Chapter 339: Change in Disparity |
The wooden boats placed on the ground in the residential complex looked like exhibition pieces, simply set out for passing residents to look at.
“Boss Huang, you're pushing your boats again.” Someone who knew Huang Tao teased with a laugh.
“Doing business, want one?” Huang Tao smiled casually and pitched again.
“Can't afford it, too expensive. I'll stick with the big ship.” The man waved his hand.
Many passersby stopped to look, but in the end most only glanced and asked the price before walking away.
“Brother Huang, I still think the price is too high.” A young man trailing behind Huang Tao said softly.
Huang Tao smiled and replied, “The costs are what they are, so the price can't be that low. If it didn't sell, I don't think it's the product's fault, it's the sales direction that's wrong.”
He turned his head toward Building 8, a flicker of light in his eyes.
Most ordinary residents had limited assets; even if they wanted to buy, they couldn't afford it. And with a different map, these boats' usefulness would drop drastically.
On the other hand, not every map is so close to water.
Here, it was only a couple steps from the complex to the sea.
If the water source were far away, just transporting the boats every day would be a huge hassle, and boats placed out in the wild would be easily damaged.
Considering all that, Huang Tao felt selling to ordinary buyers wouldn't work; he needed a suitable big buyer.
Now the Alliance inside the complex was no good.
Over recent days members had been leaving one after another; only two or three hundred remained in the Alliance. Many of those were the core base whose interests were bound to the Alliance.
So the right buyer was the Qin Alliance.
Huang Tao saw a passerby and his eyes brightened as he hurried over and greeted, “Old Zheng, Old Zheng.”
Zheng Yuan stopped. His cheek beard had grown thicker, he wore a hat woven from branches, a tailored off-white short jacket, wide-legged pants with sandals, carried a large bucket in his left hand and a steel fork in his right, followed by five or six men dressed similarly.
“Old Huang, what's up?”
Huang Tao explained his purpose.
Zheng Yuan blinked, then his gaze fell behind him. “You want to sell boats to the Qin Alliance?”
Zheng Yuan's expression turned odd. The Qin Alliance had its own shipyards; how could they buy your boats? Wasn't that a joke?
He waved his hand. “No use asking me. I'm just the captain of a hunting team. For something this big you have to see Guild Leader Qin.”
“Can't get to see him.” Huang Tao forced a smile.
Lately Qin Ziwen hardly showed his face outside. There was no chance to find out his whereabouts. People asked about him with obvious caution, as if wondering why the asker wanted to know.
Thinking of this, a tangle of emotions rose in Huang Tao.
Somewhere along the line their distance from Guild Leader Qin had widened. Before they could still meet on the basis of some small favors, now meetings required appointments. Sometimes the reply was ambiguous: “Lots of people want to see Guild Leader Qin every day. If he met everyone, how could he keep up? Besides, you're not even part of the Qin Alliance. Go back and wait for news.”
Zheng Yuan fell silent for a moment, then said, “I can't help either. But I heard the steward is handling things inside the Qin Alliance now. You could try Steward Jia.”
Half an hour later, Huang Tao sat facing Zhang Bo, and they looked at each other without speaking.
“Why you?” Huang Tao asked.
“Why not me!” Zhang Bo snapped back with a bad-tempered laugh. “What, I'm not good enough to see you?”
“No...” Huang Tao sighed. He had put people in to request an audience with Steward Jia, but in the end he didn't even get to see him. Instead he met this former colleague who had left the Alliance a week earlier and joined the other side.
Since the Alliance started losing members en masse, this guy had dropped any pretense. He carried his bucket and had gone over to the other side, even recruiting some skilled households before he left.
Rumor had it he handled things smoothly and now ran errands for Steward Jia, taking care of odd jobs.
So his matter had been filed as an “odd job”...
Zhang Bo said, “Steward Jia is busy. There's big movement inside the Alliance. You know how noisy this whole 'exchange life for survival' thing has been. The Guild Leader only sets the big direction; the details are Steward Jia's responsibility. An old man whose hair's gone grey is running around like crazy every day. How would he have time to talk about your little cooperation.”
Huang Tao fell silent. The grand business he imagined was merely a small cooperation in others' eyes.
That gap hit him with an indescribable feeling.
He drew a deep breath to steady himself. “Can you make the call?”
“Yes.” Zhang Bo nodded. “But under your conditions, it's absolutely impossible.”
Huang Tao's eyes flickered. Business was negotiated, after all; no deal sealed in one attempt. He remembered the days he went door to door selling health products, sometimes chased away with a broom — those were small time troubles.
He pumped himself up: it's fine, I can make this succeed.
Zhang Bo continued, “We only have one condition. If you can agree, we'll do it; if not, no hard feelings. We won't buy your small boats — no need, too small, a waste of resources. If our own shipyard builds them, we can launch ten in a day. But that wastes time and energy. You might not know this: the Qin Alliance now has two shipyards, and the other one is already under construction. It's staffed by those fish-man craftsmen. You know fish-men — short and skinny-looking, but actually incredibly strong. Their craftsmen are top-notch, all skilled workers.”
Zhang Bo looked at Huang Tao with a hint of pity.
Other industries are one thing, but he had the misfortune to run into the Qin Alliance's booming shipyard business.
“Not buying... then what are you doing?” Huang Tao muttered.
“Renting!” Zhang Bo answered.
Huang Tao's heart sank.
Zhang Bo continued, “We can rent, using a cooperation model. You keep the boats in the nearshore area around the complex and lease the boats to the Qin Alliance. We'll take them on a contract basis. If during the lease the boats are damaged due to operational reasons, we'll compensate. If it's a quality issue, that's on you.”
Huang Tao's cheek twitched. “If we rent, I might not even recoup my costs.”
Zhang Bo smiled and reassured him, “How could you not break even? The boats are still in your hands; you get pure rental income, pure profit! You could make a lot. If later maps still need boats, you can rent them again; it's not a one-shot sale. Besides, if everyone's situation improves, buyers might increase. What do you think?”
I think? I think you're crazy!