Chapter 161 - 108: Shock
Six or seven exhibition areas came into view.
They included a gold and jewelry section, a fruit section, a seafood products section, a food and beverage section, an agricultural products section, a feed section, and the main exhibition area introducing Hailufeng Company.
The two of them walked over to the first section on their left, the gold and jewelry section.
Three clerks, temporarily transferred from a gold shop, were introducing the various gold and silver jewelry and jadeite pieces in the display cases to customers. Beside them, three professional security guards kept a close watch on the surroundings.
Chen Haoyu approached one of the counters. On it was a semi-gambling stone, with a potential bangle position marked on its cut surface. Next to the stone was a finished, sky-blue ice-type jadeite bangle.
"Something like this must cost several hundred thousand, right?"
Peng Jialiang shook his head. "Several hundred thousand? Try millions. My older sister bought one for my mom in Pingzhou that was pretty similar to this. It cost over two million."
"This Buddha looks nice." Chen Haoyu had his eye on a glass-type jadeite Maitreya Buddha pendant with spring colors.
Peng Jialiang reminded him, "Acting like a newbie again? Men wear Guanyin, women wear Buddha. Don’t you get it, little bro?"
"What? There’s a rule like that? But wouldn’t wearing a Guanyin be a bit girly?"
"You have a Pikachu tattoo and you’re worried about being girly?" Peng Jialiang shot a sidelong glance at his watch.
"Uh? That’s for my inner child," Chen Haoyu retorted, flustered.
Several nearby visitors started laughing softly. Even the three clerks had to stifle their amusement, trying their best not to laugh out loud since he was a customer.
Peng Jialiang ignored Chen Haoyu, who was clowning around again, and turned to ask a clerk, "Can I have a closer look at this Wishing Pendant?"
"Of course. One moment, please." The female clerk took a box from inside the glass counter. It contained an ice-type Wishing Pendant with some cotton-like inclusions.
She placed the item on the velvet mat on the counter before saying with a smile, "Please."
Peng Jialiang sat down and carefully picked up the Wishing Pendant. Although he could afford a Mercedes-Benz and the pendant was only priced at 120,000, he’d still feel the pain in his wallet if he broke it.
"Brother Liang, you thinking of buying it?" Chen Haoyu leaned over and glanced at the Wishing Pendant.
"My grandpa’s 80th birthday is next month. A quality piece like this is a rare find in Shanmei. Now that I’ve come across it, I can’t just pass it up."
Chen Haoyu remembered something and asked in a low voice, "I heard your grandpa hasn’t been doing too well recently?"
"Yeah. The old man had a stroke two months ago. We got him to the hospital in time, but he’s still partially paralyzed," Peng Jialiang said with a sigh.
Chen Haoyu glanced around and continued in a whisper, "I heard that General Manager Jiang is an incredible doctor. Maybe we can see if he’d be willing to take a look at your grandpa."
Peng Jialiang gave a bitter smile. "Haoyu, who am I to ask? Even my dad doesn’t have that kind of influence. Maybe Yiming’s dad and your dad could get an appointment."
"Don’t put yourself down. Maybe we can find a way to work with General Manager Jiang. Then you could use it as an opportunity to bring your grandpa over for him to take a look," Chen Haoyu whispered, hatching a half-baked plan.
"I have my own plans. Don’t try to ’help’ and just make things worse." Peng Jialiang quickly rejected Chen Haoyu’s well-intentioned suggestion. He then turned to the clerk and said, "Please wrap up this Wishing Pendant for me. You take cards, right?"
"Uh... yes, we do. I’ll wrap it up for you right away."
After wrapping the Wishing Pendant, the clerk got a small gift box and a gift bag to put it in.
Another clerk helped Peng Jialiang swipe his card and issued an invoice.
Carrying the small gift bag, the two of them headed to the next section.
This was the food and beverage section. Next to it was the seafood products section; the two were connected.
On the counters were free samples of things like kabayaki eel, char siu, white-cut chicken, and curry fish balls.
The items were all rather ordinary, but the prices were incredibly cheap—practically wholesale. For a direct supplier, this was just standard practice.
The two of them weren’t particularly interested at first. Just as they were about to head to the section across the way, they both stopped in their tracks. They saw a chef cooking on the spot, holding a large white lump over a freshly made plate of pasta and grating fine white slivers onto it with a zester.
"That smell...?"
"Why does it seem so familiar?"
They glanced at each other, then said in unison:
"Truffles?"
"Those are truffles!"
Squeezing through the crowd, they saw the chef set aside the block of White Truffle he had just grated and begin portioning out free samples to the customers.
Shamelessly, Peng Jialiang and Chen Haoyu also grabbed disposable plates and got a helping of pasta from the chef.
The creamy mushroom pasta was coated in fine white slivers. As soon as they put it in their mouths, the unique, rich fragrance of the White Truffle filled their senses, a special, complex aroma that is nearly impossible to replicate with artificial flavorings.
After another bite, Peng Jialiang was almost certain that what the chef had grated was indeed White Truffle. Holding his small fork, he asked, "Chef, your company must be loaded, using real White Truffle for free samples."
"You know your stuff, young man!" The chef gave him a thumbs-up and said with a smile, "This is White Truffle our company produces ourselves. If you’re interested, you can check out the agricultural products section across the way. They’re selling White Truffles over there."
"What?" Peng Jialiang’s eyes went wide. "Chef, could you say that again? This White Truffle is produced by your company?"
"That’s right! Why would I lie to you? You can see for yourself, it’s just a few steps away." The chef pointed to the agricultural products section across the way with his spatula.