“Hai-ge, I’m an old hand in this circle. I have the sales permit right here, but what kind of insects do you want to sell?” Li Ruhai asked.
“Take a look.”
Zhou Qi said, taking out a glass bottle from his backpack. Inside was an oval-bodied insect, about 9 centimeters long, dark green with a metallic sheen, and a yellowish-brown underside.
“Holy crap!” Li Ruhai’s eyes widened, his exclamation startling people nearby. He quickly covered his mouth.
“A Metallic-Armored Beetle,” Li Ruhai said, his eyes gleaming, as he quickly pulled Zhou Qi to an unoccupied side.
Li Ruhai held the glass bottle in his hand, completely captivated by the brightly colored beetle.
“This is the King of Beetles in our Great Dragon Country, you know. It’s been so many years since anyone has seen its true form. Why don’t you sell it to me?” Li Ruhai said, looking at Zhou Qi, his whole body trembling with excitement.
Once, at an auction in the Imperial Capital, a single 4.4-centimeter Metallic-Armored Beetle specimen sold for 200,000 yuan. On the black market, a complete specimen was once priced at 300,000 RMB.
The Metallic-Armored Beetle is an endemic species to the Great Dragon Country, known as the “King of Beetles of the Great Dragon Country,” and is almost extinct in the wild!
Zhou Qi pondered for a moment. It would be good to sell it to Li Ruhai, saving him from exposing his identity. It wouldn’t be good if it attracted ill-intentioned people to White Snake Mountain.
So Zhou Qi said, “Hai-ge, how much can you offer? This one is a live specimen, and it’s twice the size of the one from the previous auction.”
Li Ruhai thought for a moment, then after a while, he replied, “One million! I can transfer the money immediately. I believe there are very few others here who can offer this price.”
“But Hai-ge, how could I not trust you?” Zhou Qi smiled slightly, his lips unconsciously curling into a grin.
This was one million yuan! Zhou Qi, who had just graduated, had never seen so much money.
With this money, he could buy several insects he was interested in at the exchange, and he could also buy live Earthworms in bulk to gain a large number of Evolution Points.
Zhou Qi let his imagination run wild.
Immediately, Li Ruhai did not hesitate and transferred the money directly to Zhou Qi’s account.
“【Great Dragon Country***Bank】 Your account ending in 5373 completed a cash deposit transaction of RMB 1,000,000 at 11:00 on October 24th. Balance: 1,021,522.13.”
Zhou Qi stared at the SMS notification on his phone, stunned. He had truly never seen more than seven digits in his mobile account.
Both were overjoyed. Li Ruhai obtained a beetle that was not precious to Zhou Qi, and Zhou Qi received money that was not much to Li Ruhai.
Afterward, Zhou Qi wandered around the exchange alone.
He splurged, buying several Red Fire Ants, Brazilian Wandering Spiders, True Emperor Scorpions, Giraffe Stag Beetles, and Golden-Bellied Giant Mosquitoes, a truly bountiful harvest.
He was completely unaware that several people on the other side had already set their sights on him.
The exchange continued until 3 PM, and everyone began to leave one by one. Zhou Qi also took this opportunity to add several insect enthusiasts to his contacts.
After leaving, Zhou Qi took Liang Xiaoxi and headed towards Yingtian.
He dropped her off at her small estate in the suburbs, and then Zhou Qi and Liang Xiaoxi said their goodbyes.
Their many days together had stirred some unusual feelings in Zhou Qi’s heart.
Zhou Qi then shook his head and continued driving. What was he, anyway? Just a familiar stranger he had known for a few extra days.
Outside the small estate, Liang Xiaoxi stood outside, her eyes blank, watching Zhou Qi drive away until the car became smaller and smaller and eventually vanished from sight.
…………
Zhou Family Village, breeding farm.
When Zhou Qi returned home, Zhou Haidong and Li Xiumei saw him return alone. After he parked the car, he took his things and went back into the breeding shed.
Zhou Haidong couldn’t help but want to go forward and ask why Liang Xiaoxi hadn’t come back with him, but before he could take a step, Li Xiumei stopped him.
Only when Zhou Qi had walked far away did Zhou Haidong say indignantly, “Why did you pull me back?”
“Are you stupid? I saw that the girl didn’t follow him, and Zhou Qi looked a bit downcast. Nine times out of ten, he’s heartbroken,” Li Xiumei said solemnly, her face like a detective who had already figured everything out.
“No way?” Zhou Haidong said, half-believing, half-doubting.
“Why not? Sigh, they lived together for just these few days and then she left. Is there something wrong with Zhou Qi’s body? That won’t do.” Li Xiumei rubbed her chin with one hand, analyzing as she spoke.
Zhou Haidong immediately said, “They didn’t even live together. What are you guessing blindly?”
“You don’t sleep at the breeding farm at night, so how do you know if living separately isn’t just a cover-up?” Li Xiumei retorted, then continued, “Should we take Zhou Qi to get his body checked?”
Zhou Haidong was speechless…
On the other side, Zhou Qi locked the door of the breeding shed, completely unaware that his parents were discussing whether he was “capable.”
If Zhou Qi knew, he would definitely let them understand the terror of the Cockroach Body.
Zhou Qi opened his backpack and took out small glass containers one by one.
These insects were all very fierce, so they were kept separately to prevent them from fighting each other.
These insects combined cost Zhou Qi over 50,000 yuan, leaving him with a remaining balance of just over 900,000.
After placing each small glass container, Zhou Qi opened his phone and searched for live wholesale Earthworms on a shopping app.
Seeing that one jin was about 10 yuan, with about 500 Earthworms, and calculating that one Earthworm could provide 1-3 Evolution Points, taking the median, it should be about 1000 Evolution Points per jin.
Zhou Qi started chatting with the seller, saying that he needed a very large quantity and asked if he could buy them at 8 yuan per jin.
The seller, upon hearing that he needed a full 100,000 jin, immediately agreed.
Zhou Qi arranged for them to be delivered tomorrow night. Zhou Haidong and Li Xiumei would be home during the day, and if they found out he bought such a huge pile of Earthworms, they would definitely ask questions.
With funds severely depleted, only over 140,000 yuan remained. Zhou Qi looked at the million he had just received, not even having kept it for a night, and it was already almost gone. He felt like crying but had no tears.
He began to think about how to process so many Earthworms. After thinking for a long time, he finally decided to dry them into Earthworm jerky, which he could then sell for another profit.
The number of Yellow Mealworms was increasing, now occupying 6 feed boxes, which was completely sufficient for raising Centipedes, and neither of the Army Ant Queens lacked food.
Zhou Qi took out several large plastic boxes from the breeding shed.
Each plastic box was larger than a bathtub. He planned to scald the Earthworms with hot water when they arrived tomorrow, then spread them out at the back of the breeding shed to make Earthworm jerky.
Of course, for such a bloody scene, he would have the Five-Ranked Army Ant Queen dispatch an Army Ant army to do it tomorrow.
After considering everything, Zhou Qi looked at the several fierce insects on the table, planning to strengthen them one by one.
