Big Deal

The café was indeed quiet, with only a few scattered people sitting in the spacious hall.

Wang Ye and Liu Jun sat at a table by the window, each with a steaming cup of coffee in front of them.

Liu Jun took a sip of coffee and set down his cup.

Then he spoke earnestly. "Wang Ye, you're a foundation student, right? You've only been here for half a year? Honestly, I'd advise you not to take so many cards at once. There may be quite a few Chinese international students at People's Friendship University, but five thousand dollars' worth of phone cards still won't be that easy to sell."

That single remark showed that Liu Jun was a decent person.

As a phone card seller, he should have been happier the more a customer bought.

He should have even encouraged customers to buy more.

As for whether Wang Ye could sell the cards smoothly after taking them, that had nothing to do with him.

There was no such thing as unconditional returns or exchanges in this line of business!

Yet he still reminded Wang Ye to be cautious with investments. He should not wholesale too many phone cards at once and had to consider whether he could sell them.

That was because Wang Ye looked young and had only just started foundation studies, so he probably had never done business before.

He should not get carried away on impulse and use the living expenses and tuition his family had given him to fancifully imitate others in business.

Liu Jun had guessed half of it right.

Wang Ye really had taken out nearly all his money to do this business.

But he truly was not acting on impulse. He had thought it through carefully!

So Wang Ye smiled faintly and replied, "I am indeed a foundation student, but I haven't been in Moscow for half a year. I actually only arrived on January 1st."

Liu Jun's eyes widened. He had only arrived on January 1st?

Today was only sometime in mid-January. Wang Ye had not even been here for a month!

And he dared to put up five thousand dollars for business all at once?!

Liu Jun did not know whether he should admire the young man's courage or laugh at his fearless ignorance...

At least Wang Ye had met him today, and he could kindly offer a few words of advice.

Had it been another phone card seller, they would probably have already been urging Wang Ye to pay for the cards. They might even have egged the kid on, seeing if they could fool Wang Ye into taking out even more money to buy cards.

When abroad, never blindly trust so-called "fellow townsmen" or "compatriots"!

The people who tricked or bullied you might very well be exactly those people...

Liu Jun frowned.

He was not that old either, only thirty-five or thirty-six, but he had been getting by in Moscow for more than a decade.

He now worked at the Moscow office of a state-owned company and was, in every sense, an old Moscow hand.

Outside of work, he also made some extra money through various channels.

He had only recently entered the phone card business, and his advertisements had just gone out.

Wang Ye was the first "big client" he had encountered!

But he was somewhat worried for Wang Ye, mainly because he feared that Wang Ye would take so much stock at once and then be unable to sell it.

Of course, this was not really something he should have been worrying about...

After hesitating for a moment, he still tried to persuade him. "You haven't even been in Moscow for a month. I suggest taking fewer phone cards first and trying to sell them. If they sell well, you can take more next time. How about this? Since this is our first deal, I'll give you a discounted price. As long as you take more than one thousand dollars' worth of cards, I'll give you the wholesale price—twenty percent off! Normally, you'd need to take at least two thousand dollars' worth."

Wang Ye smiled. Liu Jun really was just as he had been when Wang Ye had known him in his previous life.

Shrewd and adaptable, but not bad-hearted!

He shook his head and said, "I'd better take five thousand dollars' worth directly. Too little isn't worth the trouble. You don't need to worry about whether I can sell them. As long as the price is low enough, it'll be fine."

Wang Ye was naturally not worried!

He had already calculated it. There were at least five or six hundred Chinese international students at People's Friendship University alone.

There were even more at Moscow University!

And there were other universities as well. Moscow had so many universities, and nearly every one of them had Chinese international students to some degree.

At the start, he would not even need to contact too many people. As long as he opened up the "markets" at Moscow University and People's Friendship University, he could easily sell these five thousand dollars' worth of cards, perhaps in less than a week.

As for how to open up those two markets, Wang Ye naturally had his own ideas. He was not merely fantasizing.

Seeing how determined Wang Ye was, Liu Jun could not keep trying to dissuade him.

He could only smile and say, "All right, then. Since you're confident, I'd just be annoying if I kept talking. Since you're taking so many cards at once, and this is our first deal, I'll definitely give you a price you'll be satisfied with. How about it... seven thousand dollars in face value!"

Five thousand dollars for cards with a face value of seven thousand dollars meant he was getting them at nearly thirty percent off. It was a fairly good price.

From what Wang Ye knew, even those phone card dealers could not usually get such a low discount!

Clearly, Liu Jun had not tried to fool him just because he was young and unfamiliar with the business. He had given him a genuine price.

Wang Ye nodded readily. "All right! Then thank you, Brother Liu. I'll take eighty fifty-dollar cards and thirty one-hundred-dollar cards."

Phone cards came in different denominations, such as twenty dollars, fifty dollars, one hundred dollars, and two hundred dollars.

Wang Ye did not choose cards with denominations that were too high or too low. He mainly chose fifty-dollar cards, with the rest being one-hundred-dollar cards.

That made a total of just one hundred and ten phone cards. He might not even need to go to Moscow University to sell them; People's Friendship University alone could probably absorb them all.

After saying that, Wang Ye pulled out a bulging wallet from his coat and began counting out the money.

As it happened, he had not deposited the money he brought into a bank. Apart from the foundation tuition he had already paid and the phone he had bought, he had kept the rest on him.

The foundation tuition had been eighteen hundred dollars, including six months of accommodation. The phone had cost a little over three hundred dollars, and he had spent another hundred or so on miscellaneous things. In truth, Wang Ye did not even have five thousand dollars left.

He had borrowed five hundred dollars from Song Xiaogang...

Liu Jun also picked up a small black backpack he had brought with him, rummaged through it, and took out two large boxes of cards.

Following Wang Ye's request, he counted out eighty cards with a face value of fifty dollars and thirty cards with a face value of one hundred dollars.

Money and goods changed hands at the same time. They each counted the money and cards once more, and the amounts were correct.

A smile appeared on Liu Jun's face. This was a big deal today!

He added, "These cards work the same way as the common phone cards on the market. The dialing instructions are written on the back, and you'll understand them at a glance. Also, this line has just been opened, so the call quality will definitely be better than other IP cards. It'll connect more easily and be clearer."

Wang Ye nodded to show that he understood.

After finishing their coffee, Liu Jun got up to leave.

Before leaving, he promised Wang Ye:

"These cards should be enough to sell for a while. Call me once you've sold them out, and I'll bring you another batch.

"Also, since you're planning to do business at the various universities, I won't wholesale cards to other universities for the time being. I'll give you a three-month protection period.

"If you manage to open up sales channels at all those universities by then, I'll leave this entire market to you.

"But if you can't open up the channels, I may find a few agents at Moscow University and other schools."