Chapter 101
Ye Qian didn't fully understand w.a.n.g De Shen's character, after all they had only ever met twice. Perhaps w.a.n.g De Shen wanted to do this to gain some sort of benefit for himself. But to form an alliance with w.a.n.g De Shen would do no harm to the Wolf Fang, in fact it would yield them a enormous invisible profits, as long as they could dig it up, then he would be able to gain more than w.a.n.g De Shen. He showed a smile and replied, "It's just what this little brother was hoping for."
"Come, Brother Ye, let's get rid of those customs, let's trade this tea for liquor and be close friends." w.a.n.g De Shen raised the teacup in his hand and said.
"Cheers!" Ye Qian raised his teacup and said.
After he set his cup down, Ye Qian paused for a moment then said, "Senior Brother, so you really have no plans to go back to China?"
"Saying that I don't think about it would be a lie, but, what would I do when I got back there? Would I just become somebody's guard at their door?" w.a.n.g De Shen guffawed and replied, "But returning to the topic, this place is quite good too. At least there is more freedom. Little Boss, have you ever thought about coming here and managing an estate? A lot of rich people like it right now."
"Oh? We'll see!" Ye Qian was suddenly interested.
"It's really equivalent to those European ranches, but the biggest benefit isn't in that, but because it can help with invasions. According to the laws of Burma, each person that purchases an estate has the right to outfit themselves with a fixed-size militia. The number of people allowed is not a lot, around 20-30 people, but it is still a very good opportunity. A lot of people from the underground in other countries use this method to get in Burma, breaking up their territory into pieces." w.a.n.g De Shen said, "Little Boss, do you know why these powerful people are so interested in Burma?"
Ye Qian shook his head and said after a while, "It must be for the large profits. I think, they probably do this to facilitate their underground activities, or to form a satellite station?"
"That's one reason" w.a.n.g De Shen replied, "Little Boss, do you know what resources Burma is rich in?"
"Green jade, red jade, shaddock!" Ye Qian replied.
"Correct." w.a.n.g De Sheng said with a faint smile.
Ye Qian appeared to understand a little better. Green and red jade could yield enormous profits. In this market-oriented economy, a lot of underground powers were not only doing illegal business now, but we're also striving to find ways of doing clean business. Just like
w.a.n.g De Shen chuckled and said, "Not gonna lie Little Boss, I have two ore mines here, although the annual output is not a lot, it can still maintain our current expenditures. If Little Boss is interested, I would be happy to help."
Of course Ye Qian knew that w.a.n.g De Shen was just being modest. Both the ore mines could only support an army of a thousand expenditures? Even if you beat Ye Qian to death he wouldn't believe it."
After a moment, w.a.n.g De Shen asked, "Little Boss, did you come to Burma now just to see me? Could it be that something happened?"
Ye Qian nodded and said, "We have a brother that has gone missing."
"Oh? When?" w.a.n.g De Shen asked.
"A few days ago. That brother came to Lashu to take care of some business but suddenly we lost all contact with him. I thought that Senior Brother's connections and spies would be a big help to us, so I thought to come and see if Senior Brother had any news." Ye Qian said.
w.a.n.g De Shen knitted his brows and patted his chest, then said, "Don't worry, you can leave this to me. Since he is a brother of the Wolf Fang then he is my brother too. This old brother isn't boasting, nothing happens here that this old brother doesn't hear about. Don't you worry, relax here for two days, I guarantee that I will find your guy for you."
"Then I thank you." Ye Qian said. "I won't say any sentimental things either, since Senior Brother will help me with this big problem, this junior will give Senior Brother a gift."
"Little Boss, you are looking down on me too much, brothers like us don't need those things." w.a.n.g De Shen's face fell, his tone was a little displeased.
"Ay, friends.h.i.+p begets friends.h.i.+p, benefit begets benefit, even blood brothers must keep accounts." Ye Qian replied. "Who did Senior Brother sell his jade to? At what price?"
w.a.n.g De Shen couldn't understand what Ye Qian was thinking, he replied with some confusion, "A batch was sold to some local jade processing plant, the price uh, it isn't very fixed, a batch will depend on the purity of the mineral, if it is better quality then naturally it would be more expensive. But the least a kilogram can fetch for is around 200 USD, the best will go 1 million or so." (Note from the author: author isn't very good at pricing, if there is an expert around please advise)
Ye Qian shook his head inwardly, this w.a.n.g De Shen was so crude, he did not know the market price at all. Right now the jade market had been hyped up so an ordinary jadeite was at at least 400 USD. Jewelry without jade was not jewelry, gold had a price but jade was priceless, it goes to show how valuable jade was. "So it's like that, Senior Brother, let me buy all of your jade and ore next time, for the price, 3% more than what your original, how about it?" Ye Qian said.
Three percent? w.a.n.g De Shen was smacking his lips in his head. What kind of idea was this. Every year his mines made upwards of a thousand kilograms, 3% of that was a shocking number. He chuckled and said, "Since Little Boss says it, I won't say any unnecessary words, it's a deal."
"It's a deal!" Ye Qian wouldn't transact at a loss, his lips curved up, an evil smile appeared on his face, he continued, "Senior Brother, I see that your weapons here are outdated. Your T-34 tanks are rusty."
w.a.n.g De Shen sighed and said, "Ay, there's no helping it. I am not familiar with the smugglers of the advanced weaponry, I can only get a hold of a little outdated weapons. Sometimes I get worried, if the government army were to strike, I really don't know if we would have the ability to resist them."