Chapter 65

Wu Di played with the goose egg, his mind racing:

"Recently, my self-control seems to be a bit off. If this continues, I'll eventually be found out. I need to stay calm, stay calm!"

Chang Linlin noticed Wu Di's actions and asked curiously:

"Little Wu, what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just a bit surprised. This is really a piece of jade material, not a pebble."

"That's right, I didn't see who picked it. Now I can understand what the stones are saying! At the time, there was a very ugly big guy next to it who swore it wasn't out of jealousy, but that the goose egg next to it definitely had a problem!"

Chang Linlin spoke with a serious tone. If this lie wasn't made up by Wu Di, he would have been suspicious. If this stone were to open up one day, the other few people who knew the whole story would definitely seriously consider whether someone could really understand what the stones were saying.

Wu Di was afraid that this silly sister might lose the stone one day. Although the ocean blue is not as valuable as the imperial green, it is still a top-grade color. Moreover, this piece is even larger than Wu Di's imperial green, and in total, its value is not much less. Fine, let's just pretend to be a mystic for once.

The light in the minivan was not much brighter than the light in Old Liu's yard. Wu Di took out a flashlight and carefully examined the stone again, pointing to a side and said:

"Look, there should have been pine flowers here, and here, they've all been ground off. This place might have been a python band. With so many features on such a small stone, this stone is very likely to be a top-grade one! Sister, you must take good care of it, don't lose it."

"Top-grade? You mean glass imperial green?"

Chang Linlin asked excitedly.

"It might not reach that level, but I think high ice is entirely possible."

Song Hongyan became interested and said:

"Let me take a look."

He and the fat man, Luo Quan, squeezed in the back seat, handing the stone to the fat man in the middle. Song Hongyan took out a flashlight and started to examine the rough stone.

The texture was very fine, completely free of sand, and slightly heavy. If there was jade, the quality would certainly not be bad. Song Hongyan began to believe Wu Di's judgment. But the pine flowers? The python band? Was he referring to the blackish area? That was clearly a different skin color! If he said it was a feature, it would be more appropriate to say it was a scab that had been ground off!

The fat man nodded toward the front, and Song Hongyan understood. Wu Di was just teasing Chang Linlin. He then said ambiguously:

"It might be a good stone, very fine, very heavy."

Chang Linlin was excited like a chattering little bird, patting Zhong Qi's shoulder and calling out:

"Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Everyone says my goose egg is top-grade. Hahaha, I am indeed a top expert!"

Zhong Qi had already seen the stone in the small room and agreed to Chang Linlin's name for the goose egg. How could he not know what this was? This stone was almost writing "I am a pebble!" on its face. But could he say it now? Could he say it was a top-grade goose egg? Regardless of whether the excited Linlin would believe it, just the act of pouring cold water would make his ears suffer. Sigh, the husband's authority is not strong! Forget it, since it's Wu Di who caused this, any future problems won't be on his head.

Zhong Qi was prepared to be an ostrich, but Chang Linlin wouldn't let him off, persistently asking:

"Is there nothing you want to say? How can you be like this, even making me jealous. Hmph, in the small room, you insisted it was a pebble, now it's proven you were wrong? Oh, I get it, you were afraid of losing face!"

Everyone in the car was silent, collectively mourning for Zhong Qi. Wu Di thought, Chang Linlin doesn't seem to be like this, does every woman become like this after falling in love? That would be terrifying. When I go back to Beijing, I won't call Meng Yao. That girl is definitely more troublesome than Chang Linlin. Pfft, whether she's troublesome or not, what does it have to do with me? I'm looking for Wen Lan, the pure white flower! Wu Di was a bit worried, blaming himself for being timid and not directly asking Wen Lan for her phone number. What should he do? The secret manual I saw on the forum is indeed very useful. Being bold, careful, and thick-skinned, with the thick-skinned part coming last, is indeed the most important.

After returning to the hotel and freshening up, it was already past ten o'clock. Everyone went to bed early, preparing for the next day's battle.

Jiegao border trade market was only a ten-minute drive from where they were staying. Wu Di and the others set off at eight o'clock, arriving at the market just in time.

There was nothing to see outside the market; all the merchants were concentrated in rows of warehouses, and the rough stones were neatly arranged on simple iron racks. All that could be seen were rough stones, no other goods. Zhong Qi laughed:

"If all the rough stones in the market were gathered together, a large public auction could be held, let alone the things in the merchants' warehouses. But half of them are from the Li, Song, and Wang families, these three stones are really amazing!"

Because of the Jade King, Chang Linlin knew the saying, "Qi Zhu Shen Cui, the three stones, the king can hold up half the sky!" The others were all in the trade and had long known these legendary giants. Song Hongyan and Qian Fat had even dealt with them before.

"With so many retail channels and the ability to organize the Ruili and Pingzhou public auctions every year, how much rough stone do these three stones have in storage?"

"Who knows, ordinary people can't even find their warehouses. You haven't seen their terrifying purchases, which are measured in trucks, how much does one truck cost? We buy one piece at a time, it's just for fun."

Zhong Qi and Song Hongyan both brought their stones with them. Zhong Qi was determined to shock the early market, and Song Hongyan had to deal with the cracks to prevent greater damage during transportation. Before coming, Chang Linlin had been hesitant about whether to open her goose egg. Wu Di was afraid it wouldn't be easy to preserve if opened, as they still had to stay for about ten days, so he advised her to play with it for a few more days and have the fat man open it when they got back, leaving the stone in the hotel's safe. As for the beauty stone, Wu Di had already seen it clearly. On the upper part of the beauty, there was a piece of top-grade jade, about twice the size of a matchbox, with imperial green and bright red jade intertwined. If cut into a pendant, it would be a top-grade among top-grades. He planned to cut off the ends of the stone without exposing the jade, and then process it in Beijing. If he couldn't buy the field yellow, he would use it as a substitute.

The rough stone was left in the car, and Luo Quan watched over it as they walked toward the market. The market had a dedicated stone-cutting area, but Zhong Qi, the show-off, insisted on waiting three hours before cutting, claiming that there would be more people then, and he wanted to take revenge for his previous failure!

The rows of rough stones seemed endless, and the polished stones at the top of each row glowed softly and smoothly, with a variety of colors, making Chang Linlin's eyes dazzle.

As usual, they started from the first stall at the entrance. Song Hongyan suggested they split up and meet at the stone-cutting factory at eleven o'clock. Everyone agreed, and they split into four groups, each taking a row, and began to look at the stones. Zhong Qi even boasted that each person must buy at least one stone, and the loser would pay for the meal. Unfortunately, no one paid attention to him, even Chang Linlin, who ran off like a hunting dog tracking prey, sniffing out the scent of jade.

Wu Di was in the third row. The full-gambling stones in Jiegao market were not many, most were windowed. Wu Di first looked at the polished stones, handling those above ice grade, explaining to the owner that he was borrowing some luck, then looked at the semi-gambling stones, and finally the full-gambling stones.

At the third stall, Wu Di saw a piece of rough stone from the Nanqi field, about the size of a bucket of instant noodles, a standard water-flipped sand stone. Nanqi is a major field in the small field area, producing yellow sand skin stones, half-mountain half-water stones, and water-flipped sand stones. Generally, there is no mist, and the green is often blue, gray, or even black. Good base stones often have green, while ugly base stones rarely have color.

This stone had a fine texture, indicating a thin skin and plenty of water, but Wu Di was not optimistic about the color, which was likely to be overall black. He shone a flashlight on the surface, and the scattered light was not yellow-green but a bluish-gray.

Wu Di picked up the rough stone and asked:

"Boss, how much for this one?"

The boss was Burmese, speaking fluent Chinese, claiming he went to primary school here. Seeing Wu Di asking the price, he grinned, showing a mouth full of yellow teeth, and made a gesture with his right hand.

"Eight thousand?"

"Boss, you're joking. This is the famous water-flipped sand from the Nanqi field, with a very good color. It costs eighty thousand yuan, and this is a special opening price for me."

Wu Di absolutely believed that if this guy was really Burmese, he must not live there, as his bargaining skills were smoother than many aunties and grandmas.

Wu Di was used to using the Heavenly Book to see through before bargaining, and this time was no exception. His judgment was correct; the color of the stone was overall black, but not green-black, rather deep blue-black. If cut, the thin slices would be less valuable than Chang Linlin's ocean blue, but still very sought after.

"Thirty thousand." Wu Di offered his estimated price.

"Boss, that's the price from two years ago. In the past two years, the price of rough stones has tripled! It's said to be rising even more, with glass-grade stones going through the roof. Do you know? A few days ago, a glass-grade stone was sold in Beijing, not very big, just with floating flowers, for three hundred million yuan!"

The boss's small eyes gleamed with greed and envy,

"This rough stone might contain glass-grade jade. And it's definitely thin-skinned and thick-fleshed!"

"Then why don't you cut it and try? If it is, wouldn't you get rich?"

"No, no, we who deal in raw stones are most taboo about cutting stones, but we see a lot and can give the most reasonable price and advice."

"Then how much can you sell it for?"

Wu Di calculated the price in his mind. A deep blue ice glass, it should be worth at least a few million.

"Seventy-five thousand, it's a rock-bottom price."

"Fifty thousand, if you agree, count the money; if not, I'll keep looking!"

Wu Di was tired of arguing.

The boss bared his teeth, as if squeezing out two words with great effort,

"Deal."

Seeing his excited expression while counting the money, Wu Di knew he had overpaid, and by a lot. The risk of this rough stone being a dud was too high, and not many people would be interested. Money shouldn't be spent like this, and being taken for a fool doesn't feel good.

Wu Di took a photo of the rough stone and stored it, then continued to browse. The more he looked, the less interested he became. No wonder high-end jade is getting more expensive, the good stuff is getting rarer! If all the stones are like this, how can rich people play with jade? Once they leave, the jade market will collapse.

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