Chapter 104: Qianji Processing Workshop

  Everyone chatted and laughed as they arrived at the limestone factory Hou Yuanming had mentioned.

  It's actually a jade processing factory, to be precise it should be called a jade inlay workshop. The entire workshop was converted from a simple factory building, with a sign at the entrance that reads "Qianji Processing Workshop", as for what is being processed, judging by Teng Chun's status, it's obvious.

  It's actually more accurate to say that they are mutual friends of Liu Zhiqing and Zhang Yanbin, rather than Hou Yuanming's friend. When they first entered the workshop, a boss in his fifties came out from the office inside and warmly greeted the three people, looking quite familiar with each other.

  Chu Chen and the others followed in, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a row of seven stone-grinding machines, with four of them having master craftsmen working on them, while some people were surrounding them watching, looking quite lively.

  Of course, there are fewer onlookers here compared to Jade Street, and the personnel is not as complicated. They all seem to be bosses and bodyguards.

  "Lao Qian, business is booming! Compared to my last visit, you've added two more stone grinders!" Hou Yuanming said with a hint of flattery as he saw the row of stone grinders.

  Lao Qian sighed and said with a difficult expression: "Where is it, you all know that since the raw material market on Lao Mian's side tightened up, our business here has been getting worse and worse. This time I bought two machines, but now after several months, I haven't even made back the money for the machines. Now I'm starting to regret it."

  "This time I came over and felt that the crowd was a bit smaller, but Old Qian, with those carving masters under your hand, how bad can your business be? At worst, you can move to Yingjiang or Pingzhou." Zhang Yanbin said with a smile.

  "Alright, alright, I know there are many good materials in Yingjiang, but I'm not assured of the safety aspect over there." Old Qian said with a smile, pointing at Zhang Yanbin: "As for Pingzhou, if I were to move my factory there, I reckon all my skilled workers would be lured away by you. I'd better just stay put in Tengchong."

  "Lao Qian, didn't you just let two masters go from here before? You don't have to guard against me like a wolf, besides, those two masters were going to leave anyway, it's better for me to take advantage of them than someone else." Zhang Yanbin said innocently.

  Lao Qian joked: "Forget it, once and for all. You're a spendthrift, I don't want the family savings that I've worked hard to accumulate to end up in your stomach."

  He then pointed to the two piles of wool not far away and said, "Xiao Hou, Xiao Liu, the wool you bought this afternoon is all over there. Are you planning to unravel it now or what?"

  Hou Yuanming thought for a moment and said: "I'll just take out half of mine first."

  Liu Zhiqing said: "I'll just take two pieces, and consider the rest as goods I've prepared for opening a store."

  Lao Qian smiled and said: "Xiao Liu, it seems you've made up your mind to open a store. If there's anything I can help with in the future, just let me know."

  Liu Zhiqing thanked everyone and then walked over to his pile of wool, picked up the two pieces he had decided to unravel earlier.

  While Hou Yuanming was selecting the wool to be opened, this time he bought a total value of 13 million yuan. He only picked out some wool that didn't perform well or had a high risk of gambling, and some wool with good external performance was put aside, apparently not intended to be cut open.

  Chu Chen asked Zhang Yanbin with some curiosity: "Zhang Ge, why didn't you buy any wool at all?"

  Zhang Yanbin smiled and said, "Hehe, as a small businessman like me, the quantity of goods purchased at one time is relatively large. Buying woolen goods on Jade Street is not very cost-effective, so most of the time I go to Yingjiang to purchase goods."

  It turns out that although the Burmese government has tightened up on the jade raw material market, there are still many rough stones coming in through smuggling channels. Even some of the rough stones sold by Tianyu are also smuggled goods. As long as you have connections, once the smuggled rough stones enter China and go through customs declaration and get a serial number, they become legitimate imported goods.

  However, due to transportation costs and other expenses, the price of wool often increases by several dozen or even hundreds of yuan per kilogram when it reaches Jade Street. In contrast, the prices in Yingjiang, which is closer to Myanmar, are undoubtedly cheaper than those on Jade Street, so businessmen like Zhang Yanbin prefer to go there to purchase goods.

  "Speaking of which, Zhang Yanbin invited: "Xiao Chu, how about it? Are you willing to go to Yingjiang with me tomorrow?"

  Chu Chen was somewhat moved, but thinking of Li Guo and others, he hesitated: "Zhang Ge, I do want to go with you, but aren't Xiaolan and the others still here?"

  Zhang Yanbin smiled and said, "It's okay, you can all go together then. Actually, the informants on that side, Liu Ge and Hou Ge should both know them. This time, they've got a new batch of good stuff over there, and those two definitely won't give up this opportunity."

  It wasn't until then that Chu Chen realized, it turned out to be a well-known channel, so Zhang Yanbin would take them together with ease. If it were his own personal connection, Zhang Yanbin wouldn't have mentioned it easily, after all, they weren't very familiar with each other.

  At this time, Hou Yuanming had also prepared all the wool he wanted to unravel, and now one of the dehairing machines was empty, so Li Guodong and others also joined in the dehairing.

  Li Guodong and his team's wool samples were not large, and from the appearance, they didn't have much value for rubbing against stones, so they all chose to directly cut open the wool samples.

  This time, the three of them bought a total of six pieces of woolen fabric. Chu Yulan bought two pieces, Li Guodong's name was on one and a half, and two and a half were Wen Yuting's. As for the half piece mentioned here, it refers to the piece of denim fabric that the two of them jointly purchased.

  The first five stones were solved quickly, with some rising and falling, but Chu Yulan didn't have the same luck as in Xijing again, barely breaking even. After all, she was just a newcomer to the stone gambling world, and unlike Chu Chen, she didn't have any special abilities, so her previous performance in Xijing was already considered very lucky.

  Li Guodong and Wen Yuting's four pieces of wool fabric were all optimistic after being unraveled, but only one piece could break even. The other three pieces had only one with green inside, but unfortunately, the interior of the wool was all moldy, so it didn't have much value.

  It's finally Wende's turn to get the last piece of fabric, and Wen Yuting said with a slightly tense expression: "Chu Ge, this piece of fabric is fine, isn't it? Don't let me lose everything!"

  Chu Chen smiled and said, "Although it's said that immortals can't cut off an inch of jade, I think this material is still pretty good. It's rare to see a piece of genuine crocodile skin leather. Luck will definitely be on your side, Xiao Wen."

  When Chuyan heard this, Wenyuting seemed to have a thread of confidence and opened her mouth: "Chu brother, can you help me untie this wool? Don't worry, even if the result is not good after untying it, I won't blame you, Guocong, what do you think?"

  Li Guodong nodded repeatedly after hearing this and thought to himself, I have no opinion, but even if I did, would I dare to oppose it?

  "Hehe, no problem." Chu Chen didn't decline and agreed very readily.

  This piece of deerskin, although small in size, has a high value jade inside. Chu Chen carefully examined the deerskin and then asked Wen Yuting: "Wen, I'd like to wipe this deerskin first, can I?"

  Li Guodong smiled and said after getting Wen Yuting's hint: "Xiao Chuan, you just do as you like, we won't have any opinions."

  Chu Chen smiled and nodded, walking to the side of the whetstone platform, adjusting the water flow, pressing the switch of the hanging grinder, and starting to sharpen the skin.

  "Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

  As the grinding head rotated at high speed, the cortex was slowly ground down from the wool material bit by bit. However, after only about ten minutes of grinding, Wen Yuting, who was standing on one side, suddenly jumped up.

  "It's green! It has turned green!"

  The cheers attracted Zhang Yanbin's attention as he was watching Liu Zhiqing lift the stone, and he ran to Chu Chen's side at a rapid speed.

  "Hmm, isn't this the material of Deneve's cape? It's quite rare, isn't it?"

  Zhang Yanbin first let out a soft "hmm", then shifted his gaze to Chu Chen opening the window, and sighed: "As expected of a genuine leather material, this color is really good! Hmm, wait a minute, Little Chu, move your flashlight up a bit, yes, right there, this seems to be purple!"

  Everyone took a closer look, and indeed it was purple. Seeing this situation, Wen Yuting asked weakly: "Is having purple not good? I read in a book before that there's something called 'spring color death'."

  Chu Chen smiled and explained: "Xiao Wen, the 'spring color' you mentioned refers to the appearance of pine flowers. Now this is called 'Spring Ribbon', as long as the water quality is good, it's quite valuable!"

  "Really!" Wen Yuting exclaimed in surprise.

  Seeing Li Guodong nodding, she almost jumped up with excitement and said: "Guodong, does this mean we're going to get rich?"

  Li Guodong said somewhat helplessly, "This... Yuting, for now it's just a spark, you should have also heard that a spark doesn't count as a rise, let's wait a bit longer before celebrating, okay?"

  Upon hearing this, Wen Yuting suddenly felt a bit disheartened. However, someone on the other side suddenly chimed in: "Miss, is this fabric yours? If so, I'll give you 300,000 yuan for it. What do you say?"

  Chu Chen and the others turned their heads to look at him, and that person couldn't help but smile awkwardly, then politely handed each of them a business card. Judging from his attire, he should also be a boss. Looking at the business card again, Chu Chen and the others were surprised to find that it was actually Shi An Yi, the boss of Jingcheng Stone Shi's Jade Store.

  Wen Yuting looked at the business card and said curiously: "Oh, so you're Shi Anyi from Shi's Jade Store."

  Shi Anyi nodded and said: "Yes, I am Shi Anyi. Little girl, you are also from the capital city judging by your accent. How do you know me?"

  Wen Yuting smiled and said: "I don't recognize you, I've just heard my dad mention your name?"