Ideals Cannot Penetrate Reality

Wang Weimin was stunned by his uncle's words. That guy still had jade material?

But a moment later, he laughed, "That guy even picks up rocks. Whether he has any real material is hard to say."

Jubaozhai was among the top-tier jewelry firms in Yang City. For a jewelry business of this scale, jade was the primary business, while playing with raw stones was merely a side interest.

He didn't believe that the guy who ate four burger sets at a fast-food restaurant could possibly possess large-scale jade material.

Of course, he felt a bit guilty saying this, but he had to say it.

Manager Wang sighed, looking at the two people whispering not far away with a heavy expression—that young man not only knew how to seize the opportunity to ask for a price, but he was also generous with money and decisive in his actions. Among the young people today, he was definitely someone to watch.

He had an intuition that there was a high probability of good stuff on that guy.

Manager Liang wasn't quite as expectant; he just wanted to stock up on some goods and, incidentally, disgust Jubaozhai.

So when he saw the other half of the jade box, he was actually a bit stunned, "Young man, what... what is the meaning of this?"

Feng Jun knew what he was thinking, so he smiled slightly, "I'm selling the jade, not the box."

"That's easy to handle. I'll give you sixty thousand for this piece," Manager Liang also felt relieved and said with a smile, "I thought you were going to sell it as a broken antique."

He was buying jade material and absolutely didn't want to get involved in any antique value, otherwise, he would have to waste a lot of breath.

Feng Jun nodded with a smile, "That works, sixty thousand it is. To be honest with you... these two pieces can actually fit together perfectly. If you don't believe me, you can try it."

The half of the jade box he had asked for a price on was larger than the half that hadn't been taken out, and even so, those jewelry firms had looked down on it.

The fact that the other party could offer a price of sixty thousand, while perhaps not the highest, was definitely fair.

"I won't try it," Manager Liang shook his head quite decisively, "I'm buying material, not collecting antiques."

This jade box was plain and unremarkable, with no great value. Even if it were repaired, it would still be a repaired item, and its value would shrink even further. Rather than that, it was better to use it as jade material; not only would it be easier to sell, but he might even make more money.

Feng Jun knew his intentions, so he smiled, "I didn't mean anything else, just said it offhand. I've already said, I'm selling jade."

Manager Liang glanced at him and nodded slightly, his impression of this young man becoming even better—he really knew how to advance and retreat.

The next moment, he scanned Feng Jun's backpack and found it was still heavy. His eyes couldn't help but light up, and he lowered his voice to ask, "Do you... have other jade pieces on hand?"

This jade box went without saying; one look and you could tell it had age. He assumed the other party had discovered some kind of hidden cache—if there were broken jade pieces, surely there must be better jade pieces, right?

Feng Jun laughed, "You're overthinking it. I have another piece of jade material here. Are you interested in taking a look?"

"Extremely interested," Manager Liang replied without hesitation, his face full of smiles, "We at Henglong mainly do jewelry; we don't play much with antiques, and our focus isn't on that."

However, when he saw the head-sized piece of jade in Feng Jun's hand, his smile instantly froze on his face.

As soon as Feng Jun placed the stone on the ground, he rushed forward in a single bound and reached out to touch it.

After touching it for a while, he became even more excited. He took out a magnifying glass to look, his body trembling uncontrollably.

In the end, he couldn't hold back and shouted, "Holy crap... such a large piece of mutton-fat jade boulder!"

Feng Jun was delighted to hear this. Even if he didn't know much about jade, he understood terms like this. Mutton-fat white jade was the king of nephrite, and boulder material was more valuable than mountain material.

In the industry, it was said that boulder material was washed by river water for years, resulting in good color, high oiliness, and a more delicate texture.

This was also the result Feng Jun had been looking forward to most. He had even calculated how much money he could make if what he found was this kind of jade.

If it were ten thousand per gram, thirty kilograms... damn, wouldn't that be three hundred million?

One had to know that good mutton-fat white jade nowadays could sell for twenty or thirty thousand per gram.

Feng Jun admitted that he was terrified of being poor, but he still had his rationality. He knew his calculation had some problems and that many costs hadn't been factored in, but that was three hundred million! Even if he sold it at a ten percent discount, that was still thirty million.

While he was beaming with joy, Manager Wang also heard the words "mutton-fat jade boulder" and gasped, "Holy crap!"

Wang Weimin's face turned pale in an instant, and he couldn't help but yell, "Impossible! At most, it's mountain-stream material."

"Are you sick in the head?" Manager Liang turned back and gave him a cold look, "Are you questioning my judgment?"

Although Manager Liang of Henglong was only in his forties, he was a figure of some standing in the Yang City jewelry industry. Wang Weimin's words were a serious offense to him.

"I mean, I mean..." Wang Weimin hesitated for a long time, finally gritted his teeth, pointed at Feng Jun, and said through gritted teeth, "How could this poor wretch..."

"Enough!" Manager Wang roared, his body trembling with anger, "Weimin, leave first."

At this moment, he was extremely disappointed with this whole affair. Look at the mess you've made.

"I don't accept this!" Wang Weimin shouted loudly, "This guy is a poor wretch who eats three burger sets at a fast-food restaurant; how could he possibly have a mutton-fat jade boulder?"

He said he didn't accept it, but his face was pale, because he knew very well what a huge amount of wealth such a large piece of mutton-fat jade boulder represented—both invisible and intangible.

For merchants in the jade industry, what was the most precious resource?

Well, the most precious resource was certainly high-end, top-tier clients; for any industry, this kind of resource was the most precious.

If one didn't count client resources, the most precious resource was, of course, top-tier raw materials.

Jade was a non-renewable resource. There was only so much in the world. Excluding those that hadn't been discovered, the jade that had already been discovered was constant; it could only decrease due to damage, never increase.

And the jewelry industry was a typical luxury industry. Only with more top-tier goods could one grow larger.

If Jubaozhai lost a piece of mutton-fat jade boulder, another firm gained one. The accounting had to be done by comparing the two, not just by calculating how much revenue Jubaozhai lost by not receiving this piece of jade.

Wang Weimin felt so depressed he wanted to vomit blood.

All this loss was simply because he wanted to show off in front of an old classmate and because of his contempt for the poor.

What was even more miserable was that if Jubaozhai only had the qualification to participate in the competition and it was merely "possible" to obtain this piece of jade, that would be one thing, and the blame couldn't be placed entirely on him.

However, the problem was that before he arrived, his second uncle had already negotiated the first deal with the other party, and it was just a matter of paying the money.

If the first deal succeeded, could the second or third deal be far behind?

This blame had to be carried by him, and it could only be carried by him.

"Are you talking nonsense?" Manager Liang glanced at him, feeling that this guy's logic was quite inexplicable. "What's wrong with a fast-food restaurant? My son eats there often, too."

Is it the same for an adult to eat at a fast-food restaurant as it is for a child? Wang Weimin really wanted to retort with that.

Yet, sadly, he suddenly discovered that he didn't even have the strength to open his mouth.

Seeing this, Manager Wang really wished he could raise his hand and slap his nephew; damn it, can you stop embarrassing yourself?

But in the end, he just shook his head slightly and patted his nephew on the shoulder. "Alright, you go back first, and don't put too much pressure on yourself... it's just a piece of jade."

Years later, whenever Manager Wang recalled saying that sentence, he would want to slap himself a few times—damn it, I was truly possessed by a ghost back then; what gave me the right to say "a piece of jade," and even... "just"?

Setting aside the affairs of the Wang uncle and nephew for now, Manager Liang began to quote a price to Feng Jun, "Six million."

What? Feng Jun almost thought he had misheard, and he bared his teeth. "How much did you say?"

"Startled?" Manager Liang looked at him with composure, a strange smile appearing at the corners of his mouth. "Is it too much or too little?"

"Too little," Feng Jun answered honestly. "The jadeite piece from just now was six million eight hundred and ninety thousand, and that was only ice-variety."

"Can hard jade be compared to soft jade?" Manager Liang curled his lips in frustration. "You know how popular jadeite is; not many people are speculating on jade right now..."

Feng Jun actually knew this. In a strict sense, the price of jade had also been rising steadily, but its sources were stable, unlike jadeite, which had too many black and gray areas, and even a thick scent of blood.

Gimmicks create room for speculation; this is inevitable, and speculation attracts attention, which is also inevitable.

But he was still a bit unconvinced. "Manager Liang, this is mutton-fat jade boulder material; shouldn't it be compared to the price of glass-variety?"

You really are a blockhead! Manager Liang looked at the young man in front of him, speechless.

He didn't actually like educating others when doing business, but he was in a good mood today, so he explained it to the little guy.

"Mutton-fat jade boulder material also has distinctions in quality. Your material has skin, but it can generally be seen that it is only of medium quality, and I can be sure it is not from the border regions, nor is it foreign material."

"I don't want to ask where you got the material, but the point is that it has no pedigree, so the price has to suffer a bit."

"Also, wholesale and retail prices are definitely different, and we certainly have losses when we craft jade ornaments..."

"Alright," Feng Jun interrupted him. Although he still felt a bit regretful about the price, he felt much more balanced in his heart. The most crucial part was that the other party said—they had no interest in asking about the source of the jade material.

If they weren't interested, that was even better. He could enter the Wilderness Space at any time, and finding more jade material shouldn't be much of a problem. Since that was the case, why should he quibble over this one piece?

Anyway, six million was enough for him to do many things. If he discovered he had been cheated later, he could just stop dealing with this company.

So, he nodded with a smile. "Since Manager Liang has put it this way, then six million it is; let's consider it making a friend."

Seeing that he was straightforward in his dealings, Manager Liang was also happy, so he replied with a smile, "You have to let me make some profit, right? How about this: the base price is six million, and you come with me to the company. Once we open the skin of the material, maybe I can value it a bit higher for you."