Dare You Bet Against Me?

After eating and drinking their fill, Chen Mo checked out of the hotel. Today, he planned to buy the jade and head straight back to his hometown.

When he arrived at Culture Street again, he did not linger elsewhere and went directly to the Jade Area.

This time, he had come prepared. Every time he passed a shop, Chen Mo bought any rough stone that triggered his Spiritual Sense before moving on to the next shop. The shop owners were not suspicious. Plenty of people bought rough stone and took it away immediately, so Chen Mo's behavior seemed perfectly normal to them.

However, after visiting several shops, Chen Mo developed a headache. The stones came in different sizes, but they still had weight. He could not possibly keep carrying all this Raw Jade while shopping, could he? In the end, he bought a fairly large handcart and loaded all the rough stone onto it. The cart happened to have a canvas bag for carrying goods, concealing Chen Mo's movements when he stored the rough stone away. Thus, Chen Mo kept buying, yet there never seemed to be many stones on his cart.

After buying so much, he had acquired quite a few rough stones. Chen Mo felt that the stones he bought today were incomparable to yesterday's. Yesterday, his Spiritual Sense had merely reacted to the rough stone, and after cutting them open, they had only contained misshapen jade. But today, he had picked many stones that made his Spiritual Sense feel extremely comfortable, some even especially cool and refreshing. That meant the jade inside had to be good stuff.

He had selected more than thirty stones. The large ones were over fifty centimeters across, while the small ones were only the size of a fist. He had also come across some shop scraps and bought quite a few of those as well. Under the observation of his Spiritual Sense, these pieces only gave him a little bit of a reaction. He bought them merely to practice his carving skills; otherwise, using good jade to practice carving would be a complete waste.

When he reached a shop specializing in Stone Gambling, Rough Jade was displayed all around a small courtyard. Heavy-duty shelves supported row after row of stones. Every piece of Raw Jade had a marked price beneath it. Chen Mo had not originally intended to enter, because not a single stone at the entrance satisfied his Spiritual Sense. They were all worthless scraps. Yet seeing so many people still selecting rough stone at the entrance, he could not help feeling sorry for their wallets. Everything they were buying was junk.

Many people were entering the small courtyard. Since Chen Mo could not find anything worthwhile among the stones at the entrance, he followed the crowd inside to see whether the Raw Jade in the courtyard contained any good material.

He followed the flow of people and looked over the Raw Jade. They were all completely uncut gambling stones. Three of them felt especially good to his Spiritual Sense, and one even felt as cool as being submerged in water. Chen Mo knew he had to buy it—all three of them. Still, he wanted to look around some more before making his purchases. There were many people examining stones in the courtyard. Groups of three or five gathered together, using magnifying glasses and High-Intensity Flashlights to inspect the stones while occasionally discussing them, but overall, very few transactions took place.

Suddenly, Chen Mo's Spiritual Sense relaxed when it touched an enormous stone. It was as though, after passing through a thin layer of mud, it had entered cool water. His Spiritual Sense trembled, and he felt light, refreshed, and energized. Chen Mo froze. He had not expected to encounter such excellent material. It far exceeded his expectations. It was over a meter long and wide, with a thickness of eighty or ninety centimeters—an absolute giant.

Then he saw the price tag, and it made him want to spit blood. This piece cost 5.5 million yuan, far beyond what he could afford. He only had a little over two million yuan left, having spent the rest on other stones. It was nowhere near enough to buy this one.

Just as Chen Mo was considering how to gather the money, someone bumped into him, knocking him forward. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and took a fast step forward to cushion himself, avoiding a fall.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you leave a cart here?" Before Chen Mo could turn around, a shrill voice sounded behind him.

"Ah! Sorry! My apologies!" Since it was his own fault, Chen Mo immediately turned and apologized. He had no trouble admitting his mistake.

"Damn it, if apologies worked, what would we need the police for?" A young man in his twenties cursed at Chen Mo.

Chen Mo frowned. He had apologized, but the cart was not blocking the middle of the path. Though the courtyard was small, that was only relative; it could actually hold several hundred people. The paths were very spacious. There was no way someone walking normally would bump into his cart. Besides, if there had been no cart, the man would probably have crashed into Chen Mo himself, since Chen Mo had kept the cart behind him so it would not get in the way.

Apologizing did not mean he was at fault. Chen Mo looked directly at the young man and said, "The courtyard is so wide. Why did you run into my cart? Was it because you weren't watching where you were going?"

Well, that remark was like jabbing a hornet's nest. The young man immediately pointed at Chen Mo's nose and cursed, "Damn it, say that again? I ran into your cart? Are you blind? You left that cart in the middle of the courtyard, blocking the way, and you're saying I ran into it?"

"You..." Chen Mo had been about to curse back, but someone stopped him.

"Zhang Liwei! I came here to look at stones, not to listen to you curse!" A young girl beside the young man spoke up. Her words left Chen Mo with his mouth open but no sound coming out, and the young man—Zhang Liwei—also fell silent, though he still shot Chen Mo a vicious glare.

Chen Mo looked at the young girl before him. She was truly beautiful, graceful and charming. Yet she seemed somewhat cold, and that coldness was directed at everyone, not merely Chen Mo. She was exceptionally aloof and stunning. He had wanted to say a few more words to shut Zhang Liwei down, but since the young girl had spoken, he did not continue. Besides, seeing several bodyguards standing behind the two of them, he knew they came from no ordinary background.

When Zhang Liwei glared at him, Chen Mo rolled his eyes right back. He turned around and took down the three stones that gave him the strongest reactions, spending over a million yuan. To put on a show, he casually selected four more stones, making seven in total. He planned to cut them open here. If they sold for a good price, he would buy that 5.5-million-yuan stone that had given him such an extraordinary feeling.

The shop's Stone Cutting area was in the backyard. An employee carried Chen Mo's stones to the cutting machine. Chen Mo was waiting for the previous customer to finish cutting his stones when Zhang Liwei, whom he had just encountered, came over as well. An employee carrying stones followed behind him. Perhaps Chen Mo had stepped in dog shit when he went out today—he really seemed destined to be picked on.

The moment Zhang Liwei saw Chen Mo, he looked down on him with contempt. "Eh? You're here to gamble on stones too? Someone like you, do you even know what Stone Gambling is?"

Chen Mo felt thoroughly annoyed. He did not want to pay attention to this fellow, but he had not expected him to be so oblivious.

"Whether I know how to gamble on stones or not, what does it have to do with you?" Chen Mo said.

"I don't know whether it has anything to do with me, but kid, do you dare bet against me?" Zhang Liwei had never been a decent person, and he was the sort to retaliate over the slightest grievance. If he had not been accompanying the young girl he had pursued for so long to buy stones today, he would have already had someone teach Chen Mo a lesson. But in front of the woman he was courting, he at least had to leave a good impression. That was why this kid had escaped disaster.

Yet Chen Mo had appeared in front of him again. This time, the woman had not returned and was still in the front courtyard buying rough stone, so Zhang Liwei began mocking Chen Mo without restraint.

"Why should I bet with you?" Chen Mo asked.

"Not betting? Then kneel down and call me dad, then get the hell out of here! Stop fucking getting in my way!" Zhang Liwei said viciously. Several Strongmen who looked like bodyguards behind him immediately moved as if to surround Chen Mo. It seemed they had encountered this sort of situation many times and instinctively knew their respective roles.