Just as Yang Hongtao was feeling extremely depressed, he suddenly saw Xin Yue waving to him from ahead.
Seeing this, Yang Hongtao walked over and heard Xin Yue excitedly point to a side hall and say, "Come on... there are people cutting stones on the spot, let's go and take a look. Hahaha... In my opinion, the most exciting part of gambling on stones is cutting them on the spot. That's what you call heaven or hell in one cut! Most of those old guys just buy the stones and secretly cut them at home, which is really boring."
"Someone is cutting stones on site... Okay, I'll go take a look too!"
Yang Hongtao became interested upon hearing this. Although he had inherited some of the jade carver's memories, he only knew about the price-performance ratio of jade and carving techniques. He really didn't know how raw jadeite was extracted. He naturally wanted to see for himself this time.
Next to this exhibition hall, which spans several hundred square meters, is a side hall, which serves as the stone-cutting area for the auction. Two multi-functional stone-cutting machines are placed side by side there.
When Yang Hongtao and Xin Yue arrived, a large crowd had already gathered there. On one of the stone-cutting machines was a piece of rough jade about the size of a television set. Two stone-cutting masters had already controlled the machine to make two cuts on the side of the rough jade.
However, neither of the two cuts revealed any green color, causing onlookers to shake their heads in disbelief, while the owner of the rough stone was sweating profusely with nervousness.
Seeing this, Xin Yue shook her head and said, "It looks like Young Master Zhao is going to lose again this time!"
Yang Hongtao had already used his soul power to see through the rough stone on the stone-cutting machine and discovered that there was indeed jade inside, and the piece was actually quite large.
However, the jadeite inside the rough stone was concentrated in the upper left corner, but the stone cutter was cutting it on the right side, so naturally not even a trace of green could be seen.
Yang Hongtao scanned it carefully again and found that the color of the jadeite was not bad, but the translucency was a bit poor, only reaching the level of bean type. Fortunately, the piece of jadeite was big enough, about the size of two small bowls, and was connected in a gourd shape. If it were directly carved into a gourd-shaped ornament, it would save a lot of carving work.
In Yang Hongtao's opinion, the jade inside this rough stone is worth at least ten million.
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 71 Even Stones Go Crazy (Part 5)
Yang Hongtao inquired with the people next to him and learned that no one else had bid for this piece of rough jade; it was bought directly by that young master Zhao at the starting price of 1.68 million.
That's a huge profit!
No one else knew that there was jade in this rough stone. When they saw the stone cutter cutting it piece by piece, but no green appeared, they all sighed repeatedly. Young Master Zhao's face had turned deathly pale.
Yang Hongtao could tell from his expression that this guy was probably not very wealthy. 1.68 million was at least most of his assets. If he lost the bet, he might have no chance to recover. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so nervous!
Later, after hearing Xin Yue's explanation, Yang Hongtao learned that this young master Zhao was actually a second-generation official from Beijing. In previous years, he had made tens of millions of yuan in business by relying on his family connections, but later he became obsessed with gambling on stones.
He won big the first two times, earning over ten million, but afterwards he kept losing money, eventually squandering all his wealth.
This time, I guess he made some money from some license smuggling, and then he came here to give it to the jadeite rough stone merchant!
Finally... after cutting the stone four times on the right side without finding any green, I finally flipped the rough green stone over and started cutting from the left side again. On the second cut, I finally saw the green.
"It's green! It's green! It's a pea-green jadeite, and the green color is quite nice..." Upon seeing the green, the stone cutter immediately poured a basin of water over it, completely washing out the exposed jadeite flesh, and then reported the quality of the jadeite.
Upon seeing this, the onlookers immediately cheered excitedly, and the young master Zhao's face, which had been as pale as paper, turned bright red with excitement in an instant.
He then clenched his fists tightly and turned to look at the onlookers.
"I'll offer 1.8 million!" An old man with a red nose standing not far from Yang Hongtao raised his hand and called out the price.
Immediately, a second person next to him shouted, "I'll bid two million!"
Yang Hongtao was taken aback and quickly asked Xin Yue what was going on. "This jade piece isn't even finished being cut yet! What are these people shouting about?"
Xin Yue chuckled and said, "This is called gambling on secondhand stones. Many jewelry companies operate on a small scale and can't afford the risks of gambling on stones, so they generally don't dare to directly bid on rough stones. But their shops also need jadeite raw materials, so they set their sights on pure stone gamblers like Young Master Zhao. Stone gamblers don't keep the jadeite they gamble on; they usually cut the stone on the spot as soon as they win the bid. And during the cutting process, as long as the jadeite is exposed, it can basically be confirmed that there is indeed jadeite inside the stone."
Before the jadeite is fully extracted, the amount of jadeite inside the stone, its consistency in color, and the presence of cracks are all unknown. Therefore, bidding at this stage carries a certain risk, but it's much lower than gambling on an uncut rough stone. This type of gamble is called gambling on secondhand stones. Of course… the owner of the rough stone can choose to sell it immediately, transferring the unknown risk to someone else, or continue cutting it. However, continuing to cut it might increase the stone's value, or it might only contain a tiny bit of jadeite, in which case no one would want it for 20,000 yuan. So, whether he continues cutting it or not, he carries the risk.
Upon hearing this, Yang Hongtao realized that there was such a thing as gambling on second-hand stones. He immediately had a flash of inspiration and his mind cleared up!
"I'll offer three million!"
Just then, the voice that Yang Hongtao hated most suddenly rang out beside him. Yang Hongtao turned his head and saw that Huang Lianshu had squeezed in at some point. He was still surrounded by a large circle of bodyguards, putting on a very high-class air, but at this moment he was participating in the bidding for this second-hand rough stone.
Seeing Yang Hongtao looking at him, Huang Lianshu smiled and nodded at Yang Hongtao, then raised his head and showed a confident look.
Someone had just bid 2.45 million for this secondhand rough stone, but Huang Lianshu, being wealthy and powerful, immediately bid 3 million, clearly determined to win it.
Seeing this, Xin Yue whispered in Yang Hongtao's ear, "This Boss Huang is a newcomer to the industry, so he probably won't go directly to gamble on rough stones. No wonder I didn't see him in the exhibition hall earlier; he was waiting here to gamble on secondhand rough stones! Hmph... With his wealth, he shouldn't be here to gamble on stones in person. Even if he wanted to gamble, he should have sent his subordinates. Why would he bring so many bodyguards to gamble on stones like this? Hmph, I guess this guy is a heavy gambler!"
Yang Hongtao sneered inwardly, thinking: I'm looking for a sucker, and this guy is a gambler and a show-off, making him the perfect sucker.
Thinking of this, Yang Hongtao greeted Xin Yue and said that he was also itching to try his luck after seeing others win big in jade gambling. He planned to buy a cheap, uncut rough stone and come here to cut it up for fun.
Xin Yue was about to advise him against gambling on all raw jade, but Yang Hongtao pushed his way out of the crowd without saying a word.
Yang Hongtao quickly returned to the auction hall, went to the area where all the rough stones were piled up, and found the one he had just seen that had two thin pieces of jadeite inside.
He had only glanced at it briefly with his soul power and hadn't looked at it closely at all. Only now, after rummaging through the pile of rocks, did he realize that it was actually a piece of rough jade that had been cut once.
If a stone has been cut open and then thrown into the rough jade market, there's only one explanation: after being appraised by jadeite rough stone merchants, it's basically a piece of junk.
Otherwise, it should have been placed in the semi-gambling section for raw jade.
In fact, judging from its appearance alone, this piece of rough stone is indeed completely useless. There is not a single pine flower or green vein on the entire piece, and it is basically no different from an ordinary stone.
It's estimated that if the stone hadn't been so large, the jadeite rough stone dealer wouldn't have bothered to cut it.
This piece of raw jade is really big. After it was cut, it was still as big as a car tire and weighed about three or four hundred pounds. Yang Hongtao used all his strength but couldn't move it an inch. There was no way he could move it out by himself!
So Yang Hongtao had no choice but to call over the auction hall staff and ask them to help move it onto the bidding platform.
To everyone's surprise, the staff member waved his hand and said, "These rough stones don't need to be auctioned. Each stone costs 10,000 RMB. If you buy more than ten at once, you get a 20% discount. If you only want this one, just pay 10,000 RMB and take it away."
If there's no need for bidding on the raw jade, that's great! Yang Hongtao was actually worried that some people would join in the commotion and drive up the price of this worthless piece of jade to an astronomical level. Since there's no need for bidding, it's naturally up to whoever chooses it.
Worried that things might go wrong if he waited too long, Yang Hongtao immediately took out a wad of RMB from his bag and had the staff process the transaction. He then requested that the stone be cut on the spot.
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 72 Even Stones Go Crazy (Part 6)
"sorry……"
Upon hearing that Yang Hongtao was going to cut open this heavy and clumsy piece of broken stone on the spot, the staff member looked impatient, frowned, and said, "Our rule here is... those who buy semi-rough rough stones can enjoy completely free on-site stone cutting services. As for fully rough rough stones... a rough cutting of one piece will cost 1,000 yuan, and a detailed cutting... the price will be discussed separately."
Stone cutting is divided into coarse cutting and fine cutting. Coarse cutting means making a few cuts with a grinding wheel. If no green color appears after a few cuts, then the cutting is considered a failure.
If there is jade inside, making such rough cuts could very likely damage the jade inside.
As for detailed cleaning, it involves slowly rubbing the stone with the side of a grinding wheel. This way, if there is jade inside the stone, it can be extracted completely. However, this detailed cleaning is very time-consuming, and it often takes a whole day to completely clean a single stone.
So if you cut it in detail, the price will be much higher. However, people who buy rough stones rarely use the method of cutting in detail to polish the stone. After all, the probability of finding jadeite in rough stones is too low. Not to mention how much more labor costs there are for cutting in detail, just the effort required is enough to be exhausting.
"Alright, I'll put up another ten thousand yuan. As for how to cut this stone, that's up to me. But I guarantee I'll finish cutting it within half an hour. How about that?" Yang Hongtao didn't waste any words and immediately handed over another ten thousand yuan.
"Alright... I'll have someone move it over there for you to cut right away!" Seeing that Yang Hongtao was a straightforward person and not stingy with money, the staff's attitude immediately improved. They immediately had someone load the stone onto a handcart and push it directly to the side hall where the stone-cutting machine was located.
"Huh... someone else wants to have a stone cut on the spot!"
"Wow...that's a huge piece! If there's really jade inside, we'll be rich!"
"Tch... What big fortune? Does this look like a jadeite rough? It looks just like the rocks in the stinky ditch in front of our house when I was a kid! If this piece of junk could actually yield jadeite, I'd swallow it whole..."
As soon as Yang Hongtao's stone arrived, onlookers gathered around. However, once they saw the stone's appearance, they immediately lost interest. After a few words of discussion, they went to look at the rough stone that Young Master Zhao had bid on and continued to cut it.
Mr. Zhao's secondhand rough stone was just auctioned off to Huang Lianshu for 4.5 million yuan, and Huang Lianshu then had the stone-cutting master make a few more cuts.
The stone-cutting master was very experienced. This rough stone had already yielded jade, so he was even more careful when cutting it. Although he was still using the cutting method, he dared not cut too big with each cut. It took more than a dozen cuts to finally reveal the jadeite inside the rough stone.
With the jade's core material now largely revealed, the approximate value of this rough stone became clear. Huang Lianshu won the bid at 4.5 million, making at least 5 to 6 million in just a few minutes.
If this piece of jade is carved and sold in a shop, it will generate nearly ten million in additional profit.
Huang Lianshu couldn't help but become even more smug, feeling more and more that switching to the jewelry business was a brilliant move, as it seemed that making money from gambling on stones was much faster than from real estate!
The remaining work still requires meticulous polishing and removal of stone chips, which would probably take several more days to complete. Since these delicate tasks could not be done here, Huang Lianshu had the stone-cutting master remove the jadeite still covered in its outer layer of stone, and his men put it in a safe.
"The bets went up... and the bets here went up too!"
"Holy crap... No way! This piece of junk can actually be cut into something green... What kind of world is this?!"
Just as Huang Lianshu was putting away the piece of jade, he heard a series of sighs coming from the stone-cutting machine next to him.
He hurriedly squeezed through the crowd of bodyguards to take a look, and saw a huge piece of jadeite rough on the cutting machine. It seemed that only two cuts had been made on the rough, and a large area of green was already exposed on the cut surface. Although Huang Lianshu was not particularly knowledgeable about jadeite, he could tell that the color of this piece was much better than the one he had just bid on.
"Icy green jade... What a fine piece!" After washing the exposed jade with clean water, the stone cutter, as usual, began to describe the quality of the jade.
"I'll offer five million..."
Before the stone-cutting master could finish his sentence, the old man with the red nose immediately started calling out a price.
In recent years, the supply of raw jadeite from Myanmar has been decreasing, and icy jadeite is extremely rare. Even if this piece of raw jadeite doesn't contain much jade, it should still be worth a considerable amount of money.
Of course... little did this old man know that the jade inside the stone was only a thin layer, as thin as a cicada's wing!
"I'll offer six million!"
"I'll offer six million two hundred thousand!"
As soon as Red Nose finished bidding, others nearby joined in. It was a rare opportunity to find a piece of icy jadeite, so naturally everyone wanted to bid for it, even if it meant taking a little risk.
"Good little brother... I'm speechless! Your luck is really something..."
Xin Yue was both angry and amused when she saw Yang Hongtao ignore her advice and buy such a poor-quality rough stone. But who knew that this broken stone, after being put on the machine and cut twice, actually turned out to be green, and it was even a top-quality icy green!
"If you ask me, little brother, you don't need to wait for others to bid. On behalf of Bai Rui, I'll offer ten million. Just sell it to me directly. How about that... I'm taking good care of you, aren't I? This price definitely won't leave you at a loss..."
Xin Yue's actions were actually somewhat considerate of Yang Hongtao, since only one side of the material was cut to reveal the green color, and no one could say for sure how much jade was actually inside.
Even if the soil is of the best quality and the plant is green on only one side, someone might ask for seven or eight million, which would be the absolute maximum.
Xin Yue's direct offer of ten million yuan was clearly an attempt to repay Yang Hongtao for saving her life on the plane.
"No...no...please don't take such good care of me...it makes me feel like I'm living off a woman!"
This piece of raw jade looks good now, but no one knows its true nature better than Yang Hongtao.
Even if he couldn't swindle Huang Lianshu, he could easily swindle another jewelry company boss without any guilt. But if Xin Yue really spent ten million to buy such a worthless stone, Yang Hongtao would feel a little guilty. Even if he didn't care what Xin Yue thought, he still had to consider the face of Old Master Zheng Minghui, right?
However, Yang Hongtao couldn't openly say that the jade was bad and not worth ten million, so he pretended to be very humiliated and said with a stern face, "Although I, Zhou Ziwei, am very poor, I don't need Miss Xin to take such good care of me. I can sell this jade to anyone today, but I just won't sell it to your Bairui!"
Xin Yue never expected that her casual remark would make Yang Hongtao so angry. She quickly said awkwardly, "Don't be angry... I didn't really do anything special for you... It's just... I feel that this piece of rough jade is indeed worth this much money..."
"Alright, stop talking. I definitely won't sell this rough stone to you, not even for a hundred million!" Yang Hongtao continued with a stern face. "Besides, I don't plan to auction it off right away. In my opinion... the jade inside this rough stone must be quite large. Maybe I'll really lose a lot if you offer ten million! Master, please use a grinding wheel to rub along the edge where the green is coming out, and I think there should be green coming out from the back..."
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 73 Even Stones Go Crazy (Part 7)
The stone-cutting master accepted Yang Hongtao's fee for cutting the stone, so he naturally did whatever Yang Hongtao said. He immediately turned on the grinding wheel and carefully rubbed the edge where the green jade was coming out, extending it to both sides, as Yang Hongtao requested.