Chapter 148: Eight Hundred Thousand, A Sea of Black!

Old Lin was considered a celebrity, and these bosses knew they couldn't pull a fast one on him, so the bidding was relatively straightforward. As a result, the price shot up immediately.

Boss Qian and the others were green with envy, but since they had already crossed him, there was no reason for him to sell to them anyway. They could only seethe with envy and bitterness.

Needless to say, Zhou Ran and his companions felt even worse.

Heart-wrenching, utterly heart-wrenching!

Fortunately, Li Run had no real grasp of jade gambling and merely thought that if such a crappy stone could yield jade, his own would naturally be even more profitable.

A million was a guaranteed minimum!

Therefore, he managed to remain calm.

Little did he know that Li Yuan was no longer calm at all.

Damn it, the other party had simply stumbled upon beginner's luck!

All their previous advantage had vanished into thin air. Fortunately, this old man Lin wasn't part of Old Tang's circle...

Phew, close call!

In the end, a local jewelry store owner offered a high price of eight hundred thousand and said to Lin Chuxiao, "Little girl, I'm offering eight hundred thousand to buy your jade. However, I wonder how much you paid for this raw stone? This can certainly be considered the best opening success of the day."

His tone made it clear that he didn't take the jade previously appraised by Li Yuan and the others seriously at all.

This made Li Yuan and his group feel even more depressed.

Lin Chuxiao was still dizzy from the shock of eight hundred thousand, finding it almost unbelievable. When she was asked, she reflexively replied, "Ah? How much? Fifty thousand? Thirty thousand? Sui Yi... how much was it again?"

"Fifty-three thousand," Sui Yi said indifferently.

Fifty-three thousand!

This was a profit margin of over a dozen times!

The crowd gasped in amazement and felt deeply envious, though fortunately, it wasn't a astronomical fortune yet.

For a moment, Lin Chuxiao had no idea what to do with the jade and looked toward Sui Yi...

Old Lin immediately felt a spike of frustration. Damn it, your grandfather is right here, why are you looking at Sui Yi!

"Sui Yi, you paid for this jade... you call the shots!" Lin Chuxiao's remark actually made Sui Yi smile.

"I merely helped you pay for it; it has nothing to do with me. Of course, you'll still have to return that fifty-three thousand to me later." Sui Yi dismissed the matter so casually that Lin Chuxiao was stunned. Eh, who on earth just gives money away like that?

"No way, at least you have to take half!"

Sui Yi shook her head and looked at Old Lin. "Old Lin, help her handle it. Once it's sold, just return the money to me."

Well, Old Lin's judgment of people was accurate; he knew that when this girl said she didn't want it, she truly didn't. Besides, since she could effortlessly gift Old Tang a jade cicada worth millions, would she care about a mere few hundred thousand?

"Alright, Xiao Xiao, let's sell this piece of jade. Eight hundred thousand will be kept as your dowry!"

With those words, Lin Chuxiao snapped back to her senses immediately.

"Huh? My dowry is only this much? Come on! Are you still my grandfather or not?"

Pfft!

Hearing this, the crowd burst into laughter all at once.

Old Lin was also embarrassed and hurriedly pacified Lin Chuxiao, assuring her that his granddaughter's dowry would definitely not be this meager...

While Lin Chuxiao had made quite a profit, Zhou Ran was somewhat unreconciled. Driven by this reluctance, Li Run immediately called people over to cut his stone. In his mind, their stone was so much better than the others', so how could there possibly be no jade inside?!

"Hah, it seems your guys' luck is pretty good... But in jade gambling, you can't rely solely on luck." Having said that, he told Zhang Guangbiao to cut the stone for him.

Zhang Guangbiao was somewhat dissatisfied with his commanding tone, but he endured it and made a casual slice with the blade!

He didn't even draw a guideline!

The result...

Crack!

The grayish, dusty cross-section showed absolutely nothing.

"Ha, it's bust!"

"This is a total bust!"

With such a direct cut, everyone saw it and began to shout, especially Lin Chuxiao, who was completely gloating!

Li Run was in disbelief, and Zhou Ran's expression collapsed as well.

Nothing at all?

How could this be...

Zhou Ran had fancied himself as having learned a great deal during this period, surely understanding much better than someone completely clueless like Sui Yi. How could the raw stone he selected turn out to have zero jade...

"I don't believe it, cut it again for me!" Li Run immediately started clamoring.

Zhang Guangbiao glanced at him contemptuously, grinned, and said, "Cut it is!"

Crack, crack!

Three consecutive cuts.

Still nothing at all.

Li Run's expression turned ugly, and Qian Shuangyu felt a sharp pain in her heart as well. My money...

Come to think of it, these few people, including Qian Shuangyu, were simply inexperienced and terribly naive.

"Ha, some people think too much. Jade gambling relies precisely on luck!" Lin Chuxiao delivered a rather sharp remark as well.

Li Run's anger flared even higher, and he abruptly turned his head.

"Old Zheng, wasn't it you who said there was jade inside this raw stone? Why is there none?!"

Damn it! Is there any way to talk to someone like you?!

Old Zheng suffered internal injuries. He had only helped look at the raw stone, not magically diagnose the jade directly. If he were that powerful, why the hell would he be sitting in her company collecting a monthly salary?!

What the hell!

"Li Run, you are not allowed to be so rude!" Seeing this, Li Yuan stepped out to reprimand Li Run in a very cold tone, causing Li Run to instantly lose his nerve and fall silent, though he continued to glare with venomous resentment at Sui Yi and the others across from him.

"Ha, go on and run naked then..."

Run naked... How could Li Run possibly go run naked? He looked toward Zhou Ran.

Zhou Ran's expression darkened. Let him go run naked?

How was that possible!

They would have loved to welsh on the bet, but unfortunately, Old Tang and the others wouldn't allow it.

Thus, he looked at Qian Shuangyu. Qian Shuangyu was utterly conflicted. What, you expect me to go run naked too?

Or else...

Two hundred thousand!

Zhou Ran's intention was to have Qian Shuangyu cough up the two hundred thousand!

Qian Shuangyu understood immediately!

Her face fell as she stared at Zhou Ran and sneered, "I have no money."

No money!

Zhou Ran hadn't expected Qian Shuangyu to refuse him. A wave of irritation surged in his heart, but since he felt too embarrassed to throw a tantrum right here, he put on sweet words and pulled her off to the side, clearly intending to work on her mindset.

Sui Yi paid no attention to this bunch either, because Li Yuan had already invited them to cut their raw stone, clearly hoping to use this to salvage a win.

"This raw stone was favored even by Old Tang and the others... What a pity we snatched it first. Old Tang, no hard feelings for earlier."

Old Tang's face darkened, and he replied indifferently, "Not at all, it's just Boss Li's own capability. However, we still have to see what this raw stone yields; let's hope it doesn't cause Boss Li's five million eight hundred thousand to go down the drain."

"Naturally not," Li Yuan said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Because this raw stone was relatively expensive, Zhang Guangbiao took action personally, drawing lines and handling the machinery with his own hands, pouring all his effort into it. Sui Yi had previously mentioned to Yu Quan that if this stone-cutting machine produced fine jade, there would be a red envelope bonus, which was why he appeared so enthusiastic.

Evidently, he also looked favorably upon this raw stone.

Hearing this, Sui Yi merely smiled faintly. Look favorably upon it?

I'm afraid it's going to disappoint a lot of people.

The first cut went down very quickly.

However, this cut was extremely meticulous because it was grinding.

After all, it was a partially opened raw stone, and some mist could already be seen on the cut surface. According to Sui Yi's inspection, there was still some watery transparency inside, and from a general look, the probability of producing jade was extremely high.

Sure enough, after grinding for a while, the crowd gasped in amazement!

"Whoa, there's transparency! There must be a dragon vein!"

"A dragon emerging from the water! This raw stone is definitely going to soar in value!"

A group of jewelry merchants muttered trade jargon among themselves, while Old Lin explained it to Lin Chuxiao...

Only Old Tang's expression didn't look too good.

Sigh, when a raw stone shoots up in value like this, if it doesn't belong to you—especially when it belongs to an enemy—it's inevitably depressing.

Yu Quan and the others also felt heavy-hearted.

So none of them spoke.

Because of the watery transparency, Li Yuan became even more elated, his joy beyond description. He said, "Boss Zhang, please be a bit more meticulous and take care not to damage the inner jade meat. After all, our company has its own jewelry designers who can design jewelry in-house for sale. Losing even a little bit of jade meat has a significant impact."

"Naturally, naturally!" Zhang Guangbiao agreed readily. Like many people here, he genuinely believed this raw stone contained jade...

So...

He made the cut!

An eye-catching color emerged!

"Ah!"

"Whoa!"

"Hiss!"

"Good god!"

Black, dense black, black moss—the black moss that jade gamblers avoided the most!

Such a pitch-black color instantly froze the smug expressions previously worn by Li Yuan and his group.

It was as if they had been struck by lightning!

Generally speaking, if black moss appeared, the raw stone was mostly ruined. Even if there was jade, once contaminated by black moss, the color would be impure and ugly, holding little value.

Therefore, this raw stone was undoubtedly a bust now.

A massive bust!

A bust so severe that Li Yuan couldn't even maintain his expression, drawing in a sharp breath.

Five million eight hundred thousand, gone up in smoke!

Ha!

Old Han and the others couldn't look happier!

On the other hand, Old Tang and Old Lin both wore expressions mixed with joy and lingering fear.

If it hadn't been for Sui Yi abruptly stepping in, would the two of them have just watched over two million go down the drain?

"Sui Yi..." Old Tang subconsciously looked toward Sui Yi, only to see her calmly pointing at the two raw stones belonging to the old men, asking, "Shall we cut ours now?"

Zhang Guangbiao stood nearby with an awkward expression. Well, he seemed to have just made a promise to someone, only for the second cut to reveal black moss...

This definitely wasn't because of me!

"Boss Li, are you still going to cut?" Zhang Guangbiao asked.

Li Yuan had to force himself to maintain his composure. After all, with so many people watching, he wasn't foolish enough to destroy his own image, so he said with determination, "Cut it open completely!"

Since black moss had appeared, there was nothing more to say.

Crack, crack! What was originally cautious grinding turned into bold and decisive hacking.

In just a few moments, it was completely reduced to waste material.

Almost every small piece of waste material was tainted with black moss.

Watching from the side, Bai Lingshu and the others understood the general situation and didn't dare to speak anymore.

Well, five million eight hundred thousand, just like that, gone?

Reduced to a bunch of ugly stones?

Old Han had regained his composure and stood up, a calm and poised smile on his face. "Boss Li, victories and defeats are common matters in military strategy, no need to take it to heart... Five million eight hundred thousand is nothing much to the Li family anyway."

"Indeed, why, even ten times five million eight hundred thousand is something you can afford to lose..." Old Tang chimed in.

Why don't you try losing one yourself?! What the hell!

The Li family members were furious!

Li Run wanted to speak up... Li Yuan waved his hand, squinted his eyes at Old Tang, and sneered, "Heh, we misjudged this raw stone indeed. However, I imagine someone as capable as Old Tang should be able to select a good raw stone and yield some jade. Why don't you let us broaden our horizons?"

If I'm not going to have a good time, don't even think about having a good time either!

Li Yuan dragged Old Tang down with him directly!

And so... a minute later.

The raw stone purchased by Old Tang was hoisted up, and right beside it sat Sui Yi's raw stone.