Inside the caretaker's hut of an orchard on a mountain on the outskirts of the city, the screams of me, Song Laosan, and Monkey rose and fell.
After the three of us were captured, we were all brought here. The seven or eight burly men who captured us didn't communicate with us at all. They hung us from the rafters and whipped us with their belts dipped in cold water.
After the belt was soaked in water, the friction and weight increased significantly, and every time it hit my body, it brought me excruciating pain.
"Smack!"
Another lash landed on my body. I saw the wound on my side and begged for mercy, "Big brother! Stop hitting me! Let's talk this out! You didn't bring us here to kill us, did you?"
"Clang!"
Just then, the door to the caregiver's room was kicked open, and Xu Bo, his eyes red, walked in and slapped me twice across the face: "You son of a bitch! You tried to set me up with this honey trap! You're fucking asking for it!"
"Mr. Xu?"
When I saw Xu Bo appear, I immediately struggled to speak: "Mr. Xu, we have to be fair! You bought my antiques worth hundreds of thousands for just over 20,000, and now you want to arrest me?"
"You little brat, you're still pretending with me!"
Upon hearing my words, Xu Bo became even angrier and snatched the stun gun from one of the people next to him, pressing it against me.
"Crackling and popping!"
The electric baton's head flashed with azure electricity, instantly making me tremble. It felt as if countless steel needles were piercing my body, and I couldn't help but let out a hysterical scream.
At this moment, the door opened again, and Ma Quezi saw Xu Bo's actions and gently tapped the ground with his cane: "Little Xu, that's enough."
Upon hearing Ma the Cripple's voice, Xu Bo's arrogance diminished considerably: "Master Ma, why did you come in person?"
"The cargo owners, migrant workers, Hong Kong businessmen... they've all arrived!"
Ma Quezi glanced at the three of us who were hanging up and chuckled, "You guys are pretty good actors. You even managed to fool me. Hehe."
Hearing what the cripple said, I endured the pain and replied, "It's not that the stuff is genuine, it's that the goods are good, otherwise you wouldn't have been fooled!"
"Yes, that makes sense. If it weren't for the fact that a large number of pottery pieces with identical workmanship appeared in Wenbo City at the same time, I would have really been fooled by you."
Ma Quezi lit a cigarette and sat down in the chair opposite us: "You have such a good batch of eggs, but you're only selling them in one place. You're not doing your job professionally."
I sighed: "I was planning to sell the last few items today and leave Luoyang, but I didn't expect Chuanshitang to be so well-connected and able to find us so quickly."
Xu Bo, who was the middleman in this shipment, caused Ma Quezi to be swindled out of more than four million yuan. At this moment, he was also under tremendous psychological pressure: "Stop talking nonsense, where do you keep the money you swindled from us?!"
I shook my head: "The money is gone. If we hadn't been forced into a corner, we wouldn't have chosen to sell our goods in one place."
"You're telling me five million is gone in just three days? Are you kidding me?"
Xu Bo charged forward again: "Damn it! Beat them! I want to see if money or lives are more important to them!"
I saw the restless crowd and shouted at the cripple, "We really don't have any money! But we can settle the debt with goods! You can tell there's something wrong with our goods just because there's a flood of them on the market, but you didn't actually see that they were fakes, right? We can make not only pottery, but also bronzeware! I have the source of goods, and you have the sales channels. If we cooperate, we'll both have more money than we can spend!"
"etc!"
When Ma Quezi heard my shout, he stopped Xu Bo with a look: "You mean, you made those things?"
Seeing that the lame man was interested, I seized the opportunity and said, "We're not craftsmen ourselves, but I have a complete production line! To be honest, we came to Luoyang this time to find a market!"
The cripple looked at me with suspicion: "If you're looking for sales channels, why are you resorting to this honey trap trick?"
“We come from the north and originally had our own trading network and business, and we only dealt in the source. Last month, we were betrayed by our partners. The police swept away our downstream network and even raided our headquarters. We have nothing left except this batch of goods.”
I paused for a moment: "Although the goods are gone, we still have the craftsmen and techniques. The reason we came to Luoyang is because the batch of counterfeit goods we made before were all from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and most of them were tripods, jars, bowls and basins from the Henan region. Luoyang is the best place to sell these goods."
Old Song also chimed in, "What he said is true. We sold this batch of goods to use the funds to rebuild our business. Although we are highly skilled, we used to only work at the source, with fixed suppliers. We rarely went out to sell the goods ourselves, which is why you caught us."
Upon hearing this, the cripple puffed on his cigarette without saying a word.
“Master Ma, you’ve seen our stuff. Not to mention ordinary people, even industry insiders would find it hard to spot the flaws. Only top experts, combined with carbon-14, thermal time, and geomagnetic analysis, and multiple comparisons, can find the clues. Common identification methods on the market are completely useless against our goods.”
I looked sincerely at the cripple: "We've already used the money we swindled from you to cover our losses, and the rest has been used to hire craftsmen and have our friends back home choose a new site. We'll be able to start construction soon. We can't come up with your money, but we can settle the debt with goods. That way, everyone benefits. What do you think?"
Ma the Cripple snorted coldly: "My Chuanshitang is a century-old brand. If you ask me to sell counterfeit goods, wouldn't I be ruining my own reputation?"
I retorted, "Master Ma, the antique business is all about the thrill and the satisfaction of not being wronged! As long as our items are made properly, who can guarantee they're fake?"
Ma Quezi was one of Su Gouzi's distributors selling counterfeit goods. He only said that to lower the price. After hearing my answer, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "What was the cost price of the pottery you bought for me before?"
"The cost price is my secret. When we ship out goods, those with inscriptions cost 50,000, and those without inscriptions cost 30,000!"
I paused for a moment: "I already owe you money. If you agree to cooperate, I'll give you a discount of 10,000 on each item, and you only need to pay half of the price."
"Pottery is too niche, and it's difficult to sell in large quantities."
The cripple shook his head: "You just said that you can also make bronze artifacts, right?"
"Yes, our main business is making bronze ware. The pottery we sold to you this time was custom-made by a buyer, but it hasn't been delivered yet, so we're stuck with it."
I paused for a moment, then added, "We have a sample hidden under the back seat of our car. You can check it out if you don't believe me. I guarantee that no one in China can rival us in the field of bronze ware imitation!"
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