Family Matters

"Sell!"

They said you had to strike while the iron was hot. Once, then twice, then three times—the courage he'd mustered had been interrupted, and he no longer had the nerve to let anyone cut the stone. He might as well stick to his original plan: take the money and leave.

After all, he'd bought it for fifty thousand and was selling it for three hundred thousand. He'd made the money, and someone else would take on the risk. What was there not to like?

Zhang Yang completed the transaction briskly and took the rough stone.

In the blink of an eye, the watermelon-sized rough stone was in his hands.

The people around him watched it eagerly. The spectacle seemed to be reaching its climax, and everyone was waiting for Zhang Yang to cut it right then and there.

They were even more eager than he was to see whether it would prove valuable or worthless.

"Cut it in half in one go." Zhang Yang handed the rough stone to the master cutter without hesitation, then stepped aside.

He didn't need to psych himself up, nor did he feel any pressure. He was mentally prepared for either outcome.

The cutter nodded, set the stone on the machine, and sliced through it with one clean stroke.

The rough stone really was like a watermelon. It split in two.

Someone nearby splashed a basin of water over it. Under the sunlight, a flash of light gleamed across the surface.

Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted.

"It went up!"

"It really went up!"

"Oh, if only I'd made an offer earlier!"

"Why are you slapping my leg? Damn, that hurts!"

Zhang Yang examined the cut surface. It wasn't anything absurd, like revealing imperial-green glass jade in a single cut. It was simply consistent throughout, just like the patch they'd polished earlier.

No melodrama or coincidence was involved. He'd simply made the right bet.

"With this water quality and this size, it could make at least twenty bangles and ten ring faces. I'll offer three million."

"Three point two million! Will you sell it for three point two million?"

Buyers swarmed around him. There were plenty of people who could afford a deal worth a few million.

"I'll take another look." Zhang Yang wasn't in a hurry to make a deal. Holding the stone, he walked straight away from the crowd.

He didn't want to sell himself short. He wanted to go back and do some more research, get a better idea of the market and the price. Of course, he also had another, more important reason.

He could say he'd made a fortune opening a jadeite rough stone, but he couldn't just expect everyone to take his word for it. This was a rare opportunity to prove it to his family.

Back at his apartment, Zhang Yang immediately started a video call with his father, Zhang Zhaohai.

The call connected a moment later. Zhang Zhaohai had a towel around his neck and was shoveling rice into his mouth.

"Have you eaten?" Zhang Zhaohai set down his bowl and leaned toward the screen, wiping the camera lens with his finger as if it were dirty.

"I'll eat in a bit. Is the hotel busy today, Uncle?" Zhang Yang asked first.

His uncle had opened a small restaurant a few years ago, and business had always been good. His father had started out as a self-taught home-banquet cook, so he'd been helping out in his uncle's kitchen ever since.

"Not bad. There's a full-month celebration for a baby, a few tables for that, and a few private rooms are occupied too." Zhang Zhaohai replied, then quickly looked up to exchange a few words with someone in the kitchen.

Zhang Yang looked at his father's lunch: white rice and vegetable-and-tofu soup, as plain as could be. There was no shortage of good food in the kitchen, of course, but when you spent every day surrounded by oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, what appetite could you have? It was enough to make anyone sick of food.

"By the way, what made you call me in the middle of the day?" Zhang Zhaohai sat back down.

"I want to show you something." Zhang Yang switched to the rear camera and pointed it at the rough stone, now split in two. "Dad, do you recognize this?"

"A rough stone? Imperial green? You've struck it rich?!" Zhang Zhaohai fired off a string of questions, leaving Zhang Yang a little stunned.

"Imperial green? Dad, where did you learn all that?" Zhang Yang was speechless.

"From novels. I listen to them whenever I have time. They're always talking about this eye or that eye, the protagonist unlocking some special vision, imperial green here and glass jade there. They're a real thrill to listen to... Anyway, I was joking just now. Is that really a rough stone?" Zhang Zhaohai asked suspiciously.

"It's a rough stone. It's already been cut open." His father kept bringing up imperial green, so it wouldn't make sense for Zhang Yang to pretend to be any more excited. He answered calmly.

"It really is a rough stone? You called me in the middle of the day for this, so... it went up in value?" Zhang Zhaohai finally realized how serious this was and asked tentatively.

"I spent several months' salary on it, and it did go up in value," Zhang Yang said.

"How much?" Zhang Zhaohai leaned closer to the screen, as if trying to get a better look at the stone.

"I'm not sure what it's worth, but some people here have offered three million, and others have offered three point two." As soon as Zhang Yang finished speaking, he saw his father plop down into his seat.

"How much?!" Zhang Zhaohai cried.

"More than three million," Zhang Yang repeated.

"Wait there!" Zhang Zhaohai immediately ran out of the kitchen, then out of the restaurant. The background behind him was now outdoors.

Zhang Yang realized he'd underestimated the impact three million would have on his father.

What did a sudden windfall of three million mean to an ordinary man? It meant having a car and a home, being able to take care of the big milestones in life, and still having a few hundred thousand saved for retirement.

Sure, his standards had risen, and three million no longer impressed him that much. But to his parents, three million was enough to last a lifetime.

For the next few minutes, Zhang Zhaohai kept asking the same questions, and Zhang Yang patiently explained everything over and over.

It took time to sink in, but Old Zhang had a strong heart, at least.

At last, he calmed down and accepted what had happened.

"So you got an impulse, spent tens of thousands on this thing, and somehow managed to cut it for a profit?" Zhang Zhaohai said.

"Yeah." Zhang Yang nodded.

"Sell it as soon as you can. Just accept a reasonable offer... Now you'll have a house and a car. No wonder you turned that girl down last time. You must've known this was coming, huh?" Zhang Zhaohai laughed heartily.

"I know what I'm doing. You can tell Mom. I won't call her myself." Zhang Yang ended the call with Zhang Zhaohai.

That afternoon, Zhang Yang drove the rough stone around to several jade shops. In the end, he successfully sold it for three and a half million.

Zhang Yang was already making twenty thousand a day, so the huge sum of three and a half million didn't hit him all that hard. But that didn't mean he felt nothing.

Even at his current rate of getting cashback, it would've taken him half a year to earn that much.

Now, he'd gotten it all at once.

The cash on hand was more than he'd ever had before.

Now he could drive his Porsche Cayenne openly, fill the trunk with all kinds of good cigarettes and liquor, and happily head home for the May Day holiday.

Better today than tomorrow. Zhang Yang turned the car around and set off to shop again.

To be honest, he hadn't really wanted his father to smoke or drink. His mother had long despised his smoking. But thinking about it now, his father spent every day in the kitchen. He was a fifty-year-old man who'd already lived most of his life. What was wrong with letting him smoke a little?

Even if he didn't live to a hundred, making it to eighty or ninety and enjoying himself would be enough.

So... buy it!

He wouldn't buy too many cigarettes. They'd go stale and be wasted, so he'd get the good ones instead: Taishan, Da Chong Jiu, and Golden Leaf Sky Leaf. They all cost over ten thousand yuan a carton, so he'd get one carton of each.

Liquor could sit around for as long as it liked. He'd get several cases each of Flying Fairy Moutai and Wuliangye.

Before long, Zhang Yang had filled the trunk of his Porsche Cayenne to the brim. There were only a few days left before he'd head home for the May Day holiday.

Explaining the source of his wealth to his parents was old hat by now. It took just two chapters to cover.