Zhou Bo usually receives businessmen from second-tier cities in mainland China. Businessmen from places like Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai don't come to him. They do look down on his scale. Zhou Xuan is the first one.
So Zhou Bo greeted Zhou Xuan warmly. Glancing at Zhou Xuan's entourage, he saw that there were several people with him and thought that this was quite a large group. He wondered if Zhou Xuan was a real big-time customer. The highest transaction he had ever made with Zhou Bo was less than five million. After so many years, Zhou Bo's net worth was only forty or fifty million. That was without him ever winning a single bet. He basically just imported raw jade from Myanmar, brought it back to Zhou Bo, and then resold it, making a profit from the price difference. He knew very well the dangers of gambling on jade. If he couldn't resist and made a bet, he would probably lose all the wealth he had accumulated over the years in less than six months.
The people picking stones at Zhou Bo's place are mostly small jewelers from surrounding cities, gambling on rough stones. Everyone dreams of getting rich overnight, but these small jewelers have worked their way up from the bottom, saving every penny. They wouldn't dare gamble recklessly, risking their lives. While there's a 99.99% chance the rough stones they gamble on from Zhou Bo won't yield anything of real high-quality jade, they can still extract a considerable amount of lower-quality jade. Their business is to pass off inferior stones as high-quality ones, process them, and then sell them at inflated prices. In the jade market, the profit margin is limitless. Usually, the customers who buy from them don't know much about jade, and the prices they pay aren't too high—a few hundred to a few thousand, with the highest being only tens of thousands. Although these are low-end products, the profit margin is very high, and the sales volume far exceeds that of high-end jade pieces. Therefore, Zhou Bo doesn't lack customers and can make a considerable profit even with small-scale operations.
Zhou Xuan was indeed unfamiliar with the raw material market. Zhou Bo was testing whether his purchase volume was large. If the volume was large, he wanted to retain this only major customer for him. He estimated that he would be willing to accept a lower price.
In fact, second-tier middlemen like Zhou Bo don't get business from major quarry owners or well-known old mine owners in Myanmar. They only get ore from the peripheral areas of some mining areas in Myanmar, so the price is naturally cheaper.
Just like any other industry, genuine products have their price tags, and inferior products have theirs. Each has its own way of doing business.
However, Zhou Xuan really didn't care. He used his supernatural ability to detect any kind of mine or any place. It didn't matter to him what kind of mine it was. As long as there was jade in the stone, what use was it if there wasn't? To put it bluntly, a pig is still a pig whether it's taken to Beijing or to the US, but the price will be completely different. That's just the truth.
Zhou Xuan watched as other merchants picked and chose, examining the colors of some stones. These stones were grayish-white, and indeed, from the outside, they were the worst raw materials.
Zhou Bo introduced, "Boss Zhou, haha, your surname is Zhou, and so am mine. We might have been family five hundred years ago. We can't write two Zhou characters together, right? Whether this business deal goes through or not doesn't matter. We'll get to know each other better after a while. It's good to make friends!"
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "That's true, haha, Boss Zhou, since you put it that way, then I definitely need to make you my friend. Over here."
As he spoke, Zhou Xuan pointed to the raw stones on the square and asked, "Boss Zhou, what's the price range for these raw stones? How much do you sell them for?"
Upon hearing Zhou Xuan's tone, Zhou Bo realized he didn't seem to know much about stones, and he was somewhat disappointed. After all, it's unrealistic to expect a merchant who doesn't know much to gamble on stones to spend a lot of money.
However, Zhou Bo still provided an overview of the market situation. As for whether the price would be lowered or whether any benefits would be offered if a deal was reached, it was too early to say; they would have to wait and see.
"The rough stones in this square are just the ordinary kind I brought back from Myanmar. The ones with good color, some even green, I picked out and put them in the factory on the other side. If Mr. Zhou is interested, you can go and take a look!"
Zhou Xuan understood immediately. Zhou Bo's place was the same as the one he had seen in Shenli and Yangzhou, with no difference, except that the site was much larger and the quantity of raw materials was much greater. However, Zhou Bo's approach was the same: he still picked out the raw materials with green color, good quality, and obvious characteristics, so that the price would be much higher. The raw materials in this site were just supporting characters; the real bulk of the goods were in the factory, those with green color.
But Zhou Xuan liked this place. Based on his past experience, the greener and better the quality of the rough stones, the less likely they were to contain jadeite. In contrast, the best quality jadeite was often cut from the grayish-white, lowest-quality rough stones. Of course, it's not that good jade can't be cut from good-quality rough stones, but the cost difference is like night and day. The legend of getting rich overnight often comes from those inconspicuous, low-quality rough stones.
Volume 1, Chapter 153: The Crazy Stone Gambling (3)
Yue Shang's mind raced. She chuckled and said, "Boss Zhou, I'd like to take a look at your rough stones. Could you first explain the buying and selling process?"
Zhou Bo glanced at the men behind Zhou Xuan, somewhat puzzled. Zheng Bing, Jiang Jin, Zhang Shan, and Wu Feng, all behind Zhou Xuan, remained silent. It was clear from their eyes that they only cared about Zhou Xuan and had no interest in the raw materials. On the other side, Fujimoto and Ito Kinji clearly seemed to be sightseeing; their female guide pointed and whispered about the scenery.
Zhou Bo knew from the female tour guide's voice that she was a local from Tengchong. The two men didn't seem to be in the rough stone business either, because Zhou Bo knew a great deal about people who gambled on stones. They were almost identical to gamblers, entering a stone quarry just like gamblers entering a casino. Their eyes would light up. Of course, they usually left penniless; some did win money, but very rarely.
After a moment's thought, Zhou Bo said, "Boss Zhou, look, the stones in this square are all piled up in roughly the same cubic meter size. When we brought them back, the trucks were weighed, and each truck carried five tons. This pile, which usually costs 100,000 yuan per cubic meter here, is about 20,000 yuan per ton. This price is among the lowest in Tengchong!"
Zhou Bo's words were true; his raw material price was indeed the lowest in Tengchong. However, Zhou Xuan and the others didn't know that Zhou Bo's raw material also didn't come from the old mines. Of course, the price of raw material from the old mines was much higher, basically reaching 100,000 yuan per ton. Of course, high-quality raw material, such as those with obvious green color on the surface, would be priced separately.
Looking at the thousands of square meters of raw materials in the square, Zhou Xuan thought that even with his ice-energy ability, it would take a long time to measure them all.
Zhou Xuan thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou, may I take a look first? If I want some, I'd like to pick them out myself, and not the rest. I only want what I've selected." Zhou Bo immediately hesitated and said, "Mr. Zhou, our rules here are like this: if you want it, it's this area. You can freely choose and select from the rough stones in the square. You can take any area, but it has to be this one area. Five tons. Even if you only want one stone from that area, it's still 20,000 yuan."
Zhou Xuan immediately smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Hehe, I understand. When I said I was picking them out, I didn't mean I wanted a discount. The pile of raw materials will still be 20,000 as you said. I just want to pick out a portion. I'll take what I want, and you can keep what I don't. I'll still offer 20,000, no less!"
Is that so? Zhou Bo was taken aback. In all his years in this business, he had never seen a customer like this. But the conditions Zhou Xuan offered were not bad for him at all, so how could he refuse? He immediately smiled and said, "Of course, there is no problem at all. Hehe, you can choose whatever you want. Take your pick."
Zhou Xuan didn't stand on ceremony and nodded, saying, "Boss Zhou, I'll pick out the raw materials in the square first, then I'll pick out the ones in the factory with you. You can talk to your other customers. Don't worry about me, I'll take a look first and then come back to you!"
Zhou Bo smiled and spread his hands to indicate that Zhou Xuan smiled and walked to the very edge by himself. The raw materials in the square were divided into two rows, with a road in the middle for vehicles to enter. It was six or seven meters wide, and the piles of raw materials on both sides were about twenty meters long. The road stretched out for at least three or four hundred meters. The entire raw material factory was quite impressive.
The rough stones were scattered haphazardly, some sharp and some round, making it inconvenient for Zhou Xuan to walk over them. He could only walk along the side. His ice energy measurement could only reach a maximum distance of about fifteen meters. Measuring to the edge in one go wasn't enough, so he had to do it twice. But there was no other way; this was the only way to measure, even if it took more time, but there was no rush.
Zhou Xuan explored the path as if he were just taking a quick look around, using his icy energy to explore and test the area. He walked to the edge of the poisonous path, then returned from the other side, and then went to the other side of the middle path. It took him about twenty minutes to make the round trip.
Zhou Xuan measured that among the thousands of square meters of stone, not much contained jadeite. However, that was relative to the amount in the square; the proportion was small. But compared to his previous experiences in Shenzhen and Yangzhou, it was much better. In those two places, Zhou Xuan gambled and found a high-quality piece of jade with a glassy texture, something he couldn't find in Yangzhou. Boss Ling's rough stones, worth over ten million, didn't contain any jade at all—truly a situation of losing every gamble.
In Zhou Bo's area, Zhou Xuan's online analysis revealed nearly three to four hundred pieces of jadeite rough, though none of them were the top-grade glassy jadeite he'd gambled on in Shenzhen. Most were of the oily or egg-white grade, with about ten pieces of icy jadeite, though not very large. However, in terms of value, these hundreds of rough pieces, if cut open, would be worth over twenty million. According to Zhou Bo's pricing, the ones Zhou Xuan selected would only be worth a million at most, representing a profit of more than ten times the initial investment.
As long as there's profit, and it's not considered a loss, then it's worth it. Zhou Xuantian said, "It's like the piles of raw materials at the Yangzhou boss's place. If there's a piece of jade, then it's all gone."
Turning around, Zhou Xuan saw Zhou Bo slowly strolling over, so he smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou, could you please find me a box of paint and a pen?"
"Of course we have this," Zhou Bo waved his hand, and told the workers around him to go to the factory and bring over a box.
Zhou Xuan opened the box; it was a small paint box with a handle. He held it in his left hand and a long brush in his right, applying red paint. Then he said to Zhou Bo, "Boss Zhou, could you please call a few more workers to help? I've applied the red paint. Have the workers move this stone out. Your female clerk can write down the volume; I'll pay for the volume of paint I applied."
Rules are rules, and Zhou Bo didn't stand on ceremony. He smiled and had the female clerk come along.
Zhou Xuan was just putting on an act anyway. Who knows which stones contain jade and which don't? The rough stones weren't even that good in color; they were practically indistinguishable from ordinary gray stones. They were only good in this area. In other places, nobody would want these kinds of stones—they're inedible, worthless, and tiring to carry!
Zhou Xuan was in front, using ice to test the stones while also dotting them with red paint. He dotted a small stone, and the workers behind him carried it out and placed it in the open space in the middle. Among the piles of rectangular rough stones, some piles yielded twenty or thirty stones, while others only yielded one or two, lined up in a row. More than three hundred stones were dotted, but the other side yielded far fewer, only about a hundred.
It took about three hours to finish the job. Zhou Xuan was tired, and the workers were even more exhausted. It even attracted the attention of other merchants who came to buy stones, who stopped to stare at Zhou Xuan and his group. They found it strange; unless you had extraordinary insight, no one could be so confident in this way of buying.
But Zhou Xuan acted nonchalantly, like a spoiled rich kid. Of course, the key was that expression; he wanted others to think he was a rich kid who was just throwing his father's money around. The female clerk noted down the figures: these four hundred-odd rough stones were selected from sixty-one cubic meters of raw stone, at twenty thousand per cubic meter, totaling one million two hundred and twenty thousand yuan.
Zhou Xuan took out two yuan from his pocket and handed it to the three or four workers, saying, "Brothers, you must be tired. This is just a small token of my appreciation. Please take it and have some tea."
Then he said to Zhou Bo, "Mr. Zhou, I'll write you a check!"
He then told Zhao Lao Er to take off his backpack. He took out a check, filled out a form for 1.22 million, and handed it to Zhou Bo.
Zhou Bo flicked the check, looking somewhat hesitant.
Zhou Xuan smiled. He understood this; usually, they wouldn't accept checks from customers who weren't familiar with them or regular acquaintances, since there were quite a few bad checks. He immediately said, "Boss Zhou, you're familiar with this area. Could you help me get a long-haul truck to load these raw materials onto? The truck price is negotiable; a higher price is fine. They need to be transported back to Beijing. This check is credited within 24 hours. You can have your people cash it at the bank first. I'll stay here for the night, and I'll leave after the money arrives tomorrow, is that alright?"
Zhou Bo immediately understood and laughed heartily, "Brother Zhou, I've made you my friend!" He put the check in his pocket, then said to the workers, "Go and call all the workers in the factory over here. Bring one of our own trucks over, load the raw materials onto it, and lock it up."
Zhou Xuan's actions completely dispelled Zhou Bo's suspicions. It was tantamount to using Zhou Bo as a hostage, waiting for the money to arrive before taking the goods and leaving. Besides, the truck belonged to them, and the goods were in their own yard; Zhou Xuan couldn't possibly take them away or leave the factory. Therefore, it certainly wasn't an empty promise and was utterly useless. Only a madman with nothing better to do would do such a thing. Did Zhou Xuan look like a madman?
Fujimoto and Ito Kinji, after looking at it for so long, thought Zhou Xuan was like a fool. He spent more than 1.2 million on just these broken stones? Although jadeite is very valuable and they knew about the overnight fortune in gambling on stones, Zhou Xuan wasn't a god. How could he know that there was jadeite in these rough stones?
Zhou Bo called the workers to load the raw materials onto the truck, locked it, and then let Zhou Xuan and the others go into the factory.