Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye Examines Stones

Everyone said the jade trade ran deep.

But who truly knew just how deep it went?

You thought slashing a million off in one stroke counted as haggling?

Buying groceries at a market, that was indeed haggling. You could do the same at an ordinary storefront. But in the premium jade market, that just made you look like an amateur.

The prices of premium jade were called appraisals!

An appraisal was not the selling price.

If you wanted it, the price was negotiated on the spot.

What was the real insider price for jade?

Take the appraisal, divide it by ten, then multiply it by one and a half or two, and that was about right.

So, for an appraisal of 3.2 million, a proper counteroffer from a true insider would be around 500,000.

Yet he had opened with 1.8 million.

More importantly, there was a rule in the jade trade: an offer must be honored!

In other words, if you offered 1.8 million, that was your bottom line. As long as the seller agreed, you had to buy it!

"Mr. Li, you're truly forthright! As they say, sincerity begets sincerity. I'm happy to call you a friend!" Boss Zhang laughed. "I'll let this Ice Valley Orchid go to you at a bargain!"

"Fine, wrap it up," Lin Xiaosu said.

The saleswoman desperately restrained herself, not daring to reveal even a trace of shock as she packaged the bracelet.

Lin Xiaosu turned his gaze toward Zhou Mei. "Lan'er has already chosen hers. What about you, Mei'er?"

The saleswoman's forcibly calmed heart began racing again. There was another one!

Oh my god, all the girls downstairs had been guessing which young lady would catch his eye. Now it seemed both guesses had been right. He was buying for all of them...

Whose prodigal young master was this... no, whose walking god of wealth?

If possible, could I hitch a ride on this good fortune too?

At the very least, my chest was firmer than theirs. It should feel better too...

Zhou Mei said, "Do you have a bracelet exactly like this Ice Valley Orchid?"

Boss Zhang said, "Every piece of jade has its own life. There are no two identical bracelets in the world; every one is unique. That is why jade is so precious. There definitely isn't one exactly like this, but we do have bracelets in the same price range. How about you choose a similar one, miss?"

"Yes, there are several more bracelets over here. You can take a look..." The saleswoman perked up again.

Zhou Mei gently shook her head. "If there isn't an identical one, then... forget it."

Everyone present was stunned.

Who bought jade and demanded an identical piece? That was truly impossible.

How could naturally formed raw ore possibly be exactly the same?

Even two bracelet blanks cut from the same rough stone would differ. They could never be identical.

Had this girl picked a fight with the one called Lan'er?

She insisted on having the exact same thing!

This seemed to confirm the saleswoman's earlier judgment: both women were his lovers, and he could not favor one over the other...

"How about this?" Lin Xiaosu said. "Mei'er, pick out several rough stones totaling 1.8 million. I'll spend 1.8 million on each of you anyway. After that, it'll depend on your own luck."

"That's a great idea! Boss, do you have any good rough stones?" Zhou Mei was delighted.

Just as Boss Zhang saw the deal heading toward a dead end, it suddenly took a turn for the better. He was so happy he nearly jumped up. "Yes, yes! We just received a shipment the day before yesterday. One batch is top-quality old-mine material."

Behind the shop was the workshop.

The moment the door opened, the peaceful atmosphere was immediately replaced by deafening noise.

Twenty or thirty workers sweated over their machines.

Windowing, cutting stones, extracting pieces, grinding, and polishing were all in full swing.

Every movement was skilled, and every worker was clearly an experienced veteran.

Boss Zhang leaned close to Lin Xiaosu's ear. "Mr. Li, these are assembly-line products, not something you'd care for. Let's take a look in the back."

Lin Xiaosu nodded lightly.

Zhou Mei quietly looked at him, her eyes full of questions...

The situation here was special. She could not be sure where surveillance equipment might be, so speaking was definitely out of the question. But they should still be able to exchange some information through their eyes.

Unfortunately, Lin Xiaosu wore a stylish pair of photochromic glasses that blocked most of his gaze. Looking through the edge of the frames, his eyes seemed somewhat vacant.

Yes, this was actually a special reaction from Time Reversal.

Whenever he reversed time, his gaze became strangely detached, seeming to see through everything before him and into an unknown space.

He had already gained something!

A huge gain!

Before entering the jewelry store, he had only been fifty percent sure. Now, he was at least eighty percent certain.

Because the batch of rough stones delivered the night before last had been sorted, with one portion placed out front while another had been sent somewhere it should never have appeared...

About thirty meters from the machine workshop stood another factory building, filled entirely with rough stones.

Boss Zhang introduced the place as they walked. The rough stones outside were ordinary stock, while those inside were premium rough stones. There were two ways to judge whether a rough stone was premium: one was through windowing, which offered a glimpse of the stone's interior; the other was judging by experience whether the stone contained something good.

"I've long heard that Boss Zhang is the renowned Divine Eye Old Zhang. Why not help us choose a few pieces?" Lin Xiaosu said with a smile.

Zhou Mei's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

People generally called him Divine Eye Zhang. No one called him Divine Eye Old Zhang.

Yet Lin Xiaosu had deliberately inserted the word "Old."

What did that mean?

Was he reminding her to pay attention, suggesting that the man before them might be Ghost Eye Lao Qi?

She seemed to understand Lin Xiaosu's performance since entering the shop as well.

Entering the rough stone section had been killing two birds with one stone?

On one hand, he was investigating the rough stones delivered the night before last. On the other, he was keeping this Divine Eye Old Zhang, who was suspected of being Ghost Eye Lao Qi, under control so that this key person would not escape once things started moving.

That was why he had used such a huge deal to keep Old Zhang firmly at his side.

Was this hint to her a sign that the lid was about to be lifted?

Boss Zhang's expression did not change in the slightest. He laughed heartily. "What Divine Eye Zhang? That's just praise from my peers. I've merely been in this trade longer and gained more experience. And that experience is mainly used in my own business, helping clients screen their purchases and minimizing their losses."

Zhou Mei's heart stirred again.

Boss Zhang's expression had not changed, but if one listened closely, there was something subtle in his words. He had cleverly corrected Lin Xiaosu's seemingly casual "Divine Eye Old Zhang" by dropping the word "Old"!

What did that mean?

A test and a countertest?

Lin Xiaosu was probing him!

And he was resisting that probe!

If he was deliberately avoiding the word "Old," then that was truly meaningful...

Ahead stood a row of shelves filled with rough stones.

The other rough stones were all laid out on the floor, while those on these shelves were displayed aboveground.

That alone was a form of promotion, proclaiming that the items on the shelves were of exceptional value.

"These are premium rough stones?" Lin Xiaosu asked.

"Yes. Most of them have been windowed, so you can already see a little of what's inside!"

"Mei'er, pick for yourself," Lin Xiaosu said.

"Okay!"

Zhou Mei picked up a rough stone.

Lin Xiaosu picked up one as well.

Boss Zhang handed him a small flashlight. It was tiny and square, but its beam had tremendous penetration. When Lin Xiaosu shone it on a jade window before him, the green glow made the rough stone seem like a crystal ball, stunningly beautiful.

"I don't really understand this stuff anyway. Mei'er, take it and have a look." Lin Xiaosu handed the flashlight to Zhou Mei.

Zhou Mei accepted it and began examining the stones seriously.

Women truly loved jade. She knew she could not afford to play with it on a police officer's salary, so she simply never did. Today, however, they were acting anyway. There was no reason not to enjoy herself...

As for Lin Xiaosu, he did not use that traditional tool, the flashlight. He activated his Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, and the instant it opened, an unbelievable sight appeared.

The internal structure of the windowed jade rough stone before him was revealed in perfect detail beneath the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye.

He now truly understood how deep the waters of the jade trade ran.

Take the jade rough stone in his hand, for instance. Judging only from the windowed area, it was green, translucent, and icy.

But beneath the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, an entirely different scene unfolded.

The stone did have green in it, but only that tiny patch. The inside was riddled with cracks and packed with impurities. If someone truly bought it at a high price, they would suffer a massive loss.

The person who had cut this window was an expert.

He had forcibly found this one crucial spot amid a pile of worthless stone.

The second rough stone showed a warm yellow through its window. Yet after the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye peeled away that yellow exterior, he realized there was no yellow inside at all. That layer of yellow was not the stone's color, but a mist layer.

The third rough stone was sky blue, with two windows cut into it. Light passed through them, giving the impression that the color had spread throughout the entire stone. But beneath the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, he could clearly see that only a narrow color band connected those two points. Everywhere else, its quality dropped by at least three grades.

Three rough stones in a row, all with Rogue Windows!

A Rogue Window was when an expert selected the best part of a rough stone and cut a window there.

The rough stone was real, and the quality of the windowed section was genuinely good.

But it represented only that one section.

Yet that very section delivered a deadly temptation to the customer, luring them into throwing down money.

What could you say?

Accuse them of fraud? They really had not faked anything.

That was why it was called playing rogue!

Divine Eye Old Zhang, was this your Divine Eye? Screening purchases for customers?

Or was this where Ghost Eye Lao Qi's "Ghost Eye" lay?

Lin Xiaosu remained impassive as he picked up the fourth rough stone. His target was no longer the window, but a crack in the stone.