He scratched his head, frowned, and asked, "Old Wu, are you not handling the money? If you're not handling the money, that's fine too. We didn't spend much capital anyway. A little over a thousand yuan is just a little extra travel expenses for us. It's no big deal!"
"Pah!" Old Wu spat, annoyed. "When did I say it wasn't valuable? This emerald crystal, let me tell you, emerald is gem-quality green beryl. Its green color needs to be medium to rich and vibrant, meaning the concentration needs to be relatively high. A pale green is often called a beryl with a slight green tint. Beryl is a naturally occurring mineral, mainly composed of hexagonal symmetrical aluminum silicate minerals. It contains a suitable amount of beryl, which forms emerald. And emerald is the most outstanding member of the beryl family, in other words!"
Old Wu stared at the ** and hummed, "In other words, emeralds aren't worthless, they're very valuable. The quality of emeralds is usually determined by their color, transparency, and weight. As the name suggests, emerald, emerald. Of course, green is the best. Generally, if it's green with a grayish tinge, it's second-rate; if it's green with a bluish tinge, it's top-grade; pure green is the best. For transparency, clear, bright, and crystal-clear is the best; semi-transparent is ordinary. Weight is also a very important factor. Generally, emerald crystals are not large. After cutting and polishing, those of extremely high quality weighing over 2 carats are already rare, and those weighing over 1 carat are even rarer treasures."
"Take another look at the size of this piece!" Old Wu spread the emerald crystals in his hand flat in front of the group. Each one was slightly larger than his thumb.
"Look, each of these emeralds is pure green, transparent, and free of impurities, and they are quite large. If they were finely polished, each one would be around five carats. There are a total of twenty-six crystals here, which means there are twenty-six emeralds. If we consider each one as one carat, it wouldn't be very expensive, because its value would be lower, around forty or fifty thousand. The price would be higher for those with better quality, but for those over two carats, the price is different. It's like diamonds; even if the quality of small crystals is good, the price will still be lower. The larger ones can't be calculated in multiples. Each of these emerald crystals is worth over two million RMB, and the total value of these twenty-six is definitely over fifty million."
Zhou Xuan was also somewhat surprised. He thought he might have made a fortune, but he never expected that this random stone would be worth more than 50 million!
Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my arm; it turned out that ** had gripped my arm so tightly it hurt!
"Mr. Wu, you're saying this is worth fifty million?!" I could hardly believe my ears.
"Fifty million is an understatement!" Old Wu stared at the emerald in his hand, shaking his head as he spoke, though it was unclear what he was shaking his head for!
"I'm talking about over fifty million, over, do you understand?"
He just nodded and said repeatedly, "I understand, I understand!" He quickly took out another wad of bills, stuffed them into Master Chen's hand without counting them, and said, "Master Chen, you've all worked hard all day. Take this money and have a late-night snack or some tea."
Zhou Xuan smiled. "You really know how to behave. This sum of money is probably no less than three thousand yuan."
After saying goodbye to Master Chen and his nephew, Zhou Xuan, Lao Wu, and others packed the emerald crystals into their backpacks, hailed a taxi, and returned to Panjiayuan. It was quite late by then, and Zhou Tao and his assistant were still in the shop.
After opening the door to let Zhou Xuan and the other two into the shop, he closed the door again. Inside the shop, Old Wu took out the emerald and placed it on the table, examining it for a long time before shaking his head.
"Something's not quite right," he said, "Old Wu, didn't you say this was worth over fifty million? Why are you shaking your head? Did you misjudge it again?"
"No!" Old Wu sighed. "I just feel like I'm dreaming. From that luminous pearl to the emerald now, how come such rare treasures are as easy to find as picking up stones here?"
"Of course!" Zhou Xuan said with a smile, about to boast, but Zhou Xuan immediately said, "Boss, let Lao Wu, one of the craftsmen, polish these emeralds, and then sell them together with the luminous pearls. We'll then invest the funds back into the store. If we're going to do it, we'll make the store big."
**He paused for a moment, then remembered that if the store's total assets were tallied, the gold had sold for 20 million, the luminous pearl was worth at least 50 million, and these emeralds were worth another 50 million. So the store's total assets had already exceeded 100 million!
From preparation to now, it's only been a few days! And the price has increased so quickly, and it's a real increase—it's already over 100 million in assets?
He paused for a moment, then shook his head and waved his hands, saying, "Little brother, this is no good, no good. You've already invested too much. I know you're thinking of our brotherhood. These emeralds are yours now, so you don't need to invest them in the shop anymore. It's fine to sell them in the shop, but they can't be used as part of your total assets!"
This was also his true feeling. With Zhou Xuan's funds and luck, he had already gained too many benefits. After hearing that these emeralds were worth a lot of money, he was happy for Zhou Xuan and couldn't help but give him money as a reward, but he didn't want to make a profit.
Zhou Xuan chuckled and said, "Boss, you're mistaken. I'm not giving it to you; I want to expand our shop. These luminous pearls and emeralds are just to raise cash, then we'll import a batch of rough jade from Myanmar and process it into our own jadeite. Do you want to?"
Zhou Xuan smiled and stared at him, saying, "Want to open ten or eight more branches? Do you want to be a real big boss?"
Volume One: The First Budding Talents, Chapter 136: The Second Son is Erniu
"Yes. Of course I want to! I'm even more interested in becoming a big boss. It's just that I'm usually very lazy and don't seem to care much about antique shops. I only care about investing money and materials. Why do I suddenly want to go all out now?"
"Since you want to, that's good!" Zhou Xuan smiled, stroked his chin thoughtfully, and then said, "Boss, you and Old Wu can keep busy these next few days. We don't need to wait until the opening for the luminous pearl and emerald. Let's find an auction house first, preferably a well-known one, and auction them off. I need cash, but..."
Zhou Xuan stared at Old Wu and smiled, "Old Wu, with your connections and network, I think it would be best if we could contact underground buyers. The price doesn't matter if it's a little lower, as long as the money comes quickly!"
Zhou Xuan had naturally begun to learn a lot about underground transactions, since all the deals he'd made with Wei Haihong before were underground businesses. However, with Wei Haihong involved, he wasn't worried about any negative consequences. Although the prices were lower, he also saved a significant amount on brokerage fees, as auction houses took a very high cut. Everyone in this line of work knew this.
Zhou Xuan had considered asking Brother Hong for help, but he thought that if he had to ask him for everything in the future, he might develop a dependency on Brother Hong. It was extremely dangerous to rely on one person for everything. It wasn't that Brother Hong wouldn't help him, but what if something happened to Brother Hong, or if something went wrong when he left Beijing?
Just like Wei Haihong's older brothers, Wei Xiaoyu, they weren't very close to me, of course. I wouldn't go to them no matter what.
At this point, Zhou Xuan realized that he had to form his own circle and have his own strength. If ordinary people like him wanted to have power, the only way was to first become rich, extremely rich!
If you're extremely wealthy, then you must work hard to earn more money. Of course, for everyone, earning money is an ideal, a goal, but very few people achieve it. However, this isn't a problem for Zhou Xuan, who possesses the ice-qi ability. Earning money and building relationships are both effortless for him!
With ice energy at his disposal, making money is just a matter of time. How much he can earn in a day, a month, or a year is just a concept. As for money, Zhou Xuan originally thought that enough was enough. Just a few months ago, he thought that as long as he had tens of thousands of yuan, he would be able to go home and repair his house and get married. But in just a few months, his world and his outlook on life have been completely changed!
The biggest reason for Zhou Xuan's change of heart is actually Fu Ying. Zhou Xuan is now focused on giving Fu Ying the happiest life. Of course, Fu Ying isn't after his money. Fu Ying is much richer than him, and Zhou Xuan's desire to earn more money isn't for Fu Ying's sake; he already has enough money for a good life.
Zhou Xuan wanted to make Fu Ying truly happy, because Fu Ying came to him not with her family's consent; she had secretly run away from home. Zhou Xuan understood that to get her family's approval, he would have to get past Fu Ying's grandfather, Fu Tianlai.
Zhou Xuan understood Fu Tianlai's meaning: he wanted Fu Ying to be a good match for him in terms of both money and ability!
Now, with his ice-based abilities at his disposal, Zhou Xuan's strength is definitely not an issue. However, his wealth is a different story. Although he has made a considerable fortune through lucky breaks, amassing a net worth of several hundred million—a fortune most people wouldn't even dream of—this amount is nothing compared to the Fu family's wealth.
Metaphor.
Because of this, Zhou Xuan wanted to make money. And he wanted to make a lot of money. However, although he could detect rare treasures using ice energy, there was a crucial condition: he needed the method to find them. Otherwise, what use was ice energy? It was like being in the mountains of his hometown, where there were stones everywhere, but those stones were just stones. Even if you smashed them and ground them into powder, they would still just be stones and wouldn't turn into treasure.
But if he goes to Myanmar or the jadeite raw material trading base on the Yunnan border, it's like being given a mountain of treasures. He can do whatever he wants, take back rough jadeite pieces, and the transaction is legal and aboveboard. Where else can you find such an opportunity to make big money?
Like the previous times, I could earn tens of millions just by randomly sampling a piece of rough jade. If I went back to the place where rough jade was plentiful, I could earn hundreds of millions just by getting ten or eight pieces at a time. In less than a year or two, wouldn't I be a big shot? Even if I'm still a bit weaker than the Fu family, with my ability to make money, who could compare?
Zhou Xuan chuckled to himself as he pondered, while on the other side, ** was also laughing so hard he was almost dumbfounded. His wealth was snowballing, and without him even lifting a finger, he had become a giant in no time!
Old Wu was seriously considering what Zhou Xuan had just said. After hesitating for a while, he said, "Little Zhou, I can make some contact about this. I can find a few buyers. Let's give it a try. With my old reputation and my conviction about what I'm after, I should be able to get a few people to come and negotiate. But I can't guarantee how far things will go!"
“Alright!” Zhou Xuan nodded immediately and said with a smile, “Elder Wu, then I’ll have to trouble you!”
He then drove his car out of the parking lot on the street, picked up Zhou Xuan and Lao Wu, first dropped Lao Wu off at home, and then picked up Zhou Xuan. However, before they even reached Xicheng, his phone rang.
While driving, he answered the phone, and it was Zhao Lao Er's voice on the other end: "Boss Zhang, I'm at the train station, come pick someone up!"
He paused for a moment, then asked, "What kind of train station?"
"I found out online, but I didn't have my brother's phone number, so I called you directly. I'm completely disoriented here, so come pick me up quickly!"
Zhao Junjie kept urging him on, and said with a wry smile, "You're really something, just stay there and don't move, Zhou Xuan and I will come and get you!"
Zhou Xuan paused for a moment, then asked, "Who is it?"