Chapter 107: Gambling on Stones

  The new venue for the stone gambling is in a Dai village called "Man Jiang". The village is not small, with thousands of people living here. The village is built between two mountains, surrounded by mountains and water, with a clear river flowing slowly outside the village.

  The buildings in the village are all Dai-style bamboo houses, which have a unique charm against the backdrop of green mountains and clear waters. Some early-rising Dai girls are already walking around the village, their slim-fitting tube skirts making them look even more slender and charming.

  However, after a thrilling night, even the lustful Hu Qiang lost interest in admiring beautiful women and just sat on the ground resting quietly. Compared to him, Mao Wenqing's situation was slightly better, but he also looked somewhat dispirited.

  It turned out that Xiao Ping, who had been taking Ling liquid for a long time, was full of energy and although he was also afraid on the road, after being afraid, it didn't matter anymore. After getting off the car, he looked like a lively dragon again, carefully observing the situation in this village.

  It's clear that there are many outsiders in the village, especially in front of a particularly large bamboo building at the foot of the mountain, where many men and women, young and old, have gathered. These people are obviously not locals, they look tense, and many of them whisper to each other, even Xiao Ping can't hear what they're saying.

  "Boss Mao, it seems like the gambling den is just over there." Xiao Ping pointed to the bamboo building and said: "Why don't we go take a look?"

  After resting for a while, Mao Wengqing's spirits lifted somewhat, and he immediately nodded: "That's right, it should be there. I've already seen many familiar faces."

  Xiao Ping and others soon arrived in front of the bamboo building, and indeed there were many people who knew Mao Wenqing, who greeted him politely one after another. After all, Mao Wenqing was the boss of the largest jade store in the provincial city, and many people in this circle knew him.

  After the sky brightened, a middle-aged man dressed as a local appeared in front of the bamboo building and spoke to the crowd in Mandarin that was difficult to understand. Xiao Ping could only barely make out part of what he said, which meant that due to the war on the other side of the border, many jade rough stones were delayed on the road, so they had to move the gambling stone location here.

  However, the crowd didn't pay much attention to his explanation. At this moment, everyone's only concern was whether they could make a big profit in the next gamble. The local man also saw that no one was listening to him seriously, so he whispered a sentence and waved his hand to let everyone enter the bamboo building.

  Mao Wenqing showed the special invitation to the doorman and entered the bamboo building with Xiao Ping, Hu Qiang and two other partners. Only after arriving here did Xiao Ping discover that there was not a single piece of jade rough stone in the bamboo building, all of which were placed in the large courtyard behind the bamboo building. These rough stones were as big as fake mountains, some were only fist-sized, and were divided into several categories according to their quality and size, piled up in the yard for people to choose from. Under the eaves of the bamboo building, there was also a row of sand wheel cutting machines, which should be used for people to cut stones.

  Wen Qing also felt a bit tense at the sight, and gently patted Xiao Ping's shoulder, saying: "Xiao brother, it's up to you this time!"

  Xiao Ping nodded slightly and walked straight towards the original stones in the courtyard. Just as Xiao Ping had not yet entered the courtyard, the Lian Yao Hu on his chest had already responded and began to tremble lightly. This made Xiao Ping certain that there were many high-quality jadeites among these original stones, and this time he would definitely have a great harvest.

  However, in this unfamiliar southwestern border, Xiao Ping didn't dare to show off too much. He learned from others and pretended to examine the large and small original stones, but actually he was just looking for an opportunity to let the Lian Yao Hu approach those original stones and select the ones that made the Lian Yao Hu feel the strongest.

  After more than half an hour, Xiao Ping finally selected a raw stone. This raw stone was about the size of a basketball and was already considered quite large. However, its stone skin was extremely thick, and there wasn't even a hint of green color around it. If it weren't for the fact that it appeared here, Xiao Ping would have thought this was just an ordinary rock. But the Alchemy Cauldron's sensing of this raw stone was very strong, enough to make Xiao Ping certain that this was a high-quality raw stone.

  Xiao Ping looked at Mao Wenqing who had been following him and pointed to the raw stone with full confidence: "It's this one!"

  At this time, Mao Wenqing's extraordinary demeanor was revealed. Although Mao Wenqing did not think much of the raw stone, since it was chosen by Xiao Ping, he didn't ask any more questions and immediately settled on a price with the local person in charge of the pile of raw stones.

  The locals skillfully weighed the rough stone and then said in a thick accent: "Thirty-two million!"

  Mao Wenqing's expression remained calm as he nodded to his companion behind him to pay the bill. It was Xiao Ping who was shocked, stuttering and asking Mao Wenqing, "This...this one block is worth over 30 million?"

  Mao Wenqing knew that Xiao Ping was a first-timer at gambling on stones, and he understood his big reaction: "These are all original stones from the old pits of Myanmar. Recently, such original stones have become less and less available, and their prices have skyrocketed. This stone is still so cheap because it's completely covered in stone skin, and you can't see any green color at all. If some green color were to be revealed, the price would immediately double or triple."

  After hearing Mao Wenqing's words, Xiao Ping couldn't help but secretly feel embarrassed. He had thought that 15 million could buy a lot of rough stones, but he didn't expect the price of rough stones to be so expensive. No wonder Mao Wenqing knew that bringing this amount of money was not enough to make any impression, it turned out that he had already known that such an amount of money would not make any waves at the stone gambling meeting. Thinking of this, Xiao Ping couldn't help but sigh, if only he had known earlier, he would have said more to Mao Wenqing back then.

  While Xiao Ping was secretly regretful, Mao Wenqing had already completed the transaction. This was the first raw stone Mao Wenqing bought today, and he couldn't help but start to ask Xiao Ping with some tension: "Xiao brother, shall we go and cut open the stone together?"

  Xiao Ping was confident that he could get good jade out of this raw stone, and with a faint wave of his hand, said: "Don't bother, you guys go ahead, I'll stay here and take another look."

  Xiao Ping's words undoubtedly gave Mao Wenqing a lot of confidence, and he happily went with his men to the sandstone cutting machine under the bamboo building to cut stones. Xiao Ping stayed behind, wanting to take this opportunity to pick out a few raw stones for himself.

  After knowing the prices of these old pit originals, Xiao Ping naturally didn't dare to choose big ones, and could only set his sights on those original stones that were smaller than a fist. Even so, he didn't dare pick those that had already been polished to reveal green, but instead specifically chose original stones that were completely wrapped in stone skin, which would be even cheaper.

  For ordinary jade buyers, this is very dangerous. This kind of rough stone wrapped in a thick layer of skin may not show any green at all, and the result is equivalent to buying an ordinary stone.

  But Xiao Ping had the help of Lian Yao Hu, so he didn't have to worry about this point. On the contrary, because very few people were willing to buy such rough stones, it resulted in him having a wider range of choices. And among these rough stones, there were indeed some good quality ones, and Xiao Ping quickly picked out three that had a particularly strong resonance with Lian Yao Hu, and paid for them after weighing them as Mao Wenqing had done earlier.

  Even though the three original stones were very small, they still cost Xiao Ping over 1.3 million. He didn't have any extra money to buy more original stones. The seller asked Xiao Ping if he needed to crack open the stones on the spot, but he declined the suggestion as he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. So the seller put special marks on the original stones indicating that these three original stones had been paid for. Anyone who tried to take unmarked original stones out of the yard would be torn apart and thrown into a mountain ditch to feed wild beasts.

  Xiao Ping had just carefully put away the three pieces of raw stone when he heard a burst of exclamations coming from the direction of the sanding machine.

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  The second update for today has been delivered, continue to ask for votes and collections!

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