Amethyst... amethyst... sixty-three in stock. Huh? Sixty-three?
Baixiao was a bit stunned, but that was quickly followed by a wave of delight. She glanced at Linlang with a sly smirk.
"Sixty-three pieces. If Miss Linlang wants them all, I can do 2.4 million per piece. That comes to a total of 151.2 million. I'll take the initiative and make it an even 150 million."
"You overestimate me too much." Linlang's face looked like she'd just seen a ghost, bitter and conflicted, wanting them yet not daring to have them.
Although Xigu Ju was wealthy, it didn't have that much liquid cash for her to use. Even though the amethyst had bright prospects, she couldn't just buy it recklessly without considering the consequences.
But at the same time, she didn't want to give up this chance to control the entire category. After some thought, Linlang made a decision.
"Let's do it this way. Twenty-one pieces, for 50 million. For the rest, I'll leave a 5 million deposit and I will come to pick them up within half a month."
"At your service. Please come here to sign the transaction contract." Baixiao was naturally happy to have someone place an order. Regardless of when the money arrived, the sales credit would be counted under her name anyway.
With a few swift strokes, one standard futures trading contract and one spot trading contract were written up, in duplicate, and the signing was completed.
Linlang arranged for people to go back and fetch the money. The green gems she had bought from Su Bai a couple of days ago had already cleaned out the money she had on her. Although she made a good profit selling them to Ningguang, the money was still with the accounts department.
Not long after, five or six shop assistants hurried over, each carrying a hemp cloth sack. There was even a small pushcart. After all, it was over twenty pieces of amethyst, goods worth 50 million. Both the volume and the value warranted such measures.
On the other side, Baixiao went upstairs alone and found the storeroom.
Pushing the door open, her eyes fell upon a pile of yellow boxes, square and rather ugly. Hanging on the boxes were display frames, inside which were various supplies, suspended by a very peculiar method.
It was very strange.
"What is this? How odd. An immortal's art of miniature storage?" Baixiao reached out and gently touched the amethyst on the display frame. It was noticeably three to five times smaller than the actual item, but its appearance was no different. Baixiao also knew that gems like this were basically fixed in size naturally.
Making a mental note, she opened the box. Inside were small compartments, twenty-seven in total. Only one compartment was filled with amethysts.
"This... a miniature version?!" Baixiao's mind went blank for a moment. Wasn't this incredible? If Linlang found out, wouldn't she hit the roof? Spending 2.4 million on something less than a tenth of the size...
But before she could finish her thought, the amethyst in her hand gradually grew heavier as it moved away from the box, and its size visibly swelled before her eyes.
Finally, Baixiao looked down at the normally-sized amethyst in her hand with a grave expression, then back at the completely unchanged box. Her mind was caught in a whirlwind of thoughts, constantly churning up layers of perception and memory.
She was certain that even at Ningguang's place, she had never seen such a curious object. Although pocket dimension treasures had similar effects, the differences were still significant.
For one, the way these things naturally shrank when near it and changed into a form convenient for stacking wasn't something pocket dimension treasures could match.
"Is this his hidden foundation?" Baixiao glanced at the neatly arranged boxes of various sizes in the storeroom. Although she hadn't checked each one, she now believed the astonishing inventory count by ninety percent.
With such storage methods, the location of tens of millions of kilograms of grain was easily explained. No wonder they could never find Su Bai's real warehouse in Liyue Harbor.
Who would have thought that such large quantities of goods were stored on the second floor of this small shop? The four great grain merchants didn't lose unjustly.
Although the outcome wasn't decided yet, in Baixiao's heart, she already believed Su Bai would win.
Following the employee manual's instructions, Baixiao placed the twenty-plus amethysts into a black box. Then, after securely closing the storeroom door, she went downstairs straight to the counter.
Underneath the counter was an identical black box. When Baixiao opened it, inside were exactly the twenty-one amethysts from before.
Gulp.
Baixiao swallowed. Compared to this method, even the pocket dimension art that Lady Ningguang held in high esteem would pale in comparison. It wasn't just the storage capacity; it even had the effect of sharing the same space across different locations.
"Miss Linlang, I'll place them here." Baixiao's heart was heavy, but she didn't stop working. One by one, she placed the amethysts on the counter.
If this thing had no range limit... one could imagine its potential. And Su Bai had kept it hidden all this time.
"Alright. You lot, take four each back to Xigu Ju and hand them over to Master Wang." Linlang, unaware of Baixiao's solemn mood, looked at the pieces of amethyst, which appeared particularly translucent and beautiful under the light. Her mind was filled with thoughts of quickly turning them into cash so she could return and buy out the entire stock.
If these items fell into the hands of other families, she felt her heart would ache unbearably. Things from beyond the starry sea weren't something you could just buy just by spending money.
After the twenty-one pieces were handed over, Su Bai also stretched lazily with a smile and walked out from the back room. He looked at the two contracts on the table and gave Baixiao a big thumbs-up.
"Not bad, Baixiao. No, I should say, as expected of the Tianquan's head financial secretary. Such a big order on your first day." Seeing Baixiao's somewhat strained smile in return, Su Bai naturally knew what was going on.
Actually, the noise of Baixiao throwing that chain after entering had woken him up. He originally planned to get up and show her the types of supplies in the shop and the storeroom inventory. But when Linlang arrived, Su Bai changed his mind.
After all, why would Linlang come running over? It was无非 to see if there were any good ores or similar items, and all the ores were in the second-floor storeroom. Whether he went out or not, Baixiao would have to go and get hands-on experience anyway.
Since Ningguang wanted to probe his foundations, Su Bai naturally had nothing to fear. He'd just let her see openly, as long as she could digest what she saw.
Therefore, he hadn't come out, waiting until the transaction was mostly concluded before getting up. The purpose was precisely to let Baixiao have a good experience and report back to Ningguang.
"Linlang, take care, see you out!" Su Bai waved at Linlang. Linlang nodded in acknowledgment and then left.
Inside the room, only the leisurely tea-drinking Su Bai and the slightly preoccupied Baixiao remained. It was extremely quiet.
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100 powerstones = 1 chapter
200 powerstones = 3 chapters
300 powerstones = 5 chapters