Chapter 55: Pricing the Wood Carvings
At the Crescent Woodcarving Shop
“Cousin, the renovations are about done,” Lin Zhihao said.
Chu Feng walked around the store and said with satisfaction, “Looks good.”
With the store now set up, all that was left was to display the wood carvings and prepare for the grand opening.
Walking through the shop, Chu Feng felt a rush of excitement.
Finally, the store is opening! The oppressed serf rises in song—I’m finally going to be a boss!
Even though he was already rich, being a boss felt like something else entirely.
Lin Zhihao puffed out his cheeks and said, “The renovations cost a lot of money.”
Chu Feng had given him 500,000 yuan, which was nearly all spent. On top of that, the payments to the renovation company were separate. In total, the entire setup cost nearly a million yuan.
“If the wood carvings don’t sell, we won’t even recover the investment,” Lin Zhihao said anxiously.
Chu Feng waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry. They’ll sell for sure.”
Lin Zhihao looked at him, puzzled. “Cousin, where does all your confidence come from?”
Chu Feng thought: If the wood carvings don’t sell, I can always sell jade!
With that treasure trove of another world at his disposal, as long as he played it smart, he’d never run out of money.
“I’m confident in my supply,” Chu Feng said aloud.
The materials for the wood carvings were something he had brought back from another dimension—truly one of a kind in this world. If they couldn’t sell, then people here clearly had no taste.
Lin Zhihao nodded. “Alright then…”
He scratched his head and asked, “Cousin, is Chu Jinhui getting married?”
Chu Feng nodded. “Seems like it.”
After the lottery win was revealed, his phone nearly exploded with calls. Chu Feng had avoided the spotlight to escape the hassle. Still, regardless, he felt obligated to show up at Chu Jinhui’s wedding. Even if his aunt wanted to scold him, she likely wouldn’t have time on the wedding day. The wedding should be tomorrow.
Lin Zhihao looked at Chu Feng. “How much are you planning to give… in the wedding red envelope?”
Without hesitation, Chu Feng said, “Depends on what Uncle and the others give.”
As a junior, it wasn’t his place to go beyond the elders with gifts.
Lin Zhihao nodded. “True.”
Chu Feng looked at Lin Zhihao and said, “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Help me move the goods—there’s quite a bit.”
Lin Zhihao nodded. “Okay. Brother Feng, did you bring the stuff over in that Volkswagen of yours?”
Chu Feng nodded. “Yeah.”
“Shouldn’t we buy a van for transporting goods?” Lin Zhihao asked.
Chu Feng nodded. “Seems like that might be necessary.”
Chu Feng thought to himself: that car of his was fine for getting around, but not really suited for hauling cargo. That said, he didn’t actually have that much to transport anyway. Still, with his current wealth, buying another vehicle would be no big deal.
He glanced at Lin Zhihao and said, “Xiao Hao, go buy a van—something that can be used for both daily travel and transporting goods. Doesn’t have to be expensive, around 100,000 yuan is fine. Register it under your name. I’ll transfer the money to your account.”
Lin Zhihao blinked. “Register it under my name? But…”
Chu Feng thought: buying a car is such a hassle—going to pick it out, getting plates… For him now, money wasn’t an issue, but time certainly was. He waved his hand. “It’s fine. It’s just a car. Not a big deal.”
Lin Zhihao shook his head. “But what if my parents ask about it?”
“That’s easy—just say a friend lent it to you.”
Lin Zhihao scratched his head, a bit helpless. “I don’t really have any friends… they probably won’t believe it.”
Chu Feng rolled his eyes and thought: Why is my cousin so rigid? “Then say the company lent it to you.”
Lin Zhihao thought about it and nodded. “That works.”
Though that would make it seem like the company was being really generous—just hired, and already getting a car.
Chu Feng patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about spending a little more. Get a decent one. I’ll be using it too.”
Lin Zhihao nodded. At first, he was thinking of buying a second-hand van, but since Chu Feng would also be using it, he decided to get a new one. In the village, Li Jin had bought a second-hand Audi to save money and show off, but it was constantly breaking down.
“Brother Feng, you seem really busy lately,” Lin Zhihao said.
Chu Feng nodded. “Yeah, very busy. So after the store opens, I’ll need you to take care of it more.”
Lin Zhihao had a vague feeling that Chu Feng was hiding something, but since he didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t ask.
Lin Zhihao nodded. “Okay.”
The two of them began placing the wood carvings into the glass display cases one by one.
Lin Zhihao looked at Chu Feng and asked, “Cousin, what kind of wood are these carvings made from?”
Knowing Chu Feng was opening a wood carving shop, Lin Zhihao had done some research and found that some kinds of wood were as valuable as gold—ebony, agarwood, pink ivory, purpleheart… all extremely precious.
Chu Feng smiled. “I’m not really sure, actually.”
“Not sure? Then how do we price them?”
Chu Feng shrugged. “Just make something up.”
Lin Zhihao frowned, uncomfortable. “Just make it up? That doesn’t seem right.”
Chu Feng laughed. “It’s fine.”
After all, wood—like many luxury goods—relies heavily on marketing. All those so-called valuable display pieces sold at high prices were just well-packaged hype.
Lin Zhihao looked at one of the carvings in his hand. “This wood smells really nice.”
Chu Feng took it and looked it over. The purple wood had a faint, pleasant scent. It even seemed like it might repel mosquitoes.
“How much should we price it at?”
“280,000 yuan,” Chu Feng replied.
Lin Zhihao’s eyes widened in shock. “That high? Who would buy it?”
Chu Feng tilted his head and thought: Yeah, probably no one. But hey, you never know—someone might be crazy enough to buy it. Let’s price it high first; if it doesn’t sell, we’ll adjust later. Something this good shouldn’t be sold cheap.
Lin Zhihao: “…”
Seeing his cousin’s wide-eyed expression, Chu Feng patted his shoulder. “Xiao Hao, you need to broaden your horizons. There are plenty of rich idiots in this world.”
Lin Zhihao looked pained. Sure, there are rich idiots out there—but that doesn’t mean they’ll show up in our little shop…
Once the carvings were all arranged, Chu Feng started setting prices while Lin Zhihao recorded them.
“This one’s nice—let’s price it at 880,000 yuan,” Chu Feng said.
Lin Zhihao stared. “880,000? But that carving over there is pretty similar, and you just said 88,000 for that one…”
Chu Feng turned and looked at him. “You’re right. That 88,000 one—make it 880,000 too.”
“Isn’t that too expensive?”
“Nope. We’re going for a high-end image. We can’t be too cheap.”
Lin Zhihao puffed up his cheeks. “Are you sure this is okay?”
Chu Feng thought for a moment. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
Lin Zhihao: …Is it really fine?
“This one—8.88 million,” Chu Feng said, pointing at the largest piece in the shop.
“That much?!”
“Look at the size.” The carving was of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, a proud work of Duvean. It had taken great effort just to get it here.
“If we just slap prices on things like this… won’t customers have complaints?” Though, to be honest, it wasn’t like they had many customers yet.
Chu Feng: “…That’s true. Pricing is kind of tricky.”
Lin Zhihao hesitated. “Cousin, didn’t the person who supplied you these give you a reference price?”
Chu Feng: “…What reference could people from Crescent Village give me? Duvean and the others don’t even know what RMB is.”
“Nope. No reference.”
Lin Zhihao sighed. He figured if they could make even one sale in the next three months, it would be a success.
Seeing the look on his cousin’s face, Chu Feng blinked. “What’s with you?”
Lin Zhihao scratched his head. “I just think… there probably won’t be many customers.”
Chu Feng grinned confidently. “So what? This kind of business is all or nothing. We don’t open for three years, but when we do—we feast for three more.”
As long as they could make one sale in three years, it didn’t sound all that difficult.
Since Chu Feng, the boss, was so confident about the store, Lin Zhihao figured he might as well follow Chu Feng’s plan. Although his cousin didn’t seem all that reliable, they’d already come this far—they had to at least open the shop and see what happened.
Chu Feng glanced at Lin Zhihao and said, “This place is pretty big. It’ll be tiring to run on your own. How about hiring some staff?”
Lin Zhihao shook his head. “No rush.” The store didn’t have any reputation yet, and his cousin had priced everything so high—who would even come? If people had that kind of money, they’d probably prefer to buy name-brand bags from overseas. Though he personally didn’t see what was so great about brand-name bags…
Once things were sorted at the store, Lin Zhihao headed home.
“Back already?” his mother asked.
Lin Zhihao nodded.
“Tired from work?”
He shook his head and slipped back into his room to sleep.
Lin’s mother glanced at the sofa, then at her son sneaking off, and sighed. “What has that kid been so busy with lately?”
“Didn’t they say Xiao Feng helped him find a job?”
Lin’s mother took a deep breath. “I heard that Yan Ping’s been going around telling people that after Xiao Feng won the lottery, he didn’t go home, quit his job, and just messed around all day—that he’s probably going to end up in jail.”
Lin’s father scowled. “What good has that woman ever said? She just can’t stand to see Xiao Feng doing well.”
Lin’s mother sighed. “I don’t believe her either, but… Xiao Feng really did quit his job. So how could he have helped Xiao Hao get one?”
Lin’s father glanced at her and waved his hand. “Stop overthinking. Maybe they just looked for one together.”
Lin’s mother nodded. “That makes sense.”
Lin’s father hesitated for a moment. “I heard Yan Ping’s son tried to follow Xiao Feng’s lead and buy lottery tickets—and ended up losing a bunch of money.”
His wife frowned. “Didn’t he need money for his wedding? Why was he buying lottery tickets?”
“Probably because he needed money. Maybe he thought he could hit it big and save himself a few years of hard work.”
“Let’s not talk about Yan Ping’s family anymore.” Just the mention of them was annoying. “I’ve noticed Xiao Hao seems to be in a better mood these days.”
After things fell through with the girl he was seeing, their son had been really down. At first, Lin’s father thought maybe he was just heartbroken, but later he found out the girl had berated him pretty harshly before breaking up—completely tore into him.
He figured maybe his son wasn’t actually that heartbroken, just embarrassed.
His wife sighed. “Forget it, let him be.”
She did feel that her son seemed more confident lately. If he had really landed a stable job, maybe getting married in the future wouldn’t be so difficult.
Sigh why is MC so carefree??
He could hire a proper Wood-carving appraiser to price the works, which would be much better since the high-end route should show sincerity in order to gain customer loyalty…
I’m enjoying this story but why is it stressing me out at the same time? ?