"Who's this?" Chen Fan was too lazy to even look at the number, pressing the answer key directly.
"Bro Chen, you must have been very busy, you don't even recognize my number?" A sinister voice came from the other side.
"Oh, Boss Chen, what can I do for you?"
"Are you free? Let's chat over tea."
"I'm okay, you need my help to transport tiger bones again?"
"No, no!" Chen Shuguang gave a cunning laugh before saying, "It's another big matter. Do you have time to meet?"
"Now…" Chen Fan looked at the time and said, "Alright, you name a place."
Half an hour later, after arriving in a cab at a tea house called 'Paradise Tea Garden'... The guy seemed to have a hobby of going to tea houses. He asked to meet Chen Fan at a tea house every time they conspired.
"Bro Chen, it's been just a few days but you look a little haggard." Chen Shuguang looked at Chen Fan with bantering eyes. "You didn't take the tiger bone wine I gave you?"
"It's not about that. It's been a bad day for me." Chen Fan waved his hand and poured himself a cup of tea. "So, why are you looking for me?"
"It's a huge deal, do you think you can stomach it?"
"Huge deal? Don't tell me you wanna get rid of all the tigers in Vietnam and then retire after that?"
"Mine is small-scale compared to those powerful bosses. It's not about medicinal drugs this time."
"What is it then?" Chen Fan used his poor imagination. "Don't tell me you are trafficking women over and selling them to others as wives?"
"...Ermm...just listen to me…" Chen Shuguang lowered his voice. "Previously when I went to Myanmar from Vietnam to buy tiger bones, through referral, I spent half a month to heal a very powerful man of his rheumatoid arthritis using my secret prescription. During this half a month, I got to know him better. After I expanded my business, I started to do marine transport from Vietnam, but I still visit him occasionally in Myanmar and get some jadeite from him at low prices to sell to the jewelers who went to Myanmar to receive goods…"
"Can you go straight to the point? It's not a good habit keeping someone in suspense."
"Haha." Chen Shuguang turned the jadeite ring on his finger and said, "This ring was given to me by him as a reward. I was a fool and wanted to be paid in cash, but I was afraid that he would be embarrassed, so I forced myself to accept it and pretended to be happy. Guess what happened after that?"
"I can't guess what happened, but I can tell you very seriously that if you continue to leave me hanging like this, I'll get very angry!" This guy left Chen Fan hanging as high as the Himalayas but still continued to speak slowly.
"After that, not long after I was on the streets and I bumped into a jeweler from Guangdong…" Chen Shuguang recalled. "He immediately offered 2 million RMB for my ring, only then did I realize that this ring's a treasure, so I quickly rejected him. This man didn't give up and increased the price to 2.6 million RMB. He saw that I was still unrelenting and finally left bitterly. And this was the price six years ago. It's gone up more than a fold now."
"So what huge business does he have that you need to be so secretive about?" Chen Fan was full of doubts. "Don't tell me it's smuggling jadeite?"
"Wrong!" Chen Shuguang enjoyed the feeling of teasing others very much, looking very pleased. "Jadeite is only rare in our eyes. To them, it is as worthless as mackerel is to us. But they have the good habit of using worthless items to pay for things. When we sell these 'worthless' items to the local jewelers, we can get prices higher than abalone."
"Last week when I brought two bottles of tiger bone wine to visit him, he asked me what method I used recently for delivering goods from Vietnam. I gave it a thought and told him that I contacted a resourceful local smuggler." Chen Shuguang teased Chen Fan before sipping some tea. "Then guess what happened?"
"I guess you're gonna be bashed up by me." Chen Fan pounded the table and stared hard.
"Then he asked me if that powerful smuggler was reliable." Chen Shuguang acted mysterious on purpose. "He said that he recently had some goods detained at sea, and it was likely to be tipped off by a local. So, he asked if I could contact you. He wants an unfamiliar face from a far place to help him transport his goods."
"I'm not familiar with that place, I'm not gonna take the risk!" Chen Fan pressed his hands together tightly.
Chen Shuguang raised his hand and waved, signaling to Chen Fan not to come to a conclusion so soon. "He's a very powerful man over there, but his boss is even more powerful. He's the type who just needs to stamp his feet and the entire Myanmar and the surrounding countries will shake. So, as long as you get connected with him, wealth and riches are guaranteed to come your way in the future."
"Then why didn't he get his boss to help when his ship got seized?"
"He…" Chen Shuguang rubbed his hands and his face was filled with embarrassment. "His boss is the type who always sets himself against the government, so it's not surprising that such a thing happened."
Chen Fan's legs turned jelly, and he almost fell to the ground. "Don't tell me it's anti-government armed forces?"
"Yes! The items seized by the government were firearms, and they were transported from Russia." Chen Shuguang leaned closer to Chen Fan and mumbled. "I'm not sure of the exact details, I only wanna ask if you have any way to load goods from Russia."
"Why not? It's Russia, not hell." Chen Fan frowned. "But...seriously I'm not keen on having anything to do with them no matter how powerful they are. I'm not confident dealing with foreigners."
"Don't turn me down yet, I have a good personal relationship with that man. I'm good at assessing people and he's definitely not one who will go back on his word."
"It's not about having a good personal relationship or not." Chen Fan frowned deeply. "If it's just transporting jadeite and stuff from Myanmar, I can guarantee that nothing will go wrong. But it's different for Russia. The country ranks high up in terms of both land and power. I'm worried that my ship will be seized by the customs there."
"Bro Chen, your worry is unfounded." Chen Shuguang laughed cunningly. "What's in abundance over there in Russia? There are lots of firearm dealers, and they're all powerful and resourceful people. I'm not exaggerating, but if they do not have at least a few private ports under them, they wouldn't dare to call themselves firearm dealers."
"Once your ship enters Russia, I guarantee that you'll be treated like royalty. Not only will there not be any problem at the customs, you can even get them to escort you out of the country if you request for it."
"Well…" Chen Fan rubbed his forehead and went into deep thought.
Actually, Chen Fan was worried that if the loading of goods was done at the other party's territory, they might find his movements strange. After all, he couldn't possibly come up with a ship out of nowhere. He only had a super huge electric eel hiding underwater.
But then, they would never believe that there was a super eel avatar controlled by human thought in the world. They would just be puzzled as to how the goods were loaded onto the ship at most.
"Does that man know the people in Russia well? If possible, I hope to throw the goods into the sea and my men will go get them. If it's not possible, I'm afraid I can't take up this deal."
"I suppose so. He sounded like he's on good terms with them."
Chen Shuguang scanned the place before saying, "I don't know the exact details, but it's better that you make a trip with me to Myanmar, and we can discuss it with that man. After all, this is a rare opportunity. Once we get connected with those people, money will come rolling in. And when we build deeper relationships with them in the future, I guarantee that you'll make it big in the whole of Southeast Asia."