16: Chapter 16 Extracting Marrow from Bones

Returning to his little nest smelling of alcohol, Cao Xiao saw that the light in He Yueyou's room was on. However, he didn't go to disturb her; going over in his current state would leave a bad impression.

Early the next morning, he drove his new car to the Hengyu Coal Mine and went directly to the ground passage he had opened yesterday. He moved the earth at the entrance and descended along the passage to the coal seam. After filling his space, he returned to the surface, buried the passage, and drove toward the Dachu River Pier.

On the way, he called Hao Daqiang and Mother He, arranging to meet them at the pier.

Upon arriving at the pier, he didn't go to see Hao Daqiang and the others first. Instead, he went to the warehouse. After ensuring no one was around, he collected the packaging bags and plastic buckets piled at the warehouse entrance into his space. Then, he opened Warehouse No. 2 and placed the Coke and Coal Tar from his space inside. Theoretically, this warehouse could hold nearly ten thousand tons, but storing too much would make the stacks dangerously high for moving, so seven thousand tons was the limit.

He went to the pier's warehouse area to pick up Hao Daqiang and Mother He. To his surprise, they already knew each other and were chatting and laughing when Cao Xiao found them. There were also several people around them who seemed to be their attendants, and Hao Linger was among them as well.

"President Hao, let's look at the Pulverized Coal first. Auntie, I'll have to trouble you to wait here for a moment," Cao Xiao said to Hao Daqiang and Mother He at the warehouse entrance.

"It's fine, I'll take a look too. I'm curious to see what kind of quality would make President Hao pay eleven hundred yuan a ton," Mother He said inquisitively.

"Then follow me." Cao Xiao led them to Warehouse No. 1 and opened the doors.

"President Hao, feel free to perform random inspections. The quality is consistent throughout, totaling five thousand and ten tons. The extra is for wastage. If there are no issues, I'll hand the warehouse keys to you. You can haul it away anytime, though preferably as soon as possible, as I need this warehouse for other goods," Cao Xiao said.

Mother He stepped forward to inspect the quality of the coal dust closely and said to Cao Xiao bluntly, "If it's all this quality, your friend must be out of his mind; isn't he afraid of being stuck with it all?" Then she turned to Hao Daqiang, who was conducting inspections, and continued, "However, selling it for over a thousand to a manufacturer who needs it is no problem. President Hao won't lose out. It seems President Hao is making a big move; the formula you obtained recently must have produced a finished product, otherwise you wouldn't be buying such high-quality coal dust in bulk. You've gotten a huge bargain; that formula alone is enough to double your company's market value. Once production stabilizes, orders will surely come rolling in. After all, that kind of Special Alloy fills a domestic gap. But you must ensure confidentiality. While large domestic companies might be interested, they won't act recklessly; it's those large foreign companies you should fear. Although they have similar high-performance Special Alloys, those guys can't stand to see others doing well. Plus, this alloy formula has great research value, so you must be careful of hidden arrows in the future. Those people will do anything. You also need to pay attention to your own safety and that of your family. Keep an eye on the people around you too. You're just starting out and don't quite understand their methods; their specialty is intimidation. We in Hongdu have suffered quite a bit. If you need anything, contact me. Hongdu has a specialized security company. If it's about this, Hongdu will fully support you from behind for free. You'd better move fast and ramp up production first. Hongdu's channels will be the first to open to you. Not just Hongdu, but other large domestic groups will have this realization. When the time comes, we can join forces for a major move."

"Thank you for the advice, Chairman Huang. I will arrange things carefully. I used to be small-time and really didn't know there were so many tricks in the industry. It's not easy for national enterprises to develop; external interference is too severe and almost impossible to guard against. The country faces too many opponents trying to develop in a heavily blockaded international environment. It would be great if our product could completely drive similar foreign products out of the domestic market this time. After all, not everyone has your level of awareness, Chairman Huang; some people have no choice," Hao Daqiang said with deep emotion.

"We in Hongdu aren't completely independent and free from constraints either. The patent barriers they've built are too tight. To break through, we must find another way. However, we are also consolidating; many things are unique to us, so they don't dare to go too far. You'll understand this later. Let's not talk about that. Contact me when you're ready, and I'll take you to meet some people," Mother He said.

"Cao Xiao, I want to ask if your friend can provide a stable supply. Five thousand tons is enough for now, but once we stabilize production and expand capacity, we'll need a steady stream of raw materials. If not, I need to look for other options early," Hao Daqiang turned and asked Cao Xiao.

"I'll have to ask my friend about that. These five thousand tons should last you for a while. My friend is currently on vacation abroad and is hard to reach. I'll give you an answer in half a month. If a stable supply isn't possible, I can at least provide another ten thousand tons or so. Tell you what, President Hao, I'll do my part as well. Regardless of the quantity, the price for the next transaction will be dropped to one thousand per ton. I won't take any profit from you," Cao Xiao said, feeling somewhat conflicted. That coal seam didn't have large reserves and couldn't provide a stable supply. Even if it could, Cao Xiao didn't want to keep doing this. Otherwise, if the volume grew, he wouldn't be able to do anything else but dig coal every day. So he didn't completely refuse Hao Daqiang. He was thinking that his current authority was only Level 1. If he could upgrade to Level 2, his internal space would expand. If he could process more ore at once then, supplying raw materials specifically to Hao Daqiang wouldn't take up much of his time. However, he would then have to order coal from other mines or simply buy a coal mine himself.

"Then thank you in advance. I will surely repay you generously in the future. I'll have someone haul this batch away as soon as possible, and I'll have the finance department transfer the payment to your account immediately." Hao Daqiang was overjoyed to hear Cao Xiao say this. He had been racking his brains over raw materials recently; he couldn't buy such coal dust on the market, and others didn't have the equipment to produce it specifically. Fortunately, Cao Xiao appeared and solved his problem. Now that Cao Xiao had directly waived a hundred yuan in procurement costs, it would amount to a very large sum over the long term, and the price of his products could also be lowered significantly, making them more competitive.

"Let's take a look at the Coke first. I want to finish up early so I can go back and catch up on sleep. That dead old man has poor geography skills and a bad memory; he called in the middle of the night and said 'good morning,' waking me up. I'm exhausted right now," Mother He said with a look of weariness.

Cao Xiao opened Warehouse No. 2 and let them in to inspect the goods. Mother He didn't need to do it herself; the several people who came with her took instruments into the warehouse, randomly sampled some Coke for testing, and came out after a while.

"No need for that, just say it out loud. Little Cao isn't an outsider. Right, Little Cao?" Mother He interrupted the person who was about to whisper in her ear and looked at Cao Xiao with a smile.

"Uh, hehe, Auntie, you have the final say." Cao Xiao didn't expect Mother He to say that. His brain stalled for a moment, and once he reacted, he could only give a dry laugh. In his heart, he was thinking: *When talking business, you don't treat me as an outsider? This is the rhythm of aggressive bargaining. I have to be careful.*

"Chairman Huang, the quality of this batch of Coke is very good, even better than what we use ourselves, and the quality is stable," the person who had just inspected the warehouse said.

"Little Cao, I didn't realize you had such connections. Our raw materials at Hongdu are all meticulously selected, yet this batch of Coke is actually better than ours. You must introduce that friend of yours to me. Don't worry, Auntie won't treat you poorly when the time comes. Yueyou will be very happy to hear this too," Mother He said to Cao Xiao with narrowed eyes and a beaming smile.

"That friend of mine isn't in the country right now, and it's not easy for me to contact him. If he comes back, I'll introduce him to you, Auntie." Cao Xiao's heart went cold. Mother He was planning to kick him aside and deal directly with his fabricated friend for factory-direct sales, and she even brought up He Yueyou as a threat. She really wasn't treating him as an outsider; he hadn't even married He Yueyou yet, and she was already trying to cut off his source of wealth. How was he supposed to earn money to support He Yueyou in the future? How many times had He Yueyou been sold out by her mother without even knowing it?

"Oh, is that so! Then Auntie can only discuss the price directly with you, right? We don't need to stand on ceremony. Just tell me the lowest price your friend gave you. Once we're done, Auntie can go back and rest. You wouldn't have the heart to watch Auntie get wrinkles, would you?" Mother He said with a smile.

"Uh, Auntie, for Yueyou's sake, I won't make any profit. My friend's base price plus transportation costs comes to three thousand yuan per ton, but you'll need to transport it back yourselves." Cao Xiao could hardly believe his ears. Was she asking him to betray his friend? That was truly direct. Besides, you're old enough to have wrinkles; your daughter is already so big, yet you still act like a young girl.

"What? Three thousand a ton? The highest quality Coke we import is less than twenty-five hundred, and you're asking for three thousand? Cao Xiao, don't let down Auntie's kindness toward you. One must be honest!" Mother He widened her eyes in an exaggerated expression of disbelief and spoke to Cao Xiao in a grave and earnest tone.

"Auntie, this is refined from No. 2 Anthracite with a quality of 4.3, not from Bituminous Coal. The cost is much higher, and the quality is far better than the Coke on the market. At most, I can reduce it by another two hundred. I'm truly not making a penny of profit; any less and I won't be able to face my friend. Besides—" Cao Xiao said, pretending to be pained. If it weren't for the fact that producing this Coke cost him nothing, he might really have lost money today. That's why he quoted three thousand; even if Mother He was ruthless, there would be room to negotiate.

"Auntie isn't that easy to fool. The selling price of anthracite is indeed much higher than Bituminous Coal, but the difference is only a few hundred yuan per ton. However, the wastage in refining Coke from anthracite is also lower, so it can't be that much more expensive than bituminous Coke. Stop dallying. Auntie will take care of you this time: twenty-six hundred a ton. I see some plastic buckets in your warehouse; those should be Coal Tar, right? Throw them in as a bonus with this batch of Coke. That way, I'll have something to tell the board of directors when I get back. How much stock do you have in total? I'll have the finance department give you half the payment first. Auntie won't mistreat her own people. Alright, if you have anything to say, go talk to Yueyou. I forgot to tell you, Yueyou also has shares in Hongdu. Or should I have Yueyou come and talk to you?" Mother He waved her hand to cut Cao Xiao off and decisively made the decision for him.

"Alright then, twenty-six hundred it is. My friend is definitely going to beat me. There are only five thousand five hundred tons here, with a total of forty thousand tons. The rest will take some time to be transported," Cao Xiao said after calming down. He had resigned himself to his fate.

Cao Xiao felt like crying. If these goods really belonged to a friend, he might not have any friends left. Who screws over their friends like this? He had some understanding of Coke prices on the market. Hongdu's purchases were bulk transactions, and with other factors, they might get a price of twenty-five hundred; otherwise, high-quality Coke would find buyers even at twenty-seven or twenty-eight hundred. Not to mention Cao Xiao's premium product, which was produced under ideal conditions. In actual production, those conditions couldn't be met; the quality of Coke was only generally stable, with many sub-standard pieces. While the impact on large-scale metallurgy was small, the production of certain Special Alloys required extremely pure and stable fuel quality. Therefore, selling this Coke for three thousand a ton was definitely not expensive; it just depended on whether the buyer had that specific need. But twenty-six hundred was truly the price of bituminous Coke on the market, plus he had to throw in several hundred tons of Coal Tar as a bonus. This business was a guaranteed loss. In the end, he even got an evaluation of not being sincere enough. What a nightmare! How did things turn out like this? It seemed it was destined yesterday when he looked for Liu Guitang to sell the Coke. Actually, it could have been avoided; why couldn't he have been more firm then!

"That's more like it! Alright, that's settled. I'll arrange for someone to handle the handover with you. Give me your account number. Auntie is going back first. Remember to treat me to dinner in the provincial capital this Saturday!" Mother He yawned and said with satisfaction.

Watching Mother He's Porsche speed away, Cao Xiao's eyes were filled with confusion. He had sold all the Coke just like that, so why didn't he feel happy at all?

"Little Cao, do you have any more of that Coke? I'd like to order a batch too," Hao Daqiang's gaunt old face suddenly appeared before Cao Xiao as he spoke with a chuckle.

"No, none at all. My friend's factory went bankrupt," Cao Xiao thought to himself, *You're really bringing up the one thing I don't want to talk about. You also want to come and pick up a bargain? You're not my prospective father-in-law; absolutely no way.*

"Ahem, really none? I'll pay twenty-eight hundred a ton," Hao Daqiang said, still not giving up.

"There's really no more. My friend sold the factory and went abroad, leaving the stock for me to handle." Cao Xiao only now realized that handling coal this way had repercussions. Good quality was also a trouble. If he really were to supply it, Hongdu's demand alone would be enough to keep him busy. Was he going to start a miserable, endless life as a miner from now on? The thought was terrifying. Without his own factory and industry, acting alone like this would eventually attract unwanted attention. He might as well just squash Hao Daqiang's idea. Before he had his own processing industry, he couldn't sell any more.