"Wait, that two-meter guy? He's from the Grain Bureau, isn't he?"
"No, no, it's that young girl, right? She doesn't look special to me."
"Please, if she wasn't special, would even Old Wang have no access? I'm telling you, you better be polite later."
"Who knows, maybe some big sponsor's here to sweep the shelves."
Jing Shu's ears were sharp, and she didn't know whether to laugh or sigh. It was the first time she'd witnessed just how special her identity had become. Damn, even the director couldn't pull up her file, so how was she supposed to enter the club today? Was she getting in or not?
Director Wang first cleared out the people lining up at the window, then jogged over with a wide smile. "Miss Jing, you might have to wait a bit longer. Because of the regulations above us, your case needs our general manager to come over. Don't worry, he's got very high authority."
Jing Shu narrowed her eyes a little. Her information was already protected to this extent. Maybe it was better not to have more people digging into her background. If someone remembered later that she ran a Red Nematode Breeding and Processing Factory, that'd be a mess.
"Will the general manager get here soon?"
Director Wang gave an awkward smile. "He's handling business somewhere else. He'll arrive in about twenty minutes."
Jing Shu quietly let out a breath. "Is there another way around this?"
Director Wang thought for a moment. "There is one. If you have something worth ten million virtual coins with you right now, we wouldn't need to go through all this."
Even Wang the Fatty felt embarrassed saying it. Who would bring something that valuable to a trading club? Most people booked appointments in advance, communicated beforehand, then brought items in for appraisal or trade.
Even big shots who came to spend money only needed asset verification to use it like a credit line, spend first and repay later.
So hardly anyone walked around carrying a few million worth of goods. This wasn't before the apocalypse, when a random piece of jewelry or a car could be worth that much. In the apocalypse, everything had to be something practically useful.
The prices of the apocalypse were worlds apart from before.
"How about we wait? Twenty minutes isn't long, and our general manager would love to meet such a promising young person."
Jing Shu asked, "You're certain you can't access my identity information at all?"
Director Wang nodded regretfully. "After the reforms, everything's too strict. Forget your identity information, we can't even see your number or call logs."
Jing Shu finally smiled with relief. "Then what's the problem? Ten million in goods, right? Why don't you appraise something right now?"
Director Wang blinked. He didn't react at first. Wait, seriously? Was she actually carrying ten million worth of goods? She didn't look like it. They only had two boxes, carried by a big guy.
Jing Shu had Tank set down one of the boxes. With a crisp click, she opened it.
"I checked your hall's item prices earlier, so I roughly understand how you evaluate things. The longer the shelf life, the easier it is to store, and the higher the energy and nutritional value, the more valuable the food is."
Director Wang nodded. In a world starving for supplies, food had basically become luxury goods.
"Also, I checked the demand list in the request center. I noticed several posted prices for these items, and I happen to have them." Jing Shu unzipped the side of the box. She pulled back a black cover, revealing a box full of pale yellow crystals.
It was crystallized honey.
Director Wang rushed over, crouched down, eyes wide as he stared in disbelief. "Is this…"
"Yes. You're not seeing things. This is fresh, pure honey. Each jar is one kilogram, ten jars total. And this is one kilogram of royal jelly. Kept refrigerated, it basically never expires."
Jing Shu lifted out a jar of honey. When she saw Director Wang frozen in shock, she explained, "This isn't the watered, sugar-syrup stuff from outside. Real pure honey doesn't expire."
Director Wang's voice trembled with excitement. "I know. Only pure honey behaves like that. Is this produced after the apocalypse?"
Jing Shu nodded.
"That makes it even more valuable. Based on current prices, salt is still being produced normally, but sugar is extremely hard to come by, especially bee products. But your items need to go through appraisal and testing to determine their grade."
It wasn't that people faked things here. It was that the rarer something was, the more detailed the grading became, and the price differences between the grades were massive.
Jing Shu nodded, and Director Wang rubbed his hands together, then called over three more people. These three were even more professional and carried a full set of testing tools.
Seeing how lively window No. 3 had become, people outside grew curious.
"What's going on over at No. 3? Why did they bring the appraisers?"
"Only high-grade and special-grade items get that treatment."
"Looks like whoever's inside isn't simple."
Jing Shu paused. She'd originally wanted to avoid attracting attention, so how did this turn into attracting even more?
On the other side, the honey and royal jelly were sampled. The appraisers used all kinds of methods, including tasting and chemical analysis. Director Wang was lucky enough to taste just a tiny bit, and he nearly fainted from happiness.
The sweetness melted on his tongue and warmed his heart. For a moment, he felt like he'd gone back to being an eighteen-year-old boy on that unforgettable night, when everything surged up and his soul nearly left his body.
After testing, the appraisers all nodded toward Director Wang. He finally spoke.
"The honey and royal jelly are both special grade. The current price for special-grade pure honey is twenty thousand virtual coins per one hundred grams. Royal jelly is one hundred thousand per one hundred grams. If you consign it to the trading center, you could let buyers bid on it. The price might even go up by another fold."
Jing Shu nodded. His explanation was fair.
"So the minimum value of your goods is between three and five million virtual coins." Director Wang sighed. Just a few days ago, someone brought in honey that had been mixed with sugar water, and even that reached tens of thousands.
Pure, natural, high-quality, rare items like this would only get more valuable in the apocalypse.
Director Wang cleared his throat. That should be enough. Since her identity was special and the higher-ups only required assets over ten million, he could submit an application, log these as collateral, do some behind-the-scenes processing, and get her inside.
He was just about to give her a graceful exit so she wouldn't feel embarrassed if she didn't have more things, when he began saying, "Well, this…"
A loud ripping sound cut him off.
Jing Shu unzipped the lower layer of the box, revealing another neat row of items.
Director Wang froze.
Jing Shu didn't even blink. She was planning to sell everything anyway.