Chapter 76: The Village Chief’s Purpose

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: The Village Chief’s Purpose

"Uncle Hui," Zhang Yun immediately greeted with a smile.

"Ronghui is here. Stop cleaning up and go brew some tea inside!" Zhang Fu quickly instructed Zhang Yun. Having just witnessed his son’s ability to deal with people, he felt completely at ease.

"Are you cooking, Brother Fu? Don’t worry about me. I just need to talk to Zhang Yun about something."

A pile of teacups sat on the table in the living room, left behind by the relatives who had just departed before anyone had time to tidy them up.

Zhang Ronghui smiled and said, "There’s no need to brew tea. Let’s just have a brief chat and get straight to business."

"Have a seat, Uncle Hui." Zhang Yun pulled out a chair for him and poured a cup of the leftover tea from earlier.

Zhang Ronghui gestured for Zhang Yun to sit down as well. "Are you thinking about how to turn me down?"

"What? Turn you down for what?" Zhang Yun put on a look of pure innocence.

"Haha, you brat!" Zhang Ronghui pointed at him. "I can tell you’re a smart guy! Those distant relatives had been loitering in your house for half the day, yet you managed to send them packing shortly after you got back. By the looks of it, not a single one of them managed to get any money out of you."

Zhang Yun immediately played along and offered an excuse. "Cough! Well, didn’t I just put the money..."

Zhang Ronghui interrupted him. "See! You were getting ready to reject me, weren’t you? But you’ve misunderstood my intentions for coming here."

Zhang Yun smiled in silence. He thought, "A misunderstanding? The follow-up lines could be like this:

"You misunderstood me! I’m not here to borrow money; I’m here to ask you to contribute to your hometown!

"You misunderstood me! I’m here to bring you the honor roll, and you have a chance to get on it!"

Being a grassroots village cadre wasn’t exactly hard, but it wasn’t easy either. Generally, it required the person’s family to have some influence. In rural areas, this influence didn’t need to be overwhelmingly powerful; having produced previous cadres, business bosses, or simply having a large number of male family members was usually enough to keep things under control.

However, rural life was full of trivial matters. A cadre had to coordinate well with clansmen and neighbors within the village group, and handle various affairs smoothly at both the village level and the township level. Even distributing somewhat deceptive promotional discount coupons meant for rural residents could cause conflicts depending on who received them and who didn’t.

Zhang Ronghui had been the director of the village group for a long time, so he was naturally well-versed in the ways of the world. How could Zhang Yun’s superficial Kung Fu possibly deceive him?

He didn’t hesitate any longer and got straight to the point. "It has to do with you striking it rich, but I’m not here to ask for money under any pretext. I’m here to ask about your purchase of Ancient Artifacts!"

Zhang Yun was surprised. After posting the advertisement and on his Friends Circle at the wooden cabin, he hadn’t paid any more attention to the matter. To think Zhang Ronghui had actually come for this?

"If you had posted this yesterday, I would have thought you were trying to pull a fast one to scam the villagers, and I would have had to teach you a lesson. But since you struck it rich today... don’t call your uncle snobbish, but this business really does require capital to pull off."

Zhang Ronghui was being very explicit: was he trying to get something for nothing, or was he truly willing to spend money to collect old items?

Since he really wasn’t here to ask for money and was actually here to talk business, Zhang Yun immediately grew excited. "I can’t just sit idle and eat through my fortune. Things like stocks are too risky, which is why I thought of this direction. Of course I will be paying real money!"

Zhang Ronghui shook his head. "Although I’m not an expert, from what I’ve heard, the waters in the antique industry are very deep—the risks are even greater than stocks! My advice is that you can try investing a hundred or two hundred thousand just to test things out, but don’t aim for too large of a scale."

"You’re right, that’s exactly what I was thinking." Zhang Yun knew his own limits. Not wanting to dwell on the topic, he quickly shifted the conversation back to business. "Uncle Hui, are you here to give me some pointers, or do you have Ancient Artifacts at home?"

"When we were rebuilding the ancestral house a few days ago, we found some old items," Zhang Ronghui said. "We can’t say for sure if they’re worth anything. There aren’t many of them, and we never thought about taking them to the city. You can take a look if you’re interested. Regardless, our own family won’t cheat our own family."

Zhang Yun nodded. "Exactly. From what I understand, the waters are very deep for both the buyers and the sellers. I heard about a boss who went to buy murals. He personally went to the basement and watched them get peeled off the wall, only to find out later that they had been plastered on just last month..."

"The stuff in our house is definitely old," Zhang Ronghui emphasized. "Our ancestors around here weren’t historical figures, so if we’re talking about cultural relic value, there definitely isn’t any. They are just old items."

"Understood! Shall we go right now?" Zhang Yun stood straight up.

"R... right now?" Zhang Ronghui had only come to test the waters. He hadn’t expected Zhang Yun to be so proactive, which actually made him hesitate.

"How about you bring them here Ming Tian? The ancestral hall works too. I can take a look at all the old items together, which will appear fair, just, and open." Zhang Yun didn’t mind waiting one night.

Zhang Ronghui hesitated for a moment. "Let’s just go now. I’d rather not be that high-profile."

"Understood!"

If they were only worth a few hundred bucks, Zhang Ronghui would definitely just keep them instead of selling. But if they happened to be worth eighty or a hundred thousand, his uncles and cousins might come out to fight over them. The ownership of things from an ancestral house was always hard to clearly debate.

They let Zhang Fu know before heading out. Zhang Ronghui’s home was right in the middle of the village. It was built large and grand, not even inferior to Zhang Youcai’s house.

Of course, this didn’t mean Zhang Ronghui was embezzling money. A village official in this small place couldn’t compare to those in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Over there, villagers could jointly build residential complexes at a very low cost. By pooling loans and funds, they could construct a few buildings, and once they were built and sold—even as limited property rights houses—it wouldn’t be surprising for them to have a net worth of over a hundred million.

Zhang Ronghui had also done business in the city when he was younger. He handed it over to his son to manage a few years ago and only returned to become the director then. His family was very welcoming of Zhang Yun’s arrival, but they weren’t exactly at the point of being envious or jealous.

"They were moved here earlier. Just take a quick look first and see if anything catches your eye. If you have an expert, you can find another time to come over."

Zhang Ronghui led Zhang Yun to a storage room. Inside, cabinets were lined up, displaying some old items that had all been cleaned up. They looked much more presentable than things that had just been dug out of the earth.

Zhang Ronghui still understood a bit. Even though he wasn’t a professional, the room didn’t have any open windows and was kept relatively dry. The bright lighting helped set off all these old items beautifully.

"Then I’ll take a look first." Zhang Yun could tell that Zhang Ronghui’s decision not to introduce the items was actually meant as a test.

Since Zhang Yun couldn’t speak of the technicalities anyway, he naturally didn’t run his mouth. He simply reached out and picked them up. He looked like he was appraising them, but in reality, he was making contact and waiting for feedback.

This chipped bowl, the earthen basin, the earthen bowl... he felt absolutely nothing.

It wasn’t until he touched an ordinary-looking urn that a trace of Energy flowed into him.

The more Zhang Yun appraised, the more disappointed he became. These truly could only be considered old items and couldn’t be called Ancient Artifacts. Perhaps they were from Zhang Ronghui’s father’s time, or at most, his grandfather’s. Moreover, they were just ordinary rural products. They didn’t have exceptional materials, nor did they boast the design and craftsmanship of skilled artisans. They weren’t paintings, calligraphy, or artworks. There was nothing outstanding about them as vessels, so they couldn’t harbor much Spiritual Qi either.

Towards the end, Zhang Yun lost interest in even picking them up to put on a show. He merely brushed his palm over them, moving on to the next if there was no Spiritual Qi.

"Is this all of them? Are there any others?"

Right as Zhang Yun finished speaking, he suddenly felt a powerful surge of Spiritual Qi flow into him!

It was the strongest he had encountered so far, even surpassing the landlord’s collection that Zhang Youcai had stolen!