53: Enviable network of contacts

Before leaving, Ye Su grabbed a few newspapers from the shop owner, wrapped up the stone, and then double-bagged it in plastic to ensure it wouldn't break through.

Before they even reached the exit of Yufeng Jade City, Ye Su asked Wan Yuanliang impatiently, "Brother Liang, what do you think?"

"I know people who specialize in jade processing. If you want to sell it, I can ask around in my group for you," Wan Yuanliang explained to Ye Su.

"Don't worry, this type of material is easy to sell; it won't end up stuck in your hands. If someone wants it, the price will definitely be higher than what that group offered earlier. However, I have to be clear upfront: if the deal goes through, I'll be taking a five percent commission."

"No problem." Hearing about the five percent commission, Ye Su didn't hesitate at all.

He had the connections and, as the middleman, he also had to vouch for the item; he deserved to earn that money.

"What's your target price?"

"Hmm..." The system had valued it at 60,000. If Wan Yuanliang connected directly with jade processors, it would surely sell for more. The problem was that Ye Su knew nothing about this; he knew it could sell for more, but he had no idea by how much.

"Seventy-five thousand."

Since that group of professional bargain hunters had offered 60,000 and still expected to make a profit, Ye Su figured asking for another ten or twenty thousand more definitely wouldn't be an issue.

"Alright, I'll ask around for you."

They found a nearby coffee shop to sit in, and Wan Yuanliang immediately sent the video to his group, specifically noting that he had personally witnessed the entire process from the purchase to the stone being opened, and could guarantee that it hadn't been artificially re-dyed.

It went just as Wan Yuanliang expected.

This kind of delicate, high-quality "chicken-fat yellow" jade, which was estimated to yield several hundred grams of intact jade meat, immediately sparked a bidding war once posted in the group.

[aaa Jade Carving - Boss Zheng: 65,000]

[Shuyuxuan - Zhou Liwei: 70,000]

[Hetian Jade Specialty - Boss Jin: 75,000]

The target price of 75,000 that Ye Su had cautiously set was easily surpassed after several rounds of bidding.

This auction-style, multi-bidder approach undoubtedly pushed the price to its absolute peak.

Of course, the bosses placing the bids weren't fools.

As long as this natural "chicken-fat yellow" jade that Ye Su had opened was carved properly, its value could easily surpass gold in a heartbeat.

Coupled with the scarcity of yellow-skin seed jade over the last two years, which had driven prices up by twenty to thirty percent, the bosses in the group were flocking to this piece of material.

They hadn't been sitting for long, and their coffees hadn't even arrived yet, when Wan Yuanliang snapped his fingers. "Done."

Ye Su immediately perked up. "It's sold?"

"Yes." Wan Yuanliang made a gesture with his thumb and index finger. "Eighty-six thousand. That's a good price, right?"

"It's great!" Ye Su was overjoyed.

Before coming, he had made up his mind to try and buy the stone-wrapped jade for under 40,000 and then resell it for 60,000, hoping to make a 20,000 profit.

He hadn't expected to run into someone asking for the price first, which allowed him to gauge the bottom line and avoid being fleeced by the shop owner.

Then, he'd bumped into Wan Yuanliang, who was at the jade city looking for business, and leveraged his connections to sell it for the high price of 86,000.

All in all, the profit from this piece of intelligence was more than double what he had originally envisioned!

"If the price is fine, send me your bank account number or payment QR code. I'll have him transfer the money to you, and then I'll deliver the item to him."

This was the difference between an old fox like Wan Yuanliang and an outsider like Chen Xinyi.

By not letting the buyer and seller meet directly and handling the entire process as the middleman, he ensured that the next time Ye Su had something to sell, he wouldn't be able to find a buyer on his own and would have to go through his channels, allowing him to take a commission.

Ye Su suspected that in addition to his own commission, Wan Yuanliang had likely collected another one from the buyer.

Of course, to earn that kind of money, beyond just knowing enough people, it also required Wan Yuanliang to have a solid reputation so that neither the buyer nor the seller would worry about him running off with the goods.

"Alright."

Ye Su sent his payment details to Wan Yuanliang, and within a few minutes, he received the 86,000 payment.

After receiving the money, Ye Su transferred the 4,300 commission to Wan Yuanliang.

"Alright, I'll leave you two to it."

Wan Yuanliang took a big gulp of his coffee, grabbed the stone, and left the coffee shop, throwing Ye Su a meaningful look as he departed.

The last time they were at the shop, the two of them had been pretending to be just "ordinary friends."

If their relationship was ordinary, I'll drink your urine on the spot.

Chen Xinyi had been watching all morning, and even after Wan Yuanliang left, her eyes were still filled with unconcealable shock.

When that broken stone had been sold to Ye Su for 12,000, Chen Xinyi had already thought that some people made money in an absurd way.

But then? Ye Su just had someone make a few cuts, and right before her eyes, the stone's value had soared from 12,000 to 86,000!

When did making money become this easy?

That was 86,000!

She couldn't earn that much money in a whole year of doing borderline content online!

Chen Xinyi finally understood what it meant by [a person can never earn money beyond their own cognition].

If it were her, she would never dare to spend over ten thousand to gamble on a stone.

Even if she had bought it, after opening a window and hearing someone offer 30,000, she probably wouldn't have been able to resist selling it; she definitely couldn't have been as calm as Ye Su, letting the stone's value increase all the way to 86,000.

He was only twenty-one, hadn't even graduated from university, and yet he could rely on his eye for value to earn 70,000 in a single morning—that was just too impressive!

Clearly, after a morning of having her horizons broadened, Ye Su's image in Chen Xinyi's eyes had become even more impressive.

Little did she know, while Ye Su appeared calm on the surface, his heart was far from peaceful as he looked at the 86,000 transfer.

After deducting the cost of the stone, the 1,000 labor fee, and the 4,300 commission, he had earned 68,700 in just one morning based on a single Level 2 intelligence report—once again setting a new record for the upper limit of Level 2 intelligence!

It was no wonder that even though everyone knew the risks of stone gambling were high, they still flocked to it one after another.

One cut, and 12,000 becomes 86,000—how many people could resist that kind of temptation?

Of course, Ye Su also knew that his ability to earn over 60,000 this time was largely due to luck, in addition to the Level 2 intelligence.

If it hadn't been for the guy who asked for the price at the beginning and the unexpected appearance of Wan Yuanliang, as a complete newbie, he would have been lucky to make 20,000 or 30,000 at most.

"This young master made some money today. Do you want me to take you to the jade street for a shopping spree and pick out a bracelet or something for you?"

With his savings soaring to 170,000, Ye Su's tone was much more confident.

The recent bargaining session had helped him save several thousand, and Wan Yuanliang had only been introduced through her, which had allowed the [chicken-fat yellow] to sell for such a high price.

Suddenly feeling a twinge of conscience, Ye Su decided to be fair and give Chen Xinyi some material reward; he shouldn't just keep freeloading off her.

"Oh?" Hearing Ye Su take the initiative to offer to buy her a gift, Chen Xinyi was delighted at first, then began to tease him. "Didn't someone say last time that he wouldn't go out of his way to buy things for girls?"

Chen Xinyi gestured to the bracelet on her wrist. "Wasn't even this bracelet just 'picked up on the side of the road'? How come you've had a change of heart now?"