Li Du asked, "But, didn't you just say that you played with wood carving for fun?"
Chen Haonan said, "I lied to you."
Li Du took a sip of his soda, not knowing what to say again.
Hans was anxious, and said, "Speak English, speak English."
Chen Haonan glanced at him, and said in English, "I don't speak English well."
"That's very well said." Hans gave him a thumbs up.
Chen Haonan said proudly, "Of course, for the sake of explaining, I learned this sentence very well."
Li Du was defeated by him, and said, "Alright, I can translate for you —"
Turning his head, he said to Hans, "This guy's ancestor was a wood carver. He confirmed the quality of the wood, put it all together, and bought it for 100,000 dollars."
Hans pointed to the wooden block and said, "What kind of wood is this? This is worth 20,000 dollars? "
Li Du nodded. "Yes, this is the king of mahogany, South China scented rosewood!"
Hearing this, Hans went up to test it, and said, "This wood is 20 pounds, it's scented rosewood? Then it should be worth 30,000 dollars! "
Li Du conveyed Hans's words to Chen Haonan, who laughed and said, "This foreign devil is interesting — 30,000 dollars? Doesn't he know that the price of this wood is being inflated?"
"The price of real estate is also being inflated, but everyone still trades at the current price."
Chen Haonan said, "Alright, buddy, let me tell you a rule of wood carving: the bigger the wood, the more valuable it is. You guys are talking about 1.5 million dollars per ton, which means two to three tons of wood. Not to mention 1.5 million dollars per ton, it could even be 10 million dollars per ton."
"So expensive?" Li Du was shocked.
Chen Haonan said, "It's being inflated. I remember that this thing wasn't worth much before 2003. It started to inflate in 2003, and in 2007, the price skyrocketed, and finally reached this price."
As if he was afraid that Li Du would not believe him, he explained in detail how the mahogany market had changed in that year, as if he was familiar with it.
Unlike before, when he was crazy and joking around, when it came to the mahogany industry, Chen Haonan was confident and calm, like an expert.
Li Du asked, "How do you know so much?"
Chen Haonan coughed and said, "I'm sorry, but my old man is an unscrupulous businessman. He's pretty much in the business of frying wood."
Li Du asked, "What's the final price of this wood?"
Chen Haonan said, "Let's go with the price set by your foreign devil friend. 30,000."
He was so straightforward that Li Du felt a little embarrassed and said, "Why don't we make it cheaper?"
Chen Haonan shook his head. "No need. We're not short of ten thousand dollars. There's no point in bargaining. Let's chat."
"Ah?"
Chen Haonan frowned and said, "You might also feel that I'm a bit talkative, right?"
Li Du nodded furiously in his heart. Other than the Chinese enthusiast he had met when he was buying the carriage, he had never met such a chatterbox.
Chen Haonan said helplessly, "I held it in, bro. I was holding it in! My English isn't very good, and I usually hide here like a turtle. I don't meet many compatriots, so I don't have a place to talk! "
"Then why did you immigrate here?" Li Du asked curiously.
Chen Haonan opened his mouth, but did not explain. He only sighed and said, "You reap what you sow."
The wood was sold for 110,000 dollars. Li Du also had some leftover pieces of mahogany, such as small leaf red sandalwood boards, big red sourwood chips, and so on.
Chen Haonan accepted these things, but he did not want to buy them. He would return them to Li Du in beads.
Li Du accepted it, not because he wanted to take advantage of Chen Haonan, but because he could see Chen Haonan's purpose in doing so: to make him come a few more times and chat with him more.
After the deal was done, he did not leave immediately. He stayed for the afternoon.
When he was not talking, he studied the wood carvings in the house. He found that Chen Haonan's craftsmanship was indeed passed down from his ancestors. The carvings were skillful and exquisite. A few of his carvings were extremely realistic.
After dinner in the evening, Chen Haonan brought them out to find a restaurant.
The Phoenix Scottsdale area was the area with the most restaurants in the southwest. Tempe was part of this area, and it had a famous food truck and food court.
On the way, they passed by Arizona State University. Li Du saw many Chinese faces and said to Chen Haonan, "Oh yes, there's a university here. There are many Chinese students there, right?"
Chen Haonan sighed and said, "I've had an accident here. I'm not allowed to go near the area where the school is. Sigh, what a pain in the ass."
Neither this nor that would work. Li Du also felt a headache coming on.
Fortunately, there was indeed a lot of good food in Tempe. After they entered the food court, the dazzling array of delicacies soothed their aching balls.
Chen Haonan looked for food when he had nothing to do. He was very familiar with the area. He parked the flashy Lamborghini by the roadside, patted his chest and said, "Come with me later, I'll let you guys have a stomachache!"
Li Du blinked. F * ck, what the hell is a stomachache?
However, with Godzilla and Big Quinn around, Chen Haonan really had to fork out some money if they wanted to eat their fill.
There were many food trucks at the food court. They were not the small breakfast trucks in Li Du's hometown. They were modified from cars and were very big.
There was a long line in front of one of the food trucks. The customers even squeezed onto the sidewalk and blocked the way.
Chen Haonan asked him and Hans to wait for a while. He squeezed to the front with Godzilla and Big Quinn and said in broken Mandarin, "Sorry, friend, we have something urgent to do and don't have time to queue. Can you help us buy some?"
The young black man had been playing with his phone with his head down. When Chen Haonan finished speaking, he casually raised his head and was about to reject him. However, when he saw Big Quinn and Godzilla's faces, he immediately smiled and said, "Of course."
Soon, Chen Haonan came back with a pile of boxes. He beamed and said, "Come, come, come, crispy fried sausage and potatoes. This thing is very famous. Every time we come to buy it, we have to queue for a long time. This is the first time we bought it without queuing."
Li Du got a portion. It was a fluffy and soft fried egg with chili sausage on top of crispy fried potatoes and sweet mashed potatoes. It had a rich texture.
They walked forward as they ate. When they reached a beer house, there was still a long line. Chen Haonan brought Godzilla and Big Quinn to the front again.
Soon, they came back with bags of fresh beer. Chen Haonan continued to smile.
Li Du said, "Let's queue up. You'll get beaten up if you do this, you know?"
Chen Haonan nodded. "I know. But I'll bring your two bodyguards, so I definitely won't get beaten up."
Godzilla and Big Quinn were not very happy to be his accomplices. However, since someone was providing free food, they did not object.
The group was eating happily. Suddenly, someone walked over and said enthusiastically, "Little Chen? Ah, long time no see. I miss you! "
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