Yesterday's events still feel like a dream, but I truly witnessed the thrill of going from life to death and back again. At the same time, I understood the principle that joy turns to sorrow. My five million yuan was gone in the blink of an eye!
Thinking about money, I started to worry about Brother Hong. I wondered how he was doing. He was in such a state, so of course I wouldn't go after him for the six-sided diamond. I'd just consider it a dream of getting rich. Fortunately, I still had more than three million, so I was still a millionaire.
However, Zhou Xuan still didn't want to sit around and do nothing. In the end, he decided to stay for two more days and go out to try to find a job. Ideally, he would find a job in an antique pawnshop or similar place and learn some skills so that even if his left-hand ability really stopped working, he could still find a way to make a living. If he couldn't find a job within two days, he would give up and go back to his hometown to build a house and get married!
After paying for two more days at the hotel front desk and booking three days, Zhou Xuan went out for a quick bite to eat, bought a copy of the city newspaper, found a place to sit down, and slowly browsed the job postings.
There were no job postings from antique shops, which Zhou Xuan thought was related to the scarcity of antique shops. However, there were many pawnshops with job openings; four of them had posted job openings.
Zhou Xuan circled the address and phone number with a pen and wrote them down. Nowadays, pawnshops are all limited companies, which is very different from Chen Sanyan's private business. The positions they recruit include general manager, accountant, supervisor, appraiser, salesperson, etc., but without exception, they all require a degree. Even the most ordinary salesperson is required to have a college diploma.
Zhou Xuan was somewhat discouraged. He could barely associate these jobs with being a salesperson, but his diploma was clearly not enough. Besides, pawnshops were different from Chen Sanyan's antique shop.
Antique shops generally only accept antiques, jade, and artifacts, while pawnshops accept any item, as long as the pawnshop appraiser deems it valuable and profitable. Of course, the highest price offered for a pawned item is usually only a quarter of its actual value or even lower.
Zhou Xuan pondered for a moment and realized that his greatest strength lay in his special ability, but this could not be made public; he could only act according to circumstances.
Sure enough, after visiting three pawnshops and filling out several forms, the interviewers, upon hearing that he only had a high school diploma, gave him a few perfunctory words and told him to wait for news. Without even thinking, Zhou Xuan knew that the conversation would sink without a trace and he would never hear from them again.
I lost confidence and interest in going to the last one.
After wandering the streets for half an hour, Zhou Xuan had no energy left. If he hadn't suddenly gained the ability to use his left hand, he would undoubtedly still be struggling to survive as before. That's just how realistic society is.
There were many street vendors selling clothes, shoes, socks, and fruit, and distributing flyers. Under some big trees, there were even monks dressed in robes setting up fortune-telling stalls.
Zhou Xuan strolled along, looking at the items on the roadside stalls and lost in thought, when he suddenly heard a shout: "Street vendors!"
Then there were a few rustling sounds, and the people setting up their stalls pulled up the two corners of their canvas tarpaulins, slung them over their shoulders, and ran. In just a few seconds, these street vendors disappeared into the crowd or into the buildings.
Several vehicles marked "Urban Management" drove by; it turned out to be urban management vehicles passing by! Zhou Xuan sighed. It's tough being a low-level worker these days. But if he couldn't find a job and went back to doing the same things he used to do, he wouldn't be much different from these street vendors, still struggling for a simple survival.
After the urban management vehicles left, those unlicensed street vendors sprang up everywhere like mushrooms after rain.
Zhou Xuan smiled. Perhaps the people who live at the bottom of society have the strongest vitality. He saw a stall in front of him surrounded by seven or eight people, but he couldn't see what was inside.
Zhou Xuan also walked over, squeezed through the crowd, and went inside. He saw a middle-aged man dressed in a very rustic country style squatting on the ground, with a strange object on the ground in front of him.
This thing looks very strange. It looks like a big round radish, but much bigger than a radish. It's like a little baby, purplish-black, and has a few green branches and leaves growing on its head.
Zhou Xuan had never seen anything like it before. The more he looked at it, the more interesting it became. This thing had eyes, a mouth, a nose, and hands and feet. Of course, the hands and feet were just separate branches. But it looked like a chubby, purplish-black humanoid doll. There was a lot of mud on the doll's body, and a lot of black mud dust was scattered on the ground where it was placed.
Zhou Xuan asked curiously, "What is this?"
A few middle-aged men, around fifty years old, were muttering nearby. Zhou Xuan heard them say, "He Shou Wu..."
The villager looked up, and Zhou Xuan saw that he looked very rustic, with the marks of sun and wind on his face. He looked to be in his thirties, but it was hard to say, he might be in his forties. His eyes were incredibly simple and honest.
Based on this alone, Zhou Xuan was certain that the middle-aged man was a simple, honest country farmer.
The farmer blinked and stammered, "I heard from the old folks in the mountains behind our village that this is a thousand-year-old He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum), a treasure. I picked it from the cliff on the old mountain, but my family is short of money, so I'm bringing it here to exchange for cash!"
A few old men muttered to themselves, while some young people were simply there to watch the spectacle. Not to mention the young people, none of the old men had ever seen anything like it before.
Many people have heard of the name "thousand-year-old He Shou Wu" (Polygonum multiflorum), a treasure on par with thousand-year-old ginseng. It is said to exist only in martial arts and fantasy novels, and its effects can bring the dead back to life and heal flesh and bones. It is a rare and precious treasure.
One of the old men pinched the he shou wu with his finger, and some black mud got on it.
The farmer reached out to stop him, exclaiming in surprise, "Are you going to buy it or not? If not, don't break it!"
The old man brought his finger to his nose and smelled it. There was a faint medicinal fragrance. Even the people next to him, including Zhou Xuan, could smell it. The fragrance smelled quite pleasant, but it was definitely not perfume.
The old man nodded, then nodded to a few other old men nearby, and whispered, "It might be true!" He then asked the farmer, "How much do you want to sell it for?"
The farmer hesitated for a moment before saying, "I don't know exactly how much it's worth, but the old folks in our village all say it's a treasure, a life-saving treasure. How much are you going to offer?"
The old man was a bit stubborn, and asked again, "How much money do you want?"
Zhou Xuan's heart was also moved. He thought that if it wasn't too expensive, he would like to buy it. He didn't want to make a lot of money. He just wanted to help his elderly parents and grandfather to improve their health. But he didn't know if it was more than a thousand years old. So he reached out his left hand and touched the He Shou Wu, and transferred the icy energy of the pill to it.
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Volume 1, Chapter 31: Traps Everywhere (Third Update, Seeking Votes)
(Thank you so much for your tremendous support! On the first day of the rankings, it soared to third place on the new book list and first place on the urban novel list. I am extremely grateful. Regardless of whether we have reached 200 votes, I will still add an extra chapter. Actually, we already have 194 votes, and it's only a little past 9 o'clock. I'm sure reaching 200 votes will be no problem. In short, thank you for your support. I have no way to thank you but to write this to express my gratitude. Thank you!!)
When Zhou Xuan channeled the icy energy onto the He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum), the test results he obtained left him both amused and exasperated!
The ingredients of this Polygonum multiflorum include clay, black soil, flour, and musk powder. Musk has pharmacological components, so Zhou Xuan smelled a faint medicinal fragrance. However, since he had never encountered musk before, he didn't know what the fragrance was. (W)
Without a doubt, this guy is a fraud!
Zhou Xuan was shocked; the seemingly simple and honest farmer was actually a fraud!
It seems that the old saying "It's easy to draw the skin of a tiger but hard to draw its bones, and you can know a person's face but not their heart" is very true. You really can't judge a book by its cover!
The farmer saw Zhou Xuan touching the he shou wu (Polygonum multiflorum) for a while, but not pinching the skin like the old man had done earlier, so he didn't push Zhou Xuan's hand away. He simply asked, "Boss, are you going to buy it?"
Zhou Xuan withdrew his hand, smiled, and said nothing.
The old man couldn't help but ask again, "How much money do you want?"
The farmer glanced at him, then at Zhou Xuan, gritted his teeth, held up one finger, and said, "This is the price, no less!"
"Hehe, how much is one finger?" Zhou Xuan chuckled to himself.
The old man frowned and said, "Ten...thousand?"
Zhou Xuan smiled, shook his head, and turned to leave.