Chapter 72 - Shop Owner with Personality
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
This week’s quota had more than 20,000 yuan left and Shi Lei really wanted to spend it all here in one go.
If it was true that this man didn"t accept any bargains, then it seemed that he could buy from him.
It was not that Shi Lei was scared to spend money. If it wasn’t for the rules, he would walk into a random shop and buy everything. But although Shi Lei had plenty of money, but he couldn’t do whatever he wanted with it as the Scepter made it clear that he must buy things of the equivalent value.
If he bought a bracelet with 20,000 yuan, and the Scepter estimated its price as 18,000 yuan, then it shouldn’t be a problem as it was normal for the price to be slightly lower or higher. But if he bought it with 20,000 yuan, but it only worth 1,000 or even lower, Shi Lei thought that the Scepter would definitely give him a harsh punishment that he will remember for life.
Although Shi Lei wanted to buy this agarwood bracelet for 20,000 yuan, but he didn’t dare to open his mouth so easily as he was scared to be scammed.
It was fine that his money was scammed, but it was one fifth of his body. If it started from toe, Shi Lei’s legs would be amputated and the first thing he would need to do next week was to buy a wheelchair with the money.
After hesitating for a while, Shi Lei looked at the man who talked to him for a long time. His instincts told him that his smile and att.i.tude didn’t seem to be a dishonest businessman. Shi Lei stood up and looked for a bracelet with appropriate price.
He found a bracelet with the price of 21,800 yuan. Shi Lei had about 26,000 yuan left and after he bought this bracelet, he would have about 4,000 left, which was enough for food in the next two days.
“h.e.l.lo, I want to have a look at this.” Shi Lei pointed at the bracelet in the gla.s.s display cabinet.
Its color was close to black. Even through the cabinet, he could see clear lines of black. From what the man said, those were the lipid lines of agarwood and it was a special feature after the wood was wounded and secreted lipid.
The man took it out and placed it in front of Shi Lei. Shi Lei smelt it and found out that its scent was slightly different to the first one. He even saw that the patterns of the wood were different and he was in doubt.
“The main production areas for agarwood are Hainan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. The biggest area is Indonesia and in the 8 traditional production areas, Indonesia owns 2 and 1/3 of it. The 1/3 is the Kalimantan Island which is managed by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Agarwood from different areas are slightly different and so are the patterns. The ones I showed you before was from Malaysia and one in your hands right now is from Nha Trang, Vietnam.”
Shi Lei didn’t reply as he was trying to differentiate the scents between the two bracelets, and the conclusion was that one of them was sweeter and fresher.
“This is 21,800 yuan?”
The man was surprised but frowned slightly: “You want to buy this?”
Shi Lei hesitated but nodded heavily.
The man shook his head: “Youngster, didn’t you take in what I just said? I said that you don’t know anything about collectibles. Even if you want to start, you should begin with normal rosewood or stones, then progress to more expensive things. If you want to buy the agarwood here, you should come back after you know more about it! I’m about to close now, please leave.”
Shi Lei’s jaw dropped. He didn’t expect the man would chase him out after he asked something so casually.
Hey, do you really need to have that much personality? You don’t even want business?
Maybe he was baiting him? But there was no need for it. Shi Lei was ready to pay, but why did he chase him away?
Don’t tell me, you are planning to bait me into buying something worth over a million in your shop? Do I look like I have a lot of money?
Shi Lei couldn’t understand and he could only leave.
Before he left, he picked a business card on the counter next to the door. As soon as he walked out, he turned around and the man really closed the door.
He looked at the business card in his hands. It was the same name as his shop, ‘Hu’s Agarwood Shop’. There was a name below it and it should be his name – Hu Banzhi. The digits at the bottom of the card was his phone number.
What a guy with personality! – Shi Lei thought to him as he left the antique street. As he walked out, most of the shops were closed and the rest were about to close.
A piercing car brake suddenly sounded next to Shi Lei and he backed up instantly. He saw a yellow sports car next to him and he recognised it as b.u.mblebee in Transformers. It’s real brand was Chevrolet Camaro.
The first thought that popped in Shi Lei’s mind when he saw the car was he wanted one of his own when he has enough quota for one. Honestly, this was at the bottom amongst sports cars as it’s only 40,000 to 50,000 yuan and it’s nothing compared to real sports cars. But this definitely reminded of him of those who grew up watching the Transformers.
As Shi Lei was thinking that he saw this somewhere before, the window was lowered.
“Isn’t this Shi Lei? I heard that you made a fortune recently. What, you only have a little bit of money and you are copying the rich and buy collectibles?” Inside the car, a familiar face appeared but Shi Lei was unsure.
Shi Lei frowned and tried to recall where he saw the face before. He thought that he met this person somewhere before, but he didn’t have much impressions on him either.
“You are……?” Shi Lei asked in hesitation.
Wu Haoyuan squinted his eyes and laughed coldly: “Aiyo, you made a small fortune and don’t recognise your cla.s.smate anymore? Although we are not in the same course, but we attended compulsory lessons in the hall before in our first year? I’m Wu Haoyuan! Do you remember me now?”
Shi Lei was blank for a second. Other departments may not know Wu Haoyuan’s name, but his department knew him well.
Shi Lei finally remembered. Didn’t this b.u.mblebee always park below their dorm? It was very obvious. All the students asked about this before as it was not often that a freshman drives a 50,000 yuan sports car to university.
People said that this guy was a fuerdai. Well, he didn’t need to hear it from others as a family who bought a b.u.mblebee for their kid was obviously rich.
Also, according to others, this guy hooked up to more than 10 girls in the first year and he slept with all of them. If they didn’t b.u.mp into him with other girls, they wouldn’t have known they’ve been cheated on. Apparently at times he was dating 3 or 4 girls at the same time.
After people knew about it, it stirred their department up. Nothing happened in the end because the department expressed that they couldn’t control their students’ romantic relationships. Although he had some moral problems, the school couldn’t punish him because of that, so they only gave him a warning.
Probably because of the b.u.mblebee and the rumours from first year, Shi Lei finally remembered this person.
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