Title: My First Trading Partner is An Awaken
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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"What are you going to do with these?" Henry was referring to the excessive number of leafy vegetables that were still in the hydroponic set up.
"These will not be suitable in the market since they will be overgrown if not removed from the hydroponic set-up." Henry pointed out. They painstakingly placed every seed in those plastic cups along with the coconut husks as support not to be submerged in water.
With the ratio used by his father, from the seed to maturity of the leafy veggies, it only takes them 6 days to grow except for the Chinese cabbage that might need two more days to grow.
"Worry not, son. Still remember when I gave some of the vegetables you grow on the rooftop?" His dad stated.
"Yeah, you had given the excess to some. Why?" Henry asked.
"It turns out that one of our neighbors is the owner of a startup restaurant. Mrs. Dela Cruz wanted 50 kg of orders of these Chinese cabbages and the rest of our veggies," Jimmy said.
"You're lucky dad. Anyways, since it will be harvested, we don't need to waste any of it," Henry said exiting from the greenhouse.
He went to his room to train and further improve himself through Ezio's Breathing technique as he waits for the reply of Tyler.
Unfortunately, Tyler is busy making credit contributions to their war against the giant wolves that are trying to invade the last stand of the Kailan region, the Blackwood City. Thus, the reply would be delayed for the time being.
The following morning, a container van was parked in front of their front yard. Henry saw it after he came back from jogging and training shadow boxing.
He also finds his father talking to another elderly inside their front yard and it was the Chinese neighbor they have just three blocks away.
Although he was a distant away, he can still hear what they are talking about and smile when his father, Jimmy, concluded the deal like a winner.
The Chinese middle aged man nodded in agreement and brought out a check for his dad.
After which, Henry approaches the group and says hi to his dad. "Dad, you seem happy with your first closed deal."
"Of course, Mister Wang is generous. Since the taste of our vegetable is better than in the marketplace, he deliberately increased the price per kilogram by 15 percent!" Jimmy smiles with satisfaction and jolly enough to deal with the continuous harvesting of the other veggies.
"Dad is really excited about this kind of farming. I too enjoy them, brother." Dylan interjected as he was bagging the vegetables by 10 kg along with the use of the weighing scale. It was the last batch.
'Huh… it seems to me that their physique has already improved. My father and Dylan are faster and more flexible as compared to their early days and even my two sisters have had noticeable changes too," Henry thought.
"I know, by the way, Dylan, you said that you joined the track and field sports which involves many sports, how are you holding up?" Henry asked.
He was worried that his brother overdid it just like breaking all the records in their school which would look suspicious since most of the key people like teachers and other students knew what had happened to him.
"Worry not bro. I know what you mean. I did fair on the sprint and other running events but not too overkill," Dylan replied. He knew for a fact that this is one of the secrets of their family.
In his free time, he helps his brother concoct the F-rank healing potion. Thus, he too can make it without his brother as long as he has those ingredients.
Even further, he knew that his older brother was telling the truth as he had already optimized his physique and as he continued drinking the potion, his mind started to become more powerful.
It was then recommended by his brother Henry to at least drink once in a while to further enhance their mental capacity and flush out toxins they had accumulated within the week.
As for the green liquid extracted during the purification of the crystals, Dylan is also aware of it. He too was involved in dealing with it along with his father, Jimmy.
"Alright, that's better. Let's wrap these orders first. I think dad here is smiling with his first profit." Henry changed the topic as he noticed that the crew of the container van was approaching.
Dylan understands.
It took them another hour to finish verifying the inventory and concluding the price. "Mister Jim, you really have quite a harvest in your first try doing this organic kind of farming. I really do admire your boldness."
"Mister Wang, coming from you, I would accept it along with the payment of these orders," Jimmy said with a smile. The Chinese restaurant owner laughs.
"I know, I know. Your straight forwardness is also awesome. Here is the check!" Mister Wang gives the check to Jimmy. "When can I pick up the next harvest?"
"Thank you, Mister Wang," Jimmy received the check and nodded with the price that was written on it. "As for the next order, if you're interested in our eggplants and tomatoes, we would love to directly give it to you. It might take another five days."
"Yeah, I noticed that your eggplants are nearly matured and the tomato. From here, it was really healthy and we might pick up a big harvest in due time." Mister Wang said.
"It's true. However, for the next harvest of the leafy vegetables, we already prepared the seedlings and we might call you after 6 to 8 days." Jimmy calculated.
He lied about the prepared seedlings as they directly placed the seeds in the hydroponic set-up. He was mesmerized by the efficacy of the green liquid solution from his son. Thus, he was confident that it would still be a hundred percent growth for each of the seeds he placed on it.
"Good! Good! If you have another product, approach me. If you can continue giving me your harvest at least every 7 days, I will be my sole customer in terms of these needed veggies!" Mister Wang said.
Jimmy nodded with enthusiasm. Henry and Dylan are just in the corner listening to the conversation. The deal ended and their dad boasted their first profit.
"Son! Look!" Jimmy laughs, giving the check to Henry and Dylan. "For five days! We made such a profit!"
Dylan was stunned when he saw it. It was their first legit profit and it astounded him.
'Not comparing to how my brother Henry earns his money, but this profit, we can only work for years to earn this when we are still in the slum.' Dylan thought.
"According to my brother, a liter of liquid is about 12,000 pesos. We pretty used 5 liters in all of the plants here, and the check here is 145,000 pesos! That's a gain of 85,000 pesos!" Dylan calculated.
[By agreement, Henry pays 1kg of salt for 20 liters of wastewater. However, with the trade agreement between Henry and Tyler which was not known by Henry's family, the cost of the green liquid can be either a kilo of salt or 1 gold coin.
By standard market price, a 21 karat gold coin is worth 2,200 pesos per gram. Thus, converting his gold coin with an average weight of 106 grams, it's around 233,200 pesos. So, a liter is around 11,660 pesos.]
He decided to give the premium price of the said green liquid solution to his father. This is for his father to know that such miraculous fertilizer would be expensive.
'One more thing is that we only need to add this liquid solution every 15 days to ensure its efficacy!' Dylan thought.
'This, even though the fertilizer is expensive, in this setup alone, we only need to consume 10 liters per month but the harvest is 5 times a month or even better for other crops.'
'It was rather a pure profit since we still have stocks of seeds of every vegetable here and we only need to place them in the system. The only labor here is the first stage and the last stage which is harvesting!' He continued to see how marvelous the liquid solution was.
"Dad, I'll remind you that you still have overhead expenses with regards to this. Aren't you going to pay my brother and sisters who help you out from planting and harvesting?" Henry teased.
"Of course, I know that. It's good that you rejected my request of other laborers from the outside since I had already seen that after planting it, there is no such thing as maintenance just as what we had seminar days ago." Jimmy said.
"Also, your brother and your sisters can earn their wages from me!" Jimmy said. "It's good that they are strong so the profit is astounding!"
Henry nodded and understood his dad's excitement. For a scrap collector for decades, earning around 55,000 pesos for only six days is truly amazing.
"It would really take him years to accumulate this kind of amount. As for me, I'm numb already and this kind of earning is now normal for me. However, for my father and my siblings, they needed to take time to be used to this," Henry thought.
He had already experienced this and just like everybody else, he got his first time.
Henry and Dylan rolled their eyes. They knew that their father, in this mood, it was better to let him be. In due time, his father would be in his usual sense.
Overall, Dylan, Shienna and Amelia, were given 4,000 each and he also paid Henry for the liquid fertilizer worth 60,000 pesos. The other overhead amounted to only 14,000 pesos for the stocks of seeds and others.
For the rest of the morning, they placed the seeds to the hydroponics, checked the system and waited for the seeds to sprout which would only take overnight.
The original plan of harvesting veggies twice a month was abandoned as they can eventually cover it up through the excuse of preparing a seedbed when someone will ask.
"Fine, we need to be absolutely discrete when we talk about this thing, Dad." Henry reiterates.
"I know, son. For the time being, I can help everyone from time to time, especially the distribution of seeds and as for harvest, we can ask somebody at least twice a month," Jimmy understands and makes some plans.
They find that after 38 to 40 months, Jimmy can pay back the capital they used in buying up the 1,200 square meter properties and the installation of the greenhouse and the hydroponic set up.
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"So now I can concentrate on training this breathing technique. It's just that I can't find any references about this feeling of coldness to some part of the city. Was it this enhanced sense or something else?"
Henry can only infer information from the booklet that he purchased for 50kg of salt. The only thing that he can relate to this kind of feeling of coldness from the surroundings is the booklet in his hand.
'Not only with the coldness but I can smell some of the people with a literally offensive smell that seems to be the combination of all the foul smells in the world. Yet it seems that I am the only one affected by it but not the other people.'
'It seems that this is what they called sixth sense, I suppose.' Henry can only accept such conclusions. He therefore continues to enhance himself through Ezio's Breathing technique.
For now, by comparison, as an F-rank high-tear awakened, his physique is comparable that of 25 people. His speed is 9 times times faster than the world record, and as stipulated earlier, his defense can withstand one M67 hand grenade.