"Alright! Let's go and have a look!" Xie Yihui went into the house to grab a bowl and a steel knife, then led Ye Hao and the others towards the rubber plantation.

Xie Yihui brought Ye Hao to a somewhat pitted rubber tree, where Ye Hao asked, "Hasn't this tree been tapped before?"

"Hehe, you don't understand. This tree is only pitted because some fresh rubber was tapped for visiting bosses to see. It's not that the tree no longer has rubber once it's been tapped—there's still plenty." Xie Yixiong explained.

"Yes, exactly." Xie Yihui continued, his breath smelling of alcohol.

"Alright then! Go ahead and tap it. Honestly, I'm not an expert, but I trust you two won't deceive me." Ye Hao praised them.

"Of course! The Xie family has a good reputation in Gangnei Village, and we wouldn't deceive Boss Ye for money. Besides, Boss Ye doesn't seem like a stingy person. I believe he will give my brother a fair price." Xie Yixiong said, appearing honest, yet articulate.

Ye Hao praised him, and he praised Ye Hao in return—the aim was simply for Ye Hao to offer a higher price later on.

Ye Hao smiled noncommittally. He wasn't a stingy person. If the rubber was useful to him, he would buy the entire rubber plantation, possibly even expand it. The price wouldn't be low, considering he'd need locals to plant and cultivate it later.

"Enough talking; let's see the rubber first!" Xie Yihui said impatiently.

Ye Hao didn't mind him. He understood that having not sold rubber at a good price for two years might have put him in a bad mood.

"Slash!"

Xie Yihui forcefully cut the rubber tree with the steel knife, then used the bowl to catch the latex at the tree's base.

Liquid, like glue, slowly dripped from the tree. Xie Yihui pinched the rubber and rubbed it a few times, frowning as he said, "The purity isn't high enough. This kind of rubber can sell for at most ten thousand per ton."

Ye Hao paused for a moment, wondering if Xie Yihui was pretending or was truly that straightforward to reveal the bottom price so openly.

"How do you determine the purity?" Ye Hao asked.

"By pinching the rubber. If you feel small little granules within, it means the latex hasn't fully transformed into rubber. Such rubber is generally not sold because the price is low, though usually, each tree has about fifteen pounds of rubber." Xie Yihui explained.

Ye Hao went over to pinch the rubber and indeed found small granules within, although they were very sticky. Ye Hao thought that if these granules were subjected to extreme heat, they might become the hardest material.

"How was it? Did you feel the tiny granules inside?" Xie Yihui asked.

"Yeah, I felt them. So, what about granule-free rubber?" Ye Hao asked.

"Come over here; here's a fifteen-year-old authentic tree. I had it before I planted new ones." Xie Yihui led Ye Hao to another spot and repeated the process to gather some latex.

Xie Yihui pinched it and, finding no granules, he smiled and said, "This kind of rubber is almost comparable to the genuine rubber from Vietnam, with a purity of about ninety percent."

"What about the pricing?" Ye Hao asked.

"This latex is priced at thirteen thousand per ton. The ones sold online also go for thirteen thousand, but those have fifty percent water mixed in. So, they can only be used for items like insoles and rubber tracks." Xie Yihui stated honestly, without trying to overcharge.

Ye Hao pinched it as well, but was a bit disappointed that this rubber wasn't as adhesive as the one with granules.

Ye Hao wondered if he could extract the granules and find a way to make an adhesive material from them.

"Haha, they're both quite good." Ye Hao complimented.

"So, do you want them?" Xie Yihui, being straightforward, directly asked if Ye Hao wanted them.

"Yes! But I don't want the old tree's. I want the rubber from your eight or nine-year-old trees, and also, can you show me the three-to-five-year tender rubber trees?" Ye Hao said.

Xie Yihui perked up immediately. As soon as Ye Hao said he wanted them, his eyes sparkled as he asked, "You're not fooling me, are you?"

"How could I be fooling you?" Ye Hao replied with a smile.

"Then..."

Ye Hao knew he wanted a deposit first. Otherwise, if Ye Hao changed his mind after the rubber was tapped, he'd incur a loss.

Ye Hao discreetly took out thirty thousand, which was enough to cover the rubber yield of these three hundred rubber trees. He handed it over and said, "Here's thirty thousand. Could you hire someone to collect them for me? In a few days, I'll send someone to pick them up, how about that?"

"Ah!" Xie Yihui stood there in shock after seeing Ye Hao hand him thirty thousand, unsure of what to do.

"Brother, take it! If you can't find someone, I'll arrange people for you," Xie Yixiong nudged him.

Ye Hao put the money into Xie Yihui's hands and said, "After this deal, if this rubber is useful to me, I'll give you another fifty thousand. Of course, I hope that when you provide the rubber, you don't mix any water in it."

Ye Hao was worried he might ruin the good rubber by mixing it with water, so he was willing to pay more to ensure it remained unadulterated.

"Alright, alright! I definitely won't mix any water in it, rest assured, Boss Ye!" Xie Yihui said excitedly. If he could earn eighty thousand from this rubber season, he would make over two hundred thousand a year.

This amount of money got him excited. After all, others couldn't sell a thousand rubber trees for that much, but he only had three hundred.

"Okay! Take me to see those tender rubber trees!" Ye Hao said with a smile.

Luo Yingxue looked at Ye Hao in surprise, suddenly feeling that he was more generous than she had imagined.

Ye Lang, Fei Gou, and the others, having already experienced Ye Hao's generosity, continued sipping their coconut juice without much reaction.

Xie Yihui hurriedly took the thirty thousand home to hand to his boss Qin Xiu, then led Ye Hao to see the more than ten rubber trees he had planted three or four years ago.

When Ye Hao pinched the latex from the three-to-four-year-old rubber trees, he became excited. These rubber tree granules were truly adhesive. Once processed into an adhesive material, Ye Hao thought they could rival real adhesive minerals.

"What's the price for this kind of rubber?" Ye Hao asked, looking at Xie Yihui.

"This kind of rubber is typically sold cheaply in bulk for three to two thousand per ton, and they don't even add water." Xie Yihui replied.

"Great! Help me purchase ten tons of this rubber; here's fifty thousand. The rest is for you to earn." Ye Hao took out another fifty thousand.

Even Ye Lang and the others glanced at Ye Hao, wondering where this money was coming from. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)

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