Chapter Thirty-Four Buying Coal

  It was almost dark when they returned to the hotel, Hei Zi wanted to invite Xiao Da Ye out for dinner but was rejected by Xiao Da Ye. Xiao Da Ye works night shifts every day and usually starts work at dusk, so he eats in the hotel room. The two had no choice but to go out and buy food.

  Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei ran to a nearby restaurant to buy some good dishes, and then found a store to buy wine. The two carried the wine and dishes back to the hotel, saw a young man wearing warm clothing, looking very spirited, standing in the gatehouse chatting with Xiao Da Ye, seeing them coming in, hurriedly said: "Are you Cheng Ge and Zhu Ge?"

  "Hei Zi put down the wine in his hand and asked: 'Who are you? We don't know each other.'"

  The young man smiled and revealed a set of pearly white teeth, saying: "I don't know you, my name is Zhou Yunfei, I'm the younger brother of Zhou Tiezhu. My brother asked me to invite both of you to have dinner at Biyuntian Restaurant."

  Hei Zi didn't decline, he wanted to invite Xiao Da Ye to go together. Xiao Da Ye was a very down-to-earth person and didn't want to leave his post during work hours. Hei Zi had no choice but to go with Zhuo Xiao Fei, just the two of them, to attend the banquet.

  Biyun Tian Restaurant is the best restaurant in Tongda City North, covering an area of dozens of acres, with a seven-story building. The lower three floors are restaurants, and the upper floors are bars and entertainment venues.

  Zhou Yunfei drove a Hyundai, the car stopped steadily in the parking lot under the restaurant. Hei Zi got on and envied the car, thinking that this car was much better than the old Victory cars he had bought to run the public transportation route. Compared to the team leader's car, Hei Zi had secretly driven the battalion commander's car before, and it felt comfortable to drive, accelerating quickly and smoothly.

  After getting off the bus and walking upstairs, the luxurious decoration of the restaurant opened the eyes of Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei, and the two felt that their eyes were a bit overwhelmed.

  At the entrance of the third floor, Zhou Tiezhu was waiting with his men for Heizi and others. As soon as he saw Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei coming up, Zhou Tiezhu walked down two steps along the stairs and said: "Brother Heizi, Brother Xiaofei, you've finally arrived, I'm almost impatient."

  Zhou Tiezhu was also a roughneck who didn't care about much, and before long they were all drinking loudly.

  At the dinner table, Zhou Tiezhu asked about Heizi buying coal. Heizi told Zhou Tiezhu that he had gone to several places today but couldn't find suitable coal. Zhou Tiezhu said: "Heizi brother, this is easy to handle. Tomorrow I'll have my younger brother take you there. I don't dare say it's the best in the entire city of Tongda, but at least in Kouquan Gou, what I say goes. As long as you like someone's coal, I'll take care of the price for you."

  Hei Zi was delighted to hear that Zhou Tiezhu had said this. On the way back, Hei Zi asked Xiao Dage about Zhou Tiezhu, and Xiao Dage told him that Zhou Tiezhu was a thug who had risen to power in recent years, with great influence, and was almost unbeatable in Kouquan Gou. The fat manager today must have had someone backing him up, otherwise he wouldn't have dared to challenge Zhou Tiezhu.

  Hei Zi asked Zhou Tiezhu about the handling of this morning's matter, and Zhou Tiezhu told Hei Zi that this matter was a bit difficult to handle. The fat manager had already sold the kiln mouth to him, and the people who were chopped today were Huang Jianmin's men. Huang Jianmin was not an easy person to deal with, his strength was similar to his own, and he had chopped more than ten of his men today, so he would definitely find opportunities to retaliate in the future.

  "What are you going to do?" Heizi asked.

  Zhou Tiezhu lifted his wine glass and swirled the red wine inside, the crimson liquid glistening under the lamp's illumination, like a mist of blood drifting away.

  "It's often difficult not to be schemed against when you're always on the road, just be more careful in the future." Zhou Tiezhu said with a gloomy expression.

  Hei Zi's words brought up his painful past, the several brothers who used to hang out with him were either dead or gone, now he was the only one left. Although he had gained some power now, but his current underlings couldn't compare to those brothers from the past, if they were still around, this matter wouldn't even be a big deal.

  Heizi saw Zhou Tiezhu and thought of something sad, but didn't disturb him. He just looked at him silently for a few minutes. Then Zhou Tiezhu looked at Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei and said: "Brother Heizi, it's hard to find brothers who share the same aspirations in life. I really envy you two."

  The next day, Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei had just gotten out of bed when Zhou Yun Fei arrived. Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei washed up a bit and followed Zhou Yun Fei outside. When they reached the gatehouse, Hei Zi went in to call for Xiao Da Ye, asking him to come along with them.

  Xiao Dàye said: "Heizi, if Zhou Tiezhu's younger brother accompanies you, I won't go."

  Hei Zi knew that Xiao Dàye was alone and had nothing to do during the day, so he pulled Xiao Dàye and said: "Xiao Dàye, we're hiring you today, you're an expert in this field. If everything goes smoothly this time, I'd like to have you as our agent in the future, so we don't have to keep running back and forth to Tong Da all the time. With just one phone call, everything can be settled."

  Xiao Daye knew that Heizi was sincerely inviting him, so he didn't decline. The three of them got in the car and re-entered Kouquanyegou again.

  On the road, Zhou Yunfei said: "Cheng Ge, I suggest you buy coal from my brother's kiln. He had this intention yesterday, and he was worried that if the quality fluctuates, it would not be good for you."

  Among the few people in the car, Mr. Xiao was the most familiar with coal. He nodded and said: "Yes, not all coal from a kiln is of good quality, and the quality will indeed fluctuate. As long as you pay attention when loading the car, there should be no problem."

  At Xiao Dage's suggestion, Zhou Yunfei drove the car directly to Zhou Tiezhu's warehouse.

  Looking up ahead is a coal mountain, several loaders are loading, and black powder is flying everywhere.

  A few people didn't dare to move forward, they went around the cargo yard and came to the side, Xiao Dage picked up a piece of coal and looked at it, threw it away, his face showed an excited expression, then picked up another piece and said: "It's too good, this coal is absolutely comparable to the coal at the mine bureau's kiln mouth."

  Zhou Yunfei saw that Xiao Dage had agreed, and smiled as he said: "Cheng Ge, since we're selling coal to my brother here, let's not run away with the price. We'll give him a 10% discount compared to what we'd sell it to others for. What do you think?"

  Xiao Fei's face lit up with joy, and he quickly calculated in his mind. Currently, one ton of coal is about 170-180 yuan, and a truckload of coal is about 40-50 tons. That means one truck can save around 600-700 yuan, which would cover the transportation costs.

  When Hei Zi asked about the price, Zhou Yunfei shook his head and said: "I don't come here often, so I don't know the current price either."

  Zhou Yunfei brought Heizi to the kiln office, and the mine owner saw that it was the boss's younger brother who had personally brought someone over, so he hastily came out to greet them.

  A dozen or so people, this batch of coal is now selling for one hundred and sixty-five. Zhou Yunfei picked up the phone and connected with Zhou Tiezhu.

  Zhou Tiezhu was handling affairs in the city. As soon as he heard that Heizi wanted to buy his coal, he readily said: "Don't bother with percentages, 141 yuan per ton."

  The price was settled and everything else went smoothly. After paying some deposits, Hei Zi found a fleet of cars with the help of Zhou Yunfei and rented several vehicles.

  The boss of the fleet asked to load coal in the afternoon and set off overnight. Now the highway is checked very tightly, it's more convenient to walk at night, when to go is irrelevant to Heizi, Heizi agreed without hesitation.