sbdcsierra Chapter 1728 Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai's Acting Skills
Chapter 1728 Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai's Acting Skills
Chapter 1728 Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai's Acting Skills
"Five hundred thousand...?" Zhang Yuanmin's eyes weren't big, but they widened in surprise.
If Kei Ishii also offers such a price, doesn't that mean he and his brothers sold the golden bear bile at a loss?
But the feeling of frustration was fleeting; Zhang Yuanmin knew that real trouble was coming.
The Japanese devils just casually asked for 500,000!
Five hundred thousand! That's enough to drive many people crazy, even to the point of taking desperate measures. Just think about how Wang Haitao killed five people—and that was only a few days ago.
Zhang Yuanmin knew that he had to deal with the situation properly. It wouldn't work if he kept the golden bear bile in his own hands, nor would it work if he sold it for too much money.
In an instant, Zhang Yuanmin deflated like a punctured balloon; his straight back slumped down.
Seeing Zhang Yuanmin's reaction, Ishii Kei assumed he was dazed by the money he was offering, and immediately repeated, "If the quality is good, I can give you even more."
"Oh dear! Stop talking!" Zhang Yuanmin suddenly looked pained, covered his face with his hands and rubbed them down. Then he slapped his thigh hard and shouted, "Giving me five million more won't help!"
"Why?" Kei Ishii asked anxiously, only to see Zhang Yuanmin slap his thighs with both hands and say in frustration, "Last year, when someone came to buy mountain goods, Zhao Jun sold the bear gallbladder to him for 12,000!"
Zhang Yuanmin suddenly became a theatrical performer. Li Ruhai glanced at Zhang Yuanmin subconsciously. He knew that Zhang Yuanmin was wrong because he was there when the Golden Bear Gallbladder was sold at Hebei Huichuntang.
Li Ruhai instantly realized that Zhang Yuanmin was lying to Ishii Keiya. Knowing that he had to cooperate with Zhang Yuanmin, Li Ruhai immediately lowered his head, pursed his lips, opened his left hand, and clenched his right fist, pounding it hard on his left palm three times, silently expressing his inner distress.
"Twelve thousand..." Ishii Kei, who had also been fooled by Zhang Yuanmin, asked loudly, "Who did you sell it to?"
“A father and son from Hebei, surnamed Zheng.” Zhang Yuanmin frowned as if deep in thought, and said, “The son is about thirty years old and his name is Zheng Donghai. I can’t remember his father’s name.”
As soon as Zhang Yuanmin finished speaking, Zhang Laibao hurriedly asked, "Was it that father and son carrying a tattered bag and riding a bicycle?"
"It's them!" Zhang Yuanmin slapped the kang table twice, then shoved Li Ruhai twice with his other hand, saying, "I told you I wouldn't sell, I wouldn't sell, but Zhao Jun and your brother wouldn't listen to me. Now, are you alright?"
Zhang Yuanmin never called Zhao Jun by his name; he was doing so to express his indignation.
At this moment, Li Ruhai shoved Zhang Yuanmin's hand away and roared, "How can you blame my brother? Wasn't it all because Zhao Jun was in such a hurry to buy that jeep?"
Having figured out why Zhang Yuanmin lied, Li Ruhai directly found a place for the profits of the Zhao Family Chamber of Commerce to go, so that no one would covet them.
"Can we still find those two men?" Chen Yifeng asked, also tempted by the 500,000 yuan.
"They haven't come since after the New Year, have they?" Zhang Laibao said casually. Then, with a loud "smack," Zhang Yuanmin slammed his hand on the kang table and shouted, "Then why did they even come? They swindled us out of our bear bile, do you think they'd dare come back?"
At this moment, Li Ruhai jumped off the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and said, "No, I have to go back and call him right away. I need to ask my Uncle Zhao to look for this person in Hebei. Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, we have to find him!"
After saying that, Li Ruhai walked out. But he seemed to be in too much of a hurry, and he rushed into the west room of the Zhang family's house in a daze.
"What are you doing coming into my room?" Zhang Laibao pointed to the door of the outer room and shouted at Li Ruhai, "The door to the outer room is right here!"
Li Ruhai didn't say anything, and walked out silently, with Zhang Yuanmin hurriedly following behind.
Kei Ishii looked out the window and saw Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai walking out of the courtyard while blaming each other. He was now completely convinced.
"Sigh!" Kei Ishii also sighed heavily, got up from the bench, thanked Zhang Laibao, and then called Chen Yifeng and Mayumi Mori to leave.
Zhang Laibao reluctantly saw the group off to their car. To Zhang Laibao, Chen Yifeng and the others were like gods of wealth, and he truly didn't want them to leave.
Like Zhang Laibao, Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai also watched Ishii Keiya and the others leave.
They hid behind a pile of firewood not far away. After seeing the Santana and Jeep drive out of the village, Zhang Yuanmin breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The Japanese devils are gone. That means they didn't suspect us!"
"Yes, indeed." Li Ruhai nodded, then exclaimed to Zhang Yuanmin, "Brother Zhang, it's all thanks to your quick thinking today, otherwise our Zhao family gang would have been in big trouble."
"Hehe, now you know what Brother Zhang is capable of, right?" Zhang Yuanmin smiled smugly, raised his hand to pat Li Ruhai on the shoulder, and said, "Alright, Ruhai, let's go have a drink."
“Wait a minute, Brother Zhang.” Li Ruhai grabbed Zhang Yuanmin with one hand and pointed to Zhang Laibao who was going back into the house with the other, saying, “That Zhang Shaoji kid is too damn hateful. Let’s beat him up, and then we’ll leave.”
"This..." Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuanmin was immediately tempted, and the two hit it off immediately.
Because of Keiya Ishii and the others, Zhang Yuanmin and his group missed the first seat. But Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai didn't care about the food; if there was nothing else to do, they would go over there.
But Zhang Laibao was different. He missed the first round of the game, so he simply stayed home and waited to have his turn at the second round.
This gave Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai time to prepare. The two went back to Zhang Yuanmin, got a large sack, and then ambushed near Zhang Laibao's house.
Around 9:40, Zhang Laibao staggered out of his house. When he was almost at Zhang Yuanmin's ambush point, Li Ruhai suddenly whistled behind him.
Zhang Laibao turned around and suddenly everything went black as a large sack was dumped on his head. Just as Zhang Laibao was about to struggle, he was kicked hard in the lower back.
Zhang Laibao let out a scream as he fell to the ground, and was immediately punched twice.
"Fuck..." Zhang Laibao cursed, when he heard his mother Xu Meihua's voice: "Big Pants, Li Ruhai, what are you two doing?"
"Big Crotch! Li Ruhai! I..." Zhang Laibao felt a sudden lightness on his body as Zhang Yuanmin and Li Ruhai fled in panic.
But then, Xu Meihua pointed at the two of them and shouted, "Run! Qiaoli, run! We'll come looking for you in a minute!"
Hearing Xu Meihua's words, Li Ruhai reluctantly returned. As he moved along, he cursed himself inwardly for causing trouble.
Right now, his family is all at Lao Liu's house. And today is a special day. If Xu Meihua makes a scene, it will be Lao Li's family who will lose face.
“Aunt Zhang.” Li Ruhai smiled at Xu Meihua and said, “I was just joking around with my brother Bao.”
"Are you kidding me?" Xu Meihua asked Li Ruhai, shaking her head as she removed the sack from Zhang Laibao's body. "Would you be happy if I put a sack over your head and hit you?"
"Aunt Zhang... Ouch!" Zhang Yuanmin came over to say something, but Xu Meihua rushed over and reached out to scratch Zhang Yuanmin's face.
Zhang Yuanmin couldn't dodge in time and was scratched on the face by Xu Meihua's fingernails. Seeing this, Zhang Laibao lunged forward to attack Zhang Yuanmin, but was pushed away by Li Ruhai.
"What are you doing, Li Ruhai?" Xu Meihua saw Li Ruhai attack Zhang Laibao and quickly turned around to glare at him, saying, "I didn't scratch you because you're young, don't you feel bad about that?"
Xu Meihua said this, but in reality, she was a bully who preyed on the weak. Despite Li Ruhai's young age, he was incredibly eloquent, and Xu Meihua feared incurring his wrath.
"Aunt Zhang, I'm the one who's to blame today. I'm not human." Li Ruhai took responsibility and reached into his pocket, pulled out two ten-yuan bills, and handed them to Xu Meihua, saying, "Give this money to my brother Bao so he can buy some good food to make up for it."
"This little brat is really rich!" Xu Meihua thought to herself, then quickly snatched the money from Li Ruhai's hand and said to him with her neck stiff, "Let me tell you, if you keep talking to my son like this or that, I won't tolerate it."
“No, Aunt Zhang.” Li Ruhai laughed, “Then this matter is settled. You mustn’t tell anyone.”
At this point, Li Ruhai raised his hand and pointed in the direction of Old Liu's house, saying, "Today is my brother's big day. Anyone who dares to cause trouble here will be my enemy for life."
"What are you saying? Who the hell are you trying to scare?" Xu Meihua glared at Li Ruhai and said, "Besides, what do you take me for? Who would do that kind of thing?"
After saying this, Xu Meihua pushed Zhang Laibao and said, "Come on, Laibao, let's go home!"
"Huh?" Zhang Laibao was taken aback and blurted out, "Mom, aren't we going to drink?"
"What's there to drink?" Xu Meihua said irritably, "I'm already full of anger, let's go!"
Watching Xu Meihua tactfully lead Zhang Laibao home, Li Ruhai sighed and said, "Is this ridiculous?"
"Ruhai!" At this moment, Zhang Yuanmin tugged at Li Ruhai, pointed to his left cheek, and asked Li Ruhai, "Look, did you scratch it all over?"
"Hmm!" Li Ruhai raised his right hand, his thumb and forefinger indicating two centimeters, and said, "This is a long one."
"Damn it, this woman!" Zhang Yuanmin said with a worried look, "I can't even leave the house!"
Men are expected to make a good impression when they go out. If Zhang Yuanmin went out with a bruise on his face, people would suspect that he and his wife had been fighting and that Yang Yufeng had scratched him. That wouldn't be easy to explain. If Zhang Yuanmin said that Xu Meihua had scratched him, people would start to think even more.
"Brother Zhang, this is my fault." Li Ruhai said with a wry smile, "You should go home quickly, otherwise people might see it and cause trouble."
"Alright then." Zhang Yuanmin covered his face and said, "I'll go home, you can go over there."
"What am I supposed to do?" Li Ruhai frowned, raised his chin, pointed in the direction of the Zhang family, and said, "I'll keep an eye on them from here. Their family is no good, and if they go to my sister-in-law's house and say anything, that'll be a real mess!"
Just as Li Ruhai and Zhang Yuanmin were feeling like they had lost more than they gained by trying to steal a chicken, Ishii Kei, sitting in the Santana, suddenly let out a heavy sigh.
At this moment, only he, Mayumi Mori, and Tomotaro Murata were in the car. Seeing that Kei Ishii also looked worried, Mayumi Mori said somewhat uncertainly, "Mr. Ishii, I feel that something is wrong with this."
Keiya Ishii frowned and asked impatiently, "What's wrong?"
“You probably didn’t notice,” Mori Mayumi said, “when that guy surnamed Zhang said that the golden bear bile sold for 12,000 yuan, Li Ruhai looked at him with a strange expression for a moment, as if he was shocked.”
"Huh?" Kei Ishii turned his head sharply and looked at Mayumi Mori, asking, "Yumi, did you see that clearly?"
“I saw it clearly,” Mori Mayumi said. “Although Li Ruhai’s reaction afterwards seemed normal, I feel there’s something fishy going on.”
“Strange?” Kei Ishii recalled his conversation with Zhang Yuanmin in his mind. After two or three minutes, Kei Ishii said, “The Chinese are very cunning. I may have been deceived by them.”
After saying this, Kei Ishii continued, "If the golden bear bile was really sold by them, then Zhang Yuanmin should refute Chen Sang's claim that the nearby pharmacies did not receive any news about the golden bear bile."
Mayumi Mori nodded repeatedly, but Tomotaro Murata, who was driving, suddenly interjected, asking, "Mr. Ishii, shall we go back now?"
"No! Let's go down the mountain first." After giving instructions to Tomotaro Murata, Keiya Ishii said to Mayumi Mori, "Yumi, after we go down the mountain, prepare another 100,000 yen in cash."
Seeing Mayumi Mori's blank expression, Kei Ishii sneered, "I heard that Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin make a living by buying bear bile and animal fur, so I'll cut off their livelihood."
As he spoke, Kei Ishii looked out the car window at the somewhat desolate mountains and said, "When their own interests are harmed, I don't believe they will still care about any sense of national sentiment."
……
At 2:30 p.m., Zhao Jun, along with Li Baoyu, Li Dayong, Jin Xiaomei, and Li Xiaoqiao, left the Liu family's house, reluctant to part.
Li Baoyu, sitting in the passenger seat, stared at the rearview mirror until they turned the corner.
"Sigh!" Li Baoyu sighed, but suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Hey? Brother, Dad, Mom, have you seen Ruhai and my Brother Zhang?"
"Are you thinking about your brother?" Li Dayong joked, "Ruhai got into trouble with your brother Zhang, and Ruhai is cleaning up the mess."
Neither Zhang Yuanmin nor Li Ruhai showed up for the first round. They didn't see anyone for the second round either. Zhao Jun personally led Xie Chen and Zhao Jinhui out to look for them and found Zhang Yuanmin eating steamed buns at home, and Li Ruhai hiding near Zhang Zhanshan's house.
While Li Dayong was talking, Zhao Jun drove the jeep into the alley. After he honked the horn twice, Li Ruhai, who was sleeping against a stack of firewood, woke up, got up, wiped the drool from his chin, and ran over.
As soon as Li Ruhai got into the car, Jin Xiaomei asked with a pained expression, "My dear son, are you hungry?"
"I'm not hungry, Mom." After Li Ruhai finished speaking, Zhao Jun asked, "Ruhai, what happened to those Japanese devils that I didn't have a chance to ask you the other day?"
Upon hearing this, Li Ruhai immediately perked up, gesturing with his hands and saying, "Brother, just as Zhu Zhiwu repelled the Qin army in ancient times, Brother Zhang and I will repel the Japanese devils today!"
After saying this, Li Ruhai hurriedly asked, "Brother, where is Brother Zhang?"
"You've come to our house, haven't you?" Zhao Jun replied. Wang Meilan and the others left after finishing their meal, and Zhang Yuanmin should have gone to the Zhao family compound as well.
Upon hearing this, Li Ruhai laughed and said, "Then let's wait until we get back and keep an eye on my brother Zhang, then we can talk about this together."
Zhao Jun glanced at Li Ruhai; this kid was getting more and more promising. In the past, you couldn't stop him from talking about these kinds of things that showed off.
The jeep stopped outside the Zhao family compound. Li Ruhai got out and walked into the courtyard, humming the theme song of "The Legend of Huo Yuanjia" as he went: "Hey monkey bar, dog on bar, I'm tired of being a bunch of pancakes..."
(End of this chapter)