Liu Zhengyun waved a hand, directing the truck carefully past the side of Chen Lin's house and around to the back.
Two experienced workers jumped out of the truck and took out two thick lifting straps. Working deftly, they carefully placed several layers of thick rubber padding wherever the straps touched the rosewood.
"Slow down! Be careful! If you chip so much as a sliver off this, ten years of your wages won't cover it!" Liu Zhengyun called out from the side, his entire body taut with nerves.
The workers carefully fitted the lifting straps around the logs. Only after repeatedly checking that they were secure did they signal the crane operator.
The truck-mounted crane's boom slowly rose. Its steel cable pulled taut with a faint creak, lifting the enormous gold star rosewood log steadily off the ground.
Liu Ruyan and Liu Qingmei both held their breath, leaning forward unconsciously with all their attention fixed on the slowly moving log.
Half an hour later, both gold star rosewood logs had finally been loaded safely onto the truck bed, which had already been lined with a thick layer of rubber padding.
"Phew..."
Liu Ruyan let out a long breath, finally relaxing her tense body.
Then Chen Lin drove his Qin Plus, with Song Qiuya and Liu Ruyan as passengers, following the truck and the Buick minivan to the Zhengtian Group's processing plant in the suburbs.
Forty minutes later, the convoy arrived.
The plant occupied a vast site, and the air was filled with the mingled fragrances of different kinds of timber.
Liu Zhengyun directed the truck straight onto a huge weighbridge.
"This is a precision weighbridge we imported from Germany. It cost over a million yuan, and its margin of error is no more than a hundred grams," Liu Ruyan explained to Chen Lin and Song Qiuya.
The numbers on the electronic display flickered rapidly before finally settling.
After the workers unloaded the two rosewood logs, the empty truck was weighed again.
The difference between the two readings was the net weight of the two gold star rosewood logs.
When the final number appeared on the screen, everyone present was stunned.
5.354 metric tons!
"How... how can they be this heavy?" Liu Zhengyun was the first to rush forward. He bent over the weighbridge's control unit, checking the numbers over and over, his face full of disbelief.
Liu Qingmei also hurried over and joined Liu Zhengyun in checking everything thoroughly several times.
There was nothing wrong with the weighbridge.
They both knew how much their own truck weighed.
That could only mean one thing.
These two gold star rosewood logs were far denser than they had estimated! The wood's density had reached an almost inconceivable level!
Their quality was even better than they had imagined!
Liu Zhengyun and Liu Qingmei exchanged a look, each seeing the other's sheer delight.
"Transfer the money!" Liu Ruyan decided on the spot, addressing her younger aunt, Liu Qingmei.
With the general manager's authorization, the payment process went remarkably quickly. Liu Qingmei handled it right there on her laptop, completing all the formalities in less than twenty minutes.
"Ding."
The phone in Chen Lin's pocket vibrated softly.
He took it out and opened the Huaxia Bank app.
A deposit notification stood out on the screen.
"Your account... has been credited with 130,423,440.00 yuan."
A hundred and thirty million!
Staring at that long string of digits, Chen Lin felt dazed, his mind completely blank.
Half a month ago, he had still been a wage slave worrying over a salary of a few thousand yuan.
And now, just like that, I'm worth over a hundred million?
It felt utterly unreal.
Song Qiuya stood beside him and naturally saw the number on his phone too. Although she had seen plenty in her time, witnessing a transaction worth over a hundred million yuan completed right before her eyes still left her feeling dizzy.
Seeing Chen Lin standing there in a daze, she couldn't resist poking his arm gently and teasing him. "Big Boss Chen, come back to earth! Shouldn't dinner be on you tonight?"
"Huh? Yes! Absolutely!" Chen Lin finally snapped out of it. Grinning, he replied, "Of course it's on me! Order whatever you want!"
Just then, Liu Ruyan came over, having finished handling the handover.
With sincere gratitude on her face, she said to them, "Qiu Ya, Mr. Chen, you must give me a chance to treat you tonight! The Zhengtian Group really landed an incredible bargain from you this time, Mr. Chen!"
After saying that, she gave Song Qiuya a particularly grateful look.
Liu Ruyan wasn't exaggerating.
More than five metric tons of top-grade gold star rosewood was enough to establish the Zhengtian Group as the dominant force in the province's high-end timber market in one stroke. If their competitors learned that raw timber of this quality was available, they would scramble for it at any cost. By then, fourteen thousand yuan per jin would no longer be enough to buy it.
Thank goodness I'm close to Qiu Ya! Liu Ruyan thought.
With Liu Ruyan being so earnest, Song Qiuya couldn't very well insist otherwise.
She rolled her eyes at Chen Lin, her look seeming to say, You got off easy!
Chen Lin understood and mouthed a reply to her.
I'll treat you separately!
Watching the two flirt as though no one else were there, Liu Ruyan was speechless.
The three of them first returned to the Zhou Xiaofu jewelry store. Liu Ruyan picked up her Mercedes-Benz, while Song Qiuya went to the changing room in her office and quickly changed out of her smart business skirt suit into a casual dress.
When Chen Lin heard them say they were going to the Peach Blossom Island Restaurant, he was speechless.
Damn it, are we going to get fleeced again?
But then he remembered he wasn't the one paying, and felt better about it.
Half an hour later, they arrived at Riverheart Peach Blossom Island.
Chen Lin and Liu Ruyan drove their two cars all the way around the restaurant's parking lot without finding a single vacant space.
In the end, a parking attendant recognized Liu Ruyan's Mercedes-Benz and came running over. After quite a bit of maneuvering, he managed to clear a spot for them in a corner.
"Business is booming here," Chen Lin remarked after parking, looking at the lot packed with luxury cars.
Who knows how much filthy money that bastard Tang Xiaolong has made off my Spirit Spring Fish!
The three of them went to the restaurant's reception desk.
Liu Ruyan and Song Qiuya were clearly regulars. The moment Manager Li spotted them from the lobby, he personally hurried over, all smiles.
"Ms. Liu, Manager Song, what brings you both here today?"
But when he learned that there were only three of them and they hadn't made a reservation, Manager Li's smile immediately grew strained.
"I'm terribly sorry, ladies, but we're completely full today. If you look over there..."
He pointed to a designated waiting area a short distance away in the lobby. Three groups of guests were already seated there, clearly waiting for tables.
"If you join the queue now, the wait will be at least an hour."
Liu Ruyan immediately grew irritated.
She was decisive and efficient by nature, and waiting was what she hated most.
She said directly to Manager Li, "How about this? I'll pay extra. Could you work something out and arrange a private room for us?"
Manager Li looked even more uncomfortable.
Ask guests who had already reserved a private room to leave? He didn't dare offend people like that.
He could only refuse tactfully. "Ms. Liu, that... that would go against our rules. Perhaps..."
Just as the conversation reached an awkward impasse, a pleasantly surprised male voice suddenly came from nearby.
"Chen! What brings you here?"
The voice instantly drew the attention of Chen Lin, Song Qiuya, Liu Ruyan, and Manager Li.
Upon seeing the newcomer, Manager Li immediately stepped forward respectfully, lowered his head, and greeted him. "Young master!"
Chen Lin turned around, recognized him, and broke into a grin.
"Tang Xiaolong, you're doing pretty well for yourself! People are lining up just to eat at your restaurant now!"
Before you continue