After Li Ziqian finished examining them one by one, he seemed to discern what Wang An was thinking and spoke
"As for wild ginseng, its medicinal properties are at their peak when it is still fresh. The existence of dried ginseng is actually only because fresh ginseng cannot be stored for very long."
Pausing for a moment, Li Ziqian continued like a scholar
"The key is that once wild ginseng is dried, many of its medicinal properties—such as the most precious ginsenosides and volatile oils—gradually decrease over time, and eventually may disappear entirely."
Wang An nodded without speaking, as he was already aware of these facts.
Furthermore, Wang An knew that for ginseng over ten years old, even if it had been stored properly, most of its medicinal properties would have vanished long ago, with very little remaining.
The reason Wang An was so knowledgeable about this was that during his previous life's labor reform, he had not only participated in planting garden-grown and forest-grown ginseng but had also studied the corresponding knowledge; it was only his understanding of wild ginseng that was pitifully scarce.
However, whether it was wild, forest-grown, or garden-grown, they were all essentially ginseng.
Although wild ginseng would certainly be stored for several years longer, or even much longer, than forest-grown ginseng due to its growth environment, in Wang An's view, the loss of medicinal efficacy was only a matter of time.
Seeing Wang An nod, Li Ziqian said with a hint of apology
"Little brother, for these dried ginsengs, we can only trade them based on the normal purchase price plus a ten percent premium."
Wang An nodded and said with a slight hint of disappointment
"Alright, let's do it as Elder Li says, hehehe..."
It was clear that while Li Ziqian liked these dried ginsengs that had been stored for many years, he *only* liked them; it was absolutely impossible to get him to pay a high premium for them.
Of course, it was also possible that Li's Pharmacy already had ample stock of wild dried ginseng, so he didn't particularly care whether he could acquire the ones from Wang An's trio.
After Wang An finished speaking, Li Ziqian picked up four boxes containing Grade-4 leaf fresh ginseng and said
"These four over sixty years old are also very good. How about this: for this one over seventy years, I'll give you 7,000 yuan, and for those three over sixty years, I'll give you 6,000 yuan each."
Having said this, Li Ziqian picked up the final three Grade-4 leaves and the four Grade-3 leaves. After thinking for a while, he said
"As for these, they are all around fifty years old, so they can only be traded at the normal purchase price plus a ten percent premium."
After Li Ziqian finished, Wang An was actually very happy. Although the price at which Wang An had acquired these four Grade-4 leaf ginsengs was much higher than that of the supply and marketing cooperative, it was far lower than Li's purchase price.
That wild ginseng over seventy years old weighed a bit more than 91 grams; Wang An had calculated it as 92 grams when buying it. The purchase price was 25 yuan per gram, 5 yuan higher than the cooperative's price, costing him 2,300 yuan.
If calculated at Li's purchase price of 35 per gram plus a ten percent premium, the price would only be 3,542 yuan.
But now Li Ziqian had given him 7,000 yuan—it was practically double!
The same went for the four Grade-4 leaves over sixty years; they had all nearly doubled in value. So what could Wang An be dissatisfied with? He was beyond satisfied—absolutely thrilled!
Therefore, as soon as Li Ziqian finished speaking, Wang An gave him a thumbs-up and said
"Great! Elder Li is generous! From now on, no one else will be able to take so much as a hair of our goods, hahahaha!"
Regarding Wang An's flattery, Li Ziqian simply pointed at him with a chuckle
"Hahahaha... you little slippery fish. If I had offered even a bit less, you definitely would have turned around and walked out."
Wang An didn't mind being exposed and continued to say with a smile
"That's impossible. Elder Li is so generous; if I were to leave now, how ungrateful would that be?"
After finishing with the ginseng, Li Ziqian took out the pouch containing the musk sachets.
In nearly a year, Wang An's trio and Feng Chengmin had only managed to collect 11 sachets. Feng Chengmin got 4, and Wang An's trio got 7 in total; it was evident how difficult these things were to collect.
Of course, the reason they collected so few sachets wasn't because there were too few musk deer in the deep mountains for hunters to find; the main reason was actually that too many people were buying them privately.
The reason was simple: besides being a precious medicinal ingredient, its primary use was for making high-end perfumes.
As is well known, people of other skin colors besides Asians have distinct body odors, so the wealthy among them habitually use these high-end perfumes.
Consequently, musk, as the primary raw material, became a commodity in short supply.
This was the main reason why the price of musk remained consistently high.
Li Ziqian looked at the sachets in the cloth bag and said with great emotion
"These things are becoming harder and harder to find. It's truly not easy to see this many sachets at once..."
Wang An nodded in agreement
"Yeah, it's been almost a year and we've only collected this little, and they were all bought at high prices. Collecting this stuff ties up too much capital; it's not worth it at all."
To be honest, while collecting sachets made a decent profit, it wasn't as good as using that money to collect bear gall. The main issue was that the capital requirement was too high, but the profit margin was too low compared to bear gall.
The two he collected before the New Year were 6,000 yuan each. After the New Year, when he offered 6,000 again, the sellers refused, saying it was now 7,000. Wang An countered with a final offer of 6,500, but they dug their heels in, refusing to sell for less than 7,000.
Fortunately, Wang An didn't indulge them. Sell it or don't, he didn't give a damn.
Later, after some time, they wanted to sell to Wang An for 6,500 again. However, Wang An told them to get lost; it was 6,000 or nothing, especially since he was running low on money to buy bear gall.
Thus, five sachets were all bought for 6,000. As for Feng Chengmin's four, they were 7,500 each, with Wang An's trio only leaving a margin of 500 yuan each.
Mainly because, at that time, traveling the two thousand four or five hundred kilometers to Anguo was more thrilling than passing five passes and slaying six generals; it was almost like the eighty-one tribulations on the journey to the West—there were all kinds of people, both good and bad.
If not for the certificates, proofs, and letters of introduction provided by Zhang Shuya as strong support, combined with the formidable deterrent of a Type 56 assault rifle spraying bursts of bullets into the sky, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Wang An's trio wouldn't know what their fate would be now.
Of course, they might have already died halfway.
Therefore, in a business where the best case was being robbed of everything down to their underwear and the worst case was having their heads removed and their lives ended—not to mention the huge capital involved—who would do it if it didn't make money? If the profit was too low, they certainly wouldn't do it!
After Wang An finished, Li Ziqian said with a bitter smile
"The price of this stuff always remains high, so we don't make much profit even after processing it into medicine and reselling it. How about this: for these 11 musk packets, on top of the original price, I'll add another two... hmm, let's make it 3,000 yuan. That's our limit."
Wang An certainly didn't believe Li Ziqian when he said there was no profit, because Wang An had given the sachet from the musk deer he killed to Fang Xiu'e to handle.
Fang Xiu'e had said that if it were processed into medicine and sold, it could fetch over 20,000 yuan.
If Fang Xiu'e, a doctor at a county hospital, could sell it for a high price of 20,000, how could a large-scale operation like Li's Pharmacy claim not to make money? Fuck, that was pure nonsense!
However, Wang An didn't argue with Li Ziqian. After all, how much the other person earned was their own capability; it had nothing to do with him.
So Wang An gave another thumbs-up and said
"Alright, since Elder Li is so straightforward, I can't be lagging behind. Let's do it as you say, hahaha..."
After laughing, Wang An pointed to the burlap sack
"Elder Li, there's also a small bag of bezoar in this sack. Would you like to take a look? Cows are everywhere in our area, every village has plenty, but this bezoar stuff is truly rare..."
Before Wang An could finish, Li Ziqian interrupted with a chuckle
"You know exactly what we're lacking, so you bring exactly that. To be honest, bezoar is even more scarce than musk and bear gall. The price has indeed risen quite a bit recently."
Regarding the price increase, Wang An didn't know. In any case, if one wanted the supply and marketing cooperative or the medicinal herb collection station in DJ County to change their prices, it was genuinely quite difficult.
Unless they truly couldn't collect anything and couldn't complete their corresponding tasks, they would absolutely not raise prices!
Of course, all government units were like this; one just had to get used to it.
As Li Ziqian randomly took out bezoar particles to examine, he said to Wang An
"Some people are already researching synthetic bezoar, but the effect when made into bezoar pills is truly unsatisfactory. Once this news broke, the price of natural bezoar was pushed even higher."
Hearing this, Wang An said
"I came in too hurriedly just now and didn't actually check your pharmacy's price list. How much is bezoar per gram now?"
Li Ziqian didn't speak, but Li Yajing said
"Our current purchase price is 30 yuan per gram."
Wang An grimaced, and a feeling called "heartache" immediately welled up.
He should have waited until now to sell the bezoar he and Wang Li had last time. In less than a year, the difference was five or six hundred yuan; who could he reason with about this?
Li Ziqian teased Wang An with a laugh
"What? Thinking about the bezoar you sold to us before the New Year? Hahahaha!"
It had to be said that this old man, Li Ziqian, was truly too wise; he was not at all inferior to a reincarnated person like Wang An.
After laughing, Li Ziqian added
"How about this: after the normal transaction for this bezoar, I'll give you an extra 1,000 yuan to make up for last time. How does that sound?"
Wang An naturally agreed with pleasure.
After finishing the negotiations for the ginseng and musk prices, people began to arrive one after another in the room in the backyard.
From the way they greeted Li Ziqian, it wasn't hard to tell that these people were Li Ziqian's sons and grandsons, among whom was Li Yongrui, who had gone to DJ County with Wang An's trio.