booktalesy Chapter 413: Can't Stay Still
Chapter 413: Can't Stay Still
In the spring of March, the grass grows and orioles fly.
Several groups of strangers arrived at the peaceful and tranquil bookstore in the Jiangnan town.
Lu Wenchun was one of them. He came all the way from Yanjing. When he learned that the holder of the "Xu Shichang Renshou Tongdeng Gold Commemorative Coin" was in Suzhou, he bought a train ticket and came to Suzhou without saying a word.
This information was obtained by Lu Wenchun through a connection in Chang'an for a thousand yuan.
After getting off the train, Lu Wenchun wandered around and finally arrived at this inconspicuous Jiangnan town.
Lu Wenchun, accompanied by two assistants, went around asking people where Zeng Jiahua's family lived. Unfortunately, they encountered several people with heavy accents. While the assistants could understand Lu Wenchun's words, none of the three of them could understand the local dialect with its soft Wu accent.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to meet a primary school teacher in town who spoke fluent Mandarin, so there were no communication barriers at all.
"Teacher Chang, I'd like to ask you about someone. Do you know Zeng Jiahua?"
"Director Zeng! Of course I know him."
When outsiders ask about Zeng Jiahua, how could Teacher Chang not know him? Every year, Zeng Jiahua's contracted flange factory would donate some money to the town's schools, both primary and secondary, so every teacher in the town's schools knew him.
"Do you know where they live?"
Teacher Chang immediately became wary: "Where are you from? What do you want with him?"
Lu Wenchun had met all sorts of people, so he naturally had a good eye for such things. In order to dispel Teacher Chang's wariness, he said with a smile.
"We're from Yanjing, and we'd like to discuss a business deal with Director Zeng."
Because Zeng Jiahua was originally the factory director of the flange factory, when Lu Wenchun said this, Teacher Chang lowered his guard and thought that he had come to talk business with Zeng Jiahua.
"Director Zeng has resigned. If you want to discuss business, just go to the factory and find the newly appointed Director Lü."
Lu Wenchun's heart sank: "Zeng Jiahua resigned? Where does he live? We mainly want to discuss business cooperation with Zeng Jiahua."
Teacher Chang gave the three outsiders a strange look, but he still told them what was going on so they wouldn't make a wasted trip.
"Even if I tell you where he lives, you won't be able to find him. He moved away, his whole family moved away."
"Do you know where he moved to? In the city?"
Teacher Chang shook her head: "I don't know about that!"
"Excuse me, I have something to do. I think you could try asking around at the town government; they might know more than I do."
Lu Wenchun quickly thanked him, "Thank you so much, Teacher Chang. I noticed you smoke, right? This is a cigarette from Yanjing. If you don't mind, please take it and try it."
Lu Wenchun took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and handed it to Teacher Chang.
When Teacher Chang saw that it was a pack of cigarettes produced in Yanjing, he, as a seasoned smoker, accepted it with a smile, albeit with some reluctance.
After seeing Teacher Chang off, Lu Wenchun thought for a moment, then waved his hand.
"Let's go to the town government and ask."
Lu Wenchun is a middleman who makes a living by reselling information. As the saying goes, no one gets up early without a reason. The reason he went to such great lengths to find Zeng Jiahua was because of money.
Because a Hong Kong client with whom he had a long-term business relationship asked him for US$200,000 to find a way to obtain a "Xu Shichang Renshou Tongdeng Gold Commemorative Coin" that was said to already exist in China. US$200,000! That's equivalent to more than one million RMB.
Lu Wenchun roughly guessed that the owner of the treasure might not know how valuable the coin was. Taking advantage of the information asymmetry, he could spend some money to get his hands on it and resell it for a million yuan without any problem.
Moreover, this coin is not within the scope of national cultural relic protection because it is too recent. Therefore, it certainly did not come from the ground, which means that it is a coin with a provenance. The trading of coins with a provenance is legal.
Hong Kong's rich people really know how to have fun. They're typical rich but foolish people who actually like to collect this stuff. In Lu Wenchun's opinion, even if it's gold, a piece of gold the size of a silver dollar doesn't even amount to an ounce, yet he's willing to spend two hundred thousand US dollars to buy it.
However, he had also inquired and industry insiders estimated that if the coin really existed, it could easily sell for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that wouldn't be enough compared to what Hong Kong customers were willing to pay.
Upon hearing this, a staff member from the town government said, "Why are you looking for Zeng Jiahua again? If you're looking for someone, you should go to the police station! This isn't a police station."
Upon hearing this, Lu Wenchun quickly thanked them and left the town government with his men.
Based on what the town government staff member said earlier, Lu Wenchun deduced that there were other people inquiring about Zeng Jiahua. It seems that there are quite a few people who want to get a piece of this pie.
However, the staff member's words reminded Lu Wenchun: "That's right! Going to the police station to inquire might yield some significant findings."
Unexpectedly, I ran into a snag when I got there.
The policewoman in charge of household registration looked at Lu Wenchun warily and asked, "Do you have a letter of introduction?"
"A letter of introduction?" Lu Wenchun certainly didn't have one.
Lu Wenchun, with an embarrassed smile, tried to get on the good side of the household registration police officer: "Comrade, it's like this, Zeng Jiahua and I are cousins, but we haven't been in touch for many years. My mother has been talking about him for years, and this time I finally had the chance to contact him, but he moved away again. So I had no choice but to ask the police officer for help."
Upon hearing Lu Wenchun's words, the female police officer couldn't help but give him a cold smile.
Lu Wenchun never expected that the household registration police officer was Zeng Jiahua's cousin. The two were genuine relatives. He, the imposter, had run into the real deal and was detained on the spot by the joint defense team of the police station.
They were detained for almost a day and a night, and were not released until the afternoon of the next day. This decision was made after calling the police station in Yanjing to find out if Lu Wenchun had a criminal record. If there was anything wrong, they would have to be detained for further investigation.
However, before letting them go, he gave Lu Wenchun a lecture.
"If you're going to talk business, then talk business. Why pretend to be someone's relative? From now on, do business openly and honestly, don't be sneaky."
Lu Wenchun felt utterly miserable; he was truly screwed.
He replied honestly, "Yes, yes, we will do business openly and honestly from now on."
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, Yu Xiang was on the phone with Huang Xiaochuan.
"Xiao Chuan, my aunt just called and invited us to her house for dinner tonight."
"Okay, I'll pick you up from the hospital after get off work, and we'll go together."
"Okay! I'll wait for you!" Yu Xiang said and then hung up the phone.
Huang Xiaochuan continued to busy himself with organizing his lesson plans.
Before the Spring Festival, my uncle took my aunt and grandmother away because he had secretly bought himself a house without telling his nephew, Huang Xiaochuan.
Since you're going to settle down in Shanghai, you definitely need to have your own house. What's the point of always living at your nephew's house? Besides, Zeng Jiahua is capable of doing so.
Zeng Jiahua wouldn't stay at her daughter's house; she felt most at ease living in her own home. Based on these considerations, Zeng Jiahua started looking for a suitable house even before coming to Shanghai.
I bought this house before the Spring Festival from a senior executive of a German company. This foreigner is going back to his country. He can go back, but he can't take the house with him. It's too troublesome to keep it and rent it out, so it's easier to sell it and get cash.
It was also Zeng Jiahua who had a special connection with this house; he took a liking to it at first sight.
This house is also a detached old villa, but it's only half of the house; the other half belongs to someone else.
Therefore, its courtyard is only open on three sides, but Zeng Jiahua is still very satisfied with it, and the price is also very reasonable.
He had also looked at commercial housing and export-oriented housing, but he never went a second time. He was used to living in a detached house in the countryside, and he wouldn't agree to live in a cramped commercial apartment.
Moreover, this house is only two or three alleys away from his wife's tobacco and sundry shop. The house is already renovated. Although the original owner came from a country with winters colder than Shanghai, the cold of Shanghai gave him a taste of its own medicine. So the original owner specially installed a German heating system, which made Zeng Jiahua very satisfied. After all, only those who have experienced the warmth of winter know the benefits of having heating.
Tonight, Zeng Jiahua not only invited his nephew and his wife, but also had his wife invite his two daughters and sons-in-law back, mainly to celebrate the completion of his new factory in Qingpu.
His aunt had advised him to retire, saying that he had everything he needed, had worked hard for most of his life, and deserved to enjoy his retirement.
However, Zeng Jiahua was a restless person. Letting him stay at home doing nothing was worse than killing him. Before coming to Shanghai, he had already begun to prepare for starting his new career.
He bought a piece of industrial land in Qingpu, covering more than 20 acres, and temporarily built a factory. He planned to do mechanical processing, which is his old profession as an expert who has been processing flanges for many years.
We'll expand the factory as the business grows. There's no need to invest too much money in the factory now. Besides, purchasing equipment is a significant expense. We've only saved so much over the years. Buying a house and setting up a factory has already taken out most of it. The money for the equipment is a bank loan, but the interest rate is really high. But I gritted my teeth and took the loan anyway.
Zeng Jiahua never considered asking his nephew for these things, because he knew that as long as he asked, his nephew would do it for him without batting an eye. But Zeng Jiahua would not do that. Since ancient times, it has always been the nephew who takes advantage of the uncle, never the uncle who takes advantage of the nephew. He has lived most of his life, and if he still can't understand this kind of social etiquette, then he has lived in vain.
However, Zeng Jiahua couldn't understand one thing: how could his nephew be so capable?
In just a few years, he has amassed such a large fortune. He has personally visited both of the buildings under construction, and seeing them rising from the ground felt like a dream.
Not to mention supermarkets, Times Supermarket has now opened in every administrative district of Shanghai, and eleven large Times Super Shopping Centers have opened, each one more popular than the last.
Seeing these businesses, Zeng Jiahua couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and honor. His nephew was so successful; as his uncle, he was also proud.