wang. Our family will trouble you no matter what the matter is."
Wang Zhen smiled and said, "We are all relatives, there is no need to be so formal."
"Yes, don't be polite to him!" Zhou Huaian picked up the crank and started the tractor. After saying goodbye to Wang Zhen and the others, he drove out of the city.
After leaving the city, Zhou Huairong asked, "Youngest, is that thing real?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "It's true. The price per gram has increased by 14 yuan compared to when we had it."
Zhou Huairong was quite calm after hearing this. "This thing is rare, so it's normal for the price to go up. If you find something better in the future, just stock up and sell it when the price goes up."
Zhou Huaian shook his head, "You said it's rare, let's talk about it when we meet one!"
"Hmm!" Zhou Huairong fell asleep leaning against the tractor unknowingly. When he woke up, he had already passed the Guanyin Bridge and started climbing the slope towards the village.
He looked at his watch and said, "It's already past eleven. Mom and my brother and sister-in-law must be getting anxious waiting for me."
"It's okay. There were a few times when I arrived after eleven o'clock."
"Youngest, you and Xu Laosan are the ones who have worked the hardest, exposed to the wind and sun. Next year, let's pool our money together to buy a four-wheel tractor."
"Well! Buy another four-wheeler, and I'll drive a Dongfeng from now on."
Yang Chunyan stood at the gate of the yard. Seeing the lights at the entrance of the village, she closed the gate and went to the oven. "Mom, Huai'an is back. I'll carry the planks out."
After hearing this, Zhou's mother felt relieved. "Okay, I'll ask your husband to come out and help unload the goods."
"Why!"
Yang Chunyan carried the wooden board out and waited for a while before the tractor arrived. Seeing Zhou Huairong was also on it, she hurriedly looked at Zhou Huaian. Seeing that he was fine, she remembered that Xu Laosan had come back and said that someone from Chuancheng had sent some herbs, which might be valuable herbs, so the two of them came back together.
"Brother, are you hungry? There are buns and beef bone soup in the steamer. Go eat first and then come unload the goods."
"We ate at my second brother's place." Zhou Huaian took off the back of the bag with a smile, "It contains red deer meat, some game, and a few pounds of mulberry fungus. You can put it in the wine cellar."
"Yes!" Yang Chunyan picked up her backpack and walked towards the wine cellar with a flashlight.
The Zhou Huaian brothers untied the rope, and Zhou's father and grandfather came out. After the grandfathers unloaded the goods, Zhou's mother brought the brothers some steamed buns and scooped up some beef bone and radish soup, and the two of them ate the hot food. (End of this chapter)
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