Chapter 224: Chapter 221: 221: Vicious Woman

Where is the center of luxury goods consumption in Huaxia? The capital, only the capital!

Don’t talk about the fashion of Magic City, don’t say the freedom of Sheep City, don’t discuss the wealth of Roc City; when it comes to real consumption power, you still have to look at the capital, because that’s where Huaxia’s power center is.

Liang Haiqing simply couldn’t fathom what had gotten into Feng Jun for him to consider giving up the Beijing market.

He glanced at Sister Hong, asking with suspicion, “He can’t be serious, can he?”

“Boss Feng has always been quite capricious,” Sister Hong said, spreading her hands helplessly, “I hope it’s not true, but he’s decided to go through with it.”

Liang Haiqing turned his head to look at Feng Jun, “Why?”

“No reason,” Feng Jun smiled indifferently, “If some people don’t welcome me in Beijing, then I just won’t go. I’m not in the habit of masochism.”

“You, you…” Liang Haiqing was at a loss for words, “They say you can’t go, and you just listen like that? That’s quite a loss of face, you know?”

“Heh,” Feng Jun laughed nonchalantly, thinking to himself that in the future, you will know, and the one who will regret it definitely won’t be me.

Even Li Yongrui thought his decision a bit too much, “It’s only a few individuals who don’t want you in Beijing. Isn’t it a bit indiscriminate to cut yourself off from the entire Beijing market?”

Luckily, he didn’t say, “Aren’t you taking yourself too seriously?”

“True, it’s only a few individuals who don’t want me in Beijing, but the entire Beijing jewelry industry is using this opportunity to drive down prices,” Feng Jun answered with a smile, “Since everyone feels my goods shouldn’t enter Beijing, why should I be a nuisance?”

Li Yongrui sneered, “Business is business. You have enemies, and they take the opportunity to suppress your prices—that’s only fair, isn’t it?”

“I don’t want them to suppress me, so my goods won’t enter Beijing,” Feng Jun explained with a smile, spreading his hands, “Do I have to let them do so to be correct? I don’t need to demean myself like that, right?”

After he said this, it was hard for anyone else to persuade him otherwise. But no matter what, people had only heard of Beijing rejecting certain goods, not of someone treating Beijing as a place not to do business with.

Strictly speaking, there might have been people who did just that, but … they probably all became a thing of the past.

No one can disregard a summons from the capital, not people, not goods.

That evening, everyone drank until they were completely drunk and then dispersed. Early the next morning, Sister Hong arranged for Feng Jun, Wang Haifeng, and others to go hiking.

Since they were staying in Peach Blossom Valley, they didn’t go far; they went to the back mountain of Moon Mountain, about ten kilometers from Peach Blossom Valley. The mountain wasn’t high, but the forest was thick, and there was a small pond.

Upon reaching the back mountain of Moon Mountain, Feng Jun was surprised to run into someone familiar: Sister Shen, who had driven her Great Wall SUV.

Sister Shen had brought two cars and about seven or eight people; their groups unexpectedly met at the foot of the mountain.

Even more unexpected for Feng Jun was that not only did Zhang Wei know Sister Shen, but Zhang Weihong knew her as well.

The team brought by Sister Shen was a group of outdoor enthusiasts, all around forty years of age but nimble and seasoned in their movements, clearly regulars in outdoor activities.

Although both parties knew each other, they were still separate teams. After exchanging greetings, they went their separate ways.

Zhang Wei was rather curious and, on the way up the mountain, asked Sister Hong how she knew Sister Shen.

Sister Hong shared that the woman was also a pitiable character. Her husband was addicted to drugs and would beat and curse her. After their divorce, he continued to trouble her relentlessly until she had no choice but to set him up and take back a large sum of money.

Unknown to her husband that it was a trap, he took the money and ran, intending to support his addiction through drug dealing. However, she anticipated his move perfectly, reported him for drug trafficking, and in the end, he was put away.

As a result, she didn’t trust men at all and had no intention of remarrying. Her private life might be rather chaotic, but she usually settled problems with money.

Even Feng Jun couldn’t help but be astounded upon hearing about this woman’s deeds—she was indeed ruthless.

He had no sympathy for the addict; in truth, in the lives of ordinary people, if there is an addict in the vicinity, it affects everyone else’s life, and most of the time, they can only passively deal with it.

There’s no helping it—once someone is hooked on drugs, they’ll do anything for their fix. Normal people are powerless against them—shouting or hitting doesn’t work, and you can’t just kill someone.

For Sister Shen to actively save herself and send her own husband to prison was quite remarkable.

They were discussing Sister Shen, and at Sister Shen’s side, they were also talking about Sister Hong.

Sister Shen’s outdoor sports club was somewhat famous in the circle, and they had similar friends in various big cities. They were not professional hikers but people who hiked for fun.

Today, as she came to Moon Mountain, she brought two friends from the capital. These two were in Zhengyang for business and took the opportunity to hike the mountain during their rest time.

Unfortunately, among these two people, one of them was involved in the jewelry business.

He mainly dealt with gold, a commodity that hovered in the grey area between legality and illegality. The gold market in the capital was enormous, and not all sources of gold were ones that could be openly displayed in the sunlight; naturally, there were those who would coordinate things from the shadows.

This person had been dealing with gold for a long time, and he had a stable source of supply on Zhengyang’s side, so the risk wasn’t very high.

He had heard about the new jade in Zhengyang. Although he also worked in the jewelry business, dealing in jade would be crossing into another field, in which he did not have an advantage.

So, even though he knew of Sister Hong’s reputation, he had never taken the initiative to contact her. After all, the management of gold and jade business was not entirely the same, and he lacked the confidence to compete with a bunch of veterans in the jade business.

However, that didn’t prevent him from seeing potential in this business, especially since just yesterday, when he was handling goods, he heard that Sister Hong was planning to scale back her operations, the next step being to refuse to sell jade to people from the capital.

Indeed, news in this industry was that fast. The night before, Feng Jun had let slip the news, and by the next day, many people were aware of it.

To someone who dealt with gold, the idea of refusing to supply the capital seemed somewhat absurd, but not excessively unreasonable. Unlike Sister Hong, this person had always been fighting in the jewelry circles of the capital.

He knew that not supplying to the capital wasn’t as rare as one might think. Many gold sellers could offload their inventory locally. If that were the case, why entangle themselves with the capital? After all, many of these gold suppliers had sources that couldn’t bear scrutiny.

Simply put, this person felt that the jade business was viable and now that he knew that the partnership with the capital was coming to an end, he believed it was even more viable. Unfortunately, he saw no way to get his foot in the door, as weaving a network of relations on short notice seemed too late.

Who would have thought that a casual hike to relax could lead to an encounter with the legendary Sister Hong? It was truly a pleasant surprise.

Sister Shen was hearing about this matter for the first time and was extremely surprised, “I thought you only dealt with gold. I had no idea you were involved with jade as well. From what you’re saying, is the jade business profitable?”

“Not just profitable, extremely so,” the man lamented emphatically, “Think about it. If they stop supplying jade to the capital, doesn’t that mean we’ll have exclusive rights to the capital’s business?”

Sister Shen felt her heart race at the thought. Right now, she was almost desperate to make money, but she still hadn’t lost her sense of proportion, “If they say they are not going to sell to the capital and we do, wouldn’t that be disrespectful to them?”

“Who can really circumvent the capital?” the man scoffed, “We don’t have to say we’re selling to the capital. But if someone buys it and then decides to sell it to the capital, we can’t monitor that, can we?”

Sister Shen was clearly swayed, yet she still held firm, “Let me look into it some more. To be honest, I’m aware of the jade business and was even interested in getting involved at first. But later, I realized it’s not something just anyone can handle.”

“No need to get involved, it’s too risky,” the man nodded in agreement with her, “But since you have those kinds of connections, if the two of us open a jade specialty store, making money would be easy, as long as Sister Hong agrees.”

“If she agrees, that would be for the best,” Sister Shen looked towards the other group not far away and said thoughtfully, “But it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t… I can also approach Boss Feng, who is the real owner of the jade mine.”

“You know Feng Jun?” the man asked with a mix of surprise and joy, “His word carries even more weight than Sister Hong’s.”

“Isn’t that the case?” Sister Shen gestured toward someone in the distance with her chin, speaking languidly, “That guy over there with his hands in his pockets, smoking a cigarette… I approached him directly for the mine back then.”

“Sister Shen, you are incredible,” the man gave a thumbs-up in admiration, “Really, sis, you’re too fierce!”

He took another careful look at Feng Jun, shaking his head slightly, “It’s hard to believe, such a handsome young man, and yet he’s got control over such a big jade mine… Does he seem easy to talk to?”

“He’s easy to talk to?” Sister Shen gave him a look of mixed laughter and tears, shaking her head, “I thought the same at first. I’m very fortunate that he didn’t take issue with me… That guy definitely has blood on his hands.”

“That’s not surprising,” the gold buyer expressed nonchalantly, as his line of work had exposed him to plenty of grisly stories, “Since you know him, why not discuss a partnership? Whoever they sell their jade to doesn’t matter, does it?”

Sister Shen glanced at him meaningfully, “It seems you want to get involved too?”

“I could stay out of it,” he replied with a smile, spreading his hands, “You just need to treat me to a meal. But do you know how to run a jade business? And where do you plan to sell it? Surely not in Zhengyang itself, right?”

“Of course, I know that,” Sister Shen nodded, “Such a good source of merchandise would be wasted if sold locally. And besides… I wouldn’t possibly be able to outsell Li Dafu and the others.”

Put simply, she acknowledged the mutually beneficial advantages of collaborating with someone from the capital. It was a good choice, but she still felt a bit daunted about dealing with Feng Jun, “Let me go and greet Zhang Weihong first.”

(Updated to, calling for monthly tickets.)