Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 1130: A Minor Skirmish

Chapter 1130: Chapter 1130: A Minor Skirmish

How should Sister Hong’s words be understood? Zhongmai starts a trade war, prohibiting the import of Merrick soybeans and opting to buy from Argentina and Brazil instead, but these two countries simply cannot fill such a huge void—pure grain-exporting countries actually importing soybeans from Merrick.

If they import soybeans from Merrick, the price is definitely low; they can make a good profit just by flipping it, so why not?

Of course, if they don’t want to provoke Huaxia too much, they will be cautious not to send soybeans imported from Merrick to Huaxia—just send domestically produced soybeans there, and fill the gaps in other orders with Merrick soybeans.

Such a cunning approach will not bother Huaxia, because they are well aware that they can’t buy enough soybeans from the global market in haste after rejecting Merrick’s—it is inevitable that Merrick’s soybeans will be involved.

Unless Huaxia places an order with Brazil or Argentina in advance, changing their planting structures, this scarcity situation could potentially be alleviated next year.

Even so, Merrick still won’t be happy. First off, their market share is being squeezed; originally, those two countries would have some inventory of unsold soybeans, now the inventory belongs to Merrick.

Secondly, the price of the soybeans sold by Merrick is low... Don’t frown upon it; they still have to scramble to sell.

Michael Ray is aware of this situation; upon hearing this, he speaks seriously, "I’m aware of such a situation, but similar merchants are usually not very rule-abiding; if you deal with them, they can’t guarantee credibility."

It’s a given that those daring to fleece a Meryken person need quite a bit of courage; they’ll end up being marked. Of course, most of the time, these dealings are conducted through a front.

Overall, those who take such orders definitely have less reliability, and Michael Ray’s words are not wrong.

But Sister Hong disagrees, "It doesn’t matter, cash on delivery. I’m actually quite eager to see who dares to mess with us... Of course, the other party must have someone of significant weight; otherwise, as the aggrieved party, it wouldn’t be easy for us to find someone."

Michael Ray gives her a strange look, "Brazil and Argentina are much more chaotic than Merrick, and they could likely have ties to Mexican cartels... They also have a need for money laundering; are you sure knowing their name will be of help to you?"

Yet Sister Hong smiles lightly, "Heh, I can see, you are not very familiar with these matters."

"Of course I’m not," Michael Ray does not deny, she nods with a smile, "I’m engaged in legitimate business and don’t deal with such dangerous stuff, but if Sister Hong you insist, I can try to make contact."

"No need to trouble yourself," Sister Hong shakes her head straightforwardly, and says something profound, "I have been in contact with the relevant people recently. Since Mr. Ray runs a legitimate business, it wouldn’t be right to trouble you."

In fact, she’s somewhat disdainful of his approach; the style of a Merrick elite is simply too apparent.

A delicate egotist, who minimizes the truth whenever possible, and when caught, tries to exploit the advantage of asymmetric information to deceive the other party.

But who is Michael Ray? He’s the kind of person who deals in high-level elites, not the sort who traffics kids and women; it’s clear to him that his answers cannot satisfy her.

Not that it matters much; for someone like him who deals in connections, whether a transaction is successful is a minor issue—the key is to understand the client’s needs and to know what kind of person the client is.

Knowing she’s dissatisfied and guessing her likely temperament is good enough for him, so he nods with a smile, "Alright, I sincerely hope you find the right person... I’ll also give it some more thought on my end."

This marked the end of Feng Jun’s first contact with Michael Ray.

He understood the other party’s needs, but he couldn’t possibly sell his property to them, and he wasn’t particularly interested in the array of capabilities shown, especially given their lack of sincerity.

However, Mrs. Qian was quite satisfied with the results of today’s negotiation; even though she didn’t buy Feng’s villa, she got a considerate suggestion: to fill in part of the lake in the park and build her own villa.

The staff also reported the matter seriously, and the city officials found it a tricky request upon hearing it.

But it was impossible for Feng to give up his villa. Many authorities had heard through the grapevine that Elder Yu was spending his retirement there—who in the bureaucracy doesn’t have their informants?

If Feng was willing to sell the house, the city officials could help facilitate the process; but since he didn’t want to sell, who would foolishly force the issue?

After much deliberation, it was decided by the city’s top leader to make an exception just this once, not to be taken as a precedent.

By the time Feng returned to the manor, it was quite late, and he went straight to rest, not taking today’s conversation seriously.

The next morning as he came out from the rear building, he saw Elder Yu stretching his legs in the courtyard.

Seeing him, the elderly man directly asked, "Is there more graphene available?"

Feng Jun nodded decisively and answered, "Fifty tons, same quality as last time, same price as last time."

Elder Yu had already discussed it with the related parties, "Well, that’s great... can you get more?"

Feng Jun shook his head, "No, and I have to say, there’s been a bit of a problem with my graphene procurement channel."

Upon hearing this, Elder Yu’s face darkened, "You’re not planning to raise the price because the market is good, are you?"

As if you’re the only one who’s conscientious! Feng Jun glanced at him helplessly, "Next, I might get about a hundred or so tons, but after that, I can’t really say."

He had originally intended to cut the price of the future graphene by half because he felt that he had escaped poverty and essentially achieved financial independence. There was no need to earn money he shouldn’t — after all, he was not lacking in patriotic sentiment.

But hearing what the other party said, he immediately thought that this old man was quite cunning and liked to make trouble, so he decided not to mention this matter to avoid difficulties in case the situation changes again and he wants to increase the price.

The wrinkles on Old Master Yu’s face were piled up, but one could still sense his mixed feelings of joy and concern. After hesitating for a while, he still asked reluctantly, "Why can there only be so little?"

Feng Jun rolled his eyes, speaking irritably, "Is that not enough... can the whole world’s production even match mine?"

Elder Yu immediately hushed up, and after a long while, he muttered and scolded, "I say, when you talk to your elders, can’t you be polite? Why are you always so prickly?"

I’m not lucky enough to have an elder like you! Feng Jun rolled his eyes, I didn’t see you offering to recognize me as a relative when I was too poor to afford a house.

Sister Hong’s overseas network is indeed remarkable; she actually found 800,000 tons of wheat in just half a month, with a supplier from Argentina.

The supply is not on the sea but on an island in Indonesia; a large part of Argentina’s wheat is exported to Indonesia, where they even have their own grain silos.

The silo is for turnover use; it’s already quite large, but it can only store up to 200,000 tons of wheat. If this batch of wheat is purchased, it would require four to five turnovers through the silo.

Feng Jun wants to buy 500,000 tons of wheat, but the supplier’s condition is 1 million tons, because anything less, they feel, would hardly be meaningful — not knowing the ultimate destination of the food entails a certain amount of risk, making the deal hardly worthwhile.

Sister Hong negotiated with them for a long time, pushing the quantity down to 800,000 tons. The supplier suggested that if you can transport it yourselves, there is really no need to transit through that island.

Zhang Weihong was also a bit troubled when she got this response and came to consult with Feng Jun — how should this business be handled?

She was very familiar with his capabilities and knew not just about cultivation, the Storage Bag, or the Flash Star Boat, but also about Weimian’s Force, so she roughly understood the extent of Feng Jun’s abilities.

After listening, Feng Jun also felt a bit overwhelmed. It was not easy for Elder Yu and his people to barely accept the setting of "large goods mysteriously disappearing," and now doing the same thing abroad would be escalating matters.

If it were indeed possible to transport 500,000 tons of grain in one go, taking a risk would be acceptable. However, the current problem is, the maximum capacity of the transfer silo is 200,000 tons. Even if the additional 300,000 tons of wheat were transported back slowly by ship, he would have to carry out a sensational operation at least three times to ensure the supply on the other side.

He pondered for a while before murmuring softly, "Does this mean... I need to buy two freighters now?"

Feng Jun did not object to spending the money, having developed to his current state in the Earth Realm, he already had to consider the convenience of bulk purchasing. Unless he planned to stop expanding his business, shut the doors, and focus on cultivation alone.

But that was basically impossible. Without the support of the Earth Realm, his developments in the Mobile Phone dimension would be much more difficult, and besides, he also wanted to bring some benefits to Huaxia — not just Old Master Yu was conscientious, Feng Jun also had his own sentiments when conditions allowed.

For instance, he had even purchased two oil fields in the Mobile Phone dimension, which he hadn’t had time to develop yet, mainly because he hadn’t decided how to transport the oil.

So, buying another oil tanker... seemed rather necessary, especially since he was not short on cash now.

Sister Hong looked at him in surprise, then spoke with a smile, "You could always rent ships, you know. You don’t have to buy a chicken just because you want to eat eggs, right?"

Feng Jun shook his head, knowing she hadn’t considered the troubles of bulk purchasing, "The other side needs a lot of bulk goods, we can’t always create supernatural events, right?"

Sister Hong furrowed her brows and understood his thinking. She pondered and said, "But... buying ships is quite troublesome."

Feng Jun pursed his lips, thought for a while, and then his eyes lit up, "Since Indonesia is a major food importing country... there must be warehouses there, right?"

He still remembered that in the last century, Indonesia did many unjust things to the Chinese and overseas Chinese.