"Is this what you call a village? It looks no different from ordinary villages," Huang He said as he followed Ricci to the fabled village, only to find it indistinguishable from other villages in Florence.
"No, my dear Huang, you need to enter their homes to see the hidden wonders!" Ricci said with a slight smile, and then knocked on a door.
The door was rather advanced, an electronic one, and soon a voice came from the electronic loudspeaker: "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"I was introduced by Mr. Howard. My name is Ricci!" Ricci replied.
"Come in!" The door opened accordingly. Ricci led Huang He and the others into the house, only to find… it seemed no different from an ordinary home. A normal living room, a normal kitchen, normal electrical appliances, and a middle-aged aunt who was severely overweight.
"This is Mr. Huang I told you about. He needs a master shoemaker!" Ricci said.
"I don't know if I'm a master, but he can definitely make shoes!" the middle-aged aunt chuckled. She then gently pushed a section of the wall, and the entire wall flipped outward, revealing a passage leading inside. Huang He could also hear hammering and banging sounds from within the house.
As Huang He and his companions entered the passage, they were stunned. Both sides of the passage were filled with all sorts of leather shoes, from the most common pointed-toe shoes to very exaggerated boots, in every conceivable style.
"There really is a master shoemaker here!" Seeing so many leather shoes, and each pair exquisitely crafted, Huang He couldn't help but exclaim. This must be the work of a master.
After passing through the passage, they entered a brightly lit workshop. Several different modern machine tools were placed in the room, and several young people were working near the machines, taking shoes out of the equipment and putting new ones in.
As the successor to the Jiangnan Leather Factory, Huang He possessed a lot of knowledge about leather. At a glance, he realized that these machines were all shoe sole engraving machines, used to engrave numbers and markings on the soles of leather shoes.
It wasn't unusual to have such equipment in this workshop, nor was it unusual to have several similar machines. The peculiar thing was that only these few machines were in operation, while the others were completely idle.
After all, leather shoes weren't produced just by engraving a logo.
Moreover, the shoes placed into the machines were packed in complete boxes, not like newly opened ones. It seemed that this was not a shoe production workshop, but a place exclusively for engraving shoes.
"Mr. Ricci, welcome. I've understood your request. Although it's rather peculiar and quite troublesome for me, for the sake of fifty thousand US dollars, I'm happy to help. However, there's a condition: you absolutely cannot let them photograph my home, nor my face!" a middle-aged man said in a rather gruff tone.
"Boss, what do they do here? Why does it feel so strange?" Hu Jing asked Huang He nervously in his ear.
Because they had come in a hurry, Huang He hadn't brought as many bodyguards as before, and being in such an environment, she was indeed very scared.
"There's no need to be afraid. This territory is actually controlled by the Italian mafia. Official Italian territory might not be safe, but if you can get protection from the mafia and conduct normal transactions with them, you will receive very safe protection. They won't harm their customers!" Huang He said calmly. This knowledge actually came from another Huang He, who had learned some common European knowledge while studying in Germany.
"As for what this place does, I think it's probably a forgery den in Europe!" Huang He muttered.
"A forgery den?" Hu Jing exclaimed in Chinese.
"Hey, don't put it so crudely. What forgery den? This is a counterfeit factory!" the stout man suddenly said in fluent Chinese, startling both Hu Jing and Huang He.
"I knew you two looked like Chinese people. As expected, hahahaha!" The middle-aged man laughed heartily, then patted Huang He on the shoulder and gave him a big hug, adding, "I love Chinese people the most in the world. I love China!"
"..." Hu Jing and Huang He were a bit dumbfounded. The Italian then said, "Since you've seen through my actual operations, I have nothing to hide. As I said, this is actually the largest counterfeit factory in all of Italy. Sixty percent of all counterfeits in Italy come from here!"
"Boss, what are 'A-grade' goods?" Hu Jing asked curiously. The term 'A-grade' was not yet popular in China.
"A-grade goods mean high-quality imitations!" Huang He explained. "The prices of top luxury brands abroad are expensive. Many people want to own them but can't afford them, so buying identical replicas becomes their choice."
"A-grade goods refer to imitations that are up to 99% similar to the genuine product. Not only in appearance, but in quality, A-grade goods are almost indistinguishable from the genuine product, with only the brand difference."
"'B-grade' goods have over 90% similarity, but the quality is much worse. As for the worst, 'C-grade' goods, they only resemble the appearance, but the quality is extremely poor!" Huang He explained.
"It seems Mr. Huang is an expert!" The Italian man smiled even more happily and extended his hand. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Leonardo, the boss of this factory, the village chief, and the head of the Sando family. It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Huang He was quite respectful upon learning that this man was also the patriarch of a mafia family. He shook his hand enthusiastically.
"Do you know why I like Chinese people so much?" Leonardo asked.
Ahem, I know many of you might find this name a bit jarring and instinctively associate this overweight middle-aged man with that handsome Hollywood heartthrob.
In reality, Leonardo is a very common name in Italy, just like Jian Guo or Chun Hua in China, extremely common.
Speaking of which, the current Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo should have already started developing horizontally.
"I don't know!" Huang He replied honestly, shaking his head at the question.
"Because more than half of our family's wealth comes from your China!" Leonardo laughed heartily and then asked, "Huang, do you know of a place in China called Wenzhou?"
"Uh… I think I know this place. It seems to be in Zhejiang Province, China!" Huang He said with a somewhat odd expression.
"That's right. I've been to Wenzhou and stayed there for a year, learning your Chinese. It's truly a beautiful place, and the people are very smart. In just one year, they perfectly replicated over a hundred samples I brought, all top-tier A-grade goods!"
"Look at this pair of shoes. Imported from China, they cost less than $20. But we sell them in the market for at least $1000. All it takes is adding a logo like this!" Leonardo placed the shoe into the machine, and in a short while, a Berluti logo appeared on the shoe.
This is one of the world's top men's shoe brands. It's said that the annual production is less than 1000 pairs, all handmade, exclusively supplied to the Vatican and royal families of various countries. Only a small amount is circulated in the market, and each pair of such shoes costs over $100,000. Yet, in Leonardo's hands, they were only $1000.
Of course, if these were in the hands of a Wenzhou shoemaker, they would only be worth $20.
No wonder Leonardo loved China so much. A pair of shoes could be sold for 50 times the price in his hands. All he had to do was engrave a logo. Such business, even if offered to Dong Wang, Dong Wang would probably fall in love with China.
"My goodness, these shoes are exported from us, and then in their hands, they become the world's top luxury goods!" Hu Jing felt deeply shocked.
She never imagined that Wenzhou, where she stayed every day, actually supplied a large part of Europe's top shoe industry.
"But Boss, wouldn't there be trouble if this was discovered?" Hu Jing asked worriedly.
"There won't be any trouble!" Huang He shook his head. "Do you see those shoes that have just been unpacked? Do they have their original trademarks and certificates of conformity on the soles?"
"These shoes should have been exported under the name of some domestic Chinese brand, legally taxed, and legally identified. No customs could possibly impound these shoes."
"Only when these shoes arrive here, and their original faint markings are removed and replaced with luxury brand logos, do they transform from ordinary branded shoes into A-grade luxury goods in the market!" Huang He said calmly.
"Huang, you're very smart, you saw through it immediately!" Leonardo chuckled. "Alright, let's not talk about our business. Tell me, how do you need us to cooperate with you to stage this act?"
"Okay, first, I need eight master shoemakers!" Huang He said slowly.