Fujimoto trembled as he pulled out his bank card, and Lin Shitu's female worker quickly brought over his laptop.
Lin Shitu had already prepared for the payment methods of his customers. Just by looking at F, he knew they would be using electronic banking.
Fujimoto worked in banking, so he was very familiar with these things. He opened his bank's webpage, entered the transfer amount, and Lin Shitu's female worker gave him the bank account number. After Fujimoto entered the account number, he inserted the electronic seal, and the transfer was completed in an instant.
Then Lin Shitu's female worker took the computer, checked the account, nodded, and said to Lin Shitu, "Boss, four million two hundred thousand has arrived!"
Lin Shitu nodded slightly and said to Fujimoto, "Sir, this piece of raw jade is yours!"
Ito Kinji excitedly cursed in Japanese, then stammered to Lin Shitu, "...Boss Lin, help...help us...cut open and..."
Ito Kinji's Chinese is not good, and it is obvious that he is not Chinese. Moreover, he just said something in Japanese, and even said "cut open" instead of "untie the woolen cloth". It is very obvious that he is not Chinese.
At home, Lin Shitu usually spends time with his wife and daughter, and he's heard them watch a lot of Korean dramas. He could tell from Ito's words that it wasn't Korean, but Japanese. The thought of Japanese sparked a thought in Lin Shitu's mind. Zhou Xuan was a person of considerable importance; could it be that he was specifically...
It's somewhat similar, but what Lin Shitu finds strange is that Zhou Xuan didn't consult with him, so how could he know if there's jade inside this rough stone? If he were certain, then Lin Shitu wouldn't need to gamble away the rough stone; he could just keep it to himself.
Although Lin Shitu was puzzled, he still had to follow the rules, so he beckoned to Master Zhao to cut the stone.
Master Zhao placed the rough stone on the stone-cutting machine. The rough stone needed to be cut because it was large and most of it lacked green color.
Zhou Xuan placed the first cut at a point two centimeters from the left side where there was no green. He detected that the piece of blue-and-white jadeite was less than one centimeter away from this cut, but it was farther away from the side with green. The piece of jade was not as big as a large bowl, but the quality was not good.
Fujimoto and Ito Kinji stared wide-eyed at Zhao's knife wound, their eyes bulging like bull's.
Master Zhao's cut was indeed quite good. Based on experience, the blade was well-positioned. When the power was turned on, the gold mesh grinding wheel on the stone-cutting machine made a loud, piercing noise when it came into contact with the stone. However, no one seemed to care, as they were all used to it. Although Muben and Ito Kinji were not used to it, they were so excited that they didn't notice the noise at all.
Master Zhao made a clean cut to the end, then turned off the power and cleared away the stone chips from the cut surface. On the cut surface, there was a palm-sized patch of bluish-green color with textures running from the inside out. Judging from this, there was almost a 60% chance that there was a small piece of jade inside.
However, judging from the color of the green, it's not a very bright green, but at least it's green. This is only the first cut, so it seems like I'm pretty lucky!
Fujimoto and Ito Kinji didn't know what it meant, whether the cut was good or bad. But the other customers didn't seem too surprised, so they were both confused.
The price of this rough jade stone on this website is a bit outrageous. According to jade gamblers, the highest price should be under one million. If it's one million, then this first cut could be considered a successful gamble!
If it weren't for the outrageous 4.2 million, there would have been a buyer offering at least 1 million to 2 million. But the starting price was 4.2 million, so no one bid. Green jade was cut out, but the price offered was lower than the bidder's cost price. It seems unlikely that the original owner of the rough jade would resell it; there's no reason for that!
Master Zhao understood that the base price was too high. Although the first cut revealed green, it was impossible to resell it. He nodded to Fujimoto, turned the rough stone around, and aligned the cut on the other side where there was no green, still at the two-tenths mark.
Coincidentally, this side is still on the original blue and white porcelain surface, so cutting here will get closer, while cutting from the other sides would take longer.
Master Zhao turned on the power, and the wheel rotated and cut again. After more than ten seconds, the two-tenths of the stone's surface layer was cut off. When it reached the middle part, the two-tenths of the surface stone shattered into several pieces.
Master Zhao cleared away the pebbles, blew away the stone chips, and on this side, because it was closer to the main body of the blue-and-white porcelain, the green appeared wider and larger. Immediately, someone said, "Heh, we've won the bet."
Fujimoto understood this perfectly, and immediately grinned from ear to ear.
The second cut revealed green, and even more green. With green appearing on both sides, the price more than doubled. However, the green wasn't a very vibrant green. Although the probability of it being jade was estimated to be as high as 90%, no one could be sure what kind of jade it was.
At this point, the price should be the bottom line for buying this piece of jade, so Master Zhao put down the rough stone and showed the two cut sides to the people around him so that everyone could see it more clearly.
After taking a look, experienced merchants are almost certain that there is jade inside, and judging from the position of these two sides, the size of this piece of jade is at least about the size of a large bowl.
"Four and a half million, I'll make an offer."
One of the customers was the first to make an offer.
Fujimoto and Ito Kinji were both beaming with joy. Someone had made an offer, and although it was only 300,000 more than their initial investment, it was a good sign. However, at that price, of course they wouldn't sell.
Then another customer offered a price: "I'll offer four million eight hundred thousand!"
"I'll offer five million!"
Five million three hundred thousand
"Five million five hundred thousand!"
However, after the bid reached 5.5 million, no one raised the price anymore. This was certainly not the price that Fujimoto was willing to pay. The profit was only 1.3 million. After seeing Zhao Lao Er and Zhou Xuan's tens of millions of net profits, Fujimoto considered this million or so as nothing!
No one else is bidding, so let's cut the stone. Fujimoto said to Master Zhao, "Master Zhao, cut it again!"
Since Fujimoto had already spoken, Master Zhao continued cutting from another direction, which was much further from the main body, about fifteen minutes away. Master Zhao made a cut, and a grayish-white mass appeared; no one spoke.
Of course, this does not mean that the price of this rough stone has dropped, because the two cut sides are too far away from here, and there is a high probability that it will not produce jade or green color, which is within a reasonable range.
Master Zhao first made a three-tenths cut, and when no green came out, he made a two-tenths cut. The closer he got to the inside, the thinner the cut became. After the fifth cut, it was basically a one-tenth cut. After making two more cuts, the green came out again!
By counting from this small spot to the other two green spots, we can basically determine the size of the jade inside. It is about 20 centimeters in diameter, so the size of this piece of jade is not small!
At this point, someone offered six million. Although the size was that big, the green color was not very vibrant. It was a pale green with a bluish tinge. Without polishing the jade to reveal its true form, no one knew what the jade inside was made of. The offer of six million was all for its size.
Six million was certainly not Fujimoto's target. At this moment, he and Ito Kinji were filled with excited greed, and they paid no attention to the six million offered by the businessman. They waved their hands and said, "Master Zhao, cut again."
Master Zhao then turned the cut to the other side, the last side without green. With this three-tenths cut, it was basically expected that there would be no green, just a grayish-white sandy surface, because it was still far away.
With the distance and estimate of the six cuts on the side, this side was about the same. Master Zhao cut down bit by bit, and on the sixth cut, he made the cut!
Only in the middle of the jade, there's a small protrusion, about the size of a fingertip, where the main body was cut away. The rest of the jade is the same green as the other three cut surfaces. But in that part of the main body, the jade is cloudy and murky, like a bowl of water with lots of sand frozen into ice, the ice filled with tiny grains! A completely different experience!
Volume 1, Chapter 167: A Cornered Dog Will Jump Over the Wall
Apart from Fujimoto, Ito, and Zhao Lao Er, who were clueless, everyone present was an expert. Just by looking at it, they could tell that the jade was of very poor quality. If it were just a piece of blue and white jade, there were many ways to make it look good, but it was full of impurities, so it was a complete waste. Even fakes wouldn't want it!
Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg of this blue-and-white porcelain, and cannot represent the whole. There is still a large part that has not been revealed, and no one can say that there is no pure and flawless jade.
But at least for now, no one is making any moves. The risks are too great. To be honest, gambling on jade is inherently unpredictable; one cut could lead to heaven, the next to hell!
If Master Zhao had made a slightly thinner cut, without damaging the blue-and-white jade, the price would have been different. Given the size of the jade, someone would have offered at least eight million. Of course, Fujimoto himself might have been more greedy and wouldn't have sold it at that price. Who knows what the outcome would have been if he had cut it further!