Zhou Ziwei stopped the electric grinder and immediately reached out, calling out, "Bring me water..."
Li Yifeng, who was standing nearby, had already prepared a basin of clean water. Upon hearing this, he immediately handed it over. After Zhou Ziwei took it, he immediately poured it onto the cut surface of the half of the raw stone that was lying on the right. The clean water washed away the stone chips stuck to it, and instantly, a pleasing reddish color appeared like a blooming flower.
"Red jade... There really is red jade in here!" Li Yifeng was closest, and his eyes immediately lit up when he saw the delightful red color.
"This...this is impossible." Upon hearing this, Gu Dongfeng hurriedly stepped forward, took a magnifying glass, and carefully examined the half-cut surface for a long time. He gasped in shock and then said with some annoyance, "Oh dear...you know, since you knew that there could really be red jadeite in this rough stone, why didn't you carefully cut it open slowly just now...This is terrible. It seems that the size of this piece of red jadeite was not large to begin with. Now that it has been cut into two pieces, its value will probably be greatly reduced."
Zhou Ziwei laughed and said, "You're overthinking it. This red jade is perfectly intact. If you don't believe me, take a look at the other half... there's not a single bit cut off."
Somewhat disbelieving, Gu Dongfeng had Li Yifeng bring him a basin of water and poured it on the other half of the raw stone. He then examined it closely with a magnifying glass for a long time and discovered that there wasn't even a trace of red on this half of the raw stone.
This means that Zhou Ziwei's cut just now was exactly a graze on the edge of the red jade inside, revealing the red jade without damaging it in the slightest. What a precise stone-cutting technique that must be! Even a stone-cutting master who has worked in Tengchong his whole life probably doesn't have such a skill.
However, it was clear that this was Zhou Ziwei's first time cutting a stone himself, which could be seen from his movements when he first started cutting the stone. So there is probably only one explanation left...
Gu Dongfeng looked up in shock, staring at Zhou Ziwei with disbelief, and said, "You...you can see through these raw stones?"
Zhou Ziwei shrugged, then nodded slightly and said, "Yes... Otherwise, you really would think I would have nothing better to do than load ten truckloads of rotten rocks and transport them all the way back to Tengchong!"
After saying that, Zhou Ziwei saw that Gu Dongfeng still seemed a little doubtful, so he didn't say anything more. He immediately started another stone-cutting machine and made a clean and neat cut. However, this time he didn't cut from the center, but cut about two inches deep from the outer skin of the stone.
In an instant, the large, translucent, pea-green jadeite was clearly revealed without needing to be rinsed with water...
Volume Two: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 325: Emerald Sky
Looking at the large expanse of bright green jadeite that made one's eyes turn green, and then looking at the other small piece of raw stone that had been cut off, which was just a patch of grayish-white sand, with not a single bit of green cut off, Gu Dongfeng was completely convinced.
Without a doubt, Zhou Ziwei must possess X-ray vision capable of seeing through jadeite rough stones. Otherwise, even if someone could guess the type of jadeite inside based on experience, how could they have such breathtaking skill? With a single cut, he perfectly exposed the jadeite without damaging the jadeite itself. Even if this could be considered a skill the first time, how could he be so incredibly lucky to have such incredible luck a second time?
Seeing the utterly shocked look on Old Master Gu's face, Zhou Ziwei chuckled and said, "Old Master Gu, do you believe me now? Hehe... However, I hope everyone will keep this a secret for me. Otherwise... if anyone finds out that I can see through jadeite rough stones, Tengchong will be in complete chaos. And if I want to buy jadeite rough stones from the mines again, they might not dare to sell to me anymore. Even if they are willing to sell... the price will probably be driven up to a terrifying level, which... would cut off our source of income."
Hearing this, everyone could only nod repeatedly. In any case, they had already had to keep a huge secret because of Zhou Ziwei, and now they just had to keep one more secret. After being shocked for a moment, they looked at Zhou Ziwei with a bit of numbness.
The people here have almost come to regard Zhou Ziwei as a legendary deity. And if he is a deity, then he is naturally omnipotent. Perhaps if Zhou Ziwei says he wants to have a child, the others may not react much.
"Alright... since there are no problems..." Zhou Ziwei said, looking around at everyone, "Then let's all work together and try to cut open all the jadeite rough stones here before the trade fair! At that time, apart from the three pieces of jadeite that I need to keep for myself, the rest... each of you can choose one piece as a reward for your hard work following me to Myanmar!"
Upon hearing that everyone would receive a piece of jade as a reward, even the Yelü brothers, who usually didn't care much for money, couldn't help but have a little sparkle in their eyes.
Or perhaps only Ah Da and Ah Er remained indifferent, completely unmoved by the temptation offered by Zhou Ziwei.
This fact left Gu Dongfeng speechless with astonishment.
After speaking, Zhou Ziwei immediately opened the storeroom, first unfurling the three most valuable jadeite rough stones. Then, pointing to the remaining stones, he said, "Now everyone can choose their favorite rough stones... Consider this a chance to gamble on jade. Each person can only choose once, and once chosen, there's no going back. Also... I must remind everyone that while the jadeite quality inside the first-grade rough stones is quite good,... as you know, these first-grade rough stones were sold in bulk, not individually. So... these ordinary-looking rough stones, the ones I dug out of that mountain of rocks, have slightly lower jadeite quality compared to the first-grade stones. However... I can guarantee that every single stone dug out of the mountain contains jadeite, but among these first-grade rough stones, there are a few that are all show and no substance..."
At this point, Zhou Ziwei winked mischievously and said, "So... you can freely choose any rough stone here. If you want to pick a more valuable one, then choosing from the first-grade rough stones is the right thing to do. However... you also have to bear the consequences if you pick out a pebble. Hmm... I just said... each of you only has one chance. Once you've chosen, you're not allowed to regret it. Even if you pick out a pebble, you'll just have to accept it."
"Also... you need to start choosing right now, but the stones you've chosen can't be opened yet. You'll have to wait until all the other stones have been opened before you can open the ones you've chosen. For now... let's leave a little suspense!"
After Zhou Ziwei finished speaking, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Looking at the mountain of jadeite rough stones piled up in the warehouse, no one dared to be the first to pick out their favorite rough stone.
Seeing this, Zhou Ziwei could only give a helpless bitter smile, then gave Li Yifeng a wink and said, "Boss, why don't you choose one first?"
Upon hearing this, Li Yifeng's face immediately fell. He looked at Zhou Ziwei with a bitter expression and said, "Could you... please stop calling me 'boss'? Uh... hearing you address me like that always gives me a feeling of unease."
Zhou Ziwei sighed inwardly, knowing that this was the consequence of revealing his true strength in front of everyone. If it were before, Li Yifeng, that face-conscious guy, would probably have been quite smug when he heard him call him boss, but now, his behavior... was truly a bit surprising and frightening.
If one party in a friendship develops such a strong sense of awe towards the other, then that friendship is probably coming to an end.
Fortunately, Li Yifeng only mentioned it casually and didn't dwell on the title issue. He immediately ran to the large pile of stones, looked around, and then rolled a huge rough stone, about the size of a wheel, revealing a smug smile. He said, "I'm a bit greedy, so I'll choose the biggest one! Hehe... Ziwei, you know I have a lot of female confidantes, so... I plan to cut this rough stone open and make the jade inside into several sets of matching jewelry. Then I can give each of my female confidantes a set."
Zhou Ziwei glanced at the jadeite rough stone, which was indeed the largest in the entire warehouse, and said with a slightly strange expression, "This... are you so sure that a jadeite rough stone with a larger exterior will necessarily have a larger jadeite inside? If that's the case, then people wouldn't need to learn any stone appraisal techniques. They could just go to a jadeite auction and compare which rough stone is the largest, and wouldn't that be a sure thing?"
Li Yifeng chuckled slyly and said, "If this were outside, judging a rough stone solely by its size wouldn't be reliable. But... you personally selected all these jadeite rough stones... and this one is so big, taking up the space of six or seven ordinary rough stones. When we came back, the car only had so much space; putting this stone in would reduce the amount of rough stones we could fit. So I think... if this large rough stone only contained a small lump of jadeite, you wouldn't have chosen it, would you?"
Zhou Ziwei was genuinely surprised by Li Yifeng's words. It seemed that this guy was indeed a criminal police officer. He usually appeared carefree, but in reality, he was quite meticulous.
However… Li Yifeng was somewhat wrong this time. The jadeite inside this large piece was actually not very big, in fact, it was pitifully small… This piece of raw stone, the size of a wheel, contained only a small piece of jadeite the size of a fist.
However, Li Yifeng's analysis was also correct. This piece was too big. If the jade inside wasn't worth much, why would Zhou Ziwei have chosen this piece, which took up so much space in the car?
What this rough stone contains is an extremely rare piece of starry sky jade.
The main body of this jadeite is a piece of black jadeite of quite good quality, that is, the kind that is completely black. However... there are also some more precious and rare silver jadeite scattered throughout the black jadeite. With the embellishment of those little silver jadeite, the whole piece of black jadeite looks like a night sky twinkling with starlight, which is why it is called starry sky jadeite.
The value of this piece of jade is definitely not low, and if the jade carving master Gu Dongfeng were to personally extract a starry sky bracelet from it after the jade is cut open, its value would increase tenfold again.
If this starry sky bracelet were put up for auction, and it were to encounter one or two truly knowledgeable people, it could very well fetch a staggering price of tens of millions.
However, given the size of this piece of jade, Zhou Ziwei estimated that he could only make a bracelet at most, and the remaining material could be used to make a cabochon, a pair of earrings, a small pendant... that would be about it.
If this piece of starry jade could be used to make a complete set of jewelry, its value would likely more than double again.
However, this means that Li Yifeng will only be able to use this set of jade ornaments to please one beautiful woman, and his dream of a glorious harem will probably never come true.
Next, the Yelü brothers and others each selected a piece of jadeite rough. However, whether they were worried about their bad luck and actually picking a stone from the first-grade rough, or were embarrassed to pick out the most valuable rough, everyone seemed to have agreed beforehand to choose a piece from the rough that looked extremely unappealing, while no one bothered with the first-grade rough.
In this way, regardless of whether the rough stones they choose are good or bad, at least everyone will find jade in their chosen stones, so no one will be left empty-handed.
However, Zhou Ziwei did not allow Gu Dongfeng and Liu Xiaofei to choose the rough stones. Liu Xiaofei was Zhou Ziwei's woman, so if Zhou Ziwei wanted to give her jade, he would naturally give her the best. In fact, Zhou Ziwei could share everything here with Liu Xiaofei. Since half of these rough stones belonged to Liu Xiaofei, she naturally did not need to choose anything else.
As for Grandpa Gu Dongfeng, Zhou Ziwei had already selected a piece of jade as a special gift for him. This piece of jade was the huge jadeite rough that Zhou Ziwei had picked out from the rocky mountain. It looked about the same size as the piece that Li Yifeng had picked out earlier, but the jadeite inside was a seven-colored jadeite the size of a football.
This thing is definitely not worth much if used to carve jewelry, but the patterns inside are naturally formed. If the old master were to study it carefully and carve a complete seven-colored ornament, it would definitely be a national treasure-level work of art.
Zhou Ziwei had everyone select their own jadeite and set it aside for the time being. Then, everyone got to work together and began the vigorous stone-cutting activity.
A dozen or so people... plus a few drivers borrowed from Wu Di, all worked together, and a total of six stone-cutting machines ran non-stop. Finally, on the morning of the third day, all the stones were initially cut.
In other words, the jadeite inside each piece of jadeite rough has been completely extracted from the rough stone. As a result, the color and quality of the jadeite are immediately apparent, eliminating any element of gambling. All that remains is fine polishing and processing.
Of course, the reason they were able to cut through so many stones in less than three days was mainly due to Zhou Ziwei's X-ray vision ability. Zhou Ziwei basically made some cutting lines on each piece of raw stone, and then Gu Dongfeng guided these novices on how to operate the stone-cutting machine and how to be careful not to damage the jade inside.
This saves a lot of time. Basically, every piece of raw stone is cut off with one cut, and the green color immediately appears. There are no exceptions.
Otherwise, if it were done like an ordinary stone cutter, carefully rubbing each stone in little by little, it would probably take two or three days to completely cut a single rough stone.
When Zhou Ziwei personally uncut the seven-colored jade he had prepared to give to Gu Dongfeng, and explained that this was a gift he had specially saved for Gu Dongfeng, Gu Dongfeng trembled with excitement, and his eyes immediately welled up with tears.
Gu Dongfeng knew that if the jadeite Zhou Ziwei had chosen fell into the hands of a mediocre jade carver, it might be ruined. However, if Gu Dongfeng himself worked on it, then... this jadeite would definitely shine in the future. In fact, if the finished product were auctioned at an international auction, it might fetch hundreds of millions of US dollars.
Gu Dongfeng took another deep look at Zhou Ziwei, but didn't say much in thanks. To be honest, Gu Dongfeng didn't care about the specific value of the jadeite. However, the fact that Zhou Ziwei was giving him such a good piece of material to carve himself, giving him the opportunity to create a national treasure-level work of art, was already the best gift for a jade carver like him.
As for the finished piece... Gu Dongfeng had already decided to return it to Zhou Ziwei. After all, he and his wife had no children, and no matter how much wealth they accumulated, they couldn't take a single penny with them. Keeping such a valuable national treasure in his hands would likely cause unnecessary disputes and troubles if Liu Xiaofei inherited his property after he passed away.
However, Gu Dongfeng didn't say these words out loud. Even if he did, Zhou Ziwei might not accept them. It would be better to give them to Liu Xiaofei after they were finished. Firstly, Liu Xiaofei was his niece, and secondly, she was Zhou Ziwei's woman. Giving them to her would be the most appropriate thing for him.
The next day was the opening day of the Tengchong Jadeite Rough Stone Trade Fair. Their jadeite rough stone exchange also had a fairly large booth at the fair, but now it seems... such a large booth is not very useful to them.
After all, the jadeite rough is quite large, but once it's cut open, the amount of jadeite inside shrinks considerably. These pieces can only be displayed in a few counters. Five or six counters would be enough to hold all the jadeite pieces. It would be a waste to allocate such a large space to them.
However, it was too late to leave the venue at this point. Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei had made preparations in advance. Two days beforehand, he specially ordered six exhibition booths and moved them to the trade fair early in the morning. He dismantled all the raw stone display racks that the organizers of the trade fair had set up for free and moved the specially made booths up one by one, placing them in a large circle near the center of the booth.
Zhou Ziwei was worried that displaying so much jadeite at his stall at once would cause unnecessary commotion, so he didn't want to put it out before the trade fair officially started.
However, by this time they had already been transported over and were all placed in the commercial vehicle next to them.
Once the trade fair is announced to have started, he can simply unload the boxes from the car, place the jade pieces on the glass counter, and that's it.
The trade fair was not scheduled to officially start until 9 a.m., but by then most of the booths had already put up their jadeite rough stones for display and sale. The strange behavior of Zhou Ziwei's booth immediately attracted a lot of attention.
Seeing that Zhou Ziwei and his team had actually dismantled all the display shelves and replaced them with just a few inconspicuous glass counters, they couldn't help but wonder.
However, Zhou Ziwei and his group were mostly unfamiliar faces. The middlemen who had been trading raw jade in Tengchong for a long time were not familiar with them. As for Gu Dongfeng, since he obtained the seven-colored jade yesterday, he had locked himself in his studio and refused to come out.
Although today's scene was not small, Gu Dongfeng had seen countless similar situations in his life, so he naturally didn't care.
The people at the neighboring booths only glanced at this side with some doubts, while in the distance, a middle-aged man with a gloomy face hesitated for a moment before slowly walking over. With a wave of his hand, more than twenty burly men surged over behind him...
Volume Two: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 326: You Wait
Seeing the middle-aged man approaching with a large group of people, his face grim, Zhou Ziwei frowned slightly, but had no interest in paying attention to him.
He planned to hand over the entire business here to Li Yifeng, but it seems that without Li Yifeng's cheat device that can see through jadeite rough stones, no matter how hard Li Yifeng tries, it will be difficult to actually make the business successful.
However, Zhou Ziwei could not stay here for long. For him, neither gambling on jade nor doing raw jade business could be considered his main job. Although gambling on jade could make money quickly, the market had a saturation point. If he produced a large amount of jade here all at once, causing the market supply to exceed demand, the price of jade would only drop further.
Zhou Ziwei naturally didn't want to do something so unpleasant. Moreover, Luan Yuqing from Dangyang had already called to tell him that the company's new product had been successfully put into production and was about to be launched in the next couple of days. However, the sales channel issue had not yet been resolved, and there were many other things waiting for Zhou Ziwei to handle. Therefore, Zhou Ziwei was still struggling with this dilemma. He planned to stay here for one last day to recoup some of the funds he had invested in the jadeite rough trading before returning to Dangyang.
Zhou Ziwei was preoccupied with his own thoughts and naturally had no interest in paying attention to the middle-aged man who seemed to be looking for trouble.
Unfortunately, Zhou Ziwei's indifference was taken as weakness by the man. The middle-aged man walked up to their unconventional stall, suddenly snorted, and said, "You must be Boss Zhou?"
Zhou Ziwei raised his eyebrows helplessly, looked up at the gloomy-faced middle-aged man, and, equally unfriendly, asked coldly, "I am Zhou Ziwei. May I ask who you are?"
"My name is Qiao Mulin..." The middle-aged man raised his head arrogantly, coldly looking at Zhou Ziwei in front of him, and said in a chilling voice, "That bitch Luan Yuqing is with you, isn't she? Hmph... Now I'll give you a choice. You either send her here to me within three days, or... wait for my men to come to your door and... Hehe... You understand what I mean, right? Young man... I know you have some skills, hmph... Last time, my men were defeated by you, weren't they? If you know what's good for you this time, I'll let bygones be bygones. But if you really don't know what's good for you... Hmph... I dare to say such things again this time, naturally I have my trump cards. You'd better watch yourself!"
After saying that, Qiao Mulin immediately turned around, looking arrogant, and led more than twenty bodyguards and thugs away.
Zhou Ziwei looked at the arrogant back of this well-known guy with some surprise, and then rubbed his nose with amusement.
Last time Zhou Ziwei was in Tengchong, he didn't really take this guy with some local influence seriously. He just didn't want to cause trouble, so he didn't bother with him. But he didn't expect that this guy would actually come to him on his own initiative this time, and even threatened him so arrogantly.
This made Zhou Ziwei feel quite absurd.
However, considering that Qiao Mulin suffered a great loss last time, he has never dared to send anyone to Dangyang to cause trouble. But this time he actually dared to give Zhou Ziwei a three-day ultimatum to his face. It is possible that this guy really has some powerful trump cards up his sleeve.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei did not dare to be too careless.
However... Zhou Ziwei wouldn't be too careless, but he also wouldn't care too much. After all, unless Qiao Mulin could invite the legendary top ten assassins, it would be really difficult for them to pose even the slightest threat to Zhou Ziwei.
However... does Qiao Mulin, a nouveau riche with only minor influence and perhaps some official connections, really have the ability to hire the world's top ten assassins? If hiring the top ten assassins were so easy, then that title wouldn't be so valuable.
The trade fair is about to begin, and Zhou Ziwei can't really do anything to Qiao Mulin in front of everyone. He can only shrug helplessly and plan to go to Qiao's house that evening to have a "good talk" with this Boss Qiao.
Although Zhou Ziwei didn't want to cause any more trouble, since the trouble had already gotten to him, he naturally wouldn't be a coward anymore and had to step in and resolve the problem.
Zhou Ziwei could swallow his anger for the time being, but his men could not tolerate it.
Especially the Yelü brothers, Zhou Ziwei had long since risen from a martial arts master to a god in their hearts. How could they bear to see their revered god being insulted and threatened by a money-grubbing fellow?
With Zhou Ziwei present, they wouldn't have dared to act too recklessly. However, seeing Qiao Mulin glare at them, spew a string of spittle, and then turn to leave, with Zhou Ziwei seemingly not intending to stop him, the straightforward Yelü Xiaosu was the first to lose her temper. She jumped up, reached out and grabbed Qiao Mulin by the back of the collar, and said with a muffled sneer, "Who do you think you are? How dare you speak to Mr. Zhou like that... I think you don't want to live anymore!"
Although Qiao Mulin hadn't expected Zhou Ziwei's men to dare to make a move in such a public place, he wasn't unprepared. The twenty-odd men behind him were no pushovers. As soon as he heard Yelü Xiaosu's reprimand from behind, he immediately turned around with a cold face, waving his hand and ordering his men to surround him and protect him.
The twenty-odd bodyguards saw that there weren't many people on the other side, except for Yelü Xiaosu and another fat man who seemed a bit more difficult to deal with. However, they didn't take it too seriously. They first protected their boss, and then two of them went up to Yelü Xiaosu and each threw a vicious punch at Yelü Xiaosu's chest.
The two bodyguards' punches were quite powerful, but in Yelü Xiaosu's eyes at this moment, they seemed soft and weak, without any strength. He snorted coldly, neither dodging nor blocking, and simply let their fists pound heavily on his chest, making two muffled "thump" sounds.
Seeing how easily they had succeeded, the two bodyguards' contempt grew even stronger. But when their fists landed, their expressions suddenly changed drastically. Their full-force punches felt as if they had hit a hard rock. They didn't see any reaction from the person being hit, but their fists suddenly made a crisp "crack" sound, followed by a piercing pain. Their knuckles had been broken by the impact.