Chapter Fourteen: Gambling Stones

Ye Yuan walked slowly. Smaller stones were arranged irregularly on shelves, while larger ones were placed directly on the ground. www.

Ye Yuan knew nothing about gambling stones. He had simply searched for some information online. Raw stones were mainly categorized into: kilogram materials, bagged materials, display materials, dealer materials, and high-grade materials.

After reading many descriptions, Ye Yuan was still confused. He looked at his phone while walking back and forth among the stones, touching this one and that one. As his hand brushed against a raw stone about the size of a washbasin.

"Energy source detected. Can exchange for 1000 points. Exchange?"

The system's prompt sounded.

"No."

Ye Yuan immediately canceled the operation. He was afraid the stone would suddenly disappear before his eyes. With so many people watching, he wouldn't be able to explain.

This was the first time an item had prompted him without being placed in his spatial system. Could it be because he had touched the stone?

Immediately after, he touched a few more stones beside him with his hand, but there was no reaction.

He decided to buy this one first and see. He looked at the stone in his hand. Its surface was yellowish-brown, no different from the other stones.

Ye Yuan took the stone to the stall owner. "How much for this stone?"

"3000 yuan, no bargaining," the stall owner replied after glancing at the stone in Ye Yuan's hand.

Ye Yuan did a quick calculation. 1000 points, if converted to sea fish, would be 1000 jin, which was roughly 7000 yuan. This was a guaranteed profit. Ye Yuan directly swiped his card.

Of course, Ye Yuan couldn't convert it into points right away. He wanted to know what was special about this stone.

He directly took the raw stone to the stone cutting area in the middle. Stone cutting was a very exciting process. There was a saying in the gambling stone industry: "One cut to poverty, one cut to wealth," which perfectly described stone cutting.

He found a stone cutter. Stone cutting here was free. All the stall owners jointly paid the salaries of these stone cutters. If good jade was found during stone cutting, they would usually give the stone cutter a red envelope. The amount depended on the price of the jade unearthed.

The stone cutter operated skillfully, calculating the cutting position, placing the raw stone, and the cutting machine roared to life. One cut, stop the machine, observe, cut again, observe again.

Each time, only a thin layer of the raw stone was removed. Zhao Chuan and Second Brother, who were in the distance, saw Ye Yuan cutting the stone and rushed over.

Second Brother grinned and said to Ye Yuan, "You're quick, kid. How much did you buy it for?"

"3000," Ye Yuan replied without turning his head, his eyes fixed on the stone.

Zhao Chuan came over and didn't speak to Ye Yuan. Instead, he looked at Master Nie beside him.

"The quality is average. The possibility of a profitable gamble is slim," Master Nie gave his assessment directly.

The stone cutter had already made four cuts. What was revealed was still just white stone. Many people around shook their heads, thinking this stone was likely a losing gamble.

When the stone cutter made the fifth cut, amidst sparks and a roaring sound, another piece of raw stone was cut off. Finally, a fingernail-sized piece of green was revealed.

"It's a profit! The gamble paid off!"

Voices from the onlookers immediately erupted around them.

At this point, the stone cutter didn't rush to continue cutting. Instead, he rinsed the raw stone with water. As the stone powder on the green was washed away, the color underneath was revealed. Zhao Chuan said joyfully, "Glutinous Rice Jade."

The stone cutter held a strong flashlight and shone it on the green area to get a clearer view of the inside. After a long look, he said to Ye Yuan, "Glutinous Rice Jade, with minor cracks. The volume isn't very large."

The surrounding people discussed again. Ye Yuan didn't understand any of this and looked helplessly at Zhao Chuan.

Master Nie, standing nearby, looked embarrassed. After all, he had just said this raw stone wouldn't yield a profit, and the reality hit him so quickly.

At the same time, Master Nie realized Ye Yuan was an amateur and explained patiently, "Glutinous Rice Jade is a top-grade jadeite, with a hardness of about 7. Its color resembles glutinous rice, hence the name. The color has a slight yellowish tint, and its transparency is not as good as Ice Jade."

Zhao Chuan immediately added, "Master Nie, you don't need to explain so much to him. This guy probably doesn't even know what Ice Jade is." He then burst into laughter.

Ye Yuan ignored Zhao Chuan. He expressed his thanks to Master Nie.

The stone cutter continued. This time, he switched to an angle grinder, rinsing with water after each cut. This process repeated for ten minutes until the jade was finally separated. It was about the size of an egg and irregularly shaped.

People around were discussing using jargon Ye Yuan didn't understand, like "water-rich" and "floating flowers." Ye Yuan didn't grasp any of it. Someone nearby immediately offered a price of 8000.

Zhao Chuan directly told the person who made the offer, "This is my brother. Don't even think about getting a bargain here."

Although Zhao Chuan had not been in the industry for long, his starting point was high. He was quite famous in the jewelry and jade circles of Shangjing.

Seeing that Zhao Chuan had spoken, everyone dispersed.

Second Brother happily came over, put his arm around Ye Yuan's shoulder, and said, "Not bad, not bad. Eldest Brother said you've been lucky lately and got a lot of good stuff. I didn't believe him, but now I'm truly convinced. With your luck, who can compare?"

Ye Yuan retorted unhappily to Second Brother, "Do you care about such a small amount of money? Is the money from this jade enough for you to stay in a hotel for a few days?"

"That's different, don't you understand the process? Gambling stones is all about the thrill of the gamble. The result isn't important."

"I only care about the result. The process is not important," Ye Yuan shot back directly.

Zhao Chuan also came over at this moment. "I'll take it for 10,000."

Ye Yuan looked at Zhao Chuan and said, "Let's see after it's finished. I'm planning to make some jewelry for my mom and sister with this jade."

"That's fine. I'll have the company's designer help you with the design then," Zhao Chuan didn't insist. After all, this jade was nothing to Zhao Chuan's company. He was simply happy for Ye Yuan's successful gamble.

After chatting for a few sentences, they each went to look for stone materials they liked. Ye Yuan also casually gave the stone cutter a 500 yuan red envelope.

Through this stone cutting experience, he learned that jade could provide points and that as long as his hand touched a raw stone, the system would give him the point count.

Ye Yuan believed that the higher the points, the better the grade of the corresponding jade. To see if his hypothesis was correct, Ye Yuan began searching among the raw stones again.

Finally, Ye Yuan found a raw stone worth only 50 points among a pile of them. Ye Yuan spent 1,000 yuan to buy it.

He took the stone to the stone cutting area, finding the same master as before. The master cut the stone open in just a few minutes. This stone wasn't large, and after cutting, it only yielded a small amount of green. The stone cutting master told him that he had lost this gamble.

Ye Yuan collected these jade fragments and put them directly into his backpack.

Everyone understood; after all, these jade fragments could still be made into small earrings or something similar. However, compared to the price of the raw stone, it was a complete loss.

After cutting stones twice, Ye Yuan realized this was an opportunity for him. There was no such thing as gambling stones in Blue Island City, and he couldn't come to Shangjing to gamble on stones often. One or two times could be explained away by luck, but if it happened too many times, observant people would surely become suspicious. The jade circle was quite small. Furthermore, he didn't want to get addicted to gambling on stones.