Generally, rough stones containing jadeite will show some signs on their surface. However, this stone, which is over 1.8 meters tall and more than 1 meter wide, has a very smooth surface and does not have any characteristics of rough jadeite. It looks more like a whole piece of mountain rock.
If this stone were truly a jadeite rough, it would be a behemoth. However, placed here, it seems somewhat out of place with the surrounding stones. If it weren't for the sign next to the stone, Zhuang Rui would have thought it was just an ordinary stone.
"Yes, the organizing committee is just trying to fool people by bringing out this kind of material."
Zhuang Rui glanced at the price tag on the stone and said, "The starting bid is a whopping four million euros! Do they really think the money in our country just grows on trees?"
"There's nothing we can do about it. The jade trade can only rely on imports from Myanmar. Perhaps in a few decades, the jade we're buying today will all be antiques. But by then, I won't be able to see it..."
As Old Tang spoke, he became somewhat emotional. He had dealt with jade all his life, and the thought that in a few years, there would be no more jade to be mined in the world inevitably made him feel a little down.
"That's right. Not only jadeite, but also Hetian jade in our country has been almost completely mined out. When I spoke with Tian Bo on the phone a while ago, he even... um?"
As Zhuang Rui was speaking, he habitually used his spiritual energy to circle the "rock" next to the shed, and suddenly froze, forgetting what he was about to say.
"What's wrong, Xiao Zhuang? Lao Tian and I have been friends for decades. Just tell me what he wants to say, and I won't spread rumors..."
Old Tang thought Zhuang Rui was a junior and wouldn't dare to speak carelessly to his elders, so he stopped talking. However, he didn't notice the hint of surprise that flashed in Zhuang Rui's eyes.
"Well, it's nothing. In recent years, the government has started to control the excavation of Hetian jade. Uncle Tian said it's a good thing, so that future generations can have something to remember it by..."
Zhuang Rui was chatting absentmindedly with Old Tang, but he was actually very excited because when the spiritual energy seeped into that huge "mountain rock" just now, Zhuang Rui felt an extremely pure and cool aura.
Zhuang Rui had experienced this feeling several times before, on the imperial green jadeite he had acquired and on that top-grade yellow jadeite.
Zhuang Rui was excited and afraid that Tang Lao would notice something amiss, so he stood up and said, "Tang Lao, please rest for a while, I'll go out for a walk..."
Zhuang Rui had only sensed it slightly and hadn't been able to see what kind of jade was hidden in this "rock." His heart was in turmoil, and he no longer had the heart to chat with Old Tang.
Old Tang didn't suspect anything. He waved his hand and said, "Alright, Xiao Zhuang, go ahead. When I was young, I once spent three days and three nights straight looking at rough stones at the jade gambling market. It's good to be young..."
Zhuang Rui apologized and left the pavilion. He stopped in a corner of the pavilion, squatted down next to a rough stone, focused his spiritual energy, and looked at the "rock".
Chapter 971 The Jade King (3)
The invisible and colorless spiritual energy seeped into the huge "rock" like mercury spilling onto the ground. In the first few centimeters of thickness, there was nothing different; all Zhuang Rui saw were ordinary mountain rocks.
However, when the spiritual energy penetrated to a depth of about 20 centimeters, the internal structure of the rock seemed to change. The molecules inside the hard rock began to crystallize into granular form, and there were also green moss-like objects inside.
"Strange, how was this material mined? Why is there such a large stone encasing the outer layer of the jadeite rough?"
Zhuang Rui found it strange. According to the common understanding of jade formation, the outer skin of a typical raw stone is usually exposed or washed into a stream and formed over millions of years. However, this stone was completely different from the ones he had seen before.
There is only one explanation for this situation: after the jadeite had already formed, the Earth's crust changed again, causing the previously exposed raw stone to be rolled back into the magma, which is why this happened.
However, the probability of such a thing happening is even smaller than the probability of jade itself forming, so Zhuang Rui had never seen it before.
"This...this can't be real, can it?"
Although he was somewhat prepared, Zhuang Rui was still stunned by what he saw when he explored further inside.
A vast expanse of pure, water-like water, shimmering with vibrant light and a touch of green, came into Zhuang Rui's view. Its rich aroma nourished the spiritual energy in Zhuang Rui's eyes, making him feel incredibly comfortable.
"Glassy type, it must be glassy type material..."
Zhuang Rui could almost hear his heart pounding. Despite his extensive experience and handling of countless precious cultural relics and jadeite over the years, he still couldn't suppress his excitement at such a large piece of glass-type green jadeite.
This piece of jade is oval-shaped, about 20 centimeters thick, and about 40 centimeters long. The weight of this material is at least 50 kilograms.
In this piece of jade, there are no visible crystal grains at all. The entire piece of jade is like amorphous glass, transparent and flawless. The inside of the jade shines with a captivating light, as if this piece of jade has its own spirit.
Although the green color of this material is not a bright green, its pure and flawless texture, along with the faint green hue, is enough to place it among the top-grade jadeite.
The ancients once said, "If the water is too clear, there will be no fish." The same applies to jade.
The reason why Imperial Green is so rare is that most glass-type jade is colorless. Due to the complexity and variability of its formation, even light green is rare, and glass-type jade with a rich and vibrant green is even rarer.
The piece of jade that Zhuang Rui saw, being green and of such a large size, is extremely rare.
In recent years, in particular, glass-type jadeite with a bright green color has been highly sought after. Even if it does not reach the level of imperial green, it can still fetch astronomical prices, making it extremely popular.
At a recent auction, a cabochon measuring only 1.1 x 0.8 cm fetched a staggering price of over 13 million yuan. In contrast, the price of a colorless, glass-type jadeite would be more than a thousand times higher.
So even though this piece of material may not reach the level of imperial green or even bright green, the green color is distributed very evenly. Whether it is made into a bracelet or a cabochon pendant, it will definitely become a new favorite in the jewelry market.
This single piece of material is enough to ensure that Zhuang Rui's "Qin Ruilin" store in Beijing will have no shortage of high-end jadeite jewelry for the next five years.
You see, Zhuang Rui sold a lot of high-end materials recently, and now he's at a loss for what to do with them. At this moment, Zhuang Rui has forgotten about the bet with Old Tang, and is instead calculating the value of this piece of jade in his mind.
As the saying goes, gold has a price but jade is priceless. Top-grade mutton fat jade and top-grade jadeite are priced by the gram. In recent years, the price of some mutton fat jade has risen to tens of thousands of RMB per gram.
Zhuang Rui secretly estimated that if this piece of material were broken down and processed into jewelry, its market value would be at least 500 million RMB.
Now, when Zhuang Rui looked at the four million euro offer, it wasn't as glaring as before. He would have bought it even for 10 million, let alone four million. However, judging from the "excellent" appearance of this piece of material, it probably wouldn't cost that much.
This piece of jade may not be the best material from the Myanmar jade auction, but it is definitely the most valuable. Zhuang Rui even imagined that if the green color could reach the glassy quality, the value of this piece of jade would increase tenfold.
After considering his options, Zhuang Rui was about to withdraw his spiritual energy when he suddenly remembered that he hadn't finished examining the material yet. So he continued to let his spiritual energy pass through the glass-type material and seep into it.
"Huh? Holy crap, is this...is this for real?"
Zhuang Rui knew he had always been lucky, but when he saw what was behind this piece of jade, his brain still couldn't quite process it.
A round, bright green jade the size of a ball appeared in Zhuang Rui's sight. It was as transparent as glass and radiated an endless emerald green, dazzling Zhuang Rui's eyes.
"Damn, it's imperial green!"
Zhuang Rui couldn't help but curse under his breath. His heart, which had just calmed down, started pounding again. He had never imagined that a piece of imperial green jadeite could be this big.
Zhuang Rui has cut glass-type jade before, but the largest pieces were only about the size of a baby's fist, and the smaller ones were even only the size of a ping-pong ball.
Furthermore, based on the experience of generations of jade miners, the purer and more uniform the color of the jade, the smaller its size is generally. Therefore, many people believe that imperial green jade rarely exceeds one kilogram.
However, the jade material in front of Zhuang Rui would overturn the entire jade industry's understanding of jadeite. After reluctantly withdrawing his spiritual energy, Zhuang Rui was no longer thinking about the upcoming bet, but rather whether or not to cut the material open.
The glass-type jadeite worth hundreds of millions was still acceptable to most people, but if this imperial green jadeite were to be unveiled, it would likely attract worldwide attention once again.
It's important to understand that the discovery of a rare treasure will spread throughout the upper echelons of society on this planet in the shortest possible time.
"Why worry about so much? Let's just take the picture first..."
Zhuang Rui shook his head and stood up. Only then did he realize that a lot of people had gathered around him, their eyes shining as they looked at the rough stone next to him. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself before getting up and leaving.
As soon as Zhuang Rui left, seven or eight people surrounded him, wanting to see what was so special about this piece of jade that could attract that young "Jade King"!
I watched for about ten minutes.
Sitting in the bidding hall again, Zhuang Rui's mindset was completely different from yesterday. Today, he was prepared to bid on all the pieces of jade he had his eye on. Perhaps in the near future, these icy jade pieces would become legendary.
"Zhuang Rui, how's it going? Have you found anyone you like?"
A voice came from behind Zhuang Rui.
"Brother Hu, you seem to have a lot of free time. What's up? Are you here to supervise the site again today?"
When Zhuang Rui first participated in a jade auction, Hu Rong was the on-site supervisor.
Back then, in Zhuang Rui's eyes, Hu Rong was quite a figure—an international jade tycoon and a renowned jade jewelry designer. However, just two years later, Zhuang Rui's reputation had already surpassed Hu Rong's.
Hu Rong laughed upon hearing this and said, "Since you're here, you should at least do your duty. By the way, what kind of materials did you choose? After the bidding is over, are you confident you can beat Old Tang?"
In the world of jade gambling, Zhuang Rui has always been synonymous with miracles. Every time he manages to unearth top-quality jade that shocks the world. Regardless of whether others believe that Zhuang Rui can win against Master Tang this time, Hu Rong certainly does!
"Here, these are the pieces of material..."
Zhuang Rui had no reason to hide anything from Hu Rong, so he handed over his notebook and said, "There are a few semi-gambled rough stones, and one fully gambled one. I'm going to take them all..."
There were many rough stones in the trading market, and Hu Rong couldn't possibly equate them with the stones based on their numbers. So he only looked at the prices, saying, "Hmm, these few pieces together are quite valuable. Oh, this one..."
Halfway through his sentence, Hu Rong's face showed surprise and doubt, and he suddenly looked up at Zhuang Rui.
"What's wrong, Brother Hu?"
Zhuang Rui was also somewhat surprised; he didn't know what would make Hu Rong have such an expression.
"You...you've decided to buy this piece of material?"
Hu Rong took a pen out of his pocket, drew a circle on the notebook, and handed it back to Zhuang Rui, his eyes showing both surprise and confusion.
"You mean this area? Yes, I was planning to take a picture of it..."
Zhuang Rui was also stunned when he saw the number in Hu Rong's circle. Coincidentally, it was that "rock" material.
"Brother Hu, how do you know what kind of material this particular rough stone is, given that it's worth hundreds of thousands of yuan?"
Zhuang Rui really couldn't understand it. Instead of explaining, he asked Hu Rong.
How did I know?
Hu Rong gave a wry smile and said, "That's the material I provided to the conference. Do you think I wouldn't know? Let me tell you, this piece of material..."
Hearing Hu Rong's explanation, Zhuang Rui was dumbfounded. It turned out that the military had asked Hu Rong to provide jadeite rough stones for the public auction, and Hu Rong was unwilling to do so, so he found some random materials to make up the numbers.
This rough "rock" that doesn't resemble a natural stone was actually mined by the Hu family from one of the earliest jade mines in Myanmar.
However, this appearance is not like that of a raw stone. It was forgotten after it was dug out, and this "mountain rock" material existed even longer than Hu Rong was old.
Chapter 972 The Jade King (4)
More than half a century ago in Myanmar, the methods people used to mine jadeite were very primitive. They would heat the rocks with firewood, then pour cold water on them to loosen the rock structure, and then use tools such as hammers and iron chisels to break it apart.
Since jadeite mines are generally located in the mountains, it is difficult to transport larger pieces down the mountain. Therefore, some pieces that do not appear to have jadeite characteristics are used as roadbed stones and buried on the spot.
This stone was like that. After it was mined, it is unknown which of Hu Rong's elders saw that the stone was huge and had no mottled or python-like patterns on its surface. So it was used as a roadbed stone and buried at the entrance of the jade mine.
However, the jade mine was finally exhausted in recent years and reached the end of its life. During the final cleaning process, the mine workers discovered that some rough stones that had not been noticed before actually contained jade of good quality.
Upon receiving this news, Hu Rong immediately organized people to carefully screen the jade mine, and the massive "rock" rough stone that had been buried underground for so long was finally revealed.
However, Hu Rong had no hope that the stone could yield jade. Just then, the Burmese military requested that all jade mine owners provide raw stones for the public auction, so Hu Rong simply handed over the stone.
Furthermore, Hu Rong, taking advantage of his position as a member of the organizing committee, jokingly priced this enormous "rock" material at a staggering four million euros.
These past two days, it wasn't just Zhuang Rui who was cursing; everyone who saw the material was cursing the Myanmar organizing committee for being heartless. But no one could have imagined that this was just a mine owner's bored prank.
After hearing Hu Rong's explanation of the material, Zhuang Rui was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that such a priceless piece of jadeite had been trampled on by countless people every day for decades.
Seeing that Zhuang Rui was sitting there dumbfounded after Hu Rong finished introducing the raw jade to him, and that waving his hand in front of his face didn't even startle him, Hu Rong couldn't help but push Zhuang Rui and say, "Zhuang Rui, Zhuang Rui, what's wrong? Are you dumbfounded?"
"Ah? Uh... Brother Hu, it's nothing. I was just thinking... this piece of jade might create a miracle, a legend that can never be surpassed..."