Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Amber Not Valuable?
Tossing and turning all night, Zhao Guang got up with dark circles under his eyes.
Too excited last night, he ended up not sleeping at all. He got up early in the morning and, after eating, Zhao Guang lay on the bed counting the time, almost falling asleep again, but luckily he had set an alarm in advance.
He first accompanied his aunt to the housing authority to complete the paperwork, after which Zhao Guang made a trip to the 4S shop to pick up his car.
Driving his own car, everything felt smooth, and every place looked good.
"Pfft, as if you could tempt me, a fine young man. Women are nowhere near as fun as other worlds."
Thinking of the enthusiastic salesperson from before, Zhao Guang shook his head and shivered all over. He decided to drive home first, and sure enough, his return once again attracted quite a bit of attention from the people around.
No one living in this area could afford such a nice car.
And this car was very flashy, huge in size, it felt like it barely fit in the parking space.
"It looks like Xiao Zhao really did strike it rich, huh? That car's got to be worth almost half a million, right?"
"Just this? Half a million! My house isn't even worth that much," said an old man beside him, his eyes lighting up. Zhao Guang felt a wave of wariness; this wasn't a setup for a scam, was it?
With their old arms and legs, if any of them fell to the ground, they wouldn't think of getting up without two or three tens of thousands.
Better leave quickly, Zhao Guang thought, quickly changing his clothes to the usual suit and sunglasses attire and placed the gold in the car, then he dialed Guo Siyu's number.
"Hello, it's me. I've got a batch of gold that's arrived. Should I come directly to your store?"
"That was fast, great, come on over now," Guo Siyu seemed very happy.
Zhao Guang clenched his fists; everything was going very smoothly. Then he set off on the road, driving somewhat awkwardly. Heaven knows, he had hardly driven a few times since getting his driver's license, and now suddenly switching to such a big one was really not something he was used to.
Following the GPS, Zhao Guang finally arrived at a shop with a Da Manjin sign.
The shop seemed to have a decent flow of people, teeming at first glance.
"Was it too far of a drive last time?" Zhao Guang sighed. The shop was quite a distance from his home. Just arriving there, Zhao Guang saw Guo Siyu waiting below with bodyguards.
"Lend me a hand, it's too heavy for me to carry alone."
It was Zhao Guang himself who had divided the items several times to load them onto the car, but Guo Siyu's lips pursed in hesitation at the sight of Zhao Guang opening the trunk. To those in the know, this was gold; to those out of the loop, it might as well have been clothes.
Should you really be letting others help move it before the transaction is completed?
What about your own team? Not even one of them is facing this, keeping themselves tightly hidden, right?
Well, it's better not to ask too many questions; after all, knowing too much isn't good for one's own welfare.
"Go help, let's go. We'll discuss upstairs, Mr. Zhao, the man with the surname Ma."
"Haha, miss, you really are well-informed," Zhao Guang responded instantly, realizing he had been found out. However, there wasn't much he could do. He wasn't anyone special after all.
It wasn't strange that people could find out about him.
"Oh, and there's this. Please help me appraise it."
Seeing Zhao Guang holding something that looked like a yellow stone, Guo Siyu looked puzzled.
"This thing, it's amber, right?"
"Right, we can get a large amount of amber, and want to see if there's a market for it."
Who knew Guo Siyu would shake her head, "Let's forget about it. The price of amber is all hyped up, although the actual output is quite significant, it's just that it has always been controlled."
"You mean to say, this stuff isn't valuable?" Isn't amber a gemstone?
Guo Siyu nodded, "Actually, the purchase price isn't really high, as long as you have the channels. The high price you see outside, that's all speculation, a result of controlling the quantity."
So that's how it is, good thing I didn't stock up in large quantities all at once, or I would have been duped.
These damn traders, none of them are any good. Zhao Guang knew diamonds were hyped up, but he didn't expect amber to be much the same.
"If you have your own sales channel, you could make some money, but if not, forget it. Everyone else has their supply channels, they won't specifically buy from you, even if the price is low."
As for why, Guo Siyu didn't say, and Zhao Guang couldn't be bothered to ask.
If there was really a benefit, Guo Siyu wouldn't be telling him this.
"Seems like this stuff is of no use after all." Zhao Guang said, a bit disheartened.
"Not necessarily, if you have special amber, it can be quite valuable."
"What counts as special?" Zhao Guang's eyes lit up, on that other world, amber had fallen to the point of being used for kindling, could the output be anything but huge? Even if it were less, there would be no competition for him.
"For instance, pieces with insects or leaves inside, those have high research and collection value, and many people will pay a high price for them. The clearer and more intact they are, the higher the price."
So that's the case, Zhao Guang shrugged, "I doubt there's any like that."
Damn it, even if there were, would I dare to bring them over? Once someone takes a look, if they don't recognize it, they might think it's a new species, and if they do recognize that this species doesn't exist on Earth, wouldn't I be in trouble then?
Once something like that got exposed, the implications wouldn't be as simple as a minor issue.
For a little money, is it worth it? The gold trade alone is enough for now.
As they talked, a group of people had already reached the third floor of Da Manjin. The experts had set up some instruments. The moment they opened the box, Guo Siyu's eyes gleamed for a second.
"So it was you who sold these Gold Coins to Golden Mansion."
"Yep." Zhao Guang looked sideways at Guo Siyu. Aren't you aware? My information was already leaked.
"I only knew you sold a batch of gold to Golden Mansion, didn't know it was these Gold Coins. You probably don't know yet, Golden Mansion repackaged these Gold Coins as ancient coin collectibles and sold them."
Guo Siyu pointed at a flyer, Golden Mansion's promotional material.
Sure enough, what they're selling, the price is much higher than regular gold; I've been ripped off badly. It's a good thing I'm wearing sunglasses, or else Zhao Guang's resentful gaze would be impossible to hide.
"Haha, they really know how to play."
Just then, an expert suddenly said, "Purity around 82%."
Zhao Guang was chocked so badly he started coughing, conned again. Last time, those guys from Golden Mansion told him it was around 73%, hadn't they just swindled him out of 10%? Damn Golden Mansion, I'm never doing business with you again.
"What's wrong? Something off?" Guo Siyu looked at Zhao Guang oddly.
"Nothing, just choked a bit, let's talk about the price instead."
Guo Siyu didn't elaborate, although she didn't know the details, she was aware of the price of two hundred and eighty they gave to Zhao Guang last time.