Chapter 106: Chu Yulan's Dilemma

  Zhang Yanbin smiled and said: "Xiao Wen, since that's the case, you can transfer this material to me. I'll pay 7.6 million. What do you think?"

  Wen Yuting hadn't even opened her mouth when she suddenly heard a voice from the side: "Little Zhang, how can you monopolize such good material? No way, as the saying goes, 'share fortune and share difficulties', let's split it in half!"

  Everyone turned around and found it was Hou Yuanming. Chu Chen then asked: "Hou, have you opened up all your materials?"

  Hou Yuanming waved his hand and said, "How can it be so fast? Now the workers are helping me unravel them. Anyway, they're not good quality wool, if I hadn't just opened up a piece of dry green fabric earlier, I would have come over to your side."

  "Then congratulations are in order!"

  It's said that Hou Yuanming won a fortune from gambling and everyone congratulated him on it.

  Hou Yuanming waved his hand and said, "It's just a few tens of thousands of yuan, a small increase, which can't compare to Xiaowen's ice-colored Fu Lu Shou! Such good quality Fu Lu Shou is hard to come by, Xiao Zhang, be kind and give me half, how about it?"

  Zhang Yanbin didn't decline, smiling and saying: "Alright, but Brother Hou, you have to give me some compensation, I don't want much, just one of the glass pendants that Xiao Chu made last time will do! If it's not enough, I'll make up for it."

  Hou Yuanming smiled: "You little guy really isn't a loser, just give one and that's it!" This operation is not a loss either, after all, this half is small, but it's not just making one pendant.

  However, Chu Chen's words made their plan fall through.

  "You two might be mistaken, let's take a closer look, what does this material resemble?"

  "What's it like?"

  As soon as the words fell, everyone re-examined this material, looking left and right, and Chu Yulan was the first to speak:

  "This thing doesn't look like a person? Ah! I know, this shape looks like a longevity star!"

  Chu Chen nodded in agreement, and others also came to their senses after being reminded by Chu Yulan, and the more they looked, the more alike they seemed.

  "Huh, really? But what's so special about being a longevity star?" Wen Yuting asked with some curiosity.

  Li Guodong smiled and replied: "In that case, this material is even more suitable for making a longevity ornament."

  Chu Chen nodded and said: "Brother Li is right, this material is more suitable for carving into a longevity star ornament than making jewelry, and the utilization rate of jade material will be higher."

  From raw jade to finished products, some jade materials are always lost during the manufacturing process. Among them, bangles are the most wasteful, so for the same quality jade products, bangles are several times more expensive than pendants. Next is pendants and jewelry, while decorative pieces generally do not use high-quality jade for carving, as it would waste too much material and be uneconomical.

  And this piece of jade, however, is just like a statue of the Star of Longevity, and when carved, it undoubtedly uses less material than making pendants or other trinkets, so if it were to be divided into two pieces, that would be a waste.

  Hou Yuanming and Zhang Yanbin also learned about the situation, and they were quite helpless. Both of them liked the material for the ice sculpture of Fu Lu Shou very much, but there was only one piece of material, and because of the reasons mentioned above, it couldn't be divided either. If they were to bid on it, they might end up hurting their relationship.

  Chu Chen saw the two men's embarrassed faces, and suddenly thought of an idea. He smiled and said: "Two brothers, if you believe me, I'll let you have this material. In the future, when we gamble for something like this or a similar value jadeite, I'll give priority to you. What do you think?"

  Zhang Yanbin and Chu Chen didn't know each other for long, if it was normal, they would still hesitate a bit. But thinking that Chu Chen had already gambled out three pieces of glass, and he just heard that this piece of wool was also suggested by Chu Chen to buy together, so he readily agreed.

  Hou Yuanming didn't have any opinion anymore, originally one of his purposes for coming to Tengchong was also to deepen his relationship with Chu Chen, even if Chu Chen didn't promise him he would still agree.

  Seeing the two agree, Chu Chen smiled and said to Li Guodong and others: "Li Ge, Xiao Wen, 800,000. This material is transferred to me, what do you think?"

  "Ah! How is it 800,000? Didn't you just say 760,000 earlier? Brother Chu, didn't you give too much?" Wen Yuting said in surprise before Li Guotang could speak.

  Chu Chen smiled: "How can it be more? This piece of material is carved into a longevity star, and the jade material saved must be worth 40,000. Don't believe me, ask Hou Ge and them."

  Although Hou Yuanming nodded in agreement, Li Guodong still shook his head and refused, saying: "Xiao Chuan, this won't do. You're the one who helped us pick out this material, how...".

  Chu Chen interrupted him and said, "Alright, I understand what you mean, Li Ge. Although I've expressed some opinions, the decision is still yours to make, so this money is also yours to earn. And let me tell you, this material was actually bought for Xiao Lan's uncle, who is a genuine local tyrant. This amount of money is nothing to him."

  This piece of material was indeed prepared by Chu Chen for Zhao Qirui, who had previously asked him to find a good piece of jade in the capital city, and this Fu Lu Shou is undoubtedly the most suitable.

  "Xiao Wen, my uncle really won't miss this little money, just agree to it." Chu Yulan also advised them.

  Under these circumstances, Li Guodong and Wen Yuting had no choice but to accept. Afterwards, when the time was sufficient, Chu Chen took them together to the bank to transfer money. Hou Yuanming and Zhang Yanbin went to see Liu Zhicheng remove the stone.

  After the transaction was completed, Li Guodong and Wen Yuting were both beaming with joy. Li Guodong was so excited that he couldn't contain himself. With this 400,000 yuan, he could finally buy a house in Beijing. This marked a solid step forward for him and Wen Yuting to be together. Next, all he needed to do was focus on his career and make something of himself.

  Wen Yuting originally wanted to give her 300,000 yuan to Li Guodong as his venture capital. However, Li Guodong was determined not to accept it, meaning that if he accepted the 300,000 yuan now, Wen Yuting's parents might look down on him, and Wen Yuting said she wouldn't accept the money, which meant she didn't love him, so the two had a dispute.

  Chu Xun was about to persuade the two, but was stopped by Chu Yulan. She smiled and said: "It's okay, they've been like this a few times before. Yuting has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. After Li Ge coaxes her for a while, she'll be fine. Besides, couples often bicker, it's normal."

  "Oh? I didn't know that, but Xiao Lan, don't you have experience in this aspect?" Chu Chen made a small joke.

  Chu Yulan gave him a white eye and said, "I haven't had a boyfriend before, I did have someone I liked, but the other person was too cold to me, so they didn't even confess their feelings, it just ended."

  Chu Chen said with a smile, "That's because that person has no taste. You call this elegance, not coldness. A beautiful and refined girl like you, Xiao Lan, he can't appreciate, I think he either has poor eyesight or a problem with his aesthetic sense."

  Girls are always happy when they are praised for being beautiful, Chu Yulan smiled and said: "Hehe, thank you for the compliment, Brother Chu. You've praised me, now it's your turn."

  Chu Chen scratched his head, looking a bit embarrassed, and said: "I have a girl who is relatively close to me, but I don't know if she counts as my girlfriend. I'm still being cautious about this kind of thing."

  Chu Yulan asked curiously: "How, Brother Chu, have you been hurt in this way before?"

  Chu Chen shook his head and said: "I couldn't even take care of myself before, how could I have a girlfriend?"

  Chu Yulan became even more curious: "What's going on? Is it convenient for you to tell me?"

  Chu Chen smiled and said, "This is not inconvenient at all. Xiaolan, you must have heard that I was kidnapped when I was a child? You may not know the anger when being called a wild child by others, and the despair when knowing that the person you respect is not your biological father. For a period of time, I felt like I was in a cold winter night, battered by snow and wind."

  Later, although with my dad's help, I walked out of that state, but at that time I always had a hostile attitude towards others. Don't laugh, it wasn't until after I came to Beijing and spent several years that I began to understand kinship and friendship. As for romance, even now I still don't know how to accept it, let alone deal with it.

  Chu Yulan listened to Chu Chen's words with a gloomy expression, and her heart couldn't help but feel a pang of pain. Chu Chen's experience was so similar to hers. The difference was that she was abandoned by her parents because they preferred sons over daughters. At the time, she was also dark-skinned and small in stature, and in the orphanage, she was always bullied by others, unable to feel any warmth from a family.

  Things didn't turn around until I was adopted by my current parents.

  The person in front of me might be the child who was kidnapped from my parents when they were young. Should I tell them about this or not? But if it's true, will I lose their attention and warmth again? That's not what I want!

  "Xiao Lan, Xiao Lan! What's wrong with you?"

  At this point, Chu Yulan suddenly heard a voice calling her name behind her ear, she quickly reacted and said:

  "Brother Chu, nothing much, just heard what you said and thought of some unpleasant things from the past."

  "Oh!"

  Chu Chen scratched his head and said somewhat embarrassedly: "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought this up."

  Chu Yulan waved her hand repeatedly and said: "This has nothing to do with you, I'm honored to hear your inner thoughts, Brother Chu."

  Chu Chen smiled and nodded, feeling a bit strange in her heart. Why did she say all these things today? Was it because she was with Xiao Lan and felt like she was with family, so her mood felt more relaxed?

  So why is there such a feeling? Could it be that I like Xiaolan? This shouldn't be, although I can't explain emotional things clearly, but at least being with Xiaolan doesn't give me the same feeling as being with Xiaoke.

  After thinking for a while, Chu Chen couldn't figure it out either, so he put this question aside.