My Counterattack System After Reborn

Chapter 27: The Golden Flower Goes To Market

When the stall owner heard Todd’s explanation for where the golden flower had come from, it made perfect sense to him. There was a saying; “From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” and what that amounted to was this: Wealth does not last. No matter how rich a family is, eventually, they fall on time, and the first thing that typically went were the heirlooms.

Many of the people that came to Antique Street to sell their belongings were unemployed. Some were thieves, hooligans, and robbers, but more often than not, they were good people, and they were just trying to get by for as long as they could; hopefully until they could turn things back around for themselves and their family.

The stall owner was over fifty years old. He had lived in the Urban South all of his life, and he had seen all kinds of people. Unless there were obvious signs to suggest that a thing was stollen, he assumed that it was not. He believed that people were basically good. That being said, it did not bode well for a man who asked too many questions, and he knew that.  But the flower intrigued him. “This is a beautiful piece,” he admitted. “What do you know about the craftsman?”

“I’m not sure,” Todd said. “What makes you think that it wasn’t made by a machine?”

"Young man…” the old man chuckled. “Please tell me that you are joking. Perhaps a machine could make this, but you already said it was an heirloom. So, it must be old. If you do not want to tell me where it came from, that is fine, but to not play me for a fool. Anyway, let’s get down to business. The metal alone is worth three hundred dollars, but I assume you want more. I would be willing to pay you nine hundred dollars.”

Todd nodded and pretended to think it over. As a minimum, this was what he had hoped for. He wondered if he could get more, though. He said, “I mean you no disrespect, sir. That is a fair offer, but I think that I will look around and see what other offers I can get.”

"Suit yourself." The old man shrugged. He was not overly concerned about buying the piece. It was beautiful, and he would try to sell it for twelve hundred dollars, but it would take a long time for the right buyer to come along. Until that happened, it would just be negative equity. 

Todd went to other the stores and consulted with their managers, but no one was willing to pay him more than six hundred dollars, so he returned to the first stall. When he got there, he smiled at the old man and said, “Good sir, I accept your offer.”

They exchanged the golden flower for the cash. Todd counted the money, and once he was sure that everything was in order, he put it into his shirt pocket and clasped the button over it. Meanwhile, the old man took out a brocade box and he put the golden flower inside of it.

Now that the deal was done, Todd looked at the man and said, "Sir, I have something that I would like to ask you. Would you mind?"

"You may ask whatever you’d like," the old man replied. Now that he had the golden flower in the box, he had taken his phone out again, and he was barely paying any attention to Todd.

Todd approached the old man's ear and leaned into him so that he could whisper in his ear. He said, "If I were able to get my hands on more of these golden flowers or ones similar to them, how many would you want?” 

"What?" The older man jumped to attention.  He could not believe what he had just heard. “What kind of racket are you running here?” he demanded. “I assumed that this was a hand-crafted one-of-a-kind piece. Now, though, I cannot help but wonder if they were mass-produced by stolen military-grade lasers! God help you if this is the case!”

If the old man’s suspicions were correct, the piece that he had purchased would only be worth three hundred dollars.

“This is a big misunderstanding,” Todd cried. “Each flower is unique. They were handcrafted by the same man. My grandmother fell in love with him, and they were lovers. Eventually, they were married, and he made her all sorts of marvelous things out of the gold she supplied for him!”

"Do you mean to say that the craftsman who carved this golden flower created many more similar to it?” the old man asked. He never would have thought that this kind of golden flower could be mass-produced, but when he saw how confidant Todd was, he could see that it was true.

The old man’s heart began to beat faster and he thought – If this young man can provide me with enough of these, I will make a lot of money!

“It is true,” Todd agreed. “I am also in contact with his protégée. If you are looking for custom pieces, I could act as a middleman for you. Some say that his work far surpasses that of his master, and he also works in a plethora of other mediums.”

The old gasped. “There is a lot of money to be made on these streets,” he said. “There are always people looking for custom-made high-end crafts like purple sandalwood carvings and jewelry. If you do not have enough money to buy the raw materials, I could supply them – for a larger cut of the profits, of course.”

“That could work,” Todd admitted. "But I would have to see your offer first."

The old man thought about it for a moment, and then he said, "There is a lot of profit to be made with customized pieces. I suggest we stick mainly to yellow mahogany and red sandalwood. If you provide materials, I can price them according to their value. If we do this correctly, we could sell the pieces for ten times their natural value!”