Apart from the owner of the raw stone and the parties involved in its cutting, everyone else was kept outside the cordon and not allowed to approach.
At this moment, jade merchants from almost every country have gathered in the stone-cutting area. The queue of thousands of people even stretches out onto the square. Many people are braving the pain of mosquitoes and insect bites, all wanting to witness the "Jade Kings" of two eras!
The competition.
"Make way, let me in..."
When Qin Haoran's voice reached Zhuang Rui's ears, he quickly greeted the guards and let Qin Haoran in. However, of the appraisers Qin Haoran brought, only two were allowed in.
"Xiao Rui, both of them are skilled at cutting stones. If you get tired later, let them take over..."
After Qin Haoran entered, he introduced the people behind him to Zhuang Rui. Zhuang Rui nodded dismissively. What a joke! This rare jade that will shock the entire world must be unearthed by his own hands.
After greeting Zhuang Rui, Qin Haoran walked over to the "rock" and stared wide-eyed, asking incredulously, "This...this is the material you bought?"
"That's right, Uncle, this is the material Zhuang Rui picked out. Hehe, that kid even said he had a surprise for me..."
Hu Rong, standing to the side, said with a hint of schadenfreude, "They're all relatives. If Zhuang Rui fails, Hu Rong will return his share of the money to Zhuang Rui. However, the money the organizing committee took will truly be wasted."
"Zhuang Rui, you...you...this is too outrageous!"
As the head of Qin's Jewelry, Qin Haoran may not be an expert in gambling on stones, but he has a good eye and can at least distinguish between rough stones and roadbed stones.
This piece of material has been stepped on and run over by cars for decades, and one side is already very smooth. It doesn't look like a rough stone with jade inside at all.
At this moment, Zhuang Rui's mature and steady image was greatly diminished in Qin Haoran's mind, and he immediately became a target of criticism.
Not only did Qin Haoran not think highly of this material, but now anyone who glanced at the stone also thought it was good. Moreover, the news spread like wildfire, and in no time, thousands of people in the venue knew that Zhuang Rui had chosen a roadbed stone.
"Old Guo, you've really struck it rich this time. I bet you'll lose at least forty or fifty million..."
The happiest person at this moment would have to be Boss Jin from the gambling duo. Because of their gambling operation, they were honored to be led to the edge of the cordon. However, the two men standing there had very different expressions on their faces.
By noon, Lao Guo had received nearly 40 million yuan in bets, while his net worth was only 50 to 60 million yuan, including fixed assets. Throughout the day, Lao Guo's mind was far from at ease.
If there was still hope of winning at the beginning, after seeing the rough stones that Zhuang Rui had "carefully selected," Lao Guo was almost in despair.
"Old Tang is here, everyone make way, Old Tang is coming..."
Not to mention that Lao Guo was wishing he could find a rope to hang himself up, the crowd was in an uproar as Tang Lao followed a bulldozer into the stone-cutting area.
Chapter 974 The Jade King (6)
"Old Tang is here, everyone please make way..."
"Mr. Tang, you absolutely must win..."
"The piece of material that Teacher Zhuang chose, sigh, this matter..."
"Hey, I'm sure Old Tang will win. Look at this material, the blemishes are so obvious..."
As Mr. Tang walked through the crowd, various sounds arose. If this surging scene were filmed and posted online, it might very well be mistaken for a concert by some superstar.
Upon seeing Elder Tang follow the bulldozer into the stone-cutting area, Zhuang Rui hurriedly went to greet him. Although there was an element of competition involved in this stone-cutting competition, the relationship between Zhuang Rui and Elder Tang remained harmonious, and there was no estrangement caused by it.
"Mr. Tang, the piece of jade you chose is quite large..."
For Zhuang Rui, Old Tang was an elder whom he respected and who was worthy of learning from. In Old Tang's eyes, Zhuang Rui was a promising junior. With their open minds and insight, they would naturally not be affected by the words of others.
The piece of material on the forklift was oval-shaped. On the side of the raw stone facing upwards, there was a small window. With the help of the setting sun that had not yet completely set, Zhuang Rui could barely see the color of the window. It was not green, but a somewhat eerie purple.
The entire piece is about 30 centimeters thick, nearly 80 centimeters long, and weighs no less than 200 kilograms, which is considered a large piece among jadeite rough stones.
It's important to know that due to various reasons such as crustal movement, the materials that are more likely to yield top-quality jadeite are generally very small in size. For example, the imperial green jadeite that Zhuang Rui previously extracted was only the size of an egg yolk, which was already extremely precious.
The "rock" material that Zhuang Rui encountered this time may be unique, but it is certainly unprecedented and probably the only one of its kind on this earth.
Zhuang Rui did not use his spiritual energy to examine the materials that Elder Tang had chosen. Since it was a competition, he would let the answer be revealed at the last moment. Zhuang Rui did not want everything to be without suspense, as that would be too boring.
Miracles do happen, and perhaps this piece of material from Master Tang will have an amazing performance?
In any case, among the thousands of people present, anyone who has compared the materials chosen by Zhuang Rui and Elder Tang would definitely support Elder Tang. Even Qin Haoran, who has always had great confidence in Zhuang Rui, is shaking his head at this moment.
"Xiao Zhuang, which piece of material did you choose? Let this old man take a look first..."
Old Tang knew too many people, so after greeting everyone around him, he returned to his own raw stone.
However, Tang Lao was only halfway through his sentence when he saw Zhuang Rui's "rock" material. Even though he was used to all sorts of things in the jade gambling circle, he was still surprised and his eyes widened.
"Little...Little Zhuang, this...this piece of material is the one you chose?"
Old Tang looked at Zhuang Rui in disbelief. He still remembered this piece of material; he had chatted with Zhuang Rui a few times back then.
The old man never expected that Zhuang Rui, who had previously belittled this piece of material, would now choose it to compete with him.
At this moment, Old Master Tang felt that those who questioned Zhuang Rui's appreciation of stones might not have been entirely unfounded.
"Mr. Tang, this piece of jade was offered at such a high price, so it must have some merit. After you left, I took another look at it and feel there should be some good quality inside. Would you like to take a closer look?"
The old man's reaction was exactly what Zhuang Rui had expected. After all, he had criticized the stone so harshly back then. Of course, even now, Zhuang Rui couldn't see any aspect of the material that resembled a jadeite rough.
So in the end, Zhuang Rui asked Old Tang to appraise the stone, hoping to see if Old Tang could find any clues.
"Oh? Then I'll have to take a look..."
Tang Lao's favorite thing in his life was appraising jadeite rough stones. Over the decades, he has seen countless strange and unusual rough stones. Now, after hearing Zhuang Rui's words, his curiosity was immediately piqued.
In Tang Lao's opinion, if Zhuang Rui wasn't just seeking fame and fortune, then he must have discovered something valuable about this material. In other words, this was a test for him. There was no reason why Zhuang Rui could see it while he couldn't.
By this time, it was getting dark, but the organizing committee of the Myanmar jade auction had specially prepared more than ten high-wattage lights for this stone-cutting event, illuminating the entire stone-cutting area as if it were daytime. No matter which angle you looked at the rough stones from, there would be no shadows.
For the organizing committee, the discovery of a top-quality jadeite on-site would greatly boost the transaction volume of this public auction.
Therefore, they spared no effort in taking care of this competition. Not only did they provide lighting equipment, but they even prepared pocket-sized wireless microphones to clip onto Zhuang Rui and Tang Lao's collars so that people in the venue could hear their conversation.
"This stone...was it really used as a roadbed stone?"
Old Tang held a magnifying glass and looked at the pitted and uneven surface. It looked like it had been caused by a mining vehicle. Moreover, the dented areas looked like limestone, without any characteristics of raw jadeite.
The more Mr. Tang looked at it, the more puzzled he became. After examining it from all angles for a long time, he still couldn't find any reason why this piece of material could be worth more than 10 million euros. After having the bulldozer driver turn the stone over on the ground, Mr. Tang examined it more carefully.
However, the formation of this "rock" is too peculiar. It was encased in magma at the beginning of the formation of jade, which is somewhat similar to amber. However, the outer rock is not transparent, so it is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
Old Tang observed it for nearly twenty minutes but couldn't discern anything. He shook his head and said, "Young Zhuang, this piece of material... I don't understand it..."
"What? Old Tang can't figure it out? Could it be a good piece of material?"
"Not necessarily, it might just be a rock. Of course, Old Tang wouldn't be able to tell..."
"Quiet down, let's hear what Old Tang has to say next..."
After Mr. Tang commented on the stone, it immediately caused a stir in the room. Mr. Tang's words were ambiguous, leaving everyone somewhat confused.
"This...it looks like a piece of limestone to me..."
Although Old Tang liked to mentor younger generations, he was a straightforward person. In front of thousands of people, he did not say anything against his conscience, but expressed his true feelings.
Tang Lao's evaluation immediately caused a stir among the audience. Those who had not seen the stone that Zhuang Rui had chosen began to question Zhuang Rui's skill.
"Did you hear that? That's just a stepping stone..."
"Really, it seems Teacher Zhuang misjudged this time..."
"That's not necessarily true. Didn't you know that Sun Wukong also sprang from a crack in a rock? No one dares to say what's inside until the rock is cracked open!"
Amidst the lively discussions among the crowd, one voice stood out loudly, seemingly cheering on Zhuang Rui. However, his words were quite amusing, eliciting laughter from those around him.
However, although this guy strongly supported Zhuang Rui, his expression was very unpleasant, because he was also in the jade gambling circle and had some knowledge of the quality of rough jade. In his eyes, Zhuang Rui's piece of jade was really not very good.
As the saying goes, a good man doesn't gamble. Right now, Lao Guo is thinking to himself whether he should dump the mistress he's keeping in Xiamen, sell the villa, and raise the money to pay off his gambling debts.
Upon seeing the man, Peng Fei suppressed a laugh and whispered in Zhuang Rui's ear, "Brother Zhuang, that guy runs a gambling den and bets on you winning..."
Peng Fei knew nothing about jade gambling, but he firmly believed that Zhuang Rui would win!
Peng Fei's belief is different from the Chinese football team's boastful attitude after beating a weak opponent. Peng Fei's belief is based on his experience after following Zhuang Rui for several years. Whether it's antiques or jade, he has never seen Zhuang Rui make a mistake or suffer a loss.
Zhuang Rui glanced at the worried-looking Lao Guo and asked, "How much money did he collect from the bets?"
"I heard it's around forty or fifty million, Brother Zhuang. These people don't really think highly of you..."
Peng Fei laughed heartlessly. He knew that even if Zhuang Rui lost, he wouldn't care about such a small amount of money. The fortune he had gained at sea not long ago was an astronomical figure.
"Brother Xinzhuang...may attain eternal life!"
Zhuang Rui smiled and joked with Peng Fei, then walked to the center of the stone-cutting area, looked at Old Tang, and said, "Old Tang, why don't you go first?"
Zhuang Rui knew exactly what kind of rough stone he had, and now he wanted to see what kind of material this veteran in the jade gambling circle, who had been famous for decades, had chosen.
"Alright, I'll go first then. But Xiao Zhuang, your... your piece... well, hopefully it'll be a surprise for the old man..."
Old Tang readily agreed, but he was still bothered by the rough stone Zhuang Rui had chosen. He had originally thought that evening would be a closely contested written test, but after seeing Zhuang Rui's stone, Old Tang was extremely disappointed.
"Xiao Zhao, come on, help the driver carry the materials upstairs..."
The piece of material that Old Tang selected weighed more than 200 kilograms. It was first lifted by a loader, and after being aligned with the stone cutting machine, several people worked together to push it onto the iron frame of the stone cutting machine.
Although he had already observed it beforehand and knew exactly how to make the cut, Tang Lao still spent more than ten minutes observing with chalk, drawing several cutting lines on the raw stone.
After Master Tang finished preparing, the disciple surnamed Zhao stepped forward and said, "Teacher, let me do it?"
"Let me do it. This piece is my last piece; I'm afraid I'll never find jadeite that surpasses this rough stone again..."
Although Old Tang's voice wasn't loud, it was carried clearly through the microphone in his collar throughout the entire stone-cutting area, including the surrounding square, and thousands of people could hear it clearly.
"What... exactly is this material?"
"Don't speak, the stone will be cut soon..."
The raw stone that Tang Lao praised so highly must be extraordinary. After the initial commotion, the huge square became so quiet you could hear a pin drop!
Chapter 975 The Jade King (7)
Zhuang Rui was also curious. Tang Lao spoke with such certainty that he was a little skeptical. If he couldn't see inside the raw stone, did Tang Lao have X-ray vision?
When Old Tang's veiny hands gripped the stone-cutting machine, the thousands of people in the audience could only hear their own heartbeats and the breathing of those around them; the silence in the arena was eerily quiet.
"Click...click click..."
The huge alloy gears of the stone cutter started spinning, and then cut into the raw stone along the dotted line drawn by Old Tang, making a piercing sound.