Disassembling System: Begin With Scrapyard Alchemy - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Salted Fish

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After calming his breathing down, Cheng Xu began to repair the second watch.

This time, he was much more familiar with the operation than the first watch. In just a few minutes, the feminine watch was brand new again, and restored to its normal condition.

Seeing the two brand-new watches on the table, Cheng Xu could not help but sigh. “With my skills, shouldn’t I use them to fix precious relics instead? Rather than hole up in a scrapyard fixing watches…”

Cheng Xu, who had no ability to boast of himself, naturally did not dare to expose his supernatural abilities to others, so he could only use them in secret.

Shaking his head, Cheng Xu cast away those useless thoughts and continued to repair the next watch.However, there was a small problem with the third watch.

After eliminating the loose and dislocated parts, Cheng Xu found that the watch still could not function normally.

He had no choice but to continue focusing his mind and examine the parts one by one. Finally, he found that one of the bearings had rusted and could not turn.

“It seems like I can finally use Breakdown this time.”

Cheng Xu broke down all the rust on the bearing’s surface. Although the bearing looked thinner now, it could finally move.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead. Repairing the watch with Breakdown had forced him to lose two steamed buns’ worth of energy again. Fortunately, the other watches did not cause any more trouble, and all of them were soon back in operation.

Cheng Xu, who had collapsed on the bed, opened Salted Fish and began to search for the models and prices of the watches one by one.

“D*mn, this watch is only worth 100 yuan? What a waste of my effort… This one’s not bad. It’s basically priced at more than 1,000 yuan… This one has even higher quality. Is it more than five thousand?”

He checked the information for each watch one by one, until he was left with two that he could not find any information on. However, just by their appearances, Cheng Xu felt that they were not cheap watches.

Cheng Xu put up listings for each watch at 90% of the average market price on Salted Fish. After some thought, he added the words [Shipping included].

Cheng Xu was too lazy to waste his energy on the two unknown watches, so he put them up for sale at 666 yuan.

“Done. I’m taking a nap.”

Cheng Xu had been using his system for most of the day, and his head felt a little heavy.Coupled with the hot summer temperature, he really did not want to go out.

As soon as he lay down on the mat, he turned on the floor fan and fell into a deep sleep.

Growl…

Cheng Xu was woken up by hunger. He opened his eyes and looked at the light in the room. It seemed to be getting late.

As he cooked, Cheng Xu launched Salted Fish on his phone to see if there were any messages for the items he had posted.

‘Not bad. Two watches had already been bought.’ One was more than 1,000 yuan, and the other was one of the unknown model watches he had listed for 666 yuan.

There seemed to be a few other messages from buyers.One message was about the watch that cost more than 1,000 yuan. The buyer asked if he could cut the price down a little.

Cheng Xu felt a little exasperated. He had already lowered it to the average price in order to quickly cash it out, but this person still wanted to bargain. As expected, some people would really ask for a mile when given an inch.

However, he seemed to have noticed that Cheng Xu had not replied to him and was afraid that someone else was getting a better bargain, so he still bought it.

The other message was for the unknown watch.The buyer was still asking him why it was so cheap after buying it. Was there a problem?

The buyer had sent him a bunch of messages, asking him if he had any more of this type of watch, and how he could preserve the watch so well.

Seeing that he had sent so many messages, Cheng Xu thought about it and replied.

[I only have one unit of this watch. I repaired it myself. There’s definitely nothing wrong with it.]

Xu Qing was in his forties this year and was a small shareholder of several listed companies.Middle-aged people did not have any other hobbies other than collecting watches.

The watch that Cheng Xu put up on Salted Fish was similar to one that he had once appraised at a fellow watch enthusiast’s house.

He fell in love with that watch so much that he could not bear to part with it, but the owner was not short on money, so he was unwilling to sell it.

Xu Qing had never expected to find this watch on Salted Fish.

He looked at the pictures carefully from different angles. It was exactly the same as that watch, or even better, as if it was brand new.

As for the possibility of it being an knockoff, he had never thought about it. Very few people in the world knew of this watch’s existence, and fewer still had seen it. It was a very unpopular watch.

‘A knockoff? There’s no place that would make copies of this, and it’s not worth copying. How much money could one make with a knockoff of this watch?’

The really popular watches would have imitations of them. Only such knockoffs would have a market. The fakes of unpopular watches would not even earn back the costs for production.

After knowing that the seller had repaired the watch himself, Xu Qing was even more excited.

To repair every watch, one had to know its movement like the back of their hand. Different watches had different ways of opening, and it was likely that the watch would be scrapped if they did not understand it.

‘To be able to fix such an unpopular item, the seller must be a master,’Xu Qing thought to himself as he sent a message, intending to get to know this master.

After replying, Cheng Xu was about to go wash the rice when Gentle Breeze replied immediately.

[I must’ve been blind to not recgnize your greatness. Please forgive me, master. This watch has been out of production for a long time. There’s a price for it, but no market. I was curious, so I asked a few more questions.]

Looking at his message, Cheng Xu smacked his forehead. He had indeed made a loss. And there was nothing that could be done about it. He did not know enough about the watch to begin with. It was good enough that others were kind enough to tell him the true value of this watch. This was purely his fault.

[I found this watch on a whim. Whoever happens to see it and bid for it can be considered to have good karma.]

He had already lost money, but he could not lose face anymore. Since he decided to go with a pretentious front, he would do it to the end.

Cheng Xu endured his heartache and replied.

[A master’s realm is indeed different. I was too superficial.]

Xu Qing smacked his own thigh. ‘What was I thinking?! There’s no way the master wouldn’t know the value of this watch! I managed to get it for cheap, yet I’m acting like I drew the short straw! I deserve to get thrashed!’

[Master, can I have your contact information? I just happen to have a few watches here that I’d like you to take a look at, and see if there’s any possibility of repairing them. I definitely won’t be stingy with my thanks.]

He was not interested in looking at watches and was rather tired, but at the mention of a reward, Cheng Xu’s fatigue immediately left him.

After the two added each other on WeChat, Gentle Breeze made small talk with smiley emojis, which left Cheng Xu speechless.

He could only keep his speech as short as possible, and could not use any of his own collection of emojis.

Looking at his profile picture and ID, Cheng Xu guessed that Gentle Breeze was not young.

Little did he know that when Xu Qing saw Cheng Xu’s online username and profile picture, Xu Qing also realized something.

‘Is a blank profile picture used to express that you have no distracting thoughts?’

[Wow, you used a fruit that sounds like your surname as a profile pic. Now that is art!]

‘And this signature phrase…?’

“Junk is an opportunity for us to save our blue oceans.”