Therefore, if Zhou Ziwei wants to extract all the jadeite from the ground without anyone noticing, he must first get rid of Sun Xiaoyu.
Zhou Ziwei had planned this all along. After dinner that evening, he said he felt a little itchy and wanted to go to a sauna.
Liu Xiaofei was still quite young, and if it were just her and Zhou Ziwei together, she wouldn't have any reservations. However, when Zhou Ziwei mentioned going to a public sauna, she felt embarrassed to go along. So she said that she hadn't visited her uncle for a few days and that she could go to Gu Dongfeng's house tonight.
Sun Xiaoyu indeed demonstrated the professionalism of a bodyguard. Knowing that Zhou Ziwei was going to a public place, she became even more vigilant and insisted on going with him.
Of course... this time she was alone, and there wasn't any extra funding allocated to her, so she couldn't do anything like last time where she booked the entire bathhouse. But she still had to stay by Zhou Ziwei's side as much as possible and be prepared to deal with any assassins who might appear around him at any time.
Zhou Ziwei had anticipated this outcome, so he didn't offer any special advice. He immediately drove his Audi straight to the most luxurious bathhouse in the county.
This bathhouse is nothing like the medium-sized one that Sun Xiaoyu arranged for him last time; its luxury is comparable to most bathhouses in prefecture-level cities.
In this famous jade gambling capital of China, although the population is not particularly large, there are quite a few wealthy people. Almost any merchant who deals in raw jadeite is a big boss with a fortune, so the consumption level is naturally not low.
This bathhouse was a place specially set up by Wu Di to cater to local big bosses and wealthy people who came from afar to gamble on stones.
The bathhouse inside is just a front for the wealthy men who come here seeking thrills.
Most people pretend to take a bath; their real purpose is to seek out prostitutes.
Although the price of jadeite rough in Myanmar has fluctuated recently, resulting in fewer wealthy people coming here to gamble on jadeite, the business here is still very booming at night.
Zhou Ziwei had already made a round of visits here to prepare for today's events. After bringing Sun Xiaoyu here today, he didn't waste any time. After buying tickets at the bar, he immediately headed towards the sauna area.
This time, because there were still many other guests in the bathhouse, Sun Xiaoyu was worried about Zhou Ziwei's safety and refused to allow him to go into the public sauna room. Zhou Ziwei had already known she would do this, so he didn't argue with her. He followed Sun Xiaoyu's request and booked a luxurious sauna room for himself. He even jokingly asked Sun Xiaoyu if she wanted to go in and steam with him.
Although Chinese people are relatively conservative and don't have the same trend of mixed-gender bathing as some island nations, some places like saunas still allow men and women to use them together. However, Sun Xiaoyu was quite resistant to this, probably because she couldn't stand the temperature and steam inside, so she naturally wouldn't accept Zhou Ziwei's invitation.
Anyway, this luxury sauna has no windows, only one door for passage. As long as she guards this door, she won't have to worry about assassins sneaking in to kill Zhou Ziwei.
Zhou Ziwei wasn't really inviting Sun Xiaoyu sincerely. He was just happy to see her refuse. He then suggested that she get a foot massage while he was in the sauna, which would be especially comfortable. So he called a waiter, paid for a foot massage, and invited a foot masseuse over.
When Sun Xiaoyu heard that Zhou Ziwei wanted to get a foot massage in the sauna, she immediately felt a bit contempt for him. She wasn't stupid; she knew exactly what kind of business bathhouses were in. She guessed that Zhou Ziwei was just lustful and wanted to take care of his personal needs there.
However, when she heard Zhou Ziwei specifically emphasize that he wanted to find a male masseur, she realized that she had misunderstood Zhou Ziwei again.
But then she remembered that many men prefer muscular men to beautiful women, and a chill ran down her spine. She wondered if Zhou Ziwei was one of those gay men with a special preference. Otherwise, how could he remain so calm every night while sharing a room with two beautiful women, without ever showing any signs of lust?
While Sun Xiaoyu was lost in thought, Zhou Ziwei had already entered the sauna alone, and then the foot massage therapist called by the waiter also came over.
As was her duty, Sun Xiaoyu immediately and without hesitation went forward and searched the masseur. Only after confirming that the masseur was not carrying any lethal weapons did she release him.
Although she already knew that Zhou Ziwei was very skilled in martial arts, as the saying goes, it is easy to dodge a spear in the open but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark. Being an assassin does not necessarily require exceptional skills. It is said that among the world's top ten assassins, two are disabled. However, the more disabled a person is, the easier it is for others to lower their guard. Once a person has no guard against an assassin with ulterior motives, they are probably not far from death.
Therefore, Sun Xiaoyu did not become negligent because of Zhou Ziwei's strength, and continued to perform her duties at all times.
The masseur went into the sauna and poked his head out again in less than twenty minutes. He called out to Sun Xiaoyu, saying, "That gentleman asked me to let you know that he's feeling very tired and wants to take a nap here. If you don't want to wait for him here, you can go back first..."
Upon hearing this, Sun Xiaoyu's heart was filled with doubt. Before the masseur could speak again, she rushed forward, grabbed the masseur's collar, snorted coldly, and said, "Did he really say that?"
The masseuse had never seen such a fiery woman before and gasped in surprise, saying, "Yes... that gentleman did indeed tell me to tell you that!"
Sun Xiaoyu didn't say anything more, immediately kicked open the door to the massage room, and rushed inside.
Then they saw Zhou Ziwei lying naked on a massage bed, humming a little tune with his eyes half-closed.
Upon hearing the door open, Zhou Ziwei abruptly opened his eyes, exclaimed in surprise, and hurriedly grabbed a bath towel to cover his lower body. He then said with a wry smile, "I say, Miss Sun... if you wanted to watch me take a bath, you could have just said so... why did you have to do this to me? Honestly... I wasn't prepared at all..."
Sun Xiaoyu was only thinking about what danger Zhou Ziwei might be in, and forgot that this was a bathing place. She then lightly spat and said, "No one would want to watch you... taking a bath... Hmph... You seem to be enjoying yourself here... Alright, if you want to sleep, then sleep a little less! I'll wait for you outside... As long as you don't sleep here all night."
After saying that, Sun Xiaoyu left. Although she appeared calm on the surface, her heart was still pounding wildly.
She was, after all, still a girl, and one who had never had a boyfriend. Despite her seemingly fierce demeanor, and even her willingness to share a bed with the man she protected, honestly, this was the first time she had ever seen a man's... private parts. If she could remain unmoved by this, she would truly be a woman made of ice.
Shortly after Sun Xiaoyu came out, the male masseur came out of the sauna. He looked up at Sun Xiaoyu, then looked terrified and deliberately took a detour, passing by her in a hurry just two meters away.
Sun Xiaoyu secretly pursed her lips, ignoring the masseur. She wondered how long Zhou Ziwei would sleep like this. This was a public place, with people coming and going, not as safe as a hotel. If Zhou Ziwei was just taking a shower, Sun Xiaoyu would be more at ease. After all, with Zhou Ziwei's skills, if some unknown assassin really attacked him, it would be suicide. However, if Zhou Ziwei was asleep, he would be easy prey for an assassin.
Therefore, Sun Xiaoyu dared not slack off in the slightest. She immediately took out a small bottle of dark-colored nutritional supplement from her backpack, frowned slightly, and drank it down in one gulp...
The masseur who had walked past Sun Xiaoyu earlier hurried out of the sauna. He looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, turned around and gently rubbed his face against the wall. Instantly, it seemed as if a layer of skin on his face came to life, quickly wriggling and shrinking into a small fleshy lump the size of a fingernail. In that instant, the somewhat simple-minded middle-aged masseur transformed into Zhou Ziwei.
Zhou Ziwei glanced back towards the sauna area, a wry smile on his face as he muttered to himself: "This silly girl is so dutiful, and I've been lying to her, waiting here like a fool. It seems a bit underhanded... Sigh... But there's no other way. It's best to keep these things low-key. I can only keep it from her for now..."
Zhou Ziwei shook his head helplessly, quickly went downstairs, hailed a taxi, and sped off towards the construction site.
By this time, most of the people on the construction site had already left. The few people who remained to guard the equipment and building materials all recognized Zhou Ziwei and had already heard Li Yifeng mention that he was going to set up some kind of feng shui formation with this Boss Zhou tonight. Therefore, when they saw him come in, no one asked him anything. They simply nodded politely and greeted him before letting Zhou Ziwei walk into the construction site.
Li Yifeng had been staying at the construction site the whole time and hadn't left. He was getting anxious waiting for Zhou Ziwei to finally appear, so he quickly went up to him and said with a wry smile, "Brother, what exactly are you up to? You've been so secretive. I've done everything you said. Now you should tell me what you're up to."
Zhou Ziwei smiled mysteriously and said, "Of course I have to tell you now...hehe...I want you to play a treasure hunt game with me..."
"Are you an idiot!" Li Yifeng thought Zhou Ziwei was joking, and angrily punched Zhou Ziwei lightly in the chest, saying, "Do you think I'm still a kindergarten kid... You actually want to play a treasure hunt game with me... Uh... I've been working so hard, staying at the construction site for days without getting a full night's sleep... And you're telling me you want to play some kind of treasure hunt game."
Zhou Ziwei didn't say anything more. He immediately pulled out a tattered piece of yellow paper from his pocket and carefully laid it on the ground in front of Li Yifeng.
"What is this?" Li Yifeng asked curiously.
Zhou Ziwei immediately dropped his playful grin and adopted a very serious expression, solemnly saying, "This is a treasure map!"
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 155: One Shovel, One Million
When Li Yifeng heard Zhou Ziwei say that the crumpled piece of paper he had taken out was a treasure map, he was slightly taken aback. He looked down at it under the light of the construction site and saw that the paper was covered with circles of messy, scribbled lines, like ghost writing. In the very center of the map, there was a circle drawn in red pen, and next to the circle, along with the main lines of the map, were crooked characters. However, Li Yifeng couldn't recognize a single one of these characters. They looked more like marks left by a hen scratching in the ground.
Li Yifeng glanced at the picture, then looked up at Zhou Ziwei's serious expression, and finally couldn't help but burst into laughter, clutching his stomach.
"Dude...you're really something else! This...we were all doing this back in college, and this drawing you made is way too fake, isn't it? Come on...brother, even if you want to fake it, you should put in a little more effort and make it look more professional, okay? Uh...you don't really think you can fool me with this piece of junk!"
Zhou Ziwei gave a soft hum, immediately rolled up the tattered paper, and casually stuffed it into his pocket. Then, still with a serious expression, he said, "Whether you believe it or not, this map... is indeed a treasure map I obtained by chance. I spent a lot of effort and even found someone fluent in Burmese to translate the text on the map before I finally understood it. The location of the treasure described on this map is right here..."
"The treasure you mentioned is right here..."
Li Yifeng shook his head and said, "Dude, can you stop playing this game? This kind of game is really boring... You tricked me into waiting here for several days, and I won't hold it against you, but if you keep messing with me, I'll really get angry with you."
Zhou Ziwei ignored his protests and pointed to the deep pit that the construction team had dug with an excavator to lay the foundation, saying, "According to the treasure map, the specific location of the treasure is right here, and the burial depth should be about six or seven meters underground. Now we just need to dig down one or two meters in this pit, and then we will know whether my treasure map is real or not."
After saying that, Zhou Ziwei immediately walked down the gentle slope at the edge of the pit to the bottom. Then he looked up and waved to Li Yifeng, saying, "Where's the shovel? Get me a shovel... If you don't believe me, just watch from the side. I can dig it myself, okay?"
"Oh my god... You're not serious, are you?!"
Seeing that Zhou Ziwei was actually going to personally dig for treasure, Li Yifeng finally realized that Zhou Ziwei might not be joking. He hesitated for a moment, then found two shovels and a pickaxe at the construction site. He then followed Zhou Ziwei down to the bottom of the pit, casually tossing a shovel to him. He then said through gritted teeth, "Fine... seeing how hard you're working, I'll accept being played by you. Just tell me! Where do we start digging... but let's make it clear first... we'll dig down no more than two meters deep. If we don't find anything, you can forget about me playing along with you."
"Don't worry!" Zhou Ziwei smiled slightly and said, "We'll dig together. If I were really lying to you, I wouldn't have to go through all that trouble too! Two meters is fine... To be honest, although I've checked it several times and think this treasure map is very likely to be real, I'm still quite uncertain until I see the real treasure... If we dig down two meters and find nothing, then we'll both go back to sleep right away..."
"Okay...we'll do it your way...it's only two meters deep...how about I bring the excavator over there? It should be able to dig to two meters deep in no time."
Although Li Yifeng was somewhat skeptical of Zhou Ziwei's words, he still had little confidence in plots like treasure maps that only existed in martial arts novels. He guessed that even if Zhou Ziwei wasn't lying, he was probably tricked by some prankster. That's why Li Yifeng thought of a quick and easy way to verify it.
Zhou Ziwei glared at Li Yifeng and said, "You really know how to come up with ideas... If there really is treasure down there, you can dig it all up with this machine... Then we won't even have a place to cry."
Hearing this, Li Yifeng scratched his head helplessly and said, "Fine... although I still don't believe there's any ghostly treasure down there, well... if you say so, then dig! After all, I'm your older brother... Sigh... life is truly lonely as snow... I, Li Yifeng, a dashing and handsome super-handsome guy, am actually here digging mud with you today... If those beauties who secretly admire me see this, they'll drown you in their saliva."
"Alright... let's get started quickly! Otherwise, I'll be sickened to death by your sweet talk before I'm drowned in the saliva of the girls who have a crush on you."
As Zhou Ziwei spoke, he immediately swung the shovel in his hand, scooped up a shovelful of soil, and threw it far to the side...
Seeing that Zhou Ziwei was really getting down to work, Li Yifeng stopped talking nonsense and immediately joined in.
Zhou Ziwei had already scanned the area with his soul power and knew that the pile of jade was located at a depth of about half a meter but less than a meter below the pit. Therefore, the two of them had only been digging for less than half an hour when they gradually reached the spot.
Li Yifeng was eager to dig to a depth of two meters as soon as possible and finish the job quickly, so he swung his shovel rapidly.
As Zhou Ziwei got closer to the jadeite layer, he became more and more cautious. Although he knew that jadeite was quite hard and not so easy to break, each piece of jadeite was a very valuable treasure. In the end, Zhou Ziwei did not dare to be too careless, so his speed naturally slowed down.
As a result, Li Yifeng was the first to find the jade...
Li Yifeng dug up six or seven fist-sized, rock-like objects with his shovel. He frowned and said, "Damn... why are there so many broken stones down here... Oh no... if it's all broken stones down there too, digging another meter or so will take a lot of effort... Uh... wait a minute, let me use the pickaxe to dig a bit first..."
"Wait a minute..."
Zhou Ziwei, watching closely, realized that what Li Yifeng had dug up weren't stones at all, but rather pieces of jadeite "waste" left over from cutting and making bracelets. These jadeite fragments had been buried underground for who knows how many years, each piece completely covered by soil. Only Zhou Ziwei's spiritual power could see through the soil to the pools of vibrant green inside. To others, these seemingly stone-like objects were completely unrecognizable as valuable jadeite.
Seeing Li Yifeng drop the shovel and grab a pickaxe to start digging, Zhou Ziwei quickly stopped him.
Jade is quite hard. If you only use a shovel to dig it, you can probably only leave some insignificant scratches on the surface of the jade fragments. But if Li Yifeng were to use his pickaxe, he would probably turn all the jade into dust.
"Hey... what are you doing? Why won't you let me use the pickaxe?" Li Yifeng was grabbed by the pickaxe by Zhou Ziwei, but he didn't understand what was going on. He muttered to himself, "Look... there are rocks all below. If I don't use the pickaxe, how long will it take us to dig?"
"Still digging... digging your head, my foot!"
Enraged, Zhou Ziwei snatched the pickaxe from Li Yifeng's hand, tossed it far aside, and then squatted down to pick up a piece of jade that Li Yifeng had just dug up. He rubbed it vigorously with his fingers to remove some of the dirt, before handing it to Li Yifeng and saying, "Look... what is this?"
"What is this?" Li Yifeng took the jadeite fragment, held it up to examine it under the light, then grinned and tossed it back to Zhou Ziwei, saying, "You know... this stone is quite interesting... it looks all rough on the outside, but it's actually green inside... uh... but... even if this stone is prettier, it's still just a stone, isn't it? What's so interesting about it?"
Zhou Ziwei was speechless... He didn't expect that Li Yifeng, who was from Yunnan, didn't even recognize jade. But then he thought about it and realized that it wasn't so strange. After all, jade is a specialty of Myanmar. Yunnan has a developed jade gambling industry because of its proximity to Myanmar. However, most of the jade gambling business is concentrated in Tengchong and Baoshan. Li Yifeng didn't have the spare money to gamble on jade, so it was normal that he didn't recognize it.
Speaking of which... diamonds are a specialty of Africa, but apart from those who have worked in diamond mines, how many ordinary Africans have actually seen a real diamond?
Left with no other option, Zhou Ziwei had to offer a hint, saying, "What do you think is the most famous thing about Tengchong?"
"Jade gambling... so what?" Li Yifeng curled his lip and said, "Don't tell me this stone is jade... haha... don't think I'm really stupid... although I've never seen what jadeite rough looks like, I've heard people say... it seems that real jadeite is always cut out of the stone, that requires using a grinding wheel to cut and rub it little by little before you can get the jadeite out. But I've never heard of jadeite wrapped in mud... if jadeite were so easy to reveal by rubbing it with your hands, then people who gamble on stones would be rich long ago. And although there are quite a few jadeite roughs in Tengchong, they are all transported from Myanmar... how could you possibly dig out jadeite roughs here?"
"Well……"
Zhou Ziwei was taken aback by Li Yifeng's words and could only smile wryly and say, "That's right... what you said is correct. Jadeite is indeed cut out of stone, and it doesn't take much effort to extract jadeite from a rough stone. But... when did I say this thing was a rough jadeite stone?"
Li Yifeng said smugly, "I knew it... Don't be fooled by how green this stone is, it can't possibly be a jadeite rough... But... if it's not a jadeite rough, why are you so nervous with me?"
Zhou Ziwei, furious, lightly tapped Li Yifeng on the forehead with the piece of jade and said, "Are you out of your mind? I said this isn't a raw jade stone, because it's already been cut from a raw stone... It's jade... real jade, do you understand?"
"This...this really is jade?" Li Yifeng was truly dumbfounded. He quickly snatched the jade back, first vigorously wiping away all the dirt with his sleeve, then holding it up to the light, muttering to himself, "Jade...it does seem to have some semblance of its authenticity...but...is this...real?"
Zhou Ziwei gave Li Yifeng a disdainful look and said, "You're already dumbfounded after seeing just one piece? Don't waste your time. If I'm not mistaken... there should be quite a lot of jade down there, otherwise... it wouldn't be worthwhile for someone to have left a treasure map. Hurry up... let's dig!"
"Ah...really...you mean...there's a lot of jade down there...these stones I just dug out aren't all jade, are they?" Li Yifeng said, and couldn't wait to squat down and pick up the stones he had just dug out with the shovel. He didn't care about maintaining his image anymore and vigorously wiped them clean with his sleeve.
Sure enough... beneath the soil lay pieces of crystal-clear jade.
Most of them are green, but there is also a piece of jade that is entirely red.
Upon seeing this piece of red jade, Li Yifeng was immediately puzzled again. "Uh... is this really jade? How come there's red jade?"
"You're uncultured, aren't you?" Zhou Ziwei gave him another disdainful look and said, "What is jadeite? Red is called 'fei' and green is called 'cui,' and only when they are combined is it called jadeite. Therefore, jadeite naturally comes in both red and green. In fact, there are also purple, yellow, and colorless jadeite, etc... It's just that green jadeite is the most common."
Seeing that Zhou Ziwei spoke so logically, Li Yifeng finally believed him completely and that this place really was a treasure trove. He excitedly asked, "Then tell me... how much are these pieces of jade that I just dug up worth?"
Zhou Ziwei used the eye and experience of the jade carver he had learned to roughly estimate, and said, "The quality of these jadeite pieces is average, except for that piece of red jadeite which is not bad, and they are all too small, so they are not very valuable. These pieces together are probably... worth a little over a million!"
"Wow... does that mean I dug up over a million with just one shovel?"
Upon hearing this, Li Yifeng's eyes lit up immediately, and he murmured, "We're rich...we're rich...of course...it's you who's made a fortune, but I'm happy for you too...haha...then what are we waiting for? Let's dig...let's see how many millionaires we can dig up today."
After saying this, Li Yifeng immediately became energetic, picked up the shovel, and started digging again with all his might.