A Crappy General Store (3)

"Uncle, wait." Zhang Qin Feng stopped his uncle from keep taking as he has a question in mind.

"What you wanna ask, brat?" Zhang Hao Ming grabbed his nephew's portion of Soy Milk for another mouthful.

"Gold? Don't bullsh*t me."

"You'll be filthy rich if that's true. How can you still drive a lousy, broken van along with that... Outdated smartphone?" Zhang Qin Feng brought up the fact from what he saw against his uncle.

"Well..." Zhang Hao Ming stuttered when it comes to where his money gone.

"S... Selling Gold bars or nuggets without the manufacturer's Serial Number is illegal in our country! It took me a great effort to manage to sell them secretly, and the prices they offer is somewhat low due to transaction in the black market."

"Follow me, I'll show you how to use the Machinery inside the workshop and process the core into valuable Gold." Zhang Hao Ming led the nephew into the workshop upstairs and placed a Red Meteorite Core on the wall's extended tip upon entrance.

"Dururu..." a mechanical tone indicates the activation of this room.

Inside here is a weird workbench with multiple mechanical arms, each comes with its own functionality and purposes. As for the side across the workbench is a fictional printer-like machine. It is divided into Material Station, Controlling Console, and printing zone.

By placing the Red Material Core inside the Material Station, the next procedure can be decided through the Controlling Console. Of course, there's only two option available to choose as the first-stage preparation.

== == == == ==

[1] Separating the mutated Element available within Sample 1

[2] Producing Viral Culture from Sample 1 for Medical Application

== == == == ==

After tapping on the first option, the choices for second-stage preparation pops up.

== == == == ==

[A.1] Separation: Tellurium Dioxide

[A.2] Separation: Silver Doré Bar

[A.3] Separation: Gold Doré Bar

== == == == ==

And since the choice for this option had arrows pointed at all three, tapping on any of them would bring the same results. In the five minutes gap, the printer machine moves and started to "Draw" using the material processed from using the Red Meteorite Cores.

"Toot... Toot toot..."

The results finally out after waiting for over seven to eight minutes.

"Boy, how much you earn from that one day work?" Zhang Hao Ming shows a puzzled expression.

"100 Red Meteorite Cores. What's the problem?" Zhang Qin Feng stares at his uncle as he answered. As for his uncle, the middle-aged man's expression became pitiful.

"My best day is only sixty-five cores... Is this what they call a beginner's luck or face problem?" Zhang Hao Ming slapped his face left-right as he laments.

"Alright! Let's get back to the important stuff."

"For every 11 Red Meteorite Cores, you'll receive a 10kg Gold Doré Bar and a 1kg Silver Doré Bar. As for the Tellurium Dioxide, you'll receive a piece of 200gm bar that can be without putting much effort."

"Of course, the Doré Bar is impure. We'll have to bring them over to the Tinkerer's Workbench to processed further. Since I have no contacts to sell the gold bar, hence I made them into 100gm to make it easier to be sold in the black market."

"Any questions?" Zhang Hao Ming explained the difficulties that might happen in between. Although the reward of earning a few pieces of gold plate per day exceeds any expected salary, there are still difficulties in between due to the regulation made by the country.

"Continue..." Zhang Qin Feng tone down his voice and signals his uncle to continue with what he's doing.

While at the same time, his mind went over to calculate the profit he could get from this through the People's Nation Dollar currency.

With the market price of 360 dollars for every 1gm legally, being priced at only 300 dollars in the black market still could fetch him 30 thousand dollars for each 100gm Gold Plate.

"I know what you're thinking. But don't get your hope too high due to the sensitivity issue about gold trade. We can laugh loudly if the black market ready to offer 25 thousand dollars for each 100gm Gold Plate." Zhang Hao Ming poured a bucket of cold water on his nephew using words.

"What???"

The youngster screamed at his uncle, but it was useless. No scream nor bargaining for better offer works when it comes to doing business with the black market.

...

Zhang Hao Ming then shows his nephew on how to use the Thinkerer's Workbench. From placing the materials in, controlling the process, and creating the desired product.

A piece of Doré Bar usually holds a little over 10% of the precious metal inside. Based on the weight, a 10kg Doré Bar could yield him 1kg of precious Gold. As for the remaining element component, they include 10% of Zinc, Lead, and 70% copper.

1kg of precious Gold, which means after conversion, it would be between 250-300 thousand dollars. And from that 12 hours of work, 99 Red Meteorite Cores is enough to be converted into 9 Gold Doré Bars. So that's a total of 9kg precious Gold earned!

If he managed to sell them all, that would fetch him a whopping 2.25 million to 2.7 million dollars! That's 225 thousand dollars for each hour he worked!

By doing this, it is easier than printing money!

Even printing money needs to go through a few procedures before they can be printed and circulated!

As for this?

Pour, tap, print, process, and that's a kilogram worth of Precious Gold!

...

...

...

After the lesson from his uncle, Zhang Qin Feng took a long nap until the next morning.

Time passed quickly, it was already his second morning, his third day coming here to "check" his uncle's shop.

As any business cannot start without cash, the uncle brought this nephew to the nearest black market.

Located in the outskirt of Changzhou, the black market covers the entire Fenglu Street from one end to another. Although the entrance to Fenglu Street seems lightly guarded, each one of their guards is an excellent Martial Artist or soldier.

The uncle-nephew duo entered the street and went inside a store named Tianjin Antiques.

Inside, over dozens of treasured vase, jade pillows, and Opium pipe is sold as a collector's item. But only the insiders know that Tianjin Antique mainly trades with precious elements and not antiques!

"Big brother Yue Qiang, how are you today?" Zhang Hao Ming quickly went over to the manager of this Tianjin Antique.

"Sneaky Ming? What kind of wind blows you to my broken antique shop?" manager Yue Qiang fooled along with Zhang Hao Ming, where the two seem like good friends that known each other for long.

But who can have guessed that to rope Yue Qiang to his side, Zhang Hao Ming purposely gave two pieces of the Precious Gold Plate as a friendship token to Yue Qiang and his wife?

Money is indeed mighty.

Friendship, loyalty, brotherhood, and even significant others can all be persuaded by money.

"Brought my young nephew over to know some significant people like you." Zhang Hao Ming praised Yue Qiang again as he speaks.

"Let me introduce. This is Xiao Feng, 20, the only child of my elder brother. As I'll need to go overseas again soon, he will help handle my business, so please take care of him." Zhang Hao Ming patted his nephew and had him gave Yue Qiang a light bow.

"Uncle Qiang," Zhang Qin Feng addressed Yue Qiang as he did to his own uncle.

"If Xiao Feng has anything you need, come find your uncle. In this Fenglu Street, except the big boss of the street, everyone needs to give me at least a third of respect given to him. Tell me if people are bullying you!" Yue Qiang speaks confidently.

"Thank you, uncle Qiang."

"So, what else brings you here?" Yue Qiang smiled and gave Zhang Hao Ming a wink.

"Big brother Yue Qiang, I brought 50 pieces of Precious Gold Plate with me today, do you think you're interested with it?" Zhang Hao Ming whispered softly.

"Hahaha! For business, of course, we're interested! Ling-Ling, go and get my iPad and a pot of Longjing Tea into the private room!"