81 Southeast Asia (1/2)

”Who's this?” Chen Fan was too lazy to even look at the number, pressing the answer key directly.

”Bro Chen, you must have been very busy, you don't even recognize my number?” A sinister voice came from the other side.

”Oh, Boss Chen, what can I do for you?”

”Are you free? Let's chat over tea.”

”I'm okay, you need my help to transport tiger bones again?”

”No, no!” Chen Shuguang gave a cunning laugh before saying, ”It's another big matter. Do you have time to meet?”

”Now…” Chen Fan looked at the time and said, ”Alright, you name a place.”

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Half an hour later, after arriving in a cab at a tea house called 'Paradise Tea Garden'... The guy seemed to have a hobby of going to tea houses. He asked to meet Chen Fan at a tea house every time they conspired.

”Bro Chen, it's been just a few days but you look a little haggard.” Chen Shuguang looked at Chen Fan with bantering eyes. ”You didn't take the tiger bone wine I gave you?”

”It's not about that. It's been a bad day for me.” Chen Fan waved his hand and poured himself a cup of tea. ”So, why are you looking for me?”

”It's a huge deal, do you think you can stomach it?”

”Huge deal? Don't tell me you wanna get rid of all the tigers in Vietnam and then retire after that?”

”Mine is small-scale compared to those powerful bosses. It's not about medicinal drugs this time.”

”What is it then?” Chen Fan used his poor imagination. ”Don't tell me you are trafficking women over and selling them to others as wives?”

”...Ermm...just listen to me…” Chen Shuguang lowered his voice. ”Previously when I went to Myanmar from Vietnam to buy tiger bones, through referral, I spent half a month to heal a very powerful man of his rheumatoid arthritis using my secret prescription. During this half a month, I got to know him better. After I expanded my business, I started to do marine transport from Vietnam, but I still visit him occasionally in Myanmar and get some jadeite from him at low prices to sell to the jewelers who went to Myanmar to receive goods…”

”Can you go straight to the point? It's not a good habit keeping someone in suspense.”

”Haha.” Chen Shuguang turned the jadeite ring on his finger and said, ”This ring was given to me by him as a reward. I was a fool and wanted to be paid in cash, but I was afraid that he would be embarrassed, so I forced myself to accept it and pretended to be happy. Guess what happened after that?”

”I can't guess what happened, but I can tell you very seriously that if you continue to leave me hanging like this, I'll get very angry!” This guy left Chen Fan hanging as high as the Himalayas but still continued to speak slowly.

”After that, not long after I was on the streets and I bumped into a jeweler from Guangdong…” Chen Shuguang recalled. ”He immediately offered 2 million RMB for my ring, only then did I realize that this ring's a treasure, so I quickly rejected him. This man didn't give up and increased the price to 2.6 million RMB. He saw that I was still unrelenting and finally left bitterly. And this was the price six years ago. It's gone up more than a fold now.”

”So what huge business does he have that you need to be so secretive about?” Chen Fan was full of doubts. ”Don't tell me it's smuggling jadeite?”