Chapter 280: Bear Gall Prices Have Also Risen
Hearing the laughter, Wang An couldn't help but look back.
Then, Wang An gave the clerk a fierce glare before turning away again.
Mainly, this person was too much; he didn't know how to restrain himself at all. He could have at least waited until Wang An had walked further away before laughing!
Furthermore, if you're going to laugh, just laugh properly. Why are you slapping the table and your thighs? Aren't you afraid of laughing yourself into a cramp?
Wang An ignored the clerk and went straight to the medicinal herbs counter.
In reality, the counters were not far apart.
Therefore, the conversation between Wang An and the fur clerk had been heard by the other clerks as well.
Seeing Wang An approach, the female clerk at the medicinal herbs counter was relatively civic-minded and immediately forced herself to stifle her laughter.
This clerk wasn't very old, looking to be about twenty-five or twenty-six.
Perhaps she felt that gloating like this wasn't right, which was why she forced the laughter back.
Unfortunately, laughter is something that, once it has started, is truly not easy to suppress.
It is just like having diarrhea or a desperate need to urinate; once it's happening, trying to force it back is a struggle.
One can reflect—no, one can recall—is it easy to hold in?
Thus, these three situations are actually identical.
At this moment, the clerk looked at Wang An while fighting back her laughter, but she couldn't speak.
Because the moment this clerk opened her mouth, the shit and piss—no, the laughter—would definitely burst out.
After placing the four bear galls on the counter, Wang An didn't speak; he just looked at the clerk with drooping eyes.
After a while, the clerk was still covering her mouth with one hand, and her other hand seemed to be pinching her own thigh.
Wang An felt helpless, so he said
"Why don't you just laugh for a bit first? Otherwise, I don't think you can get your work done."
Hearing this, the clerk stopped holding back and laughed uncontrollably, "Hahahaha..."
Then, a very bizarre scene occurred at the medicinal herbs counter of the supply and marketing cooperative.
A man stood expressionless outside the counter, watching a woman inside the counter laughing hysterically.
This infuriated Wang An; it was as if this woman had never laughed in her entire life.
The key was, was it really that funny? Fuck!
After another while, the woman finally finished laughing.
The clerk said while still chuckling
"I'm sorry, please don't mind. It's just that the price of bear gall has also risen."
Wang An was stunned and instinctively looked toward the outside of the counter.
Because he had been watching the woman laugh like an idiot, he really hadn't noticed the newly posted price acquisition list.
On the new price list, the price per individual gall had been removed. Now, regardless of size, the price was calculated solely by the gram.
Black Bear Gold Gall: 14 yuan per gram Black Bear Iron Gall: 9 yuan per gram Black Bear Grass Gall: 6 yuan per gram Brown Bear Gold Gall: 6 yuan per gram Brown Bear Iron Gall: 5 yuan per gram Brown Bear Grass Gall: 4 yuan per gram
After reading the price list, Wang An sucked in his teeth sharply.
Holy shit, even without counting the furs and only considering the bear galls, in just a few days, Wang An and Mu Xueli would each lose out on over 400 yuan!
Over 400 yuan—what concept was that? It was roughly a full year's salary for a formal employee!
Ten thousand "holy shits" wanted to erupt from Wang An's mouth.
After speaking, the clerk picked up the scale to begin weighing the bear galls.
Two Black Bear Gold Galls: one was 59.8 grams, the other was 65.3 grams. Two Black Bear Grass Galls: one was 64.2 grams, the other was 54.7 grams.
It must be said that China's scales were quite impressive, capable of weighing down to a fraction of a gram.
After weighing, the clerk began to carefully inspect the quality of the four galls, using an awl to puncture all of them.
Furthermore, after puncturing the galls, the clerk poured out a bit of the gall powder and tasted it.
Seeing this, Wang An understood why the process had changed.
Previously, the cooperative didn't go to such lengths to acquire bear galls; once the type of gall was confirmed, they simply weighed it and paid.
However, doing it that way obviously left many loopholes.
From what Wang An knew from his previous life in the South, bear gall could be faked.
Because bears existed in both the South and the North.
And regardless of where they were from, bear gall was extremely valuable, especially since it was priced by the gram.
Therefore, to increase the weight of the gall and make more money, people had devised many methods.
One of the most common methods was to grind peeled mung beans into powder and stuff them into the gall immediately after it was removed.
Once the gall dried, the mung bean powder would mix with the gall powder, achieving a result that was indistinguishable from the real thing.
It had to be said that the people who thought of these methods had plenty of brainpower.
Although bear galls have an approximate weight based on their size, even an extra grain of mung bean powder could cause a significant difference in price.
Moreover, if one were to extract a portion of the real bile and stuff in a lot of mung bean powder, the price difference would be even more absurd.
However, people of this era mostly maintained their integrity.
While there would certainly be a small minority who did this, it was normal; among hundreds of people, there are all sorts of characters.
Wang An simply watched the clerk's operations without speaking.
Because the clerk certainly wasn't doing this of her own volition; it was a requirement from her superiors.
Things that cannot be changed must be accepted, because there is no other choice.
After the inspection, the clerk began clicking away at her abacus.
It must be said that although this woman laughed incessantly—and was still laughing now—she was quite professional when it came to inspecting galls and using the abacus.
After finishing with the abacus, the clerk wrote on a voucher, tore it off, and handed it to Wang An.
The two Gold Galls totaled 1,751.4 yuan, and the two Grass Galls totaled 713.4 yuan. The four bear galls totaled 2,464.8 yuan.
Holding the three vouchers, Wang An walked toward the cooperative's finance office.
After Wang An left, the medicinal herbs clerk began to giggle again.
When Wang An reached the door of the finance office, he heard the people inside laughing as well, discussing how much less money Wang An had made.
It must be said that the speed at which this kind of gossip spreads is truly extraordinary.
By the time Wang An walked out of the cooperative with 3,985.8 yuan, his ears finally found some peace.
One could imagine how bored these clerks at the cooperative were day by day when there were no customers.
Before leaving the cooperative gates, Wang An noticed that the older brother from the gun counter was no longer there.
Thus, carrying the sack containing the guns, Wang An walked toward the nook on the west side of the cooperative.
Wang An had encountered all kinds of scoundrels and, naturally, had killed quite a few.
Therefore, Wang An was cautious; before heading over, he chambered a round in the Type 54 in his pocket.
With one hand in his pocket touching the Type 54 and the other carrying the sack, Wang An arrived at the western nook.
He found that not only was the older brother there, but a middle-aged man was also standing there.
Seeing Wang An approach, the older brother hurriedly welcomed him with a smile.
The older brother took the sack from Wang An's hand and inspected the four double-barrel shotguns one by one.
After checking one, the older brother handed the gun to the middle-aged man, who also inspected it very carefully.
Soon, after all the guns were checked, the middle-aged man handed a thick stack of "Big Unity" bills to the older brother.
The older brother was even more straightforward; he counted out 20 bills, stuffed them into his own pocket, and handed the remaining money to Wang An.
The entire sequence of actions was open and honest, without a hint of concealment.
He might as well have said out loud: "I made 200 yuan, and I did it right in front of you."
Actually, Wang An quite liked the older brother's way of doing things—earning what should be earned, all out in the open, with nothing wrong with it.
Wang An took the money and counted it; it was exactly 1,600. He casually put the money in his pocket, took out some cigarettes, and handed one to each of them.
After each took a puff, they waved to one another and departed their separate ways.
Throughout the entire process, not a single word was spoken among the three of them.