Fang Zhicheng did not give Zhou Xuan his business card; in his mind, he still did not take Zhou Xuan seriously.
Zhou Xuan also looked around at the crowd, but didn't see Chen Sanyan among them.
Fang Zhicheng waved to someone a few meters away and called out, "Second Brother, Second Brother!"
Zhou Xuan and his companion saw that the person waving to them was Fang Zhiguo, who had brought them there.
When Fang Zhiguo came over, he saw Fang Zhicheng introducing him to the ** and asked in surprise, "Zhicheng, you two know each other?"
Fang Zhicheng was also taken aback for a moment, then asked, "Second Brother, you know each other too?"
"They came with me. Do you think you know them?" Fang Zhiguo smiled, then said to the man, "Brother, this is my cousin, Fang Zhicheng!"
Without explaining his background or reason, Fang Zhicheng knew that his cousin had worked in Beijing for a few years, so ** was probably a friend he met there. Zhou Xuan was just one of **'s henchmen, insignificant, and besides, his brother-in-law Chen Sanyan wasn't here today. There was no need to pay any more attention to him.
Fang Zhicheng glanced at the people in the hall who were carefully selecting rough stones, and said, "Let's not talk about anything else now. Let's take a look at the rough stones and make a bet first. Don't wait until everyone else has picked out all the good ones."
Fang Zhicheng had also been eager to try it out. After hearing Fang Zhiguo's words, he smiled and mingled into the crowd to look at the raw materials.
To be honest, Fang Zhicheng only has a superficial understanding of jadeite rough. Last time, he was just lucky to find something inside. When it comes to gambling on jadeite, even seasoned veterans who spend years in quarries wouldn't dare to say they'd win big on every bet. Everyone knows that jadeite is inside the stone; you can't see or touch it, and instruments can't detect it. A rough stone with a beautiful green surface might just be a piece of rock when cut open, while a rough stone with a completely grayish-white surface might yield top-quality jadeite. No one can predict the outcome of jadeite gambling.
However, it is precisely because of its mystery and unpredictability, the life or death of a single cut, and the fact that there are indeed many cases of overnight riches, that makes people even more envious and excited. Even knowing that the probability of losing is the greatest, people still gamble, which is the gambler's mentality.
People die for wealth, just as birds die for food!
Boss Ling was tall and thin, in his forties, with a face full of the marks of time. He didn't look like a billionaire at all. People say that rich people are fat and big-eared, but that doesn't seem to hold true. Not to mention Boss Ling, even Zhou Xuan himself wasn't that kind of billionaire.
Someone has already selected the best rough stone. The best piece has a breathtakingly green outer layer. The entire rough stone weighs no less than 100 pounds and is much larger than a blue ball. Green covers more than half of the surface.
Without a doubt, this piece of raw jade is the best of all.
Boss Ling quoted a price: "Starting at eight million yuan. This green has an 80% chance of being made of glass-like jade, or at the very least, ice-like jade. It's an incredibly tempting green!"
The players present, while not all experts, were certainly knowledgeable in the field. Without needing Boss Ling's enticing words, they all understood that the possibility of this rough stone yielding top-quality jade was extremely high. The starting price of eight million was slightly high, but the chances of a successful gamble were also much greater.
Naturally, there were also bidders, and several of them, with bids increasing by tens of thousands.
It seems there are still quite a few wealthy people. Zhou Xuan smiled faintly, released some icy energy to probe, and the result was quite amusing. This top-quality green rough stone was actually all white inside, just gray stone, nothing at all!
Volume One: The First Signs of Growth, Chapter 126: Gold in Rough Jadeite
The moonlit scenery was a popular spot. People would gather to explore the ice and the rough materials along the wall. The area was a small island, about three or four hundred square meters, about ten meters wide and forty meters long.
Zhou Xuan's icy aura was at its peak, allowing him to detect objects up to fifteen meters away. Testing these rough stones didn't take much effort; he simply walked back and forth for a few minutes, testing them all. However, he was immediately filled with regret. Of all the rough stones, including the high-quality green ones that Boss Ling had specially selected for them, not a single stone contained any top-grade jade. The green stones on the shelves didn't even contain a trace of the lowest quality jade. Only a few of the greenless rough stones near the wall contained some poor-quality, rough, grayish-white jade—virtually worthless!
It's estimated that these raw stones belonging to Boss Ling are worth at least tens of millions of yuan. If he were to gamble on them himself, he would definitely lose. However, judging from the current situation, Boss Ling will not only not lose money, but will also make a fortune.
The best-quality green jadeite has already been bid up to eleven million, and it hasn't sold yet. If these people were to gamble on all the jadeite on this shelf, Boss Ling's profit would already be more than double. Not to mention the other jadeite pieces on the side; although their quality isn't as good, they all came from the same mine. The rule of jade is that regardless of quality, if it came from the same mine, it's money, not just a stone.
When Zhou Xuan returned, the rough stone had already been sold to a man in his forties for 13.5 million.
Boss Ling was overjoyed. With just this one piece of rough jade, he had recouped 60% of the money he had spent on the entire rough jade project. Making a profit was a certainty.
The Fang brothers, Fang Zhicheng and Fang Zhiguo, also envied this piece of rough jade, but they lacked the ability to compete with others due to their weak foundation.
Fang Zhicheng picked out a piece of rough jade from the shelf. The piece was about the size of a washbasin, with a green band in the middle that looked like a silk scarf. It was a bit pale, but the green was very good. If it were a bit pale, the price would be much cheaper, which is to be expected.
Zhou Xuan glanced at the other rough stones around him. Many people were looking at them, but he knew in his heart that none of them were valuable. The ones on the shelf with green were even less valuable, and they had even contained a tiny bit of the worst dog shit.
Seeing that Zhou Xuan also seemed interested, Fang Zhicheng couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder and laugh, "Brother, you'd better not get involved. Go play over there. This is a game that costs money, not something you can buy for three or five yuan. These stones aren't just stones here; they're gold here!"
Gold!
The moment Fang Zhicheng mentioned the word "gold," Zhou Xuan's heart skipped a beat. Seeing Fang Zhicheng's smug expression, he thought, "Damn it, a gentleman doesn't leave a grudge unavenged. You flaunt your awesomeness, I'll bankrupt you!"
Fang Zhicheng called Fang Zhiguo over, and the two brothers looked at the rough stone and whispered to each other for a while. Although their voices were low, Zhou Xuan heard them clearly. The two brothers had agreed that Fang Zhicheng would still take 10%, whether it was the principal or the profit, it would all be 10%. This rough stone was the most valuable, so they would only offer 1.5 million, and they wouldn't accept any more.
During this period, Boss Ling sold three more pieces of raw jade, for 650,000, 3 million, and 1.4 million respectively. All of them had green, but it wasn't very deep. The green was very pure.
Boss Ling said that these are all genuine rough stones from old mines in Myanmar. Of course, whether they are genuine or not is only what he said, and no one else knows for sure, but it is true that the rough stones have obvious green color.
After examining Fang Zhicheng's rough jade stone, Boss Ling set a starting price of 800,000. The green veins were banded, a bit narrow, but the green was excellent, and the rough stone itself was quite large; 800,000 was a reasonable starting price. Fang Zhicheng nervously glanced at the others, hoping no one would bid, so he could close the deal at 800,000, nearly half the price he expected. But what happened next disappointed him.
"850,000".
People still added numbers.
"Nine hundred and fifty thousand!"
"One million!"
"One million one hundred thousand!"
Fang Zhicheng's face turned pale. He hadn't expected so many people to make a move. It seemed this stone wouldn't be easy to take.
Zhou Xuan thought to himself that if the bidding continued like this, the price might go up and up, and once it exceeded that number, the Fang brothers might not want it anymore.
He immediately turned sideways and secretly pulled ** over, making a one with one hand and a five with the other, whispering, "Boss, hurry up and bid, 1.5 million, listen carefully, bid 1.5 million, and don't say a word if anyone else raises the price!"
He paused for a moment, then said to himself that he had a lot of experience with antiques, but he had never experienced gambling on stones before. He would never take these rough stones for hundreds of millions of dollars!
Zhou Xuan secretly asked him to make a move, but Mu was puzzled. Did Zhou Xuan have his eye on that piece of rough jade?
But as long as it was Zhou Xuan's wish, he would do it anyway. Firstly, he was lucky, and secondly, recent events had made him look at this brother in a new light. He thought Zhou Xuan was ignorant, but what he showed was the skill of a master in every aspect.
"One and a half million!" he shouted suddenly.
Immediately, those who were bidding were taken aback. The others were raising the price by 50,000 or 100,000, but this one suddenly pushed the price to the limit, increasing it by hundreds of thousands. This caught the others off guard. The other gamblers were experienced and estimated that they wouldn't want the stone if it exceeded 1.5 million. This one move raised the price to the peak of their expectations, and they all shut up and observed the situation.