In less than a month of road building, more than a dozen stones had appeared along the wall of Li Long's Big Courtyard.
They came in all sizes and looked quite ordinary. After a few days without cleaning, a layer of dust had settled over them.
In fact, they were all jade that Li Long had picked up during the road work, loaded onto his vehicle, and brought home. The largest piece was still sitting in the river; he had not managed to bring it back.
Fortunately, he was in no hurry. Bringing it back now would easily get people talking. If he left it a few years, or a dozen, people would gradually hear more news of similar discoveries, and bringing it back then would not attract so much attention.
Of course, he would definitely bring it back in the end, before the mountains were closed off.
There had once been a jade craze, and many people had gone into the mountains looking for it. Some found it, while others went missing or were injured in the search, and some damaged the environment. In the end, the authorities decided to close off the mountains and prohibit people from entering their depths.
So Li Long was in no hurry, but he knew there was a deadline and that he had to get it done before then.
With this row of jade sitting at home, most people would only think they were ordinary stones. No one would think they were jade.
After all, most uncut, unpolished Ma River Jade looked like stones to ordinary people.
Some ordinary people could not even distinguish jade from common quartz. During those years when jade had been all the rage, plenty of villagers had gone out collecting stones. Many picked up quartz that looked quite