23: Chapter 23 Looks like I'll be busy tonight.

When Li Yi woke up with his head resting on gold, he was still reminiscing about the scene in his dream where he was completely surrounded by gold; not only was the house made of gold, but the large bed and wardrobe were also gold, and even various utensils were gold.

Of course, the food wasn't gold.

Otherwise, it would be like committing suicide by swallowing gold.

At most, the food would be more expensive than gold.

Li Yi carried a backpack, put twenty jin of gold inside, and headed out to cash it in.

Ordinary gold shops couldn't handle that much gold, so Li Yi looked for some larger-scale ones.

Zhou Laofu Jewelry's main business was originally traditional gold jewelry. Although it now focused on mainstream and precious jewelry products, including various gem-set jewelry, platinum products, and watches, gold products still held a significant share.

After choosing a Zhou Laofu Jewelry store on Jingtian Road, Li Yi saw a clerk standing behind the counter and asked, "Do you buy back gold?"

The clerk replied with a smile, "We do buy back gold. How much gold are you selling?"

"It's quite a bit. It's better to let your manager handle the discussion."

The clerk glanced at Li Yi's clothes, which weren't high-end, and suspected he might be playing with her. However, with good professional etiquette, she still asked, "About how much is there?"

"At least this much." Li Yi held out one hand and waved his open palm.

50 grams? 500 grams? She tentatively believed that Li Yi indeed had that much gold. The clerk didn't ask further and led him to an office in the back.

"Manager Wang, this customer intends to sell gold and needs to talk with you," the clerk said to the middle-aged man sitting behind the desk.

"Alright. Go pour a cup of tea for the customer."

Manager Wang walked over and invited Li Yi to sit on the sofa.

"Hello. What is your surname?"

"My surname is Li."

"Mr. Li, about how much gold do you want to sell?"

"What gold price are you currently using for your purchases?"

"That depends on the purity of the gold you bring out. For 24K gold, it's 420 yuan per gram; for 99.9% pure gold, it's 424 yuan per gram; and for 99.99% pure gold, it's 425 yuan per gram."

"Is it that low? I saw the domestic gold price quoted at 440 yuan per gram," Li Yi questioned.

"That's the gold quote, but we are buying it back. There are costs involved, so it will be slightly lower than the domestic gold price."

420 yuan per gram. Li Yi thought for a moment; it was a bit lower than his expected price, but still acceptable.

He took out 12 jin of gold and said, "I'll sell about this much gold. The weight is 6,000 grams."

Manager Wang looked at the pile of gold, his eyes lighting up. Using this much gold to process jewelry could yield a significant profit.

He tossed a gold bar in his hand and said, "We need to test the purity of the gold. You'll need to wait a moment."

He then made a call and had someone bring equipment into the office to begin the testing.

Li Yi watched as the person who entered used a testing instrument on the gold bars. The result quickly came out: "99.9% pure gold." Several other gold bars were sampled and tested, and they were also 99.9% pure gold.

Manager Wang didn't ask for further testing and said, "They should all be 99.9% pure gold. Since your transaction is so large this time, to show our sincerity, I'll buy it at the 99.99% pure gold rate. What do you think?"

"No problem." Since it meant more money for Li Yi, he naturally had no issue.

After weighing all the gold, Manager Wang saw that it was exactly as Li Yi had said. He straightforwardly closed the deal for 6,000 grams at 425 yuan per gram.

When signing the gold purchase agreement, Manager Wang asked if there were certificates for the gold. Li Yi simply shook his head and said no.

Manager Wang hesitated slightly, but seeing that it was only 6,000 grams—not a particularly large amount—he decided to take it.

After Manager Wang transferred 2.55 million yuan to his bank account, Li Yi pushed the gold over to him.

"If you have more gold to sell next time, you can come to me," Manager Wang said as he handed Li Yi a business card while seeing him out.

"If I do, I'll come to you."

Li Yi didn't refuse. Anyway, if he were to sell gold in the future, it wouldn't matter who he sold it to.

After leaving the Zhou Laofu Jewelry store on Jingtian Road, Li Yi found another Zhou Laofu Jewelry store on Pinglong Road and sold the remaining 4,000 grams of gold in his backpack. This time, the transaction price was 424 yuan per gram, earning him 1.696 million yuan.

Li Yi hurried back to his rental house and, in two trips, sold the remaining 54.6 jin of gold at King Fook Jewelry, Jiufu Jewelry, and Laomiao Gold.

The prices ranged from 422 to 427 yuan per gram, accumulating 11.574 million yuan. Today, a total of 15.82 million yuan entered Li Yi's various bank accounts.

This amount was a bit less than Li Yi had initially expected, but it wasn't significantly lower.

Li Yi had no plans to spend this money immediately for the time being.

The Multiverse Arms Trading System no longer required top-ups. Later, he would directly sell the oil from Iran to the system; that method would generate even more system funds.

Although this money seemed like a lot, it wasn't worth much in Peng City.

It couldn't even buy a larger apartment, let alone a detached villa.

He could only silently suppress the idea of moving and temporarily stay in his rental house.

Once he had more funds, he would upgrade to a large villa in one go.

Just after Li Yi finished selling all the gold, Lieutenant Colonel Haidari called.

"Is your oil transport fleet ready? I've already arranged for people to fill 943,000 barrels of oil into the storage tanks."

After reporting to Major General Rahim, Lieutenant Colonel Haidari tirelessly began arranging the oil delivery.

After some communication with Syria, and finally promising to send a batch of anti-aircraft missiles as reinforcements to the Syrian army, he managed to get Syria to agree to hand over the stockpiled oil to Haidari for processing.

After the Glass House received the Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile, a batch of anti-aircraft missiles would naturally be phased out. At that time, this batch would be given to Syria, making for a perfect arrangement.

Deir ez-Zor already had many oil storage tanks. After coordination, a sufficient number of tanks were quickly centralized, and all 943,000 barrels of oil were filled into them.

Once these tasks were completed, Haidari couldn't wait to contact Li Yi.

"So soon? Tell me the specific location of the oil storage tanks, and I'll arrange for them to be transported away overnight." Li Yi planned to use the Multiverse Arms Trading System to collect all the oil in one go under the cover of night.

After Lieutenant Colonel Haidari gave the specific address, he asked, "Do you need us to send hoisting vehicles or personnel to help tonight?"

"No need. All your personnel must evacuate that area before 9 PM." Li Yi refused directly.

"Alright. Let me know once your side has finished the transport."

Li Yi hung up Haidari's call. It looked like he would be busy tonight.