Chapter 173: Chapter 170: 170 Who Doesn't Recognize You (Third Update, Requesting Monthly Passes)

It wasn’t just anyone who arrived, it was Li Yongrui, the President of Li Dafu. Hearing that Feng Jun was here today, he came over to see what this guy was planning to do.

After learning about Feng Jun’s purpose, President Li was quite bemused, “What are you playing at? How could the mighty Li Dafu ever carve such a mess for you?”

“How is this a mess?” Feng Jun retorted loudly.

“Totem poles are what primitives play with,” Li Yongrui countered bluntly, “have you devolved or something?”

“Who says they’re only for primitives?” Feng Jun argued with reason, “As far as I know, Ni Hong still has such temples. Besides, Rodin, the sculpture of thinkers, you wouldn’t call him ancient, would you?”

“You’re comparing yourself to Rodin?” Li Yongrui shook his head in disbelief, “The man is a well-known foreign artist. If you were Rodin, I’d dare to carve for you… That’s what real art is.”

“Just worship everything foreign, why don’t you,” Feng Jun said with a hint of sarcasm, pointing at him, “foreign stuff is art, while Chinese stuff is just sex?”

Li Yongrui was at a loss for words, “Boss Feng, please get your facts straight, Li Dafu is a state-owned enterprise!”

His relationship with Feng Jun wouldn’t be affected by this kind of verbal skirmish, but as someone who had been a leading figure in the industry for many years, being criticized by a youngster was indeed a blow to his pride, “Even if I was crazy enough to indulge you, the leaders above certainly wouldn’t join in my madness!”

He paused before offering a suggestion, “Go to Henglong, Liang Haiqing’s cousin; his jade sculpting is impressive.”

Why would Feng Jun seek out Henglong? He was still holding a grudge over Ye Shao’s incident from last time.

However, he wouldn’t admit the real reason since Li Dafu and Henglong were competitors. If they knew he had a tense relationship with Henglong, who knows what kind of undesired thoughts might arise—actually, maintaining a bit of competitive pressure was always not a bad thing.

So, glancing at Ye Qingyi, he smiled and said, “Xiao Yezi, do you have any other acquaintances?”

Ye Qingyi might look frail, but she was surprisingly indifferent to pressure. She actually nodded, “Then wait for me to get off work.”

Even Li Yongrui couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that. Girl, are you really okay with talking like this in front of me, the President?

But the next moment, he realized something and said with a smile, “So little Ye is quite close to President Feng. In that case, help me keep an eye out for more jade material on his side in the future.”

Feng Jun was surprised to hear this, “You thought there was no shortage of jade material, didn’t you? Why are you running short now?”

“You have the nerve to ask me!” Li Yongrui gave him a deadpan look, “Your jade, it’s all managed by Zhang Weihong now, isn’t it?”

Zhengyang City has a population of more than nine million, and with the floating population, it certainly exceeds ten million. The city is not small by any means, but the jade industry’s circle is just that big, and there are only so many key players.

Especially important is the fact that as insiders, to maintain the exorbitant profits of the jade industry, one must actively share information with each other.

For example, Jubaozhai and Henglong may fight tooth and nail, but that’s in the arena of resource competition. If anyone dares disrupt market prices, all businesses within the industry will unmercifully join forces to suppress them.

The fact that Li Yongrui knew Zhang Weihong was managing Feng Jun’s jade wasn’t a surprise at all. In front of an industry titan like him, nothing is a secret. Who doesn’t know that Zhang Weihong has sold more than seventy million worth of goods?

But Feng Jun was somewhat taken aback, “She’s already expanding into markets outside the province?”

Li Yongrui snorted, “Even my peers from other provinces have asked me whether Zhengyang has opened up a new jade channel or not!”

In the vast expanse of Huaxia, things can seem enormous and yet so small at the same time.

Upon hearing this, Feng Jun couldn’t help but smile slightly, “I didn’t expect it, but her execution is quite good, isn’t it.”

Li Yongrui didn’t want to see him look so pleased, so he turned and left, “In any case, you have to ensure supply for my goods… Xiao Ye, keep an eye on that for me.”

With President Li’s words, Ye Qingyi certainly didn’t have to wait until after work to leave. The store manager directly told her, “Xiao Ye, go and help President Feng with this task, and make sure everything is arranged properly.”

The store’s staff all knew what kind of help she was providing, and their expressions inevitably became a bit strange.

But Ye Qingyi was really quite bold, paying no mind to those looks, she led Feng Jun to the jade store next door.

The tall, slender man was still watching the store. He greeted Ye Qingyi with a grin, seeming very familiar, “Xiao Ye is here to hunt for bargains again?”

“Nope, Uncle Chen,” Ye Qingyi replied with a smile, “I’m here to introduce a business deal to you today.”

“A business deal you’re introducing? Uncle Chen is a bit nervous,” the tall man glanced at Feng Jun and said with a half-smile, “Seems like I’ve seen this guy before… Hmm… the one who bought the Jade Gourd?”

Feng Jun couldn’t help but praise inwardly: My goodness, with that memory of yours, doing this kind of business… It’s like casting pearls before swine.

“Today’s business is serious,” Ye Qingyi stated earnestly, then gestured towards Feng Jun, “Allow me to introduce him, this is President Feng Jun himself!”

“President Feng Jun?” The tall man was taken aback at the mention, “The one who holds the auctions?”

With his resources, he wasn’t qualified to attend the jade auction, but that auction… it was really too famous after all, being touted as Zhengyang’s biggest fine jade material auction since the new millennium.

Feng Jun listened and couldn’t help feeling a bit proud. What was that saying again? Even if the hero disappears from the underworld, his legend remains? That was exactly it!

He feigned modesty and smiled, “Just some small fuss, the reason I came today is to ask for a favor from Manager Chen…”

The tall and thin man listened to his request, and didn’t show any sign of reluctance—private businesses didn’t have the problems that large state-owned enterprises did.

He examined the piece of jade carefully and then asked, “What do you plan to use it for?”

Feng Jun stroked his chin, “Sort of… um, as a gift for a friend.”

A gift for a friend? The tall and thin man looked at him with surprise, tempted to ask if this friend was male or female, but feeling it wasn’t quite appropriate.

So he asked, “Do you want me to carve something at will, or should we look for a template?”

Er… Template? When Feng Jun heard this, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. Though he could bluster something about “fertility worship” with ease, when it came to discussing the details, he found himself at a loss for words.

However, this Chen, the jade carver, didn’t seem to mind at all, truly adopting an artist’s approach, “If you have a template, I can carve every vein to look lifelike.”

Feng Jun couldn’t take it anymore and pulled out his mobile phone, “Wait a minute. Let me ask my friend to see if he’s willing to be the template himself.”

When Ye Qingyi heard this, she couldn’t help but speak up, “So the gift you’re planning… is for your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend? The way you talk… it’s as if my sexual orientation is abnormal,” Feng Jun glared at her with annoyance and started dialing the number, “He’s not a boyfriend. He’s a harmful friend, you know?”

Regrettably, Wang Haifeng was playing hide-and-seek again. His mobile with quadruple sixes was not answering, the one with triple sixes went straight to voicemail.

Feng Jun had stumbled upon such a fun event and was not willing to let go. He scrolled through his contact list, intending to call Sister Hong’s mobile to ask where the guy was hiding.

But after glancing at Ye Qingyi standing nearby, he felt it might be better to contact Zhang Wei instead.

Zhang Wei was eager to answer the call. As soon as the connection was made, he began chattering away, “Old Feng, the stock market is soaring right now. Have you jumped in?”

“The stock market… soon,” Feng hesitated before answering, “By the way, what’s Hai Feng up to?”

Zhang Wei indicated that he hadn’t been in touch with Wang Haifeng for several days either and was quite accustomed to Wang Haifeng not answering his phone, “Ever since he got married, he’s like a changed man. What do you need him for?”

When Zhang Wei heard that Feng Jun was planning to give Wang Haifeng a jade carving, he immediately showed great interest, “You’re by Li Dafu’s? Alright, I got it. I’m not far, wait for me.”

About ten minutes later, a Great Wall SUV stopped in front of the jade shop. Zhang Wei got out of the car, but to everyone’s surprise, the driver turned out to be a woman in her thirties.

Zhang Wei entered the jade shop and burst into laughter upon seeing the jade, “Old Feng, your idea is wickedly good. Nicely done…”

After that, he introduced the woman beside him, who had a surname Shen and owned an outdoor sports goods store, “Sister Shen is also a client of mine and a big fan of mountain climbing.”

Sister Shen was of medium height, around 5’4″, with the fullness of a middle-aged woman, but definitely not overweight. Her skin was slightly tan with thick eyebrows and big eyes, hardly wearing any makeup. If she had been seven or eight years younger, she would have certainly been a beauty.

In fact, even now, she still had an air of “charming maturity” about her.

She walked up, shook hands with Feng Jun, and spoke with genuine enthusiasm, “Nice to meet you, Director Zhang has told me a lot about you. You really are young and handsome, dignified and impressive.”

“You flatter me, Sister Shen,” Feng Jun chuckled awkwardly, then shot Zhang Wei a questioning look: Who is this?

Zhang Wei returned a meaningful glance.

That meaning was not just profound; Feng Jun couldn’t understand it at all, but he did figure out one thing—Zhang Wei’s expression was a bit serious.

Before he had time to think it through, his phone rang, and the caller was Wang Haifeng.

The moment he opened his mouth, there was a torrent of complaints, “Damn, not even a moment of peace when taking a shower. Boss Feng, what are your orders?”

“Yo, upset, are we? Then forget it,” Feng Jun joked, “I was saying I’d give you a jade carving.”

Zhang Wei joined in the teasing, “Can’t make it, right? Old Feng, just give the carving to me instead.”

Wang Haifeng panicked at that, “Damn it, Xiao Wei, back off… hang on, I’ll put on some clothes and be right over. Where are you?”

(Another late-night update, just three hours left until February. As customary in the early hours, there’s an extra update. Booked the minimum monthly votes for the next month.)