Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Nyoi-Bo Studio

  “Uncle, Is Xiao Ying going to get married?” asked Wang Yao.

  “Yes, we’ve picked the wedding date, the 8th of October on the Chinese Lunar calendar.” Wang Jianli was surprised that Wang Yao suddenly asked about this.

  “Let me know if you need any help on that day. This is for Xiao Ying.” Wang Yao took out the envelope full of money and placed it on the table.

  “What are you doing? Take it back!” Wang Jianli’s face changed and he pushed the envelope away.

  “Uncle, I have to go. Sorry to bother you!” Wang Yao pressed his hand with the envelope against his uncle’s and quickly left the house.

  “Be careful on your way home, Yao!” Wang Jianli’s wife watched as Wang Yao ran out. After a while she looked back at her husband—he was in a daze with an envelope in his hand.

  “What happened?” She went closer to have a look and was surprised by its contents.

  “10,000 yuan?!” She thought this was a really expensive present.

  “Youth should be regarded with respect” Wang Jianli sighed. He put away the money after thinking deeply.

  The next day, Wang Yao got up early, brushed his teeth, washed his face and then had a quick breakfast. He went up to the hill early, as usual, and used the ancient spring to water the herbal field. At the same time, he was thinking of when he should dig out the sealwort.

  At about 10 am his phone rang. He took out his mobile phone and found it was a strange number.

  “Hello,” answered Wang Yao.

  “Hello, are you Mr. Wang Yao?” a strange voice said.

  “Sorry, wrong number!” Wang Yao was going to hang up the phone.

  “Wait, I thought you have sealwort for sale,” the man on the phone sounded confused.

  “Yes, I do have some for sale, do you want any?” Wang Yao was surprised that a stranger tried to contact him.

  “Yes, how much per kilogram?” the man on the other side of the phone asked.

  “60 yuan” Wang Yao said what he wanted.

  “No problem. I want to buy them all!” the man didn’t even bargain with Wang Yao.

  “Are you sure? I’m talking about fresh sealwort,” Wang Yao said.

  “I’m pretty sure. When can I see the sealwort?” the man asked.

  “Two days later okay? I’ll meet you at Wang Jia village in Song Bai County. Call me when you arrive,” said Wang Yao.

  “Sure, I’ll see you then!” the man said.

  Inside an organization of Lian Shan, there were two people—one was in his 30’s. If Wang Yao were there he would have recognized this man; he was the lab assistant testing the sealwort for him. Next to the lab assistant stood a chubby man.

  “How was it?” the lab assistant asked the chubby man.

  “All settled. Any problem with the tests in your lab?”


  “There won’t be any problem. I would have already lost my job if I couldn’t do such simple tests properly. And you’ve seen the sample; the dates I posted to you last time were also grown by that guy,” said the lab assistant.

  “Really? The dates are truly delicious. I haven’t had such delicious dates for years since I was traveling all over the country. Now I have peace of mind. I didn’t waste my time coming here all the way from the island. According to the test results, the quality of this fresh sealwort is as good as the wild sealwort. I haven’t seen herbs of such high quality; I don’t know how many he has. Well, I should act today, in case anyone else reaches there before me,” the chubby man decided.

  Up on the Nanshan hill, Wang Yao started to dig up the sealwort. He took the sealwort out of the soil, washed them and dried them in a special shallow basket. Due to the windy weather up on the hill, the sealwort dried quickly.

  It took him some time to work in the herbal field as he didn’t have any help. He only dug a small part of the field throughout the whole morning. When it was close to noon, a black Land Rover arrived at the village. It was rare to see such luxury vehicles in the village. As soon as the Land Rover arrived, it grabbed a lot of people’s attention.

  “Right, this is Wang Jia village, call him.” The driver of the car parked on the side of the road and called Wang Yao on his mobile phone.

  Ding…… Wang Yao heard his phone ring while he was busy working. He took his phone out and found the number calling him was the same as the unidentified number from last time.

  “Hello,” Wang Yao answered.

  “Hello, Mr. Wang Yao, I am the person who called you this morning. I’m here in the village now. Is now a good time for me to take a look at your sealwort?”


  “Sure, just one second,” Wang Yao was ready to go down to meet this buyer.

  You are not allowed to contact herb buyers initially, or else the ancient spring water will be taken away.

  “What?” Wang Yao stopped.

  The wine hiding deep in the lane can be smelled from hundreds of miles away; the herbs hiding deep in the hill can be found no matter how far they are.

  “So I can’t make initial contact to sell the herbs. I have to wait for people to come to me, right?” Wang Yao just realized what the system meant.

  That’s right!

  “Well, how come there was no such rule when I took the sealwort into the town?” Wang Yao asked.

  Because you didn’t want to sell the sealwort.

  Such an unreasonable rule! Wang Yao took out his mobile phone, but didn’t know how to explain his situation to the man.

  He is a big buyer! Wang Yao thought. He dialed the number after some hesitation.

  “Hello, is this Mr. Wang?” answered the chubby man.

  “Hello, yes, and you are……?” said Wang Yao.

  “My name is Yuan Shan. My surname is Teng.”


  “Hello Mr. Teng, I have a situation here. I’m very busy right now so I can’t go down to meet you. You can come up to have a face-to-face chat with me if you are available. Otherwise we can meet on a different day,” said Wang Yao.

  “What?” Teng Yuanshan was at a loss.

  This was the first time he came across someone who was unwilling to meet him since he started his herbal business. Normally, he was the one who dominated the business.

  But this guy was so different!

  “Okay, I’ll come to you. How can I find you?” Teng Yuanshan tempered up. Whether he was going to buy the herbs or not, he still had to meet this special guy.

  “You can follow the road on the hill and walk south. After turning around a small hill, look towards the South and you will be able to see a cottage. I’m inside the cottage,” said Wang Yao.

  “Okay,” said Teng Yuanshan.

  Teng Yuanshan hung up his phone and then drove his car towards the hill.

  “What does he want? Does he want to drive your car off road?” said the man sitting in the front passenger’s seat.

  “Are you kidding me?” said Teng Yuanshan.

  “Hey, he’s a weird guy. I guess he does whatever he wants,” said the man.

  “I hope I won’t drive my car into the groove and get stuck there,” said Teng Yuanshan.

  “That’s gonna be even better! If it did happen, we would have to ask for help from him. Then we could take the chance to rip him off,” said the man.

  “It’s a Land Rover, which is worth almost a million yuan. As long as I don’t deliberately drive the vehicle into a ditch, my car has no problem dealing with the minor potholes,” said Teng Yuanshan.

  The roar of the engine echoed through the quiet roads.

  They arrived!

  On the Nanshan hill, Wang Yao saw a vehicle approaching from far away. He had to admit that the Land Rover’s four-wheel drive was fantastic. It went all the way to halfway up the hill along the uneven road and stopped 20 meters from Wang Yao’s herbal field.

  “Oh, we are finally here!” Teng Yuanshan got out the vehicle and walked towards the herbal field. As soon as he arrived, he was stunned.

  “Jesus! What the hell is this? Sealwort?” He saw that the sealworts were even taller than a human being, and he was completely astonished.

  Woof! Woof! Woof! A dog came in front of him and looked at him from head to toe, as if inspecting him.

  “Hey!” Wang Yao walked out of the cottage as he heard the dog barking.

  “Are you Mr. Teng?” Wang Yao came in front of Teng Yuanshan and asked him with a smile.

  “Yes, I am!” He started to size up this young man in front of him. The young man had clean, short hair, a handsome face, tan skin and bright eyes. He looked very different from the other herb growers Teng Yuanshan had met before.