Chapter 31: Chapter 31: A Big Client? A Collector?
Fang Zhen opened his WeChat conversation with Tang Xiaojuan.
"You there?"
"Hey, are you there?"
"Hey, hey, hey, are you there? I need to talk to you about sothing."
"Did you see this? ssage
back."
"Voice Call: Canceled"
"Voice Call: Canceled"
"Video Call: Canceled"
"Please, I’m begging you, just reply to my ssage!"
"It’s urgent, please get back to !"
"Video Call: Canceled"
Fang Zhen opened the chat and saw this stream of ssages.
He was amused.
’What’s all this? Tang Xiaojuan... we’re not that close, are we? We just did one deal for that Gold Pendant. What could have happened that she’s sending
so many ssages?’
Fang Zhen thought.
He had a feeling sothing was up, so he typed a single word back: "Here."
Less than ten seconds later, Tang Xiaojuan imdiately sent him a voice call request.
Fang Zhen accepted.
"Where have you been? I’ve been sending you voice ssages all morning, and you didn’t reply to a single one," Tang Xiaojuan said, her tone tinged with a hint of complaint.
Fang Zhen chuckled to himself. ’What’s our relationship? The way she’s acting, you’d think I was a boyfriend ignoring her ssages. It’s almost flirty.’
Fang Zhen ignored her emotional tone and cut straight to the chase. "What’s up?"
"I wanted to ask you sothing. That Gold Pendant you sold to our shop last ti—do you have any more? Or anything similar, like a matching gold set?" Tang Xiaojuan asked.
Fang Zhen’s intuition imdiately told him sothing was going on.
"Why are you asking?" Fang Zhen shot back.
"Just tell
if you have them or not," Tang Xiaojuan said.
"Heh." Fang Zhen chuckled and said nothing.
Hearing no response from Fang Zhen, Tang Xiaojuan held out for a mont before she finally broke.
"Alright, alright, I’ll be honest with you. Soone has taken a fancy to that Gold Pendant of yours," Tang Xiaojuan said.
"Oh? Not just any regular custor, I take it," Fang Zhen said. "What’s the story?"
"Huh? How did you know the custor wasn’t ordinary?" Tang Xiaojuan was a little surprised.
"If it were a normal custor, you wouldn’t be reacting like this," Fang Zhen said. "Spit it out. Who’s interested in the Gold Pendant?"
"Sigh, you’re sharp. I couldn’t hide it from you," Tang Xiaojuan said with a light sigh. "After you sold
that Gold Pendant, I was originally planning to log it and then lt it down for raw Gold. But it looked so unique that I decided to put it in our consignnt area for a day before lting it."
"By sheer coincidence, a very important custor happened to wander into our shop. He saw the Gold Pendant and was very interested, asking
where it ca from."
"I couldn’t answer his questions, so I just said you had put it up for consignnt."
"The custor was also very interested in you. He asked if I had your contact information because he wants to et you. He also said that if you have any other similar items, he’s willing to pay to acquire them."
Fang Zhen was a little surprised, but on second thought, it wasn’t that surprising.
The Gold Pendant did have a unique design. Most people might not care for it, but perhaps so would find it especially appealing.
"This custor you’re talking about—what does he do? What’s his background?" Fang Zhen asked, remaining cautious and vigilant.
"I don’t know his identity myself—he’s an older gentleman—but I know he’s soone very important," Tang Xiaojuan said. "I’ve seen our big boss from Yu Le having dinner with him. Our boss was with him the whole ti, practically waiting on him hand and foot, all smiles and toasts. Incredibly deferential. Our boss is worth over a billion, so for him to be that eager to please, the guest’s status must be extraordinary."
"Oh," Fang Zhen responded.
Fang Zhen guessed that the custor Tang Xiaojuan ntioned was likely a collector of sorts, soone with refined taste.
To a gold shop manager like Tang Xiaojuan, the Gold Pendant was just ordinary Gold. But in the eyes of a connoisseur, its value could be much higher.
’Perhaps this is a good opportunity to sell my Gold war spoils?’
’My Golden Holy Chalice, Holy Plate, and Gold Coins would just be sold as regular Gold to a jewelry shop. But if I sell them to a knowledgeable collector, I could get a premium for them as Gold artifacts.’
’Besides, Xiahai is very safe. It’s highly unlikely I’ll run into any danger.’
Having thought it through, Fang Zhen said, "Alright."
"Tell him to set a ti. I’m busy lately, so the sooner the better. If he’s free tomorrow or the day after, that would be best. We can et and have a chat."
"Got it!" Tang Xiaojuan replied. "I’ll hang up now. I’ll send you a WeChat ssage once everything is arranged."
"Mm."
Fang Zhen hung up.
About two minutes later, a ssage from Tang Xiaojuan ca through.
"It’s all set. Tomorrow at 10:30 AM, in a private room on the second floor of the Qingfengxiang Tea House. I’ll send you the address."
After sending the ssage, Tang Xiaojuan shared the tea house’s location.
Fang Zhen sent back an "OK" hand gesture emoji.
Tang Xiaojuan replied with several smiley face emojis.
"Heh, a pretty sharp woman," Fang Zhen chuckled.
He could see right through her. Initially, Tang Xiaojuan must have thought there was money to be made and tried to act as a middleman to earn a cut, but that didn’t work out. Undeterred, she shifted to facilitating communication between the two parties. Her goal now was to earn goodwill, hoping that both the important custor and Fang Zhen would owe her a favor, thereby increasing her social capital.
Fang Zhen wasn’t particularly bothered by it. The fact that she thought to do this just proved she was a smart woman. It was just business, after all.
However, the "important client" Tang Xiaojuan ntioned had piqued Fang Zhen’s interest. He wondered what kind of person he would be.
Having settled the matter, Fang Zhen didn’t waste any more energy on it.
He casually ordered so beef brisket hot pot for delivery and reflected on his shortcomings in the dungeon while he waited.
’I still lack a reliable ranged weapon.’
’I thought the slingshot would be good for pulling monsters and dealing effective damage, but in practice, that wasn’t the case.’
’It can pull monsters, sure, but the damage is pathetic. The slingshot has strong kinetic energy within seven ters, but beyond that, the damage drops off sharply.’
Fang Zhen felt the titanium alloy slingshot just couldn’t et his needs.
He had so experience with close-quarters combat from his dungeon runs, so he wasn’t afraid of a lee fight.
However, from a safety standpoint, being able to take down enemies from tens of ters away was definitely safer than fighting up close.
’Don’t tell
I actually have to find an archery range and practice archery?’ Fang Zhen wondered.
As he thought about it, he idly opened his phone and searched for posts about archery, looking for inspiration.
After scrolling through a few pages, he ca across a thread on an archery forum where people were arguing.
Fang Zhen skimd a few comnts and saw a user with the ID ’LV-Dior Luxury Goods Recycling - Old Zhang’ constantly hyping up sothing called a "dual-use slingbow."
"I’m telling you, you guys are just ignorant. Who still plays with such primitive equipnt these days?"
"Let
tell you, slingshots and regular bows are way too primitive. The dual-use slingbow I’m talking about, once you tune it right, is dead accurate with chanical sights at thirty, fifty, even seventy ters! The power is insane, too. It can shatter a bottle at seventy ters!"
"What era are we in? You’re still playing with bows like so caveman. Isn’t that embarrassing?"
That ’LV-Dior Luxury Goods Recycling - Old Zhang’ user was hyping it up to the high heavens in the thread.
Fang Zhen had no interest in arguing over stats, but the "dual-use slingbow" ntioned in the post caught his attention.
’A dual-use slingbow? Never heard of it. What is that?’
Fang Zhen opened the Jingmao app on his phone and typed "dual-use slingbow" into the search bar.
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