Huang Lianshu's biggest fear was that others would take advantage of him because he was new to the industry and conspire to cheat him. Now that the jade appraiser could guarantee that this was not a trap set by others, he had nothing to fear.
Isn't it just about taking risks? What business doesn't involve taking risks? Risk and profit are always proportional. If this piece of raw jade is completely cut open, the risk will be gone, but then everyone will be willing to bid the absolute lowest price. Who knows, everyone might end up fighting tooth and nail, and the price of this piece of raw jade could reach 100 million. Then there won't be any profit margin left!
So after Huang Lianshu hung up the phone, seeing that Yang Hongtao was about to make a deal with Boss Chang, he hurriedly called out a price and raised it by another five million at once, just to intimidate Boss Chang and prevent him from continuing to raise the price.
Boss Chang was indeed intimidated by Huang Lianshu. Seeing Huang Lianshu's determined attitude, he estimated that even if he added another one or two million, he wouldn't be able to stop Huang Lianshu's momentum, so he had no choice but to give up.
Yang Hongtao shook hands with Huang Lianshu with great joy, then discussed with the jadeite rough stone merchants here, borrowed their computer equipment, and directly transferred 65 million yuan from the bank to Yang Hongtao's bank account.
Huang Lianshu originally wanted to write a transfer check to Yang Hongtao, but the check would take at least a day to arrive. Yang Hongtao didn't want to take that risk, since his piece of rough jade was completely hollow. If Huang Lianshu changed his mind after cutting it open, that would be a problem.
Moreover, Yang Hongtao planned to use the money he had just earned to bid on that piece of glass-type jadeite, so he absolutely refused to accept the transfer check.
After Yang Hongtao retrieved Zhou Ziwei's wallet from the young assassin, he naturally also obtained the bank card that Zhou Ziwei had been using.
Yang Hongtao had no idea what Zhou Ziwei's bank card password was. He could have changed the password by reporting the card lost after he got the ID card.
However, it normally takes a week to report a lost bank card, but he was in a hurry to gamble on stones in Tengchong and had no time to wait. So he simply inserted the bank card into an ATM and used his powerful soul force to capture the ATM, creating a temporary independent soul within it.
In this way, although he did not know the original password of the bank card, it would still be an extremely difficult task for him to change the password of the bank card by cheating through the independent soul entity in the ATM.
In a moment of impulsiveness, Yang Hongtao had a fleeting urge to make the ATM spew out cash at full speed. However, he restrained himself. With his current abilities, making money was easy enough; there was no need to risk a life sentence for such a small amount! Besides, how much cash can an ATM actually hold anyway…?
Sigh, I've never been a real tycoon! Why do I always feel like I have a bit of a peasant mentality?
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 76 Even Stones Go Crazy (Part 10)
Although the bank card left by Zhou Ziwei only had a pitiful few hundred yuan in balance, it was no ordinary card. It was a VIP card that Zhou Ziwei's father had applied for for him, which allowed unlimited transfers.
As a prominent figure on China's Forbes list, Huang Lianshu was not troubled by the large amount of money involved in the bank transfer, and he completed the entire process in just a few minutes.
Looking at the string of numbers with several zeros that suddenly appeared in his account, Yang Hongtao felt like he was dreaming.
Back when he was a junior manager in Huang Lianshu's company, he could only earn a few thousand yuan a month by working himself to the bone. But now... he just picked up a random rock, played a little trick, and swindled 65 million yuan from this bastard!
Damn...that feels so good!
After getting his bank card back, Yang Hongtao was so happy he almost grinned from ear to ear, which made Huang Lianshu, who was standing next to him, feel contemptuous and secretly curse him as a country bumpkin who had never seen the world!
Although Yang Hongtao couldn't see through other people's thoughts, Huang Lianshu's expression was so obvious that he couldn't help but notice it, but he didn't take it to heart.
You look down on me, thinking I'm naive, huh? Heh heh... I'll see if you can still be so calm and collected when you find out you spent over 60 million on a piece of junk!
"Thank you so much... Mr. Huang!"
Facing this enemy from his past life, Yang Hongtao had never felt so good. He even shook hands with Huang Lianshu again, then chuckled and said, "I wonder if Boss Huang is going to completely cut open that rough stone later, or take it home by car, fast and bathe for a few days before cutting it open? Hehe... that stone is really quite big, it will be a lot of trouble to take it away by car!"
"Of course it will be untied soon!" Huang Lianshu shook his head nonchalantly and said, "I, Huang, don't have so many fuss over nothing. Since you, Mr. Zhou, can gamble so much on a rough stone that you bought for ten thousand yuan, what am I afraid of? Untie... let's untie it right away!"
"That's great..." Yang Hongtao was even happier to hear this. Being able to see his enemy from his past life suffer misfortune in front of him was a good thing that money couldn't buy! Although Huang Lianshu would suffer the same misfortune even if he took the rough stone home and cut it, Yang Hongtao was still a little disappointed because he couldn't witness the process.
"Mr. Huang, you can continue cutting! I need to go pick out one or two more rough stones... Hehe... With my good luck today, maybe I can win another one!"
Yang Hongtao knew that although half of the rough stone Huang Lianshu had bought had been cut open, the remaining piece was still quite large. It would take some time to cut it open completely. He decided to take advantage of the time to bid on the glass-type jadeite first, lest someone else bid on it if he waited too long, which would be a huge loss.
Of course... Yang Hongtao made over 60 million yuan directly from a broken stone, and now he no longer has the same sense of urgency to get that glass-type rough stone.
After all, although that piece of jade had good texture and high quality, its size was limited. According to Yang Hongtao's estimate, it would only fetch around 30 million yuan under normal circumstances.
This amount is actually less than that broken stone that has nothing inside!
However, no one wants to make more money than they have. Although the piece of jade sold for a lot of money, it was earned through deception. If Huang Lianshu hadn't been the one who was deceived, Yang Hongtao would inevitably have some lingering trauma. But not with that piece of glass-type jade.
That's truly top-quality material. Whoever you sell it to, they'll probably pay you and then thank you! After all, glass-type jade is extremely rare! Ordinary people can't buy it even if they have money.
Yang Hongtao didn't dare to delay any longer and immediately rushed to the raw stone auction exhibition hall, heading straight for the glass-type material displayed at the very back on the left side of the hall. However, before he even reached the spot, he suddenly stopped and his expression changed instantly.
Not far away, the shelf was completely empty; the piece of glass-type jade had vanished without a trace!
Sigh... such poor quality material, yet it still got sold!
Yang Hongtao could only sigh helplessly. Looking around, he saw that the shelves that had once held jadeite rough stones had long been emptied. It seemed that everyone initially chose the better-looking pieces, but later, when there was nothing left to choose from, even the less desirable ones still attracted attention.
After all, this jadeite rough auction only featured a little over a hundred semi-rough stones, while dozens of jewelry companies participated in the jewelry exchange meeting. In addition, there were pure jadeite gamblers like Young Master Zhao. If each person at the auction got one semi-rough stone, the entire lot would be gone. And people were somewhat herd-like. Seeing that others were buying, and that two more stones in the stone-cutting hall had yielded jadeite, one of which sold for a sky-high price of 65 million, it further spurred those who were not initially determined to buy to finally make their final decision.
In fact, it was only after Yang Hongtao's stone was auctioned off for 65 million that the bidding frenzy in this auction hall surged.
In just a short while, more than a dozen semi-rough jade stones were auctioned off, and another dozen semi-rough jade stones were selected and are waiting in line for bidding.
Yang Hongtao had given up hope, but just as he was about to turn back to the stone-cutting hall to watch Huang Lianshu continue cutting stones, he suddenly noticed that there were about ten stones behind the auction stage in front of him, and the one with glass-type material inside was right there among them.
He was overjoyed and quickly inquired with the people around him. He learned that the stones had indeed not yet been auctioned, and he was ecstatic.
It doesn't matter if someone takes a liking to a piece of jade; as long as it hasn't been auctioned off, it will definitely not escape Yang Hongtao's grasp.
After all, no one understands the value of that rough stone better than Yang Hongtao. As long as there is a profit to be made, Yang Hongtao is not afraid to raise the price.
He now has over 60 million yuan in his account, which is more than enough for him no matter how many films he makes.
About ten minutes later, it was finally the turn of the glass-type jadeite to be carried onto the auction stage. When Yang Hongtao saw that the person who selected this rough jadeite was none other than that young master Zhao, he immediately felt much more at ease.
Judging from Zhao Gongzi's behavior when he was cutting the stone, Yang Hongtao estimated that he didn't have much money on hand besides the 4.5 million that Huang Lianshu had just transferred to him. Therefore, Yang Hongtao should be able to easily acquire this rough stone if he offered 5 million.
In reality, judging from the appearance of this jadeite rough, it's highly unlikely that Young Master Zhao would gamble away his entire fortune of four or five million.
Volume 1, The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 77: His Face Was Quite Green
"Mr. Zhao has offered 880,000 yuan for this jadeite rough stone, number 123. Are there any further bids?"
Once the rough jade containing glass-type jade was placed on the auction stage, the auctioneer began asking questions according to the rules.
Yang Hongtao deliberately waited a while, and seeing that no one else showed any interest in bidding, it seemed that none of them were interested in the rough stone. Only then did he raise his hand and shout, "One million!"
"Oh... Mr. Zhou bid one million, haha... Mr. Zhou is the biggest winner of this auction. The rough jade he bought for 10,000 yuan was auctioned off for a sky-high price of 65 million in the blink of an eye... It seems Mr. Zhou's luck is extraordinary! He has bid one million now, is there anyone else who bids more? Is there anyone else who bids more?"
The auction host was a seasoned veteran, and of course he knew how to arouse other people's bidding desire. Some people in the audience did not recognize Yang Hongtao's unfamiliar face, but after the host's persuasion, their eyes lit up.
Anyone who gets involved in gambling is bound to be superstitious. Even if they don't believe in ghosts and gods, they can't help but believe in luck. Yang Hongtao had just become rich overnight by gambling on stones. This legendary experience happened right around them. Naturally, they didn't think that Yang Hongtao, a young man who was obviously an amateur, had much experience. They thought he was just incredibly lucky.
Now this lucky prince has taken a liking to this semi-rough rough stone, so who knows, maybe a piece of jadeite will be found inside! Although this rough stone doesn't look very impressive, it's still better than a fully rough stone, right? People can cut out jadeite worth more than 60 million from fully rough stones, so how bad can this rough stone be?
As a result, several guys who wanted to try their luck with Yang Hongtao joined the bidding without waiting for the host to ask a second time.
"I'll offer 1.2 million yuan!"
"One million four hundred thousand!"
"One million six hundred thousand—"
In the blink of an eye, the price of a piece of rough jade that had previously gone unnoticed doubled. Young Master Zhao, who had initially taken a liking to the piece, was stunned for a moment, glared at Yang Hongtao resentfully, then gritted his teeth and directly called out a price of two million.
Young Master Zhao's strategy is also a kind of tactic. Seeing so many people bidding, if he were to follow suit and raise the price by 50,000 or 100,000, it would be difficult to make these bidders back down. But now he has suddenly raised the price by 400,000, which should reach the bottom line for some people.
Sure enough... when Young Master Zhao called out like that, the few people who had been jeering along were stunned for a moment, and they frowned and began to hesitate.
"Two million... Mr. Zhao has offered two million!"
Seeing the atmosphere getting a bit dull, the auctioneer quickly unleashed his silver tongue, continuing to entice, "By the way, Young Master Zhao just won a big bet on a half-stone rough, hehe... I never imagined that this unremarkable piece of rough jade, number 123, would attract the attention of two of the luckiest buyers. If I weren't the auctioneer, I might have even been tempted to bid on it and cut it open to see what treasures lay inside! Hehe... Two million, is there any higher bid now?"
The host's persuasive words were indeed effective. Those who wanted to benefit from the deal became eager again upon hearing this, thinking to themselves, "That makes sense... Two people who won bets today have their eyes on the same rough stone. Maybe there really is a good one inside!" So they all started bidding again.
"I'll offer two million five hundred thousand!"
"I'll offer two million one hundred thousand!"
Yang Hongtao frowned as he watched from the sidelines, knowing that this bidding was not going to work. If these guys continued to stir things up, the price of the material would rise to who knows how much. So, before the other two eager bidders could make any more calls, he raised his hand and said loudly, "I bid three million."
When Yang Hongtao raised the price so drastically, the people who had been jeering immediately fell silent. The price increase was too fast, and they found it hard to accept.
"Three million five hundred thousand!"
In the end, it was that young master Zhao who gritted his teeth and raised the price again.
But before he could finish speaking, Yang Hongtao raised his hand again and shouted, "Four million!"
silence--
People at the auction were taken aback by Yang Hongtao's crazy bidding method. They looked at him with disdain and muttered to themselves: "Damn it, we know you just made more than 60 million, but you don't have to treat money like this!"
At this moment, the despicable host once again launched into a tirade, saying incessantly, "It seems Mr. Zhou is determined to get this semi-rough jadeite, number 123! Wow... Now I'm even more excited and eager to see what good material can be cut out of this rough jadeite! Four million... Is there anything more than four million?"
The guys who had been bidding for ages started to get excited again after hearing this. Just as one of them gritted his teeth and raised his hand to raise the price again, a man suddenly rushed over from the side hall and said to him, "It's a disaster! That incredibly expensive rough stone has been ruined again!"
"What...what was cut off?"
Upon hearing this, everyone hurriedly pressed for more information.
The man explained, "It's that half-cut rough stone that Boss Huang just bought for 65 million... Damn it, it's a huge hollow can! Although the stone isn't completely cut out yet, a large part of it has already been hollowed out. In short, Boss Huang has lost a fortune this time!"
"Ah... that rough stone is hollow! Holy crap... I'm not gambling anymore! I'm not gambling anymore... this... is too damn dangerous!"
That guy had wanted to share in Yang Hongtao's luck, so he kept bidding along. Now that he heard that the rough stone Yang Hongtao was cutting was actually not worth much, he immediately felt like he had almost been cheated. This time, he said he would never dare to bid blindly again.
"Four million... Mr. Zhou has asked for four million... Is there any higher bid?"
Seeing this, the auctioneer reluctantly called out several more times, but when no one continued to raise the price, even Mr. Zhao, who had initially shown interest in the rough stone, clearly backed down, he had no choice but to bring down the gavel and announce that the stone had been sold for four million!
Yang Hongtao was eager to go and watch the show, so he hurriedly went to the back to pay the jadeite rough stone merchant with his bank card. Then he immediately asked a staff member to help push his newly acquired rough stone straight to the stone-cutting hall.
When they arrived at the location, they saw that the rough stone had been cut into a size smaller than a watermelon, and a large hole had been hollowed out in the middle, which was completely grayish-white, with no trace of green visible.
Looking at Huang Lianshu, the current owner of this rough jade, his face is quite green!
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 78: Another Green Shot.
Yang Hongtao pretended not to see it, and ran over to Huang Lianshu with an excited look, saying, "Boss Huang, how is it... this rough stone is pretty good, isn't it! You're sure to make tens of millions this time, right?"
Huang Lianshu's bodyguard stepped forward expressionlessly and stopped Yang Hongtao from getting any closer, preventing him from taking another step.
"Make...make your grandma's ass!"
Huang Lianshu was so angry that his eyes turned red. The moment he saw Yang Hongtao, he was filled with rage. He gritted his teeth and raged for a long time, but in the end, he didn't say anything more. He just waved to his men and snorted a few words through his nostrils, "Let's not deal with that piece of raw jade for now... Let's go!"
Although Huang Lianshu was furious and wished he could devour Yang Hongtao, he couldn't go too far in front of so many people, given his status.
After all, he understood that gambling on stones, since it involves the word "gambling," naturally involves both winning and losing.