Chapter 53: The Chef Doesn't Steal, The Five Grains Are Not Collected

Before Lin Dao, the tea was replaced with a fresh pot.

The tea fragrance was refreshing; tender green tea leaves floated up and down.

The Manager tentatively asked with a smile, "May I ask your honorable surname, sir?"

"Lin Dao."

"Mr. Lin." The Manager's smile was amiable. "I wonder about this wild ginseng..."

"Purchased overseas." Lin Dao replied calmly. "Acquired by chance."

The words need not be spoken too clearly; the Manager here already understood.

"This wild ginseng's quality is very good." The Old Doctor at the side played the good cop. "A hundred-year-old wild ginseng is indeed rare to see nowadays."

"But its origin is somewhat vague~"

The Manager playing the bad cop looked at Lin Dao with a troubled expression.

Facing the two's coordination, Lin Dao cut straight to the chase. "Name a price. If it's not suitable, I'll go ask at Hui Xin Tang or Hua Ji Tang."

Here in Hai Gang Cheng, there are many wealthy tycoons.

Their investment in their bodies has always been absolutely unstinting.

The Manager and Old Doctor exchanged a glance, knowing they couldn't keep up the act.

This wild ginseng must be secured; they can earn it back doubled and redoubled from those tycoons.

The Manager extended his hand, spreading four fingers.

"Four hundred thousand."

Lin Dao picked up the tea bowl and took a sip. "I've heard that hundred-year wild ginseng at auction houses has sold for two to three million."

"Mr. Lin speaks of auction houses, too."

The Manager said with a smile, "There are many tricks in those — various connections and handling fees, competitive bidding, shills driving up prices. And it drags on for a very long time."

The auction house's waters run deep; it's not that whatever price it fetches is what it's worth.

The Old Doctor added here, "The source of goods is clear."

Things from Yonghe Spacetime, brought to the Modern World to sell.

There is a threshold that can never be crossed: Lin Dao cannot explain the source of the goods.

He can't very well tell the truth — that he got them by crossing time and space, right?

Without a clear provenance and proof for the source of goods, the price naturally has to take a hit.

*Click! *

Lin Dao set down the tea bowl, tapping his finger against his leg.

After a moment of silence, he looked the other in the eye. "Six hundred thousand. This wild ginseng is yours."

The Manager, well-versed in worldly wisdom, judged this to be Lin Dao's psychological bottom line.

If he bargained further, Lin Dao would surely get up and leave.

He immediately nodded in agreement. "Does Mr. Lin want a check or a public account transfer?"

"Cash."

Back at the Precious Goods Warehouse in Yonghe Spacetime, Lin Dao's gaze swept over a dozen or so ginseng roots of varying sizes.

From them he picked out three, about the same size as the previous one.

Returning once more to Hai Gang Cheng in the Modern World, he sought out several other traditional Chinese medicine shops to sell them separately.

Arriving at the Trade Company, Lin Dao took out over two million in cash and arranged for Finance Lisa to book the entry.

"Pay the upcoming goods payments first, send them over."

He leaned back in the chair, eyes closed, resting his spirit.

"Always using cash isn't a sustainable thing."

"Need to arrange overseas channels as soon as possible."

"From now on, try to go through public accounts as much as possible."

"Arrange overseas warehouses, ship goods to overseas warehouses then transport them away."

"Like this now it's always returns, inventory, lists. When quantities are small it's manageable; when quantities get large it becomes troublesome."

He was also somewhat tired.

The business of crossing time and space isn't as simple as imagined.

The imagined version: need some industrial products, order in large batches and ship directly.

Target Spacetime's valuable items, bring them over and sell directly to make big money.

Then live the good life of luxury mansions, supercars, yachts and beauties, private planes flying everywhere.

How could things be that easy~~~

If you really did that, before long countless pairs of eyes would be watching.

Under all-round surveillance, once the secret of crossing is exposed, the only way out is exile to another world.

"Feels more tiring than fighting wars in Yonghe Spacetime."

Lin Dao rubbed his forehead. "One order given, ten thousand horses and a thousand armies go slaughter."

"War is still simpler."

"Sometimes I really want to just hand it all over and be done with it."

He sat there resting his spirit, talking to himself — all words to comfort himself.

Hand it over?

Even if fighting guerrilla warfare in Yonghe Spacetime, he would never hand it over!

"Mr. Lin."

Employee William walked over. "Excuse me."

Lin Dao opened his eyes and looked at him. "William? What is it?"

William was a typical Hai Gang Cheng white-collar worker; he had to use his Western name at work.

Anyway, Lin Dao no longer remembered what his real name was.

Something like... Gen something, Sheng something?

"It's about last time, Lin Sheng ordering feed."

"Feed?" Lin Dao sat up straight and gestured for William to sit down nearby. "If you have any suggestions, just say them."

"Lin Sheng."

William raised a hand to push his glasses. "The pig feed ordered last time was a bit expensive."

"The average price per ton exceeded eighteen hundred, approaching two thousand."

"I've contacted several feed companies on my end and negotiated chicken feed at under fourteen hundred per ton."

Don't underestimate the price difference of over four hundred per ton.

Buy ten thousand tons, and that's four million, enough for Lin Dao to save dozens of gold bars.

"So cheap?" Lin Dao's expression became animated. "The data—bring it here for me to see."

William brought over a tablet, opened it, and handed the relevant data to Lin Dao to look at.

What Lin Dao paid attention to was the ingredient formula.

"Soybean protein dregs, corn dregs, distillers grains, wheat bran, fish powder, salt."

The leftover bean dregs after soybeans are pressed for oil.

Corn dregs made mainly from corn cobs, ground up.

Distillers grains not used for brewing wine, wheat bran left over after wheat processing.

Fish powder made by crushing and processing unsold small fish, fish bones, and organs.

Two yuan per bag of salt.

No wonder the price is so cheap—it's all reprocessed scraps.

As his understanding of Yonghe Spacetime deepened, Lin Dao's bottom line broke through again and again.

At first, what was provided to that side was still rice.

In the middle period, it gradually switched to cheap corn.

Now it was feed, without any psychological burden.

Even cheap pig feed was about to be replaced, soon to be switched to even cheaper chicken feed~~~

As expected, the bottom line was something meant to be broken through.

"Good."

"From now on, change the feed orders to chicken feed."

Lin Dao made up his mind to continue saving funds.

He praised William profusely, but absolutely did not mention a raise.

In fact, he even arranged new work for him.

"The company intends to expand overseas business."

"You search for information on abandoned gold mines worldwide, organize it, and give it to me—it'll be useful."

"Abandoned gold mines?" William was surprised. "What use are they?"

Abandoned gold mines were mining areas that were deserted after the mining veins were exhausted.

There was still residual gold ore, but the difficulty and cost of excavation and refining were both greatly increased.

Mining areas where investment and harvest were not proportional.

In others' hands, abandoned gold mines were of little use.

But in Lin Dao's hands, they were very useful.

And there should be many damaged and abandoned mining vehicles in the abandoned gold mines.

Everyone knows these engineering vehicles used for mining are big, thick, and very hard~~~

After repair and modification with welded steel plates, taking them to Yonghe Spacetime would mean directly crushing everything.

Armored Cavalry Invincible?

Then let's just clash~~~

Yonghe Spacetime.

Lin Dao inquired with concern about the food supply status in the City Interior, and whether the Military Households and Civilian Laborers had any complaints about it.

"Lord." Wang Meng responded seriously. "The insects embezzling food ingredients have been arrested in a batch."

"Please instruct us, Lord, on how to deal with them?"

Wang Meng was very sensible; he knew what matters he could decide himself and what matters had to be ordered by the Lord personally.

"Ah~" Lin Dao looked slightly dazed. "This—what's your opinion?"

"It should serve as a warning to others!"

Wang Meng explained, "If severe punishment is not used, dissatisfaction in the army will rise day by day, and more people will imitate it in the future."

Zhou Shuren once said, "It is not scarcity I fear, but inequality."

When everyone's usage was the same, yet someone was deducting grain supply.

Secretly deducting eggs, lard, and grain to take home and eat.

This would inevitably cause public outrage.

Food that should have been eaten by oneself was deducted by someone else—who wouldn't be furious?

Especially in an era where grain is more precious than life itself.

Having grain supplies deducted is more unbearable than losing one's life.

If punishment is not severe, more and more people will act this way in the future, and hearts will disintegrate along with it.

"Very well." Lin Dao hesitated a moment. "We'll do as you say."

After Wang Meng left, he prepared to execute those who embezzled by beheading.

Only then did Lin Dao remember that he had originally wanted to ask everyone if they were satisfied with the meals after switching to the cheapest chicken feed.

After all, he was a person from the Modern World; he still had a tiny bit of conscience between his fingers.

Feeding people feed — if this were in the Modern World, his family's Ancestral Grave would be dug up by others.

The previous pig feed, no matter how you put it, still had corn and such.

Now switched to corn cob chicken feed, even Lin Dao himself felt his face redden.

"I really am not a qualified Capitalist."

Lin Dao mocked himself. "If I opened a factory and ran a Company, I'd go bankrupt sooner or later."

He glanced at the time; it was about Meal Time, so he simply went to the Canteen himself to take a look.

A group of Bodyguards clustered around Lin Dao and arrived at a Canteen.

Seeing the Lord come over, everyone saluted.

Lin Dao stepped forward and came to the side of the Large Pot.

Looking at the paste-like feed porridge in the pot, he asked the civilian laborers who had already received their food, "How is the food?"

The questioned civilian laborer, surprised by the favor, replied, "Replying to the Lord, in this life I have never eaten anything this good."

"Before, outside the City, we couldn't even get vegetable roots and tree bark to eat."

"Thanks to the Lord's grace in taking us in, we've been able to eat our fill."

Speaking here, the civilian laborer choked up and shed tears. "My whole family starved to death."

"They had no fortune, unable to encounter the Lord's grace."

"The Lord has the kindness of regeneration toward us; we don't know how to repay the Lord's grace."

"Whatever the Lord commands, we will go through boiling water and tread on fire without hesitation!"

The surrounding crowd all shouted, willing to go through boiling water and tread on fire for the Lord.

Lin Dao touched his nose, signaling everyone to continue eating and receiving food.

He then looked at the nervous Cook. "What do you think — how has the food been recently?"

The Cook trembled like a Sieve; his legs went soft and he knelt on the ground.

"Lord~ Slave has never deducted food; it was all Yao Dagen and them doing it."

"Lord, spare my life~~~"

Wang Meng took away ten plus Cooks who deducted food ingredients; it's said they'll all be executed.

Even their families will have to follow along in misfortune.

Without a doubt, this greatly shocked all the Cooks.

Lin Dao frowned, looking at the Cook whose face bore an oil sheen and whose head and neck had also grown large, feeling displeased inside.

"If the cook doesn't steal, the five grains aren't collected."

"Perhaps you didn't deduct, but you definitely ate more and ate better."

"From now on, Cooks must also rotate!"

(End of Chapter)