At 9:20 in the morning, Dong Xuebin dug a one-shoulder backpack out from the drawer beneath his wardrobe and stuffed in the 110,000 yuan from selling the rare old books last time, money he had not gotten around to depositing in the bank. He then went downstairs to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on the east side of the road to withdraw more cash. However, this branch was rather small, and withdrawals of over 50,000 yuan had to be reserved a day in advance. Dong Xuebin had originally wanted to withdraw 100,000, but he could not be bothered to make another trip to the Qiao Bei main branch. Fifty thousand would do. A total of 160,000 was enough. After withdrawing the money and putting it into his backpack, he tightened his jacket collar, hailed a taxi on the service road against the cold wind, and headed to Panjiayuan Antique Market by the South Third Ring Road, searching shop by shop along the outer wall for places that sold raw materials.
"Boss, do you have any Jadeite Raw Material?"
"No, we only sell finished products here. Try asking somewhere else."
"Boss, excuse me, can you gamble on stones or jade here?"
"Nope."
"Boss, do you know anywhere around here where I can gamble on stones?"
"Stone gambling? There doesn't seem to be much of that in Panjiayuan. If you really want to play, you'd be better off going to Haidian or Chaoyang. They hold special raw-material auctions every week, the prices are fair, and the material quality is high." Dong Xuebin also knew there were places in the antique markets over in Haidian that auctioned raw materials, but the process there involved examining the materials first, then bidding and paying at auction, with the cutting only coming at the