Chapter 75: Big Figures Arriving One After Another?

As that person walked over, I immediately felt a strange mix of nervousness and excitement, was this someone here to do business with us?

After all, anything unknown is full of attraction for a child.

Compared to my excitement, Old Man Jiang remained much calmer, not even glancing toward the window, simply lifting his cup and taking a slow sip of tea.

The young man walked over and sat down, making a silly face at me that made me giggle.

I thought to myself that he looked a bit like a street punk, but not a bad person.

“Sir, this is a rare sight, bringing a kid along to do business,” the young man said warmly as if making small talk.

While speaking, he pulled out a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes and offered one to Old Man Jiang.

Hongtashan.

High end cigarettes.

Even though I came from a mountain village, I still knew that much.

In my village, people only smoked Hongmei cigarettes during festivals and special occasions.

If someone suddenly pulled out a pack of Hongtashan and started handing cigarettes around, it would be enough for the whole village to talk about it for a day or two, guessing the story behind it.

I thought Old Man Jiang would take it.

He usually smoked a dry tobacco pipe after all.

But Old Man Jiang did not even change his expression.

He blocked the young man’s hand and took out his own dry tobacco pipe instead.

“No need, I am used to this,” he said.

The young man looked a little awkward and did not know what to say for a moment.

He could only watch silently as Old Man Jiang lit his pipe.

Before long, the familiar smell of dry tobacco slowly rose in the air.

Smelling it, the young man suddenly sniffed a few times and took a deep breath, then said in surprise, “Sir, your tobacco is not ordinary. The smell is rich, and there is even a medicinal fragrance. Is some special ingredient added?”

“You understand this?” my master finally showed a slight change in expression.

The young man scratched his head and said, “Not really, but my master likes this stuff too. I have smelled it often and heard him talk about it, so I picked up a bit. Actually, good dry tobacco is stronger than cigarettes, as long as the leaves are good…”

I lay bored on the table, thinking this young man was quite a chatterbox.

Other people usually made a deal in just a few sentences.

“Want a try?” Old Man Jiang handed him the tobacco pipe.

The young man took it without hesitation and took a couple of heavy puffs, looking deeply satisfied.

Old Man Jiang took the pipe back and said calmly, “You were already swallowing your saliva just now.”

“Ahem…” the young man choked immediately upon hearing that.

I was used to it by now.

If my master had any special skill, it was this ability to choke people into silence with a few words.

After the young man finished coughing, Old Man Jiang finally asked, “Which master taught you?”

“Ma Ronggui, nicknamed Ma Dudu. Sir, have you heard of him? Oh right, I have not introduced myself. My surname is Cao, just call me Cao Er. I am my master’s second disciple.”

So the young man’s name was Cao Er.

“Ma Dudu? The one-eyed jade expert Ma Dudu who can appraise jade better than most people with two eyes? He is indeed someone who understands jade,” Old Man Jiang said while smoking his pipe, his expression calm.

“You actually know my master?” Cao Er was shocked and muttered, “My master’s way of judging people really works. One look and he found someone who understands the trade. In that case, sir, let us not waste time. I will not even ask whether you have good material or bad material, whether it is open market goods or private goods. Shall we go take a look outside?”

Old Man Jiang shook his head and exhaled a lazy puff of smoke.

“No need. You will not understand my goods. Go on your way.”

“Sir, do not look down on me just because I am young. I have been with my master for twelve years. I have handled at least a hundred good pieces, maybe eighty at minimum,” Cao Er insisted, clearly unwilling to give up.

“I am not lying to you. Even your master would not be able to understand what I have. Go on,” Old Man Jiang said without budging.

Cao Er grew anxious and clenched his teeth.

“Sir, let us do this. I am making a humble request. Please keep your goods. I will go call my master. It will not take long, at most half an hour. He will definitely arrive.”

Old Man Jiang gave no clear response.

Cao Er rushed out in a hurry.

With sharp eyes, I noticed several tea house waiters downstairs showing surprised expressions, and one of them hurried upstairs.

“Master, are we waiting here for his master?” I still could not figure out what Old Man Jiang was planning.

“I already said his master will not be able to see through it. I am fishing for a big one. There is a difference between me coming to them and them biting the hook on their own. Just wait,” Old Man Jiang said mysteriously.

I silently muttered that he was acting all profound again, then stopped asking.

More than twenty minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Strangely, after Cao Er spoke to us, our table became unusually lively.

Every couple of minutes, someone came over to strike up a conversation.

Almost all of them asked the same things.

Open market goods? Colored goods? Private goods? New goods? Rough jade?

No matter how they started, Old Man Jiang only gave the same answer each time.

“You are not qualified to look at this.”

This scene quickly drew the attention of the entire tea house.

Even some sellers began asking around about who we were and what kind of goods we were carrying.

At that moment, Cao Er returned, panting heavily.

He did not enter immediately, but respectfully stood at the door as someone else walked in first.

The person who entered was an old man.

His hair was thin and combed tightly against his scalp.

He wore a pair of tinted glasses, rare at the time.

He was dressed in a white silk short sleeved traditional Chinese jacket, carrying a faint scholarly air.

As soon as he entered, the tea house became much quieter.

The brokers running around all fell silent, looking at him with respect.

When he sat down at our table with Cao Er, only then did quiet murmurs begin to rise around us.

“Master Dudu himself came. This is something that might not happen even once every year or two.”

“I told you that old man must be holding something serious.”

“Master, it is this sir. He said the goods I cannot see, and even my master might not be able to see them either, so I brought you here,” Cao Er said eagerly, fanning Ma Dudu.

Ma Dudu did not get angry.

He simply looked at Old Man Jiang and said, “Maybe I truly cannot see your goods. But I am curious by nature, and I have always believed one can learn until old age. I would like to invite you upstairs. Would it be alright for me to take a look at your goods and learn something?”

His tone was polite enough.

But the unwillingness in his words was very obvious.

People who walked this path and made a living in this trade cared more about reputation than anything else.

At that moment, an unremarkable middle aged man followed a tea house waiter downstairs and walked straight toward our table.

Old Man Jiang muttered, “Damn it, neither early nor late, he had to come down now. Made me sit here for over an hour. His face is bigger than his backside.”

His voice was not loud, but everyone at the table heard it.

Ma Dudu’s expression darkened as he said, “So there is someone interfering with the deal too? Looks like once good goods appear, even rules are no longer respected here.”

Cao Er nearly choked on his saliva and started coughing violently.

Ma Dudu could ignore my master’s words, since his status allowed it.

But Cao Er was truly shocked.

The man who had just come down was the owner of this tea house, a well known figure in the Sichuan trading world.

He was once the leader of this underground trade circle.

Yun Baochun.

And the man walking down now was his son, Yun Xiaobao.

Such a big figure.

Yet this old man completely did not take him seriously, and even mocked him for having a face bigger than his backside.

What courage.