However, the green is too little and not whole, scattered here and there, which scares away gamblers, who generally won't pay a high price.
If someone makes an offer, it's because of the size of the stone. If it's only the size of a blue ball, or not much bigger than a fist, it wouldn't be worth much with just a few specks of green. This is because the smaller the rough stone, the less likely it is to contain jadeite.
All of this naturally did not escape Zhou Xuan's eyes. He was still considering whether to take the rough stone. If he took the jade inside to his factory for processing and then sold it in the company's display case, the final value would definitely exceed 40 million.
However, jade prices are definitely lower in Ruili than in other places because it's a distribution center; the more distribution centers there are, the cheaper the price naturally becomes.
Zhou Xuan also noticed that among so many merchants, basically no one paid attention to this stone; they were more interested in the other rough stones with more obvious green color.
Judging from the surface color alone, Zhou Xuan glanced around and saw that there were quite a few in the visible areas, and the green color was extremely eye-catching. Judging from these, the boss's income today would not be low.
While Zhou Xuan was pondering, he suddenly saw Manager Gao looking overjoyed and stride towards the door. Zhou Xuan looked in the same direction and saw five men walking in. The one in the lead was over forty years old and had an extraordinary appearance and demeanor. The four men following behind him were clearly bodyguards.
Manager Gao strode over, shook hands with the man with a beaming smile, and said, "Mr. Yang, let's get started. We have plenty of good stuff today!"
Mr. Yang simply nodded slightly, then walked ahead with his head held high. Manager Gao bowed and walked behind him with a somewhat humble demeanor. Zhou Xuan immediately guessed, "This Mr. Yang is no ordinary person!"
Once inside the factory, Manager Gao greeted Mr. Yang with a forced smile, saying, "Mr. Yang, please take a look. This batch of old-fashioned goods is the best among all the factories in Ruili. Please take a look!"
Zhou Xuan had already detected all the raw materials in this factory and figured out the jadeite content, so he wasn't very interested in the raw materials anymore. His interest immediately turned to this Mr. Yang, who seemed to have a very important background.
Mr. Yang looked around, while the four bodyguards followed closely behind him, not even glancing at the rough stones on the shelf. They just glared at him, making the other merchants tremble. "It's no wonder I felt uncomfortable being stared at by these big men."
Zhou Xuan noticed that this Mr. Yang didn't seem to know much about raw jade. When looking at the raw jade, his eyes only stayed on the ones with excellent color.
These colors naturally couldn't fool Zhou Xuan. Under his supernatural detection, they were nowhere to hide. According to the detection methods Zhou Xuan had prepared, the better the color, the greater the possibility that there was nothing inside. That's probably why it's called "gambling on stones."
Mr. Yang glanced at the pieces with slightly lower color, but there were still a dozen or so rough stones with a greenish-brown hue, which were also of slightly lower quality and color. It seemed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to "make a fortune" by relying on luck. Compared to his experience in Tengchong last year, Zhou Xuan also found that "there are fewer and fewer rough stones with real jade, and the price of jadeite is expected to continue to rise."
Take gold for example. At the beginning of last year, it was only 200 yuan per gram. But now it has reached 330 yuan, an increase of 130 yuan, which is more than 60%. That is to say, if you bought 100 million yuan worth of gold last year, this year that 100 million yuan would become 160 million yuan. What kind of money is so easy to make?
For Zhou Xuan, money no longer held much weight in his heart. It was something he could easily obtain, and things that were too easy to acquire were not worth valuing.
After Mr. Yang had walked around the room once, Manager Gao immediately clapped his hands and shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, today's jade gambling officially begins!"
Each stone in this quarry has a number, which is affixed to the rough stone with a small red tag. The stones on this side of the gate start from number one, and the number on the shelf next to the stone-cutting machine at the very back has reached 978, which means that there are 978 rough stones waiting to be auctioned.
This is slightly different from the way things are done in Tengchong. Zhou Xuan had been to Tengchong before. "Maybe the individual factories there aren't as big as those here. They're smaller in scale and have fewer raw materials, so they're not as standardized. If a merchant takes a fancy to a piece of raw material, he basically just takes that stone over there." Of course, there are workers in the factories who prepare human-powered trolleys.
Here, Zhou Xuan noticed that "the facilities here are indeed much more upscale. In front of the gambling stone table, there is a projector. There is a platform where Manager Gao is standing, with settings to control the projector and a remote control."
Zhou Xuan followed the merchants and gathered around. When Manager Gao said "start," he picked up the remote control and turned off the main lights. The factory immediately went dark, with only a few dim yellow lights on the corners. This light was no longer effective, and even people standing close together could not see each other clearly.
Manager Gao pointed to the first person on the left and asked, "Let's start with this gentleman. Which piece of material did you choose?"
The man immediately said, "Number seventy-eight!"
Manager Gao said, "Thank you, please wait a moment!" Then he picked up the remote control and pressed a button. "Then the screen on the wall in front lit up." The projection showed the wool fabric with the number 78, and it was undergoing a full-range camera transition.
Manager Gao then took the microphone and introduced the jade: "Ladies and gentlemen, this piece of rough jade, number 78, has a rectangular diameter of 146 centimeters and a side diameter of 86 centimeters. The crystalline green color is in the form of bands that encircle the waist twice. This piece of rough jade ranks fourth in color among today's rough jade pieces. The starting price is four million yuan. Please bid!"
The merchant who called out the number immediately shouted, "Four million five hundred thousand!" Adding five hundred thousand right away is indeed frightening to laymen, but in the world of jade gambling, it's just a small matter. Moreover, this is the first rough jade in the first round of gambling by Manager Gao, and he deliberately set the starting price a bit low. Normally, with this green color and this size, the starting price for this rough jade should be around six million.
After that customer raised the price, before Manager Gao could even speak, another person raised the price again: "Six million!"
Those bidding remained unfazed. With Manager Gao's highly persuasive explanation and the undeniably alluring color of the raw jade, bidders kept increasing their offers, and the price quickly reached ten million.
Zhou Xuan remained calm. At this price, whoever pays it will lose everything. There's nothing in this rough stone, not even a speck of dirt the size of a fingernail. It's just a piece of worthless rock. No matter how loudly these people shout, they'll just cry even harder. But I guess these people are all rich. Losing tens of millions or even hundreds of millions isn't a disaster for them. Only those who sell their possessions to gamble everything will truly be ruined.
Then another person added 500,000, bringing the total price to 10.5 million. To be honest, adding more wasn't a good thing.
Manager Gao was beaming. If things continued like this, his commission would be substantial. He had easily reached this level with the first stone, and one could only imagine what the rest would bring.
At this moment, Mr. Yang, whom Zhou Xuan had been paying attention to, finally spoke, extending his finger and saying calmly, "Twenty million!"
The phrase "twenty million" immediately stunned everyone in the factory. Even Zhou Xuan was taken aback by his words. This guy must really be a super-rich man, otherwise how could he spend money so recklessly?
Manager Gao was stunned for a moment before excitedly shouting, "Mr. Yang, twenty million! Anyone else bidding? Twenty million... twenty million! Congratulations, Mr. Yang, the number seventy-eight rough stone is yours!"
Everyone was taken aback by the sudden appearance of this man surnamed Yang, who managed to snatch up the No. 78 rough stone at an exorbitant price. The whole process was short and exciting, like a flash of lightning that ended just like that!
Manager Gao was overjoyed. "The first rough stone was sold for a price higher than he expected, so he naturally has even greater expectations for the next rough stones."
While everyone was still in a daze, Mr. Yang said again, "If no one else is going to say anything, I'll make the suggestion: number ninety-eight rough jade!"
Manager Gao was taken aback. Mr. Yang really had money to burn. In this second annual auction, he brought out the best piece of raw jade!
Manager Gao then pulled up the information and images of the No. 98 rough stone and played them while introducing it, finally announcing the starting price: "18.8 million!"
After Manager Gao stated the price, he looked at the customers and waited for them to make their bids. However, after Mr. Yang's surprise attack, everyone was still uneasy. They thought that if they added a few hundred thousand or a million, Mr. Yang would suddenly add ten million or even more. Who would dare to compete with him?
While everyone hesitated, Mr. Yang actually made a bid, holding up two fingers and saying, "Twenty million!" The bid was still twenty million, but everyone knew that if they raised the price, he might immediately offer forty million, and they clearly couldn't beat him.
When Manager Gao first saw Mr. Yang's offer, which was a round number, 20 million, he was overjoyed and prepared for others to compete with him in order to get a higher price.
Manager Gao had previously anticipated betting around 50 million on this piece of raw jade with the best color, but the starting price was already as high as 18.8 million.
But things didn't go smoothly. As soon as Mr. Yang made his bid, everyone else fell silent; no one competed with him. Manager Gao immediately became anxious, calling out several times, "Has anyone made a bid? Has anyone else made a bid?" Twice…
After four or five seconds, Manager Gao said with a mournful face, "Two thousand one hundred, Mr. Yang, congratulations, you've won jadeite number ninety-eight!"
The color was much better, and the rough stone ranked first was actually priced the same as the first one auctioned off, which surprised Manager Gao completely!
Volume 1, Chapter 591: The Raw Material Trap
Chapter 591 Raw Material Trap
In that instant, Zhou Xuan immediately understood Mr. Yang's plan.