"Hey, Lawrence, how's it going lately? Have you made any big discoveries?"
Early the next morning, Leonard Ethan drove to the door of the Emerald Antique Store with the spoils of war from yesterday. As soon as he pushed the door open, the owner, Pierce Murphy, came out from behind the counter and greeted him as the doorbell rang.
Pierce was a tall, thin young man with dazzling red hair and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his face. With his slightly old plaid suit, he looked more like a scholar than a businessman.
"Thanks to your good wishes, my luck has finally changed." Leonard said and placed a paper box on the counter, then pointed to the van behind him.
"By the way, weren't you saying before that your wooden floor at home is damaged in some places and you want to replace it? I found a broken oak cabinet and dismantled a lot of wooden boards from it, which can just replace your rotten floor."
"Ha, you really are my best friend." Pierce came out of the door next to the counter, hugged Leonard vigorously, and then took the car key from his hand to go and move the things.
Pierce was a friend Leonard met in university, an Irish-born British citizen.
Because his family opened an antique shop, he went to study archaeology at Cork University in Ireland and ended up sharing a dormitory with Leonard.
After graduating from university, Leonard sought subtle advice from his friends on career matters due to life changes and hoping to activate his Golden Finger. As a result, he came to London after listening to Pierce's advice.
Thanks to Pierce's help, Leonard was able to find work and a place to live in London, a completely unfamiliar city to him.
After all, this kind of cleaning job is not something anyone can do, and if you don't have a reliable local connection to help inquire about information and provide guarantees, outsiders might not even hear about such opportunities.
During the two months in London, Leonard mainly followed Pierce to learn various tricks in this field, besides self-study.
Even the second-hand minivan they got was bought cheaply directly from the previous owner through his channel.
For Pierce, his family has always insisted on helping others if they can. It goes without saying that they'd do so for a friend, and this kind of help is naturally reciprocated.
Although Leonard, as a newcomer, hasn't found many valuable things lately due to his lack of experience and bad luck, he's willing to help the store when he's free in order to pay back his friend.
Because of this, Pierce, who also just started managing his family's business, understood why his father taught him to be kind to others, even if it might take extra effort sometimes.
"These wooden boards are great. Although there's paint on them, it can be easily removed with some simple chemical solvents." Soon, Pierce unloaded the bookshelf that Leonard had turned into wooden boards from the back of the van.
"Alright, let me see what treasures you have brought back this time." After stacking the thick oak boards with Leonard, Pierce opened the paper box he brought while speaking.
"Ha, hardcover books, and almost all of them are literature and history." After taking out the leather-bound hardcover books from the box and looking at their titles, Pierce became excited.
"The traditional London social season is coming up in the winter, so the rich are buying things to enhance their status, making books like these very popular lately, as they need them to fill up their bookshelves."
Using books to decorate is actually a global habit, especially compared to the too specialized science and engineering books, literature, and history books are more suitable for such occasions.
So, in a place like London, these well-preserved and good-looking hardcover books are easy to sell. Even if Pierce is not a second-hand book dealer, he can find someone to sell them to.
"Not bad, I can see that the previous owner didn't really read these books, so they're hardly worn." After flipping through them quickly, Pierce closed the large book in his hand and said.
"I have a client who recently asked me to find such things, so your goods can help me complete this deal."
"Are these books valuable?" Leonard asked curiously, as he really didn't know much about this area. "I thought they were just like those cheap second-hand books we bought when we were in university."
"No, no, no, my friend." Hearing Leonard's words, Pierce immediately shook his head. "These books have been published for over half a century, so they can be considered antiques, and antiques naturally cannot be priced the same as second-hand goods."
"I see!" Leonard nodded, apparently under the impression that these things from forty or fifty years ago didn't count as antiques due to the memories of another world.
"So, how much can these books sell for?" After Pierce had flipped through all 12 books in the box, Leonard seriously talked business with him. For British people, friends are friends, but business is business.
"These books are at least 90% new, and all are old books from decades ago, with two of them belonging to relatively rare editions." Pierce pushed up his glasses and looked at the books on the table.
"According to the current market price, the cheapest of these books is worth more than £30, and the most expensive at least £150."
"How much are you willing to pay?"
"₤520, after all, I need to make money."
"Alright, deal." After hearing Pierce's final offer, Leonard immediately nodded and agreed to the price.
The price can be considered a very honest one. Although Leonard knew that Pierce could finally sell these books for ₤900 or even ₤1100, he wouldn't have been able to sell them for more than ₤520 if he tried to sell them on his own or through other buyers.
After counting out ₤520 in cash and giving it to Leonard, and collecting the books, Pierce's smile returned to his face. "Looks like your business has finally started. By the way, do you have any other discoveries?"
"Of course, you could say that the real treasure is coming next." Leonard reached into his wind coat pocket as he spoke. "By the way, do you have a weapon sales permit?"
Unlike the British in the other world, the British in this world are much more lenient about holding guns, closer to Canada. However, even so, a series of procedures must be followed if you want to do business in this field.
"Of course, my dad got it years ago, but unfortunately, in over a decade, I had to pay an annual fee for this permit and the store didn't have even ten guns go through it."
Pierce took out a permit from the drawer and handed it to Leonard. "Did you actually find a gun this time?"
"Yes, I found this treasure in the interlayer of that oak cabinet." Leonard said, placing two boxes on the table. "Today is really my lucky day."