After examining the jade for about half an hour, Uncle De picked out three pieces and set them aside. He said to Old Wang, "These pieces can be priced higher. There's definitely blood inside, but I'm not sure how deep the blood goes..."
"That's good, that's great, Teacher Ma, thank you so much. Every time you come, you point out a few stones to me..."
Old Wang carefully placed the pieces of jade that Uncle De had given him aside. Two years ago, Uncle De had picked out a piece for him, which Old Wang later sold for 60,000 yuan, making him extremely happy.
Old Wang's things were all here. Seeing that there was nothing left to look at, the group prepared to leave. However, as Zhuang Rui lifted his foot to walk out, he suddenly felt something hard under his foot.
When Zhuang Rui drives, he usually changes into a pair of cloth shoes he bought from the time-honored Beijing brand Neiliansheng. Although the shoes are made by a century-old store, the soles of the cloth shoes are thin, and if you suddenly feel a sharp pain in your soles, it hurts a little.
"What the hell is that?"
Zhuang Rui squatted down and picked up the thing, only to find that it was a stone slightly larger than a lighter. Because it was so small, it was probably something that Wei Ge had casually tossed aside earlier.
This stone is yellowish all over, with no trace of blood on its surface. It does resemble Tianhuang stone, but it is far less smooth and lustrous than Tianhuang stone. It should be a Changhua stone, the kind of stone that Uncle De discovered earlier.
"Zhuang Rui, what's wrong?"
Qin Xuanbing, who was following behind Zhuang Rui, noticed that Zhuang Rui had twisted his ankle and quickly asked him with concern.
"It's nothing, I just stepped on a rock..."
Zhuang Rui habitually glanced at it with his spiritual energy, intending to casually toss it back into the pile of stones. However, as he raised his hand, he tightly gripped the stone in his palm.
Zhuang Rui and Qin Xuanbing's conversation caused the people walking in front to turn around. Zhuang Rui simply tossed the stone in his hand and said to Old Wang, "Uncle Wang, is this the kind of fake Tianhuang stone you used to collect?"
"Let me see it..."
Old Wang was over sixty years old and his eyesight wasn't very good. After taking the small stone from Zhuang Rui, he examined it carefully and said, "Yes, this thing has been sitting here for who knows how many years. I kept it specifically when they said it was valuable, but then the government said it was fake, and nobody took it anymore..."
As Old Wang spoke, he prepared to throw the small stone back. Although it was worthless, it wasn't an ordinary rock either; he was just keeping it as a souvenir.
"Uncle Wang, don't throw it away. This thing caused such a big commotion. Give it to me, I'll buy it for reference, and I can compare it with the Santian yellow stone in the future..."
Zhuang Rui quickly stopped Old Wang, and what he said was quite proper. Even Wei Ge wanted to come and keep it for himself, since it was produced in Changhua after all.
"Why would I buy this, Brother Zhuang? You can keep it and play with it..."
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Old Wang immediately shoved the stone into Zhuang Rui's hand. This thing was too small; at its most valuable, it was only worth a few hundred yuan each. Now, even if it were sold for a few yuan, it's unlikely anyone would buy it.
"Uncle Wang, that won't do. How about this, I'll buy it for 200 yuan, is that alright?"
"No, really no, young man, giving me money is disrespecting this old man..."
"Old Wang, take it. 200 yuan isn't much. It's the little guy's kind gesture, so don't refuse..."
"Okay, I'll take it. We'll have monkey head mushroom and chicken stew for lunch tomorrow. Last time someone offered me 300 yuan for my monkey head mushrooms, but I didn't sell them..."
Finally, it was Uncle De who spoke up, and Old Wang reluctantly accepted the 200 yuan that Zhuang Rui handed over. He kept saying that he would cook wild monkey head mushrooms for them for lunch tomorrow. Those things are very precious, and Old Wang just happened to find a little bit on the mountain.
"Hehe, we're in for a treat tomorrow! Alright, it's getting late, let's all go to sleep. We'll go to the market together tomorrow morning..."
After everyone had finished looking at the stones, Uncle De waved for them to go back to their rooms. There was no entertainment in this remote mountain valley, so they all went back to their rooms and went to sleep.
Of course, this place was a bit unfamiliar, and they didn't know how well the house was soundproofed. Zhuang Rui and Wei Ge, the two couples, were very well-behaved after entering the room. Not to mention doing *that*, they even spoke much quieter than usual.
Otherwise, if someone were to sing in their room in the middle of the night and others heard it, they would be too embarrassed to face anyone the next day.
"Honey, go to sleep now, what are you looking for?"
"Looking for this!"
Zhuang Rui pulled a powerful flashlight out of his backpack, then took the flashlight, lifted the blanket, and crawled inside.
Chapter 578 The Market (1)
"What are you doing with a flashlight? You...you don't mean to..."
When Qin Xuanbing saw what Zhuang Rui was holding, she couldn't help but ask a question, and then her face turned red. Since they couldn't do "that" tonight, was Zhuang Rui going to come up with some new trick?
"What are you thinking about? I'll show you something good..."
Zhuang Rui ignored Qin Xuanbing's reaction and opened his left hand. In the palm of his left hand was the Changhua stone he had just bought for 200 yuan.
"Oh dear, why did you bring this stone to the bed? It's so dirty..."
Qin Xuanbing thought it was something good, so she nudged Zhuang Rui and told him to put it back on the table.
Zhuang Rui laughed smugly and said, "It's okay, I just washed it clean, it's not dirty. Hehe, I didn't expect to find such a good item here..."
"Didn't Uncle De say that this stone isn't worth anything..."
Qin Xuanbing also heard the story and was rather dismissive of Zhuang Rui's words. She reached out and took the stone from Zhuang Rui's palm.
The cleaned stone was a bit cool, but also much smoother. Qin Xuanbing looked at it under the light for a long time, but still couldn't see why Zhuang Rui said it was good.
"Hehe, that's how you should look at it..."
Zhuang Rui smiled and turned off the room lights, then covered his head with the blanket. Even with the lights off, there was still a sliver of moonlight shining in from the window, but after covering his head with the blanket, it became pitch black.
Inside the blankets, it was pitch black and completely silent; Zhuang Rui and Qin Xuanbing could both hear each other's heartbeats.
"ah!"
A beam of light suddenly shone on Zhuang Rui's face, startling Qin Xuanbing into screaming. Zhuang Rui quickly covered Qin Xuanbing's mouth, knowing that if others heard this, they might misunderstand.
"You scared me to death! Why did you take a picture of your own face?"
Qin Xuanbing pinched Zhuang Rui in embarrassment and annoyance. The spotlight that had shone on Zhuang Rui's face made him look deathly pale, which would have startled anyone.
"Look at this, look at this, hehe, I didn't mean to..."
Knowing he was in the wrong, Zhuang Rui quickly tried to divert Qin Xuanbing's attention by shining a powerful flashlight on the stone in his hand, gesturing for her to look.
"I can't see anything wrong, it's the same as before..."
Although the flashlight illuminated Zhuang Rui's left hand in perfect detail, revealing even his fingerprints, the stone remained unchanged, still retaining its yellowish-orange color.
Zhuang Rui flipped the stone over, pointed to the corner, and said to Qin Xuanbing, "Hey, I forgot, take another look..."
"Still the same...wait, why is there red?"
Qin Xuanbing hadn't looked closely before, but now, under the light, she could see clearly that a layer of the stone skin on one corner of the originally smooth stone seemed to have peeled off, and when viewed under strong light, a bright red color could be faintly seen inside.
"Hehe, this isn't a discarded Changhua stone, it's a piece of chicken-blood stone..."
Zhuang Rui smugly put away the stone, lifted the blanket, and turned on the bedside lamp, instantly illuminating the room.
"Even Uncle De couldn't tell it was bloodstone! Honey, you're amazing!"
Qin Xuanbing kissed Zhuang Rui on the cheek, but didn't really care about the small stone in Zhuang Rui's hand. In her opinion, even if it was a bloodstone, it was no big deal. After all, the stone was too small, and if the outer skin was polished off, it would be even less noticeable.
"Hey, I'm telling you, this is a piece of pure bloodstone, its quality is comparable to that of Da Hong Pao..."
Zhuang Rui was extremely dissatisfied with Qin Xuanbing's reaction. You should know that in terms of material, this chicken-blood stone is comparable to the imperial green of jadeite. Although it is a little smaller, it is not cheap.
"Da Hong Pao? Isn't that a type of tea produced in Wuyi Mountain, Fujian?"
Qin Xuanbing really didn't know much about chicken-blood stone, and what she said made Zhuang Rui both laugh and cry.
"Sigh, Miss, this thing is about the same price as the blood jade bracelet I gave you and the purple-eyed jadeite necklace my mother gave you..."
"What? Such a small amount is so expensive?"
Qin Xuanbing was truly astonished. Not to mention that the purple eye necklace was worth nearly 100 million, even the blood jade bracelet cost tens of millions. This tiny stone was worth so much money, which made Qin Xuanbing take it seriously for the first time.
"Ahem... It's not that expensive, but for such a small amount, if it were made of seal material, it would definitely be worth three to five million..."
Zhuang Rui corrected his slightly exaggerated statement, but if this piece of chicken-blood stone were in the hands of a collector of seal stones, it would definitely be a priceless treasure.
Beneath a thin layer of stone, Zhuang Rui saw a color as thick as congealed chicken blood. In that storage room, Zhuang Rui was so shocked that he almost shouted out loud.
Because the stone that appeared in his eyes had a shimmering, iridescent sheen, as if a live chicken had just been slaughtered and its blood had been poured over it. This is the so-called "blood-activating" phenomenon of top-grade chicken-blood stone.
Zhuang Rui had seen many high-quality chicken-blood stones at Uncle De's house, and there were also some chicken-blood stone seals in the warehouse when he worked at the pawnshop, but none of those items could compare to the chicken-blood stone in his hand.
Although the outer skin of the stone had not been removed, Zhuang Rui could already assert that this was absolutely a top-quality chicken-blood stone with all six sides completely red, and it was also free of impurities. If it were to be auctioned, this stone would be enough to drive many collectors crazy.
It's worth noting that in recent years, the collection of seal stones has become extremely popular, and high-quality chicken-blood stone and Tianhuang stone are extremely rare and hard to find.
At the beginning of this year, a bloodstone seal used by Emperor Qianlong was auctioned by a multinational auction house. The starting price was 12 million yuan, and the final auction price reached a staggering 32 million yuan, which set a record for the highest price ever paid for a bloodstone seal at auction.
Of course, the Qianlong seal has its unique historical background and cultural heritage, but on the other hand, the value of the chicken-blood stone itself cannot be denied.
"Rui, how did you find it? Even Uncle De couldn't tell it was a bloodstone. By the way, how did you know it was a completely red bloodstone..."
Qin Xuanbing looked at Zhuang Rui with admiration, but the question she asked stunned Zhuang Rui. He had been so happy that he forgot that he had boasted that the bloodstone was completely red before it had even been cut open. Wasn't that a bit ridiculous?
In fact, Qin Xuanbing hadn't thought of this at all; she had just asked casually. But after asking, she felt something was off and looked at Zhuang Rui with suspicion.
"Uh, when I stepped on it, the surface of the stone on the corner of this bloodstone was polished by the ground, revealing a hint of red..."
Zhuang Rui paused here, and Qin Xuanbing, anxious, quickly asked, "I've seen the red color too, but I can't see it anywhere else..."
"Damn it, you can't make this mistake again..."
Zhuang Rui cursed himself inwardly. Wasn't this forcing his buddy to make up lies, and to make them seem plausible? In his haste, Zhuang Rui was also a little scratching his head.
"You call yourself an amateur? Let me tell you, when I was learning miscellaneous connoisseurship from Uncle De in Zhonghai, I once saw in a catalog of seals that chicken-blood stone with a yellow outer layer is generally a top-quality stone, and the chance of finding a top-grade 'big red robe' is quite high..."
Zhuang Rui was taking advantage of Qin Xuanbing's lack of knowledge about antiques. Those antique catalogs only record the origin and provenance of these items, but they don't go into details about identification methods. The trace of chicken blood red that was revealed was from Zhuang Rui rubbing the bathroom floor earlier.
However, Zhuang Rui's words dispelled Qin Xuanbing's doubts, because when Zhuang Rui bought this small bloodstone, Uncle De did not handle it; it was only Old Wang who glanced at it.
"Honey, you're so amazing..."
Looking at Zhuang Rui's confident face, Qin Xuanbing's eyes revealed deep affection. Although she hadn't personally found the bloodstone, Qin Xuanbing still felt extremely satisfied and wished she could have more bloodstones for Zhuang Rui to identify.
"Ahem...so-so, far inferior to Uncle De. By the way, Xuanbing, let's keep this a secret and make our fortune quietly. Don't tell anyone. If Uncle Wang finds out, even if he doesn't say anything, he'll definitely be unhappy inside..."
Although Qin Xuanbing was praising herself, Zhuang Rui felt guilty. If Qin Xuanbing showed off to Uncle De like that again tomorrow, the charade would be exposed. He quickly gave Qin Xuanbing a few more instructions.
"Okay, I got it, go to sleep..."
Qin Xuanbing agreed and turned off the bedside lamp. Although the two couldn't actually have sex, they still needed to be intimate, something not to be discussed with outsiders. ...
Old Wang's house is built halfway up the mountain. When he gets up in the morning, he looks up and sees clouds and mist, and looks down and sees lush green trees. He opens the window, takes a breath of the fresh mountain air, and feels much more comfortable.
The sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking from the foot of the mountain made this idyllic spring scene even more picturesque—something that could never be seen in the city. Zhuang Rui stood by the window for a while before Qin Xuanbing urged him to go wash up.
"Xiao Zhuang, come and have breakfast. We'll go for a stroll with Lao Wang later..."
After leaving the room, Zhuang Rui stood on the second floor and saw Uncle De practicing the Five Animal Frolics. This was a martial art that he had practiced for decades. Although it was not very practical, it was still good for strengthening the body. Zhuang Rui had learned it for two days, but he had abandoned it after leaving Zhonghai.
"Uncle De, didn't we agree to go to the market today?"