Chapter Fifty-One: Wearing Old Clothes (Three)

  "Brother Feng, how did we end up back here again?"

  After wandering around the antique city on Red Flag Street for half a day, Xie Xuan found that Qin Feng had brought him back to Bai Fo Street again, which made him feel even more inexplicable.

  "Just follow me and it'll be fine, watch more and ask less!"

  Qin Feng waved his hand, but this time he entered the antique street and walked directly to a shop that sold jade stones at the entrance of the street, unlike yesterday's casual stroll.

  This antique shop, named "Qí Shí Zhāi", has a fairly large storefront. The main hall is a three-bay open space, and there's also a small courtyard in the back, but that's where the owner entertains friends for tea and conversation, not somewhere customers can enter.

  "Qí Shí Zhāi", as the name suggests, in addition to selling jade stones, there are also various types of peculiar stones with different shapes, from a few kilograms to several hundred kilograms of stones, which are placed at the entrance of the store.

  "Hey, little friends, you two are here again?"

  When he saw Qin Feng come in, a sixty-year-old old man stood up and smiled: "Come, come, take a look at this material. It's authentic Hetian jade seed material, and it's rare to see such a large piece."

  The old man is the boss of "Qí Shí Zhāi", surnamed Gě, with a single name Jùn, but his rat-like eyes and deer-like head don't quite match his name. Even when he was in his early thirties, he didn't have much to do with the word "handsome".

  Although Ge Jun doesn't look impressive, he has a reputation in the Shi City antique and jade market. His store is also one of the earliest jade stores in Shi City. In comparison, Nie's family is just a latecomer to the industry.

  After being invited by Ge Jun, Qin Feng didn't stand on ceremony either. He picked up the piece of jade he had placed on the tray and examined it carefully. After a while, he opened his mouth and said: "Old man, this material is pure white throughout, with a glossy color, and what's rare is that it's as big as a fist, which is hard to come by, it's a rare treasure."

  Yesterday, Qin Feng spent more than two hours in this store on Bai Fo Street, having a great conversation with Old Man Ge. Despite his young age, Ge Junren treated Qin Feng with respect and didn't look down on him.

  "Who did you learn this from, you little brat?"

  Ge Jun took the Hetian jade seed material from Qin Feng's hand, carefully put it into the cabinet, and turned around to say: "Xiao Qin, are you still in school? Is your family also playing with stones?"

  "Old man, I'm from Yangzhou, and since I was young, I've been learning carving with my elders, so I know a bit about stones."

  Qin Feng smiled and pointed at Xie Xuan, saying: "There's an aunt living in Shishi, isn't this a visit to her? I like this thing, so I asked my cousin to bring me here for a stroll."

  Qin Feng spoke with a very natural expression, and his words also carried a hint of Jiangnan accent. As someone in the jade business, he was almost certainly connected to factories on the Yangzhou side. Ge Jun had picked up on it long ago.

  "The world's finest craftsmanship comes from Yangzhou - no wonder, it turns out that it's due to family tradition..."

  Upon hearing Qin Feng's explanation, Ge Jun suddenly felt enlightened. Yesterday, he was still wondering in his heart, where did this little rascal Qin Feng come from, and how could he be so familiar with jade craftsmanship and quality?

  Jade carving can be divided into Southern and Northern styles, each with its own characteristics, such as the Beijing style, Shanghai style, Suzhou style... either grand or ingenious.

  In today's market, Southern-style furniture occupies 80% of the market share, while Northern-style furniture accounts for less than 20%. Yangzhou, as the base camp of Southern-style craftsmanship, has numerous famous jade carvers.

  Although Ge Jun had dealings with Yu Shi for most of his life, he didn't necessarily know all the famous jade carvers in Yangzhou. He thought about it for half a day but couldn't think of anyone with the surname Qin, so he gave up.

  "Little Qin, you've come to my place today, aren't you thinking of chatting with the old man again?" Ge Jun took out a tea set from under the cabinet and smiled: "You people are particular about drinking tea, the old man will brew a pot of this year's new Longjing tea for you."

  "Old man, don't bother, I'm leaving now."

  Qin Feng hastily stopped Ge Jun and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Master Ge, you know that I've been learning jade carving since I was young, but this time I came out in a hurry and didn't bring any materials. My hands are itching a bit..."

  "Oh? You're already skilled at carving jade?"

  When Qin Feng said this, Ge Jun suddenly understood that the emotions came from here to find the original stone, which made Ge Jun's heart slightly surprised.

  Because of the many subtleties of playing the pipa, it's not necessarily better to start earlier. When you're young, your hands are unstable and it's easy to get hurt, and you can also waste your hands.

  In the past, apprentices had to learn painting for at least three years first, and after having a certain foundation in art, they would practice with radishes or some softer stones.

  Generally speaking, apprentices have to wait until they are eighteen or nineteen years old and their hands are steady before they can formally start using jade carving tools. By the time they achieve success, they are usually in their thirties or forties.

  Like Qin Feng, who looks like a 16- or 17-year-old kid, actually started using jade to practice his hands. Ge Jun really hadn't seen many of them, because even the cheapest jade is money.

  "Uh, Grandpa Ge, I...I didn't spend too much money, can you give me a small stone?"

  Qin Feng pulled out his right hand from his pocket and took out a few 1-yuan and 2-yuan bills, looking embarrassed as he said: "Ge Grandpa, I only have 20 yuan, can you give me some fabric?"

  "Twenty yuan and you want to buy fabric?"

  Ge Jun heard this and smiled bitterly, "Little Qin, it's not that I'm being petty, but the original stones here are worth at least a thousand yuan each. What do you think... can I sell them to you?"

  Business has reached the point where Ge Jun can no longer simply import goods from jade carving factories to meet market demand. He now purchases raw stones in Xinjiang and then sends them to jade processing plants for processing.

  So Ge Jun's store is not short of raw stones, but even a piece of poor-quality stone can be sold for tens or eight pieces after being carved by machine, and Qin Feng's twenty yuan is simply not enough to look at.

  "Grandpa Ge, are those stones expensive too?"

  Qin Feng's eyes rolled around and he pointed to a pile of stones at the door with his finger, saying: "I don't seem to have seen these jade stones before? Are they also very valuable?"

  The place Qin Feng pointed at had a pile of about seven or eight stones, some as big as thirty to fifty kilograms, and the smallest ones were only fist-sized.

  However, unlike Hetian jade, the surface of these stones does not show any jade meat at all, and they are very ugly with a blackish color. They also feel very rough to the touch.

  "Huh? You didn't tell me I was supposed to bring these materials."

  Ge Jun slapped his forehead and walked out from behind the counter, laughing: "Xiao Qin, it seems that your family only deals with soft jade. This is a piece of raw nephrite, which belongs to hard jade in the jade stone category. It wasn't very popular before, but has become prosperous in recent years..."

  The difference between soft jade and hard jade lies in their hardness, with the hardness of soft jade generally ranging from 6 to 6.5, including many varieties such as white jade (yangzhiyu), qingbai jade, qing jade, bi jade, mo jade, etc., which are all classified as soft jade.

  Jadeite is 7 or above, and the representative of jadeite is emerald. Its producing state color is diverse, including green, light purple, white, pink, brown, red, blue, black, orange and yellow.

  In China, the carving history of soft jade can be traced back to 8,000 years ago. It is a long history from ancient times to the present and has always been a favorite ornament for officials and nobles.

  Jadeite is produced in Burma, and in ancient times it was only occasionally offered to the imperial court during worship of heaven, so it was not common among the people and did not become popular.

  But by the end of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi had a special fondness for jadeite, collecting the finest pieces from all over the world during her lifetime, which also triggered a wave of jadeite fever, and it was the first time that people knew about jadeite.

  After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the later Empress Dowager Cixi, who was also a member of the Song family and the third daughter, was also a jade enthusiast. Her taste for jade caused its price to skyrocket, and it seemed to be on par with Hetian jade.

  However, after the liberation, due to the inconvenience of mining and transportation, jadeite disappeared again in the domestic market, until it gradually appeared in the market in the late 1980s. However, its recognition and value are far from comparable to Hetian jade.

  However, due to the extremely beautiful color of jadeite, it began to be recognized by consumers in the late 1990s. Ge Jun also followed the trend and bought some rough stones from southern cities.

  Unlike buying soft jade, the purchase of emerald rough stones focuses on a "gamble", which is also known as "gambling on stones" in recent years. Of course, the history of gambling on stones goes back much further, and has existed for decades in some cities along the southern border.

  Jadeite rough stones cannot be determined whether they contain jade or not before being cut open, regardless of the buyer or seller, because that thin layer of stone skin can isolate any instrument's probe in the world.

  So in the jade rough market, there is a very special buying method called "gambling on stones". Buyers can analyze and judge whether there is jade inside the rough stone and then make an offer to buy it.

  Since it's a gamble, there are gains and losses. Some people become multimillionaires because of it, while others lose everything and their families are ruined.

  Of course, not everyone has such a big gamble, and some jade merchants specialize in buying out gambled jade meat, like Ge Jun.

  Ge Jun was not very familiar with jade, so this time he went to the south and bought some jade raw materials. Out of curiosity, he also bought a few pieces of full-jade material to play with, spending only a few hundred yuan in total.

  But Ge boss's luck was really not good, the seven or eight pieces of jade rough stone he bought didn't cut out any good material, the best one with green and black stripes had a coarse structure and extremely poor transparency, also known as "dog shit ground".

  Stuff like this, the things made from it are almost as good as stones. Ge Jun was too lazy to take them to the jade factory for processing, and they were piled up at the door of the store waiting to be thrown away when there was time. If Qin Feng hadn't pointed it out, he really wouldn't have thought of it.

  "Grandpa Ge, the hardness of jade is high, it's better for practicing knife skills..."

  Qin Feng listened to Ge Jun's introduction of the history of jade, and after the old man had his fill, he smiled and said: "You see, just give me those few pieces of stone? I'll give you all twenty dollars, is that enough?"

  "Hey, you're slapping your grandfather's face, aren't you? That fertilizer, I can still take your money?"

  Ge Jun was amused by Qin Feng's appearance and smiled, waving his hand and saying: "These materials are worthless, if you want them just take them away, I'm trying to find someone to throw them away anyway!"

  "Thanks, Grandpa Ge. Well... I won't be polite then."

  Qin Feng was overjoyed when he heard the words, and hurriedly ran to the pile of stones to pick them up. However, Ge Jun didn't see him, but just as Qin Feng turned around, a sly smile appeared on his face.

  PS: Monday is here, seeking recommendation votes, this is crucial for new books, really need to vote!