167: Departure from American Ginseng Plantation

When Chen Kai asked this, the shopkeeper paused for a moment, rubbing his forehead as he thought it over.

"Well... you'd need to buy at least tens of thousands of yuan worth, right? After all, this is wholesale. If you say you want a large quantity, surely buying a few thousand yuan worth of Fresh Ginseng wouldn't count as a large quantity, would it? It wouldn't even cover the shipping costs."

The boss spoke calmly. If it were an order worth tens of thousands of yuan, involving several thousand stalks of Fresh Ginseng, he would take the order; there would be money to be made.

He might even make three or four days' worth of income from it. The profit margin on these things isn't high to begin with, and since buying in bulk means giving a discount, he would only make about three or four days' worth of profit.

But money is money—three or four days' worth of profit is enough to let him slack off for a long time.

Chen Kai frowned. "That's definitely going to be much more than that figure. See what the lowest price you can offer is. If I want to buy 20,000 stalks, at what price can you sell them?"

"If it's too expensive, I'll just go ask someone else."

As soon as Chen Kai said this, the boss was shocked, his lips trembling slightly.

"H-how many?! 20,000 stalks?! Are you trying to buy out an entire hillside? 20,000 stalks!!"

"If... if you really want 20,000 stalks of Fresh Ginseng, I can give them to you for ten yuan each! That's pure cost price; I'd only be making five jiao per stalk. Do... do you think that works?"

The boss's eyes were full of urgency and anticipation. 20,000 stalks—that's 200,000 yuan!

He could earn 10,000 yuan from the middleman fee! That was enough to cover nearly ten days of his shop's profit!

He absolutely could not let such a big order and a big client slip away!

Everyone would be breaking their heads trying to fight him for such a client! He had to keep the profit margin at the absolute minimum.

However, if the profit dropped below 10,000 yuan, it would almost be like working for nothing, since mountain goods usually have huge profit margins.

Upon hearing this, Chen Kai thought the boss was actually quite honest and immediately nodded.

"Alright, then please help me contact them. You're sure it's American Ginseng, right? I don't want any other varieties."

Upon hearing this, the boss immediately walked out of the shop, pulled down the rolling shutter, and dragged Chen Kai outside.

"Let's go, let's go! The shop is closed today! I'm going to accompany you, brother, to the American Ginseng Planting Base to buy ginseng! I'll haggle with them personally!"

"We must make him deliver it to your Cold Storage. You've rented a Cold Storage, right? Otherwise, buying so much at once makes it prone to spoiling."

Chen Kai smiled faintly. "It's already rented. He can help me deliver it there, right?"

"Yes, he definitely has to deliver it for you. With a big client like you, how could he not deliver it?"

The boss kept a smile on his face, full of anticipation. He was going to strike it rich today.

The two walked out of the farmers' market, and the boss took out the car keys to his wuling hongguang minivan, "derder" twice as he unlocked it.

"Brother, did you drive here? If you did, just follow behind me. The road is a bit far, and I'm afraid I won't be able to bring you back later. You'd still have to come back to get your car."

Chen Kai agreed, gave an OK gesture, and pulled the keys to his Mercedes-Benz out of his pocket.

The boss was stunned again, clicking his tongue secretly. He really was a big spender. He had originally wanted to ask Chen Kai for a deposit, but once he saw the Mercedes-Benz, he didn't need a deposit at all.

Someone driving a Mercedes-Benz wouldn't just run off on his order, would they? What a joke.

Moreover, it even had a lucky license plate number; he must be a prominent figure in Jiangnan City, the kind whose word is law.

He was really going to strike it rich this time, actually running into such a big shot coming to him to buy ginseng.

Watching him get into his car, Chen Kai turned and got into his Mercedes-Benz, following behind the wuling hongguang minivan as they headed toward the American Ginseng Planting Base.

...

Less than half an hour later, Chen Kai drove following him along the national highway and turned into a mountain road, surrounded by dense plantations.

Judging by the signs on the side of the road, there were strawberry and grape plantations and such. Driving further in, there was a large ginseng plantation covered with greenhouses.

At the entrance, there was also a small two-story western-style building.

The wuling hongguang minivan stopped in front of the small building, and the boss lit a cigarette, silently waiting for Chen Kai to get out.

Two minutes later, Chen Kai also parked his car, got out, lit a cigarette, and then followed the boss into the room.

Inside the room sat a man wearing glasses and playing on his phone. Seeing the mountain goods shop owner arrive, he quickly stood up to greet him.

"Oh, Old Li, what a rare guest! What brings you here today? Are you picking up some dried ginseng? I just happened to stock up on a batch of dried ones. How much do you want?"

The boss chuckled immediately. He suddenly realized that besides earning a commission in the middle, he could also gain a favor from the planting base.

"I'm not here to buy dried ginseng today! I'm here to introduce a big client to you!"

The man sitting in the room immediately adjusted his glasses, his eyes full of curiosity.

"Really? You can introduce a big client to me? Are they buying dried ginseng? Or is it a new competitor of yours?"

The boss shook his head. "Neither. They want to buy Fresh American Ginseng—20,000 stalks."

The man was stunned, nearly dropping his phone on the floor.

"How many?! How many does he want to buy? A factory? He wants to buy 20,000 stalks?!"

The man was immediately excited. He quickly wiped his hands on his clothes and reached out toward Chen Kai.

"Hello, hello! My name is Zhou Lei, the owner of this American Ginseng Planting Base. Do you really want 20,000 stalks?"

Zhou Lei muttered, his eyes filled with a mix of exclamation and disbelief.

This was a big client, almost comparable to those purchasing factories!

The reason their American Ginseng Planting Base was a bit small was precisely because they didn't have long-term cooperation with manufacturers; no manufacturer was willing to consistently buy their ginseng.

Almost everyone who came to buy ginseng from them was either Retail Investors or small vendors who would take it and sell it as Wild Ginseng.

Without enough capital, they couldn't expand even if they wanted to. He was just worrying about not being able to find a big factory to buy their ginseng, and unexpectedly, someone had just introduced a big shot to him.

This was too good to be true.

Chen Kai nodded and shook hands with Zhou Lei.

"Let me see the quality of your American Ginseng. You're sure it's the same quality as what the big factories purchasing ginseng require, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes! Definitely! We just had a bit of bad luck; we were late in negotiating with the big factories and were beaten to the punch by others. Our factory's ginseng is excellent."

"Young man, come with me. I'll show you our Fresh Ginseng. I'll dig one up for you right now!"

Chen Kai nodded and went out with Zhou Lei to the greenhouse plantation behind the building.

Zhou Lei grabbed a shovel, dug twice, and unearthed a palm-length piece of Fresh Ginseng, freshly dug from the soil.

He pulled the ginseng out of the mud; even the ginseng roots were still covered with soil.

He held it in his hand and showed it to Chen Kai.

"This is the specification! The ginseng here is excellent!"

"If you are sincere about buying, I'll take you to the warehouse to take a look right now!"