Chapter 47: Chapter 47: No Different from a Scam

The three of them chatted casually for a bit, and before they knew it, it was noon. Since Chi Yuanshan and Song Yinghe had said they wouldn’t be back for lunch when they left, Chi Wan invited the grandfather and grandson to stay for a simple meal.

Mr. Zhou Sr. didn’t stand on ceremony, lying right down on the rattan chair under the tree to leisurely post on his social feed while ordering Zhou Huaijin to go help in the kitchen.

He arranged the photos he took earlier into a nine-square grid and added a caption: "The skilled are the teachers. Today, I met a young friend who is an expert at raising orchids. She offered to gift me a Golden Silk Horse Tail. Though I adore it, it would be wrong to take what another treasures, so I’m just sharing it with all my friends to admire."

Less than three minutes after he posted it, comments started flooding in. One person, who had an orchid as their profile picture, left several in a row.

"A Golden Silk Horse Tail of this quality would be a real waste on you."

"Ask them if they’re willing to sell this plant to me. Price is negotiable."

"How can a guy like you, who’s been growing flowers for decades without ever figuring them out, get so lucky?!"

"This won’t do, you have to give me this person’s contact information! I need to exchange some notes with them!"

Mr. Zhou Sr. snorted with laughter, not planning to pay him any mind.

But when he didn’t reply for a moment, his phone rang.

The moment he answered, an old man’s urgent voice came through. "Zhou, hurry and give me this person’s contact information. If they’re really good at saving orchids, I need to talk to them. I happen to have a Ghost Orchid on my hands."

Mr. Zhou Sr. had originally planned to tease him a bit, but at the mention of the Ghost Orchid, he couldn’t help but sit up straight. He lowered his voice, "Xu Qiannian, are you kidding me? Where did you get a Ghost Orchid?"

But Xu Qiannian said, "What’s there to be nervous about? Would I knowingly break the law? The whole thing was just a series of coincidences... Wasn’t I on a business trip in Five Rams City a while back? I was browsing the local flower and bird market and ran into an old fellow selling a piece of rotten wood.

"Out of curiosity, I asked him how much the wood was. Guess what he asked for?"

Mr. Zhou Sr. had no patience for Xu Qiannian’s games. "Keep trying to build suspense and I’m hanging up."

"Hey, you’re impossible." Xu Qiannian sighed in resignation and quickly continued, "He had the nerve to ask me for 100,000! The price was so outrageous that I actually got more interested. I asked him what was in the wood that made it so valuable.

"So, he pulled me aside and told me that a Ghost Orchid had bloomed on this piece of wood before! He said there might still be Ghost Orchid seeds on it! He obviously recognized the Ghost Orchid and knew it was valuable, but for him to claim a Ghost Orchid could grow on a piece of rotten wood... only a ghost would believe that tale!

"...But you know me, I’m just naturally curious. No, don’t interrupt—it’s not like I’d actually spend 100,000 on that thing. The old fellow seemed to notice my hesitation. He grabbed me, insisting that I had to believe him, that a Ghost Orchid had bloomed on it before and might bloom again in the future.

"I told him straight up, ’Never mind whether it’s real or not, even if there was a Ghost Orchid, buying and selling it is illegal!’ And what do you think he did? The man knelt right down in front of me! He said he was from the Danxia Mountain area, which is how he knew about Ghost Orchids.

"But his wife was sick and needed to be hospitalized, and he had no other choice but to try his luck. He even swore to the heavens that he had truly seen a flower bloom on it—the legendary Ghost Orchid—and that if I didn’t believe him, he could take me to the spot where it bloomed.

"I wouldn’t dare go to a place like that! But then he really did take me to see his wife. She was lying in a hospital bed, so skinny it looked like her bones could pierce her skin. He even pulled out a photo of a Ghost Orchid... Sigh, I couldn’t bear it, so I..."

Mr. Zhou Sr. listened to this story, which sounded for all the world like a scam, with a constipated expression. After a long silence, he said, "...So you bought it? When you said you had a Ghost Orchid, you meant you have a piece of rotten wood that supposedly had a Ghost Orchid bloom on it once, might still have seeds, but looks in every way like something used to scam fools?!"

He felt like his own intelligence had been insulted just by saying that out loud. "Do you dare tell your daughter about this?"

Xu Qiannian immediately retorted, "Of course not! I may be soft-hearted, but I’m not going to spend a hundred thousand on that thing! I... I just gave him sixty thousand and wrote it off as a charitable donation. The old fellow was endlessly grateful and insisted on giving me his contact information, saying he’d sell to me again if he found another Ghost Orchid.

"I immediately told him that selling them is forbidden. Next time he sees a Ghost Orchid, he shouldn’t even touch it. He should just report it, and he might even get a reward. Then I happened to see the photos you posted and thought... what if?"

Mr. Zhou Sr. was so exasperated by his unreliable old friend that he laughed. "’What if, what if’... your chances of winning the lottery are higher than the chances of a Ghost Orchid growing on that rotten wood! To use the words of Huaijin’s generation, you’re exactly the type to get scammed out of all your money by some health supplement company!"

Xu Qiannian wasn’t convinced. "I’m telling you, that old fellow and his wife seemed like honest people. I even saw the piece of wood the Ghost Orchid grew on—it looked exactly like the one I have! Come on, Zhou, just do me a favor and introduce me to that orchid-growing friend of yours.

"Think about it! You lose nothing if we can’t cultivate it, but what if we can? For so many years, no one has figured out how the Ghost Orchid grows and reproduces, let alone how to cultivate it artificially. But if this time... it would be an absolute breakthrough, Zhou!"

As expected of someone who had been Mr. Zhou Sr.’s friend for so many years, Xu Qiannian knew exactly what to say to sway him. Besides, Zhou Huaijin had mentioned before that Chi Wan didn’t mind people knowing about her talent.

After mulling it over for a moment, Mr. Zhou Sr. said, "It’s not out of the question. But the flower grower is a young lady. I’ll ask her in a bit. If she’s willing, I’ll give you her contact information. Just make sure you don’t scare her."

"Also, she revived my Pure Crown Orchid, and I promised to give her a few plant divisions to help fill out her greenhouse. If you’re going to ask for her help, you need to show some sincerity, don’t you?"

Xu Qiannian had assumed the "young friend" Mr. Zhou Sr. mentioned would be a middle-aged person, at least in their forties. He never expected it to be a young lady!

He fell silent for a moment, then thought, ’Regardless of her age, for Zhou Dechang to praise her so highly and for her to grow orchids that well, she must be someone with real ability.’

Besides... ’A young lady is perfect. Young ladies are generally soft-hearted and easy to persuade.’

An idea sparked in Xu Qiannian’s mind, and he readily agreed, "Of course, of course. How about this: give me the young lady’s address, and I’ll have my eldest grandson pay her a visit. He can also bring over a couple of pots of flowers ready for division. After they’re divided, we can invite her over to our place to take a look. That’s sincere enough, right?"

Hearing this, alarm bells went off in Mr. Zhou Sr.’s head as he cursed Xu Qiannian’s shamelessness. ’He’s actually planning to deploy his dashingly handsome grandson to pull a honey-trap scheme!’

He said, displeased, "This is your business. What are you bringing your grandson into it for? And let me tell you, this young lady and Huaijin are very close!"

His meaning was clear: don’t waste your effort.

Unexpectedly, however, Xu Qiannian’s eyes lit up. He had only mentioned it casually, but now that Zhou Dechang had said that, his grandson absolutely had to go!