Chapter 38: We can make a bet

When Xiao Cui translated these words, the look on his face was horribly ugly.

He even felt that this guy had boarded the ship with him only because he wanted to die.

And when the middle-aged colonel heard these words, his face grew grim and terrifying.

The woman opposite Li Jiaci also placed her index finger on the trigger and slowly disengaged the safety on her pistol.

But Li Jiaci had no intention of stopping; he kept chattering on.

"Also!"

"In my eyes, you are nothing but a mouse stupid to the extreme."

"You clearly already possess mountains of gold and silver, yet you remain unaware."

"All day long you only think about smuggling, dealing with those inferior mountain goods like ginseng, and thus you miss out on tremendous wealth."

"Do you know how much money I could make you earn if you handed over these logs to me early instead of thinking about smuggling?"

When Li Jiaci said this.

The middle-aged colonel suddenly said something.

The woman also stopped the motion of pulling the trigger.

The next instant.

He let out a chuckle: "I'm actually curious—if I had given you the logs early, how much money could you make me earn?"

"If it was three years ago that you gave them to me."

"So now I can at least make you earn this amount."

Li Jiaci extended five fingers and waved them in front of his eyes.

"Five hundred thousand?"

The middle-aged colonel raised his eyebrows.

Li Jiaci laughed: "Colonel, you're really underestimating me."

"Five million?"

The middle-aged colonel raised his tone.

"It's fifty million!"

"Fifty million? Banknotes?"

The middle-aged colonel narrowed his eyes at Li Jiaci.

"Banknotes aren't just waste paper, are they?"

"I'm talking about our Huaguo's legal tender!"

Li Jiaci said: "Perhaps, in your eyes those are just a few logs."

"But in my eyes, each one is a valuable gold bar."

Li Jiaci stared straight at the middle-aged colonel and said: "If you don't believe me, we can make a bet."

"How to bet?"

The middle-aged colonel raised his brow.

Li Jiaci asked: "How many tons of logs could you smuggle each month before, and how much money could you make?"

The middle-aged colonel glanced at Xiao Cui.

Xiao Cui lowered his head, thought for a moment, then said: "About three thousand five hundred tons, which could earn roughly two hundred thousand."

"Three thousand one hundred tons?"

"Two hundred thousand?"

"Great partner!"

Li Jiaci was startled upon hearing that number.

Their logs here are really cheap—averaging out, each ton costs less than sixty units.

And according to the conversion that one ton of logs yields 1.5 cubic meters of timber, the cost per cubic meter of logs is only thirty-plus units.

Upon thinking this through.

Li Jiaci hardly thought before speaking: "Then let's use this as our stake!"

"I'll first give you two hundred thousand as a deposit."

"Afterward, you'll give me three thousand five hundred tons of logs according to your previous smuggling volume."

"I'll first make it legal cargo entering Huaguo."

"After one month, at the same place, I'll send you another two hundred thousand as your dividend."

"But there's one thing we must agree on first."

"If after one month I bring this two hundred thousand."

"Then from now on we'll be partners unbreakable as a hammer, and you can sell your logs only to me."

"And I will, just like this time, pay you double the dividend based on the value of whatever goods you bring."

"Of course, if I come over but fail to bring the two hundred thousand dividend, I'll stand here and let your people shoot me—how about that?"

The middle-aged colonel narrowed his eyes.

His gaze swept over Li Jiaci intermittently.

After a long while.

He finally spoke: "What reason do I have to trust you? What if you don't come?"

"Hah."

"Colonel!"

"You should know, I'm a merchant."

The reason I came here risking to talk business with you is to make money.

Li Jiaci looked at the middle-aged colonel before him and said: "To me, this is like a gold mountain."

"Do you think I would casually give up a gold mountain?"

"If I abandoned the gold mountain and ran, wouldn't I truly be a fool?"

Upon hearing Li Jiaci's words,

The middle-aged colonel's gaze was dark and unfathomable.

After hesitating for a while, he turned to look at Xiao Cui beside him and asked in Bei Bang language: "Xiao Cui, what do you think? How is this person's proposal?"

Xiao Cui glanced at Li Jiaci.

He then bowed slightly to the middle-aged colonel and said: "Commander also knows that now, on Huaguo's side, border patrol troops are increasing, and smuggling business is getting harder."

"Let's not discuss how this person's proposal is for now; at least it's a solution."

"We only need to provide the same timber as before to get two hundred thousand, possibly even an extra two hundred thousand; for us, this is clearly advantageous."

"More importantly, he said he can make our timber a legal commodity and export it legally to Huaguo, which is especially important for us."

"If we really pull this off, from now on we won't have to worry about money anymore."

"Hmm…"

The middle-aged colonel nodded, deep in thought.

After a moment, he told Xiao Cui: "From now on, you'll be fully responsible for this; in a month, I want to see results."

"If he lied and deceived me…"

The middle-aged colonel glanced toward Li Jiaci, narrowed his eyes, and said: "Just make him disappear."

"Yes, commander."

Xiao Cui gave a standard military salute.

The middle-aged colonel waved his hand: "Take him away; the rest, you talk to him; I'm going back to rest first!"

"Yes."

Xiao Cui answered 'yes' again, then walked toward Li Jiaci.

"Let's go!"

"The commander is going back; we're getting off the boat."

Li Jiaci's brow twitched: "What does that mean? Did he agree or not? Is our business still on?"

Xiao Cui let out a breath: "If he didn't agree, you'd already be in the river."

Li Jiaci first froze, then after reacting, he also laughed.

"You guys really treat human lives like grass."

After saying that, Li Jiaci followed Xiao Cui onto the kayak.

Xiao Cui paddled while saying: "Next, I'll have people prepare three thousand tons of timber as you requested; where should I have it delivered when the time comes?"

"Where else could we go?"

Li Jiaci said: "Of course it's the Free Trade Zone."

"The Free Trade Zone?"

Xiao Cui frowned and said: "You want to bring the timber back through the Free Trade Zone? Don't you know that exporting our goods to your country requires an extra thirty-five percent tariff?"

"I know."

Li Jiaci glanced at Xiao Cui and said: "I didn't ask you to pay; why are you in such a hurry?"

"That's three thousand tons of timber."

Xiao Cui said: "If we go through normal customs, the tariff would be seventy thousand; can you bear that?"

"What's there to be reluctant about?"

Li Jiaci said: "If I'm reluctant, wouldn't I also become a smuggler?"

"You guys."

"In the end, it's just that people are poor and short-sighted."

"As long as we can do business legally, what's seventy thousand?"