8: Chapter 8 One Strike to Heaven, One Strike to Hell!

The air in Jubao Pavilion seemed to have frozen.

Long Aotian stared at Chen Fan's expressionless face, his folding fan snapping shut with a "pop." In all his life, this was the first time he had been so blatantly disrespected by a delivery driver.

"Fine." Long Aotian didn't explode in anger; instead, his gaze grew terrifyingly gloomy, and his voice chilled. "I hope you won't be crying and begging me to take your scrap later."

Finishing his sentence, he took a step back, crossed his arms, and prepared to watch the show.

Chen Fan didn't even glance at him, extending his phone directly toward Boss Liu.

"Boss, let me borrow the machine."

Boss Liu curled his lip, his face full of impatience: "Go ahead, go ahead. If you ruin the blade, you're paying for it. I'll say this first: if this rock turns out to be a dud, you're cleaning up the debris yourself. Don't dirty my floor."

Chen Fan didn't respond, hugging the heavy black Wusha stone as he walked to the stone-cutting machine.

The surrounding people swarmed over in an instant.

In this circle, watching someone strike it rich makes people jealous, but watching someone fail is entertainment. Especially watching a dirt-poor delivery driver risk everything on a gamble—that was entertainment on another level.

"Is this guy's brain waterlogged? Fifty thousand yuan! How many deliveries does he have to make to earn that back?"

"He's just crazy for money. This kind of black Wusha is full of cracks everywhere. It's hard for even immortals to judge an inch of jade; what would a delivery driver know?"

On the outskirts of the crowd, two college-aged youths happened to pass by.

The man wore glasses and looked arrogant; he was Zhang Wei, the class monitor of Su Nianyao's class. Beside him was a heavily made-up girl, Su Nianyao's roommate, Sun Li.

"Hey, Zhang Wei, look. Isn't that a delivery driver?" Sun Li pointed inside, a sneer on her face. "These days, even delivery drivers come to gamble on stones? It's hilarious."

Zhang Wei pushed up his glasses, his face full of disdain: "This kind of person has the typical bottom-feeder mindset, always dreaming of getting rich overnight. He should go pee and look at his own reflection; is this something he can afford to play with? Let's go, let's watch the fun."

The two squeezed into the crowd, standing in the front row, waiting to see a joke.

Zzzzz— Zzzzz—!

The harsh sound of cutting rang out.

Following the system's instructions, Chen Fan drew a line one-third of the way across the stone. He pressed the handle steadily, and the high-speed rotating alloy blade cut into the stone skin, sending stone dust flying.

Everyone stretched their necks.

Long Aotian stood to the side, a cold sneer on his lips, his eyes full of certainty.

Three minutes later.

Crack.

The stone split in two.

Boss Liu was quick-handed; he splashed a ladle of water directly onto it, washing away the stone slurry on the cut surface.

A gray-white mess.

It was full of dense, spiderweb-like cracks and white cotton-like inclusions. Forget green; not even a speck of green could be seen.

"It's a bust! A total bust!"

Someone in the crowd shouted, followed by a burst of uproarious laughter.

"I told you it was just brick material! Fifty thousand yuan down the drain!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, that's great. Not only did he waste a year of work, but he's also carrying a load of debt."

Zhang Wei laughed even louder from the side: "See that? This is the consequence of overestimating one's abilities. People like this are destined to rot at the bottom their whole lives."

Long Aotian glanced at the gray-white cut surface, shook his head, and the interest in his eyes vanished completely.

"A waste of time."

He dropped those four words and turned to leave. The inexplicable unease in his heart had already dissipated. An ant is an ant after all; where would so many miracles come from?

Chen Fan stood before the machine, his face devoid of any expression.

He reached out and touched the stone that was now only half its size.

[System Prompt: Move down two centimeters along the left cut surface and make a horizontal cut.]

Chen Fan picked up a marker and drew another thin black line on the stone that appeared to be scrap.

"Still cutting?" Boss Liu knocked on the table impatiently. "Alright, alright, just take it away and throw it out. It's cut like this already, what else could come out? Don't waste my electricity."

"Exactly, give it up, uncle!" Sun Li covered her nose, waving away the limestone dust in disgust. "No matter how much you cut, it's still just a rotten stone."

Chen Fan ignored the surrounding noise.

He restarted the machine.

Zzzzz—!

The blade spun again.

This time, Chen Fan's movements were slow and steady. His hand didn't shake in the slightest as he cut bit by bit along the black line.

Long Aotian had already reached the entrance, one foot about to step out of the shop.

Clang.

This cut was very thin; only a two-centimeter-thick piece of stone skin fell into the iron trough.

The machine stopped.

Chen Fan picked up the ladle of water. This time, he didn't splash it; instead, he slowly poured it onto the cut surface.

The water washed over the gray stone skin.

The next second.

A splash of green, so rich it couldn't be diluted, like a drop of ink falling into clear water, suddenly exploded under the lights!

The green was pure, deep, and intense, like a forest after the rain, or like a bottomless pool of water. Under the spotlight, that palm-sized piece of jade actually emitted a glass-like luster, so translucent it made people's hearts tremble.

The crowd that had been mocking him fell silent, their voices cut off as if by a knife.

The entire Jubao Pavilion was deathly silent.

Everyone's eyes widened, their mouths agape enough to fit an egg, staring fixedly at the stone in Chen Fan's hand.

The sneer on Zhang Wei's face froze, his eyeballs nearly popping out.

The water ladle in Boss Liu's hand fell to the ground with a "clatter," shattering into pieces.

"This... this is..."

An elderly expert squeezed forward tremblingly, pulled out a high-intensity flashlight, and shone it on the cut surface.

The green light was radiant, completely transparent, without a single impurity.

The old expert gasped sharply, his voice pitched high and distorted:

"Glass species... Imperial Green!!!"

Boom!

These three words were like a heavy bomb, blowing the minds of everyone present.

Imperial Green!

The emperor among jades!

This was a legendary divine product rarely seen in years. A piece the size of a fingernail could trade for an apartment, and the piece in Chen Fan's hand was a full fist-sized chunk!

"My god! It hit! A huge hit!"

"How much is this worth? Tens of millions?!"

"He's crazy! Totally crazy! Who said just now that it was scrap material?"

Zhang Wei and Sun Li were pale, as if they had been slapped hard twice, their faces burning with pain. They had just been mocking him for being a bottom-feeder, and now he had turned around and cut out tens of millions!

This was the "bottom-feeder" in their eyes?

This motherfucker must be the God of Wealth!

At the entrance.

Long Aotian, who had already stepped one foot out, froze upon hearing the words "Imperial Green."

He turned his head in disbelief.

His gaze pierced through the frenzied crowd and landed right on the jade in Chen Fan's hand, which was dripping with rich green.

That blinding splash of green was like a needle, piercing fiercely into his pupils.

That was his opportunity!

That was the heaven-sent fortune he had missed without even giving it a second look!

Chen Fan gently blew the water droplets off the cut surface.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, locking precisely onto Long Aotian's eyes—which were filled with shock, regret, and even a trace of ferocity.

Chen Fan didn't speak.

He just looked calmly at the high-and-mighty young master Long Aotian, his eyes devoid of mockery or triumph, only a detachment that saw through everything.

That gaze seemed to be saying:

The trash you looked down upon is now a myth you can't afford to climb.