Chapter 1785 Diamonds

"Are you angry?"

When Wu Sijie left to send materials to Tan Kaixuan, Fan Baobao came to Zhao Fusheng's side and asked him.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Not really angry, I just think that Cathay Pacific should be taught a lesson."

"What do you mean?"

Obviously, Fan Baobao didn't quite understand Zhao Fusheng's words.

She was always relatively slow on such matters, not as sensitive as Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "Think about it, their flight attendants disrespect mainland passengers—what kind of atmosphere does that reflect in the company?"

"That's not necessarily true."

Fan Baobao shook her head: "It could just be that flight attendant's personal behavior."

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "I thought so too, so I had Wu Sijie find me information. After reading it, I discovered that this company is essentially a foreign enterprise, filled top to bottom with distrust of China. Look at their acquisition plan from three years ago, and you can see they treat us mainlanders as fools."

As he spoke, Zhao Fusheng sneered: "Since they're not our people, I'll teach them a lesson if I want."

"Alright, you have money, do as you please."

Fan Baobao blinked and smiled at Zhao Fusheng.

In her view, this was normal; since Zhao Fusheng was in a bad mood, he naturally needed an outlet.

Cathay Pacific had run into his line of fire, so they would have to pay the price.

"Never mind the details; let Old Tan handle the operations. After all, he's a U.S. citizen."

Zhao Fusheng joked.

Tan Kaixuan getting his U.S. green card was considered a joke among their circle.

After all, that guy wasn't considered Chinese anymore.

"Okay, then come shopping with me."

Fan Baobao said with a grin.

Zhao Fusheng nodded and affectionately ruffled her hair.

...

...

Two hours later, Fan Baobao looked joyfully at a box in her hands.

A diamond lay quietly in the box, dazzling under the sunlight.

The diamond's refraction made its brilliance even more striking; it appeared to weigh at least over five carats.

As the saying goes: "A diamond is forever, and one can bankrupt you."

What does a five-carat diamond mean?

Simply put, such a diamond alone costs over a million, not to mention the meticulous cutting.

In short, if a woman receives such a gift, she is one hundred percent won over by the man.

That's the legendary power of money!

"Honey, isn't this a bit expensive?"

Fan Baobao held the diamond and asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng rolled his eyes. When you were buying it just now, you weren't saying that—you were so thrilled you almost kissed me.

Now you think it's expensive? Why didn't you think of that earlier?

Speechless, Zhao Fusheng looked at Fan Baobao and said, "Dear, if you want to return it now, it's probably too late, right?"

"Return it? Why would I?"

Fan Baobao quickly closed the diamond box, put it in her bag, and said seriously, "I'm keeping this forever; I'll never sell it even if I die."

"Don't worry, you couldn't sell it anyway."

Zhao Fusheng shook his head helplessly: "You know, the price of diamonds is inherently inflated."

"Huh?"

Fan Baobao was stunned; she really didn't know that.

Zhao Fusheng sighed and began to explain to her.

They say diamonds are forever, one stone lasts a lifetime.

Coupled with high market prices, many people believe diamonds are extremely precious.

But in reality?

It's nothing but a huge scam.

As a stone, natural diamonds have fewer and fewer industrial uses. Without De Beers, natural diamonds wouldn't be where they are today.

Diamonds are classified by function into industrial and jewelry diamonds, and by source into natural and synthetic. Most people refer to natural jewelry diamonds.

Initially, people didn't find diamonds special; they only saw their hardness as useful in industry, so diamond tools like glass cutters and wire drawing dies were used in some fields.

But after the 1950s, when high-temperature high-pressure technology produced synthetic diamonds, natural diamonds lost their last bit of industrial value.

Now, except for some high-spec, high-precision processes, natural diamonds have no significant use, as synthetic costs keep decreasing.

But De Beers stepped in, telling you that women can't live without diamonds—diamonds are rare, brilliant, of immeasurable value; a diamond shapes a life, a piece of rock is a testament to marriage. De Beers' efforts in diamond culture are too numerous to list.

Industry insiders will tell you diamonds hold and increase value. As mentioned, aside from a tiny industrial use, diamonds have no value. The current high price is due to absolute control of the industry by De Beers and other upstream players. Natural diamonds are a unique supply-driven industry.

From its inception, De Beers created many concepts, telling you diamonds have value. How do they control it? Over half of the world's diamond mines belong to De Beers; in earlier years, De Beers held even more, over ninety percent.

As the absolute controller of diamond supply, De Beers only needs to slightly reduce output to raise market prices.

Antwerp, Belgium, is the distribution hub for De Beers to downstream players. In early years, without connections, you couldn't get good goods in Antwerp. It's still somewhat the same, though better, because the Russian bear entered the market. De Beers never dreamed that Siberia had such large, high-grade diamond deposits, directly disrupting De Beers' model.

So in recent decades, De Beers has been changing, moving away from controlling upstream and acquiring mines, instead focusing on the consumer end and building its own diamond brands.

The waters run deep. Simply put, diamond producers control output upstream, preventing large quantities from reaching the market, and use various marketing tactics to make people believe diamonds are incredibly precious.

Admittedly, though unethical, it's an incredibly successful marketing campaign.

At least, Zhao Fusheng felt no product had achieved what diamonds had.

After a long while, having heard Zhao Fusheng's explanation, Fan Baobao's mouth hung open in shock.

"Wait, are you joking?"

Fan Baobao asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng laughed: "Of course, I made it all up to tease you."

"I thought so." Fan Baobao glared at Zhao Fusheng: "You're so bad."

Zhao Fusheng shrugged: "Just to lighten the mood."

Then he said to Fan Baobao: "Keep shopping; I'll wait here. I really can't walk anymore."

"Okay." Fan Baobao nodded and dragged Yang Panpan to continue shopping.

Zhao Fusheng stayed in the lounge area with Wu Sijie and the others.

"Boss, you weren't lying just now, were you?"

Wu Sijie cautiously asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "Does it matter?"

Wu Sijie fell silent; he understood what Zhao Fusheng meant.

In fact, Zhao Fusheng's explanation to Fan Baobao about diamonds was not made up but factual.

Diamonds are indeed products hyped up through marketing.

But for a woman, receiving a gift from the man she loves is a joy in itself, regardless of the gift.

And a gift of higher value like a diamond undoubtedly makes a woman happier.

In this situation, for Zhao Fusheng, whether diamonds are truly precious with appreciation potential or worthless and a scam, it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that Fan Baobao is happy.

If a man can't even make his woman happy, Zhao Fusheng thinks that man is a failure.

That's no joke.

Wu Sijie naturally understood Zhao Fusheng's thinking, hence his question.

"By the way, Chairman, Director Tan has received the materials and asked you to call him back when convenient."

Wu Sijie remembered something and quickly said to Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng nodded, took out his phone, and dialed Tan Kaixuan.

"Having fun?"

The call was quickly answered, and Tan Kaixuan teased.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled: "You can bring your girlfriend too; I'll cover all expenses. How about it?"

"Ha, you said it."

Tan Kaixuan certainly wouldn't stand on ceremony with Zhao Fusheng and said directly, "I'll arrange the time now. Wait for us."

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Alright, we'll talk when we meet."

Without further ado, they hung up.

Wu Sijie was dumbfounded, watching the two big shots chat briefly and hang up.

What was going on?

"What, don't understand?"

Zhao Fusheng saw Wu Sijie's expression and asked with a smile.

"Are you planning to meet Director Tan to discuss?"

Wu Sijie wasn't stupid. Though he didn't grasp the tacit understanding between Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan, after a moment's thought, he figured it out and asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and nodded: "Yes, such matters are best discussed in person. And don't you think it feels better to deal with Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong?"

"Uh..."

Wu Sijie sat there thinking for a long time, completely missing Zhao Fusheng's humor, and could only force a smile.

Zhao Fusheng couldn't be bothered to explain further and smiled without continuing.