บท 40: Arowana
บรรณาธิการ: Kurisu
100,000 yuan a jin?! Liu Ziyun’s words set off waves of shock in the hearts of the Wang father and son.
‘What the f*ck? That’s even crazier than robbing a bank!’
Wang Jun thought it was preposterous. He had never even heard of any kind of meat which could be sold for 100,000 yuan a catty!
Even the Chinese Bahaba would cost 30,000 yuan at the most. And that was for the whole fish, not a small piece of it!
"People who really need something like this would willingly pay much more than 100,000 yuan!"
Liu Ziyun replied blandly.
He too was really curious about where Bei Feng got that meat from. For normal martial practitioners like him, absorbing energy from the world was actually a very slow and tedious process. The energy was often filled with impurities as well. In contrast, the pure and untainted energy contained within the Imperial Shrimp’s meat could be easily assimilated into the human body without much effort! This alone made it a priceless treasure for Martial Practitioners!
For example, the amount of energy from that meal a moment ago was the equivalent of an entire month of cultivation for Liu Ziyun!
"Then… did we just eat a meal worth a few hundred thousand yuan?"
Even Wang Jian had his mouth open with shock. Although he had built up a fortune from scratch, he still led a pretty simple life himself. When had he ever spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a meal?
In that moment, Wang Jian realized that it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to unravel the mysterious youngster called Bei Feng. When he had first met Bei Feng, he only felt that he was a confident brat whom he thought was quite pleasing to the eye.
After that, he found out that Bei Feng was an excellent cook, one that was not inferior to five-star restaurants’ chefs. And now, it was like Bei Feng was shrouded in a cloak of mystery, completely unfathomable.
"Uncle Wang, can you sell me half of the meat?" Liu Ziyun turned to Wang Jian and asked. In public, he had to address Wang Jian as Boss Wang. But in private, they preferred to be a little more casual, and Uncle Wang was the informal form of address he used at such times. Wang Jun also knew his father considered Liu Ziyun a family member, and so remained unperturbed.
"That meat is really such a valuable thing?" Wang Jian could not help but ask.
"Of course! I could absolutely break through my bottleneck if I had just five catty of it!" Liu Ziyun declared proudly.
"Ok!" Wang Jian agreed without hesitation.
"I guess I owed him a big favor this time…" Wang Jian sighed as he muttered to himself.
Earlier, he’d accepted the meat since he did not know its true value. But now that he had to reconcile himself to the fact that he had just accepted a gift worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, he felt that the several catty of meat before him was like a handful of hot potatoes, causing him to be unable to hold onto it in peace.
‘I’ll just transfer the money to him,’ was the first thought that came across Wang Jian’s mind. Pulling out his mobile phone, Wang Jian stared at the mobile interface for a long moment with a blank look on his face. Wait...what was Bei Feng’s bank account number again? Wang Jian smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand in exasperation.
In the end, he could only put his mobile phone back into his pocket with a bitter smile.
***
Had Bei Feng heard the shocking conversation that had transpired in the helicopter, he probably would have spat up several mouthfuls of blood in regret. 100,000 yuan for a jin of meat?! Ignorance is truly bliss. Today was actually one of the most relaxing days for Bei Feng as of late. He only needed to wipe the table a little bit since the dish had been so easy to prepare.
There were no oil stains which were the most annoying thing to clean up. Perhaps the sauce plate was a little more troublesome to clean, but even so, it was not much.
Both Wang Jun and Wang Jian had not managed to finish their food. Since Bei Feng disliked wasting food, he simply put the leftovers in a bowl and gave it to the two puppies.
"Ruff, ruff!"
The two little wolfdogs did not have any special ability, but were exceptionally good at acting cute.
As Bei Feng approached, they quickly ran up to him with their tiny butts bouncing and tails wagging. They even stuck out their tongues to lick Bei Feng’s palms affectionately.
A smile also appeared on Bei Feng’s face as he petted the little puppies and put the food bowl on the ground.
The little puppies immediately attacked the food and, in a short amount of time, the meat in the huge bowl disappeared before Bei Feng’s astonished eyes.
Those little guys were very small, but they somehow had such an enormous appetite!
Throughout history, dogs were seen as a very mystical breed of animals. Old people used to say that dogs would always remain hungry no matter how much one fed them. As long as you kept feeding, they would always be able to keep eating.
Of course, that saying originated from poor old farmers who most of the time did not have enough food to satisfy their dogs. Thus, it looked like no matter how much they fed the dog, it would never be satisfied. Even so, this was a clear testament of the enormous appetite of dogs! [1]
"Wu, wu! "
Bei Feng picked up the two little struggling puppies by the scruff of their necks and examined them. After ensuring that there was nothing wrong with them after eating such high-energy food, he let them go with a satisfied nod.
For the first time since his restaurant opened for business, Bei Feng looked at his WeChat and saw that no one had left any deposits. Shrugging his shoulders, Bei Feng paid it no mind.
He had already made a tidy sum during the past few days and together with his savings, he did not have to worry about money in the short term.
Besides, he still had the 130,000 yuan reward from the police for being a hero. It was more than sufficient for him to use for a period of time.
With no customers, it was too boring for Bei Feng to stay indoors all day. Thus, he gave Bai Xiang some instructions and left.
He was going to the county to buy more golden cicadas. Bei Feng was growing increasingly impatient. Although the Vampiric Vine’s flower was growing more resplendent day by day, it didn’t seem as if it was going to turn into a fruit anytime soon.
It was a hot day and Bei Feng sucked on an icicle as he walked about in an extremely leisurely manner.
When he finally felt bored, he went back to the store at which he bought the cicadas the last time and directly purchased 10,000 golden cicadas!
Just like that, he had spent 14,000 yuan in one shot! Even Bei Feng felt a bit of a heartache as he looked at his bank balance.
10,000 golden cicadas… it was not a small amount! At the very least, a regular person should not dream of carrying such a load by himself. Even if it was packed into multiple bags, there would be too many of such bags to handle.
As for the shop owner, he was absolutely elated. He quickly arranged a time with Bei Feng to deliver the golden cicadas for him. Bei Feng also left the shop. He would return later to catch a free ride with the deliveryman back home.
The farm produce market in the county was extremely big, and all kinds of items could be found there.
Bei Feng walked around for a bit, and after realizing that there was nothing he wanted to buy, went towards the main street.
After randomly crossing a few intersections with traffic lights, Bei Feng suddenly found himself on a busy street, teeming with people. It was hard to tell if Bei Feng had been willing or not, but he too was quickly sucked into the crowd as he flowed along with it.
The street was rather wide and bustling with activity. It appeared to be a specialty district for antiques and things like flowers, birds, fish and all kinds of bugs. The left side of the street was dominated by antique shops and the right side by flower shops, bird shops and aquariums.
This was not a result of some kind of special arrangement by the authorities. Rather, it was a unique setting created by a long running culture and tradition.
A great number of people were moving to and fro on the packed street, resembling the ebbing currents of a large river. And although the temperature was very high, most of the pedestrians were content with just sucking on a Popsicle. Some ladies would also hold beautiful umbrellas over their heads.
"Wow, what a beautiful arowana!"
A round of appreciative sighs could be heard from the front. It seemed that a small crowd had formed around one of the stalls.
Most of the people in the crowd were there to watch the fun. Since Bei Feng was super bored himself, he too approached the crowd and, taking advantage of his superior physique, easily squeezed himself to the front of the excited crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today is the official opening day of our Fish Dragon Pavilion. All fish products will have a 80% discount!"
A middle-aged man with a flushed and sweaty face gestured vigorously as he announced.
A gorgeous arowana around 60 cm in length could be seen in a tank at the shop’s entrance. The arowana had an extremely nonchalant expression on its face as it swam around the tank lazily. Its entire body was bright-red, and from just a single glance, one could see that this arowana was obviously not any regular fish.
"This Fish Dragon Pavilion is truly impressive! Although this arowana could not be considered the highest grade amongst Blood Red Arowanas, it definitely can’t be worth less than a few tens of million yuan!"
An old man hobbled to the front and carefully scrutinized the beautiful arowana swimming gracefully within the tank and made his verdict.
"Yes, they’re quite domineering. The moment they came here, this Fish Dragon Pavilion quickly bought out its three neighboring shops and knocked down all the walls, merging it together into this 400-500 m2 shop," the owner of an antique shop nearby who had came to join in the excitement also sighed in amazement.
"If they’re so powerful, why did they choose to open their shop here? Wouldn’t it be better to set it up in the city?" Someone asked in confusion.
Of course, no one was able to answer him. The opening ceremony continued without much fanfare. The middle-aged man only made a short speech and immediately announced the official opening of the Fish Dragon Pavilion.
There were no congratulatory flower stands or exaggerated decorations. The owners only set off a series of firecrackers for good luck and immediately proceeded to open the shop.
The entire group of people who were milling about outside also streamed into the shop, looking around curiously. The shop was very spacious, its design simple and refined. Artificial hills and all kinds of beautiful plants were arranged inside, giving one a very refreshing and ethereal feeling.
Of all the fishes on display, none were commonplace species. Even the cheapest breed costed at least upwards of four figures!
Bei Feng observed a pair of arowanas, each one over 70 cm in length. They were priced at 18,000 yuan each.
One had to look at the color distribution, mustache and body size to determine the quality of arowanas.
The most important factor was the color distribution, followed by the length of the fish’s mustache. The least important one was the size of the fish.
Take the pair of arowanas before Bei Feng for example. Although they had an impressive size for arowanas, they were obviously inferior to the smaller Blood Red Arowana in front of the store even in the eyes of amateurs. In fact, the two could not even be mentioned in the same breath!
[1] ED/N: Wolves can go for weeks without eating anything, but once they do have an opportunity, they can eat quite a lot (I can’t recall the specific numbers, but it may be up to a few tens of kilos). Since dogs are more or less domesticated wolves (even if some breeds may not look like it), then there’s a point to it. And while my dogs do not really seem able to eat ten kilos of meat, just try to bring out some premium deluxe super-duper cuisine and the previously obviously sated dogs turn out to have empty stomachs...
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