Zhuang Rui handed over the grinder; something this small could be handled with a grinder.
"How...how do I cut this? Si'er, you go first."
Zhao Guodong took the polishing machine, somewhat at a loss, and then casually handed it to his apprentice.
"Okay, I'll cut first."
Zhao Guodong's apprentice, Si'er, was not intimidated. He first plugged the grinder into the power outlet in the garage. However, he didn't know what to do with the rough stone. After thinking for a while, he simply squatted down, stepped on the rough stone, turned on the grinder, and prepared to cut it on the stone.
"Hey, no, no, that'll hurt your foot."
Zhuang Rui quickly stepped forward to stop Si'er's actions. If he cut like that, he could easily cut his own foot if he even slightly shook his hand. This grinder can even cut through metal. How could he possibly be safe if he hit his foot?
"Si'er, you can cut it now."
Zhuang Rui took the rough stone from under Si'er's leather shoes, opened the reinforcing device next to the stone cutting machine belt, placed the stone in the middle, and turned the switch to clamp the rough stone tightly in the middle before calling Si'er over to cut the stone.
"Hurry up, kid, I'm waiting to cut it."
Si'er looked a little nervous, and his hands were trembling slightly. After starting the grinder, it took a long time to land on the stone. Zhao Guodong, who was standing next to him, became a little impatient and urged him to hurry up.
"Master, I don't know where to put this. What if I cut the jade inside in half?"
Si'er is now like a dog trying to bite a hedgehog, not knowing where to start.
Zhuang Rui encouraged him from the side, "Cut it however you like, it's okay. Just pay attention while you're cutting, and if you see any green, stop immediately."
After a quick glance, Zhuang Rui realized that the kid was lucky; the stone he picked at random was actually the hibiscus jadeite. However, the jadeite was too small, and Zhuang Rui didn't think much of it. Nevertheless, he still reminded Si'er.
Encouraged by Zhuang Rui, Si'er brought the grinder that had been idling for half a day closer to the stone. With a "click-clack" sound, a layer of grayish-green powder floated down to the ground.
Although the rough stones from Ma Meng Factory appear to be entirely black, the outer layer of these black jadeite rough stones is composed of chlorite clay minerals. Therefore, when they are crushed into powder, their color turns grayish-green.
The raw material wasn't large, and a small piece was cut off by Si'er a few minutes later. Nothing was revealed, but a dark green color appeared on the cut surface. Zhuang Rui saw this and knew it was a sign that green was about to appear.
Si'er relaxed at this point. Cutting stone was just a matter of course. After reinforcing the stone that had become a little smaller, he took the grinder and cut towards the middle. Zhao Guodong stared wide-eyed at the place where stone chips were flying.
"Stop, stop! Hey kid, stop right now! Can't you see the color?"
Just as Si'er was thoroughly enjoying himself, he was suddenly startled by his master's shout. He quickly lifted the grinder, and the spinning gears almost hit his face.
Zhuang Rui pulled over the soft hose for washing cars, rinsed the rough stone, and cleaned away the stone chips and dust, revealing a vibrant green color to the group.
Zhao Guodong's reminder was timely. The polishing machine did not damage the jade. Although the exposed part was only about the size of a little fingernail, the green color was very pure, and it was even three times deeper than the green of the trees in the garden.
Although the quality of the jadeite is only considered mid-range, Chinese people love green jadeite. Even a small piece of jadeite like this, if polished by a skilled craftsman and set into a ring, can sell for seventy or eighty thousand yuan.
"Master, is there really... really jade?"
Si'er's face lit up with surprise. Although the thing wasn't his, he was already very satisfied to be able to extract the jade from the stone egg with his own hands.
"Nonsense, of course there's jade. Be careful, polish away all those stones around you and take out the jade."
Zhao Guodong completely forgot about his earlier behavior and began to act as a teacher.
"Why……"
Si'er agreed and began polishing the rough stone next to the jadeite. Because she was afraid of damaging the jadeite inside, she moved much slower than before. It took almost an hour to take the jadeite out.
"It's so beautiful!"
Si'er held the thumb-sized piece of jade, with some wispy green mist on its surface, in her palm and examined it carefully in the sunlight, unable to help but sigh with admiration.
"Brother Zhuang, here you go..."
After playing with it in her hands for a while, Si'er reluctantly handed the jade to Zhuang Rui. Although it was a good piece of jade, it wasn't for her.
"Hehe, you can keep it, Si'er. Go to a reputable jewelry store later and have their craftsmen make some jewelry for you. Then give them this jade to them to process and set. You can keep it for yourself to play with..."
Zhuang Rui didn't accept it. Although the jade was worth tens of thousands of yuan, it was no longer of any interest to him. His brother-in-law's apprentice was a pretty good person. He had resigned from his original job with Zhao Guodong. He was the one who went to Nanjing with him last time. He was practically his employee. Zhuang Rui just considered it a perk for him.
"Hey, thanks, Brother Zhuang."
Si'er happily agreed. Jade is something that not only women like, but men can't resist its allure either.
"Xiao Rui, how much is this jade worth?"
Zhao Guodong, who was standing to the side, asked, "I know what Zhuang Rui means, but if you give something away, you should make sure your subordinates remember your kindness. If you just give it away without knowing why, others may not value it. Besides, Zhao Guodong himself was also quite curious about the value of this thing."
"Hehe, it's worth about fifty or sixty thousand. If the setting is good, the price of the whole ring will probably be even higher."
Zhuang Rui casually replied that polishing the ring face is very simple and does not require any special skills, but the quality of the setting is quite important. For example, pavé setting is a common technique for setting diamonds. There are also other techniques such as bezel setting and bezel setting, which have many intricacies and require a high level of craftsmanship.
"Fifty or sixty thousand? Brother Zhuang, I can't accept this. It's too valuable."
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Si'er quickly stuffed the jade in his hand into Zhuang Rui's hands. To be honest, the most expensive jade jewelry he usually saw was only a few hundred or a thousand yuan. He originally thought this thing was only worth a few hundred yuan, but he didn't expect it to be so expensive.
Zhuang Rui pushed Si'er's hand back and said, "You're lucky to have untied it yourself, so keep it for yourself. Otherwise, give it to my brother-in-law. I don't want it anyway."
"Master, look at this..."
Si'er looked at Zhao Guodong with some difficulty. Like master, like apprentice. He was not the kind of person who would take advantage of others. Moreover, after leaving his original unit and working for Zhao Guodong, his monthly salary was four or five thousand, which was several times that of his original unit. In addition, he also had some shares in the repair shop. He calculated that he could get more than 100,000 yuan in dividends at the end of the year. Si'er was already very satisfied.
"Put it away. Just do a good job from now on. Oh, and I'll give Jianmin another reward later. Don't be jealous, kid."
Zhao Guodong understood Zhuang Rui's meaning, waved his hand to let Si'er leave the jade. Nowadays, there are more and more private cars, and the competition in the car repair industry has become more intense. It's not good to not have a few trusted people on your side. The two apprentices that Zhao Guodong brought from his workplace are quite skilled. Not long ago, someone even tried to poach them with a high salary.
Jianmin, whom Zhao Guodong mentioned, is another apprentice he has taken on. Since Si'er has taken the jade, he will definitely give that apprentice something else in return. He has to treat everyone fairly.
"Hehe, how could that be..."
Si'er happily examined the jade in her hand for a long time before carefully putting it back into her pocket.
"Look at your master..."
With his apprentice having already unearthed the jade, Zhao Guodong was naturally full of confidence. Following Zhuang Rui's instructions, he secured the rough stone and then got to work with the polishing machine, working away with great effort.
Chapter 254 Intoxicating Colors
"Xiao Rui, why is there nothing in this area?"
After working for more than half an hour, the fist-sized piece of rough stone had almost completely turned into powder, and there was still no jadeite that Zhao Guodong had been hoping for. He couldn't help but frown and asked Zhuang Rui for help.
Zhuang Rui laughed at his brother-in-law's words and said, "Brother-in-law, if every piece of rough stone contains jade, would it still be called gambling on stones? Look, there are two more pieces of rough stone over there. Let me cut them open for you."
Zhao Guodong was somewhat unconvinced. If his apprentice could cut out jadeite, surely he, as the master, couldn't be worse than his apprentice? Without refusing, he stepped forward and cut open the remaining two rough stones one by one, only to find that his luck really wasn't very good. Apart from some pebbles on the ground, he didn't see anything else.
"Xiao Rui, are you going to solve that thing you're holding...?"
Although he had been busy for half a day and hadn't gotten anything, Zhao Guodong had managed to satisfy his craving and his eyes were now fixed on the piece of raw jade in Zhuang Rui's hand.
"Brother-in-law, let me have my fun too. I'll unravel this piece myself."
Zhuang Rui put on a pitiful look. He dared not let Zhao Guodong cut this rough stone. It contained imperial green jadeite of the glass type. If even a little bit of the jade inside was damaged, its value could drop by millions.
"I was thinking of cutting out a piece of jade to make a piece of jewelry for your sister."
Zhao Guodong was very dissatisfied with his luck and kicked the scattered stones on the ground.
Zhuang Rui's heart stirred upon hearing this. He had been thinking about how to maximize the profits from the jadeite, but since he started gambling on jadeite, he had earned over 100 million RMB and had unearthed quite a few top-quality jadeite pieces. Why hadn't he thought of keeping some to give to his family?
With that thought in mind, Zhuang Rui made up his mind. He wouldn't sell the imperial green jade after it was cut open. Instead, he would make pendants for his mother and older sister. Zhuang Rui knew that the pendants wouldn't be as expensive as the cabochons, but he wasn't short of money. As long as his family liked it, that was more important than anything else.
"Let's see how your luck is. That kid Da Chuan has told me several times that your hand is almost like a golden hand, it never misses."
Seeing Zhuang Rui carrying the rough stone towards the stone cutting machine, Zhao Guodong had an expectant look on his face.
"Hey, everyone come and eat, don't you even know what time it is..."
Just as Zhuang Rui was about to cut the stone, Zhuang Min's voice suddenly came through. Zhuang Rui checked his phone and, sure enough, he had only cut a few rough stones, and it was almost noon.
"Let's go, brother-in-law, we'll unravel it after we finish eating."
After Zhuang Rui put the raw materials into the garage, he used the remote control to lower the garage door before turning around and walking into the house.
After serving Bai Shi half a plate of meat porridge, Zhuang Rui sat down at the table. Lunch was very plentiful; Zhuang Min had gone out to buy groceries that morning, along with more than a dozen large, bright red hairy crabs.
"Brother Zhuang, your villa is really impressive..."
Si'er was stunned when she entered the villa for the first time.
"You should eat your food properly. When you get married, go to the countryside, buy a piece of land, and build your own house. I guarantee it will be even more impressive than this villa."
Zhao Guodong smiled and picked up a hairy crab for his apprentice. They had been together for four or five years and were as close as brothers.
"This place is nice. It's just that buying groceries is too inconvenient; it takes half an hour to drive there and back."
Zhuang Min bought the groceries on her way back from dropping her daughter off at kindergarten in the morning. She felt that everything about the resort was great, except that she had to go a long way to buy things like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.
Hearing this, Zhuang Rui's heart stirred, and he said to Zhuang Min, "Sister, why don't you go buy a car? Otherwise, it's too inconvenient to come here. Brother-in-law needs to go to the repair shop often, and he can't always pick you up and drop you off."
Zhuang Rui knew that his older sister had gotten her driver's license in the past few months and occasionally drove her brother-in-law's car.
"That would cost over ten thousand yuan, so let's forget about it. Guodong's repair shop has just expanded its business, let's wait until next year."
Zhuang Min was also somewhat tempted upon hearing this, but after considering the price of a car, her enthusiasm waned.
"Why wait until next year? This afternoon, you can pick up your daughter and go to the car market with Mom to look at cars. If you like one, just buy it. It will be more convenient for you to bring Mom here when you have a car."
As Zhuang Rui spoke, he stood up and rummaged around for a while before finally finding the bank card with the more than 400,000 yuan compensation from the insurance company. The compensation was much less than the price he paid for the car, supposedly due to depreciation and wear and tear. Zhuang Rui was too lazy to argue about it at the time, so he took the card and left.
"Mom, look..."
Zhuang Min was unsure whether to accept the money. Although her younger brother was wealthy, she was already married, and it wouldn't be appropriate for her to take it.
"Take it. It's really inconvenient without cars coming and going. Let's go take a look this afternoon..."
Mrs. Zhuang was a very generous person. When the two siblings were young, she never made them suffer. She never mentioned saving money for future use. She spent almost all of her salary. When she heard that Zhuang Rui had earned more than 100 million yuan recently, Mrs. Zhuang just nodded and did not show any surprise.
After hearing what her mother said, Zhuang Min finally took the bank card. However, she found the meal rather unappetizing, her mind preoccupied with what car to buy that afternoon.
After lunch, Zhuang Rui first used his spiritual energy to help the white lion recover before going to the garage to prepare to cut open the rough stone containing imperial green jade.
"Xiao Rui, give me your car. Guo Dong needs to go back to the repair shop this afternoon."
As soon as Zhuang Rui opened the garage door, Zhuang Min and her daughter came over.
“This car… is not the original one. The original car was borrowed by a classmate in Shaanxi, and it got into an accident, so he gave me a replacement.”
Zhuang Rui really didn't know how to explain it; even he himself didn't believe the words he uttered.
"Xiao Rui, be careful when you drive. Whether you hit someone or get hit, both of you will be injured."
Fortunately, neither Zhuang Min nor her daughter were the type to pry into things. After giving Zhuang Rui a brief instruction, Zhuang's mother didn't press the matter further.