Hundred Million

Zhou Fuyuan Jewelry was an established jewelry store founded in 1964, with its headquarters in Hong Kong City. Its Nanhai City branch headquarters stood right in front of Zhou Qi.

"Welcome!" The saleswoman glanced at the suitcase Zhou Qi was carrying. He didn't look like he was here to buy gold jewelry!

But her professional training still made her put on a practiced smile. "How may I help you?"

"I'd like to sell a batch of gold. Do you buy it?" Zhou Qi asked.

"May I ask how much gold you're talking about?" the saleswoman asked.

If it was just a few grams, like a small ring or necklace, she could handle it herself.

"I had to bring it in a suitcase. How much do you think there is?" Zhou Qi asked with a smile.

"Huh?" The saleswoman froze, and the smile on her face instantly became much more sincere. "Sir, please come with me. I'll take you to see our manager..."

In the first-floor reception room, a smiling middle-aged man in a suit and tie entered, his hair slicked and gleaming. He first handed over a business card. "Hello, hello. I'm Zhou Mingde, a client manager at Zhou Fuyuan Jewelry. May I ask how I should address you?"

"Zhou Qi."

"Oh, we share the same surname!" Zhou Mingde grew even more enthusiastic. "Zhou Qi, are you local?"

"Not really. I'm from Nanhe," Zhou Qi said.

Zhou Mingde froze, then his smile grew even brighter. Pointing a finger, he said with certainty, "Fellow townsman, my ancestors were from Nanhe too! They only moved to Hong Kong during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. If we traced our family trees back, we might even be from the same branch!"

Zhou Qi was speechless. Why was this guy so chatty?

"Well, I'm in a hurry. How about you inspect the gold first?" Zhou Qi asked.

"Oh, right!" Zhou Mingde sighed inwardly. This kid was probably born in the nineties. As more and more customers were born in the nineties and the 2000s, he had fewer and fewer chances to use this silver tongue of his.

After all, these kids never liked beating around the bush, nor did they care for all that social nicety stuff.

Maintaining clients had become far more difficult than it had been a few years ago.

"This is Master Luo, Zhou Fuyuan's gold appraisal expert!" Zhou Mingde introduced the white-haired old man behind him. "Master Luo has appraised gold for Zhou Fuyuan for thirty years. He has never received a single complaint or made a single false report. You can trust our professionalism. We definitely won't let you suffer a loss!"

Zhou Qi nodded. He had checked their reputation online, which was why he had come to Zhou Fuyuan.

He opened the suitcase, then abruptly flipped the lid open.

In an instant, the overflowing golden gleam stunned them both.

"So much!" Zhou Mingde was partly putting on an act, but he was genuinely shocked as well. "Did you open a gold mine or something?"

"You can think of it that way." Zhou Qi pushed the suitcase toward Master Luo. "There are 368 kilograms in total. Go ahead and inspect it!"

"Alright." Master Luo nodded. He was fairly composed, after all, since he was qualified to enter Zhou Fuyuan's gold vault.

But when he thought about how all this gold belonged to one person, and had even been brought here in a suitcase...

Weren't you afraid someone would rob you on the way?

He called in two assistants from outside to help place the gold on the testing table, while Zhou Mingde began chatting with Zhou Qi.

"Zhou Qi, what do you intend to do with this gold? Turn it into jewelry? Put it up for consignment with us? Or sell it to us?"

"Of course I'm selling it to you," Zhou Qi said. "What price are you offering?"

"Here's how it works. Our purchase price generally follows the market gold price, but it's usually five to ten percent lower," Zhou Mingde said.

Upon hearing that, Zhou Qi moved to pull his suitcase away. "I remember Bank of China is only half a street away!"

"Hey, hey, Zhou Qi, Brother Zhou, Brother Zhou, wait!" Zhou Mingde hurriedly grabbed Zhou Qi. "Brother, that's the standard market price! Even if you went to the bank, it'd be the same. Processing and refining cost money too!"

"That's for small quantities. I have three hundred kilograms. If you deduct ten percent, you're taking thirty kilograms of gold right off me!" Zhou Qi said coldly. "I might as well keep it for my descendants!"

"This..." Zhou Mingde hurriedly held Zhou Qi back. "Brother, don't be impulsive. How about five percent..."

Seeing Zhou Qi about to leave again, Zhou Mingde had no choice but to raise the stakes. "Zhou-ge, does this batch of gold come with certificates?"

"No," Zhou Qi said matter-of-factly.

Zhou Mingde was delighted. "Gold without certificates naturally has a lower purchase price than certified gold. Without official certification, we don't know where your gold came from. We'd be taking on some of the responsibility for you!"

"I've seen this kind of routine plenty of times in novels." Zhou Qi chuckled. "Uncertified gold only gets discounted when the quantity is small. If I brought a ton of gold here, do you believe any bank would issue certificates for it on the spot?"

The nation's entire gold reserve was only 1,948 tons. If I could get my hands on one ton, who would care where it came from?

"See clearly. I have three hundred kilograms here, not three hundred grams, and not three hundred jin!"

Zhou Mingde was speechless. This man was clearly a layman when it came to gold, yet he had accurately grasped the workings of the industry.

That was right. With gold prices soaring nonstop these days, anyone with gold was king, much less three hundred kilograms of it.

In a movie, this much gold would be enough to send the whole protagonist team into action!

After all, a mercenary squad only earned five million US Dollars for a single operation.

With that much gold, even Zhou Fuyuan's owner would have to speak to him softly and politely.

His position could rise as well, since this was his client!

What was so good about being a client manager? Wouldn't it be better to become a store manager or regional director?

Before such a quantity, what did certificates matter? They were nothing but bullshit. Even if you had really stolen it, they could clean it up for you!

Wait!

Zhou Mingde suddenly caught the key point.

"Zhou Qi, will there be more later?"

"That's right." Zhou Qi nodded faintly. "To be honest, I'm in foreign trade. But that country has no money, so they can only use gold to pay off their debts. As long as we agree on the price, you'll have all the business from now on. There'll be an endless stream of gold shipped over from my side!"

"Foreign trade? Paying debts with gold?" Zhou Mingde felt as though he were listening to a novel. If they had gold, would it even be your turn? Wouldn't American military planes have arrived already?

Wait, there was one situation where American military planes couldn't reach them.

That was if the gold was in the hands of America's enemies.

So which country was currently at war with America?

Zhou Mingde felt somewhat regretful. He spent all day paying attention to beautiful women and never watched the news.

But if a country really was using gold to settle debts, it shouldn't hand it over to a private individual. Why wouldn't the state take it directly?

Zhou Mingde's expression shifted as he mentally pieced together one earth-shattering case after another.

He casually glanced toward Zhou Qi's side, and in an instant, a chill seemed to rise from the top of his head and shoot straight into his heart.

He had not paid much attention to the woman before, assuming she was merely an attendant or something. But now that he looked closely, he realized something was off.

Not only was she standing perfectly straight, but from the moment she entered until now, had she not moved at all?

And that look in her eyes... what kind of look was that? She had killed people before, hadn't she? She definitely had!

An assassin?

Or a soldier?

Zhou Mingde suddenly realized this matter had exceeded the limits of his imagination. He hurriedly turned to Master Luo for help, hoping to get this over with quickly.

But there were three hundred kilograms to inspect!

Zhou Qi had been talking to Zhou Mingde all along, so he naturally noticed the man's gaze.

Turning around, he saw that Tashigi was still standing there.

"Find somewhere to sit. Standing around is tiring!" Zhou Qi said.

"It's alright," Tashigi said. "I'll treat it as training!"

"Fine, suit yourself." Zhou Qi did not insist. With Tashigi's physical abilities, forget standing for a while—she would not get tired even if she stood all day.

How should he put it? Tashigi was probably at the very bottom of One Piece's combat power, but if she were placed on Earth...

She was at least special forces soldier level!

He had only casually exchanged a few words with her, but Zhou Mingde was even more shocked.

Japanese?

A Japanese person?

A Japanese person had gained gold through foreign trade, yet wanted to exchange it for renminbi?

Why?

He immediately began considering the current global situation.

American hegemony was waning, and more and more nations had begun choosing renminbi settlements. Japan was America's little brother, so it naturally did not dare openly betray it. But if it did so in secret, then explained it away as the actions of private citizens...

Perhaps they had already coordinated with Zhou Fuyuan's higher-ups, and his side was merely carrying out orders.

But why had no one informed him?

Oh, right. For something this important, the fewer people who knew, the better. By the time it reached him, he only needed to follow the procedures!

Perhaps this batch of gold would not even remain in the warehouse. Tonight, it might grow legs and run off to the bank!

Yes, that had to be it!

I'm gradually understanding everything!

Zhou Mingde suddenly relaxed and even smiled at Zhou Qi.

"Why are you smiling? I'm not lowering the price just because you smiled."

"No reduction, no reduction!" Zhou Mingde hurriedly said. "We'll go by the day's gold price. Whatever it is, that's what it is!"

"Huh?" Zhou Qi was astonished. What was wrong with this guy? Why had he suddenly changed?

Still, he could not be bothered to think too much about it. The famous philosopher of the Rift, Khazik, had said that change was a good thing!

So be it!

An hour later, all the gold had been inspected.

"A total of grams, with a gold purity of 97.533%!" Master Luo reported.

Zhou Mingde immediately pulled out a calculator and multiplied the two figures.

"Grams. The current gold price is 383.80 per gram, so the total value of this batch of gold is: 137,913,156.8 yuan!"

138 million!

"Please provide a valid bank account, and I'll apply for the transfer right away!"

"Alright, 62****." Zhou Qi sent over his account information.

Very soon, there was a ding.

Your debit card account ending in 2280 received 137,913,156.8 yuan on September 19 via online interbank transfer. Balance after transaction: .6 yuan.

"Whew!" As expected of a sixty-year-old brand. A transfer worth over a hundred million had arrived in less than half an hour. This was also the first time his bank card balance had exceeded one million, then ten million, and gone straight into the hundred-million range!

From now on, I'm a billionaire too!

"Come on, Tashigi. Big brother will take you to buy a car!"

"Alright!" Tashigi eagerly followed. She was quite interested in cars, after all. Smoker had one, though his only had one seat and could not carry anyone else.

"Zhou Qi, if you have more goods in the future, remember to give this little brother some business!" A man in his forties or fifties was calling someone twenty years younger than himself little brother.

Zhou Qi shook his head and could only sigh. Money really could make ghosts turn millstones...

Those damned capitalists—look what they had turned people into...

"Money is only a tool for achieving goals. Never put the cart before the horse, and never become a slave to money!" Zhou Qi silently repeated it several times, and only then did his mood gradually calm down.