Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 126: The Little Rascal
After intense bargaining, the two finally agreed to transfer 10% of the shares.
When others are negotiating business, they try their best to secure the greatest benefit for themselves. But these two brothers are desperately trying to give each other more benefits.
What is a friend? This is a true friend!
Aside from true friends, even most brothers would never do this.
Having such a friend in this lifetime is definitely one of the most precious treasures in a person's life, a treasure that cannot be replaced by any amount of money!
The fact that he was able to buy that small building across the street was an exceptionally smooth process. It turned out that when Gu Dongfeng was with Zhou Ziwei at the police station, he received a message from his wife that Liu Xiaofei had gone blind.
Gu Dongfeng didn't tell Zhou Ziwei at the time, but he pondered it in silence for a while and felt that he had to help his niece no matter what.
Although he didn't know how slim the chances of curing the disease were, he knew that if he wanted to cure it, it would definitely cost an astronomical sum of money.
Liu Xiaofei's parents are both earning fixed salaries and have limited savings, so it's completely impossible for them to cover the medical expenses.
Although Liu Xiaofei is a police officer and has medical insurance and accidental injury insurance, and since she was injured on duty this time, most of the expenses will be reimbursed.
However, if a retinal transplant were to be performed, even a small portion of the cost would be far beyond what Liu Xiaofei's parents could afford.
So Gu Dongfeng decided to prepare some money in advance to help his niece if needed.
Gu Dongfeng has never lacked money in his life. With his skills, he can easily carve a small trinket, and the processing fee alone is enough for an ordinary family to live on for a year or two.
Gu Dongfeng, however, was almost obsessed with jade. If he didn't have any spare money, that was fine, but as soon as he did, he would think about buying a piece of jade that he liked, and then he would take it home and carve it into an art piece to keep.
As a result, Gu Dongfeng worked until retirement, and apart from some jade ornaments he had created himself, he had almost nothing left.
For example, the small pendant he was going to give to Zhou Ziwei a couple of days ago was carved by himself from materials he bought. He has several small items like this in his possession, all of which are works that are not expensive in terms of materials but have amazing artistic value.
The old man cherished all these things like treasures, and he would never have given them away if it weren't for his beloved niece Liu Xiaofei.
Now that he was thinking about raising money for Liu Xiaofei's medical expenses, he absolutely did not want to sell the few precious items he had kept at home. After hesitating for a long time, he thought of his two-story house that had been rented out long ago.
He used to be reluctant to move that small building because it was the ancestral home of the Gu family, lest he be ashamed to face his ancestors after death.
But now that I'm older, I realize that I don't even have any children, and the Gu family line has already ended. According to the old saying, this is the greatest act of filial impiety! When I kick the bucket in a few years, that ancestral house will eventually belong to someone else, so there's no point in keeping it.
So Gu Dongfeng decided to sell the small building.
Gu Dongfeng was a straightforward person; he would sell if he wanted to. He remembered that the woman who used to rent his house to run a coffee shop had mentioned that she wanted to buy the house. So Gu Dongfeng immediately called the woman and said that he wanted to sell the small building and asked if she was interested in taking it over.
The proprietress naturally knew that buying this house was a guaranteed profit, and although she didn't have much money to invest right now, she still couldn't help but bargain with Gu Dongfeng.
Gu Dongfeng asked for one million, but the proprietress, as if she were buying clothes in a small clothing store, immediately bargained down to one hundred, wanting to buy it for five hundred thousand. This made the old man so angry that his beard bristled, and he hung up the phone and sulked there.
Zhou Ziwei happened to come out of the bathroom and heard Gu Dongfeng and the woman bargaining. He was immediately delighted. Upon asking, he learned that Gu Dongfeng wanted to sell one of his houses.
Little did Zhou Ziwei know that Gu Dongfeng was actually planning to sell his ancestral home to raise money for Liu Xiaofei's medical expenses. He had been thinking about how to buy the house from Gu Dongfeng, but now that Gu Dongfeng wanted to sell it himself, he immediately said that he was looking to come to Tengchong to do business in jadeite rough stone trading and had been trying to find out where there were houses for sale.
Upon hearing this, Gu Dongfeng immediately decided to sell his small building to Zhou Ziwei without saying a word, and instead of asking for one million, he lowered the price to seven hundred and fifty thousand.
His price is already very reasonable. Even without considering the prime location of the house, it is still lower than the average real estate price in Tengchong in terms of size alone.
Zhou Ziwei was naturally embarrassed to take advantage of Gu Dongfeng for such a small reason. He said that he had just heard Gu Dongfeng ask for one million, and if Gu Dongfeng was willing to sell to him, he would offer one million.
In addition, Zhou Ziwei plans to allocate an extra million to hire Gu Dongfeng as an advisor to his raw stone exchange.
Moreover, this million is only an annual salary for one year. Once the business is established and profitable, the profit sharing will be calculated separately.
Gu Dongfeng's responsibilities were quite simple. In addition to helping with the exchange's relevant licenses and introducing a supply channel in Myanmar, he would occasionally help with dealing with local people.
After all, Zhou Ziwei is a complete outsider. Setting up such a large business here is bound to cause some trouble and encounter some resistance. However, if Gu Dongfeng, a local bigwig, is in charge, then it will be a completely different story.
Gu Dongfeng was already worried that even if he prepared an extra hundred thousand or two, it might not be enough to cover the portion of the fees that Liu Xiaofei needed to pay personally. Now that Zhou Ziwei was willing to pay him a year's salary in advance for hiring him as a consultant, he immediately had two million in cash on hand.
If that's still not enough, he can use the few jade ornaments he keeps as souvenirs as collateral to borrow one or two years' worth of salary from Zhou Ziwei.
Therefore, although Gu Dongfeng had long decided to retire completely, he still agreed to Zhou Ziwei's request and prepared to make a comeback.
It's a pity that his hands tremble badly and his eyesight is not as good as before. Otherwise, with his skills, he could have made a living by just taking on a couple of jobs and wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.
Gu Dongfeng was decisive and efficient. Now that he had reached an agreement with Zhou Ziwei, he immediately began to handle the matter.
He had a lot of influence in Tengchong, so it was just a matter of transferring property ownership. He didn't need to run around the streets at all. He just made two phone calls, and someone brought over the necessary forms. The two of them got it done right there in the police station office. By the time it was almost time to leave work, the small building had been completely transferred to Zhou Ziwei's name.
Zhou Ziwei never expected that this windfall would come so easily. To be honest, the main reason he bought this small building was for the large number of small pieces of jadeite buried downstairs.
As for opening a jadeite rough stone exchange, that's just a side effect.
Otherwise, if it weren't for business, would an outsider like him just buy a small building to dismantle for fun?
Of course... opening a jadeite rough stone exchange isn't a bad thing. After all, Zhou Ziwei can see through jadeite rough stones, and it would be a waste not to use such an ability. But if he can be so accurate in betting on stones with jadeite every time, it would be strange if people didn't suspect something over time.
Now that he owns his own jadeite rough stone exchange, no matter how many jadeite stones he finds, it won't attract too much attention.
It wasn't until the house transfer procedures were completed and the property certificate was in hand that Zhou Ziwei remembered to ask Gu Dongfeng why he suddenly thought of selling the house.
Gu Dongfeng didn't want to say it at first, but thinking that Zhou Ziwei would find out sooner or later when he went to the hospital to see Liu Xiaofei, he told her the truth. He said that he was afraid that Liu Xiaofei's injury could only be cured by a retinal transplant, and he was worried that Liu Xiaofei's parents would not have the money to treat her, so he prepared some money in advance.
After all, Liu Xiaofei's insurance is quite comprehensive, and the amount he needs to spend is only a very small part. One or two million should be enough.
When Zhou Ziwei heard that Gu Dongfeng was selling the house to pay for Liu Xiaofei's medical treatment, he was immediately filled with shame.
No matter how you look at it, Liu Xiaofei's injury was caused by Zhou Ziwei, so he should have a greater obligation than Gu Dongfeng to help Liu Xiaofei heal her eyes.
But now, Gu Dongfeng has sold a treasure mountain to Zhou Ziwei at a low price in order to raise money for Liu Xiaofei's medical expenses, which makes Zhou Ziwei feel like he is taking advantage of a disaster.
Now that the property deed has been changed, Zhou Ziwei can't go back on his word, and he's even less likely to reveal that there's a large amount of jadeite buried under that small building.
Left with no other choice, they could only leave it at that for now. At most, they would return some of it to Gu Dongfeng when they dug up the jadeite buried under the house in a few days. Anyway, there would be plenty of opportunities to make money. Zhou Ziwei was worried that if he only focused on making a fortune in silence, a small knot would remain in his heart forever!
When Zhou Ziwei and Li Yifeng returned to the coffee shop across the street with the brand-new property certificate to claim the house, the flamboyant proprietress immediately started wailing and throwing a tantrum. When she wanted to rent the house before, she was worried that the business would not be good, so she insisted on not signing a lease contract with Gu Dongfeng. That way, whenever she wanted to quit, she would not be restricted by Gu Dongfeng.
She never expected that the landlord would change so easily, and since she didn't have a lease agreement, if Zhou Ziwei wanted to kick her out, he wouldn't even give her a penny for the renovation losses, and she would have nowhere to sue.
Zhou Ziwei was too lazy to argue with her. He immediately paid 300,000 yuan in relocation compensation and told her to move out completely within three days. Then he turned around and left.
The proprietress immediately put on a smiling face when she saw the bundles of brand-new banknotes in front of her.
When she first opened this coffee shop, the total cost of the renovation was less than 100,000 yuan. Now that Zhou Ziwei has given her 300,000 yuan in one go, she has naturally made a profit.
Moreover, she still owes Gu Dongfeng two months' rent, and now that she's moving... she'll naturally save on the remaining rent!
As Zhou Ziwei and Li Yifeng finished their business and were walking back to the hotel while talking, they saw a dozen or so young men and women dressed in a sleazy style walking by, each holding a can of beer and drinking and making a ruckus.
Li Yifeng wasn't paying attention and bumped lightly into a stumbling little blond kid. The little blond kid cried out, "Ouch!" and flung his hand, sending a stone the size of a child's fist flying. It landed with a "plop" in a sewer with a half-open manhole cover.
Seeing this, Li Yifeng didn't pay much attention. He simply turned to the blond-haired guy, said "Sorry," and continued walking towards the hotel with Zhou Ziwei, chatting and laughing.
"Hey...stop right there!"
The blond-haired guy slammed his beer on the ground, pointed at Li Yifeng, and said, "I just spent five million to buy a jadeite rough stone, and you knocked it into the sewer. You think you can just say sorry and that's it?"
Upon hearing this, Li Yifeng frowned and said, "Young man, are you sure you're not mistaken? What you just threw away was clearly just a rock. What kind of rock is worth five million? Do you think I'm from Africa and don't know anything?"
"Tch... what do you know?"
The blond-haired guy glared at her and said arrogantly, "That's right, it is indeed a stone, but... isn't a jadeite rough stone just a stone? Before it's cut open, it's just a rough stone like any other. If it turns out to be green, then it's a treasure. If there's nothing inside, then it's not even worth a pile of dog poop... What do you know, you bumpkin? The one I just saw was a genuine Burmese old mine jadeite rough stone. After rubbing it open, it revealed a pure imperial green, which almost certainly meant it could yield jadeite. So the price was naturally quite high. I bought it for 5.2 million. You... you either get that rough stone back for me, or you give me back my 5.2 million!"
"Five million two hundred thousand? Young man, are you sure you're not crazy?"
Li Yifeng curled his lip in disdain and said, "With your character, you still want to spend 5.2 million to gamble on jade? Look at you... your clothes are so tattered they can barely cover your buttocks. I doubt you have even 5.2 million in your entire fortune! Wake up, buddy! If you want to dream of getting rich, go home and dream it slowly, don't embarrass yourself here!"
Upon hearing this, the blond-haired man flew into a rage and said, "What the hell do you care what I wear? I call this fashion, you know? Anyway, if you don't return that stone to me today, or give me 5.2 million, I'm not done with you! Brothers... surround these two. If they don't pay up today, we're not done!"
Upon hearing this, the dozen or so young men immediately roared and surrounded Zhou Ziwei and Li Yifeng, completely blocking their path.
"Hey... don't go too far!" Li Yifeng wanted to hit someone, but was afraid of causing trouble for Zhou Ziwei, so he had to swallow his anger and say, "Let me tell you, I'm a policeman. If you mess around again, you'll regret it!"
As Li Yifeng spoke, he subconsciously wanted to pull out his ID to intimidate these ignorant hooligans, but he forgot that he had taken leave in a private capacity to accompany Zhou Ziwei, and had not brought any identification or anything.
"Haha... Can't pull out your ID, huh? You idiot..." The blond-haired guy guessed what was going on as soon as he saw Li Yifeng's expression, and immediately became bolder. He moved closer and said with a sneer, "You call yourself a cop? Look at your IQ... Even a pig would feel superior to you! I could say I'm the President of the United States, would you believe me? Would you believe me?"
Li Yifeng was momentarily speechless after being bombarded with insults by the blond-haired kid. Helpless, he glared at him and said, "Fine... you... blond-haired kid, I'll let you show off to me for now. Don't let me catch you doing anything wrong later! Well... your broken rock just fell into the sewer, right? I'll help you retrieve it... but if I retrieve it and you say that what I retrieved wasn't the one you dropped, then don't expect me to tolerate you anymore!"
Li Yifeng wasn't usually one to suffer losses, but since he was currently traveling and would be doing business with Zhou Ziwei here, he didn't want to create too much of a rift with the locals, otherwise business would be difficult in the future.
Otherwise, given Li Yifeng's temper, he probably would have already slapped him across the face by now.
Anyway, the water in a typical sewer isn't too deep. At most, you'll just get covered in dirty water and then go down to retrieve the stones.
This was the maximum concession he could make. If that little blond guy started acting up again after the stone was retrieved, Li Yifeng wouldn't be so polite.
"Okay... go and fish it out!"
With a wicked grin, the blond-haired guy said, "Don't worry, I promise I won't make things difficult for you. As long as you go down and retrieve a rock about the same size as the one I just threw down... even if it's just an ordinary rock, I'll accept it and promise not to bother you anymore. How about that?"
"Okay... remember your promise, I'll get it for you right now."
Hearing the young man's straightforward answer, Li Yifeng decided not to waste any more words arguing with him. At most, he would just get covered in mud, and since there was a bathroom in the hotel, he could just wash up properly in his room after retrieving the stones.
Just as Li Yifeng was rubbing his hands together, ready to retrieve the stone, Zhou Ziwei stopped him abruptly, saying, "Alright, buddy, these little punks are playing you. Even if he had thrown in a piece of jade, let alone just a roadside stone, we're not taking it!"
Li Yifeng asked, puzzled, "Why is that? If it were really a piece of jade, it should be worth a lot of money, right?"
Zhou Ziwei glanced at him helplessly and said, "Because... there's a cesspool under that manhole cover. If you really dare to go down there... I guarantee you'll either die from the stench or never want to be human again!"
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 127: Local Tyrant
"What? A latrine! It can't really be that disgusting, can it? I mean... how did you know?" Li Yifeng felt a chill run down his spine when he heard this. However, they were quite far from the manhole cover from where they were standing, so Zhou Ziwei shouldn't be able to see it. Therefore, Li Yifeng was a little suspicious that Zhou Ziwei was just teasing him.
Zhou Ziwei chuckled and said, "Can't you smell such a stench? Go see for yourself if you don't believe me."
Li Yifeng was still a little skeptical, so he quickly ran over and looked down into the gap under the manhole cover. He almost threw up everything he had eaten the night before.
Not only is there a cesspool down there, but it's overflowing. Considering the normal depth of such a manhole, the waste inside must have been poured at least five or six meters deep. If you really wanted to go down and retrieve something... you'd be infamous for eternity!
"Damn it...you bunch of bastards tricked me!"
Li Yifeng was furious and turned to charge at the group of thugs.
Although the other side had a large number of people, Li Yifeng was a former policeman, so he wouldn't be afraid of these thugs.
He wasn't sure before whether those people had actually lost a piece of jadeite or were deliberately trying to scam them, but now that he knew, he could no longer hold back.
Although Li Yifeng didn't know any martial arts, he was extremely proficient in the grappling and fighting techniques his instructors taught him during his police academy training. In the past two years, he had become known as a daredevil in the police station. His fearless fighting style during several battles with criminals made even drug addicts who were always on the verge of death tremble. When he used this technique on petty thugs, he was even more at ease. In just two moves, he easily took down the leader, a young man with blond hair.
"Oh my god..."