Reflection

Wax-skin refers to a layer on the stone's outer skin that looks like wax. It has a glossy, black-and-shiny color. If this wax skin is not rubbed away, it is difficult to observe the jadeite's texture, clarity, and quality. Moreover, most wax-skinned stones contain many fine cracks beneath the wax, and their quality is relatively tender.

Black wolframite sand with wax skin, especially the piece Chu Chen had found without a sandy outer layer, was considered one of the less promising varieties of black sand for betting on a rise. That was why it had been left here, ignored by everyone.

Although there were so many rough stones with good signs, nearly half of them showed no reaction from his special ability at all. In other words, there was not even jadeite of the slightest value inside those rough stones. As for the other half, their quality remained unknown, and their internal condition might not be optimistic either.

The sight made Chu Chen sigh again. The rough-stone business truly deserved its saying: "Nine out of ten bets are losses."

After carefully selecting and comparing them, Chu Chen chose two rough stones he was fairly satisfied with. However, one of them left him somewhat unwilling to decide.

It was a piece of rough stone weighing more than ten kilograms from the Mowanji field area. This field area had been mined in the 1970s and was what people called a new mining area. It was famous for producing black wolframite sand, and the piece in Chu Chen's hands was black wolframite sand as well.

The reason black wolframite sand was so famous was that rough stones of this type had a very high chance of yielding high-quality jadeite when cut open, making them extremely popular. However, once this kind of rough stone failed, it failed completely. Thus, people both loved and hated it. Among them, black sand from the old mining area of Old Pagang and the small mining area of Nanqui was the easiest to cut successfully.

Actually, Chu Chen usually kept his distance from rough stones from new mining areas, because the quality of the jadeite they produced was comparatively less ideal. Yet he hesitated over this one. Although the raw stone had moss, it was all sleeping moss. Moreover, when he shone a powerful flashlight on it, the hints of green looked fairly good, and it seemed to have ample water content.

Moss referred to spots, streaks, patches, or clumps of black, gray, or pale-gray weathered marks of varying sizes and shapes found on the outer skin of jadeite rough stones.

Generally speaking, where there was moss, there was likely to be color, but moss also consumed color. As long as one distinguished the types of moss, however, one could still make gains. Sleeping moss usually remained on the surface and did little harm, while straight moss—such as nail-like spots of black moss—easily drilled into the jadeite's interior and affected its quality.

This rough stone was both black wolframite sand and covered in sleeping moss, so it was no wonder Chu Chen was moved. But then he suddenly noticed a detail. He hurriedly examined it with a magnifying glass and found that some of the sleeping moss looked rather like straight moss. This gave the raw stone a great deal of uncertainty.

After thinking it over, Chu Chen still felt that the black wolframite sand was too risky. Also, considering that stones from the Mowanji field area generally had short water content—in other words, the value of the jadeite they yielded might not differ much from the price of the rough stone—he ultimately set it aside.

Another rough stone he liked was a yellow-sand-skinned piece. Although it too had moss, Chu Chen carefully observed it and saw a patch in the middle of the moss that looked like a pus-filled sore. This was called withered moss, which generally did little harm to a raw stone. The reason he cared so much about this rough stone was that it also bore a beautiful white python pattern.

In simple terms, a python pattern was when a strip or patch—or even a pattern winding around most of a stone—suddenly appeared on a rough stone's surface, formed by differently arranged grains of sand. It looked somewhat like a new pattern pressed or scorched onto the stone. This was called a python pattern.

A python pattern was one of the main bases rough-stone gamblers used to judge from a jadeite's exterior whether there was color inside, and whether that color was dense or faint.

A white python pattern was simply a white-colored python pattern, also generally called white python. The white python on Chu Chen's rough stone was grayish white, and white pythons of this color had a very high chance of yielding a rise in value. Combined with the withered moss, it was only natural that he took a liking to it.

If he had not possessed his special ability, Chu Chen would have rushed straight to the cashier upon encountering such a good rough stone. But now that he had the ability, he would not feel at ease without testing it. After all, this was stone gambling. Still, he believed that even if the rough stone did not rise greatly in value, a small rise would be very steady.

The result, however, poured cold water over him. The rough stone was marked at one hundred and fifty thousand yuan. Even if he managed to bargain, he would certainly have to pay at least one hundred thousand. Yet his special ability showed that the jadeite inside was worth only around fifty or sixty thousand.

The result felt like a heavy blow to the head, and Chu Chen could not help wondering whether his eyesight really was that poor.

That's not right! There must be some problem with this rough stone that I haven't noticed!

Chu Chen rallied himself and carefully examined it twice more with a magnifying glass and a flashlight. Then he shook his head and gave a bitter laugh.

It turned out that this rough stone had not only withered moss, but also scattered grayish-white moss interspersed among the white python pattern. At the time, he had failed to observe carefully because of the white python, which had led to his mistaken judgment. Ultimately, it had all been caused by his carelessness. That truly should not have happened.

It made sense. If this rough stone had shown signs as good as those he had seen earlier, would it still have been left here waiting for him to choose?

If he had not had the help of his special ability this time and had excitedly taken it to be cut open, the final result would undoubtedly have affected Chu Chen greatly. It might have made him doubt his eyesight, or, in the worst case, caused him to lose confidence. Yet confidence was precisely what was most needed—and most crucial—in the rough-stone trade.

Chu Chen stood up with a bitter smile. While feeling fortunate that he possessed his special ability, he saw Liu Zhiqing selecting rough stones in the thousand-yuan section nearby. Liu Zhiqing examined each rough stone so seriously and meticulously that, thinking of his earlier experiences, Chu Chen suddenly felt he still had much to learn.

He thought, This special ability is not omnipotent. And what if it suddenly disappeared one day, just as suddenly as it had appeared? What would I do if I lacked the necessary knowledge? As the old saying went, relying on oneself was better than relying on others. With abundant knowledge, he could live well even without his special ability.

Over the past few days, because he had grown dependent on his special ability, he had not studied as diligently as before. Now that he thought about it, that truly had been wrong. On the contrary, since he possessed the ability to remember everything he saw, he should work even harder. Besides, he could now go online, and the information on the internet was practically endless. That made studying even more convenient.

The two moments of reflection—yesterday morning and now—had undoubtedly helped Chu Chen tremendously. Yesterday's reflection had severed the fetters in his mind, while today's had made him face his own attitude. These two reflections had laid a solid foundation for his colorful collecting career in the future.

After understanding all this, Chu Chen did not want to stay in the ten-thousand-yuan section any longer. He felt that, given his current level, the thousand-yuan section was more suitable. Although the rough stones there were not as valuable as those here, they were more comprehensive and just right for a rough-stone gambler with some foundation to study.

Afterward, in the thousand-yuan section, Chu Chen was no longer as superficial as before. During nearly half an hour of choosing, he carefully examined every rough stone he picked up, then combined his previous experience with his observations to make judgments.

If his special ability showed no reaction, he judged why the stone had been placed in the thousand-yuan section. If it did react, he determined whether the value would rise or fall, and what quality the jadeite would have if it rose.

After observing with such a clear purpose, Chu Chen felt that he had accumulated experience two or three times faster during that half hour than he had through studying for the same amount of time before. This left him extremely satisfied.

He checked the time and saw that it was almost ten o'clock. If he wanted to make a gain that morning, he had to speed up. Of course, Chu Chen would not become careless just for the sake of speed. Thus, he selected a gray-sand-skinned rough stone weighing about eight kilograms and began examining it meticulously.

The characteristic of jadeite produced by gray-sand-skinned rough stones was good quality. At first glance, this rough stone looked fairly good. First, his special ability reacted, showing that there was jadeite inside. Moreover, its surface had pine flowers shaped like pine needles. This kind of pine flower was called needle-like pine flower.

As mentioned earlier, python patterns were one of the important bases rough-stone gamblers used to bet on color. Another important basis was pine flowers. Pine flowers were the remnants of the green color inside jadeite left on the weathered outer skin. They could be dense or faint, large or small, and came in various shapes. Among rough-stone gamblers, there was a saying about pine flowers: "The greener and fresher, the better."

Rough stones with needle-like pine flowers easily concealed intense green or full green. Of course, if that were all, the stone would not have been placed in the thousand-yuan section. Sure enough, when Chu Chen turned it over, he saw a patch of green on the back.

Someone might ask, if that was the case, wasn't it a good thing?

There was a saying in the rough-stone trade: "It is better to buy a line than a patch." A patch of color was very likely to be a burst of pine flowers whose color only ran along the skin, and was generally very thin. A line of green, however, could easily seep into the interior. Thus, people also summarized it this way: "Patch color is like paper; line color sinks deep."

Setting aside that patch of green for the moment, the key issue was that the green also contained moss—and it was fly-dropping moss, the kind that liked to follow green. How could anyone bet on a stone in such a condition?

As for why it had still been placed in the thousand-yuan section, one reason was that it was an eight-kilogram gray-sand-skinned stone, and another was its needle-like pine flowers. Chu Chen guessed that the price would not be high. When he looked, it was indeed only twelve hundred yuan. Clearly, most people were not optimistic about this rough stone.

Despite its poor showing, Chu Chen stuck to what he had done earlier and carefully examined the rough stone from beginning to end. This time, he vaguely noticed a faint python line. After looking more closely, he really did find a faint one-line python pattern beside the pine flowers.

The best and worst signs are actually appearing together. Could this rough stone have been made by joining two pieces of rough stone together? Chu Chen thought with a laugh.

Wait!

Chu Chen suddenly frowned. The rough stone probably had not been faked, but this might very well be green clinging to the skin. Perhaps the fly-dropping moss was merely stuck to the green clinging to the skin. That was entirely possible. Thinking this, Chu Chen was reluctant to use his remaining instance of his special ability, but he still decisively used it on this rough stone.