Chapter 19: Gambling on Stones (Part 1)

  "This doesn't seem quite right," Zhou Wenping said with some hesitation.

  Lao Wu also rubbed his hands and said: "This is really too embarrassing."

  "It's settled then, I'm counting on all of you to be there, or else it'll be a loss of face for me."

  The two saw Chu Chen say so, and had no choice but to nod in agreement.

  The three of them chatted some more about the anecdotes of Antique Street, such as who had been cheated out of tuition fees, who had picked up a bargain, and who had stepped on a landmine, all sorts of big and small things, Antique Street was performing every day, enough to film countless Hollywood blockbusters.

  After a while, Chuyan took his leave of the two men, as he still had to attend to some business at Cuizhengzhai.

  After leaving the antique stall, Chu Chen couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. He thought about how he used to be like Zhou Wenping and Lao Wu, living a humble life as a street vendor. But in just a few short days, everything changed dramatically because of that one Tang Sancai piece. These past few days have been filled with both sorrow and joy, truly unpredictable and full of unexpected twists and turns.

  When Chu Chen arrived at Cuizhengzhai, he saw many people surrounding a stall, selecting something. He thought to himself, no need to guess, it must be Zhao Guosheng's new batch of raw materials, everyone is taking this opportunity to select the better ones.

  Jadeite has a weathered crust when it is mined, and there is no way to know the internal situation. The stone must be cut open to determine whether there is jadeite inside and what its quality is. At this stage, the jadeite is what people commonly call "jade rough".

  The name of the stone gambler was not actually called stone gambling, but called Gambler's Row. The three conditions that a stone gambler must possess are: great challenge ability, adventurous spirit, and rich experience. From these three points, we can see the difficulty of stone gambling.

  As the saying goes, "it's hard for even a god to tell jade within an inch", even with today's advanced technology, it is impossible to detect what is inside the jade. People mainly rely on the surface characteristics of the raw jade to infer the pros and cons of the jade inside.

  This requires jadeite dealers to have rich knowledge and experience of jade, such as analyzing the texture of samples and understanding the origin of jade. Moreover, due to the high profit margin of jade, some people inevitably come up with cheating methods such as "attaching fake skin", which also requires people to be more cautious.

  But since there is a "gamble" in the gamble, it means that no matter who has no guarantee of winning, even if the experienced old hand, it is inevitable to have a look at the time, and there is also a considerable luck factor.

  It is precisely because of this uncertainty that overnight riches or overnight bankruptcy are not uncommon in the jade market.

  In summary, "gambling on jade" is actually a kind of expert-level emerald trading behavior. Participating in "gambling on jade" relies not only on luck but also tests one's eyesight and requires professional knowledge reserves.

  If it weren't for nearly four years of gambling, even if Chu Chen had discovered his special ability to sense jade, he wouldn't have dared to use it too frequently in the gamble.

  If a newcomer to jade gambling can consistently get good quality jade, it might be luck, but if this keeps happening, it's hard not to arouse suspicion. Who knows, maybe he'll even be caught and used as a lab rat or forced to help others gamble on jade. At the thought of such a miserable fate, Chu Chen couldn't help but shiver with fear.

  "Hey, little Chun is here! How are you? Are you planning to buy something today?" Zhang Guosheng had sharp eyes and greeted Chu Chun from a distance. After Chu Chun walked to the door, he pointed to a small pile of woolen goods on one side and said:

  "It's a promotional day today, over there you can pick up four pieces for 100 yuan, if you miss this opportunity, it won't be available anywhere else!"

  "Hey, I'm telling you, Zhang Ge, didn't Old Lady Zhang tell me to come find you yesterday? How come I haven't seen you bring out a cup of tea?" Chu Chen joked with Zhang Guosheng.

  Zhang Guosheng completely inherited Zhang Dama's thick skin, and after hearing this, he didn't feel embarrassed at all. He said: "Hey, I'm really busy today, you see that person over there is calling me again. Why don't you take a look yourself? If you need anything, just come find me. We're old acquaintances, I won't let you lose out."

  After finishing speaking with Chu Chen, he bid farewell and called out to others to leave.

  Generally at this time Zhang Guosheng would always find some reason or other to shirk, Chu Chen was used to it and shook his head, walking towards the pile of wool that Zhang Guosheng had just pointed out.

  The situation of the new wool on this side and the other side is vastly different, with only one young man picking and choosing, and this person Chu Xuan also knows, named Li Guodong.

  Li Guodong is two years older than Chu Chen, and he looks quite spirited. He is a senior student at a university in Beijing. He started collecting agate one year later than Chu Chen, and like Chu Chen, he likes to buy some cheaper stones in the store, but his reason is different from Chu Chen's, it's just because he is short of money.

  The two of them were about the same age and shared a common interest in gambling, both being newcomers, so they easily became friends after not much time.

  They often spend time together, going out and having fun. Sometimes, Li Guodong's classmates would invite him to gatherings, allowing Chu Chen to learn about university life from them, making up for his regret of not attending college. As a result, the two became good friends.

  Chu Chen and Li Guodong greeted each other with a loud voice: "Brother Li, what's the catch today?"

  Li Guodong pointed at the wool on the ground and said: "Look at this quality, what else can be accepted?"

  Chu Chen lowered his head and roughly glanced at the wool on the ground, suddenly speechless! What can be called wool? The wool didn't even have some basic characteristics of jade, it was completely just some brick material, not even good enough to use as a foot pad.

  So Chu Chen said: "I said why it's so cheap today, when we used to deal with inventory before, it was 100 yuan for two pieces, and now it's actually four pieces for that price. It's like this, even if you give it to me for free, I wouldn't want it. From now on, let's just call him Zhang Public Chicken."

  Li Guodong nodded in agreement, continuing to pick and choose as he said, "This is also good, it saves me from spending more. Anyway, the quality of wool was not much better at this time last year, who knows, maybe these stones will turn out to be jade."

  Chu Chen looked at him with disdain and said, "Go ahead and have your grand spring and autumn dreams. With this kind of performance, I don't think you even have a one in ten thousand chance of getting jade."

  "Haha, don't mind him being one in a million, you can't say it's impossible, maybe today I'll be the lucky one." Li Guodong said with a pleased expression.

  "Alright, I think you're hallucinating. With this kind of luck, you'd be better off buying lottery tickets! I think you're just short on money because you've got a girlfriend?"

  Chu Chen saw his appearance and said: "Won't you, have you really got a girlfriend? Could it be that the thousand-year-old iron tree will also bloom?"

  "Get out! What's with this 'thousand-year iron tree' nonsense? Am I not allowed to find a girlfriend?" Li Guodong said, his face red with anger.

  Li Guodong is quite good-looking, around 1.7 meters tall, with a literary and artistic young look, not bad at all. However, since college, either the people he likes have boyfriends, or others like him but he doesn't like them back, so until now, he's still single.

  Chu Chen heard that he had a girlfriend and was very curious, saying: "Ah, tell me, what does your girlfriend look like? When can I meet her?"

  Li Guodong said with some embarrassment: "We just confirmed our relationship yesterday, and besides, she's a bit thin-skinned, so let's wait for a while before saying anything."

  Chu Chen patted his shoulder and said, "Alright, Li Ge, your spring has arrived. But you won't have some unrealistic thoughts because of this, will you? Or does your girlfriend have a petty bourgeoisie tendency?"

  "Don't talk nonsense, my girlfriend never asks about my family's situation, and she's quite frugal too. It's just that her father is a minor official in the Beijing government department, I'm not trying to make money, but want to be on equal footing with them."

  Li Guodong's family situation is not bad to say, his parents are both teachers at a key high school in the provincial capital city of the western region, and there is nothing lacking at home, but it is impossible to be extremely rich and noble.

  So Chu Chen asked: "What's her parents' opinion, are they pressuring you?"

  Li Guodong waved his hand and said, "We just started dating yesterday, her parents don't even know yet. But thinking about her family situation, I'm getting a headache. I think if our relationship is going well, I'll prepare to work in Beijing, but you also know my family's situation, wanting to buy a house in Beijing is still a bit short."

  "It's still up to her parents' attitude, if they think you're satisfactory then everything will go smoothly, otherwise I think it'll be quite difficult. However, if you want to buy a house, just do it as soon as possible, the housing prices are changing every day, and when you don't have enough money, just ask me for a loan, no need to be polite."

  Chu Chen patted his chest after finishing speaking.

  Li Guodong smiled and said: "Alright, I'll definitely not be polite at that time, but before that, I still want to ask for my parents' opinions."

  Chu Chen nodded and accompanied Li Guodong to pick out the wool. He had originally wanted to go to the other side to select wool, but that side was now crowded with too many people, it was a bit suffocating, plus the hot weather, he couldn't bear it, so he planned to wait for a while until there were fewer people before going over.

  The wool here is really too bad, and the characteristics of the jade wool can't be seen at all. So Chu Chen simply didn't use a flashlight or anything, just casually picked out what looked good to him, and took it in hand to take a look, verifying it with his past experience. To be honest, this kind of brick-like material can't even serve as verification.

  He picked out over a hundred pieces of wool, but his left hand's special ability didn't react at all. Chu Chen wasn't surprised either; it would be strange if there were jadeite in such ordinary rocks.

  At this time, the newly arrived wool on that side had already been emptied a bit. Some people took a look at the excitement and left, while others had already selected satisfactory wool and were preparing to take it to the backyard to remove impurities. Chu Xuan saw this and was about to go over there to select wool. After all, among those well-performing wools, the probability of containing jade would be slightly higher.

  Suddenly, a look of astonishment flashed across Chu Chen's face. Just before he left, he casually picked up another piece of fabric, and as soon as he did, the strange power in his left hand began to stir restlessly, leaving him somewhat at a loss for that instant.