26: Chapter 26 Scarcity Marketing

Wang Teng's face was deathly pale as he pressed himself against a corner, his expensive custom suit crumpled and disheveled.

He didn't understand.

The master forgers in his family had clearly stated that these items were enough to pass for real; even instrument testing would take half an hour. Why did Lin Fan know with just one look? Why did he dare to drink it?

"Stop them! Stop them quickly!"

Wang Teng shouted hysterically at his bodyguards.

A few bodyguards tried to step forward, only to be pinned to the ground and pummeled by several irritable brothers who were at the fifth or sixth rank of Martial Apprentice.

"Young Master Wang, we can't hold them back! Run!"

The head bodyguard hoisted Wang Teng up, forcibly shoved through the crowd at the back door, and shielded him as they fled in disgrace.

"Lin Fan! You just wait! This isn't over!"

One of Wang Teng's leather shoes fell off, but he didn't even care to pick it up. Under the cover of his bodyguards, he scrambled into a luxury car parked by the roadside like a stray dog.

The engine roared, and the luxury car fled in panic.

"Pah!"

Zhang Hao stood on the tricycle, banging a broken gong. The sound was more festive than the New Year.

"This is what you call an 'open box'? This is a great family?"

The fat man pointed at the mess across the street, his loud voice carrying halfway down the block. "Treating everyone like fools—is this your so-called conscience? If you ask me, this is just black-hearted!"

"Our Brother Fan is the honest one!"

Zhang Hao jumped off the vehicle and patted the plain cardboard box in front of him. "Even though these are blind boxes and you can't see what's inside, we guarantee they're genuine! For ten thousand yuan, you won't be cheated, and you won't be fooled!"

The crowd gradually calmed down.

Looking at the smashed shop across the street and then at the steady Lin Fan on this side, many people's minds began to stir.

Only through comparison can one see the harm.

Lin Fan's display of physical poison testing just now hadn't just exposed Wang Teng's scam; it had invisibly boosted the credibility of his own stall.

"Boss..."

A student wearing glasses walked over timidly. "I... I want to buy a blind box. This is half a year's worth of living expenses I've saved up..."

He glanced at Lin Fan and then at the pile of boxes. He was clearly frightened by the fakes earlier and was somewhat hesitant.

Lin Fan didn't waste words.

He directly picked out the box labeled C2 from the pile and handed it to the student.

"Take it."

Lin Fan's tone was flat, yet it carried an unquestionable confidence.

The student was stunned and instinctively took the box.

The surrounding crowd also closed in, holding their breath.

Rip.

The seal was torn open.

A complete beast hide, glowing with a faint black light and with fur as smooth as silk, appeared before everyone's eyes.

"Holy crap! A Shadow Cat pelt!"

A mercenary who knew his stuff cried out in surprise, "This is the main material for making Stealth War Boots! And this pelt was skinned perfectly, without a single blemish! It's worth at least 13,000!"

"He profited! He made three thousand in one go!"

The student's face flushed with excitement. Holding the pelt, he bowed repeatedly to Lin Fan. "Thank you, Boss! Thank you, Brother Fan!"

"Next."

Lin Fan ignored the surrounding exclamations and scanned the crowd.

"Me! Brother Fan, pick one for me!"

"I want one too! Don't push me!"

"Brother Fan, I believe in you! Give me a ten-thousand-yuan one!"

The situation reversed instantly.

The long queue that had been at the Treasure Pavilion's door demanding refunds now all turned around, surging frantically toward Lin Fan's simple tricycle stall.

"Out of stock."

A piece of cardboard with crookedly written large characters was heartlessly hung on the front of the tricycle.

"Daily limit: ten. No additional orders."

Lin Fan tossed the marker aside and brushed the dust off his hands, his movements as elegant as an artist who had just finished a masterpiece.

The crowd that had been frantically waving cash instantly erupted into a frenzy.

"What? That's it?"

"Boss, I have money! I'll pay double, just let me open one!"

"I've been in line for half an hour, how can you just close up like that!"

The clamor almost flipped the night market over.

Fatty Zhang Hao looked at the faces flushed with anxiety and the stacks of cash that were about to fly away, his heart aching so much he trembled. He grabbed Lin Fan's sleeve, his eyes nearly popping out.

"Brother Fan! Are you crazy? This is all money! Don't we have over forty more in stock? Why not sell them?"

Slap.

Lin Fan backhanded the fatty's shiny forehead.

"Have some ambition."

Lin Fan pointed at the crowd, which instead of dispersing, had started bidding on the spot for tomorrow's queue positions.

"Fatty, remember. Good goods are hard to find; if they're everywhere, they're worthless."

He pulled a cigar he'd swiped from Wang Teng's shop out of his pocket and stuck it in his mouth, though he didn't light it.

"What we're selling is anticipation, the gambler's hope for a turnaround—not a wholesale market. If everyone can buy it, what's the difference between these blind boxes and pork in a vegetable market?"

Zhang Hao clutched his forehead. Watching the customers who were already shouting prices of 12,000 just to secure the first spot for tomorrow, his mouth slowly fell open.

So business could be done this way.

You treat the customers like monkeys, and they still scramble to give you bananas.

Is this the highest realm of a Shrewd Merchant?

Lin Fan watched the rising reservation fees, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

Ten.

This was a precisely calculated number.

It maintained the hype while ensuring he had enough time to filter for high-quality raw materials. After all, his [Hundredfold Return] could only truly take off if he opened good things.

Large quantities at low prices was a low-end path.

Taking the high-end boutique route was the true way to harvest leeks... oh no, to serve the public.

...

Jianghai City Center, Su Family Manor.

Late at night.

Inside the massive private training room, the temperature was terrifyingly low.

Thick frost covered the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. The air seemed frozen, and every breath brought forth a puff of white mist.

In the center of the training room, Su Qingxue sat cross-legged.

A halo of faint blue light surrounded her, and the [delusion-breaking ice crystal] floated in front of her brow, shrinking at a visible rate.

Streams of extremely pure mental energy surged through her brow and into her sea of consciousness.

Crack.

The sound of some sort of bottleneck shattering echoed in the void.

Su Qingxue snapped her eyes open.

Deep within her originally dark pupils, two sharp glints of icy blue flashed and vanished. The frost throughout the training room instantly exploded, turning into a sky full of crystalline powder.

Seventh Rank Martial Apprentice!

Moreover, her mental strength was approaching the Martial Artist realm!

The effect of this ice crystal was even more terrifying than she had anticipated. Absorbing only half of it had caused the bottleneck that had troubled her for half a year to shatter like paper.

"Whew..."

Su Qingxue exhaled a breath of cold air and was about to stand up.

Boom!

The training room's alloy door, weighing a thousand jin, was violently pushed open from the outside.

The massive impact echoed through the empty room.

A pink figure, like a crazed deer, rushed straight in accompanied by a gust of fragrant wind.

"Qing Xue baby! I'm here!"

The newcomer was a girl with twin tails, wearing a complex Lolita dress.

She moved incredibly fast; before Su Qingxue could react, the girl was hanging onto her like a koala.

"Aiyaya! It's freezing me to death!"

While shouting about the cold, the girl rubbed her face against Su Qingxue's neck. "Why is your training room like an ice cellar... Huh?"

Mid-rub, the girl's movements suddenly stiffened.

She jerked her head up, her large almond eyes full of shock.

"Something's not right!"

The girl let go of Su Qingxue and circled her twice, looking her up and down.

"Qing Xue, how did your mental strength increase so much? This fluctuation... it's almost catching up to my martial-obsessed brother! Did you take some prohibited drug behind my back?"