Chapter 28: Forming a Partnership

"How much for this gramophone? I'll buy it!"

Li Banfeng had taken a fancy to this gramophone. Not to mention anything else, just the steam-powered aspect—such a precise mechanical device couldn't be seen even in Yuezhou.

If he brought this back to Yuezhou and sold it as a collectible, he would definitely make a big profit. Even if he didn't sell it and kept it for himself, it was a satisfyingly good thing.

Shopkeeper Feng wiped the gramophone, looking reluctant: "This was handmade in the Amikan Kingdom. There are only two in the entire Puluo Continent. I truly don't want to sell it."

Li Banfeng understood the meaning behind these words; this was a request for more money.

"Shopkeeper Feng, name your price."

Shopkeeper Feng pondered for a long time and extended two fingers.

Xiaopang widened his eyes: "You want twenty thousand?"

Shopkeeper Feng shook his head: "Huan Kingdom currency, two hundred thousand!"

"Two hundred thousand!" Xiaopang showed a puzzled smile. "Shopkeeper, you really are treating us like fools."

Shopkeeper Feng said: "It's worth the price; this really can't be haggled over!"

Li Banfeng looked at that gramophone.

The antique rosewood cabinet, the three brass horns on top, and the steam still slowly puffing out from the right horn.

"Forest flowers have withered, even the heart is buried. When will the spring swallows return? Where is the body~~"

The moving tune still lingered in his ears, and Li Banfeng wanted to buy this gramophone even more.

But two hundred thousand was too far away for Li Banfeng.

His tuition and living expenses were earned by his own part-time work. In his life, Li Banfeng had never possessed assets exceeding ten thousand.

He glanced at Qin Xiaopang, and Qin Xiaopang widened his eyes: "What are you looking at me for? I've never seen that much money in my life. In our village, two hundred thousand is enough to build a house!"

Five hundred for a sickle, two hundred thousand to build a house?

Are you joking?

Of course, this sickle wasn't an ordinary object, and Qin Xiaopang didn't know what kind of place the house he spoke of was.

Li Banfeng's gaze never left the gramophone. According to Li Banfeng's estimation, in Yuezhou, this gramophone could definitely sell for five hundred thousand. Li Banfeng was full of confidence in the biggest investment of his life. He looked at the boss, straightened his back, and said: "Keep this gramophone for me; I will definitely buy it!"

Shopkeeper Feng looked at Li Banfeng's eyes and felt that this sentence seemed to carry a special weight.

He felt that Li Banfeng really would buy this gramophone.

"Alright, I'll keep it for you." The shopkeeper agreed.

I will definitely buy it!

This sentence indeed carried special weight for Li Banfeng.

In the welfare institute, seeing other children eating popsicles, he had said, "I will definitely buy it."

In middle school, seeing his classmate's basketball shoes, he had said, "I will definitely buy it."

In university, seeing other classmates' phones, he had said, "I will definitely buy it."

He bought the popsicles, he bought the basketball shoes, and he bought the phone.

He would definitely be able to buy this gramophone too.

"Brother, hurry up! It's too late!"

Qin Xiaopang dragged Li Banfeng away from Feng's Grocery Store. The waiter sighed: "Shopkeeper, when will this thing be sold?"

The shopkeeper pondered for a moment: "I feel that the one surnamed Li just now really has the intention to buy it."

"What's the use of just having the intention?" The waiter shook his head repeatedly. "Never mind two hundred thousand, I don't think he can even come up with twenty yuan!"

Xiaopang went to a blacksmith's house and bought an axe.

Including the handle and the head, it was seventy centimeters long.

Li Banfeng frowned: "You're taking this thing up the mountain?"

"I heard that those who dare to go to Bitter Wushan are all ruthless people. Carrying this axe will at least scare away half of them."

Xiaopang carried the axe, carried the dry rations on his back, filled two large jugs of water, hired a horse-drawn carriage, and took Li Banfeng all the way west toward Bitter Wushan.

They walked for a whole day. Of the twenty jin of dry rations, Li Banfeng ate less than one jin, while Qin Xiaopang ate nearly half.

Late at night, the two arrived near Bitter Wushan.

Li Banfeng looked into the distance, seeing only the hazy night, without seeing the shadow of a mountain.

Xiaopang found an inn and rented two beds in the dormitory.

He himself felt that staying in a dormitory was a bit shabby and specifically explained it to Li Banfeng:

"I wanted a single room too, but this bird-place raised its prices. A room is one hundred, and a bed in the dormitory is only twenty. Let's just squeeze in, brother."

Li Banfeng wasn't picky. He lay on the bed and pretended to be asleep.

The dormitory was a large plank bed, crowded with more than twenty people—some snoring, some grinding their teeth, some talking in their sleep; there were all kinds of sounds.

When Xiaopang was fast asleep, Li Banfeng quietly slipped out of the inn, hid the key in the small woods outside the inn, and entered the Leaving Suishenju.

It was still better to be in his own room.

From the welfare institute to university graduation, Li Banfeng had never had his own room, and now, even sleeping on the cold ground, he felt comfortable.

This time he didn't oversleep. By the time Li Banfeng left the Leaving Suishenju, the sky was just brightening.

Xiaopang also woke up early and was searching for Li Banfeng: "Brother Li, where did you go?"

Li Banfeng gave a perfunctory reply: "Went to pee. Brother Fat, shall we sleep a bit more?"

Xiaopang was anxious: "Sleep for what? Let's hurry up the mountain."

Li Banfeng followed Xiaopang westward. They walked for an hour, but in the distance, thick fog filled the air, and the shadow of the mountain remained unseen.

There were quite a few people traveling on the road. Xiaopang carried the axe and the dry rations, vigilantly observing the surroundings.

A bald man, in his thirties, with a scar on the corner of his left eye, was hurrying along and happened to bump into Xiaopang from behind.

Xiaopang staggered and almost fell. He looked up at the bald man.

The bald man's eyes flashed with ferocity. He looked back at Qin Xiaopang: "Are you blind? Don't you know you're blocking the way?"

Xiaopang got angry on the spot: "You bumped into me, and you still dare to curse?"

The bald man stepped forward: "So what if I curse you? I didn't beat you up; do you feel itchy for a beating?"

Xiaopang lifted the axe and waved it in front of the bald man.

The bald man spat and pulled a machete more than a foot long from his waist.

Li Banfeng watched quietly from the side, and without a sound, his right hand gripped the handle of the small sickle.

The small sickle was in his pocket, and neither the bald man nor Xiaopang noticed it.

A man in his early thirties, with parted hair, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a gray plaid suit, arrived near Xiaopang and the bald man.

"The two of you, if you have energy, use it on the mountain. Why show off here?"

To be honest, Xiaopang didn't want to fight; he was also anxious to go up the mountain to pick flowers, but he couldn't let go of his pride.

The bald man looked at the gold-rimmed glasses and put away his knife. Both sides found a step to back down, and the matter was considered over.

The bald man continued on his way, and Xiaopang also put away his axe.

The gold-rimmed glasses said to Xiaopang in a low voice: "Brother, first time up the mountain?"

Qin Xiaopang sneered: "I've walked this Bitter Wushan countless times; how could it be the first time!"

It was indeed his first time, but he couldn't show weakness in front of others.

The gold-rimmed glasses laughed: "Whether it's the first time or not, let me advise you: that bald man is no good. He'll definitely look for a chance to stab you in the back once you're on the mountain."

Xiaopang spat: "Am I afraid of him?"

The gold-rimmed glasses raised his eyebrows: "Open guns are easy to dodge, but hidden arrows are hard to guard against. Not to mention you, I just spoke a word too many, and I might suffer at his hands once we're on the mountain."

"I'm not afraid anyway." While saying this, Xiaopang gripped the axe tightly.

The gold-rimmed glasses looked at Li Banfeng again. Li Banfeng kept his head down and said nothing; he looked like an honest person at first glance.

The three walked together for a while, and ahead, several flags could be vaguely seen.

There were yellow ones, green ones, and also purple ones.

Li Banfeng asked: "Whose flags are these?"

Xiaopang glared at Li Banfeng, reminding him not to show weakness.

He didn't know where these flags came from either, but Li Banfeng asking this question was equivalent to telling others he was up the mountain for the first time.

Actually, the gold-rimmed glasses had long seen that they were up the mountain for the first time. Looking at those flags, the gold-rimmed glasses whispered: "The Bai family, the Huang family, the Lu family, the Liu family—people from all the major medicine shops have come."

Xiaopang had heard of the names of these medicine shops, but he didn't understand why the people from these medicine shops had to come here.

After picking the Snake-Pattern Chrysanthemums, they naturally had to be sold to the medicine shops. They could just wait at home to do business; why run to the foot of Bitter Wushan to guard?

The gold-rimmed glasses knew the reason but didn't say it clearly: "Two friends, let's not go forward. Let's wait for news here."

"Wait for news?" Xiaopang frowned. "What are we waiting for here? The flowering period of the Snake-Pattern Chrysanthemum is only one day. If we wait a moment longer, we'll pick one less flower."

The gold-rimmed glasses shook his head and pulled a folding fan from his waist: "Do you know when the Snake-Pattern Chrysanthemum blooms?"

Xiaopang said loudly: "It blooms today!"

The gold-rimmed glasses shook his folding fan and said slowly: "It is indeed today, but the time of blooming is uncertain."

"Early morning is today, noon is also today, and dusk is also today. If you go up the mountain now, and it doesn't bloom until dusk, wouldn't you have wasted a day in the poisonous fog?"

Xiaopang laughed contemptuously: "I have cultivation; I'm not afraid of poisonous fog."

"I know you have cultivation, but even with cultivation, you can't waste it." The gold-rimmed glasses looked at the vast thick fog in the distance.

"The fog on Bitter Wushan—if an ordinary person inhales it continuously for three hours, they probably won't have their life left."

"Cultivators who have just entered the gate without layers can at most support themselves for seven or eight hours. Looking at your sturdy body, you should be a Food Cultivator, right?"

Xiaopang didn't make a sound; a cultivator's Daoist sect and cultivation base shouldn't be revealed to others.

The gold-rimmed glasses laughed: "If you are a Food Cultivator, eat and drink your fill, and you can support yourself for more than ten hours."

"After the flowers bloom, go up the mountain. As long as you find the right place, picking seventy or eighty flowers is easy."

Seventy or eighty flowers—eighty-five yuan per flower; calculating it, he could earn more than six thousand yuan.

Hearing this, Xiaopang was anxious to move forward. The gold-rimmed glasses closed his folding fan and blocked Xiaopang, frowning: "Didn't I tell you? It's not the time yet. If you go up the mountain after the flowers bloom, I don't know how many reckless people like you die on the mountain every year."

Xiaopang said angrily: "Do you know when it blooms?"

The gold-rimmed glasses pointed at the flags in the distance with his fan: "I don't know, but they know. Every year, the medicine shops hire two scouts to go up the mountain."

"Once they discover the flowers have bloomed, they will send a signal, and the medicine shops will send people up the mountain. At that time, we'll just follow them."

Xiaopang was startled: "The medicine shops also send people up the mountain?"

The gold-rimmed glasses laughed: "If they don't send people up the mountain, they can't buy Snake-Pattern Chrysanthemums. What will they use to refine Snake-Pattern Elixir?"

"If a large medicine shop can't even produce Snake-Pattern Elixir, wouldn't their signboard be smashed?"

Xiaopang looked around: "So many people are going up the mountain, and they have to sell the flowers to the medicine shops. Are they afraid they won't be able to buy them?"

The gold-rimmed glasses shook his folding fan and said: "If only one medicine shop was buying flowers, naturally they wouldn't worry about buying them, and the price would be set by the medicine shop."

"But several major medicine shops in Medicine King Ditch want to buy flowers. If they start arguing, the price will be set by the sellers."

Xiaopang still didn't understand: "Didn't they agree on eighty-five yuan per flower?"

The gold-rimmed glasses shook his head: "That's the price released before going up the mountain. After coming down the mountain, the matter is a different story."

"Suppose you are running a medicine shop and don't have a single Snake-Pattern Chrysanthemum in your hand, and the flower pickers have set a high price—will you buy it or not?"

"If you send people up to pick three or five hundred flowers, you'll have a bottom line in your heart. If it really doesn't work out, refine fewer pills; at least you won't be manipulated by the sellers."

This gold-rimmed glasses was a true insider. From his words, one could see that he knew the business of Bitter Wushan very well.

While speaking, several people gathered around to listen quietly. These people had never been to Bitter Wushan and wanted to learn some experience from the gold-rimmed glasses.

The gold-rimmed glasses wasn't stingy either; he muttered quite a few common-sense tips, focusing on the characteristics of the Snake-Pattern Chrysanthemum.

As he was speaking, he suddenly stopped and kept his eyes fixed on the flags of the medicine shops in the distance.

Under the flags of the medicine shops, several men walked into the depths of the thick fog. The gold-rimmed glasses said to the crowd: "The medicine shop people have gone up the mountain; we should go too."

Xiaopang was excited and about to step forward. The gold-rimmed glasses reminded him: "Don't follow too closely. At the foot of the mountain, these people will follow the rules to maintain the reputation of the medicine shops."

"But once on the mountain, they can do anything. Picking flowers is hard work; picking them yourself is definitely not as fast as snatching them."

Hearing this, Xiaopang gripped his axe again, and the people around him also became nervous.

The gold-rimmed glasses said: "If you trust me, let's form a partnership so we can look out for each other."

PS: Two updates today, seven thousand words. Dear readers, give Yumian Shala more votes and leave more comments.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 29 =====