Chapter 117: Yes, I’m Targeting You

Chapter 117: Chapter 117: Yes, I’m Targeting You

Zhang Yun held the Divine Master Card and said slowly, "There are indeed no words left on this, and they weren’t recently scraped off either. It’s an old item, but I doubt anyone would buy this..."

The young man cried out in disappointment, "Whether you can sell it or not is your problem! You said you were buying Ancient Artifacts, which is why I brought it here. You can’t let me make a wasted trip!"

Zhang Youcai said sternly, "Young man! You can’t put it like that. We’re collecting these for business, not for our own amusement. If someone was buying flowers and you brought a pile of cotton, would they still have to accept it?"

"You guys didn’t make it clear! Your standards are vague to begin with. Is it my fault if you can’t sell it?" the young man retorted defensively.

Zhang Yun tapped the table. "I set the rules. Since we’re all folks from the same and neighboring villages, things weren’t detailed too strictly, and everything is up for discussion. You’re right. If this item wasn’t old enough and didn’t meet my requirements, I would absolutely refuse it. But since it meets my standards, it’s my problem if I can’t sell it. So... I’ll take it!"

"Listen to that! Now that’s what I call taking responsibility!" The young man curled his lip at Zhang Youcai before quickly asking, "Let’s get one thing clear! This is indeed an antique that’s many decades, maybe even a century old. Don’t think you can brush me off with just a few hundred bucks!"

"Five thousand." Zhang Yun held up his hand.

"Zhang Yun!" Zhang Youcai hastily called out. This wasn’t some famous figure’s Ancestral Tablet; what collector would ever buy this? This was destined to be a loss!

"Five thousand is too little. I want ten thousand!" the young man shouted.

Zhang Youcai was so angry he laughed. "Five thousand is too little? Fine! Take it back and enshrine it yourself!"

The surrounding crowd also broke into a flurry of discussion.

"It’s a Divine Master Card. Who on earth would buy someone else’s?"

"He thinks five thousand is too little? He should be glad he can sell it at all."

Ouyang Mingruo watched the scene unfold with curiosity. Even though she wasn’t a professional, her eye for such things far surpassed that of the villagers. She could tell that Zhang Yun didn’t actually know how to appraise anything, but she couldn’t figure out what his standard for pricing was either.

Zhang Yun shook his head. "I can only keep this for myself. It’s not that I can’t afford to give you ten thousand, but I’ll only do it if you can find another one exactly like it! Otherwise, just take the five thousand."

"You said it!" The young man seemed to have been waiting for exactly this sentence. Reaching into the black plastic bag he was carrying, he pulled out an identical Divine Master Card and tossed it in front of Zhang Yun. "Two of them for ten thousand bucks! We have a deal now, right?"

Zhang Yun didn’t care about spending an extra five thousand, but he couldn’t let everyone suspect he had an ulterior motive. He had merely tried to bargain, never expecting the other party to actually have another one!

"You... These were originally a pair, weren’t they? You intentionally held one back?" Zhang Yun reached out and took it.

Just as he thought! This other Divine Master Card was also filled with Spiritual Energy. Afraid that his body might react abnormally, he let go of one.

"Ten thousand for the two, deal?" The young man held out his hand.

"Here. Don’t tally these two up; I’m keeping them. I’ll transfer the money to you later," Zhang Yun instructed Zhang Youcai to pay up.

"Here!" Since Zhang Yun had spoken, Zhang Youcai had to pay up even if he was reluctant. "We’ll settle our accounts later."

Zhang Youcai could also see through the crowd’s mentality. He announced loudly, "You all saw it! Even if it can’t be sold, as long as the item meets the standards, Zhang Yun will pay out of his own pocket to buy it! Stop handing things over half at a time. Are you still trying to test the waters to hike up the price? We are very fair, alright?"

Aside from the old farmer and the young man, there had been others who did this earlier, and there might have been more later. But after seeing this scene, no one held back anymore. Everyone unanimously praised Zhang Yun for his fairness.

However, nothing of that Level appeared afterward. Yesterday’s total was only a hundred thousand, but today’s quality was much higher; including that forty-thousand transaction, the total reached nearly two hundred thousand.

"We need to process and sell these off, so we’ll temporarily stop collecting for now. At the earliest, we’ll resume in... about a week! For those whose friends and family have items, you can start getting them ready in the meantime!"

When Zhang Yun announced this, everyone became very excited. A single day wasn’t enough time to find much, but a week was entirely different. If they had relatives in other counties, for example, they would have plenty of time.

Zhang Yun left Zhang Youcai to handle the others asking about details. Carrying the two Divine Master Cards, he headed home with Ouyang Mingruo first.

"Are you doing this to help everyone out? What do they call that—throwing your money around?" Ouyang Mingruo was very curious about Zhang Yun’s intentions. "But that doesn’t make sense either. You should only be doing that for your own village, yet there are many people here you don’t even know."

"It’s just a hobby." Zhang Yun beamed. "Take this, for example. I’m quite interested in researching it."

Ouyang Mingruo curled her lip. "Keep it, then! I dare you to sleep with it in your arms."

Zhang Yun lowered his voice. "Then would you still dare to sleep in my arms in the future?"

"..."

As the two of them walked and chatted, Zhang Ronghui hurried over.

"Zhang Yun! Your girlfriend is so beautiful. Hello."

"This is Uncle Hui, our village chief," Zhang Yun explained casually, without offering any more information about Ouyang Mingruo. "Do you need me for something?"

Zhang Ronghui had wanted to cozy up to Ouyang Mingruo. After all, she had driven over in a Maybach; she was a contact worth making. However, at Zhang Yun’s words, he quickly got down to business.

"Well... didn’t I sell half of my Ancient Artifacts to you last time? Seeing as you’re doing such big business, I’ve decided to sell the other half to you as well. It doesn’t matter whether I keep them as mementos or not. The previous price will do just fine."

Last time, Zhang Ronghui felt that Zhang Yun was going to make a massive profit. But after watching for the past two days, he realized that many items only fetched five hundred or a thousand bucks. Based on the way Zhang Yun had appraised things that day, it was highly likely that he wouldn’t even pay five hundred for the majority of the items in his house.

Zhang Yun chuckled. Last time, he had been trying to compensate for an inkstone and a worn-out book. In the end, Zhang Ronghui had held onto those and made up the numbers with other worthless items. And now, he wanted to lure him into buying them as a bundle!

Seeing him laugh, Zhang Ronghui also smiled. "Then it’s settled. No need for you to trouble yourself; I’ll have Youcai arrange for someone to come to my place and haul them away..."

Zhang Yun stopped him immediately. "No thanks. We’ve run out of budget, so we aren’t buying anymore."

Zhang Ronghui was stunned. "How can you be out of budget? Aren’t you still buying next week? You’ve already spent a million, and Youcai has deep pockets too. Surely you aren’t short of my twenty thousand, haha. Let’s just leave it at that..."

Zhang Yun smiled faintly. "Uncle Hui, I found an excuse to reject you. Couldn’t you just take the out and step down gracefully? Must you force me to say that I just don’t want to buy your stuff?"

"..." Zhang Ronghui’s face instantly dropped.

They hadn’t walked far, and many people were still nearby. Seeing them standing there talking, several folks had wandered over to listen. Now, this was tantamount to saying it in public!

"Are you serious? You buy items from other villages and groups, even paying massive prices of ten thousand. But you won’t take my ten or twenty items for twenty thousand? Are you looking down on my things, or are you just targeting me?"

Zhang Ronghui’s dark expression and his words instantly drew a crowd of onlookers. Zhang Youcai also squeezed his way through and hurriedly shot a look at Zhang Yun.

Amiability breeds wealth! An average price of a thousand per item wasn’t considered expensive. If Zhang Yun still refused to buy them after things had reached this point, he would undoubtedly be offending someone.

Zhang Yun burst into laughter. "Since you insist on asking... Yes, I’m looking down on those old items of yours, and I am specifically targeting you by not buying them!"

The surroundings instantly became An Jing!