Chapter 45

After returning home, Jing Tian idly pulled out a virtual screen and quickly memorized the traditional Chinese character data organized by "Zhen Wei" using his divine consciousness.

The next day, he added various modern local dialect videos searched by "Zhen Wei" to his routine. He watched the subtitles provided by Jarvis to improve his listening skills in the required dialects.

The journey to Shanghai with Director Liang Fatso is not detailed. After a full day of sightseeing, on the second day, while having breakfast at the hotel, Jing Tian asked Liang Fatso, "Do you know where I can find a place to play stone gambling?"

"Spit..." Hearing Jing Tian's words, Fatso sprayed the porridge he had just sipped, but fortunately, he quickly turned his head to avoid spilling it on the table.

"Cough, cough..." Fatso coughed, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and looked at Jing Tian in disbelief, saying, "Why are you asking about this? You don't want to get involved in this, do you? Listen to me, never touch it. Even with my conditions, I dare not get involved. It was fine during the millennium, but now, out of ten stones, eight are fake, and the remaining two, one might just be a random stone picked up somewhere, and the other has a slight chance of being real jade."

Seeing Liang Fatso's shock, Jing Tian laughed and said, "I didn't say I was going to do anything, and you started rambling. Have you been burned before?"

Fatso said somewhat embarrassedly, "Ah, there was a period when novels about stone gambling were very popular. After reading them, I couldn't resist and almost got hooked, losing quite a bit of money. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been obediently arranged to work there by my family..."

Jing Tian, hearing this, laughed and shook his head, saying, "Perfect, having an acquaintance like you, take me to find a place later. I don't plan to get deeply involved; I only brought 50,000 yuan to play with."

Fatso shook his head and said, "You say that now, but I was the same back then. Once you start, you can't help but continue. You finally have some savings for your wife, don't lose it all. It would be hard for me to face your future sister-in-law."

Hearing Fatso's words, Jing Tian felt a warm feeling in his heart and said with a smile, "Don't worry, the card with more money is at home. The card I brought has less than 100,000 yuan, so even if I want to continue, I don't have the capital."

Fatso, hearing this, said with relief, "That's good. Since you want to experience it, let's go after breakfast. I know a place on Jianguo Central Road." He then started eating faster.

Seeing Fatso's speed, Jing Tian couldn't help but think with a smile, "Looks like this guy hasn't kicked the habit..."

After breakfast, the two drove directly to Tianzifang. As Fatso introduced various cafes, creative studios, and galleries along the way, they arrived at the jade and jewelry store in Fatso's memory.

Seeing Jing Tian's confusion at the various jade and jewelry items in the store, Fatso said, "The stone gambling is inside. The store owner also recycles the jade materials that have been opened, processes them, and sells them directly here, making it a one-stop industry."

With Jing Tian nodding, Fatso led him through a door into another hall.

Jing Tian, seeing the clearly higher foot traffic inside and hearing the buzzing sound of stone cutting from the adjacent rooms, felt everything was so novel. After all, he had only read about such scenes in novels; it took some time to accept them in real life.

As the two were still looking around, a man's voice came from the side.

"Hello, gentlemen."

Jing Tian and Fatso turned to see a man in his thirties, dressed casually, with a flashlight and a magnifying glass around his neck, nodding and smiling at them.

Seeing the puzzled looks on the two men's faces, the middle-aged man, as if realizing their confusion, smiled and handed them two business cards, saying, "I am Qi Pengfei, the manager here. Gentlemen, you look new, is this your first visit?"

Fatso took the business card and said, "I've been here once before, but I remember the manager wasn't you."

The manager smiled and said, "That was my father. He's older now and handed the store over to my brother and me after a few years. Since you're a returning customer, I'll give you a 10% discount today. I hope you have a good harvest and will come back often, ha ha."

Fatso, hearing this, laughed and said, "Ha ha, that's great. You're much more enthusiastic than your father."

The manager said somewhat embarrassedly, "During my father's time, only older people played this, and few young people did. It's only in recent years that young people have started playing. I'm around the same age, so I get excited when I meet like-minded people, ha ha. Please bear with me."

Jing Tian nodded inwardly, thinking the manager was quite good at speaking.

Seeing the two men's confusion gone, the manager continued enthusiastically, "What would you like to play, gentlemen? Fully gambled stones or open-faced stones? Do you have any size preferences?" He then led them to the stone material area.

Fatso thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and said to the manager, "I'm just here to accompany my friend. Whatever he decides is fine."

Seeing the manager's gaze on him, Jing Tian patted Fatso and said to the manager, "Let's look at the fully gambled stones."

Hearing Jing Tian's words, the manager led them to a row of shelves and pointed to the neatly arranged stones, saying, "All the fully gambled small stones are here."

Seeing the hundreds of stones on the shelves, Jing Tian nodded and asked, "What kind of mine are these stones from?"

The manager smiled and said, "I won't hide it from you, gentlemen. These stones come from various mines, including Pagon, Damoskan, and some lesser-known ones. For general players, the mine doesn't matter much. As long as you have the skills, the stones will turn out to be jade."

Jing Tian smiled, looked at the stones on the shelves, and released his divine consciousness. Instantly, the presence or absence of jade inside the stones appeared in his mind.

Seeing Jing Tian start to pick stones, the manager said, "Gentlemen, feel free to choose. Each stone has a number and price below it. I have an old customer coming, so I'll go attend to them. I'm really sorry, I'll be right back."

Seeing Jing Tian's attention on the stones, Fatso quickly replied, "No problem, go ahead."

The manager made an apologetic gesture and then walked to the door, stopping to talk to a young man on the way.

Jing Tian used his divine consciousness to scan the stones and picked out the ones that seemed to have clear jade. In the end, out of hundreds of stones, he only selected four that seemed better in his divine consciousness.

After scanning another dozen or so stones that seemed murky, Jing Tian thought for a moment and picked out two more. He then randomly picked about ten stones priced in the hundreds that had no jade inside and mixed them with the ones he had already chosen.

PS: Brothers, help me out! The new book rankings are close, and my performance is similar to the top few. Brothers, give it a push, recommend and collect!