Song Jun and Zhuang Rui were already familiar with each other, so there was no need to be so polite in their conversation.
“Brother Song, you guys have money anyway, so just throw money at any good rough stones you see. Why do you have to drag your little brother into this? My intuition isn’t very accurate. Didn’t we ruin a rough stone last time in Nanjing?”
Zhuang Rui didn't really want to help them select rough stones. After these few attempts at gambling on rough stones, Zhuang Rui discovered that rough stones with good outer skin had a much higher chance of containing jadeite. However, this wasn't always the case; some top-quality jadeite didn't necessarily have outstanding outer appearances, like that piece of red jadeite.
Song Jun and Fatty Ma don't cut stones; they only look at the appearance when selecting rough stones. If Zhuang Rui picks out a few rough stones that are likely to be very profitable, it's all for nothing if they can't cut them open. Therefore, Zhuang Rui doesn't understand why these two dragged him to gamble on stones.
"Brother Zhuang, if we come across a decent piece of raw jade, we can certainly open it up and have some fun with it..."
Fatty Ma finally spoke his mind. He saw that Zhuang Rui had made a profit from cutting two rough stones in a row, and he was also a little itchy. People have a gambling instinct. Although hoarding goods is less risky, the profit is worlds apart from cutting stones. He must have thought the same thing about Song Jun.
"Brother Ma is right, let's go check out the dishes..."
Lei Lei was naturally thrilled; she didn't have enough money to bid in the sealed bid, let alone the open bid for raw materials. She probably couldn't afford the larger, better-performing ones anyway.
Zhuang Rui shrugged helplessly and said, "Whatever. If I could always tell which rough stone was good, wouldn't I be able to buy it myself? I really can't do anything with you guys. I just look at them randomly, so don't blame me if I guess wrong."
Zhuang Rui was telling the truth. If it weren't for his good relationship with Song Jun and the fact that Lei Lei was Liu Chuan's fiancée, Zhuang Rui wouldn't have bothered with them. However, Zhuang Rui was also determined not to help them choose good raw materials. Otherwise, if they won the gamble again, he would really have no way to explain himself.
After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, the group looked sullen. What they had done was a bit unreasonable. If others could really tell the quality of the rough stones, they could have simply bought them and examined them themselves. With Zhuang Rui's wealth, there were very few rough stones in this jade gambling venue that he couldn't afford.
"Mr. Song, Mr. Zhuang is right. I feel that this kind of thing could suddenly appear at any time. I've been gambling on stones for over 20 years, and I've only had one or two such incidents."
Master Peng's words made Song Jun and Fatty Ma hesitate. They had money, but money didn't grow on trees. Throwing it away on randomly guessed rough stones would be a waste if it turned out to be worthless. Anyone would feel the pain of that.
After overhearing their conversation, Wei Zijiang tugged at Lei Lei's clothes and whispered, "Cousin, you've been saving that little bit of money for years. Stop gambling. If you have too much money, give it to me. Gambling on stones is my dad and grandpa's business. What does it have to do with us?"
Within the family, Wei Zijiang and Lei Lei had an excellent relationship. After listening to their conversation, he felt that Zhuang Rui was not very reliable, and he didn't want his cousin's money to be thrown away for no reason.
"It's alright. I'll just have Zhuang Rui help me pick out a rough stone, the cheaper the better. Coming to Pingzhou and not gambling on stones is like coming for nothing, isn't it?"
Lei Lei was much more generous than the two men. Besides, she didn't have much money to begin with; if she gambled it all away, she'd only be broke for a few months at most, and wouldn't be too heartbroken. And besides, after the wedding, Liu Chuan's money would be hers anyway.
"Old Ma, if it's not working out, let's look at the sealed bids first. We've only had a whole day, and I've only looked at a little over three hundred bids. If we don't look at them soon, this whole trip will be for nothing."
After much deliberation, Song Jun decided to abandon the idea of cutting the stone. Although people of their age and status might have a desire to gamble on stones, their self-control was generally stronger than that of the average person.
When Song Jun said this, it meant he would no longer trouble Zhuang Rui to help him examine the raw materials. Song Jun naturally knew more about Zhuang Rui's true skill level than others; he had only wanted to share in Zhuang Rui's good luck.
Upon hearing Song Jun's words, Fatty Ma said with a wry smile, "Boss Song, you spent over three hundred yuan on this. My consultant ended up in the hospital on his very first day. I've wasted my time here."
"Alright, since Brother Zhuang is in a difficult position, let's not press him. Helping someone choose rough stones is fine if the gamble pays off, but if it goes wrong, no one will be happy. Let's split up and look at the sealed bids..."
Although Fatty Ma kept saying that he had made a wasted trip, there was not a trace of disappointment on his face. With his wealth, he came to gamble on stones to make money, but more than that, he wanted to experience the ups and downs of the process. If his stone gambling consultant hadn't been hospitalized, Fatty Ma probably would have already cut the stone.
"Fine, you got off easy, kid."
Song Jun glared at Zhuang Rui with displeasure, but he also knew that when selecting rough stones with hidden bids, only the appearance mattered. Since he didn't cut the stone, he didn't need to worry about whether there was any green inside. Therefore, Zhuang Rui's good luck was of little use.
"Hehe, I'm going to pick out a few pieces of raw jade in the hidden bids too. Brother Song, don't try to take them from me, we don't have your deep pockets."
Zhuang Rui chuckled and walked into the sealed bidding area with the others.
This open space was temporarily cleared, and some areas were still overgrown with weeds that hadn't been cleared. The open space was quite large. There were many security guards patrolling around it, and even some armed police officers were guarding it. These stones that ordinary people see as worthless are actually worth a fortune.
Next to each piece of rough jade is a corresponding number and a starting price. The rough jade is not arranged in numerical order, but mixed together, which is fairer to the rough jade dealers. The piece that Zhuang Rui is looking at now is number 3,980, a piece and a half of rough jade.
This piece of rough jade is quite large, weighing about three or four hundred kilograms. It looks like it was cut in half. A hint of green appeared on the cut surface, but the quality was only average. There were so many rough jade pieces here that Zhuang Rui didn't want to waste time. He directly used his spiritual energy to see through the rough jade, but it was all white.
Shaking his head, Zhuang Rui glanced at the bid next to him. It was actually 2.8 million. These rough jade dealers are really ruthless. They dare to offer such a price for such a small amount of green jade. It seems that the jade market is really booming right now.
Zhuang Rui actually knew too little about sealed bids. In the eyes of jade dealers, the bids in these sealed bids had no reference value at all. For good rough stones, these bids were rubbish. If you wanted to win them, you would probably have to add at least one zero to the bid. As for those poorly performing stones, no matter how cheap they were, not many people would bid.
What we're looking at now are semi-rough rough stones, which are generally quite large. The cut or windowed areas are all placed face up, allowing people to see at a glance how good the rough stone is.
Zhuang Rui's way of examining raw jade was a little different from others. Although he also held a magnifying glass and pretended to bend down to examine it, he actually released his spiritual energy to observe it the moment he bent down. He would stand up and move on to the next piece of raw jade almost as soon as he squatted down and looked at it for a few seconds.
"Zhuang Rui, what can you possibly see from this?"
Lei Lei, who had been following Zhuang Rui, couldn't hold back any longer. Although she didn't know much about gambling on stones, she felt that Zhuang Rui was being too hasty and hadn't even looked at them carefully.
"Sister, those rough stones you just saw were from a new factory, not from an old mine. They were mediocre and the asking price was ridiculously high. There was no point in gambling on them at all."
Zhuang Rui stopped and explained to Lei Lei that most of the raw materials from the new factory were mined mechanically, which could be seen from the surface. These raw materials generally did not have very pure colors and poor texture, and could only be considered low-grade jadeite. Naturally, Zhuang Rui was not interested in them.
After looking at more than thirty pieces of rough jade, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but feel disappointed. Although most of these rough jade pieces contained jadeite, they lacked color, had murky texture, and poor transparency. There wasn't even a single piece that reached the level of dry green jadeite.
"Hey, Zhuang Rui, come and see, the shape of this piece of rough jade is quite interesting."
Five or six meters ahead, Lei Lei's voice came. She couldn't distinguish wool fabrics, so she ran even faster than Zhuang Rui. Only Zhou Rui, with the white lion, silently followed closely beside Zhuang Rui.
Chapter 211 Sealed Bidding (Part 2)
"Cousin, your taste is terrible! How could such an ugly stone possibly contain jade? Brother Zhuang, don't you agree?"
Zhuang Rui had just walked up to Lei Lei when he heard Wei Zijiang's words and couldn't help but laugh.
They're not like Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty who collected rare stones, valuing their exquisite craftsmanship, charm, and artistic conception when selecting rough jade. As long as the jadeite rough stone contains green, who cares about its shape on the outside? Wei Zijiang's words sound somewhat childish.
"So what if it looks bad? I still like it. Zhuang Rui, can you take a look and see if it's okay? If it's alright, I'll buy it."
Lei Lei was a little unhappy after hearing her cousin's words. She had only thought the stone's shape was too unique and had no intention of buying it. However, after hearing Wei Zijiang's words, her competitive spirit was aroused.
"Let me take a look first..."
Zhuang Rui squatted down and began to examine the piece of raw material that Lei Lei had mentioned.
To be honest, this piece of rough jade is rather unsightly. Its shape is extremely irregular, with a large indentation at the head of what was originally an oval shape, somewhat resembling the forehead of an old man in a TV drama. The entire piece lacks any pine flower or python pattern, and the outer skin is smooth, suggesting it's a newly mined rough jade from a machine-mined facility.
Zhuang Rui tried to hold it; it weighed about fifty or sixty pounds. He glanced at the bids next to it; they weren't expensive, with a starting bid of only 100,000 yuan. Zhuang Rui couldn't help but feel a little strange. How could such rough stones, which looked more like stones than jadeite rough, be put up for sale? This was clearly a semi-gambling area for rough stones; why didn't he see any cuts or windows?
After turning the ugly piece of raw jade over, Zhuang Rui realized that it wasn't that there was no skylight, but rather that someone had flipped the side with the skylight facing the ground.
People who do this probably have one of two thoughts in mind: either they have their eye on the rough stone and don't want others to see it, or the rough stone is so bad that someone is so angry that they turned it over.
Zhuang Rui carefully examined the window. It appeared to be rubbed open, not a cut surface. It was only about the size of a baby's palm, and easily missed if you weren't paying attention. Instead of green, the window revealed granular white cotton and a slightly grayish-brown, misty layer of jadeite, all intertwined. This appearance could only be described in two words: garbage.
"Zhuang Rui, what do you think of this rough jade? The price isn't too high. Do you think I should bid on it?"
Lei Lei and Liu Chuan have similar personalities; neither can stand being provoked. Her younger cousin's words just now made her very unconvinced. As long as Zhuang Rui says it's acceptable, she has decided to bid on this rough stone.
"Old classmate, to be honest, I'm not very optimistic about this rough stone. Look at the surface; not only is there no green, but the white cotton and fog are all tangled together. Even if there is jade inside, the grade won't be very high. The owner of this rough stone must be desperate for money; he dared to offer a starting bid of 100,000 yuan just because there's fog..."
Zhuang Rui's frank words made Lei Lei's face turn ugly. From Zhuang Rui's words, she naturally understood that the rough stone was not very valuable and there was no need to buy it.
Zhuang Rui indeed thought so too. Based on the knowledge of raw stone appreciation he had learned from Grandpa Gu over the past few days, he felt that this rough stone was a piece of junk. If it were put in the area for sale in the open stone section, no one would give it a second glance. He guessed that the owner of the rough stone saw that it had produced some fog and was trying his luck by setting a starting price of 100,000 yuan here.
Lei Lei stood up with some disappointment. In this semi-gambling, sealed-bid area, the price of raw jade stones was often in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. The little money she had was simply not enough. She finally found a cheaper one, but Zhuang Rui's words had completely crushed her confidence.
Zhuang Rui supported the base of the rough stone with his right hand and forcefully flipped it over again. This piece of junk was indeed not worth wasting other people's time. The rough stone turned over and lay on the grass, no different from ordinary stones by the roadside.
"Huh?"
Just as Zhuang Rui was about to get up, he habitually used his spiritual energy to scan the rough stone. This one thing made Zhuang Rui unable to move his feet. It wasn't that he saw some top-quality imperial green glass-type jade, but rather that the color inside the rough stone was something he had never seen before.
It was a light blue hue, which was clearly visible in Zhuang Rui's eyes. It was as clear and bright as seawater under the sunlight. Although the color was a bit pale, the texture and clarity were excellent, with high transparency. If it weren't for a slight flaw inside, it would almost be considered glassy jade.
As friends know, icy jadeite is already very transparent, but it is slightly less transparent than glassy jadeite. As the name suggests, glassy jadeite is as pure as glass, and any tiny impurities inside are clearly exposed. Icy jadeite, on the other hand, is less transparent. Although it is also very transparent, it has more impurities.
The highest quality and most transparent icy jadeite is often referred to as "high icy jadeite" in the jade industry. This means that it is the best type of icy jadeite, but it does not reach the level of glassy jadeite. In Zhuang Rui's eyes, this piece of blue jadeite can definitely be called high icy jadeite, which is much better than the piece that Liu Chuan cut in Nanjing.
Jade usually gives people a sense of warmth. But the jade inside this stone gave Zhuang Rui three parts warmth and seven parts coldness, just like its color, like a piece of frozen seawater.
"Blue Water Jade?"
A term popped into Zhuang Rui's mind. This is a type of jade jewelry that has become very popular in recent years. It refers to jadeite with a bluish base. However, not all blue jadeite can be called this. In addition to being blue in color, it must also have an old texture, fine patterns, good water content, and high transparency, combined with its color, to qualify for such a name.
Good blue jadeite is very expensive. A deep blue color without any inclusions, combined with good carving, makes it a highly collectible item. Of course, blue jadeite is not as expensive as green jadeite because the color of jadeite is all about a bright, pure green, which is why imperial green is the most valuable.
Blue water jadeite is bluish in color, so it is not a true color. However, good blue water jadeite is very expensive. The legendary top-grade blue eyes jadeite is on par with blood jade bracelets and imperial green jadeite. However, in Zhuang Rui's judgment, this piece of jadeite can only be called blue water jadeite, which is far inferior to the red jadeite rough he found.
However, although this piece of blue jadeite is not very large, only about the size of two fists, its value is already over five or six million. If a skilled jade carver were to make a pair of bracelets from it, its value would be even higher.
"Zhuang Rui, why aren't we leaving? Didn't you say the rough jade wasn't good?"
When Lei Lei saw Zhuang Rui squat down to look at the rough stone again, she couldn't help but feel a little strange. Zhuang Rui had just glanced at so many rough stones, so why was he focusing on this one that was almost a waste?
Zhuang Rui glanced up at Lei Lei, a thought creeping into his mind: "This girl is just like Da Chuan. She was only a few meters ahead of me, and she already found such a good piece of material..."
The same thing happened in Nanjing last time. Liu Chuan and Zhuang Rui chose different directions when selecting raw jade, but Liu Chuan also picked out the only valuable piece of raw jade in that direction. These two are really like birds of a feather.
"Old classmate, are you really thinking of buying a piece of raw jade to play with?"
Zhuang Rui adopted a nonchalant expression and asked.
"What are you talking about? How can this be a game? I'm going to unearth some fine jade and make my grandfather jealous..."
Lei Lei said somewhat angrily that yesterday, when she recommended Zhuang Rui's skill in gambling on stones to her grandfather and uncle, she was ridiculed by the two elders. Although it was meant as a good-natured joke, it still infuriated Lei Lei, which is why she went to wait for Zhuang Rui early this morning.
"If you want to buy good raw materials, how much money do you have left?"
Zhuang Rui followed up with a question.
"I...I still have over 1.1 million..."
Lei Lei felt a little embarrassed upon hearing this. She had been wandering around here for the past two days and knew that a piece of rough jade with even a slightly better appearance would cost over a million. With her meager funds, trying to gamble on a good piece of rough jade was undoubtedly a pipe dream.
Zhuang Rui laughed and said, "Old classmate, I think you should buy this rough stone. Although it looks terrible, at least the window has some fog, so there might be jade inside. But the quality is hard to say; it depends on luck."
"Brother Zhuang, you're offering 100,000 yuan for this?"
Wei Zijiang expressed his doubts, thinking to himself, "If it's a good thing, why don't you buy it yourself?"
In fact, Zhuang Rui was also very conflicted. Of course, he wanted to buy it himself. The rough stone was only 100,000 yuan in reserve. Judging from its poor quality, he estimated that he could win it at the starting bid. After cutting it open, he could definitely sell it for three to five million yuan. This would be a huge profit.
However, Lei Lei was the one who first took a liking to this rough stone. Zhuang Rui wouldn't stoop so low as to lure Lei Lei away and secretly bid for it himself. He couldn't do such a thing. Besides, when the bidding opens, everyone will know who won which rough stone, and Zhuang Rui will be looked down upon then.
Of course, Zhuang Rui wasn't that noble. The value of this rough stone wasn't outrageously high. If the jade inside had blue eyes, Zhuang Rui would definitely have gotten his hands on it.
“Even a good rough stone can be a bad gamble, but a mediocre rough stone can be a pleasant surprise if it turns out well. Lei Lei, do you want it? If not, I'll bid on this one.”
Seeing Lei Lei hesitate, Zhuang Rui added fuel to the fire. If Lei Lei really didn't want it, he would bid on it, and no one would say anything. It was better than letting a stranger bid on it.
Chapter 312 The Mark Rises, the Winds of Change Stir (1)
Lei Lei returned upon hearing this. She squatted down and examined the rough stone from all angles. Of course, with her limited knowledge, she couldn't distinguish between a stone and a raw jadeite. Lei Lei was simply using this behavior to urge herself to make a decision.
"I want it, it's just 100,000 yuan anyway. If I lose it all gambling, I'll just give it to Zijiang as pocket money."
After a few minutes, Lei Lei made up her mind.