The Fatty Xu that Chen Qing had mentioned arrived not too long later.

He looked approximately twenty-five years old, and he wore a pair of gold-framed gla.s.ses. Ignoring his body size, he looked rather refined in manner.

Ren Baqian reckoned that Fatty Xu weighed approximately 110 kilograms. Every time he took a step, his body would tremble.

"h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo, you must be Young Master Chen's friend. You can call me Fatty Xu," Fatty Xu said as he shook Ren Baqian's hand. The moment Fatty Xu entered the building, he took his gla.s.ses off and scanned the room.

"I'm called Ren Baqian," Ren Baqian introduced himself.

"Oh, Eighty Thousand Years Old, what a formidable name. In the ancient times, only a prince consort would have such a name." Fatty Xu burst out in laughter. He was amiable and slick but wasn't detestable.

When Ren Baqian heard these words, his mind s.h.i.+vered slightly. After all, he was really going to become a prince consort soon. Who did Dad find to come up with this name for me?

"It's rare that you will think about me when you have something good going on in your life." Fatty Xu patted Chen Qing's shoulder and sat on a chair. Soon after, he seemed to feel discomfort. Immediately, he pulled another chair to him, combined the two chairs together, and sat on them steadily. Then, he took off his gla.s.ses and wiped off the condensation that had gathered on them.

"My marriage is a good thing, right? I will definitely invite you to give me a present." Chen Qing chuckled as well.

"That is a must."

"Have you decided on a date?" Ren Baqian turned around and asked Chen Qing. The banquet Ren Baqian attended previously was for Chen Qing's and Jiang Nan's engagement. He wasn't sure whether or not had they decided on a date for their marriage.

"The first of May next year. I would have notified you even if you didn't ask me," Chen Qing replied.

After a short chit-chat session, Chen Qing said to Fatty Xu, "My brother has something to sell. They are clean but he can't find a buyer. Take a look at them. Take them if you can, otherwise, find a buyer for them. He is one of our own, don't treat him like an outsider."

"Don't worry, leave it to me. We're friends from now onwards." Fatty Xu immediately patted his chest.

"Xu Jewelry is operated by his family. He has clean connections in this line of business," Chen Qing introduced Fatty Xu to Ren Baqian.

Xu Jewelry was one of the largest jewelers in the city. Xu Jewelry had a grand total of six shops in this city. They had shops outside of the city as well, making them a rather reputable jeweler.

Ren Baqian placed a few gemstones on the revolving tray and said, "Sorry for troubling you."

Fatty Xu spun the tray, and the gemstones appeared before him. Following which, he took out a piece of white cloth, a pair tweezers, a pair of gloves, and a magnifying gla.s.s from his bag and placed them on the table one by one. Then, he put the gloves on, placed the gemstones on the piece of cloth, and then examined them carefully.

While Fatty Xu was examining the gemstones, Ren Baqian and Chen Qing waited on one side. Ren Baqian was also unclear on exactly what kind of gemstones they were. Even though the gemstones that were gifted to the empress were of good quality, that world was, nevertheless, still slightly different from Earth.

Hence, Ren Baqian wouldn't be surprised if things took a wrong turn.

Fatty Xu kept a solemn look on his face and remained silent as he examined the gemstones. After a long while, he placed the five precious stones back on the piece of cloth. Then, he took off the gloves and wiped off the sweat of his forehead. Following which, he smiled at Ren Baqian and Chen Qing and said, "There should not be any problems. Furthermore, they are natural and have never been processed with heat before. However, I still have to take them back to re-examine them. After all, the equipment I have here with me is simple and crude. Brother Ren, you want to sell them, right? Are they clean?"

"They're definitely clean—they were pa.s.sed down to me by an old man. There won't be any issues."

"That will be the best," Fatty Xu said as he wiped off the sweat on his forehead.

"Brother Ren, if you want to send them to an auction house, I can arrange an official appraisal for them. If you want to realize them, the selling price might be slightly lower than the market price. After all, there's a lot of money involved. Even if you're my friend, I still have to account for it," Fatty Xu continued.

"Realize them."

"Alright, I will get back to you after I bring them back for re-examination."

"Fatty, don't you have a rough estimation of their price?" Chen Qing asked.

"Even though these two rubies aren't pigeon blood, they are deep-red and their purity level is very high. More importantly, they have never been processed before. Meanwhile, these three gemstones are emeralds. Their color and l.u.s.ter are not bad. If I'm not wrong, they are roughly worth at least 20 million yuan. I still need to re-examine them to confirm their selling price. It's not that I don't trust Brother Ren, but rather, I'm afraid that I might make a mistake. After all, it's hard not to make a mistake when examining gemstones. A small mistake will cause a huge trouble," Fatty Xu elaborated and chuckled.

Ren Baqian kept the gemstones. Then, the three of them had a meal together and chit-chatted. Throughout the meal, Fatty Xu never asked Ren Baqian about the origin of the gemstones at all. Since Ren Baqian had already told him where the gemstones came from, there was no need for him to ask about it any further.

Chen Qing also mentioned the matter regarding the black mud cream. The laboratory equipment and manpower had already been prepared. Those seeds were also being cultivated. All they needed to do now was to wait for the result.

There were two reasons why Chen Qing mentioned this matter now. First, Ren Baqian had been very elusive recently. Secondly, Chen Qing wanted Fatty Xu to know that Ren Baqian was doing business with his family.

Doing so would make Fatty Xu realize that Ren Baqian wasn't someone to be trifled with. This could save Ren Baqian a whole lot of trouble.

After they finished their food, Ren Baqian sent Chen Qing back to his law firm and then followed Fatty Xu to the largest Xu Jewelry shop in the city. Ren Baqian waited for the entire afternoon before the examination results of the gemstones were finally out.

Fatty Xu looked at the report in his hand and said to Ren Baqian, "Brother Ren, if these gemstones are sent to an auction house, they can be auctioned off for more than 30 million yuan. At most, they can be auctioned off at the price of 33 million yuan. If two or more people have their eyes on them, their auction price will be higher. However, if you decide to sell them to me, I can only offer you 25 million yuan for them. This is the best I can do. After all, there is still a lot of follow-up work that I'll have to do. It will take a few months for these gemstones to be sent to an auction. I have to account for such a huge sum of money and time invested."

"Alright, thank you." Ren Baqian nodded his head. The selling price of the gemstones was much higher than he thought. He did not mind the fact that Fatty Xu would earn a huge profit from this transaction. After all, if he brought these gemstones elsewhere, it was very likely that he could only sell them for 30 million yuan.

Next, they had to settle the appraisal agreement.

By the time Ren Baqian left the shop, his bank account had an additional 25 million yuan.

As for those jade pendants, Ren Baqian also eventually showed them to Fatty Xu. Even though they were of good quality, they did not have much historical value. And so, they were not valuable and could only be sold for a few hundreds of thousands of yuan. In the past, that would be a huge sum of money to Ren Baqian. However, with the addition of 25 million yuan to his bank account, Ren Baqian wasn't in a rush to sell them.

Ren Baqian, upon leaving the store, immediately transferred 2 million yuan to his family. Less than half an hour later, his family called him.

The 2 million yuan gave his parents a huge shock.

"Why did you transfer so much money to us?"

"My company is doing quite well recently, and now I have some spare cash. Use this money to buy a house for Wannian and a car for Dad," Ren Baqian said and laughed.

Upon hearing these words, even though Ren Baqian's dad and mom were still grumbling, they were very happy that their son had made it back.

By the time Ren Baqian hung up the call, it was already quite late. Ren Baqian found a skewers shop and ate his dinner there. After all, it had been quite long since he last had skewered meat. He had been craving them.

While having his dinner, he thought about what he should do in the future.

His top priority now was to settle the matters regarding the mine and steelmaking.

If he wanted to start a mine excavation, he had to first acquire some explosives. Explosives could produce an instant effect on increasing the mining efficiency.

Otherwise, he would have to use an electric mining drill or a mining rig. However, their mining speeds would definitely be very slow.

No matter what, it was better that he prepared some explosives first.

Ren Baqian reckoned that those aboriginals would be pleasantly surprised by the explosives. After all, they had never seen explosives before.

As for the rest of the mining equipment, Ren Baqian felt that he could prepare it at a later time.