Evenings, after dinner.
Dong Xuebing held the pair of Lion Head in his hands toadmire it. It was beautiful. He had finally gotten what he wanted and washumming a tune happily. He wiped the pair of Lion Clean and continued to peelthe remaining fruits. There were still over a hundred fruits to be opened.
85th fruit...
102nd fruit...
154th fruit...
It was about 8pm when Dong Xuebing finished. He carried allthe walnut seeds to his living room.
His hands were cramping from the cutting, and he sat therepanting.
These Lion Heads' colors were above average, but not a lotof them were big. There was the only one that's above 46mm, and a lot of themwere average size, around 40 to 41mm. After resting for a while, Dong Xuebingstarted the last step of the process. Pairing up the seeds. The worth of thesewalnuts still depends on identical pairs and the size was not that important.
Dong Xuebing sifted through every seed.
8.10pm: A pair of 38mm Lion Head was matched.
8.15pm: A pair of 40mm Lion Head was matched
8.16pm: A pair of 36.5mm and 36.9mm Lion Head was matched
8.17pm: A pair of 43mm and 43.3mm Lion Head was matched
About an hour later, the pairing and matching process wascompleted. Other than a dozen walnuts with insect bites and blemishes, the restof the walnuts were paired. The best pairs were a pair of 45mm Lion Head and apair of 44mm and 44.5mm. The worst pair was a pair of 35mm and 36mmm.
This was great!
Dong Xuebing knew that these pairs were able to fetch goodprices!
After resting for a few minutes, Dong Xuebing immediatelypacked the pairs of Lion Heads into plastic bags and kept it into his mother'sluggage bag. He did not have enough bags and got to go out to buy some. Afterall the Lion Heads were packed, he dragged the luggage bag downstairs andwalked along the road towards the north. There was a walnut shop near HepingStreet.
Good, the shop was still open.
Dong Xuebing walked into the shop and saw 2 to 3 customers.The store owner was introducing a pair of Lion Head to the customers. From thepackaging, this pair should be at least more than 10 years. It was a rare pair.
The store owner saw Dong Xuebing and asked: "Are you lookingfor walnuts? Are you getting it as a gift or for your own collection? What'sthe size you are looking for?"
Dong Xuebing asked: "Do you accept walnuts? Paired walnuts?
The store owner blinked: "What types?"
"Lion Heads."
"Oh?" The store owner cleared a space on his counter andsaid. "Can I take a look?"
"Of course." Dong Xuebing opened his luggage bag and tookout the best pair of 45 Lion Head. He wants to know how much this store willoffer. If the prices were too low, he would go to another shop. "How much isthis pair worth? It's a 45mm."
The two walnut customers were also looking at that pair."Oh, that's rare."
The store owner took the pair and measured it with a slidecaliper ruler. "It's really 45mm. It's a nice pair." The stall owner looked upand asked. "Young man, how much are you selling?"
Dong Xuebing asked him back: "How much are you offering?"
The store owner scrutinized the pair and replied. "This isalmost a perfect pair. Hmmm... how about 9,000 RMB?"
Dong Xuebing felt this was a reasonable offer. But he didnot agree immediately. He took out another pair of 44mm. "How about this pair?"
"You still have?" The store owner was shocked.
After measuring, the store owner replied: "My highest offerfor this pair is 5,500 RMB."
Dong Xuebing thought for a while and took out a pair of43mm. "What about this?"
"Oh, this size is also above average. Hmmm.... 2,000 RMB."
Dong Xuebing bent over and took out another pair. "Whatabout this pair?"
The store owner was excited. "Hahaha, young man, just takeout everything, and I will evaluate all their value."
"Ok." The store owner and the customers were surprised tosee Dong Xuebing placed a lot of plastic bags on the counters.
The customers were speechless. One of them asked. "Damn,young man. Did you reserve a walnut tree? How come you have so many pairs?"
The other customer said: "Reserving a tree is veryexpensive. It cost a few hundred thousand RMB."
Dong Xuebing smiled. These Lion Head were not bought at LionHead prices. It was bought at Chicken Heart prices.
The store owner starts to evaluate the Lion Heads. "Thispair is 1,000 RMB... Hmmm..... This pair is not perfect despite it being bigger...500 RMB... This pair is smaller, I can only offer 400 RMB at most... This pair iseven smaller... Even if it is perfectly matched, it is not worth much. I willnot take this pair. Why not you ask some other stores if they are willing totake it?"
Dong Xuebing replied. "It's fine even if you offer a lowerprice. I am lazy to look for another shop."
The store owner nodded. "Fine, I will offer 70 RMB for thispair and 100 RMB for that."
After a while, the store owner tabulated the total amount.Other than 7 to 8 pairs which did not fetch good prices, the rest were stillable to fetch high prices. The more expensive pairs were a few thousand, andthe lower pairs were a few hundred. The store owner said. "The total is 69,500RMB. Since you are selling so many pairs, I will round it up to 70,000 RMB. Ifyou still have good pairs of walnuts, remember to come back to me."
70,000 RMB?
70,000 RMB?
70,000 RMB!!!
Dong Xuebing was stunned.
So much?
Why was the total so high?
How come the total is so high?
The store owner looked at Dong Xuebing and asked: "You wantcash or..."
"Cash!" Dong Xuebing replied.
"Ok. Wait for a while." The store owner called his staff. "XiaoZhao take out 70,000 RMB from the safe!"
Dong Xuebing took a deep breath. He knew he was notdreaming. 5 minutes later, he took the 70,000 RMB from the owner and packed itinto his luggage bag. He was still in a daze when he walks back home.
Dong Xuebing had only wanted to look for a pair of 46mm LionHead for Liu Hua. This was so unexpected. With the remaining 30,000 RMB in hisbank, he has 100,000 RMB in total!
How much was 100,000 RMB?!
It was enough for Dong Xuebing to build a house for hismother in her hometown!
Dong Xuebing was one step nearer to his target of 1 millionRMB!