Fei Yu

As mentioned earlier, naturally growing wild Hainan Huanghuali wood usually grew in harsh conditions—remote mountain wilderness, alternating droughts and floods, and battering winds and rain. As a result, its branches and trunks were mostly twisted and crooked, while straight, well-formed trunk and branch material was rare. Without a straight tree heart, it was very difficult to make an entire string of Hainan Huanghuali beads with neat, uniform eye patterns.

In addition, wild Hainan Huanghuali was said to have "nine hollow trees out of ten." Most Hainan Huanghuali trees had heart cracks or were simply hollow inside. Under such circumstances, finding material suitable for making eye-pattern beads became even more difficult. Even among Hainan Huanghuali eye-pattern bracelets, it was quite common to find heart cracks at the centers of the eyes or between opposing eyes.

Therefore, a string of Hainan Huanghuali eye-pattern beads in which every bead had opposing eyes, all arranged uniformly, with no cracks or repairs, was truly exceedingly rare. Its high price was well deserved.

Wild Hainan Huanghuali with opposing eyes was already extremely difficult to find, let alone the exceedingly rare purple oil pearwood variety. Thus, although Old Fei's bracelet had been newly made, such a neat and uniform Hainan Huanghuali Purple Material bracelet with opposing eyes was genuinely rare, and its value was quite substantial.

After Chu Chen and Dean Sima had appraised his bracelet, Old Fei said indignantly, "Actually, how much this bracelet is worth isn't the important part. It was a birthday gift from my apprentice, but he stole it and sold it. If my apprentice found out, where would I put my face?"

At that moment, Old Mrs. Fei came in carrying tea and said, "All right, you're going on and on in front of the guests. Have you ever thought about how