Chapter 182: The Helicopter That Flew Away

An Nan took two samples out of her pocket.

Jiang Weiming accepted them with both hands, examined them closely, and his eyes lit up.

“These are fresh, homegrown, right? They look pretty good. I can’t believe there are still places where medicinal herbs can be cultivated these days.”

An Nan put on an inscrutable expression. “There are always people with ways to grow things. But these aren’t from my own fields—I sourced them elsewhere.”

Jiang Weiming gave her a knowing look.

This woman clearly has some serious connections. Having a gun is one thing, but being able to keep up herb cultivation in the middle of a disaster? That’s no ordinary feat.

His attitude became even more polite. “May I ask how much you have, and what your price is?”

They sold dried herbs—one liang (50g) cost 20 jin (10kg) of grain, which meant one jin (500g) of dried herbs could be traded for 200 jin (100kg) of grain.

What An Nan had was fresh herbs. It took three jin of fresh herbs to dry into one jin of dried. In other words, one jin of her fresh herbs, once dried, could be traded for about 70 jin of grain.

An Nan replied, “One jin of fresh isatis root for 60 jin of grain.”

“Sixty?!”

Jiang Weiming looked troubled. “You saw our selling price—the profit margin really isn’t high! And in this heat, it’s not easy for us to move goods...”

An Nan was firm. “My price is fixed. No bargaining.”

She paused, then added, “You’ll still net ten jin of grain per jin of herbs. That’s not a small profit.”

Jiang Weiming thought it over. Right now, isatis root was in high demand, and their own stock definitely wasn’t enough to meet it. Even though her price didn’t leave them much margin, a profit was a profit.

In times like these, the smart move was to stockpile as much grain as possible.

Besides, if they didn’t buy her goods, they’d lose their monopoly and end up competing with her instead.

Her quality was better than theirs, too. If she started a price war, they’d be in trouble.

Jiang Weiming quickly made up his mind: even if the profit per unit was small, if she could supply enough, they could still make a killing.

So he asked, “Miss An, how much do you have?”

An Nan replied, “How much do you want?”

Jiang Weiming thought, That’s a bold claim—does she really have as much as we want?

Even with the backing of the You family and Taiyu Group, they’d only managed to get 800 jin of herbs. How much more could she possibly have?

He tested the waters: “How about 500 jin?”

An Nan agreed readily. “No problem.”

Her first batch yielded 150 kilograms, and the second batch 350 kilograms—together, that was 500 kilograms, or 1,000 jin of fresh herbs.

Jiang Weiming was surprised by her quick agreement. “You have more than 500 jin?”

An Nan nodded.

Jiang Tian, standing nearby, quickly chimed in, “You could supply 1,000 jin?”

An Nan thought for a moment, then said, “Yes.”

Jiang Weiming’s eyes shone. “Miss An, you’re truly impressive! At your price, we’ll take 1,000 jin of isatis root.”

The profit might be slim, but with that kind of volume, it added up!

For her to be so generous, her backers must be at least as powerful as Taiyu Group.

Could she be with the Gu family?

An Nan didn’t know what he was thinking. She just did a quick calculation: 1,000 jin of isatis root, 60 jin of grain per jin—that’s 60,000 jin, or 30 tons of grain.

Growing these herbs had definitely paid off.

She nodded, satisfied. “Deal!”

Jiang Tian looked troubled. “But we can’t come up with 30 tons of grain right away… Could you give us a little time? Let us sell some of the goods and turn things over?”

An Nan understood. “How about we trade in a week?”

The brothers were overjoyed. “No problem!”

Jiang Weiming asked, “If we want more herbs in the future, would you still have any?”

Of course not.

By the time another batch of isatis root could be grown, the epidemic would be over.

Besides, An Nan had calculated this amount carefully—less than 30% of Linbei City’s population was still alive, and even fewer had grain to buy medicine. Even if she had more, she couldn’t sell it.

But she couldn’t say that, so she just replied vaguely, “I don’t grow the herbs myself—I’ll have to check with my supplier.”

The brothers exchanged a glance. Right, she had someone backing her.

They glanced at the assault rifle in her hands, and their attitude became even more respectful.

“Then let’s just do this deal for now. If you get more in the future, you can always come to us.”

An Nan nodded in agreement.

Then they discussed the transaction details. Both sides were wary of being double-crossed, so they agreed to split the deal into two transactions.

The first batch would be traded in seven days, and if all went well, the second batch would be traded the day after.

Each time, 500 jin of isatis root for 15 tons of grain.

They set the specific times and locations, then parted ways.

Jiang Tian watched the armored vehicle speed off and sighed, “That car looks awesome—just like a tank!”

Jiang Weiming walked toward their van and said, “Of course it’s awesome. That thing costs as much as ten Maybach S480s.”

Jiang Tian’s jaw dropped. “What? Ten Maybachs?!”

His family had worked for three generations and never even sat in a Maybach!

Who was this woman, really?

Jiang Tian, a car enthusiast, said, “Bro, do you think she’s even richer than Boss You?”

Jiang Weiming replied, “Boss You? Maybe not. But definitely richer than Young Master You.”

Jiang Tian curled his lip. “Pfft, Young Master You always gets his cards frozen by Boss You when he messes up. He never had much money anyway.”

Jiang Weiming shot him a look. “You dare gossip about Boss You’s family? Hurry up and pack up—let’s go home!”

Meanwhile, An Nan, having closed the deal, returned home in high spirits.

She’d just changed clothes and grabbed a bite to eat when she suddenly heard a familiar roar.

She rushed to the window. Sure enough, in the pitch-black night, a helicopter with its lights on was flying toward her apartment complex.

An Nan squinted, trying to make out the details—was that Gu Zhiyu’s helicopter?

She started to feel nervous.

What should she say if she saw him? Thinking back to their last encounter, it was still pretty awkward...

But before she could sort out her thoughts, the helicopter circled overhead for a while, then turned and flew away.

An Nan: …

What was that supposed to mean?

Not long after, Chu Peipei came knocking.

“Nannan, was that President Gu just now?”

An Nan frowned. “I don’t know, maybe.”

Chu Peipei was puzzled. “Why did he leave before landing?”

An Nan frowned deeper. “No idea.”

Suddenly, Chu Peipei’s eyes lit up. “Could this be that legendary ‘playing hard to get’ move?”

Playing hard to get?

An Nan’s face darkened, and she suddenly felt annoyed. “He can do whatever he wants. I’m not going to worry about him.”

After a pause, she added, “Maybe it wasn’t even him.”

The world’s a big place—it’s not like Gu Zhiyu is the only one with a helicopter.

Chu Peipei could tell An Nan was in a bad mood and thought to herself, If President Gu really is playing hard to get, he’s picked the wrong tactic.

An Nan was clearly not someone who liked mind games."