"Buddy, it's your turn now..."
Wayne shrugged, gave his seat to Zhuang Rui, picked up the second plate, and turned it upside down on the table.
"Haha, Wayne, it seems my luck is better than yours..."
After pretending to fiddle with the minerals for a while, Zhuang Rui accurately picked up a diamond and laughed loudly.
Zhuang Rui spotted the diamond as soon as he entered the room. It was of good purity and quite large. Just as Zhuang Rui was inwardly cursing Wayne for his incredible luck, Wayne unexpectedly let him choose one. Naturally, Zhuang Rui didn't stand on ceremony.
"This...how is this possible?"
Having spent half his life working with diamonds, Wayne immediately recognized that the diamond in Zhuang Rui's clasp was at least six carats, and after processing and faceting, it was estimated to be around five carats, which could be considered a large diamond.
Even as a rough diamond, such a price is considerable, estimated to be between $30,000 and $80,000. Wayne couldn't help but feel a pang of regret at giving it away with just a few words.
"Don't rush, Wayne, there's still plenty left on this plate..."
Seeing Wayne's ugly expression, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but feel secretly pleased. There were indeed quite a few diamonds in this second tray. Zhuang Rui quickly picked them out with his right hand. There were nine in total, and including the first one, the total weight should exceed 15 carats.
Seeing that Zhuang Rui had picked out so many diamonds besides the large one, Wayne's expression softened. Fearing that Zhuang Rui hadn't been careful enough, he went up and checked them again, but couldn't find a single one more.
“Zhuang, you should come and work for me. I’ll pay you the highest salary in all of South Africa…”
Wayne chuckled and joked with Zhuang Rui, then picked up the large-carat diamond and walked toward the analyzer.
He didn't have any doubts, because mastering the methods of selecting diamonds is a fundamental quality that any diamond merchant must possess.
“Oh, buddy, you’re really lucky. It has an F color luster and VVS2 clarity. You can give this diamond to your wife; it represents good luck… But… Zhuang, you should work for me for an hour and pick out the rest of the diamonds for me…”
After Wayne finished examining the diamond, he tossed it to Zhuang Rui. Although the diamond was quite valuable, it wasn't valuable enough to make Wayne back out.
"Alright, as you wish..."
This job posed no challenge for Zhuang Rui. He only needed to use his spiritual energy to glance at the ore and determine whether there were diamonds inside and where they were located.
In just over half an hour, Zhuang Rui had picked out all the remaining diamonds, and there were quite a few, a total of sixty or seventy.
"Hey buddy, you're not a diamond hand, are you? Stay and work for me..."
After weighing the diamonds on the scales, Wayne shouted that he had already collected over a hundred carats of diamonds in just one morning's work, which was the result of several days' work normally.
Wayne actually had a slight thought of keeping Zhuang Rui around.
Those who have had contact with South African diamond mine owners may know that although these guys don't understand what feudalism is, they are extremely superstitious. They believe that the person who selects diamonds must have exceptionally good luck.
Therefore, in South African diamond mines, the highest earners are not the miners, but the staff responsible for sorting diamonds.
However, Wayne also knew that if he wanted to keep Zhuang Rui, he would probably have to give him the diamond mine instead.
Chapter 818 Crisis (Part 1)
“Mr. Wayne, let’s forget about it. I don’t want to stay in this godforsaken place, South Africa…”
Zhuang Rui shook his head. The security here was just too bad. Even if there were mountains of gold and silver, Zhuang Rui would not want to stay and live here. Moreover, Africa is a high-incidence area for AIDS. Who knows, he might get infected if he was grabbed by a black man one day.
"Alright, we can head to the exchange now, it's almost time..."
Wayne shrugged. He knew Zhuang Rui would never work for him. Even if he had hundreds of millions of dollars, he would never work for someone else.
Wayne still felt regretful, after all, an excellent diamond appraiser is an extremely valuable resource, a talent that all diamond mine owners in South Africa dream of.
Zhuang Rui glanced at his watch; it was already noon. He would arrive at the exchange just in time for the bidding to begin.
"Ladies and gentlemen, how are your profits?"
Zhuang Rui and Wayne walked out of the room, while Peng Fei and the others also completed their diamond-hunting trip. They were all covered in dirt, like cats, but their faces were full of joy.
Tianya excitedly presented the diamond in her palm to Zhuang Rui, saying, "Mr. Zhuang, Liuli and I found a total of three diamonds..."
"Hey girls, you're in luck! This yellow diamond is of very high quality..."
Wayne snatched the diamond, which appeared slightly yellow in the sunlight, examined it, and then returned it to Tianya.
Should we hire a few Chinese workers ourselves?
Wayne started to get superstitious. Zhuang Rui immediately picked out a diamond worth tens of thousands of dollars, and this girl was able to find a relatively rare colored diamond. Are all Chinese people so lucky?
"Hmm, not bad. The value of this yellow diamond is equal to the sum of the other two diamonds. You can consider having one person take the yellow diamond and the other person take both diamonds..."
Zhuang Rui's attention was also focused on the yellow diamond, but his observation was much more professional than Wayne's. The purity of the yellow diamond was not actually very high, but without the use of instruments, it was still difficult to distinguish the flaws inside.
"Brother Zhuang, look at mine, it's much bigger than what they dug up. Look, it's even a black diamond..."
Peng Fei, as if presenting a treasure, pinched a piece of ore between two fingers and waved it in front of Zhuang Rui.
"Black diamond?"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this. After seeing the thumb-sized ore, his expression turned somewhat strange: "It is quite large, but..."
"But what? Look at the luster on the outside, it's definitely a diamond..."
Seeing Zhuang Rui's expression, Peng Fei sensed something was wrong and immediately shoved the ore into Zhuang Rui's hand.
"Hmm, not bad..."
Zhuang Rui muttered something under his breath, and Peng Fei was overjoyed.
"It's a decent piece of cloud fluorite, worth a few dollars, haha..."
After Zhuang Rui finished speaking, he couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. He tossed the stone to Peng Fei and burst into laughter. Even Wayne couldn't help but chuckle and laughed along with Zhuang Rui.
"So what if you misjudged it? It's not a big deal. You didn't find any diamonds yourself either."
Peng Fei was somewhat unconvinced. He had kept the broken ore as a treasure for half a day, only to find it worthless when Zhuang Rui took a look. It seemed he had wasted half a day.
"I?"
Zhuang Rui smiled, took out the rough stone and tossed it, saying, "Don't compare yourself to me. Look at mine, it's worth at least thirty thousand US dollars..."
"No, I'll dig a few more times with the hoe..."
Peng Fei was somewhat unwilling.
"Alright, get in the car and let's go. I'll go home after I finish my business this afternoon. You can keep this one for now..."
Zhuang Rui grabbed Peng Fei and tossed him the diamond.
A six- or seven-carat diamond is considered very precious by most people, but Zhuang Rui didn't think much of it. "If I want to acquire diamonds, they should at least be like the 'Star of Africa'."
It takes about two hours to drive from Wayne's mines to the diamond exchange.
After arriving at the exchange, Wayne took Zhuang Rui to a small restaurant behind the exchange, where they ate something simple. The taste... well, it wasn't very good. Even Peng Fei, who wasn't a picky eater, frowned as he ate.
If they hadn't known Wayne's identity, Liuli and the others would never have guessed that this unkempt, uncaring person was actually a billionaire.
Sitting in a bulletproof Mercedes, Muta looked at Zhuang Rui chatting and laughing with Wayne, and a dark look appeared on his face. He then slapped the attendant sitting in the front seat across the face.
In fact, if Muta hadn't seen Zhuang Rui now, he would have almost forgotten about Zhuang Rui. However, Zhuang Rui's appearance reminded him of the throat-slitting gesture from yesterday, which made Muta very unhappy.
"General, that Chinese man is too heavily guarded. He's even brought in armored vehicles from Wayne's company. If we insist on killing him, it will cause a war..."
The servant felt a bit aggrieved. He was assigned by Muta's father to protect Muta, but all he did was fight over Muta's affections and assassinate people Muta disliked. He never did anything worthwhile.
"Have you found out their background?"
Muta narrowed his eyes. He hadn't expected Zhuang Rui to be able to mobilize Wayne's armored vehicles. This was a bit of a problem.
Unless absolutely necessary, Muta was unwilling to provoke Wayne. Although he disliked the American, Muta had to admit that if he killed Wayne, all the diamond mine owners in South Africa would consider him unwelcome.
The attendant respectfully replied, "General, they are from Hong Kong, using a Hong Kong diamond license, and they even arrived in a private jet. I heard their business is quite large..."
The general's method yesterday worked perfectly. I only gave William a slight hint about his Venezuelan beauty, and William obediently took out Zhuang Rui's information.
"Hong Kong? Oh, that's British territory..."
Muta stroked his chin and laughed, but his black attendant next to him was unimpressed. This spoiled brat was truly ignorant and incompetent; Hong Kong had already returned to China seven or eight years ago.
“I think Father would be very happy if something happened to them, wouldn’t he? South Africa was once a British colony…”
Muta's muddled brain could actually remember that.
"General, are you sure you want to? But..."
The attendant was taken aback. To break through the armored vehicle's defenses, at least two rocket launchers would be needed, and he couldn't get those things in a short time.
“No buts. Didn’t I ask you to buy some C4s a while ago? I was originally planning to give them to those old guys in mainland China who don’t get along with Father. Now let this Hong Kong guy enjoy them. Go now…”
Muta cackled, a laugh that sent chills down one's spine. Little did Muta know that his decision was giving him a taste of the ancient Chinese punishment of slow slicing.
Zhuang Rui did not see Muta. After entering the exchange, he was led into a room where a computer had a countdown timer that kept ticking until the afternoon.
"Mr. Zhuang, when the clock strikes... all the bidding information will be displayed here. You can then proceed with your transaction based on your winning bid. If you back out after winning the bid, your diamond trading license will be revoked..."
The person serving Zhuang Rui this time wasn't William from yesterday, but another white employee, Bernard. This guy was also a little puzzled. He didn't understand why William was giving him the clients he was following up with. You know, if a client makes a lot of money, the commission can be quite substantial.
Bernard was unaware that William was afraid of that madman Muta, and that he was also afraid that if Zhuang Rui were killed by Muta, the people behind Zhuang Rui would find out that he had leaked client information.
"Three minutes left..."
Zhuang Rui was also a little nervous. He had already decided that as soon as he won the bid for those 20,000-plus diamonds, he would leave South Africa immediately. As for the higher-grade diamonds, he could buy them from middlemen later, at most for a slightly higher price.
As the stopwatch on the computer screen reached zero, a series of tables rapidly refreshed on the screen.
"It's a hit! This one's a hit too! Okay, mission accomplished..."
Zhuang Rui scrolled down the electronic bid document with his mouse and found his bid number after several bid numbers. This relieved Zhuang Rui. Although the winning bid was much higher than expected, he had completed the task assigned by his father-in-law.
"Mr. Zhuang, please confirm your winning bid number and amount. If there are no problems, I will go and pick up the diamond you won, and then transfer the money..."
After working on the computer for a while, Bernard turned the monitor towards Zhuang Rui, showing him the diamond number and total amount that Zhuang Rui had won the bid for.
"Okay, please make the arrangements as soon as possible. I'm leaving South Africa today..."
Zhuang Rui nodded. The total was 198 million US dollars, which was a little less than he had expected. After converting all the euros in his hand into US dollars, he would still have tens of millions left.
The reason for this situation is that Zhuang Rui failed to capture the pink diamond in his photograph.
"Okay, Mr. Zhuang, please wait a moment..."
Bernard was overjoyed when he saw that Zhuang Rui had made the decision. He immediately went out to make arrangements. The diamond was worth nearly $200 million, so he had to be very careful. Even the slightest mistake would have consequences that he could not bear.
About an hour later, Bernard returned to the room, carrying an alloy case in his hand, followed by two burly security guards.
"Mr. Zhuang, this specially made combination lock box is a gift from us free of charge. It uses a fingerprint lock, and the original combination has been unlocked. After you inspect the goods, you can reset the combination..."