Chapter 37.2: The Black Market [2]
Author: He Feng Yang
Translator: HeXie
Editor: Larkspur
Chapter 37.2: The Black Market [2]
Zhou Sheng, Xu Yan, and Chen Baoguan should be the team leaders of the other three teams who got the tax-free shops. Obviously, they had the same idea as Wu Ye.
However, wasn’t their behavior too unsightly? Wasn’t it obvious to them that their way of handling this would just create needless enemies with the majority of ability users in Lan Cheng base?
But, since these three could become the leader of their respective zombies hunting teams, they surely wouldn’t be this stupid. Unless...
I see… So, someone was adding fuel to the flames from behind the scene.
He really had to say Lan Cheng’s upper echelons were very unreasonable with their method. First, they coaxed people to work for them, but then they turned around and stabbed them in the back. Looking at it from the rulers perspective, it’s understandable that they wouldn’t want to divide the profits in their hands. But, from the point of view of those who were stabbed in the back, Lan Cheng’s upper echelons had indeed gone overboard with their greed.
Those three goods were something that had no fixed source. But if people swept the goods from the black market and resold them to the official market, people could still earn something from the tax difference.
Ordinary rice and flour in the city were usually 1.2 kg per crystal nuclei. On the other hand, the black noodles on the black market that sold at 3 crystal nuclei for 2 catties that were of a relatively better quality. This meant they could take it back to the city, buy up to 2 kg per crystal and resell 1000 kg of grain while cleanly pocketing 500 crystals.
And though the profit margin was low, at the very least this way the attentive and sinister senior officials of Lan Cheng wouldn’t put them on their radar. After all, for a team of zombie hunters with hundreds of people like Zhou Sheng, getting 500 crystals through a siege was only a matter of minutes. Weren’t they afraid to make enemies out of the ability users of the entire Lan Cheng for such a paltry benefit?
Having expressed her thanks to the middle-aged man, Yang Lina asked Wu Ye: "Boss, what shall we do now?" As part of the team who got one of the newly acquired tax-free shops, Yang Lina could easily figure out the other side’s trick. She felt disgusted.
Wu Ye frowned. Without having to go into the details, he had caught on to what she was alluding.
"There’s no need for us to be concerned about their action. The only thing we need to do is to continue on with our purchase. Besides, even if there’s no food or weapon to be bought, we can still buy other things at almost the same price." Anyway, he didn't intend to make money from things on the black market, therefore it didn’t matter much to him. He had his priorities set, so he was not affected in the least.
"Qian Xin, begin with selling salt. Previously, you sold it at 65 crystals. Today, round it up to a full 70 crystals."
Salt on the black market had always been very scarce and hence precious. It could almost compare to the weapons. And usually, it was the senior executives who would sell the stuff, and even then they were only willing to part with a meagre quantity of it. However, today, they didn’t even bother putting up their stalls.
Therefore, Wu Ye took advantage of this opportunity to raise the price and meet the demand from the market. It was not an impulsive decision on his part. In fact, when he’d returned home for the first time, he had given 240 kilograms of salt to Qin Wuhua.
But the other side had barely touched the stuff. Moreover, even if he wanted to, he still couldn’t sell it in the shop because the official stores. Hence, now that an opportunity finally knocks on his door, he might as well sell it at a higher price in the black market; since it had the demand but no supply.
Hearing this, Qian Xin was astounded by his boss’ brilliance and nearly did a military salute to show his respect.
"Yes, boss!" The voice was so loud that it was impossible to be buried by the tumultuous noises that quickly surged the roof.
It was so much so that Wu Ye' was almost deafened by him. Thus, he hurriedly waved and bid him to leave quickly.
Then, walking around a few steps, Qian Xin randomly found a free spot to sit on the ground. He brought out 100 bags of 1 kg salt from a canvas bag and put up the stall. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth and cried out.
"Selling salt, selling salt! 70 crystal One pack! It’s cheap, it’s cheap! Hurry up there are only 100 packs.”
At that, the formerly noisy black market suddenly turned deathly silent and remained so for two full seconds.
Meanwhile, Wu Ye subconsciously looked up at the roof. Sure enough, there was a little dust falling down from there.
Yang Qi on the side shook his head, smiled and mumbled. "It's a pity that Qian Xin didn't learn how to sing!"
Hearing Yang Qi’s lament, Qin Wuhua was quiet for a while. His mind was going down the memory lane during their days at the army. He remembered all too well how Qian Xin had especially liked to sing. He’d either create an occasion to display his ‘talent’ or simply crooned on whenever he felt like it.
However, this talent of his was a torture to the rest. Every time he sang, people would be in tears and on their knees begging him to shut up. Of course, Qian Xin would oblige the request, but only after he had finished his piece!