430: Jade mining

Liu Yao and the others arrived at the private room in the Gathering of All Rivers and Seas Seafood Restaurant. They heard that Yang Qi and Brother Jun had gone to the neighboring city that morning, caught an Alligator Gar, and won a 100,000 yuan prize.

Every one of them was incredibly envious, feeling that they could have done it too. At the same time, they blamed Brother Jun for not calling them to go along that morning.

"I say, everyone, if I had called you to come along, what could you have actually done? Is there anyone among you who can catch an Alligator Gar?"

Zhang Jun retorted disdainfully.

"Uh..."

The group, feeling looked down upon, was somewhat speechless.

"This won't do, Brother Jun. I definitely have to win back some face. Let's charter a boat in a few days and go to the South Oil area."

Liu Yao suggested.

"Hehehe, you young people shouldn't be so stubborn. It's fine to go once. It's almost New Year's anyway, so let's treat it as the last trip out to sea before the year ends. You go and arrange it; chartering a boat or joining one is fine."

Zhang Jun said after thinking it over.

Yang Qi just smiled and didn't say a word, acting as a member of the audience enjoying the show.

"Yang Qi, are you interested? Let's go and have a go at it together."

Liu Yao turned his head to invite Yang Qi.

"I won't be going. You guys go ahead. Or maybe take my dad along for some fun. Since it's almost New Year's anyway, his fishing boat business can take a break."

Yang Qi said with a smile.

"That works! If the uncle wants to go, we'll count him in. I'll get things contacted on my end first and let you know in advance."

"Alright, I'll tell him when I get back. He'll definitely be very happy."

After Yang Qi finished his meal, he returned to Qingshan Town and mentioned this to his father, Yang Limin, who was indeed quite happy about it.

However, things didn't go as planned. When it was almost time to head out to sea, the weather didn't cooperate. It rained and blew every day, making it impossible to go out to sea at all.

So, Yang Qi received another call from Liu Yao, saying that the South Oil area plan was canceled.

Yang Qi and Bai Xue didn't go out for the past few days either. After waking up in the morning, they would feed the fish in the front and back yards, and then they had nothing else to do.

The two people and their dog would either lie in the corridor drinking tea or work on gold jewelry in the workshop.

Bai Xue spent several days and actually made a gold necklace for Yang Qi. She even insisted that he wear it and not take it off.

Yang Qi spent 500 yuan to order a set of Polishing machines online.

That's right; those jadeites had been sitting at home for so long without him touching them. Since he was idle during these rainy days, he wanted to cut a couple of pieces to see what they were like.

He hadn't even figured out if they were actually raw jadeite stoness yet. He couldn't just leave them in the safe room forever, right? What if they weren't?

It didn't matter that he didn't understand how to draw lines or cut them. He planned to just use the Cutting machine to cut slowly and the Angle grinder to grind slowly.

As long as he knew they were truly raw jadeite stoness, that would be enough. Even if he knew they were jadeite, he didn't plan on extracting all of them.

He set up the workspace in the backyard. Yang Qi brought over a raw stone slightly larger than the mouth of a bowl. After securing it, he put on a mask and goggles and picked up the small Cutting machine.

He began cutting at the edge, about a seventh of the way in. Since he didn't know what he was doing anyway, he just cut inward bit by bit.

Half an hour later, just as Yang Qi's ears were about to go numb from the vibration, the raw stone was finally cut through.

After turning off the power, he took the stone out to look. Wasn't this still just a rock? It looked all gray and dull.

This result was very different from what Yang Qi had anticipated.

He clearly remembered seeing in short videos that when others opened raw stones, wouldn't they see a patch of emerald green as soon as they made a cut and picked it up?

Could it be that this stone was just a stone and had nothing to do with jadeite at all?

Or perhaps he hadn't cut deep enough, and there was still jadeite inside.

"Keep at it. I don't believe those Japs would really put a worthless rock together with the treasure," Yang Qi muttered to himself, cheering himself on.

Yang Qi secretly encouraged himself.

Another half hour passed. He picked up the raw stone again, and upon opening it, he finally discovered a smear of emerald green color.

"Hahaha, it's showing green!"

Yang Qi was extremely happy. Needless to say, he knew this was jadeite. Although he didn't know much about jadeite, he knew that the purer the color, the better.

"Snowy, come and take a look."

Yang Qi took the raw stone to find Bai Xue, wanting to share the joy with her.

"It's transparent and flawless, without a single impurity or cotton-like inclusion. The green is very pure and even."

"Although the color isn't particularly deep green, it should still be considered high-end jadeite."

Bai Xue said as she looked it over.

"Snowy, you understand this too?"

Yang Qi was a bit curious, thinking to himself,

"Marine biology is your specialty. You know about jadeite too? Are you that amazing?"

"Hehehe, I wouldn't dare claim that. I really don't understand jadeite, but I can at least recognize the color!"

Bai Xue smiled and handed the raw stone back to Yang Qi.

"Well, that still counts as being impressive. Now it's proven that those are all genuine raw jadeite stoness. That's enough!"

"I'll take some time to extract this piece of jadeite first."

Yang Qi grinned happily.

It was his first time opening a raw jadeite stones, and he had personally opened a piece of high-quality jadeite. No one would believe him if he said he wasn't happy.

"I'm not doing anything else today. I'm going to stick with this thing until I've extracted it."

Yang Qi said to Bai Xue.

"Alright, good luck, hubby! At noon, I'll stew a Native Chicken for you. My grandfather sent them over yesterday; they're our own Native Chickens."

Bai Xue gave a playful smile.

"Oh, is that batch of our Native Chickens ready for market now?"

Yang Qi was startled; this news was truly a pleasant surprise for him.

"My grandfather said they can be sent to market in batches now. However, it's best to wait until after the New Year. He sent four over yesterday for us to try first."

After Bai Xue finished speaking, she went to attend to her own business, while Yang Qi turned the power back on and continued processing the raw stone.

Fearing he might damage the jadeite inside, Yang Qi held the Angle grinder and slowed down his speed, beginning to carefully strip away the outer skin bit by bit.

Because of this, by the time Bai Xue called him from the kitchen for lunch, not even half of the raw stone's outer skin had been ground away.

Although the work was slow, Yang Qi poured his heart and soul into it. He felt that it had been a long time since he had been so focused on doing one thing.

"Hubby, did you get it all out?"

Bai Xue served Yang Qi a bowl of Native Chicken soup and asked.

"No, I've only extracted less than half. I just started getting the hang of it. I'll definitely finish extracting it this afternoon. The rest can wait for later."

"Once this piece is out, I'll save it for you to practice making jewelry."

After Yang Qi finished speaking, he took a sip of the chicken soup and nodded repeatedly.

"Delicious, this chicken soup is delicious. Let's take one to Brother Jun tomorrow and let him try it. He's a big customer of ours."

"Hehehe, alright. It's in the freezer now."

Bai Xue said with a smile.

After the two finished their meal, they continued with their respective tasks. Yang Qi finally extracted that piece of jadeite completely.

At this moment, Bai Xue was holding it in her hand and admiring it:

"Tsk tsk, the color of this jadeite is so transparent and beautiful. I feel like it's almost the same as the 'Zhengyang Green' they talk about online."