326: Chapter 326 Losing Money Deal

"There are very few stones that yield jade there, but jade is also categorized by color."

"Whether you can cut out ordinary jade or top-grade emerald jade from there depends entirely on luck and insight."

The three chatted as they ate.

By the time the three of them finished eating, more than an hour had passed.

After settling the bill, they walked out of the small restaurant.

Lao Sheng, full of his guide spirit, asked the other two, "Where else do you plan to go for fun?"

Besides the essential trip for stone gambling, Shen Yan basically deferred to Liu Hui on everything. He turned his gaze to Liu Hui, waiting for her to answer.

After Liu Hui hesitated for quite a while, she said, "Since we've already come all the way here, let's go buy a few more stones. Even if we don't cut anything out, we can just treat it as fun."

Shen Yan and Lao Sheng had no objections.

The three walked side-by-side toward the stone gambling market.

As soon as they entered, they saw a dense crowd of heads packed in front of them.

"Why are there so many more customers today than yesterday?!"

Hearing Liu Hui's question, Lao Sheng replied with a look of accustomed familiarity, "This is very normal. Every time it's the day of an auction, the number of customers in the stone gambling market multiplies several times over."

"It's fine, we can just squeeze our way in."

Saying that, he directly pulled Liu Hui and Shen Yan into the crowd.

"Cut! Cut! Cut!"

They arrived at a very opportune moment.

As soon as they arrived, they saw the Shop Owner cutting a stone.

The Shop Owner was a burly man. He was currently holding a stone roughly the size of half a forearm.

"What's the rush? Let me first see where it's best to start..."

Saying that, the Shop Owner placed the stone on the cutting machine and began gesturing left and right.

Lao Sheng, afraid they wouldn't understand, provided a real-time explanation beside them.

"If buying stones relies on luck and insight, then cutting stones is a technical job."

"For example, if there's top-grade jade inside a stone, and you cut it perfectly to extract the entire piece, you can sell the jade shell for eight figures or more. If you don't cut it well and damage the raw material, the jade you have will probably only sell for seventy or eighty percent of its value."

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Hui suddenly understood.

"So that's how it is. No wonder that Shop Owner yesterday was so slow and deliberate when cutting the stone..."

The three exchanged quiet words while waiting for the Shop Owner to act.

After an unknown amount of time, the Shop Owner finally began cutting the stone.

As the machine started, everyone's gaze unconsciously shifted to the large stone in front of the Shop Owner.

"Vroom vroom vroom!"

With the first cut, there was no green light inside the stone.

Seeing this, the Shop Owner and the surrounding customers couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

They had expected such a large stone to surely yield a sizable piece of jade.

In the blink of an eye, the Shop Owner made a second cut.

This time, they finally saw the green jade inside the stone.

Liu Hui watched as the Shop Owner completely cut out the jade piece. She excitedly asked Lao Sheng, "How much money will the person who bought this stone make?"

Hearing Liu Hui's question, Lao Sheng scoffed and replied, "Make money? I think he's going to lose his underpants!"

Liu Hui's mouth dropped open: "Ah? Why?"

Lao Sheng explained, "A stone this big costs hundreds of thousands just to buy. The quality of the jade cut out isn't even as good as the orange color you cut out yesterday. Although it's bigger, it can at most sell for tens of thousands."

"Spending hundreds of thousands to buy jade worth only tens of thousands—isn't that losing his underpants?"

Liu Hui suddenly understood. She had thought that as long as they cut something out of the stone, it would be fine. She hadn't realized there were so many intricacies involved.

Thinking this, she suddenly said to Shen Yan, "I definitely won't spend hundreds of thousands to buy a stone to cut jade."

Before Shen Yan could speak, Lao Sheng nodded beside him and said, "Right, you two had better not get involved with this stuff."

"This stuff is just like gambling. Once you get involved, you can't quit."

Hearing this, Shen Yan couldn't help but glance at Lao Sheng. He said to Lao Sheng, "Looking at you now, you don't seem like you can't afford to eat. You could leave this line of work."

Lao Sheng smiled and shook his head.

"Didn't I already say it? Stone gambling is my fate. If you ask me to quit this line of work now, I don't know what else I would do."

Since he had put it that way, what else could Shen Yan say?

He could only smile and remain silent.

After watching the stone cutting, the three went to select stones.

The stones here were much larger in size than the ones they bought yesterday.

Correspondingly, the prices were also much higher.

"Just this one stone costs two hundred and fifty thousand. Isn't this too much of a rip-off?"

Liu Hui clicked her tongue in dismay as she looked at the price.

Lao Sheng, however, looked unconcerned.

"Only two hundred and fifty thousand. If it can yield jade of decent quality, two hundred and fifty thousand is absolutely worth it!"

Liu Hui pouted and said nothing.

She couldn't understand Lao Sheng's theory.

To her, spending hundreds of thousands on a stone that might yield no return was simply a business that would lose money down to the socks.

Of course, it was also possible that she hadn't truly experienced the fun of stone gambling yet.

Because the stones here were relatively expensive, and there was an auction in the afternoon, none of the three bought any stones here.

"Jingling, jingling."

Shen Yan's phone alarm rang.

Shen Yan took out his phone and glanced at it, realizing that without noticing, the time had already reached three in the afternoon.

The stone gambling market was not far from the auction venue; it was about a fifteen-minute walk.

After briefly organizing the things they had bought, the three headed to the auction together.

— —

"I heard there's a top-grade raw stone this time. Are you interested?"

"Is this a question of whether I'm interested? This is a question of whether I have the money to afford it!"

"Hahahaha, you're right. I heard quite a few big shots have come this time. It should be impossible for us to snatch food from the tiger's mouth."

"You know that already, why are you still asking me..."

Conversations from nearby kept reaching their ears.

Shen Yan frowned and asked Lao Sheng beside him, "Can't we go in early?"

Lao Sheng turned around and replied, "Those who go in early are all the big shots who booked private rooms. We're not the same as them; we have to wait until the auction is open to us."

Liu Hui blinked, asking with a face full of confusion, "Aren't we in a private room too?"

Hearing this, Lao Sheng scratched his head somewhat sheepishly.

"Oh dear, this is my fault. I didn't explain it clearly to you guys beforehand. If you want to book a private room, you have to put down a deposit first."

"My two friends stood me up, didn't they? I thought... paying the deposit by myself would be a bit too much of a stretch, so I canceled the reservation."

"But don't worry, we will definitely be able to sit in a private room!"