Zhou Xuan was both amused and annoyed. He scolded, "Boss, why are you acting like a child? We're going to buy a cutting machine, then withdraw money. How are we going to load the cutting machine in that car? And going to the bank? Are we giving ourselves a target to be robbed?"
The two chatted and laughed as they walked to the outside of the villa. Zhou Xuan opened the door of his Sonata and got in, with Zhou Xuan sitting next to him.
First, I found a hardware store and spent over three thousand yuan to buy a small cutting machine for cutting construction steel. Then I drove to a commercial bank in Xicheng.
Zhou Xuan's bank card is a platinum card, so he didn't have to queue and went directly to the VIP room. The female bank staff asked them to sit down, then warmly made tea and gave Zhou Xuan a form to fill in a number and sign.
Zhou Xuan withdrew 200,000 yuan in cash. The bank provided extremely attentive service to VIPs like him. The amount of 200,000 yuan was not large, and all the procedures were completed in less than five minutes.
After leaving the bank and getting into the car, **sighed enviously, "It feels so good to be rich. Before, when I went to the bank, it was easier to withdraw large sums of money because I dealt with them frequently and knew them well. But someone like you can withdraw hundreds of thousands at once without the bank saying a word. That's real status!"
Zhou Xuan laughed and said, "Stop talking nonsense, boss. Just focus on running the antique shop well. You start looking for a shop tomorrow. Do what you're supposed to do. You're in charge of that. I don't know anything about it and I won't interfere. You figure it out yourself."
Zhou Xuan hates trouble. Opening a shop involves finding a location, handling business permits, ordering inventory, and hiring staff—it's a complete mess. Being a natural averse to trouble, he figured it was best to just ignore it.
He wasn't afraid of trouble, and he'd wanted to do this for a long time. It was just that things weren't mature enough, he lacked funds and connections, so he couldn't get started. Now, those are no longer problems.
Back at the Hongcheng Garden Villa, ** and Zhou Xuan carried the cutting machine to the garage. Then they called Achang, Ade, and Zhou Tao, and the five of them worked hard to lift the stone lion off the car.
Then Zhou Xuan took out 100,000 yuan and gave it to Achang and Ade, saying, "Brother Achang, you two worked so hard to come all the way to the countryside with me, so I'll give each of you 50,000 yuan as a token of my appreciation."
Achang and Ade refused to accept the money. Achang said, "Xiao Zhou, Brother Hong treats us like brothers. You're Brother Hong's brother, how can we be so formal? We can't take this money!"
Zhou Xuan forced the money into his hand, saying, "Achang, I'm giving this to you because you're brothers and friends. If I didn't have the money, I naturally wouldn't have given it to you. But now I have money, and you know this is nothing to me. You also have families to support, parents, wives, and children. Please take this money; it's a small token of my appreciation!"
Achang glanced at Ade; both were deeply moved. They had always known that Zhou Xuan was a kind-hearted person. Since Zhou Xuan had said so, they accepted.
When Achang and Ade left, they took another Hummer back, while the one in the garage was left for **, which Hong Ge had said he would give to him.
As soon as the two men left, Zhou Xuan and ** plugged in the cutting machine, dragged it next to the stone lion, pointed the grinding wheel at the lion, and turned it on. The grinding wheel immediately began to spin rapidly. When the wheel touched the stone lion, it produced an extremely piercing sound, and sparks and stone chips flew everywhere.
Fortunately, it was a detached villa, and the neighboring houses were far away. Although the noise was loud, it didn't bother the neighbors.
Zhou Cangsong and Zhou Tao ran to the garage after hearing the noise. The father and son knew about this secret, but neither of them was sure whether there was gold inside the stone lion. Zhou Tao, in particular, had been nervously escorting the stone lion back from afar, and he especially hoped that there really was gold inside.
Under the cutting machine, a deep incision was made into the stone lion. Then Zhou Xuan changed the direction and cut again. After cutting six incisions around the stone lion, he made horizontal cuts. This was more difficult and took a lot of effort to make one incision. He then cut again. When the second incision was not long, with a crack, a large piece of stone fell off the stone lion. At this moment, several people could clearly see the golden color of the stone lion's body after the stone piece fell off!
"Gold has been found! Gold has been found!" Zhou Cangsong and ** shouted in trembling voices at the same time!
Moreover, look at the width and area of the gold exposed inside this stone lion; the amount of gold is not just a number!
Only Zhou Xuan was not surprised; for him, this kind of thing no longer felt exciting at all.
Zhou Xuan's hands were already sore from cutting for so long, but ** was getting more and more excited, and Zhou Tao excitedly stepped forward to take over Zhou Xuan's help.
Zhou Tao and ** worked together, dragging the cutting machine left and right for a while. Half an hour later, the stone lion was completely dismembered, and a round strip of gold, about fifty centimeters long and about the size of a basketball, was completely cut out.
When you pinch it hard with your fingernail, a fingernail mark appears on the gold surface.
"It's gold, it's that stuff." His lips were trembling slightly!
He had seen many gold ornaments, but he had never seen such a large piece of gold before, nor had he seen it on television.
He paused for a moment, then bent down, tried to lift the gold with both hands, but couldn't budge it. He shouted "Hey!" but still couldn't move it. He was surprised and said, "Little brother, this gold weighs more than two hundred pounds. I can lift one hundred and seventy or eighty pounds with this lift! Tao, come on, let's try it together."
Zhou Tao and ** worked together, counting "one, two, three." On the third, they pulled together and lifted it up. They checked the weight in their hands before putting it down.
"It should be around 220 to 250 jin!" ** said, both surprised and excited. "The price of gold has been rising, and it's generally priced between 250 and 300 jin based on purity. Gold of this purity is the best. If we were to sell it, it would fetch at least 260 jin per gram. These 200-plus jin are worth over 26 million! My goodness!"
"Twenty-six million?!" Zhou Cangsong and Zhou Tao were both stunned!
Unexpectedly, this dilapidated old stone lion brought such a large fortune!
At this moment, one has to admire Zhou Xuan's incredible luck!
Zhou Xuan dusted off his hands and said, "Boss, I've already spoken to Brother Hong and asked him to help find a buyer to sell this gold. Boss, you can use this money to prepare for opening the shop. If you need more manpower, bring Zhou Tao and Xiao Ying along to help out and teach them. If you don't have enough money, just let me know. You can handle this yourself!"
"Also," Zhou Xuan said, looking at **, "this matter must be kept secret. Boss, you know that our transaction involves tax evasion and isn't very legal. Try to follow Brother Hong's arrangements as much as possible!"
Naturally, they nodded their heads like chickens pecking at rice.
Seeing his father, brother, and the other two standing there dumbfounded, Zhou Xuan smiled, turned around, and walked out of the garage. Although the income from the gold didn't excite him, his father and brother were definitely at ease. With such a large sum of money right before their eyes, they would be able to live comfortably here.
For the next month or so, Zhou Xuan thoroughly enjoyed his happiness, spending his days taking Fu Ying on trips and visiting the old man for treatment every now and then. It was originally estimated that it would take about two months to completely cure the cancer, but in fact it only took a month and a half for the cancer cells in the old man's body to be completely eliminated!
After the old man recovered, he didn't move from his place and stayed in Wei Haihong's villa. When Zhou Xuan went over, he asked him to play chess.
The old man's chess skills were very sharp. Zhou An was only average. At the beginning, he even had to give Zhou Xuan a rook handicap, but he still lost more often than he won.
Zhou Xuan found the game somewhat boring, but the old man wouldn't let him go, so he made up his mind to fight him. After half a month, his chess skills improved a lot. The old man gave him a handicap of one rook, which reduced his chances of winning by 90%, so he basically lost more than he won.
Zhou Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. With more wins, his interest grew. From then on, every time he came to Brother Hong's place, he had nothing else to do but play chess with the old man. So the old man stopped giving him a chariot and gave him a horse and a cannon. Unexpectedly, he still lost more than he won. In the end, he only gave him a horse or a cannon.
This time, Zhou Xuan was immediately plunged into a tough battle again, and it was his turn to lose more than he won!
He followed Brother Hong to a Hong Kong jewelry merchant and sold the gold for a total of 29 million. Zhou Xuan ignored him, and he was always busy jumping around with Zhou Tao.
The shop has been rented, and the certificate is still being processed. Brother Hong helped a lot with this, otherwise it wouldn't have gone so smoothly. He is very busy, but he feels that the hard work is worthwhile, after all, it's his own business.
Zhou Xuan completely abandoned the antique shop, becoming a hands-off manager. Although he was angry, there was nothing he could do. Fortunately, Zhou Tao was willing to learn and work hard, taking on a lot of his responsibilities. Since Zhou Xuan didn't care, Zhou Tao, being his younger brother, took on the job for him.
The antique shop is scheduled to open on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month before the new year, which is about two months away.
On Saturday morning, Zhou Xuan and Fu Ying went to visit the Great Wall after breakfast. However, they were still halfway there when Zhou Xuan received a call from Brother Hong.
Hong Ge's voice was urgent: "Zhou Xuan, come back quickly! Xiao Qing is sick, very sick! You—come back quickly!" Zhou Xuan was taken aback and asked, "Hong Ge, what illness could Xiao Qing have?" Only after saying that did he realize that he hadn't seen Xiao Qing much in the past month or two since he came back. What illness could this lively and beautiful girl have?
Today, one of Lao Luo's best classmates is moving and having a housewarming party, so I had to go. I wrote a chapter overnight to update this chapter, and I'll write another one this morning. I'm out during the day, so the last chapter tonight will probably be a bit late. Just letting you guys know in advance. Also, yesterday's monthly votes were more than the total for the previous ten days combined, and I'm now in the 1000 yuan bonus range. Lao Luo is very excited and my blood is boiling. I really hope to get that 1000 yuan bonus. Thank you guys, and please continue to support me!