Seeing that no one answered, Zhou Xuan said, "Boss Li, could you help me get rid of this?"
At this, Li Dagong and most of the people in the hall laughed.
"You want to unravel these few colorless, inanimate pieces of gray sand?" Li Dagong chuckled and said, "Alright...no problem, Master Zhang, help this one...unravel it!"
He didn't know Zhou Xuan, so naturally he didn't know his surname or given name.
Master Zhang was an elderly man around fifty years old. His face was sculpted and weathered, and his knuckles were covered with stone dust, showing that he was a seasoned stone cutter.
Master Zhang looked at Zhou Xuan and then asked, "Which piece of stone do you want to cut?"
Zhou Xuan chuckled and said, "Master Zhang, thank you for your trouble. I'll move them over." He then moved the seven or eight smaller pieces to the stone-cutting machine, and added, "I can't handle this big one!"
Master Zhang said, "We have machines here. I'll have Xiao Zhang bring them over. Should I handle the cutting of these stones for you, or is it up to you?"
Zhou Xuan scratched his head and then said, "Let's just untie them all from the middle, that'll be quick enough!"
Master Zhang was stunned!
These words made everyone in the hall burst into laughter again. A newbie is always a newbie!
Even Fu Ying and Yang Xuan couldn't help but feel both annoyed and amused.
The art of stone cutting is profound. Master Zhang is an experienced veteran who has been cutting stones for decades. His skills in cutting raw stones are extremely exquisite. To be considered a master of stone cutting, one must safely and without damage the jade that may be inside the stone. Otherwise, the stone may be cut open, but the jade may also be damaged, resulting in a great loss.
The techniques for cutting stones involve three methods: rubbing, cutting, and grinding, and Master Zhang is a master of them.
Rubbing is the oldest method of jade cutting, effective and safe. However, cutting before properly rubbing is blind and can remove the green color, leading to damaged jade and a lost gamble – a major taboo in jade gambling. As the saying goes, even a god can't judge a piece of jade by its appearance; rubbing to observe the "fog," the base, and the color are key to judging jade. Once you have a rubbed opening, you can shine a light on it or use sunlight to examine the depth, width, and intensity of the green color. If the opening is small, you can continue rubbing to widen it. As long as there is green, expand the rubbing area, even if you remove the entire outer layer until only green is exposed. Rubbing is worse than cutting. If you see the jade but not the color while rubbing, stop immediately, carefully analyze the stone, and decide whether to cut it.
There's a specific order to rubbing the stone: first, rub off the rough spots; second, rub off the dry spots; third, rub off the blemishes; and fourth, rub off the moss.
The sole purpose of polishing is to find the true green color. The experience of polishing stones begins with accurately identifying the mine. Each mine has distinct characteristics that make the stones suitable for polishing, where to polish, and how to polish them; you must have a clear understanding of these. Secondly, you must accurately identify the color flaws; don't mistake fleshy inclusions for color flaws, as you'll never find any color through polishing.
The simplest way to polish jadeite is by hand. You can try polishing it with three different types of abrasive strips: coarse, medium, and fine. The abrasive strips should be harder than the jadeite itself, otherwise you won't be able to polish it. If you are polishing it on a jade carving machine, you should slow down the speed and use three different types of abrasive strips (coarse, medium, and fine) to polish it. Make sure to polish it in a clockwise direction, and never polish it against the grain or horizontally.
There's a difference between cutting and polishing a stone. Polishing doesn't guarantee a profit, but cutting does. Cutting is the most crucial step in gambling on stones; the outcome, whether you win or lose, can only be determined after the stone is cut open.
Some jade dealers will resell a stone as soon as they see a potential increase in value after polishing it, allowing others to continue gambling. This is because continuing to polish or cut the stone would increase the risk, and the difference between a profit and a loss is only a hair's breadth. This shows that cutting stones is no small matter.
The original cutting method was to use a bow saw to press sand and slowly saw the stone open. If it was found that it could not be cut any further, it was easy to stop and salvage the situation. A jade cutting machine was used, with blades coated with a layer of diamond sand. The cutting was accurate and fast, but the jig held the stone in oil or water, making it difficult to see. The outcome could not be known until the stone was completely cut open.
When cutting stone, the first thing to do is to be precise. You can start from the rubbed edge, from the burr, from the mottled surface, or along the crack. If you don't see any color after the first cut, you can make a second cut, a third cut, and so on, until you find the color.
As the saying goes, "One cut makes you poor, one cut makes you rich," which illustrates this principle. If the cut is finished and there's little or no color, you're guaranteed to lose. If there's some color, it's not a complete loss; there's still some value. Even if you manage to break even, it's not a total loss.
Polishing stones are used to polish and fully reveal their transparency, allowing one to see the quality of their color or clarity. If polishing stones are unavailable, water or oil can be used for lubrication, achieving the same polishing effect and similarly revealing the color or clarity. There are two types of betting on polished stones: one is "hidden betting," where the stone shows no signs of cutting or natural breaks; the other is "semi-transparent betting," where the stone has chips, cuts, or small gaps, revealing the color or clarity, but much remains unknown, making it more of a gamble.
The key to both types of betting is the evaluation. If the price is reasonable, there is no need to be afraid when betting.
But as the old saying goes, "nine out of ten gamblers lose." When it comes to gambling on stones, it's common to lose all ten bets. But there are countless people who would rather lose nine out of ten than lose even one stone. Moreover, the color of a stone is hidden inside, and jade is also hidden inside. Who can tell whether there are gemstones inside?
Zhou Xuan, on the other hand, completely disregarded these old and new experiences and blindly did whatever he wanted. Even if there was jade in the stone, his approach to cutting the stone would likely result in a bad cut and a loss.
16977.com offers daily updates of fun mini-games waiting for you to discover!
Volume 1, Chapter 42: The Bet is Winning
(This is the third update today. Brothers and sisters, please vote for me! Although I've reached number one, the number of recommendation votes is a bit pitiful... Please help me, Aunt Xiao!)
All the raw stones were cut open from the middle!
Only Zhou Xuan would say something like that, and even Old Zhang laughed.
Of course, only Zhou Xuan knew the inside story about these stones. There was nothing in the seven or eight small stones, but the jade in the large rough stone was in the left third, so cutting it in the middle was no problem.
The problem is that everyone in the hall treated Zhou Xuan like a fool and a newbie, a newbie who was just throwing money away.
Especially Chen Chen, who was standing next to Zhou Xuan, laughed and said, "Haha, it's a good thing you only gave away a small amount of money. If you had gambled on a rough stone like mine, playing like that, you would have lost all your wealth!"
Zhou Xuan saw right through him; he was just trying to show off his talent and wealth, since there was such a stunning beauty as Fu Ying in front of him.
Seeing Chen Chen's face, Zhou Xuan was extremely displeased. Suddenly, a mischievous thought arose in his mind. He thought to himself, "You like being arrogant, right? Then I'll make you back down this time!"
He grinned and said to Chen Chen, "Really? Maybe I'll get lucky and find a good piece of jade. Your piece must be pretty good too. After I finish cutting my stone, you can also cut out a piece of jade. We'll all be happy!"
Zhou Xuan's words were clearly sarcastic, but Chen Chen obviously liked to hear them. People who gamble on stones like to hear good things, as it is said to be an omen, and southerners believe in this very much.
Chen Chen crossed his arms and looked at it, then said with a smile, "Alright, let's see how good the jade you can cut out first!"
Zhou Xuan didn't say much. He picked up a small piece of stone from the ground and handed it to Master Zhang, saying, "Master Zhang, please cut it in half. It will be faster and won't waste any time!"
There's a rush when cutting stones? Master Zhang was speechless, but since Zhou Xuan said so, he did as he was told. In his experience, these gray stones couldn't be cut into jade anyway, so it didn't matter whether the cut was good or bad.
Dozens of people gathered around, watching the spectacle without any pressure, because the stone was of poor quality and belonged to someone else; they treated it like watching a clown put on a show.
Master Zhang's skills were indeed excellent, very proficient. With one cut, he sliced the small stone in two, then into four. As expected, amidst the flying stone chips, more than half of the five thousand yuan worth of stone was gone.
The onlookers laughed more and more as they watched. Fu Ying initially thought Zhou Xuan was a bit silly and stubborn, but later she guessed that didn't seem like it. The Zhou Xuan she knew didn't seem that silly. Besides, given his financial situation, it was impossible for him to throw away five thousand yuan.
Zhou Xuan himself was all smiles, without the slightest hint of regret. In no time, he had cut all eight small stones, without even getting a single piece of jade skin out.
Finally, only that large stone was left. Because it was so big and heavy, it couldn't be moved. Master Zhang asked Xiao Zhang to push a small hoist to lift the stone onto the No. 3 cutting machine.
Master Zhang still asked Zhou Xuan, "Young man, is this piece still cut the same way?"
Zhou Xuan nodded, gestured with his hand, and said, "Cut it in the middle!"
Without saying a word, Lao Zhang used the crane to center the stone for cutting, turned on the power, and the cutting machine made a piercing sound when it touched the stone.