Chapter 17 Perpetual Interest

  Perpetual Bond

  He Wannian originally wanted to persuade Yao Fang, but now he was led into the ditch by Yao Fang. He thought that if Yao Fang was targeted, wouldn't it be equivalent to targeting himself?

  Yao Fan saw He Shi Cheng's instability and secretly rejoiced, continuing to lead He Wan Nian down a crooked path: "Brother He, do you have any way to get rid of the Guo family? I'm afraid that this time we've provoked this local snake, and one day when I'm not paying attention, it will take revenge on us. If we're bitten by this local snake, wouldn't it be disgusting for both of us?"

  He Wannian was now completely bewildered by Yao Feng's solemn expression, thinking to himself: Could this really not be a case of fighting for dominance? Was it truly the Guo family's intention to give the foreign merchant a warning shot across the bow?

  He Wan Nian was indeed old and mature, but it wasn't easy for Yao Feng to stir him up. After hesitating for a while, He Wan Nian carefully advised: "Brother Yao, since you've already spent the silver, I'm sure with Wei's official power, you'll definitely be able to get the person back. Looking at the situation, I think it's better not to make any more trouble. As long as we're careful and on guard against the Guo family, that will be enough."

  Yao Fan knew that the key to convincing others lay in one's own determination. He shook his head: "A man may not intend to hurt a tiger, but the tiger may still devour him. Although it is said that enemies should be reconciled rather than created, if they are formed, then one must fight to the death. This Guo Jixiu I've inquired about is a ruthless master; since I'm new here, he will surely not let me off easily. If I compromise and surrender, my fate may very well be sealed."

  He Wan Nian saw Yao Fan like this, and sat in a daze for half a while. In his pawnshop career, although there had been underground struggles in the business world, they were all competitions according to rules, never out of bounds, and never had major conflicts with local big families, no matter what the reason was, not even once.

  But He Wan Nian carefully considered Guo Jixiu's reputation and past rumors, and thought about what Yao Fan said: "Look at the problem through the appearance, look at the essence through the phenomenon." After weighing it in his mind, he felt that Yao Fan's words were indeed reasonable.

  "This is a matter of taking sides!" He Wan Nian's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately made up his mind. "Since I'm cooperating with Brother Yao on such a big deal, it's only natural that we're in this together. What Brother Yao said makes sense - you can't have the intention to harm others, but you also can't be without precautions. Although doing business requires harmony and making money, we also can't let others take advantage of us. Now that we've already offended the Guo family, from now on we indeed need to guard against him, watch out for him, and investigate him."

  Yao Fan carefully considered He Wannian's words and thought that these Chinese businessmen, although they were all full of integrity, ultimately still held to pragmatism. His own persuasion had indeed taken effect, as He Wannian's attitude was completely resolute and turned towards him.

  "Brother He's words are exactly what I wanted to hear. Your family has deep connections in this area, so please inform our relatives that from now on, we should pay close attention to the Guo family and if there's an opportunity, let's give them a ruthless kick. Speaking of which, Brother He was hesitant to speak last night, did you already know about the incident at Chunmian Hall back then?"

  He Wan Nian's face turned red, and he didn't answer directly. He skirted around the issue and said: "To be honest with you, Brother Yao, my investment in Early Sail Trading Company is equivalent to my family's investment in it. A small portion of my capital also comes from relatives' investments. Now that Guo Ji Xiu and you can't get along, it means they want to harm the He family. The entire He clan cannot accept this. Since we've already torn our faces apart, let's just fight it out and see who wins."

  Yao Feng naturally wouldn't pursue He Wan Nian's temporary concealment at this juncture, he encouraged: "Brother He, it's crucial that you stand on the same front line as me, this is beneficial for us, our families and the future development of our business."

  There's an old saying in my family, "Unity is strength." Although your family may not have as strong a foundation or influence in the official circles as the Guo family, when it comes to familiarity with the local area, you are by no means inferior. I, on the other hand, am an outsider without any foundation here, but in terms of material wealth and financial resources, I am also not inferior to the Guo family. So if we join forces, sooner or later we will make the Guo family lose their threat to us. And our unity in battle will inevitably elevate our friendship to a new height of sharing joys and sorrows together."

  He Wan Nian thought that Yao Feng's new words were indeed many, unity is strength, this sentence is really reasonable. However, he was cautious enough because of a woman, and actually sniffed out a large number of danger signals, carefully planning to strangle the Guo family as a hidden danger, it is indeed a rare vengeful personality.

  Yao Feng seemed to have seen through He Shi Cheng's thoughts, and frowned: "It's not that I'm vengeful, but the law of this Qing dynasty is too blind. The Guo family has a powerful backer in the officialdom and influence locally, if they were to plot against me, I may not be able to avoid it. Brother He, do you think I should just sit and wait for death?

  There's an old saying in my family: treat those you get along with like the warmth of spring, and treat your enemies like the harshness and ruthlessness of a severe winter. Brother He, take your time to think about it."

  He Wan Nian's eyes widened as he stared at Yao Fan, in his heart, he had already elevated Yao Fan's status to a new height.

  What kind of person is the most terrifying in this world? Not a thug, nor a thug who knows martial arts. Since they can be thugs, they always have two brushes in their hands. To say that the truly terrifying ones are the thugs who speak reason. If this thug not only speaks reason but also has theories to prove his reason, then he is a great thug.

  The three sentences that Yao Fang had just casually said, "Unity is strength", "Look at the problem through appearance, look at the essence through phenomenon", "Treat comrades like spring warmth, treat enemies like winter ruthlessness" made He Wannian's thoughts suffer a continuous impact. He Wannian felt that this family motto of the Yao family was really extraordinary, and he would definitely find a way to get the rest to borrow and educate his own children.

  He Wan Nian suddenly came back to his senses and reminded him, "Brother Yao, be on guard against the return of goods. For now, our top priority is to quickly sell off the goods and recover the funds."

  "I have written a business letter and sent it to the post office for delivery to various merchants in the Zhili and Jiangnan regions. I think we have a lot of goods but few branches, if we only sell retail, it will be too slow, we should bring wholesale sales together."

  Yao Fanzhen nodded and said: "This is good, the first word being 'fast' is a hard truth."

  After He Wan Nian left, Yao Fan personally took two million taels of silver notes, accompanied by his assistants He Shi Cheng and Wang Chuan Nian as bodyguards, and rushed to Heng Li Gold Shop to exchange for gold. Because the price of Heng Li was uniformly set by the head office, it did not change after Yao Fan's last exchange, still 1:16.59. After calculating the fire expense, he should have gotten exactly 38 kilograms of gold.

  But the problem is that Heng Li doesn't have so much gold at present, and there are only more than 40 kilograms of gold in the warehouse. This was after Yao Fan exchanged it last time, and he specially instructed Heng Li to come back and exchange it again ten days later, and he specially allocated some from nearby counties in advance.

  Yao Fan had just exchanged gold a few days ago, and this time he came again. How could the partner of Hengli not recognize him?

  Heng Li was immediately welcomed by the boss of this branch, Zhang Baichuan. A middle-aged man with a black gourd hat, green long shirt, black cloth shoes, white socks, and a clean-shaven face came out.

  He made two bows to Yao Fang, and then instructed Yao Fang to watch the tea while chatting with Yao Fang warmly, giving people a very kind and enthusiastic feeling.

  Businessmen these days often have some connections, Zhang Baichuan thought so too, and directly asked: "I heard that Mr. Yao's business overseas is huge, I wonder if there are any branches opened in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Wuhan and other places? Have you had any dealings with my Hengli Jin store's various branches before?"

  Yao Fanwang glanced at the counter where his partner was busy weighing gold, thought for a moment and replied: "Business is like this, once you start, it gets familiar, we've already established a relationship, haven't we?"

  Zhang Baichuan was taken aback, then burst out laughing and said: "Indeed, indeed, but I hope Mr. Yao will come and go frequently in the future, the credit of Hengli is unquestionable."

  Yao Wenyin thought to himself, based on his memory of history, "When the Eight-Nation Alliance army enters Beijing in the future and loots a large amount, they will empty your four major banks' silver vaults in the capital. At that time, all of you will be finished. What's the use of having good credit?"

  "Boss Zhang, let's get back to the point. You don't have enough gold here for me to exchange. Are you saying I'm smashing your signboard? Or are you saying I'm smashing your signboard? Or is it still that I'm smashing your signboard? You choose yourself."

  Zhang Baichuan took a lap around the room before reacting, awkwardly smiling: "Old Yao is really good at joking, don't worry, I'll gather the 76 kilograms of gold within three days."

  Yao Fan had no choice but to say, "It can only be like this now. You'd better give me the 40 taels of silver first. To be honest, I instructed your partner last time that I would need a lot more gold in the future, but you guys are too stingy and couldn't even make up two thousand taels."

  Zhang Baichuan awkwardly said: "Otherwise, Mr. Yao can give me advance notice in the future, and I'll also make arrangements in advance to have the ships sent from Tianjin or Shanghai for you."

  Yao Fandao said: "This idea is okay, then I'll book it with you first this time. You give me 40 catties first, and the remaining 36 catties next time."

  Zhang Baichuan clasped his fists in front of his chest and bowed slightly, saying: "If you want to reserve a room, Mr. Yao has to pay the fire expense first."

  Yao Fan didn't care about this and paid the remaining gold fire expense that needed to be exchanged.

  Yao Fan lowered his head and used a bowl cover to stir the tea leaves, asking carefully: "I don't know if there are any discounts for major customers?"

  Qingdao Port is a small place, Zhang Baichuan certainly knows that Yao Fan's goods have just been transported into the city. He heard people say that Yao Fan's goods are as many as several hundred boxes, all of which are high-quality foreign goods.

  In the eyes of merchants, so many goods coming in is equivalent to a large amount of silver flowing in, if Yao Feng is willing to put all the silver in Hengli, it would be a huge achievement for the small branch of Hengli in Qingdao.

  Zhang Baichuan had been thinking about this since the first time Yao Feng came to exchange gold, and now that Yao Feng has come to his doorstep himself, he certainly can't miss the opportunity.

  "Mr. Yao has indeed asked the right person, others I dare not say, but Mr. Yao you are a big merchant, with imports of thousands of boxes of foreign goods at one time, such a big business Hengli is naturally willing to cooperate with you for a long time."

  Yao Fan didn't beat around the bush with Zhang Baichuan, and said straightforwardly: "That's just a shipload of goods, in the future when my big ships come here, one ship will be worth no less than a thousand boxes."

  However, I don't like silver, I like gold, silver is too heavy and presses down on the warehouse, it's inconvenient to transport overseas.

  He picked up his bowl and took a sip of tea, then continued, "I know what Mr. Zhang means is that he wants to do business with me for the long haul. I'm an easy-going person, if Hengli can give me a discount on the fire tax, all my silver will be exchanged at Hengli from now on."