Chapter 236: 236: First Experience with an Agricultural Vehicle (Three More for Monthly Pass)
“Two thousand taels of gold, that’s two hundred thousand silver dollars… that’s a bit too expensive, isn’t it?”
“The price is non-negotiable,” Feng Jun answered with a smile, “I’ve already said my price does not allow for bargaining.”
Because he had a very good impression of the other party, he patiently explained, which was also the basic attitude one should have in business, “Moreover, I’m talking about gold, I do not accept silver dollars. If you pay with Natural Treasures, I can give you a 20% discount.”
He collected gold to reduce the use of gold from the Earth Realm, and he even wanted to transport gold from here to Earth.
Indeed, preventing the outflow of gold was only the first step, he would be willing to help Huaxia increase its gold reserves if possible.
Shall not forget the worries of our country though in a lowly position, every Huaxia citizen should have such awareness, shouldn’t they?
However, what he wanted to exchange for the most were the Natural Treasures, which could quickly enhance his cultivation level. If he could climb to the Innate Realm, he might achieve immortality even without seeking Immortal Cultivation Techniques.
Moreover, if these treasures could be brought to the Earth Realm, their value would be immeasurable.
As soon as Brother Bao heard about a 20% discount with Natural Treasures, his spirits lifted, “Which kind of Natural Treasures? How do we measure their value?”
“Definitely can’t go by auction prices,” Feng Jun replied with a smile, “Auctions can easily be manipulated, a fact you don’t need me to stress, right?”
After all, he came from an era of information explosion and knew that many items were auctioned at high prices, but that didn’t represent their true value. In fact, many auction items had bids driven up through collusion.
Brother Bao was aware of this too; nothing new under the sun. At his level of status, if he wanted to buy or sell something, he normally had his own channels and rarely dealt through auctions.
If he got hold of Natural Treasures internally and then took them to auction, he would likely make a profit in eight out of ten cases.
However, people in this circle seldom played such games, regardless of how much money was to be made, mainly because they couldn’t afford to lose face.
Feng Jun paused then added another sentence, “Just go by the market price, I’m not asking for any favors.”
“You won’t find them at market price,” Brother Bao said with a laugh, shaking his head, “You must realize that many Natural Treasures aren’t for sale; the kind you won’t even see on the market.”
“I want those that aren’t for sale,” Feng Jun cut him off, “The kind that have a price but no market.”
Having a price means the price is set, but no market means there are no transactions.
But if there’s a price, how could there possibly be no transactions? It’s just that ordinary people can’t enter the trading circle that’s all.
Brother Bao, being part of a higher-end circle, understood the implication of those words very well. Therefore, he let out a wry laugh, “You’ve really given me a tough problem.”
Feng Jun didn’t argue—with the no bargaining rule already stated, he moved on to another topic, “As for the double-entry house you mentioned, I think at least forty probes are necessary, 3,500 taels of gold should be sufficient.”
What is the concept of 3,500 taels of gold? That’s over three hundred thousand silver dollars. An intermediate-level martial master’s income in an Escort Agency would be about twenty to thirty silver dollars a month; such a large sum could hire ten thousand intermediate-level martial masters for a month.
Or, to put it another way, hire one thousand intermediate-level martial masters for a year.
Though Lord Beiyuan Mansion is large, there are only about thirty intermediate-level martial masters currently employed, so this sum could employ them for thirty years.
The problem is, intermediate-level martial masters can fight, whereas this Formation only serves as a warning and only covers a small area of the second entry.
Brother Bao let out a wistful laugh, “It seems I really can’t handle matters for my big brother, I should take care of my own estate first.”
Upon hearing this, Tian Lewen drew in a breath, “If my Tian Family wants to deploy a Formation, wouldn’t it also cost several thousand taels of gold? We really can’t afford that.”
“You can’t calculate it like that,” Tian Yangni saw it very clearly, “It’s just that the initial investment is a bit large. Once the Formation is set up, it’s mainly the subsequent expenses, which I assume won’t be much.”
In reality, even if the subsequent expenses weren’t much, it still wasn’t something the Tian Family could afford. Tian Laoqi said this mainly to facilitate the deal, not only to please the Divine Doctor but also to showcase the Tian Family’s networking abilities to Lord Beiyuan.
This explanation made the hesitant Brother Bao somewhat tempted, then he turned to Feng Jun, “I almost forgot, how do you sell that strange oil you have, and how much would it cost each day?”
This is related to power consumption! Feng Jun suddenly realized that explaining this issue would also be quite challenging.
So, he straightforwardly answered, “I call the strange oil diesel, one dou is one silver dollar, if you’re not using air conditioning, you’d use about one dou a day… of course, you must pay in gold.”
One dou is ten liters; diesel prices in the Earth Realm haven’t yet broken ten dollars per liter, and fifty grams of a silver dollar are worth about two hundred yuan in Earth Realm currency. His profit margin on selling diesel here was also double.
Compared to the monitoring system, the profits from diesel aren’t that high, and could even be said to be infuriatingly low, but… this stuff is consumable, something that needs to be used every day, and the income adds up to an astonishing amount over time.
Feng Jun even felt that he had set the price of diesel a bit too high, because once the other party started using diesel, the energy supply would be in his hands, and he would have more bargaining power in many matters.
The influence that this bargaining power could bring might not even be purchasable with money.
However, it’s a pity that Earth Realm’s fossil energy is also not abundant anymore, and Feng Jun still cares about his hometown, so there’s no need to sell the diesel too cheaply.
Anyway, if we’re just talking about lighting and monitoring, Brother Bao’s yard won’t use much electricity in a day.
Yet when Brother Bao heard this, his eyes lit up again, “What about air conditioning?”
“It’s equipment that can heat in winter and cool in summer, and it could also be considered a formation,” Feng Jun was getting a bit impatient, “You don’t need to worry about this for now. If you need it in the future, it’s not too late to install it then.”
He wanted to bring light to this plane, but he really hadn’t planned on electrifying it in all aspects. In fact, even the surveillance was something he was installing for himself and just incidentally selling to others.
“It can cool in summer?” Brother Bao’s eyes were as bright as light bulbs, “That’s great, I really hate the heat. Can this air conditioning formation be moved?”
He was naturally averse to heat, and his favorite saying was “If it’s cold, you can put on more clothes, but if it’s hot, you can’t peel off your skin.”
As for carrying an air conditioner with him, that was because he had specifically dug a large basement in the yard where he lived, so he could escape the hottest part of the summer by retreating underground.
But even so, summer was still inconvenient for him. He couldn’t go out casually, and if he had to be out for a while, he had to load ice blocks onto the carriage. Lord Beiyuan Mansion had the ice he most used; others ate it, he used it to cool down.
The hottest month of the summer was especially tough for him every year.
“We’ll talk about the air conditioning later,” Feng Jun repeated, without further explanation.
Having decided to install the Warning Formation, Brother Bao sent someone to fetch money. Although he was not short of money, he wouldn’t carry several thousand taels of Gold with him, and this time, he didn’t want to pay with Gold.
For him, trading with Natural Treasures and Cultivation Techniques was more cost-effective.
While Brother Bao was getting money, Feng Jun wasn’t idle either. Now that people from the Tian Family had learned how to wire for surveillance, he began to teach the Deng Family Brothers and Lang Zhen how to adjust the cameras and system.
This core technology was still better kept in the hands of his own people.
He hadn’t gone to see Brother Bao’s site, but he could easily teach people to install and adjust everything here, and then take the materials to the site and install it all over again.
He had plenty of cameras and materials; the only thing he was short on was a generator.
For that reason, Feng Jun made another trip to modern society and directly placed orders for five generators, along with a large amount of materials, surveillance equipment, and various electrical appliances. He also arranged for Li Xiaobin to find people to erase the words on the equipment.
After staying there for a day and coming back, he brought two generators with him, allocating one for Brother Bao and keeping one as a backup for himself.
All this time in this plane, he had only one generator. Now that he had a backup generator, his conditions were improving, and he was investing more care into its management.
He even brought over a few high-powered drills and ordered five air conditioners from Earth Realm—both planes were in winter, but buying off-season appliances like air conditioners was more convenient.
As things developed better and better here, Earth Realm still had things he cared for. On this waiting day, he even specifically checked the stock market, only to be shocked to find: stock markets are closed on holidays.
After transporting things over, he spent a day teaching Lang Zhen and the others how to install and adjust, even giving them a run-through on how to connect the generators and install light bulbs.
Actually, for Lone Wolf and the Deng Family Brothers, they were already quite familiar with generators and lighting. Although they didn’t understand the principles, they had seen Feng Jun operate it often enough, and with another run-through, it wasn’t difficult at all.
After teaching them, Feng Jun had nothing else to do and found Brother Bao bored to tears, so he brought out his farm utility vehicle, “How about we go out for a drive?”
This was a technique for entertaining clients, which he was never unfamiliar with. Previously, when he went to the south with his girlfriend, it was mainly for running business.
Brother Bao was also very interested in this three-wheeled vehicle that had always been hidden in the house, “Is this a carriage? It moves on its own, truly astonishing… You’re not going to make me sit in the driver’s seat, are you?”
By the last question, he was a bit unhappy. This plane had carriages, and the front seat was where the driver sat, with the nobles always sitting in the compartment in the back.
But the carriage behind this vehicle—there wasn’t even a roof, let alone seats!
(Another triple release, less than thirty hours left in March, and this month has no 29th. If anyone still has monthly tickets, please cast them now.)