Farming With The In-game World - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Finally See the Money

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

For each of the following three days, An Wen was only in the other world for less than four hours.

Other than working out and taking baths in the other world every day, he would, at the most, do some woodworking.

After all, he no longer needed to worry about the safety of the city, and did not feel any sense of urgency either, so he was not in a rush to construct more buildings and facilities.

An Wen’s current Survival Points income was more than 18 million points per day – was there a need to rush?

One day, An Wen was at the new house, discussing the cabling work with the electrician.

The cabling work was a crucial part of the renovation, as it would lead to major inconveniences in the future if the cables were not laid in a suitable fashion.

As such, there were many aspects and things to consider when designing the layout of the cables.

Thump, thump, thump…

Numerous footsteps echoed from the living room.

“The renovation work must be maintained at the highest quality. Do not rush to complete the work. Be sure to use only safe and environmentally-friendly materials, so as to avoid any potential safety hazards for our client.”

“Yes, Boss, our account manager comes over every day to supervise the renovation work, so quality is assured.”

An Wen raised his eyebrows.

Although he did not know who had just arrived, the conversation between the two workers was clearly for him to hear.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man with a large belly walked into the master bedroom, accompanied by a group of other people.

“Mr. An, this is the boss of our company, Peng Cheng Renovation. Our boss is here today to supervise and ensure the quality of our work.”

“Even though we report the progress of the renovation to our boss daily, he is still apprehensive and insists on coming to supervise our work personally.”

The manager from the renovation department introduced their boss to An Wen after they entered the house.

His entire ‘speech’ was essentially conveying the same point; their boss has devoted a huge amount of attention to the renovation.

“Pleased to meet you, Chairman Zhu. I didn’t expect that you would visit the renovation site of my house personally, since this is just a minor renovation project for your company. It’s such an honor.”

An Wen said perfunctorily with a slight smile on his face that conformed to the expectations of society.

He did not care about what the manager had said.

The only reason why Chairman Zhu had traveled down to the renovation site in the first place was only because he had something to ask of An Wen – if that was not the case, An Wen would gladly swallow the entire house.

Moreover, as the renovation company that he engaged to renovate the new house, it was perfectly natural for the boss to supervise the renovation work on-site.

Why did they make it seem as if he should be pleased that the boss specially headed on-site to supervise the renovation work? How superficial.

“You flatter me… As the boss, I should’ve come down even earlier on, but unfortunately, I was overseas.” Zhu Cheng said with a laugh.

“What made you come down today, Chairman Zhu?” An Wen asked straightforwardly.

He was too lazy to beat around the bush – it would just be a complete waste of time.

“Mmm… Pardon me if I should not be asking about this, but may I know where Mr. An acquired this stone material from?”

Faced with An Wen’s extreme candidness, Zhu Cheng was slightly displeased.

However, he had no other choice but to embrace it – An Wen was one person he could not anger, given his background.

Zhu Cheng had actually set his eyes on the stone material half a month ago.

It was well-known in the trade circle of Shanghai that An Zhixin had a deep interest in stone, and the cloisonné that An Zhixin had purchased earlier on was actually with his help.

Unexpectedly, An Wen had subsequently acquired a better stone material than cloisonné from an unknown source.

It was not a big deal, so after he learned about it, he started asking around for more information.

Top-quality stone materials would certainly be limited in quantity.

Since there were many wealthy people in the country, any exquisite item would surely be able to be sold.

Why did Zhu Cheng not ask An Wen about the source of the stone material earlier on? In honesty, he believed that An Wen had also purchased it from someone else.

If he bought the stone material from An Wen, An Wen would surely earn a portion of the cost, and Zhu Cheng would lose profits.

Any businessman would know that the cost charged by a broker was always more expensive than the factory cost.

Unfortunately, after asking around for half a month, no one in the entire trade circle of stone knew the origin of the An family’s stone.

Even businessmen who sold stone materials had never seen such a stone material before.

Left with no choice, Zhu Cheng could only ask An Wen about it directly.

“Where did I buy the stone from? I didn’t buy it; this stone material is produced from my own mine.” An Wen replied with a smile.

“… Well, pardon me for asking, but where was this stone material mined from?” Zhu Cheng probed, slightly bewildered by An Wen’s reply.

“Africa.” An Wen’s reply was short and sweet – though it was equivalent to not giving a reply.

“…” Zhu Cheng was speechless. Africa was out of the question.

Nevertheless, he could also tell that An Wen was not interested in divulging the answer, so he did not continue probing further.

The stone industry – or rather, the raw material industry in general – was unlike the manufacturing industry.

To receive orders in the manufacturing industry, important clients had to be brought to the factory to personally witness the capabilities of the manufacturing company.

However, in the raw material industry, clients merely needed to make their orders, and the company would simply fulfill them accordingly.

As long as the materials were of a decent quality, there was no need to be concerned with where the materials came from – either way, they were not dug out from the client’s home.

“Mr. An, it’s almost noon. I already made a reservation at a hotel restaurant, shall we continue our conversation there?” Zhu Cheng asked.

He began acting more like a businessman. Anything was possible as long as he could earn money.

On the other hand, people like An Wen were destined to be unable to be a qualified businessman. No businessman would be as candid and as straightforward as he was, in front of their clients.

Of course, as much as An Wen was not cut out to be a businessman, he would not offend people either.

It was ultimately just eating a meal with him, and he wanted to sell the stone material anyway.

The two agreed on lunch and made their way to the hotel.

In the end, however, Zhu Cheng did not speak a word about the stone material and instead started inquiring about An Wen’s life.

He attempted to find out An Wen’s hobbies.

However… Zhu Cheng shot himself in the foot.

When he asked An Wen about what he liked to play, in an attempt to find a common topic, An Wen replied that he liked ‘2D’– Anime, Comics, and Games (ACG).

Well…

It was simply too difficult for a middle-aged man who was over forty years old to understand and relate to the ‘2D’ culture.

As such, Zhu Cheng quickly changed the topic and began asking about An Wen’s university major.

Then… An Wen started talking about aircraft design and his specialized aerospace knowledge.

Zhu Cheng shot himself in the foot yet again.

He could use his age as an excuse for not being able to keep up with the pace of teenagers and not understanding the ‘2D’ culture.

However, being unable to understand aerospace knowledge inevitably made him seem slightly uncultured, if not ignorant.

Such was slightly disconcerting.

Left with no other choice, Zhu Cheng’s last option was to talk about his encounters when he started his business venture, such as the different types of absurd clients he faced.

However, those were things that An Wen did not like to know about.

The atmosphere at the table gradually turned awkward.

Eventually, Zhu Cheng could only end the lunch as quickly as possible, and they started drinking tea.

At that juncture, he finally cut to the chase and started discussing business.

“Bro, I won’t beat around the bush anymore. To be honest, I want to be an agent for your stone material, so just name your price.” Zhu Cheng said, acting as if he was cool with any amount.

It was as if he was saying: ‘Bro, I will accept any amount you name.’

“100,000 yuan per square meter.” An Wen said expressionlessly.

“… Bro, you must be joking, that certainly won’t work. The cloisonné is already considered a top-quality stone material and it’s sold for 35,000 yuan per square meter on the market. That is also the list price. The cost price of it is also just 2.3 million yuan per cubic meter, but based on your price, the cost price would already be 10 million yuan per cubic meter. It certainly won’t sell.”

Zhu Cheng said helplessly. The price that An Wen gave was simply too steep, and even the extremely wealthy would not think twice before purchasing.

“Well then… How about 90,000 yuan per square meter.”

An Wen recognized that there was some truth behind Zhu Cheng’s words, so he lowered the price slightly.

“…” Zhu Cheng inhaled a deep breath of air.

Was he actually discussing business? He must be angering him on purpose.

“Bro, to be honest with you, although your stone material is of a high quality, it is not popular. To be able to sell the stone at such a high cost, it would need a great deal of publicity to influence the market, apart from its high quality.”

“If your stone material was already very popular in the market right now, I would still be able to grit my teeth and accept your price.”

“However, currently, when I acquire your stone material, I would still need to publicize it to raise its popularity, and that requires a large amount of capital.”

Zhu Cheng explained patiently to An Wen. If not for the fact that the quality of An Wen’s stone material was much higher than that of other stone materials on the market, and it was even unparalleled, he would not even have bothered expanding his energy explaining.

It was not as if An Wen’s stone material was the only type available on the market, and Zhu Cheng would cease his renovating business just because he did not have An Wen’s stone material.

“Mmm… Bro, how about this, I’ll get my father to send someone to discuss the price with you. After all, I am not very familiar with all of this.”

An Wen could tell that Zhu Cheng really wanted to buy the stone material on the spot.

However, he did not want to negotiate further with Zhu Cheng, for he knew that he would not be able to out-talk him.

In terms of business, An Wen was not even a ‘Novice Bronze’ tier player, while his opponent was a highly proficient, ‘Master’ tier player. How would he be able to beat him?

“…”

Zhu Cheng was speechless. He had wasted all of his breath explaining to An Wen.

He had originally intended to make use of the opportunity to lower the price, since An Wen was clueless about business.

He was confident in himself and confident in An Wen’s stone material, and he knew that he would earn a large sum of money if he became the holder of the material.

Moreover, the lower the cost price, the more he would profit.

In the end, however, after spending a long time trying to negotiate with An Wen, he wanted to get someone else to negotiate the price instead.

What could he do?

Well, there was absolutely nothing. It was An Wen’s stone material, and the control of it also lied in An Wen’s hands.

Within half an hour, An Zhixin sent someone to negotiate the price.

At that mark, An Wen also handed over the baton successfully.

What followed would be for him to sit back and wait for the money to roll into his pockets.

“After developing the other world for so long, I am finally going to see some monetary returns.”