Chapter 445: Conditions And An Unforeseen Event
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ, KLKL
In everyone’s eyes, Ai Hui remained calm. "Yes, I have this intention. Is the Mayor willing to agree to this deal?"
At this point in time, Qiao Meiqi’s facial expression was solemn, "Yes, I am very willing to agree to this deal. What are your conditions?"
Ai Hui nodded his head and replied, "I have a few conditions."
Qiao Meiqi’s facial expression relaxed. It was normal to have some conditions for business deals. He would have suspicions if there were no conditions at all. With a deep voice, Qiao Meiqi replied, "I’d like to hear about the details."
"The first condition, for every transaction, payment using essence elemental beans cannot exceed thirty percent of the full amount of the transaction. The remaining amount has to be paid using various resources. We don’t care where Mayor obtains the resources from. We will provide you with a list of the resources we need," Ai Hui said.
Qiao Meiqi did some mental calculations and nodded his head, "If the resources that are used for the payment do not exceed the value of one million essence elemental beans, then it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Other than my own trade route, I will form a Clearwater Trade Association with other enterprises to obtain other trade routes as well. However, if the amount of resources exceeds the worth of one million essence elemental beans, this deal will be very difficult to pull off. After all, the location of Clearwater City is rather isolated. It is not an ideal business hub."
Ai Hui smiled and replied, "It won’t be that much."
One million essence elemental beans was equivalent to twenty liters of snow lava. At this point in time, It wasn’t much of a problem for Central Pine Valley to produce this amount of snow lava. However, if a huge amount of snow lava appeared on the market, the price of snow lava would decrease sharply.
"That’s good then," Qiao Meiqi heaved a sigh of relief, "Right now, A-grade fire liquids are in really severe scarcity. However, ordinary people might not be able to afford them at the current price. Furthermore, most of the fire elementalists are not very rich now. These factors will affect the sale of snow lava. I feel that we shouldn’t put up more than ten liters of snow lava on the market every month for the time being. We still need time to expand the market for snow lava."
"Alright, we will settle on ten liters of snow lava every month for the time being," Ai Hui agreed.
What Qiao Meiqi said made sense. This was also why Ai Hui decided to give him the exclusive dealership of snow lava. With regards to managing a business, Ai Hui and his counterparts paled in comparison to Qiao Meiqi. Furthermore, the amount of resources that Central Pine Valley needed was massive. It was practically impossible for Ai Hui and his counterparts to obtain these resources all by themselves.
Right now, the most important task for everyone, including Ai Hui and Iron Lady, was to train.
Especially Ai Hui himself.
Iron Lady had purposely suppressed her base level. This was a very unique training method. In reality, her strength was already equivalent to a Master’s.
If there were two Masters in Central Pine Valley, any average strength person would not dare to mess with them.
As such, it was very important for him to increase his strength.
This was also why Ai Hui was willing to give the exclusive dealership of snow lava to Qiao Meiqi. Their time was very precious and he did not want to waste it on the issue of selling snow lava.
Even though Ai Hui was a money grubber, he clearly understood that wealth would only push Central Pine Valley to death if they did not have sufficient strength.
"What about the second condition?" Qiao Meiqi asked.
"The second condition is related to the delivery method. I hope you can deliver the goods to our forward operating base," Ai Hui continued.
Qiao Meiqi did not agree immediately and asked carefully, "Where is your forward operating base?"
"Lemon Camping Ground," Ai Hui replied.
Upon hearing this, Qiao Meiqi was slightly surprised. He cast a glance at Ai Hui and said, "I didn’t expect your city to be located even deeper in Wilderness than us."
Qiao Meiqi knew where Lemon Camping Ground was. Therefore, he could guess that Ai Hui’s city was in the depths of Wilderness.
Ai Hui continued to ask, "So what do you say?"
"If it’s at Lemon Camping Ground, then there shouldn’t be any problem," Qiao Meiqi replied.
Ai Hui reached out his palm for a handshake and smiled, "So we have reached a deal?"
A smile spread across Qiao Meiqi’s face as he reached out his palm to shake Ai Hui’s hand, "Deal!"
Both of them looked at each other and smiled.
Qiao Meiqi knew he could make a massive profit from this huge meat pie. By importing and exporting snow lava and various resources, he could make money off of both sides. Ai Hui did not have enough time to trade to individuals and found this troublesome to do. On the contrary, he had plenty of time and did not find it troublesome at all.
Ai Hui felt that he had made a gain as well. Even though he had lost out on a huge amount of profit, he had saved a lot of time from agreeing to this deal.
There were many advantages of setting Lemon Camping Ground as the delivery point. They could conserve their manpower, cut short the journey for collecting the delivery, and they were more familiar with the area around Lemon Camping Ground as well.
They could also avoid covetous individuals that were trying to find out the exact location of Central Pine Valley.
The exact location of Central Pine Valley would be found out sooner or later. However, the later this day came, the better it would be for Ai Hui and the rest.
Ai Hui had made up his mind that once he returned to Central Pine Valley, he was going to supervise everyone in carrying out an intense training regime. Without sufficient strength, they would not be able to preserve the refinement method for snow lava.
This period of buffer time was exceptionally important to them.
The excited Qiao Meiqi could not help but go straight to work. The amount of resources that Ai Hui needed was immense. And searching for these resources was much more troublesome than just giving Ai Hui essence elemental beans.
Venerable Volcano examined Ai Hui with a complicated look on his face.
Ai Hui cast a glance at him and said, "Old fogey, what’s with this facial expression? Are you implying that the price I sold the snow lava to you for is too expensive, or the price I sold to Qiao Meiqi is too cheap?"
Venerable Volcano shook his head and replied emotionally, "No, it’s just that I didn’t expect you to have grown to this level. You’re amazing."
He was shocked by Ai Hui’s performance today.
It was very hard for him to link this Ai Hui, who had a sense of propriety and knew how to grasp the situation well, with the Ai Hui that had hosted a porridge banquet for everyone in Peace City.
The current Ai Hui had an indescribable sense of calmness and bearing.
He was decisive, did not covet petty gains, and was able to defuse dangerous situations in the blink of an eye. After bringing Clearwater City on board, no one would dare to trouble Ai Hui and his counterparts without taking Clearwater City into consideration.
Such a cunning lad!
Venerable Volcano shook his head and smiled to himself. Youngsters nowadays are getting more and more cunning.
…..
Under tight protection, the luxuriously dressed, purple-robed Jiao Shien returned to his home. On the way back, all his guards were on high alert.
Other than being vigilant, all the guards’ faces were also filled with pride and glory. Apart from the mayor, there were only five enterprises that had bought the snow lava. If one was familiar with Clearwater City, he or she would realize that these five enterprises were the largest enterprises in Clearwater City. Being one of these five enterprises, the Jiao Enterprise’s strength and reputation in Clearwater City was top-notch.
A bunch of Jiao Enterprise’s employees were waiting at the main hall of the house.
Jiao Shien walked into the main hall and sat in the seat of honor. Everyone stepped up to congratulate him one by one.
A look of satisfaction appeared on Jiao Shien’s face. Being among the first batch to buy the snow lava symbolized the social status of his enterprise.
After everyone took a look at the snow lava, Jiao Shien said with a plain tone, "The other party does not need essence elemental beans. He prefers materials and supplies. Everyone put in more effort to obtain these resources and don’t bring disgrace to our enterprise."
All the employees bowed and acknowledged Jia Shien’s words.
Jiao Shien waved his hands and continued, "Everyone, go and do your work. I don’t need anyone here."
The employees bowed and walked out of the main hall in a line.
The huge main hall became empty once more. Jiao Shien did not show any intention of leaving the main hall and continued to sit on the chair while drinking his tea.
"You have done a good job."
Suddenly, a delicate voice resounded through the main hall.
Two figures mysteriously appeared in the empty main hall.
There was a man and a woman.
The man was short and he was holding a dark-green vine staff. His face was haggard and he looked as if he was around fifty years old. His eye sockets were huge but they were empty, looking extremely horrifying.
On the contrary, the woman was tall and slim and her legs were long and slender. Her face was shaped like a peach and her limpid and bright eyes looked as if they could steal people’s souls.
"Sir! Madam!" Jiao Shien stood up hurriedly.
The woman walked towards the snow lava. Filled with curiosity, she reached out one of her fingers and dipped it into the crystal-clear snow lava. "So this is snow lava!"
"Madam, don’t do that!" Jiao Shien’s face turned pale with horror.
The woman’s finger began to burn in a wisp of flames. In the blink of an eye, her pale white fingerbone could be clearly seen. The lady did not show any signs of being in pain. With a flick of her finger, the flames on her finger were extinguished. Brand-new flesh was already growing back on her pale white fingerbone at a visible speed. Within a short period of time, her finger became snow-white and tender once more, showing zero signs of being burnt at all.
Jiao Shien was dumbstruck.
The blind old man stood in front of the snow lava and reached out his palm and placed it on the snow lava. After a while, he gasped in surprise, "An excellent fire liquid! How much money have you spent on it?"
Jiao Shien looked as if he had just woken up from a dream and quickly replied, "Fifty thousand essence elemental beans."
The blind old man replied, "This price is rather good. Do you know the refinement method for it?"
"I don’t know," Jiao Shien shook his head.
"How is it? It’s very valuable, right?" the woman said cheekily, "If we can get the refinement method for it, it will be a legitimate moneymaker for us. You will have enough money to take care of your people for rest of their lives."
The old man did not care about her and carried on examining the snow lava.
After a long while, the blind old man withdrew his palm and replied with a hoarse voice, "Excellent fire liquid. It’s worthy of being an A-grade fire liquid. I am in."
"This business has no cost price. Once we get the refinement method for it, we have no worries for the rest of our lives. Let’s split the refinement method fifty-fifty."
"Alright, fifty-fifty."
The blind old man nodded his head.
Jiao Shien was extremely excited as a greedy look flashed across his face. The worth of even half of the refinement method was incalculable. Once they succeeded in obtaining the refinement method, Jiao Enterprise would become the most powerful and wealthy enterprise. He no longer needed to fear Qiao Meiqi.
A flush appeared on Jiao Shien’s face as his breathing became heavy.
Suddenly, his body froze.
A dark-green vine pierced through his heart.
"It’s better to have less people who know about this kind of matter," the blind old man said indifferently.
Jiao Shien looked blankly at his bosses. The woman smiled at him without showing any intention of saving him. Following which, Jiao Shien became dizzy and his vision became fuzzy. Then, he collapsed on the ground.
Until the point where his consciousness had completely disappeared, he still could not understand why he was killed.
The woman spread her arms innocently and said, "I have said before that this is not a trap. Brother Long, do you believe me now? All I want is to obtain the refinement method for the snow lava."
"Such a vicious heart. He must have been blind to have served you wholeheartedly," the old man sneered.
"You’re indeed right. I also don’t understand why so many people are willing to serve me wholeheartedly. Brother Long, don’t think of hogging the entire proceeds from the refinement method." The woman smiled.
"Hogging?" The blind old man shook his head, "No one can hog such a gigantic piece of meat."
"Seems like Brother Long has agreed to my proposal?"
"After we succeed in obtaining the refinement method, you will go your way and I will go mine."
"No problem."
"Then how should we handle this?"
"How can you kill someone without setting fire to the place as well?" the woman chuckled, "As for this snow lava, we will of course split it fifty-fifty. I know how to behave myself."
Raging flames engulfed Jiao Enterprise, lighting up the night sky of Clearwater City.