Happy Little Farmer
Chapter 226 Bet It All

Chapter 226: Chapter 226 Bet It All

Yang Fan stared at Old Zhou’s message, bewildered for quite a while.

Old Zhou had always conducted his business steadily, retracting his hand whenever he saw fit, no matter how turbulent the market.

He never gambled.

But this time, he was acting out of character, and his bet seemed rather fierce.

According to Zhu Shanshan, it seemed that the other players in the market had already given up on continuing their purchases and were now observing the situation.

Yet Old Zhou not only did not stop, but he became even more relentless.

Yang Fan did trust Old Zhou’s judgment on the market, but his own modest business really couldn’t withstand too much turmoil.

Should he follow Old Zhou’s advice and continue to purchase aggressively, relying on him to backstop?

Yang Fan was conflicted.

After racking his brain countless times, Yang Fan glanced at Old Zhou, who was deeply engrossed in calculations, and then sent a message, "How certain are you?"

Old Zhou’s phone buzzed.

He looked at Yang Fan and a touch of madness flickered across his smile.

"One hundred percent!" he replied.

Yang Fan took a deep breath and quickly typed a single word on his phone, "Okay!"

He was in!

Considering Old Zhou’s past behavior, cunning and caution were the most prominent labels on his forehead.

His sudden change of character this time must be backed by some sort of reliance.

"Sister-in-law, since Old Zhou is doing this, there must be some reason. You two should have a good talk, I’m heading out," Yang Fan said to Zhu Shanshan, putting away his phone.

Zhu Shanshan shot a reproachful look at Old Zhou, who was busy with his work, and said irritably, "As if he has any reason. His head is usually clear, but today I don’t know what madness has gotten into him. You’d better not join his folly. Pick up some other things instead, and don’t touch Codonopsis for now. Trust me on this."

Zhu Shanshan’s fiery gaze was a bit too much for Yang Fan to handle. He lowered his head and chuckled, "Okay, I’ll take a look around."

Then he nodded to Old Zhou, and the two men shared an unspoken smile.

Yang Fan left Old Zhou’s shop and walked on foot to the north gate of the market.

This was where the freight runners gathered.

After some bargaining, Yang Fan managed to strike a deal with a driver for one yuan and fifty cents per kilometer.

For this entire day, no matter how long Yang Fan needed the vehicle, that was the set price.

Seated in the double cab, Yang Fan directed the young driver, who had a heavy addiction to cigarettes, out into the countryside.

The driver, Zhao Wu, aged around twenty-eight or twenty-nine, looked capable but had a perpetually forlorn expression.

He smoked cheap cigarettes that seemed to cost five yuan a pack and hardly ever stopped.

In the short time he’d been with Yang Fan, he had already smoked four or five.

His habit was so severe it was nearly at the frequency of breathing.

As they were about to leave the city, Yang Fan asked Zhao Wu to wait for a moment while he stopped by a bank on the roadside.

The money that Diwu Ming had indirectly given him through playing cards the day before had been inconvenient to carry around with him.

More importantly, it was unsafe. It’s not wise to flaunt one’s wealth, and carrying such a large sum of cash into the countryside wasn’t a good idea.

Fifty thousand yuan altogether.

His chips from yesterday should have been just over thirty thousand, but when Diwu Ming added money to the room later, he apparently rounded it up to a clean sum. It was Yang Fan’s hard-earned money, and considering the dignity he’d sacrificed to get it, he took it with a clear conscience.

After depositing the money into his account, Yang Fan then continued his journey to the countryside with Zhao Wu.

The market for Codonopsis has been very confusing these past two days.

Herbal farmers essentially all knew that the price of Codonopsis had skyrocketed, but by the time they reacted and prepared to sell, most buyers were no longer purchasing. In any case, the purchasing resellers in the townships had mostly closed shop.

And they are the primary sales channels for herbal farmers.

Very few herbal farmers would choose to travel far to the county to sell, primarily selling to these resellers in the town, or to people like Yang Fan who canvassed the streets purchasing mountain goods. Only large-scale cultivators would seek out someone like Old Zhou to sell their product.

And today, Yang Fan’s target was these resellers in the town.

If it had been yesterday, these people would definitely not have sold to him, but today the market had changed, and most of them were now in a state of loss. For them, Yang Fan showing up at their doorstep should be like a lifesaver.

Sifang Town, located to the southwest of Xin’an County, is a large town under Xin’an’s jurisdiction.

Today, Yang Fan’s first stop was here.

Zhao Wu drove Yang Fan around the town for a brief inquiry to understand the basic situation of the purchasing of Codonopsis here, after which Yang Fan entered a relatively large purchasing shop.

The shop was run by an attractive woman who looked to be in her late thirties.

She had peach blossom eyes and full, sexy lips.

When Yang Fan entered, she was sitting on a small stool plucking vegetables with a bold and carefree posture, unconcerned that she was wearing a skirt, her legs sheathed in transparent stockings were fair and strong.

Through the gap in the hem of her skirt, a trace could be vaguely seen deeper up her thigh.

She looked up and saw that it was Yang Fan; she waved her hand and said, "You should check with other shops. I’m not buying Codonopsis."

Yang Fan had already visited once before to understand the general situation of the town.

"I’m buying!" Yang Fan said with a smile.

The woman stopped plucking vegetables, looked at Yang Fan with a somewhat strange expression, and said, "You’re buying?"

Yang Fan nodded.

"How much are you paying?" the woman asked.

She was clearly still skeptical of what Yang Fan was saying.

"Eighty-eight," said Yang Fan.

"Not selling, not selling!" The woman immediately shook her hands upon hearing the price, "The goods we’ve been buying these past few days were at ninety-one, ninety-two. You’re offering eighty-eight, do you think I can sell?"

"You should seriously consider it," said Yang Fan calmly. "Given the current market situation, the big drop after the big rise has already started, and it might even return to the historical baseline. Today it’s eighty-eight, who knows what it’ll be tomorrow."

"Then why are you still buying?" the woman asked.

"How I operate is none of your concern," Yang Fan said with a smile.

"If you agree to ninety-two, I’ll sell," the woman said.

Yang Fan shook his head, "You can’t expect me to clearly take a loss when you are already losing, can you? I traveled over an hour from the county to this place, and in just one hour the price dropped by one yuan."

Today’s market for Codonopsis could be said to be erratic, without any certainty; Yang Fan’s casual statement was convincing.

Throughout this small town, almost all medicine dealers had stopped purchasing.

If one insisted on buying, it would be at the pre-surge price, in the eighties.

The woman put the basket of vegetables by her feet aside and thought for a moment before asking, "How much do you need?"

"However much you have, that’s how much I want!" said Yang Fan.

"Can you handle a thousand jin?" the woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yang Fan nodded again, although he was feeling somewhat anxious inside.

A thousand jin was roughly the limit he could purchase.

This investment would be almost a hundred thousand silver dollars.