"Wait—that two-meter guy? He is from the Grain Bureau, isn't he?"
"No, no. It's that young girl, right? She doesn't look special to me."
"Please, if she wasn't special, would even Lao Wang have no access? I'm telling you, you better be polite later."
"Who knows? Maybe some big sponsor is here to sweep the shelves."
Jing Shu's ears were sharp, catching the fragments of conversation drifting through the hall. She didn't know whether to laugh or sigh. It was the first time she had witnessed just how special her identity had become in the eyes of others. Even the director couldn't pull up her file. How was she supposed to enter the club today? Was she getting in or not?
Director Wang first cleared out the people lining up at the window, ushering them toward the other booths. He jogged back with a wide smile, his face flushed. "Miss Jing, you might have to wait a bit longer. Because of the regulations above us, your case needs our general manager to come over. Don't worry, he has very high authority."
Jing Shu narrowed her eyes a little. Her information was already protected to this extent. It was probably better not to have more people digging into her background. If someone remembered later that she ran a Red Nematode Breeding and Processing Factory, it would be a mess. The less people knew about her connections to Jin Tianci, the better.
"Will the general manager get here soon?"
Director Wang gave an awkward smile, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "He is handling business somewhere else. He will arrive in about twenty minutes."
Jing Shu quietly let out a breath, her fingers tapping against the metal counter. "Is there another way around this?"
Director Wang thought for a moment, his brow furrowed. "There's one. If you have something worth ten million virtual coins with you right now, we wouldn't need to go through all this."
Even Director Wang felt embarrassed saying it. Who would bring something that valuable to a trading club without prior arrangement? Most people booked appointments in advance, communicated their intent, then brought items in for formal appraisal.
Even big shots who came to spend money only needed asset verification to use it like a credit line, spending first and repaying later. Hardly anyone walked around carrying a few million worth of physical goods. This wasn't like the world before the apocalypse, when a random piece of jewelry or a luxury car could be worth that much. In the current climate, everything had to be something practically useful.
The prices of the apocalypse were worlds apart from the old days.
"How about we wait? Twenty minutes isn't long. Our general manager would love to meet such a promising young person."
Jing Shu asked, "You are certain you can't access my identity information at all?"
Director Wang nodded regretfully. "After the reforms, everything is too strict. Forget your identity information, we can't even see your number or call logs."
Jing Shu finally smiled with relief. "Then what is the problem? Ten million in goods, right? Why don't you appraise something right now?"
Director Wang blinked. He didn't react at first, his mouth hanging open slightly. Was she actually carrying ten million worth of goods? She didn't look like it. They only had two boxes, carried by the massive guy standing behind her.
Jing Shu had Tank set down one of the boxes. With a crisp click, she opened the latches.
"I checked your hall's item prices earlier, so I roughly understand how you evaluate things. The longer the shelf life, the easier it's to store, and the higher the energy and nutritional value, the more valuable the food is."
Director Wang nodded, his gaze dropping to the open box. In a world starving for supplies, food had basically become the new luxury standard.
"Also, I checked the demand list in the request center. I noticed several posted prices for these items, and I happen to have them." Jing Shu unzipped the side of the box. She pulled back a black cover, revealing a collection of jars filled with pale yellow crystals that caught the dim light.
It was crystallized honey, dense and opaque.
Director Wang rushed over and crouched down, his eyes wide as he stared in disbelief. "Is this…"
"Yes. You aren't seeing things. This is fresh, pure honey. Each jar is one kilogram, ten jars total. And this is one kilogram of royal jelly. Kept refrigerated, it basically never expires."
Jing Shu lifted out a jar of honey. When she saw Director Wang frozen in shock, she explained, "This isn't the watered, sugar-syrup stuff from outside. Real pure honey doesn't expire."
Director Wang's voice trembled with excitement, his hands hovering near the glass. "I know. Only pure honey behaves like that. Is this produced after the apocalypse?"
Jing Shu nodded.
"That makes it even more valuable. Based on current prices, salt is still being produced normally, but sugar is extremely hard to come by. Bee products are at the top of the pyramid. But your items need to go through appraisal and testing to determine their grade."
It was not that people faked things here. It wasn't that people faked things here. It was that the rarer something was, the more detailed the grading became. The price differences between the grades were massive.
Jing Shu nodded. Director Wang rubbed his hands together and called over three more people. These newcomers were even more professional, carrying a full set of testing tools and chemical reagents.
Seeing how lively window No. 3 had become, the people waiting in the hall grew even more curious.
"What is going on over at No. 3? Why did they bring the appraisers?"
"Only high-grade and special-grade items get that treatment."
"Looks like whoever is inside isn't simple."
Jing Shu paused, her hand resting on the edge of the box. She had originally wanted to avoid attracting attention, so how did this turn into attracting even more?
On the other side of the counter, the honey and royal jelly were sampled. The appraisers used various methods, including sensory tasting and rapid chemical analysis. Director Wang was lucky enough to taste just a tiny bit on the end of a glass rod. He nearly fainted from the sensation.
The sweetness melted on his tongue and warmed his heart, the floral aroma blooming in his mouth. For a moment, he felt like he had gone back to being an eighteen-year-old boy on that unforgettable night, when everything surged up and his soul nearly left his body.
After testing, the appraisers all nodded toward Director Wang. He finally spoke, his voice hushed and reverent.
"The honey and royal jelly are both special grade. The current price for special-grade pure honey is twenty thousand virtual coins per one hundred grams. Royal jelly is one hundred thousand per one hundred grams. If you consign it to the trading center, you could let buyers bid on it. The price might even go up by another fold."
Jing Shu nodded. His explanation was fair and matched the market trends she had observed.
"So the minimum value of your goods is between three and five million virtual coins." Director Wang sighed. Just a few days ago, someone brought in honey that had been mixed with sugar water, and even that reached tens of thousands. Pure, natural, high-quality items like this would only get more valuable as the apocalypse dragged on.
Director Wang cleared his throat. That should be enough. Since her identity was special and the higher-ups only required assets over ten million, he could submit an application. He could log these jars as collateral, do some behind-the-scenes processing, and get her inside without waiting for the manager.
He was just about to give her a graceful exit so she wouldn't feel embarrassed if she didn't have more things. He began to say, "Well, this…"
A loud, sharp ripping sound cut him off.
Jing Shu unzipped the lower layer of the box, pulling back the final fabric divider to reveal another neat row of items packed tightly together.
Director Wang froze, his words dying in his throat.
Jing Shu didn't even blink. She was planning to sell everything anyway.