Chapter 21: Carefree in Emerald Pavilion
The next morning, Li Yang took a taxi to the address on the business card.
Cuiyu Pavilion is located in the ancient city of Mingyang, which is a historic city. The old city is relatively well-preserved and features traditional architecture throughout. Although it's not very large, it's one of the most famous tourist attractions in Mingyang.
It's about seven or eight kilometers from the dormitory to Mingyang Ancient City, and it took Li Yang more than half an hour to arrive at the ancient city district. If not for having to pass through the entire downtown area of Mingyang from Li Yang's dormitory, it wouldn't have taken so long.
The taxi stopped outside the ancient city, as it was a one-way street inside and taxis were also prohibited from entering.
The ancient city wall has a history of over 1,000 years and is still well preserved today. Next to the old city is the famous Nanhu Tourist Area in Mingyang City. Although it's severe winter now, there are still many people coming to visit Nanhu, and inside the ancient city area, it's crowded with people, many roadside shops are bustling with customers, showing a prosperous scene.
Li Yang looked up and took a glance at the old city wall in front of him, then strode into the ancient city's streets.
In the four years of university, Li Yang had been here many times and was not unfamiliar with things in the old city district. The buildings inside the ancient city looked like antique architecture, but were actually rebuilt later. Only those city walls truly had a history.
The sign of Cuixuan Hall is very large, and the store is not small either. As soon as Li Yang walked a short distance into the ancient city street, he saw that big sign. Although Cuixuan Hall can't compare with Anshi Jewelry, they have this kind of classical and elegant charm that Anshi Jewelry doesn't possess.
"Hello sir, what can I help you with?"
Li Yang had just entered when a pretty cheongsam-clad girl walked up with a smile and asked, from the service perspective, this place is not worse than An's Jewelry.
"Hello, I'm Li Yang. I was invited by Director Zhang!" Li Yang smiled and looked around the store before responding in a low voice since he didn't see Zhang Wei.
"Director Zhang is in the back, I'll go help you pass on the message, just wait a moment!"
The cheongsam-clad girl gave Li Yang a strange look, then walked towards the back of the store. There was a small door at the back that you wouldn't notice if you didn't look carefully.
Taking advantage of the waiting time, Li Yang carefully examined Cuiyu Xuan again. The place matched its name, and the store only sold various jade stones.
From the outside, Cuixuan Hall looks simple and elegant, but when you are inside, it gives people a sense of luxury and grandeur everywhere. The space in the store is not large, but it is decorated very appropriately, with exquisite ancient-style cabinets on the walls around, and the cabinets are not completely connected together, with beautiful ancient paintings hanging in the empty spaces in between.
On the wall cabinet, there are various jade carvings of different sizes placed in a staggered manner, including larger Buddha statues and smaller seat carvings.
In front of the wall cabinet, a row of glass cabinets were also placed, mostly with some bracelets, rings and pendants inside. Several young girls wearing cheongsam stood in front of the glass cabinet, presenting a different scenery.
Li Yang was watching, and Zhang Wei, who had gone to An's Jewelry to find Li Yang yesterday, smiled and walked out from behind. He came forward and warmly shook hands with Li Yang: "I didn't expect Mr. Li to come so soon, it just so happens that there are a few friends from the association coming over today, let everyone get to know each other!"
"Director Zhang, you're too polite! I'm here to learn from all of you!" Li Yang nodded his head. His purpose for coming to the Jade Stone Association was to learn, and he wanted to learn anything related to jade stone gambling. He wouldn't oppose getting to know more people like this.
"Let's discuss together, Mr. Li, please come in!" Zhang Wei smiled and shook his head, leading Li Yang inside as he spoke.
As soon as the two arrived, several cheongsam-clad girls in the store were astonished and whispered to each other. This was the headquarters of the Mingyang Jade Association, where many members of the jade association would come from time to time. However, those people were either middle-aged men in their thirties or forties, or older men in their fifties or sixties. Someone as young as Li Yang was a first-timer, and at first, they thought he was Zhang Wei's younger relative.
Through a short corridor behind the back door, Li Yang followed Zhang Wei to a large courtyard. Li Yang did not expect that behind Cuiyu Xuan in this ancient city area, there was another courtyard twice as big as the front one.
The yard was very large, and there were some stones placed along the wall. As soon as Li Yang saw these stones, he immediately stared at them, and then revealed a hint of joy. These stones were obviously some gambled stone materials.
In the center of the courtyard, there is a canopy. Under the canopy, a jade polishing machine is placed. Li Yang is no stranger to this jade polishing machine. The size of this jade polishing machine is similar to the one he saw at the Qingdao Jewelry Exhibition.
There were already three people standing in front of the stone cutter, one of whom was a middle-aged man in his thirties wearing glasses cutting a piece of stone. After Zhang Wei brought Li Yang in, both of them stood aside and watched, neither of them speaking.
"Look out!"
It took more than ten minutes for the stone to be cut open, and the people around all crowded together to look inside. Li Yang also followed them, but at this time, he did not use his special ability to observe the cutting of the gambling stone.
"What a pity!"
Next to Zhang Wei, an old man in his sixties shook his head regretfully. The middle-aged man who took off his glasses frowned and observed the piece of jade that had been cut into two pieces. What he had cut open was a half-jade material with one side already showing green, and the water head was not bad, but unfortunately, there was nothing inside after cutting it open.
"Another one gone!" The middle-aged man sighed and shook his head, taking down the half-finished jade material that had been cut open on the stone cutter. He took out a slightly smaller piece of half-finished jade material from the box under his feet and put it back under the stone cutter.
This piece of jade is slightly larger than a basketball, and from the cut-out skylight, the highest water head is like that of an oily green variety. The cut surface has a bit of green, but it's not very good, it's a kind of light greenish-green color.
"This is our Shi Xiehui's Director Sima Lin, he just came back from Pingzhou a few days ago and brought back three and a half pieces of gambiered woolen fabric. He has already unwrapped one piece earlier, now he is going to unwrap the last one!"
Zhang Wei leaned in close to Li Yang's ear and whispered an introduction, Li Yang nodded slightly and slowly rubbed his hands together.
Soon, a three-dimensional picture appeared in Li Yang's mind again, and the few of them and the gambling stones on the stone cutter all appeared within this three-dimensional picture.
Sim Lin has already made the cut, Li Yang couldn't help but furrow his brow. The piece of jade that Sim Lin was cutting had a large green area inside. The place where Sim Lin made the cut was slightly off-center, splitting the intact green area into two unequal pieces.
Li Yang estimated that if he were to dig out the entire green area, he could make at least six or seven pairs of bangles. However, with Sima Lin's interference, he would probably have to reduce the number by one or two, and the remaining material would only be enough to make some small items like pendants or ring faces, which would decrease the value by at least 10% to 20%.
Thank you for the 588 starter coins reward from a friend from the stars!
