Chapter 56: The Layout (Part One)

  After finishing these tedious tasks, it was already past one o'clock in the middle of the night. Even though Qin Feng's physical strength was above average, he couldn't bear to continue like this for two days and threw everything on the table before dozing off to sleep.

  The next morning, Qin Feng took out the "small leaf sandalwood" bracelet from the censer and bought back those sandalwoods. After that, Qin Feng placed the bracelet at the bottom of the censer, letting the ash fall on it.

  After some processing, the originally smoked and dull-colored bracelet became bright again, and on the bracelet, a faint fragrance of sandalwood was still emanating.

  "Brother Feng, why are you dressed like that today?" Li Tianyuan, who was practicing in the yard, couldn't help but stare when Qin Feng walked out of the house.

  In Li Tianyuan's eyes, Qin Feng was dressed a bit "weirdly" today. He wore a loose-fitting silk garment with embroidered flowers on it, looking like a young master from a wealthy family.

  "We have to work today, otherwise where will we get the money to leave this place?"

  Qin Feng brushed off his clothes and said, "Where's Xie Xuan? Today I want you two to partner up and perform a play. Later I'll tell you the details, don't mess it up!"

  This set of clothes was made by Zai Yi for Qin Feng during last year's Spring Festival, of course, it couldn't be worn in the training institute. He also wore it for the first time and felt a bit uncomfortable.

  "Brother Feng, I'm here, what play are we performing?"

  Xie Xuan walked out of another room. He had also been exhausted for the past few days, but young people recover quickly and after a night's sleep, he was refreshed again.

  "Thief!" Qin Feng said aloud.

  "Steal things? What's there to steal?"

  Xie Xuan and Li Tianyuan were both stunned at the same time, and Li Tianyuan said dissatisfied: "Feng Ge, we Jianghu children, even if we have no money, we have to go rob, steal more and less, if it spreads out, where will my Li Lao's face be?"

  Several of them had been through re-education, and in the re-education center, apart from rapists, the most annoying ones were thieves who didn't keep their hands and feet clean. In Li Tianyuan's cell, those who entered for theft enjoyed the treatment of sleeping next to the toilet and washing their underwear.

  "Snatching the lead role from you, didn't I say we were going to act?"

  Qin Feng glared at Li Tianyuan with a bad temper and said, "Later we'll go to Nie's Jade Stone Studio, you see if I'm not right about this. If not, then there's still the matter of the missing purse..."

  "Brother Qin, I have the wallet." Xie Xuan didn't know what kind of idea Qin Feng was getting at, but he took out a wallet from his pocket, which, of course, was empty.

  "Really stealing?" Li Tianyuan looked foolish and shook his head, saying: "Feng Ge, I can't do this technical work, or else let's change to robbery!"

  "It's also possible to turn things around."

  Qin Feng hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth and said: "Alright, Xie Xuan will make the first move to grab me, I'll shout 'catch the thief', then you rush up and punch me hard, yeah, right in the face!"

  "Hit you?" Li Tianyuan looked at Qin Feng, shaking his head like a rattle drum, "Brother Feng, I don't dare to, you'll definitely settle the score with me afterwards."

  The person who knows Qin Feng the best is actually Li Tianyuan, this rascal. In the detention center, as long as someone was openly bullying Qin Feng, they would inexplicably get beaten up. Others didn't know, but Li Tianyuan understood who was behind it.

  "Shut up, or I'll take you down right now."

  Qin Feng's words made Li Tianyuan immediately shut his mouth, and with a bitter face, he leaned over to listen to Qin Feng's arrangements.

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  "Boss, you're here?"

  A Honda sedan stopped in front of the "Yu Shi Zhai" store on Red Flag Street, and a middle-aged man got out of the car and walked into the store. The young shop assistant sitting behind the counter hurriedly came forward to greet him, and even the boss inside listening to the play stood up.

  The middle-aged man who entered the store had a hawk-like nose and narrow eyes, which always seemed to be scrutinizing others. In physiognomy, people with this facial structure are said to have cunning minds and a strong desire for control.

  "Zhao's shopkeeper, Yuan Long that kid came to the store to take money again?"

  The middle-aged man sat down and looked at the shopkeeper in his fifties with some dissatisfaction, saying: "I've said it many times, don't give him money from the store. I run an antique shop, not a bank!"

  The middle-aged man who spoke was the owner of Yu Shi Zhai and also Nie Tianlong's father, Nie Tianbao.

  Nie Tianbao in Shishi is also a legendary figure, he was originally an ordinary worker at the Shishi Fertilizer Plant, due to his cleverness, he was promoted to the business department to run business.

  After several years, Nie Tianbao surprisingly quit his iron rice bowl from the factory and started a fertilizer business with his accumulated connections, which shocked many people at that time.

  But who would have thought that Nie Tianbao's business would become bigger and bigger, almost radiating to all rural areas in Hebei Province, earning him the title of "Fertilizer King", one of the earliest entrepreneurs in Shijiazhuang.

  Shi City is very close to the capital, and it has been deeply influenced by the culture of the capital. With money, one naturally wants to live a life with taste. After coming into contact with some antique dealers in the capital, Nie Tianbao began to invest his funds in the jade stone business.

  Actually, there were not a few people doing business in the 80s, but after the big waves washed away the sand, the people who stayed behind had very unique vision. Nie Tianbao started from the foundation of jade and stone business and invested in a jade mine as soon as he started.

  After seven or eight years of development, Nie Tianbao's "Yu Shi Zhai" has also made a name for itself in the stone market and is even a raw material supplier for many small jade stone shops.

  However, in recent years, the competition for soft jade jewelry has been too fierce. Nie Tianbao turned his attention to Myanmar and, like Ge Lao Yezi, gradually began to try to open up the jadeite market. From what can be seen now, the prospects are not bad.

  Business was booming, but what gave Nie Tianbao a headache was that he had a son who didn't know how to behave. He didn't love studying, which was fine, but every day he would go out and gang up with others to fight and brawl. Before the age of 18, he had already been sent to reeducation through labor for a year.

  Nie Tianbao had just returned from Myanmar to investigate the jade market when he heard that his son had withdrawn 200,000 yuan from the store. Unable to find his son anywhere, he came to the store to demand an explanation.

  "Nie boss, Xiaolong came running over asking for money, I...I couldn't refuse, could I?"

  Zhao looked at Nie Tianbao's face and said cautiously: "Yu Long is still young, but he's a very clever kid. When he grows up a few more years and becomes sensible, he might even be able to help out with some of the shop's business."

  Opening an antique shop, the most important thing is to have a good store manager. Generally, the owner of an antique shop treats the manager like a master, because the success or failure of the business all depends on the manager's discerning eye.

  However, Zhao the shopkeeper of Yushizhai was obviously somewhat intimidated by Nie Tianbao, speaking with caution, afraid of offending him.

  Zhang's actions were also motivated by a reason. Two years ago, a small shop assistant at "Yu Shi Zhai" had stolen a piece of jade from the store, which was not very expensive, only worth 700 or 800 yuan.

  Zhao Zhanggui was thinking of calling the police, but Nie Tianbao directly brought a few people into the store, locked the door and brutally beat up the clerk. After that, he cut off one of the clerk's fingers. The scene is still vivid in Zhao Zhanggui's memory to this day.

  After that, Zhao Zhanggui originally wanted to resign, but was threatened by Nie Tianbao with a few ambiguous sentences, and could only continue to work hard, but from then on, he didn't dare to put on the airs of a shopkeeper in front of Nie Tianbao again.

  "You don't understand anything, all you know is to cause trouble!"

  After hearing Zhao's words, Nie Tianbao's face eased up. After being re-educated for a year, his son's fighting and quarreling had decreased significantly, but recently he had been rolling around in a pile of women every day, and the expenses were also rising linearly.

  Nie Tianbao had originally planned to cut off his allowance, letting him calm down for a bit. But this son of his wasn't one to conserve energy, directly using "Yu Shi Zhai" as an ATM.

  "Boss, I have no choice either. You also know Xiao Long's temper." Zhao Zhuang sighed and if he didn't know that Nie Tianbao was ruthless and cunning, he would have quit serving these two masters long ago.

  "Alright, Old Zhao, this isn't your fault. From now on, I'll have the finance department collect the money every day and not leave it in the cabinet. Let's see if that little brat can still cause trouble!"

  Nie Tianbao waved his hand and said, "Recently Red Flag Street has also become lively. How's our jade business? I've brought in some more rough stones this time."

  "Boss, I think we can increase the market promotion for jade and similar ornaments from now on..."

  Mr. Zhao pointed to the decorations under the glass cabinet and said, "Although ordinary people's awareness of jade is not very high, this thing is beautiful and can attract eyeballs, selling very well. Even if it's a slightly more expensive high-end jade, there are still people buying it."