Chapter 199
Chenyang casually pulled a hundred yuan from his pocket.
But just as he was about to hand it over, a middle-aged man beside him chuckled and said, "Young man, instead of spending that hundred yuan on a rock, you’d be better off just giving it to An An. You won’t get to touch her legs, but if she’s happy, she’ll have no problem letting you touch her hand."
"For a beauty like her, just touching her hand isn’t enough. Once I cut a good piece of jade from this rock and sell it for a high price, I’ll use the money as a bride price, marry her, and take her home to hold in my arms every day. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?"
"Hahaha." Hearing this, not only did the middle-aged man laugh, but everyone in the surrounding crowd also burst into laughter.
They were laughing at how naive Chenyang was.
They had seen that rock several times before, but they always skipped right past it without a second glance.
Whether based on its type or texture, it was clearly the worst of the worthless rocks.
To put it bluntly, if you gave it to an old village woman to weigh down her pickled vegetables, she’d toss it straight into the trash.
But stone gambling wasn’t like playing the lottery.
When buying a lottery ticket, onlookers could say whatever was on their minds.
But in stone gambling, even if you were absolutely certain a rock was empty, you could never say so. Doing that meant ruining a seller’s business, and that was the biggest taboo in the trade.
And so, after sharing a knowing laugh, the crowd said no more.
The beautiful woman sitting on the ground, however, pondered for a moment before speaking. "I don’t comment on the other stones, and I don’t give advice to anyone. But this one... everyone knows it’s almost impossible to cut anything from it. Seeing that you’re a newcomer, I’ll offer you a piece of advice: think twice before you act."
Chenyang shook his head. "No, I want this one."
"Are you sure? Once I take this money, the deal is final. You can’t back out."
"Don’t worry. It’s only a hundred yuan. It’s not enough to have any regrets over."
Seeing that Chenyang was set on this rock, the woman stopped trying to dissuade him. She took the money while muttering something about him not knowing what was good for him.
Chenyang picked up the rock, inspected it closely, and then said, "Cut it open for me."
"I only charged you my cost for this piece. If you want it cut, that’ll be another fifty yuan for the cutting fee."
"That’s fine. Go ahead and cut it. I’ll be selling the jade inside to you later anyway, so you can just deduct the fee from the price you pay me then."
"Heh. How can I get it through your head? You won’t cut anything out of this rock."
"Oh, you will. And the jade you cut out will be enough to make a pair of bracelets, no problem."
"Are you kidding me?" the woman said, speechless. ’Has this guy lost his mind?’ she thought. She was a stone gambling proprietor; she’d been learning everything there was to know about jade since she was five or six years old.
She wouldn’t claim to have reached an unparalleled level of mastery, but when it came to ordinary stones, her experience and keen eye meant her judgment was accurate eight or nine times out of ten.
As the owner, she had even tried to earnestly dissuade Chenyang, operating on the principle of not making a profit from him. Anyone even remotely clever would have immediately realized the rock was worthless.
But this Chenyang fellow... not only was he dead set that there was something inside, but he even had the audacity to claim the jade within could make a pair of bracelets?
It was like a greenhorn who’d just gotten his first blade running up to the legendary Lord Guan and arrogantly declaring, "I can take you down in one strike!"
Seeing the look on the beautiful An An’s face, a bystander couldn’t help but chime in. "An An, good advice is wasted on a stubborn fool. If he wants to buy it and cut it, just let him. It’s no loss to you, anyway."
"Exactly. Newcomers are always overconfident when they first get into the business. It’s normal. Just think of it as him paying his tuition fees for today’s lesson."
An An sighed. "So you’ve made up your mind, huh? You really want to cut it?"
"I’m sure. You can make one cut right here." Chenyang picked up a nearby marker and drew a line on the stone.
The line was positioned near the very top of the stone.
In other words, Chenyang was positive that the vast majority of the rock was jade.
An An couldn’t help but scoff, "I’ve seen many blindly arrogant newcomers, but one who is not only blindly arrogant but also laughably naive? You’re the first."
"What makes me so laughable?"
"For a rock like this, even if it actually had something inside, it would likely be off-center or near a spot with a strong surface sheen. And based on experience, it would be no bigger than your thumb.
That means the most logical place to cut would be along that strong sheen. But the line you drew... that’s practically just skimming the surface. Forget about finding jade; a cut there might not even reveal the stone’s core material."
Chenyang gave her a knowing smile. "This may be my first time playing with stones, but I have a killer eye for them. The line I drew is in the absolute perfect spot. The moment you cut it, a gleaming green jade will be revealed. What’s more, the jade inside is only a little smaller than the rock itself.
How about we make a bet? If it’s not like I said when you cut it open, I’ll give you five hundred yuan for the processing fee. But if it’s exactly as I described, you have to buy the jade we cut out... and, you have to let me touch those great white legs of yours a couple of times."