Yang Xuan wasn't taking the three of them to the city center, but rather to Longgang District. The raw stones being transported weren't like jade that had been cut and polished; they were massive pieces, often weighing tons. Firstly, there wasn't enough space in the city, and secondly, the stone-cutting machinery wasn't suitable for the city due to noise and dust. Besides, some buyers would have the stones cut on-site during the transaction. In short, for convenience, the owner set up the transaction at his cutting factory. ()
The Yang family had only recently entered the jewelry market in the south, and the boss from Longgang would invite friends in the industry to trade every time he brought back goods.
Yang Xuan had only been there once, and it was through a friend in the same industry who introduced her to it. However, she didn't go there to gamble on jade. She didn't have the expertise to do that. She just went to see if there were any suitable cut jade pieces. If there were, she would buy them and have the company's craftsmen make them into finished products. Of course, the profit from this was not as high as that from gambling on jade, but it was much safer and more reliable.
Yang Xuan's trip this time was still just to see if she could get any high-quality jade.
The owner of this raw stone is surnamed Li and named Li Dagong. Yang Xuan heard from her friend that he has at least 100 million yuan in assets.
When we arrived at Mr. Li's stone-cutting factory, it was exactly 11:30.
In a large hall of the stone-cutting factory, four stone-cutting machines were placed in the front row along the side, in four different sizes from small to large, starting from the left.
In the middle of the hall, there were three rows of glass cabinets and four rows of wooden shelves. Inside the glass cabinets were some cut pieces of jade. Zhou Xuan looked at them and found that their quality was far inferior to that of the jade pieces in the jewelry store. He didn't know if it was because they hadn't been polished or because the jade itself wasn't very good. He really didn't know anything about the grades of jade.
The wooden shelf held some stones, some of which were green, like moss, while others were a different color. There were about ten or twenty stones, but none of them were very big.
On the other side of the wall, there are white stones, some small and some large, but none of them are colorless. The small ones are only the size of a fist, while one of the large ones looks like a rockery and probably weighs more than a ton or two.
There were forty or fifty people in the hall, men and women, but women made up only a small number, maybe seven or eight.
Zhou Xuan, Fu Ying, Yang Xuan, and Wang Jue became the focus of everyone's attention as soon as they entered the stone factory; the allure of beautiful women is undeniable.
Zhou Xuan noticed that one of the men, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, was paying close attention to Fu Ying. This man was quite handsome.
Less than five minutes later, the man finally found an opportunity to come closer and said to Fu Ying with a smile, "Hello, may I ask if you also have a hobby of gambling on stones?"
Fu Ying glanced at him and then said, "No, I've never gambled on stones before. I just came with a friend to broaden my horizons. I do like jade, though, so I'm just here to take a look!"
"That's right!" the man smiled and said, "Only a beautiful lady like you is worthy of owning the finest jade. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Chen Chen, the manager of Southern Chen's Jewelry. Hehe, since we're both jade lovers, how about I treat you to a meal later and we can chat about this topic?"
Chen Chen extended his right hand as he spoke.
Fu Ying said indifferently, "Let's talk about it another time. I'm busy today!" Then she turned and walked away.
Chen Chen awkwardly withdrew his right hand; this girl was clearly not as easy to handle as he had imagined.
Zhou Xuan snorted inwardly. Based on his understanding of Fu Ying, how could she possibly fall for such a lame trick?
Li Dagong, who looked to be in his forties, had a ruddy complexion and was very energetic. When he saw that almost everyone had arrived, he said loudly, "My old friends, it's almost time, and almost everyone has arrived, so let's begin. Hehe, let me introduce myself first!"
"To all my old friends, I have always been honest with you. This batch of rough stones was just imported from Myanmar. They are from the old mine of Wulong River and are of good quality. I spent a total of 26 million. These rough stones came from the same mine, so there are about six or seven tons of them of various sizes. I have selected the ones with good color and texture and put them on the shelves. The colorless and slightly inferior ones are piled in the corner. Take a look for yourselves, choose carefully, and then we can discuss the price."
Yang Xuan quietly explained, "This Li Dagong is said to have made a fortune through gambling on stones. After that, he expanded his business along this path. Normally, people would stop gambling on stones after making a fortune because the risk is too high, and usually nine out of ten gamblers lose. But Mr. Li is indeed a shrewd businessman. He gambles on stones in Myanmar and then transports them back to the south. He doesn't cut the stones himself but invites jewelers from the south to gamble on stones, transferring the risk to these jewelers. There are so many wealthy people in the south that most of them lose, but some win. Over time, this has become Li Dagong's way of making money. He has never lost money on any of the raw stones."
Fu Ying nodded and said, "It is indeed a good approach. The key is that everyone has an adventurous spirit. Gambling is human nature. However, I have never seen jade gambling before. It looks quite exciting."
Yang Xuan laughed and said, "It's exciting, but this is just small-scale gambling. Compared to the gambling scenes in the raw jadeite producing areas of Myanmar, this is nothing!"
There were too many people around the wooden shelves, and it was impossible to squeeze through. So a few people simply looked at the cut jade pieces at the glass counter.
Yang Xuan shook her head as she looked at them, saying, "The quality isn't very good, they don't have much value."
Fu Ying looked down for a while and said, "The best one is that blue-and-white porcelain patch. The rest are all white sandy or gray sandy patches, and there isn't a single patch with good old-fashioned soil!"
Zhou Xuan spent last night reading books on jade and memorized a lot of information about it, but he had absolutely no practical experience.
Fu Ying's words were clear enough; she was referring to the different types of jade. The vast majority of the jade in Li Dagong's area was corundum, also known as jadeite. Most jade in China is nephrite, and high-quality jadeite is only produced in Myanmar. After hundreds of years of mining, jadeite is becoming increasingly scarce, and its price is naturally rising accordingly.
Zhou Xuan also wanted to learn more about jade. Seeing Fu Ying and the other two girls looking at and discussing the jade in front of the glass display case, he quietly squeezed over to the wooden shelf.
Beside the wooden shelf, most of the people in the hall, including the owner Li Dagong, were discussing an oval-shaped stone the size of a basketball.
A wisp of emerald green, like a ribbon, encircled the center of the stone. The emerald green color was very alluring, clinging tightly to the surface of the stone, and looked very pleasing.
Li Dagong chuckled and said, "This rough stone has the best color and texture of all the stones in this pit. In terms of color, it's genuine emerald green. What do you think?"
Amidst the whispers, one person spoke up first: "Mr. Li, the color and appearance are quite good. What's your bottom line?"
Zhou Xuan recognized the voice. Looking over, he saw that it was indeed Chen Chen, the one who had flirted with Fu Ying earlier.
Li Dagong made an eight gesture with his right hand and said, "In this pit, I've set my sights on this rough stone. The price of over 20 million is almost entirely for it. Based on its shape and experience, I estimate that there's a very high probability of finding gem-quality jade inside. We're all experts here, so I don't need to explain. As for the price, hehe, let's start with 8 million!"
Eight million yuan? Zhou Xuan was taken aback!
Is this all there is to it? What if we can't find any jade inside? I finally managed to save up over three million yuan by picking up a few bargains, but I never expected that gambling on stones would be even more insane. Would anyone really risk nearly ten million yuan for this thrill?
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Volume 1, Chapter 39: Unexpected Events
The starting price of eight million yuan is indeed a bit high, but the green color on the stone is indeed tempting. In addition, the people who came all have a gambler's mentality. The reason why the buying and selling of jadeite rough stones is mysterious and tempting is because of this "gambling"!
A good piece of jade rough cannot be discerned from its outer appearance. Even with today's highly advanced science, no instrument can see through the outer shell to determine whether what lies inside is "precious jade" or "worthless jade." Therefore, the trade of rough jade is both risky and exciting; a win can lead to overnight riches, while a loss can result in financial ruin. This intense excitement and the desire for quick riches have kept this trade popular throughout history.
If this rough stone is cut open and there is jade inside, and the color of the jade is the same as the emerald green of the outer shell, then it is a top-grade jade. This green color is called emerald green in jadeite, which is a superior grade of jadeite.
Even if the jade inside is only the size of a fist, the value of jade of this quality would be at least over ten million.
Therefore, although Li Dagong's asking price was slightly high, there were still quite a few people in the crowd who were eager to try their luck.
After Li Dagong made his bid, Chen Chen spoke first: "Let me start, eight million!"
Li Dagong smiled and said, "Manager Chen made the first move. Alright, eight million per transaction..."
"Eight million one hundred thousand!"
"Eight million three hundred thousand!"