"Yes, this piece of material is a bit hard to see through. I don't know if I can make a sale..."
Before Zhuang Rui could even stand still, the people around him started making a fuss. In a place like a jade gambling market, there are always some "commentators" next to almost every piece of jade that looks good, and this place was no exception.
"Let me take a look first..."
Zhuang Rui took the magnifying glass from someone without comment, and squatted down to examine the surface of the rough stone.
This piece of jade weighs about 200 kilograms and is oval in shape. The outer skin is variegated, with some black mixed in with the gray-green color. The window that was rubbed open is on the surface of the stone. Although the green color is average, the translucency is very good, and it looks bright and attractive.
"Teacher Zhuang, how is it?"
"Is it worth selling this piece of material?"
"Teacher Zhuang, please tell us about it, everyone's waiting..."
As soon as Zhuang Rui stood up, the onlookers started asking questions all at once. You know, while the experts' assessments aren't always accurate, they're definitely much more reliable than what these people are saying.
"Judging from the surface, this piece has a multicolored skin, so it should be a rough stone from the Grey Karst mine. As everyone knows, the transparency of rough stones from the Grey Karst mine varies, and the distribution of color on the bottom is not very uniform. In my personal opinion, it has a high degree of risk..."
The experience summarized by our predecessors is not without purpose. After Zhuang Rui used his spiritual energy to observe this piece of material, he found that the bright and clear surface became cloudy after seeping into the interior of the raw stone.
While there are some decent aspects to it, it's clearly disproportionate to the five million euro starting price on the sign next to it.
"Everyone, please take your time looking around. I'll go inside now..."
This piece of material was also one that Qin Haoran had asked Zhuang Rui to pay attention to. Now it could be crossed off the note. After Zhuang Rui finished his comments, he bowed to everyone and left the crowd.
Zhuang Rui's comments caused some people who were not optimistic about this piece of material to leave. Those who remained were more confident in their own judgment. Zhuang Rui didn't care about that; he had already spoken, and it was up to them whether they believed it or not.
"Hey, my father-in-law's taste is really not that great..."
Zhuang Rui didn't linger in front of any of the raw materials. Instead, he used his spiritual energy to examine all the dozen or so materials on the slip of paper. He couldn't help but shake his head inwardly. Qin Haoran was good at doing business, but his ability to select raw materials was really not commendable.
These dozen or so pieces are all semi-rough stones, with windows or facets cut into them. However, the quality of the jade inside is not very high. Only two pieces barely reach the icy type, while the rest are mid- to low-grade stones.
Zhuang Rui raised his hand to check the time. The public auction had only been going on for a little over an hour. He simply started wandering around the sealed bidding area, constantly using his spiritual energy to sense each piece of material.
More than an hour later, Zhuang Rui stopped, covered in sweat. He had written down more than sixty pieces of rough jade in his notebook. These pieces ranged from bean green to glassy jade.
Zhuang Rui planned to hand over these labels to his father-in-law in a few days; otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to have looked at so many in just one morning.
"Xiao Rui, what are you doing here?"
The sealed bidding area was larger than the open bidding area. Just as Zhuang Rui was about to finish his inspection of the sealed bidding area and walked out from a row of raw stones, he ran into Qin Haoran.
"Dad, didn't you say you wanted me to take a look at these materials?"
As Zhuang Rui spoke, he closed his notebook. He couldn't give the data he had just compiled to Qin Haoran right away.
"Hey, I told you to come over in a few days when you have time, not that you have to come now. Hurry up, go to the open bidding area and pick out a piece of jade. If you lose to Old Tang tonight, you'll lose face big time..."
Qin Haoran and Old Tang have been friends for many years, but these words prove that he still favors his son-in-law.
Zhuang Rui laughed upon hearing this: "Hehe, Dad, I'm just a newbie, it's not shameful to lose. By the way, those pieces of jade you have aren't very good, don't waste your time, I'll pick out a few for you later..."
"Alright, alright, hurry up and go pick out the raw stones..."
Qin Haoran waved his hand, but the expressions of the appraisers behind him were not very good, because the rough stones that Zhuang Rui mentioned were all selected by them.
"Brother Zhuang, Brother Zhuang!"
Just as Zhuang Rui was talking to his father-in-law, Peng Fei's loud voice rang out from afar.
Seeing Peng Fei and Li Zhen covered in sweat, Zhuang Rui asked curiously, "What's wrong? What are you two doing in such a hurry?"
Peng Fei wiped his sweat and said excitedly, "Hey, Brother Zhuang, there's a betting place outside, betting on whether you and Grandpa Tang will win tonight..."
Peng Fei and Li Zhen were bored and wandered around until they reached the entrance. They naturally discovered the gambling den of Boss Jin and Boss Guo. At this moment, the two bosses had already collected a total of 50 million in gambling funds.
Mr. Jin received less betting money, only about 20 million, which shows that everyone still has faith in Mr. Tang. With his large family and business empire, he doesn't care much about 20 or 30 million.
However, Mr. Guo's face was not very pleasant. He used to be in the auto parts business, but he got involved in the jade gambling circle halfway through, and he didn't know much about this circle.
Moreover, Mr. Guo's assets are considered fixed assets, and his total net worth is only forty or fifty million. However, he has received as much as thirty million in gambling funds. If Zhuang Rui loses, this guy will probably have to go home and sell his house and land to pay it back.
"Holy crap, they received so much money?"
Zhuang Rui was also shocked when he heard Peng Fei's words. This bet of 50,000 had actually collected tens of millions of bets. The winner no longer needed to gamble on stones. The profit from gambling on stones was not necessarily that great.
However, Zhuang Rui didn't consider that the number of participants in this auction reached the peak of all previous Myanmar jade auctions, with a total of more than 3,600 people. If 1,000 people participated in the gambling, the amount would be as high as 50 million.
"Hehe, my brother and I each placed a bet, and we bet on you to win, Zhuang..."
Peng Fei said with a smile, "When we got there, those two were discussing packing up their stall. If thousands of people had placed bets, they probably wouldn't have been able to afford to lose..."
Mr. Jin and Mr. Guo were in a bit of a dilemma. If more than 3,000 people got involved, even Mr. Jin couldn't afford it. So the two were discussing whether to stop the betting period before lunch.
"Heh, looks like I still can't afford to lose?"
Zhuang Rui laughed upon hearing this, shook his head, and headed towards the open bidding area.
What started as a private conversation between Zhuang Rui and Old Tang unexpectedly escalated into a betting scheme, which made Zhuang Rui take it more seriously. After all, he couldn't let down the guys who had bet on him to win!
Peng Fei followed behind Zhuang Rui, muttering incessantly, "Brother Zhuang, you can't lose! Li Zhen even borrowed the money from me to gamble. If you lose, you'll have to pay for it..."
"Get out of my way, do whatever you want, don't follow me..."
Zhuang Rui glared at Peng Fei, who was fearless but somewhat intimidated by Zhuang Rui. He then pulled Li Zhen away in a sheepish manner.
Upon arriving at the open bidding area, Zhuang Rui saw Tang Lao and his two disciples squatting in front of a rough jade stone, examining it carefully. He couldn't help but smile. He then walked through several bidding areas, starting with the rough jade stone area marked 30,000 and looking down.
Although the quality of the rough stones at this year's Myanmar jade auction was somewhat poor, it's still not a big problem to pick out a few good pieces from tens of thousands of rough stones. Moreover, with so many pieces, there's absolutely no chance of encountering the same quality as Mr. Tang.
Zhuang Rui examines raw materials very quickly. He doesn't linger in front of ordinary green or icy jadeite at all, and in half an hour, he has examined more than a thousand raw stones.
"This... I'm afraid we can't win..."
Zhuang Rui looked at the records in his notebook. Among the more than 1,000 rough stones, there were three high-ice jade pieces and one blue-water jade piece, which was a top-quality jade material for making bracelets.
However, Zhuang Rui was a little uneasy about thinking he could beat Master Tang with just these few pieces of material.
Chapter 970 The Jade King (2)
Although gambling on jade stones is shrouded in mystery, and there is an ancient saying that even immortals cannot judge the quality of jade stones, it is not entirely without clues once you understand the nature of the stone.
Someone like Mr. Tang, who has formal training and has spent his entire life dealing with jadeite rough, can deduce the formation conditions of a rough stone from its outer skin, and thus determine whether there is jadeite inside.
Therefore, Zhuang Rui felt uneasy about beating Master Tang based solely on the few pieces of jade he had seen. Moreover, those pieces were all of good quality, and there would likely be many bidders, which didn't quite meet Zhuang Rui's expectations.
According to Zhuang Rui's idea, at least one piece of glass-type jadeite should be produced to ensure a winning position. However, glass-type jadeite is usually hard to come by, and it's possible that none of the more than 10,000 rough stones up for auction today will be found.
Fortunately, Zhuang Rui had only looked at about one-tenth of the material so far, and there was still a lot left. After making a mark on the blue-green material, Zhuang Rui continued to examine it, but he did not find any better jadeite rough stones until lunchtime.
During lunch, Qin Haoran noticed that his son-in-law was in low spirits and asked, "What's wrong, Xiao Rui? Didn't you find any good materials?"
"There's a piece of blue-green jadeite, top-quality material for making bracelets, but its quality doesn't reach the glassy level, so I'm afraid it won't be able to beat Old Tang's..."
Even in front of his own people, Zhuang Rui didn't hide his competitive spirit. Anyway, this should be the last time he participated in the jade auction. He wanted to leave a legend for future generations, a legend that no one could surpass.
Therefore, Zhuang Rui didn't even glance at the mere blue-water icy jadeite. What he was thinking about was the top-quality yellow jadeite in Old Master Gu's hands. If it appeared at this public auction, it would undoubtedly be the king of jadeite.
"You...you brat, aren't you satisfied with icy blue jadeite?"
Qin Haoran stared at Zhuang Rui with wide eyes, stretched out his hand, and said, "I'll take that material even if you don't want it. Give me the label number, and I'll go bid on it later..."
Blue-green jadeite bracelets are especially sought after in the market and are the easiest type of jadeite jewelry to sell. So Qin Haoran didn't care that his son-in-law had his eye on them and immediately asked for the serial number without any hesitation.
Zhuang Rui shook his head with a wry smile and didn't say anything. He really didn't believe that he couldn't find a single piece he was satisfied with out of tens of thousands of rough stones. After finishing his meal, Zhuang Rui didn't rest and went straight to the open bidding area.
With only three hours left until the afternoon's halfway point of the bidding, Zhuang Rui felt a sense of urgency and sped up his pace. In just over an hour, he had examined more than six thousand rough stones.
"Damn it, have all the glass-type jadeite been mined out?"
Zhuang Rui was sweating profusely. He gulped down several mouthfuls of mineral water. Among these thousands of pieces of material, there were many high-ice jadeite, but he still couldn't find the glass-type material that he was looking for.
This made Zhuang Rui very critical of this jadeite auction. The overall quality of the raw stones was incomparable to the one he had participated in before. On that occasion, Zhuang Rui found three pieces of glass-type jadeite alone, and they were three different colors of glass-type jadeite.
Actually, this is not the fault of the Myanmar organizing committee. In Myanmar today, the old mines of jadeite have been almost completely exhausted, and the new mines, due to insufficient formation time, make glass-type jadeite quite rare.
This has led to a surge in demand for glass-type jadeite jewelry in recent years, with prices rising continuously. Moreover, the glass-type jadeite jewelry appearing in jewelry stores is almost always colorless.
High-quality green or bright green glass-type jadeite jewelry almost exclusively appears at auctions, where it's purchased for collectors and rarely circulates in the market.
"Xiao Zhuang, how's it going? Have you found any pieces you like?"
Unbeknownst to him, Zhuang Rui had actually met up with Old Tang, who was observing the rough stone from the other side. He had been focusing his attention on the rough stone until Old Tang greeted him, at which point Zhuang Rui finally realized what was happening.
"Old Tang?"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback for a moment, then said, "Hey, I've only been looking at semi-gambling jade, but I've taken a liking to a few pieces. What about you, Mr. Tang?"
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Old Tang was relieved. He had been wondering how Zhuang Rui could walk all this way without even bending over.
Old Tang has been gambling on jadeite for decades, and he has never seen such a way of appraising jadeite rough. After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, he realized that Zhuang Rui had already selected the material.
"The old man looked at a few pieces too, but he wasn't sure. He's getting old, after all, not as good as you young people..."
Although Old Tang spoke modestly, there was a hint of pride on his face, suggesting that he was quite satisfied with the pieces of material he had selected.
"Teacher, you just said that piece of jade hasn't been seen in several public auctions, how come..."
While Master Tang was being modest, one of his disciples couldn't help but speak up, glancing at Zhuang Rui with undisguised provocation.
Old Tang glanced at his disciple beside him, shook his head, and said, "These jadeite rough stones are ever-changing. Before they're cut open, no one can say for sure what's inside. Little Su, don't talk nonsense..."
Zhuang Rui was a little frustrated. Judging from the old man's confident appearance, he must have already selected a suitable raw stone, while he hadn't found one yet. Was he really going to lose the competition today?
"Xiao Zhuang, go sit in the shed. I've been watching all day, and my old bones are starting to feel the strain..."
Old Tang rubbed his back. He was almost 70 years old, and after standing in the scorching sun all day, plus the mental strain of observing the raw stones, his complexion was really not good.
"Alright, Mr. Tang, you don't look too well. I have some Ren Dan here, please take a few..."
Because of Lao Wu's sudden death yesterday, Hu Rong gave everyone some medicine to relieve the heat when they came out this morning. Zhuang Rui, being of good health, naturally didn't need it and kept it in his pocket.
"Okay, okay, I was just saying I wanted to buy some yesterday. It's so inconvenient to buy things in Myanmar, you can't even find a bottle of Tiger Balm..."
Without any ceremony, Old Tang took the medicine from Zhuang Rui, poured a few pills into his mouth, and swallowed them without water. His disciple rushed into the shed first and poured his teacher a glass of water.
Zhuang Rui followed Tang Lao into the shed, but before entering, he saw a large rock about his height standing beside it and couldn't help but say, "The quality of the rough stones at this year's auction is really poor..."
"The piece of material you're talking about?"
When Tang Lao saw Zhuang Rui staring at the rough stone by the shed, he couldn't help but chuckle. This piece of material was more like a rock than a jadeite rough stone, because it didn't have any characteristics of a jadeite rough stone on its surface.