Free Web NovelChapter 59: Chapter 59: Pingzhou
May 2nd.
A clear sky allowed the sun’s rays to beat down unimpeded, especially in the densely urbanized Pearl River Delta Region, where the heat island effect was even more pronounced.
The temperature in Pingzhou was quite a bit higher than in Magong Town.
Jiang Miao and his group had taken a high-speed train to Yangcheng that morning and checked into the Fuyi Business Hotel.
Inside his hotel room, he casually pulled open the curtains and looked outside. Across Yong’an Road was a street-side park, and diagonally opposite was the Pingzhou Community Police Substation.
He sat down and took a sip of bottled green tea.
Shuya, who was in the same room, finished putting away her suitcase and reapplied her lipstick. "Ah Miao, let’s go downstairs! We shouldn’t keep your sister waiting."
"Are you sure you don’t want to go back and visit Panyu?"
"What’s there to see?" Shuya had no desire to go back and see the looks on her two brothers’ faces.
"Suit yourself." Jiang Miao straightened a strand of her hair, then took her arm, and they walked out of the room together.
The bodyguards who had arrived in advance brought two pickup trucks. For security, Jiang Miao, Shuya, Li Zixuan, and Ke Yong rode in one, while his sister, An Ning, and two other bodyguards rode in the other. freёwebnovel.com
They headed west on Yong’an Road, turned south onto Xincun Avenue East, and then drove straight to Pingdong Avenue, which brought them into Pingzhou’s Jade Street area, surrounded by several hundred businesses and shops related to jadeite.
The group didn’t head for Jade Street itself, but instead turned onto Kun Gang South Road.
Before long, the trucks stopped at the entrance of the Pingzhou Jade Raw Material Trading Market.
Jiang Miao, Shuya, his sister, Li Zixuan, An Ning, and Ke Yong all got out to walk, while the two bodyguards continued on in the vehicles.
"This area is full of jade-related shops. Let’s browse for a bit," Jiang Miao said, taking Shuya’s hand. The two of them walked toward a sizable-looking jade store.
Once inside, his sister looked around before coming to his side and whispering, "Ah Miao, the jadeite in this shop is so expensive."
Jiang Miao was holding a flashlight provided by the shop owner, examining a semi-gambling stone. A window had been cut into it, revealing a large section of jade flesh. "You get what you pay for! The quality of the jadeite in this shop is pretty good."
"Boss Jiang, you have a good eye," the jade shop owner beside them said with a flattering smile.
Jiang Miao shook his head. "Boss Huang, your wares are indeed fine."
Despite his words, Jiang Miao moved on to the next semi-gambling stone. The one he had just been looking at only had a small color band on the surface of the cut window; the rest was just marble-like veining.
Clearly, the person who cut the window was an expert.
"This one is covered in cracks, and they still want 80,000 for it?" his sister commented, shaking her head as she looked.
"Ms. Jiang, this stone may have a lot of fractures, but its texture and translucency are excellent! This is a waxy-ice ’spring with color’ type, perfect for making small items like pendants."
"Heh, who knows what’s underneath? What if it’s all just marble?" His sister still looked disdainful.
Boss Huang chuckled and joined in, "Hahaha, the gamble in stone gambling is the unknown. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called gambling, would it?"
Jiang Miao also looked at that semi-gambling stone. ’His sister was right; underneath, it was indeed pitch-black marble.’
He shone his flashlight on a third semi-gambling stone. "This one’s a bit interesting."
Boss Huang, standing nearby, reminded him, "Boss Jiang, with that stone, you’re betting on finding color in the flesh underneath. But that crack is very obvious, so there’s almost certainly no room for a bangle."
The stone was not small, weighing over ten kilograms. It had a black outer skin. In the cut window, the grayish-white surface showed two patches of bean-green jade: one the size of a fingernail, the other the size of a soybean.
Boss Huang didn’t have high hopes for this stone and had priced it at only 17,000.
’However, my ’Fiery Eyes, Golden Gaze’ pierced through the layers, revealing the stone’s true nature. The two patches of bean-green jade at the window were actually just small exposed parts of a huge piece of jade flesh underneath. The jade flesh within was a sky-blue glass-type. The reason it appeared bean-green on the surface of the window was due to contamination from other elements in the skin. A cut just one centimeter deeper would reveal the sky-blue, glass-type jade flesh. The crack did indeed run through the entire stone, but fortunately, it was a clean, major fissure without many smaller, branching cracks. Plus, since the stone was relatively large and thick, even after being split in two, it would still be possible to carve out bangles—at least six of them.’
"Boss Huang, how about a flat 15,000?"
"My friend, are you sure you want it?" Boss Huang quickly confirmed.
Jiang Miao smiled. "I’m serious, Boss Huang. Let’s make a friend."
"Alright. I feel a connection with you, my friend. 15,000 it is."
"Ah Yong, you hold on to this one. We’ll pay for everything together later."
Seeing her younger brother buy such an unremarkable stone, Jiang Xia quickly tried to dissuade him. "Ah Miao, I think this one is even worse than that ’crushed ice’ one from before. At least with that one, you could cut out some pendants and cabochons."
"Sis, don’t worry. I’m just having some fun. It’s only 15,000, anyway."
"Alright, then." His sister could only let it go.
Shuya didn’t say anything. She was off to the side, looking at a semi-gambling stone that had a violet-colored band on its surface.
Before they knew it, about half an hour had passed.
After making a full round of the shop, Jiang Miao had selected a total of five semi-gambling stones, for a total price of 340,000.
After he paid with his card,
Boss Huang said with a broad smile, "My friend, if you want to buy jadeite in the future, you can come find me. Oh, right, Pingzhou is holding another public auction in October. I wonder if you’d be interested?"
"I’ll come take a look if I’m free," Jiang Miao said, handing the flashlight back to him and taking a sip of water. "It’s almost noon, so I won’t disturb you any longer. Goodbye."
"How about we have a meal together?"
Jiang Miao shook his head. "No, thank you. I’ve arranged to meet a friend."
"I see! Well, next time, next time you come to Pingzhou, my friend, just call me directly and let me be a proper host."
"Haha, definitely, definitely."
They put the gambling stones in the bed of the pickup truck and locked it up.
The group then found a nearby Chaoshan beef hotpot restaurant and got a private room.
"Sis, after you go back to Hailufeng tomorrow, make another trip to Jieyang and hire a few jade masters. Have them merge with the processing factory for the gold shop."
His sister, who was in the middle of dipping a slice of beef shank into the hot pot, paused. "Is it really necessary to hire jade carvers specifically? We only have a few stones."
"We can expand the gold shop’s business! In the future, we can come to Pingzhou every year to bid on some semi-exposed material, take it back to make jewelry and bangles, and then we can open branch stores in places like Hai Feng, Lufeng, and Lu River," Jiang Miao said, picking up a beef meatball with his chopsticks.
"Is that the plan? I guess that works. Actually, we could just commission the shops in Jieyang to process them for us," his sister reminded him.
Jiang Miao just smiled without saying a word. He was, of course, aware that Jieyang, as the Jade Capital, possessed a massive and completely integrated jade processing industry.
But he didn’t want to attract attention; it was better to handle things internally within his own company.
For example, if the five stones he had just acquired were all cut open, their value would be no less than 20 million. This was also the reason he didn’t cut the stones in Pingzhou.
After all, with so many people around, gossip spreads easily. And with the prevalence of the internet and smartphones these days, it would be too easy for someone to film it and post it online. He had no desire to become famous for stone gambling.
After lunch, they found a coffee shop where they could enjoy the air conditioning and drank coffee for over an hour.
In the afternoon, Jiang Miao led the group to continue their shopping spree at the nearby jade dealerships.
One after another, they visited eight relatively large jade dealerships and purchased 39 semi-gambling stones, 12 full-gambling stones, and also bought up five tons of "trash" material that others had already picked through. In total, they spent 3.76 million.
The seller of the five tons of trash material, a Boss Ye, watched with a beaming smile as his workers loaded the stones onto a truck.
"Boss Jiang, even though this batch is made of leftovers, there’s still a chance of finding something good."
Jiang Miao smiled and picked up a full-gambling stone with a pitch-black rind. "I don’t plan on cutting it myself. I’m going to sell it online. I’ll definitely make my money back on these five tons."
"It seems my friend knows the market. There are plenty of suckers online. But you’d better arrange for a few shills and find a few good stones to cut open to make it work," Boss Ye advised with a knowing smile.
"Of course," Jiang Miao replied, playing along.
He casually placed the pitch-black stone in Ke Yong’s hands. "Find someone to cut this one open later."
"Yes, Boss!" Ke Yong quickly took the stone back to the pickup truck.
Boss Ye paid it no mind. After all, he and several old masters had been poring over this batch of stones for over half a year—so long that they’d nearly worn a patina into them.
He didn’t believe that black-skinned stone had any value. The other black-skinned stones sold from this batch had all turned out to be the ’fighter jets of trash’ when cut open—so worthless you’d consider it bad luck to even use them for paving. freewёbnoνel.com
Too bad he didn’t know that Jiang Miao had spent 500,000 on these five tons of trash material specifically for that one stone.
Of course, Jiang Miao had also bought the five tons of trash material to cover for the fifty-plus high-quality stones he’d acquired.
In any case, as long as he didn’t explain, the masters at the factory wouldn’t know where these stones came from.
When the time came, Jiang Miao could just be ambiguous and say that the high-quality stones were purchased in the same batch as the five tons of trash. That way, it wouldn’t seem too abrupt or suspicious.
After all, there were some jade companies in the market that specialized exclusively in high-end, premium products.
