Chapter 724: Jade is a matter of affinity: if I have money to buy, I am willing

Chen Hongjun introduced merchants to Li Long, so Li Long naturally had to play the host. He booked a table at the Tuanfeng Building early, ordered a few dishes to prepare, and waited for the rest to see the tastes of the people coming.

With reform and opening up, land division, and household contract responsibility systems, the lives of ordinary people have improved to a certain extent, and they can occasionally go to restaurants. Now the state-run canteens are also slowly reforming, and some new dishes have been introduced, and there are quite a few people coming here to have a treat.

Li Long waited at the entrance of the private room. After a while, seeing that it was almost time to get off work, Chen Hongjun brought two men to the shop.

Li Long greeted them into the private room, and Chen Hongjun pointed to the two and introduced them to Li Long:

"Comrade Li Long, let me introduce you. These two are both big bosses who often come to our Northern Frontier to collect things. However, because we have state-run ones collecting in our Maxian area, they are more in other areas."

"This is Boss Jia Tianlong, who specializes in collecting various medicinal materials. The fritillaria, codonopsis, etc., that you can dig next year, he collects them all. This is Boss Zhao Hui, who specializes in collecting various skins. Of course, he also collects things like red deer antler decorations."

Jia Tianlong was about thirty-five years old, about one meter seven tall, with two red patches on his face, a well-proportioned figure, wearing a well-fitting suit, and holding a black briefcase. Although Li Long hadn't heard the other party speak yet, he felt that he should be from the Ganzhou and Suzhou area.

Zhao Hui was slightly shorter, looked younger, wore gold-rimmed glasses, had a bit of a scholarly feel, combed his hair in a three-seven split, didn't carry a bag, and had a smile on his face. Is this a Confucian merchant?

After introducing the two bosses, Chen Hongjun introduced Li Long emphatically:

"Old Jia, Old Zhao, don't look at Comrade Li as young, but he has quite a lot of good stuff in his hands. Just last year alone, he sold several tons of fritillaria to our collection station! As for the various skins in the mountains, he has brought them all out. Not to mention red deer and wolves, he has even had several bear skins and lynx skins. He has quite some ability!"

At first, the two looked at Li Long with a bit of scrutiny, but after hearing Chen Hongjun say that Li Long could get so many good things, their eyes changed.

Being able to bring out so many things, it's impossible not to have some strength in his hands. Calculating this way, this young comrade Li Long's family background must not be thin.

Li Long could clearly feel that the eyes of these two people looking at him changed from scrutiny to level-headedness, at least recognizing his status as a collaborator.

Li Long shook hands and greeted the two, and heard that Jia Tianlong indeed had a Gan-Shaan accent, while Zhao Hui was from the Sichuan-Chongqing area. Now the Sichuan-Chongqing area hasn't separated yet, so he couldn't tell exactly where.

The four sat down, and Li Long asked Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui to order a few more dishes. These two were quite polite and let Li Long do as he pleased.

Li Long had originally ordered chicken and fish, so now he ordered braised pork, pork ribs, and other dishes, then asked for two vegetable dishes, and the rest were two bottles of wine.

Since he was treating, it wouldn't be appropriate not to drink.

Chen Hongjun, Jia Tianlong, and Zhao Hui didn't indicate they wouldn't drink, so Li Long took glass cups, filled them up for the three, and then poured for himself.

The cups used at the time were fifty-gram measures, that is, one-tael cups, and the first cup was definitely filled. In today's social engagement, drinking is inevitable, and if you are more bold, you have to play finger-guessing games.

Today is a meeting to get to know each other here, so they definitely won't be that open, mainly chatting.

Jia Tianlong had a very active personality, said a lot, and asked a lot. Mainly asking about the types of medicinal materials in the mountains, the quantity of various medicinal materials Li Long could collect, etc.

What surprised Li Long was that the price of medicinal materials collected by Jia Tianlong was much higher than that of Chen Hongjun's collection station.

For example, this fritillaria, if it's a first-grade product, his collection price is about sixty yuan.

This is at least ten yuan higher than the state-run one.

Thinking that Li Long sold one ton of dried goods, the price difference is almost ten thousand.

"That can't be helped. State-run ones definitely can't compare to private ones. We have many circulation links in the middle." Chen Hongjun explained patiently, "Unlike Old Jia, who transports them directly to the interior to sell to pharmaceutical factories after collecting them, that saves a lot of links."

Fritillaria is the basic plate, Li Long asked more about it, and he also asked about codonopsis. Jia Tianlong didn't let him down, the price of codonopsis was also very high. Like that kind of codonopsis Li Long dug out that was as thick as a child's arm, those had to be sold separately.

"I know there are many treasures in the Tianshan Mountains. If the quantity of such codonopsis you mentioned is large, I can sell one for dozens of yuan when I take it to the interior. This thing has been around for decades anyway, and its medicinal properties are very sufficient." Jia Tianlong was also a bit surprised, "This year..."

"Although it is currently the digging season for codonopsis, to be honest, I have only occasionally dug some for my own use in the past two years." Li Long said, "If Boss Jia needs it, I will go into the mountains in a few days and collect some back."

Hearing Li Long say collect, the eyes of both Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui changed.

They thought Li Long was a first-hand source, but they didn't expect Li Long to be a middleman too.

But it doesn't matter, as long as there are goods.

Li Long raised his cup to toast the three, and then clinked glasses one by one.

Although he doesn't drink much usually, his physical fitness is there, and he hasn't been drunk much from drinking white wine.

Once the wine started flowing, everyone had more to say, and even Zhao Hui, who didn't talk much, occasionally asked Li Long a few questions about the skins in the mountains.

Li Long could see that this Zhao Hui mainly dealt in high-end furs. He asked about bear skins, lynx skins, and even wanted to ask about tiger skins.

Regarding the existence of Northern Frontier tigers in the Southern Mountains, because of the appearance of that tiger skin, many people in the industry knew about it.

So Zhao Hui asked—these people only knew that the tiger skin flowed out from the Beiting side, but they didn't know which county in Beiting it was.

Li Long also just vaguely said that he hadn't hunted one, and he didn't know if there were any in the Southern Mountains of Maxian.

Zhao Hui also said that he also collected ordinary skins, yellow sheep skins, red deer skins, and roe deer skins, but the profit space for these skins was not large, not as high in value as those precious skins, and there was not much room for operation.

For example, if he got a snow leopard skin and resold it, the money he made from it would be more than twenty yellow sheep skins.

Li Long definitely understood this truth. He smiled and agreed, but also stated the actual situation: he had entered the mountains for two or three years and only saw two or three snow leopard skins, but he had handled fifty or thirty yellow sheep skins.

Things are precious because they are rare.

While they were talking about skins, Chen Hongjun interjected:

"Old Jia, don't you like jade? Let me tell you, Li Long has quite a lot of jade material here. You two can have a good exchange."

"Eh? Little Li also likes jade?" Jia Tianlong had just clinked a glass with Chen Hongjun, and his interest in wine was quite high at this time. He turned his head to look at Li Long, "What kind of jade do you like? Raw seed material or jade carving? White jade or jasper?"

"I collect them to play with. You all know that there is a lot of jasper in the Mahe, and there is a lot of mutton-fat jade in the Southern Frontier." Li Long picked up the wine glass, filled it for everyone, and continued, "I have found some good jasper without 'fly specks' here, sold it to the Wucheng Jade Carving Factory, and met an old carving master there, and also met someone from the Southern Frontier collecting jade, so I bought some seed materials and carvings."

"Hey, brother, you play with a variety of things." Jia Tianlong said with a smile, "If you have time, you must go over and see your collection. There is a large quantity of Mahe jasper, but it's too rare to find that kind of good jade without black spots."

"Rare, but there are still some." Li Long nodded.

"Brother Li Long, do you have any at home?" Jia Tianlong asked again, "Can I see it?"

Li Long was a bit embarrassed.

He did collect a few pieces, but he didn't plan to sell them. Seeing Jia Tianlong's posture, he was quite persistent about this kind of jasper without black spots.

He then said:

"Boss Jia travels north and south and is well-informed. You should know that the Hetian jasper in the south is better in quality than the Mahe jasper. At least in terms of quantity, there are no black spots. The current Qinghai material is about the same, and I heard that the jasper from the old Russian side is also not bad..."

"Not bad my foot!" Jia Tianlong shook his head vulgarly and said, "Currently, I am optimistic about the Hetian jasper in the south. That is indeed good, but we can't get in, so we can only buy a few pieces to play with. To be honest, Qinghai material and Russian material are not in the mainstream, and we brothers don't look down on them. People in the industry still think highly of this Mahe jasper, it's just not easy to find good material."

Then Li Long couldn't refuse anymore.

Zhao Hui also said:

"Comrade Li, to be honest, before I met you, Old Chen spoke highly of you. We met this time and can see that you indeed have ability. Most young people are quite arrogant at this time, and if they have any good stuff, they would have shown it long ago."

"We all know that if you work hard in the mountains all year round, you must have something in your hands. You should also let us see, so that we have a foundation when we cooperate later."

Li Long had actually been hiding his light, but now that people had pointed it out, he nodded and said:

"That's fine. Actually, I have some things in my hands that I haven't dealt with yet. If you have time, please give me some comments..."

"What time? Now is fine." Several people drank a bottle and a half of white wine, which is a small half bottle per person in later generations, two hundred grams, not much or little. But at this time, this amount of wine is really not enough to look at.

So although several people had wine breath in their breathing, they were actually very sober. In fact, they were also using the wine to talk about things that were not easy to talk about when sober.

Chen Hongjun gave Li Long a wink, and Li Long roughly understood, letting him play to his heart's content.

These are all businessmen, they don't see the rabbit and don't release the hawk. If you don't take out enough weight, people really won't necessarily look up to you.

Chen Hongjun's introduction is one aspect, but the main thing is to look at the solid things.

Since that's the case, Li Long settled the bill and took several people to his big courtyard. Because it was not far and they had to drink, Li Long didn't drive.

Jia Tianlong blew while walking that he bought a second-hand Volga car, registered with the transport company. It was mainly because it was too far from here, otherwise, he would have driven it over.

Zhao Hui also used the wine to say that he planned to get a Lada. This car was obtained from the old Russian side, and now the company to be registered with hasn't been negotiated yet.

Zhao Hui, who originally felt very elegant, also said vulgar words after drinking, scolding those unit leaders who could be registered with for being too ruthless, asking for too much money, thinking they were fat sheep easy to slaughter.

Chen Hongjun smiled and said, you three all have cars, but I still ride a bicycle. It seems it's still better not to be in the system.

"Little Li also has a car?" Jia Tianlong was a bit surprised, "What car? A truck or a small car?"

"Could it be a small four-wheel tractor?" Zhao Hui on the side interjected.

It's no wonder they looked down on Li Long. Although the Northern Frontier has vast land and rich resources, it is far from the center in terms of commercialization, and there is still some gap.

Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui can be considered to have traveled north and south, and have seen prosperous places, but they only regard the Northern Frontier as a resource place and don't pay much attention to it.

Ordinary people can't get cars, and even if they do, it's not easy to make them private. They collect medicinal materials and skins in the north and south frontiers, and the most they see are riding horses or driving tractors.

!

There are no car drivers.

Hearing Chen Hongjun say that Li Long also has a car, they subconsciously thought it was that kind of stupid, big, and black thing.

"We're here, you'll know when you see it." Chen Hongjun saw that Li Long's big gate had arrived, pointed and said, "Little brother has extraordinary ability, you have misjudged!"

As a person in the system, Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui definitely value him.

Li Long's performance today was also good, and these two bosses didn't ignore him, but that sense of superiority was still there.

Li Long didn't feel anything. He didn't care much about the attitude of these two, as long as they didn't give less money when selling things later.

But Chen Hongjun introduced Li Long to people, and he didn't want Li Long to be looked down upon. Moreover, Chen Hongjun felt that Li Long had such achievements at this age, and his future looked much more powerful than Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui.

At least Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui definitely didn't have his achievements at Li Long's age.

That's why he would intentionally or unintentionally raise Li Long's status.

Li Long went over to push the door. The big gate was closed during the day but not latched. He pushed the door and entered, seeing Yang Da Jie teasing two children in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long come in, she was just about to speak, but then saw people following behind, so she hurriedly stood up.

"Yo, Little Li, this is your..."

"This is my big sister." Li Long said, "The two are my children."

He also said to Yang Da Jie:

"These two are Boss Jia and Boss Zhao, this is Station Master Chen whom you have seen... We have been drinking, big sister, you take the children into the room."

"Hey!" Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui were stunned, neither of them expected Li Long to have children at home.

It was Jia Tianlong who reacted quickly. When Yang Da Jie picked up the two children and walked into the room, he opened his black bag, grabbed a stack of money from it, walked quickly to the front, and stuffed it into Yang Da Jie's arm, shouting:

"This is a meeting gift from me and Old Zhao to the children... keep it, keep it..."

Jia Tianlong was not bad. He paid attention to the position of his hand, and after stuffing the money, he retreated to where Li Long and the others were.

People came over, and their eyes were still fixed on Mingming and Haohao, two children. That expression, that look, was full of envy.

"Twins! Little Li, you have good fortune!" Zhao Hui sighed, "I didn't prepare this time, Old Jia, thank you. Little Li, we will make up for it next time..."

The two of them actually saw the small four-wheel tractor and the jeep parked in the courtyard as soon as they entered.

The small four-wheel tractor is nothing. Although those who can afford it are in the minority, several thousand yuan really doesn't count for much to them.

But this jeep is not a matter of money. Although the two of them can get Ladas and Volgas, it's really hard to say whether they can get this green jeep.

Looking at Li Long's eyes again, it was different.

Yang Da Jie was a bit at a loss. That stack of money looked like at least a hundred. Li Long waved his hand to signal her to go in and not worry about it.

There will be plenty of dealings with these two later. If people give face, he will just put in some effort later.

"Hey, Little Li, you are really hiding your light!" Jia Tianlong waited for Yang Da Jie to take the children into the room before his expression slowly returned to normal. He gave a lot of meeting gifts, so his expression was much calmer, and he pulled back his face. He pointed to the jeep and said, "This thing is not something ordinary people can get... No wonder Old Chen speaks so highly of you!"

Li Long turned around and closed the big gate. Just as he was about to open the east wing to take something for several people to see, Jia Tianlong suddenly saw something, and his eyes went straight to it.

This thing was placed in the corner, half-blocked by the tractor and the jeep. When Jia Tianlong looked around the courtyard, he saw it through the gap between the tractor and the jeep. Once he saw it, he went straight to it.

Chen Hongjun and Zhao Hui hurriedly followed.

This was the two or three hundred kilogram Mahe jasper seed material that He Yuqing and Meng Hai moved over for Li Long. The two of them really brought people over later, built a platform, and set it up.

The jasper itself looked like a fat baby sleeping on its side with its hands together under its ears, very vivid.

Jia Tianlong walked over quickly, squatted halfway in front of the piece of jasper, touched the jade, and Li Long felt that even his breathing became lighter.

Chen Hongjun took two steps back and whispered to Li Long:

"Don't look at Old Jia's ability to earn money, he actually has a heart disease, which is that he has no children. He has been married for almost ten years, has seen many doctors, and has done many check-ups, but he just can't conceive... You didn't see that look when you saw your twins just now, hey!"

Li Long understood immediately. It's no wonder he was so generous when he made a move. Actually, it would have been enough to give ten yuan to each of the two children as a meeting gift. He took out so much, which is considered deep friendship, but Li Long originally thought it was just this style, but didn't expect there to be this factor in it.

"Little Li, brother asks you for something." Jia Tianlong stood up after touching the jade carefully and said:

"Sell this piece of jade to me."

Li Long was stunned and subconsciously shook his head.

This stone was the heart of the people of Qingshuihe Village. They even kindly built a stone platform to set it up. For this angle, Meng Hai and the others fiddled for a long time and gave the best angle.

People's hearts are in it, how can it be sold easily.

"Fifty thousand yuan!" When Jia Tianlong faced Li Long, his breathing became heavier, "Little Li, let me tell you, I have a feeling, whether my family can have children or not depends on this jade... I am very sincere..."

Fifty thousand yuan! Li Long has been earning for two or three years, and the remaining cash is only a little more than this.

Although this jade is very heavy, according to the price given by the jade factory, it is worth at most twenty or thirty thousand.

Jia Tianlong directly doubled it, which is considered very sincere.

But Li Long really doesn't lack money. He is a person who eats soft but not hard. At this time, he is thinking that if he sells this jade, next time Meng Hai and the others come over and don't see the jade, and ask, how should he answer?

It's not easy to say, he can't say that I sold the stone for money?

Jia Tianlong saw Li Long shake his head, thinking he thought the money was not enough, so he hardened his heart and planned to add a price. Zhao Hui on the side stopped him:

"Old Jia, don't be impulsive first. Even if you want to buy it, you can't pull it away now, right? We drank wine today, and we don't think about what we say. How about we wait until we are sober tomorrow?"

With Zhao Hui's persuasion, Jia Tianlong couldn't say anything more. He suppressed his mood and chatted about other things.

Li Long breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt a bit worried. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 725 =====

Li Long breathed a sigh of relief, yet felt a bit worried again. (End of chapter)