Chapter 7: The Gambler's Stone

  This Donghai Gemstone Festival is jointly organized by more than a dozen well-known jewelry companies across the country, and its scale can be said to be unprecedented in the country.

  The Tianji Jewelry City is a 28-story building, and the Gemstone Festival is held on the first to fourth floors of the building.

  Upon arrival at the Tianji Building, Zhang Jun saw that there were many people at the entrance of the building, constantly coming and going, and it seemed that the number of people participating in the Gambling Stone Festival was not small, which was also a manifestation of the successful promotion by the organizers.

  Entering the first floor of the building, Lin Xian let Zhang Jun go ahead by himself because she had some business to attend to, and she took the elevator alone to the high floor.

  Zhang Jun then entered District D, preparing to buy some stones to play with.

  The entire Jade Stone Festival is divided into four trading areas, namely A area, B area, C area and D area. Among them, the jade rough stones in Area A have the highest value, with prices all above one million yuan; the lowest price of stones in Area B is 100,000 yuan; the price of stones in Area C is generally above 10,000 yuan.

  As for District D, it can be bought for several hundred or thousand yuan, which is the cheapest among the four districts. At the same time, this district is also one of the places with the largest passenger flow.

  Zhang Jun is now in District D, he is close to the sales desk, walking slowly, secretly staring at these stones, hoping to find valuable jade.

  At the casino, he won 20 million, which was enough for him to buy many of his favorite rough stones.

  The stones sold here are divided into three categories. The first category is gambled goods, even the seller cannot judge whether they have jadeite inside or what kind of jadeite, this type has the greatest gamble, basically relying on luck.

  The second type is Minghuo, which refers to jade that has been cut open and its internal quality can be clearly seen. Generally speaking, the value of this piece of jade can be determined. However, there are also risks involved with Minghuo, as it's possible for the exposed surface to show good quality while the interior may not meet the same standards.

  The third type is semi-transparent and semi-opaque material, which can only wipe out a window on the stone to see the internal situation locally. The risk of this kind of stone is also relatively large, so it is called semi-gambling.

  Half-gambling and half-clear materials, as well as clear goods, generally have high prices for those with some quality. Even if they are cut into jadeite, the profit is limited, so Zhang Jun's interest in them is not great. His focus is on the most gambled goods.

  Although he had already seen Lin Xian's jade sample, Zhang Jun was still uneasy. He decided to first inspect the goods here and further understand the internal structure of the stone, so that his judgment would be more accurate.

  Each of the four districts is equipped with stone-cutting machines, and after customers buy a stone, they can have it cut open on the spot. The process of cutting open the stone is very exciting, and many buyers stare wide-eyed at the stone they bought.

  When the stone was opened, some of them showed a smile, while others had a worried face. The former were those who made money by betting on the rise, and the latter were those who lost money by betting on the fall.

  All the way, Zhang Jun found that most people were losing money, only a few made profits. Among them was an old man who cut out a valuable old pit nephrite jade worth tens of thousands with a cost of 3,000 yuan. He held the cut stone and laughed so hard that all his teeth were exposed.

  After examining a large quantity of stone materials, Zhang had a clear idea in his mind and began to inspect the goods for sale, looking for stones worth bidding on.

  The process was extremely tedious, with tens of thousands of stones, he had to inspect one by one and then select the ones he wanted. He walked slowly, and whenever he saw a satisfactory stone, he would let the nearby service staff pick it up and put it in a specific location.

  The service staff in the hall were very sufficient, and when the manager saw that Zhang Jun had already picked up three pieces of raw stone, he knew it was a big customer, so he specially assigned someone to push a small cart behind him to help carry the stones.

  Zhang Jun had given himself the principle of being low-key after having the ability to see through things, so he didn't plan on buying too much. Since the number of selections wasn't many, it was only natural to choose some high-quality jade rough stones.

  As he passed by a small stone the size of a watermelon, his heart skipped a beat. The stone was not small, with an ordinary outer shell, but inside it hid a piece of jade the size of an apple.

  Based on his experience with transparent samples, this piece of jadeite belongs to the ice-type purple jadeite, and its quality is excellent. For a while, he couldn't determine the value of this piece of jadeite, but it should be over millions.

  His heart skipped a beat as he thought, "Being a jade trader is indeed a lucrative business. This piece of stone is only worth 8,000 yuan, but it can be resold for hundreds of thousands or even millions! With this money, I can buy a house in the golden district of Donghai City!"

  Almost all over District D, Zhang Jun bought ten pieces of raw jade, spending more than 600,000. The largest of these raw jades are as big as a watermelon, and the smallest are only about the size of a fist, but inside they all contain decent quality jadeite.

  When Zhang Jun came to the counter, ready to pay, Lin Xian returned. Behind her, a man in his thirties, about 1.7 meters tall, followed with his left hand subtly resting on Lin Xian's slender and soft waist. Moreover, his gaze stayed mostly on Lin Xian, with an unmistakable glint of greed and possessiveness in his eyes.

  Zhang Jun felt a bit displeased in his heart, thinking to himself what this guy's background was, seemingly having ideas about hitting on his senior sister and even making physical contact. As he thought, he waved his hand towards Lin Xian and shouted loudly: "Senior sister, I'm over here."

  The young man in the suit also heard Zhang Jun's shout, and couldn't help but frown slightly. As he followed Lin Xian over, he asked: "Miss Lin, this kid calls you 'older sister', is he your classmate?"

  Lin Xuan said: "Yes, his name is Zhang Jun, he's a fellow alumnus of mine from Donghai University." As she spoke, the two of them had already walked over.

  Lin Xian hadn't spoken yet, but the young man's gaze had already fallen on Zhang Jun's shopping cart. When he saw those ten ordinary-looking rough stones, he couldn't help but reveal a sneer and said: "These stones of yours don't look very good, I reckon it'll be hard to make a profit."

  Perhaps because the person in front of him intentionally approached Lin Xian, Zhang Jun felt extremely disgusted with him. At this time, he heard him criticizing the stone he bought and couldn't help but say coldly: "Nonsense, the key to buying a stone is the word 'gamble', of course there's risk."

  Zhang Jun's attitude made the young man feel dissatisfied, his face changed slightly, and he said: "I am Xu Bo, the department manager of Donghai Qianfu Jewelry, one of the organizers of this stone gambling festival. I have been in the stone industry for many years, and my eyes are still good at spotting stones. Don't be discouraged, little brother."

  Lin Xian was somewhat puzzled, as Zhang Jun, who had always been humble and polite, was now speaking in such a way that was quite unpleasant. However, she did not want to offend the young man in front of her, because her family wanted to buy jade, and it was likely that they would have to deal with him. She quickly mediated the situation, laughing and saying: "Yes, Zhang Jun, Manager Xu's ancestors were all gamblers, you should learn from them."

  Zhang Jun raised an eyebrow: "Really?" He turned around and casually picked up a fist-sized stone from the shopping cart, calmly saying to Xu Bo, "Manager Xu, do you dare to bet with me?"