In the inner room, Zhou Tao was brewing tea. This was the Gongfu tea technique he learned from Zeng Qiang after arriving in Beijing. Although his technique was not perfect, it was still quite skillful.
Upon seeing Zhou Xuan arrive, Zhou Tao exclaimed, "Brother, you're here?"
Zhou Xuan nodded. Old Wu had a good impression of Zhou Xuan and didn't feel that the young man had any boss-like airs. He was also very easy-going. He smiled and told Zhou Xuan about the events of the past two days.
I've bought ads on TV and in the evening paper; all I'm waiting for is **'s signature.
Old Wu was deeply moved by the origin of Zhou Xuan's luminous pearl, but no matter how he asked, Zhou Fu simply replied that he had found it by chance in the Liaodong Cave in Luoyang.
**He was in a daze.** He returned to the shop an hour later. His face was covered in sweat, and he looked very tired, but when he saw Zhou Xuan, he smiled and said, "Little brother, you're here? I've already contacted the place to cut the stone. I told them that the big stone quarry would charge at least 1,500 yuan, because they usually don't take on such small jobs if it's just one stone. They usually only do batches. If we only need ten stones, the quarry will still charge that price, so I didn't finalize it right away. I just said I'd get back to them tomorrow."
"Boss, what are you waiting for? Just confirm it. When will the stone arrive?"
Zhou Xuan waved his hand and said, "In terms of the value of that jadeite, 1,500 is nothing. Even if it were 1.5 million, it would only be a fraction of its value."
He counted the time on his fingers, "At the fastest speed the freight company can deliver, it should arrive by tomorrow afternoon, right? When do we need to take it to the quarry to cut the stones?"
"Call me as soon as you arrive. I'll come right away!" Zhou Xuan's mind was entirely focused on the stone. With nothing to do at home, he just wanted to find something to do.
However, Zhou Xuan then thought of Fang Zhicheng and his brother. Those two were probably going through the most painful time of their lives right now. Thinking of this, the frustration he felt at Wei Xiaoyu's place dissipated considerably.
He was still complaining to Old Wu: "Old Wu, it's really hard to find any good stuff these days. My trip to Yangzhou was a complete waste; I didn't get anything. But my brother did buy a stone to weigh down the dog kennel."
"What stone?" Old Wu asked, somewhat puzzled.
He casually remarked, "It's all because my brother insisted there might be jade in that stone. We spent over a thousand yuan to bring it back from so far away, sigh." Old Wu
Then, looking at Old Wu, he said, "Although our little pearl can hold up half the sky, it's still a bit weak. Big business is big business, but we also have to take care of small businesses and small customers. Popularity depends on small customers. Our shop is still empty. I'm afraid this business won't be able to open anytime soon!"
Zhou Xuan frowned. This was indeed the case. A store can't just rely on doing big business. Big business is like a treasure, and it's extremely rare. Small business and small customers are the foundation. This store is empty. How can you do business if there's no stock?
Antique shops typically accumulate their stock over a long period. Antiques aren't something you can just buy whenever you want, and there are fakes everywhere these days. The most common and abundant item in antique shops is jadeite. Of course, the best old mine jadeite is hard to find, but lower-quality jadeite is everywhere, and it's genuine and cheap. After processing and reselling, the price can increase several times or even dozens of times.
Even if the top-quality jadeite from that glassy piece is cut out tomorrow, it will only be good for grand occasions, like that luminous pearl. For ordinary businesses and ordinary customers, the supply will still be insufficient.
However, when Zhou Xuan thought of that stone, he immediately thought that he could use his special ability to detect it. Why not gamble on a batch of rough stones? He could use his ice energy to scan and detect it. It would be a sure thing. He wouldn't lose money. Why not do it? Instead of racking his brains to find a batch of antiques?
Upon thinking of this, Zhou Xuan chuckled and said, "Boss, I have an idea! Let's slowly accumulate the antiques in our shop. Then we can take a trip to Yunnan or Myanmar to buy a batch of jadeite rough. Wouldn't that give us a large quantity of jadeite?"
Zhou Xuan became excited and added, "We can also hire several master carvers to set up our own craft factory. As long as the supply and quality are guaranteed, we'll be dealing not only with the customers of this antique shop, but with jewelers throughout Beijing, and perhaps even the whole country and the world in the future."
Zhou Xuan continued, still eager to elaborate, "Of course, our first priority is to ensure the supply of jade raw materials. Our trip to Yunnan or Myanmar serves two purposes: first, to purchase raw materials, and second, to open up this route and secure our own supply so that we can have a long-term supply in the future!"
Zhou Xuan talked for a while, then asked ** and Lao Wu, "Boss, Lao Wu, what do you think?"
Both Lao Wu and his companion remained silent for a while, without saying anything. Lao Wu finally spoke up, saying, "Little Zhou, how about this? If it can be done, of course it's a good thing, a really good thing. But there's a major difficulty..."
Zhou Xuan paused, then asked, "What's the difficulty? Money isn't an issue." "It's not about money," Old Wu waved his hand. "Money isn't a problem for you, and connections aren't an issue either. But you're going to gamble on rough stones over there. I know about that, and I'm also knowledgeable about jadeite. Gambling on those small rough stones is arguably the most dangerous gamble for a businessman. There's no instrument yet that can detect jadeite inside. How can you be sure you'll win?"
Volume 1, Chapter 133: On-site Stone Cutting
Er Mo's words were indeed a sharp point, hitting the nail on the head. But this weakness might be the biggest difficulty for others, but for Zhou Xuan, it was not the biggest difficulty at all, because he had the ultimate weapon: the Ice Qi ability!
Scratching his head, Zhou Xuan didn't know how to explain for a moment. Or he could choose not to explain, since he was the largest shareholder and could do whatever he wanted, but that wasn't in Zhou Xuan's character.
In a store, it's like being part of a family. The staff are like family members too; you have to treat them with the same respect you would show your family to earn their respect in return.
Zhou Xuan thought for a moment, then immediately came up with a plan. He said mysteriously to his brother, "Boss, you don't know this, but what I've studied most in recent years is the research on jadeite rough. Although I'm not 100% sure, I'm about 70-80% sure. You're probably only half-believing me now, but once the stone arrives tomorrow, we'll go to the stone-cutting factory and cut it open, and you'll see how amazing I am. Hehe!"
Zhou Xuan wasn't usually one to show off, but he wasn't going to deliberately flaunt it in front of Lao Wu now. Otherwise, it wouldn't have any effect later. Once that stone was cut open tomorrow, it would completely shock Zhang Laoda and Lao Wu, and make them believe that he had truly learned a very special technique for identifying rough stones. After that, things would be much easier. He could let Lao Wu and Zhang Laoda handle the shop's affairs, while he could deal with the raw materials. With his "ice qi" (a magical ability), gambling on stones was a piece of cake; it was his forte. Yunnan and Myanmar were full of rough stones, with thousands upon thousands of people gambling on them. He wouldn't have to worry about his secrets being leaked, and he could still use his skills. Unlike the shop, there weren't as many hassles and miscellaneous matters. He could go there once every month or two, bringing back a large batch each time. The rough stones he selected were all readily available, and each trip could supply a large amount of demand.
Both Lao Wu and Zhou Xuan were skeptical, but Lao Wu was a little better off, for no other reason than that he had a particular faith in Zhou Xuan's luck.
After discussing the advertising for a while, all that's left is for ** to sign.
The room at the back of the shop was renovated into a bedroom. Since Zhou Tao was single, he moved in. It would be safer to have someone guarding the place. Although it was not allowed for people to live in the shop according to regulations, other shops did the same thing. After all, these antique shops had some valuable items, and the supervisory authorities turned a blind eye.
Of course I'm happy; I can rest assured about the person running the shop. Zhou Tao goes without saying; he's one of us. He has shares, is Zhou Xuan's younger brother, and is honest and hardworking—nothing to complain about.
The shipped stone arrived at 3 PM the next day. **I called Zhou Xuan immediately after receiving the shipment to notify him.**
Zhou Xuan rushed to Zhou Zhang's antique shop immediately. After Fu Ying and her mother had breakfast, they went out excitedly. Jin Xiumei was especially happy, buying this and that. Her daughter-in-law was just too good. She was beautiful and gentle, and most importantly, she was very sensible. She always did what she wanted. She didn't know what good fortune her son had accumulated to have such a good wife.
Inside the store, two shop assistants helped open the packaging. Both Lao Wu and the shop assistant were looking at it. Lao Wu's experience was far superior to that of ordinary experts, but after looking for a long time, he still couldn't see anything special.
This stone shows absolutely no signs of jadeite; it's grayish-white, without any stripes, and not a trace of green. Experts would consider it a worthless stone.
Old Wu pondered. While the surprising aspect of jade gambling lies in the fact that what you see might not be there, while what you don't like might be, the vast majority of the rough stones that actually appear in the gambling are still green, and the chances of winning are high – that's a fact.
But to be honest, Old Wu wasn't optimistic about this stone at all. Apart from a slightly dog-like odor, he couldn't see any characteristics that could be associated with jade.
They called over a pickup truck. Zeng Qiang, Chen Shuhua, and Zhou Tao, three young men, lifted it onto the truck.
When Zhou Xuan left, he called Lao Wu to come along too. There were Zhou Tao, his father, and two other employees in the shop, so nothing would happen.
The stone-cutting factory I contacted is in the suburbs. It's across Chaoyang District, but not too far from the house I bought—about a ten-minute drive.
This stone-cutting factory actually belongs to a chain jewelry store in the city, and the owner's surname is Xu. Every one or two months, they would go to Myanmar to purchase a batch of rough stones to cut and process themselves. In the past few years, they had a few successful bets, but in the last two years, the losses have been increasingly severe. The jewelry store's business isn't bad, but most of their losses have been tied up in gambling on rough stones. This has made things extremely difficult for the jewelry store. Originally a promising local Beijing jewelry company, it once expanded to 46 branches in Beijing, but the gambling on rough stones caused its cash flow to dry up, nearly leading to bankruptcy. Now it's barely surviving.
The stone-cutting factory has been basically empty for the past few months, and the workers and technicians haven't received their wages for several months. No more raw stones are coming in, and they only occasionally take on other orders, but it's all just a drop in the bucket.
Most of the workers had left, leaving only an old technician, Master Chen, and his apprentice, Chen Ermao, who was also his nephew.
This business deal was taken over by Chen Ermao, the nephew of Liu Bei, who originally wanted to earn some extra money. Unexpectedly, the business was later agreed upon, which made him genuinely happy. 1,500 yuan was his current salary; the company hadn't paid him a penny for three and a half months, and he was furious.
After the car arrived, we entered the gate of the quarry. The quarry itself wasn't cramped, at least two or three thousand square meters, but it was mostly empty and hadn't been cleaned for a long time, making it look dilapidated.
Since the price was reasonable and the project wasn't large—just one stone—Chen Ermao enthusiastically stepped forward to help. Together with Zhou Xuan, the three of them carried the stone to the stone-cutting workshop and only caught their breath after placing it on the stone-cutting machine.