Ding Ning was worried. He had thought that he could do what he wanted to with a million yuan.
Unexpectedly, he had a sudden inspiration to cultivate green aloe and some rare rainforest herbs, but it cost three or four million yuan to build a basic environment.
The cost was still based on the land owned by Ling Fei. Otherwise, plus the land lease fee, it would cost him more than five million yuan.
After calculation, Ding Ning found that he probably needed another two million yuan, and it would cost more than 100,000 yuan every month to maintain the equipment after they were operated, which meant that he should constantly make money in future.
Ling Fei had more than one million yuan which was given by those who had secretly helped them in the past few years. They usually didn"t need much money, so they wanted to offer the money to Ding Ning.
Ding Ning refused. One million yuan was not enough at all. Besides, even if it was enough, he was too embarra.s.sed to use their money.
Originally he wanted to dabble in planting some rainforest herbs for compounding medicines, but now he had a new idea.
Since the investment was so large, he could simply make it an industry. So he needed to go to Diannan again to transplant a batch of medicinal materials with high medicinal value.
Those wild rare herbs basically had a price but no sales. Even if they were sold at auction, each of them could be sold for tens of thousands or even a million yuan.
His greatest advantage was that not many people dared to enter the virgin forest where he could come and go freely.
The natural treasure house there was equivalent to his back garden with inexhaustible resources which was more than enough to support this planting base.
After transplanting the herbs to the planting base and growing a certain scale of them, he would process them into products and sell them to make a profit finally.
What he wanted to sell was not the raw materials, but the products made of these herbs as raw materials. His prescriptions were the most valuable thing in this industry chain.
But that was the follow-up plan. The immediate task was to find ways to raise money to build the base, make it work properly and become a transit base.
He believed that if he asked Mr. Hu or Mr. Zhang for help, the money would not be a problem at all. Even if he asked Shen Muqing for help, the problem could be easily solved.
Nevertheless, he was not accustomed to borrow money from others. Taking out the bag filled with herbs brought back from the rainforest, he decided to sell the medicines in exchange for the start-up funds.
Although the herbs in the bag had been dried up, he used a special method to store them. Thus, they didn"t lose the effect and could be sold for some money. After greeting Ling Fei and Chu Yunna, Ding Ning got on the car with the bag drove to Town G.o.d"s Temple of Ninghai.
Town G.o.d"s Temple of Ninghai was located in Jingpu District, not far from Ninghai University and Changjiang Hospital. It was one of the most prosperous commercial and tourist areas in Ninghai.
Under the detailed planning of Ninghai government, various commercial streets extended in all directions around this landmark.
There were snack street, Chinese herbal medicine wholesale market, clothing wholesale market, antique, calligraphy and painting street, Ninghai specialty firm, handicraft street, bar street and so on.
An hour later, Ding Ning appeared in the wholesale market of Chinese herbal medicines.
Because Ninghai government wanted to build a commercial tourism center around Town G.o.d"s Temple, several nearby characteristic streets all had the ancient architectural style of Town G.o.d"s Temple, even they were built later.
The Chinese herbal medicine wholesale market was no exception. Known as a wholesale market, it actually was a street with antique shops on both sides.
There were green trees with shady canopy planted on the paths on both sides of the street. The streets were paved with blue flagstones, looking neat and clean and filled with the vicissitudes of history.
The architectural style of the shops were coordinated and unified. They were all antique three-story buildings with red walls and yellow tiles. He could smell a strong scent of medicine from far away.
Shops were located on the first floor. Offices for business negotiations were located on the second floor. Lounges were located on the third floor. Of course, some small but extremely rare herbs could be stored in lounges temporarily.
On this street, it was just the front doors of the shops. In fact, behind each small building, there was a large courtyard used as a warehouse. The courtyard had a special gate which was convenient for cars to the transport medicines.
It was 10 o"clock in the morning. Medicinal materials merchants from different places traveled between various shops, preparing to buy or sell their medicinal materials. The sounds of people bargaining kept filling the prosperous street.
Ding Ning did not stop in front of these shops with a plaque written with golden characters, but went straight to the only eight-storey building located in the most eastern part of the medicinal market--Navigation Auction House.
Navigation Auction House was located at the intersection of the medicinal materials market and the antique street, with appraisal experts.
When some antique traders and medicinal traders were not sure of the authenticity of some antiques, calligraphy and paintings or medicinal materials, they would spend a certain amount of money to ask the appraisal experts to help them identify these things. It made the appraisal experts of Navigation Auction House extremely popular.
Of course, the main business of the auction house was still auction. If there were something that caught their eyes, they didn"t mind buying it at a fair price and then selling it at auction to make a profit.
Ding Ning had no time to wait for the auction. He intended to directly take out the medicinal materials and sell them to the auction house after appraisal.
Although he couldn"t get money as much as from auction, it saved him a lot of time. Besides, he wouldn"t suffer a great loss. Once the auction house was satisfied with his medicinal materials, they would definitely offer a price fairer than that of those shops.
Behind the door, it was a hall covering an area of three thousand square meters. It was divided into two parts by the gla.s.s part.i.tion. Appraisal experts were sitting behind the windows.
It was similar to handling business in a bank. There was an automatic number pick-up machine at the door. Those who came here to handle business should first pick up a number, and step forward to handle business when it was their turn.
Ding Ning reached out to pick up a number which was 00987. Looking at the neon display on the top of the part.i.tion, he found that the last number was 00953.
It meant that there were still more than 30 people before him. He didn"t care about it. Sitting down on the rest chair specially prepared for customers, he took out his phone and sent a text message to Ling Yun to kill time.
After they slept together, Ling Yun, who had talked without any restraint, seemed to be even more s.e.xually explicit. The content of the text message was so explicit that it almost broke through the sky.
Her flirting made Ding Ning mouth parched and tongue scorched. The evil fire kept going wild. He couldn"t wait to go to the hospital to sleep with her a hundred times.
At this moment, dozens of people rushed in. A fat man covered with sweat shouted, "There"s a jade of higher value. Mr. Liu, come here to help me identify how much this jade is worth." He instantly caught everyone"s attention.
From an office next to him, there came a grey-haired old man with thick gla.s.ses. The old man asked with a smile, "President Zhang, is it you who got a jade of higher value?"
"Mr. Liu, I"m not that lucky. It is this buddy who got a jade of higher value. Both this lady and I offer 3.5 million yuan. This buddy said he would sell it to the one who offers 5 million yuan. This lady and I are somewhat uncertain, so we come here to ask you to have a look at it. No matter to whom this buddy sells the jade finally, just put the appraisal fee to my account."
The fat man weighing more than one hundred kilograms even breathed heavily while talking, and kept wiping away his sweat. He looked extremely respectful to Mr. Liu.
Ding Ning looked over there subconsciously, and suddenly his eyes lit up. It was a 30-year-old young man who got a jade of higher value according to the fat man"s words. Based on his famous-brand clothes all over and the Piaget watch on his wrist, Ding Ning could tell that he was obviously a rich man. It was no wonder that he could stay calm when getting a jade of higher value. Just the slightly lifted corners of his mouth revealed his faint delight.
However, it was not him who caught Ding Ning"s eye, but a lady at whom the young man kept stealing a glance. It should be the lady who competed with the fat man in the bidding according to the fat man"s words.
The lady was about twenty-five years old, with waist-long hair as black as ink. She wore delicately tailored black and white short-sleeved casual clothes with a round neck showing her clear and pretty clavicle. Her black hip-long skirt and leggings properly brought out her long legs. Her white stiletto heels were simple and elegant. Besides, she wore a Patek Philippe watch on her snow-white wrist.
Her eyes as deep as a black crystal, her curved eyebrows, her long eyelashes, her white and flawless skin covered with faint blush and her thin lips as delicate as rose petals, all of these made her look like a graceful lady walking out of an ink painting.
However, her temperament and appearance provided a strange and contradictory contrast. She was like an ice cube, exuded chill from the inside out. The chill scared people and even seemingly made the surrounding temperature begin to decline.
She just stood there, which could make people feel a cold current flowing quietly and slowly spreading in their hearts.
No matter how many people around her were looking at her, she was like being alone in the deserted wilderness. All of her frosty canthi and eyebrows emitted the indifferent aura of keeping strangers away.
Arrogance, her first impression on Ding Ning was arrogance. She was like a superior queen overlooking all living creatures without any feeling. No one could shake her will and arouse her attention.
Different from Xiao Nuo who was externally frosty and internally pa.s.sionate, also different from Ling Yun who was a tough queen, she was a real queen with domineering aura.
It was no wonder that the rich young man who kept stealing a glance at her didn"t have the courage to talk with her. Even the group of people around him was the same. They only dared to steal a glance at her, but no one dared to approach her. They even consciously kept a distance of more than a meter away from her.
Ding Ning got extremely excited. His eyes lit up with desire, as if he saw the most delicious prey. A strong desire to conquer kept rising.
He had never avoided to say that he was a fan of queen. It was not just because he wanted to prove himself. Conquering a queen would make him feel very fulfilled.
The lady seemed to have perceived his burning gaze. She gave him a casual look and restored her permanent frosty face after slightly knitting her good-looking brows.
He was just a good-looking lad, but that"s all. Nothing extraordinary. Compared to the flies which kept buzzing around her since her childhood, he couldn"t even make a small wave and didn"t deserve another glance of hers.
Ignored, he was directly ignored. Ding Ning did not feel frustrated, but felt the blood all over was boiling. This was a real queen who was so challenging!
Nevertheless, it was just the first time that they had met each other. There was still a long way to conquer her. Ding Ning, who did not want to leave a bad first impression on the queen, immediately diverted his attention to other places.
On hearing the discussion of the surrounding people, he finally figured out the general situation. It seemed that the antique industry didn"t just include antiques, calligraphy, paintings and some old objects. It also included the game of gambling on stones.
His second master once told him about gambling on stones. He had thought that people gambled on stones in border cities of Diannan. He didn"t expect that people also did that in Ninghai.
It boosted his spirit. During the game of gambling on stones, cutting once could make you poor or rich or wear linen clothes; there were madmen selling or buying or waiting.
Among the people who collected raw stones in Diannan, there was always such a popular doggerel, which was enough to show their gambler psychology.
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