Old Tang's movements were very gentle. He hardly used any force with his hands, but instead used the downward power of the stone cutter's gears to cut the raw stone. Fragments flew around, and the flying stone chips constantly hit Old Tang's hands.
When the gear had cut into the rough stone four or five centimeters deep, Old Tang stopped and had his disciple bring a basin of water, which he poured onto the stone. After observing the gap with a strong flashlight for a while, Old Tang started the stone-cutting machine again.
Zhuang Rui was standing very close to Old Tang, and he could see that the old man's hands were trembling slightly when he was holding the flashlight. This was understandable, as Old Tang was born in the early 1940s and was now nearly seventy years old.
"Old Tang, take a rest first, there's no rush to solve it..."
A few minutes later, Zhuang Rui saw large beads of sweat on Old Tang's face and quickly advised him, "Age doesn't forgive anyone. Stone cutting requires both physical strength and skill, and it takes a lot of strain on the body."
"Sigh, I'm really getting old. If this were ten years ago, I could cut five pieces of this material in one go..."
Old Tang was indeed feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point. After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, he looked at the piece of material that had just been cut in half and reluctantly stopped.
"Teacher, how about I solve it? I'll just cut along the lines you drew..."
At this moment, Master Tang's disciple stepped forward to volunteer. Being able to cut a stone in front of so many people was a very prestigious thing.
"No, even though you're experienced, this piece of material is quite complex. If I mess it up, you'll ruin it..."
Old Tang shook his head, turning off the microphone before speaking, to save face for his disciple. Little Zhao blushed slightly, a little unconvinced, and said, "Teacher, I'll speak softer..."
"It's not a matter of force. I just checked with a flashlight, and I didn't see any jade with this cut. I need to cut from a different spot. Let me rest for a bit before I try again..."
Old Tang still didn't agree. You see, the process of cutting the stone is extremely important for the creation of jadeite. If the weight of the gears is not properly controlled, a single mistake could result in a loss of tens of millions of yuan.
If it were an ordinary piece of material, Old Tang would have let Xiao Zhao try it out. But since he was convinced that this piece of material would yield top-quality jadeite, he would only feel at ease if he cut it open himself.
Seeing the old man with a full head of white hair so persistent, Zhuang Rui was somewhat moved and immediately said, "Old Tang, how about I help you solve it..."
"you?"
Old Tang hadn't expected Zhuang Rui to make this request. After thinking for a moment, he shook his head and said, "No, it would be such a waste to ruin this piece of material..."
It's no wonder that Old Tang doesn't trust Zhuang Rui. The key issue is that the rough stone Zhuang Rui chose was too unreliable. His skill in appraising rough stones was so poor that Old Tang didn't believe he could be that good at cutting stones.
"Old Tang, even a god can't judge a piece of jade by its flaws; many times, it's impossible to draw conclusions too early..."
Zhuang Rui said with a smile, but his words were pointed.
Old Tang raised an eyebrow and said in surprise, "Oh? Little Zhuang, then you'd better tell this old man what the secret is behind that piece of jade?"
"Grandpa, that piece of jade was mined from a genuine old mine. Moreover, the formation of jade is quite accidental. Although the outer skin may not look good, it doesn't necessarily mean there isn't jade inside..."
"Mr. Zhuang, your material isn't even a rough stone, how can it possibly yield jadeite?"
Before Old Tang could speak, Little Zhao refuted Zhuang Rui.
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Old Tang frowned slightly, a thoughtful expression on his face. He waved his hand to interrupt Xiao Zhao, saying, "Xiao Zhao, don't talk nonsense. Such situations do exist. There used to be a Chinese man in Myanmar who worked for a mine owner. He would collect discarded scraps and cut them up for fun, and people often laughed at him. But one day, he actually cut out a top-grade imperial green jade worth tens of millions. So what Xiao Zhuang said does have some merit..."
Old Tang has spent his entire life in the jade and jadeite industry, and he has seen countless strange and unusual things. He has even seen jadeite cut from materials that don't look like raw stones.
"But, teacher, Mr. Zhuang cuts stones..."
Xiao Zhao said it offhand, and only realized it was inappropriate after it left his mouth, so he quickly stopped talking. But anyone could understand his distrust of Zhuang Rui.
Zhuang Rui was a little annoyed by Xiao Zhao's teasing, so he said, "Old Tang, don't worry, if it really turns out badly, I'll compensate you with a piece of imperial green jade, the value of which is no less than yours, how about that?"
"This...this..."
Zhuang Rui's words made Old Tang a little embarrassed. Although he didn't want to give Zhuang Rui the material to cut, refusing would be too hurtful.
Seeing Zhuang Rui's confident demeanor, Old Tang hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Alright, but Zhuang, you must cut along the lines I've drawn. Be gentle when you make the cut, and carefully observe the inside. Don't rush..."
"Teacher, you..."
When Xiao Zhao saw that Old Tang actually wanted Zhuang Rui to cut the stone, he was a little unconvinced.
"Stop talking, let Xiao Zhuang explain. The reputation of the Jade King of the North is not for nothing. Can you compare?"
Old Master Tang glared at his disciple, then said, "Little Zhuang, cut down from here, and then..."
Like a teacher instructing a newcomer, Old Tang talked to Zhuang Rui for a long time, even standing up to point to the lines he had drawn, explaining in detail how deep the cuts needed to be, and how deep the cuts needed to be before the land needed to be relocated if no green growth was observed.
"Mr. Tang, please don't worry..."
Zhuang Rui smiled and shook his head. Standing in front of the stone-cutting machine, he didn't cut anything, but instead observed the piece of material.
Previously, Zhuang Rui hadn't used his spiritual energy to examine the raw stone, hoping for a pleasant surprise. But now that he was the one to do it, he dared not be careless. Once a promise is made, it's done; if he messed up, he would really have to lose a piece of imperial green jade.
A glint of spiritual energy emanated from Zhuang Rui's eyes, seeping into the spot where the old man had just cut halfway.
After hearing what Elder Tang said, Zhuang Rui thought that no jade would be found below. However, to his surprise, as soon as the spiritual energy entered the raw stone two or three centimeters deep, an extremely pure aura enveloped the spiritual energy he had infiltrated.
"This...this is purple eyes?"
The aura enveloping the spiritual energy in his eyes was somewhat familiar to Zhuang Rui. He had once unearthed a similar type of jade when he was with the Qin family in Hong Kong. However, the purple eyes in this stone seemed to be purer than those in his own.
A piece of purple jade, about the size of a baby's palm, surrounded by some unevenly distributed pieces of jade, appeared in Zhuang Rui's field of vision like twinkling stars in the sky.
"That old man, hey, he's fucking amazing..."
Zhuang Rui withdrew his spiritual energy, looked up at Elder Tang, and his eyes were full of admiration.
He never expected that this seemingly frail old man could determine that there would be top-quality jade inside just by looking at the dark green and purple color on the surface of the rough stone.
To be honest, Zhuang Rui felt a sense of defeat. He had an incredible cheat code, yet he still only found that "rock" material by luck. If it came down to the level of identifying jadeite rough, Zhuang Rui knew that he couldn't even come close to Old Master Tang.
"Grandpa, I'm going to start now..."
After greeting Old Tang, Zhuang Rui started the stone cutting machine.
"Xiao Zhuang, you!"
However, the direction Zhuang Rui cut was the same spot where Old Tang had cut halfway earlier, which greatly surprised Old Tang, who suddenly stood up from his chair.
Not only was Old Tang surprised, but Zhuang Rui's action also stunned the thousands of people in the room. Because Old Tang and Zhuang Rui had turned off their microphones, they did not know that Old Tang had agreed to let Zhuang Rui cut the stone.
What was supposed to be a competition has unexpectedly turned into an opponent coming to cut the stone. The onlookers are racking their brains trying to figure out what exactly happened.
Although Old Tang stopped him quickly, Zhuang Rui was even faster. With a forceful swing of his arms, the half-cut stone fell heavily to the ground amidst a series of cracking sounds and flying stone fragments.
"Xiao Zhuang, you...you!"
The old man was so angry that he pointed at Zhuang Rui with his finger, his face flushed, and he started to sway.
"Hey, old man, what's the rush..."
Zhuang Rui quickly shut down the stone-cutting machine, grabbed Old Tang, and said, "Grandpa, although my skill in selecting rough stones isn't great, I've never had a single piece of raw jade go wrong..."
As Zhuang Rui helped Old Tang up, a glint of spiritual energy shone from his eyes and seeped into the old man's skin. He was afraid that his actions might upset the old man.
Zhuang Rui turned his head and shouted to Xiao Zhao, who was standing dumbfounded to the side, "Xiao Zhao, go wash it up, I guarantee it'll turn green..."
"Let...let me see..."
Whether it was Zhuang Rui's words that had an effect, or the wisp of spiritual energy that had an effect, Old Tang shook his head vigorously, pushed Zhuang Rui away, and walked to the side of the raw stone that had already been cut open.
"T-Teacher, this...this is imperial green jadeite?"
Because of the dim lighting at night, and because the purple eyes themselves are very intense in color, Xiao Zhao, after cleaning the cut surface with a basin of water, immediately screamed when he saw the fluorescence shimmering on the cut surface.
Chapter 976 The Jade King (8)
"What, Imperial Green?"
Standing behind Xiao Zhao, Old Tang frowned. Based on the color spots on the raw stone, this piece of material was very likely to have an abnormal color. If it really turned out to be imperial green, then it would be very different from his previous judgment.
"Move aside, let me see..."
Tang was anxious and almost roughly pushed Xiao Zhao aside. He didn't even notice why he, who had been so weak just moments before, had such great strength.
Holding a magnifying glass in one hand and a powerful flashlight in the other, Old Tang examined it carefully for over a minute. He looked up at Xiao Zhao, his expression one of exasperation, and said, "This...this isn't imperial green jade, it's purple jade..."
When emerald green and purple reach their peak, they can look somewhat similar under light. Moreover, imperial green is the king of jadeite, so Xiao Zhao mistakenly identified it as imperial green.
Upon hearing the teacher's words, Xiao Zhao's face turned slightly red. To cover up his mistake, Xiao Zhao turned over the small piece of fabric that had fallen to the ground.
"Huh? There's not a single piece of purple jade here?"
Xiao Zhao examined the piece of jade, not with good intentions. He wanted to find the purple jade that had been cut into the piece to ridicule Zhuang Rui. However, to his disappointment and astonishment, there were only some dark crystalline particles on the smooth cut surface of the jade.
"What?"
Xiao Zhao's words startled Old Tang, who was examining the piece of purple jade. After turning his head to look at the half-cut surface for a while, Old Tang looked up at Zhuang Rui with complicated eyes and said, "Xiao Zhuang, you...you already saw the cut surface a long time ago?"
Even if Old Tang were twenty years younger, let alone now that he's past his prime, he wouldn't be confident he could cut it so neatly.
Moreover, Old Tang was just about to change the cutting line. If Zhuang Rui hadn't made that clean and swift cut, changing the cutting line would have definitely damaged the jadeite inside.
At this moment, Old Tang felt a bit like Lian Po, who was past his prime. He certainly didn't believe that Zhuang Rui hadn't seen through the situation beforehand and had acted rashly.
“Mr. Tang, this line you drew was along the edge of the blemish, and the edge material isn’t very big. Even if it doesn’t yield green, this cut won’t damage the jade itself. That’s why I decided to continue cutting from where you just made it…”
Old Tang nodded at Zhuang Rui's words. He had indeed been trying to be safe by drawing a line with his knife. He didn't want to ruin the cut on the first try, so he was going to change the spot to cut. He repeatedly told Zhuang Rui to be careful.
"What did you cut out?"
"Hey, why did those two turn off their microphones?"
"Yeah, I'm so anxious... the soldiers won't let us in..."
Zhuang Rui and Tang Lao's conversation nearly drove the thousands of onlookers crazy. They hadn't even figured out what had just happened when the attack was already over.
Because the cordon was set up quite far away, and Zhuang Rui and Old Tang were both standing next to the raw stone, even those people standing around the cordon couldn't see the outcome clearly, and they all started making a fuss.
"I said, 'How are you? I'll give you $1,000. Can I go in and take a look?'"
A shopkeeper standing next to a Burmese soldier rolled his eyes, spoke broken English, and struck up a conversation with the soldier on guard. He rolled up a stack of US dollars and stuffed it into the soldier's hand.
And you know what? This dollar really works. Although the soldier couldn't understand what the man was saying, he discreetly put a wad of dollars into his pocket and then turned sideways to put it in.
"Hey, this tour fee is damn expensive..."
The boss chuckled smugly, squeezed through the cordon and ran towards the stone cutting machine, leaving the people behind him dumbfounded before they finally realized what was happening.
"Hey, hey, I have money too..."
"Here, I'll give you 2000, let me in too..."
"Damn, is the Burmese government even more corrupt than the one in China?"
After the soldier took the money and released the man, he didn't expect it to cause an even bigger commotion, and the entire crowd erupted in cheers.
Some people tried to squeeze in by holding up their banknotes, while others simply started cursing. There are still unspoken rules even abroad. How can these businessmen who have suffered under the oppression of certain institutions bear this?