Chapter 42: Jade Street

  Henan Licheng, a city neither big nor small, is also a very ordinary city.

  There is a piece of old residential area in the north of the city, now the city is vigorously developing, and Licheng is no exception. Unfortunately, like many cities, it focuses on developing new cities, and the old city, especially the edge areas of the old city, are rarely asked about.

  This old residential area is located on the edge of the old city, it was a textile factory's staff quarters in the past. After the textile factory went bankrupt, this place became even more dilapidated, the streets have been unrepaired for years, and every time it rains, pedestrians can't walk through.

  Almost all the houses here are old houses from the 70s and 80s. The houses of that era have a common feature, which is very small, with two rooms and one living room of about 50 square meters, and even later, two rooms and one living room of about 40 square meters can be seen everywhere, with a row of single rooms and then a shared bathroom, as for the big houses, they are rare.

  Although the place is old, there are many people and everything you need is available.

  Next to the hospital, in the Construction Bank, a frail couple in their 40s stood, both with pale complexions, looking haggard and clearly unwell.

  The couple stood in front of the ATM, the man inserted a bank card and pressed the password.

  The front of the bank card soon showed a four, and the back was a long string of numbers. There were over 400,000 yuan in cash on this card.

  "It's true, Yi Yang really made money, it's the 400,000 he transferred over!"

  The woman excitedly pulled the man's arm, her hand using an unnatural force, but the man who was caught raised his eyebrows slightly, yet his arm didn't move at all, and instead he stretched out his hand to press down on the pale hand of the woman.

  The couple is Liu Yi Yang's father, Liu Gang and mother He Ai Hua. Yesterday, Liu Yi Yang called in the afternoon, they didn't go out, today morning they came to the bank on purpose to check.

  "Yes, 400,000, Yi Yang is really something, Ai Hua, you have given birth to a good son!"

  Liu Gang held his wife's hand and smiled, saying that there was nothing more delightful for parents than their children being proud of them.

  "That's also your son!" He Ai Hua smiled sweetly, and her face seemed to flush with a hint of redness, unlike its original pallor.

  "What are you planning to use this money for?"

  He Ai Hua suddenly lifted her head and looked at Liu Gang, while Liu Gang took the bank card out of the ATM and carefully put it away.

  "Houses are so expensive now, I want to buy a house as soon as possible. Yi Yang is already in his second year of university and will graduate in two years. No matter where he stays, it's always good for the family to give him a house. This way, even if he doesn't do well outside, he can still come back and get married. If he really doesn't want to come back, we can sell the house later and use the money to buy him a house in a big city!"

  Liu Gang held He Aihua's hand, smiled again and said: "I've thought it through, 300,000 can buy a decent two-bedroom apartment, leave 100,000 for you to go to Luoyang for medical treatment. Yi Yang has been working hard in the past two years to support the family and saved tens of thousands of yuan, which added up is just enough for your treatment fees!"

  Liu had just finished speaking when He Ai Hua shook her head: "No, absolutely not, I agree to buy a house, but treatment must come first. My arthritis can still hold on, and at worst, I'll just walk less. But your asthma is coughing every day, it's too miserable!"

  Two people walked away from the bank while constantly arguing with each other.

  The key to the couple's dispute was still who should be treated first, and Liu Yi Yang had not thought that the treatment fee he had prepared for his parents would not be used by them at all. They were thinking of each other and their child, if he knew, no matter how much he liked Wang Long Pei, he would probably sell it.

  Compared with something you like, parents are more important.

  Having picked up his things, Liu Yi Yang stood up and stretched comfortably, arching his back. His face was flushed with a sense of satisfaction.

  Today, the valuable items being maintained were not few in number. Several of them exceeded 100,000 yuan, and one even surpassed a million yuan, allowing Liu Yi Yang to absorb a wave of spiritual energy, giving him that full-of-power feeling once again.

  Look at the time, today is another day of finishing work ahead of schedule. Liu Yi Yang was thinking about whether to tell Lin Feng to increase his workload in the future, adding more things for him to maintain every day.

  His salary is calculated by time, even if he hasn't worked for two hours, as long as the work is done, he can leave and still be paid for two hours. Of course, if he doesn't finish within two hours, overtime is not paid unless it's an emergency maintenance task assigned by the store.

  Liu Yi Yang came out and told Lin Feng about this idea. Lin Feng just smiled at him, letting him leave first, and said that he would take care of this matter.

  After speaking out, Liu Yi Yang didn't think much about it and left Xuan Ya Zhai immediately.

  As usual, after school on Tuesday, he didn't return to school immediately, but instead strolled around the antique city. Soon, he strolled to where Ouyang Xuan had set up her stall last week.

  It was here that Liu Yi Yang's life underwent a complete change, and this change was still caused by a playful girl who came out to tell fortunes, if OuYang Xuan hadn't brought the divine mirror here, she wouldn't have met Liu Yi Yang, and naturally the divine mirror wouldn't have recognized Liu Yi Yang as its master.

  Standing in front of Ouyang Xuan's stall, Liu Yi Yang couldn't help but smile foolishly.

  At first, it scared him a bit, but now the result is not bad. The divine mirror did not bring any harm to him, on the contrary, it brought many benefits. Being able to obtain these riches and treasures can also be said to be all thanks to the divine mirror.

  He walked slowly and unknowingly arrived at the North District of Antique City.

  The North District is a jade district, with many jade shops here. However, most of these jade shops sell modern jade, and only two or three antique shops sell ancient jade.

  The jade here is mainly nephrite, while other places' jade only accounts for a small part.

  Walking slowly on Jade Street, Liu Yi Yang kept looking at the shops on both sides. Whenever he saw an antique shop, he would go in and stay for a while to admire the treasures inside.

  Look, baby, first, it can let him absorb a lot of spiritual energy, second, he can learn more things, and third, he can also see if he can pick up the leak again, one move with multiple gains. Yu Huan's affair also made Liu Yi Yang suddenly enlightened, the side effect of absorbing spiritual energy is his sharp tool for identifying the authenticity of antiques, absolutely better than an expert's eyesight, experts sometimes will be blinded, but spiritual energy will not.

  Pick up the leaks again and make some more money, which can change the life at home once again.

  "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  As he walked, a sudden burst of firecrackers sounded in front of him. Liu Yi Yang looked at the thick smoke ahead and his feet involuntarily quickened, heading towards where the firecrackers were being set off.

  It's not just him, but also some people around him who are jogging forward with a hint of envy on their faces.

  Setting off firecrackers on Jade Street isn't a rare occurrence, but it's also not something that happens all the time. Sometimes it happens once every few days, and sometimes there won't be any for half a month. It mainly depends on the situation here.

  Liu Yi Yang happens to know something about this. Liu Yi Yang doesn't have many friends, but it just so happens that one of them works in the store up ahead.

  His friend is Li Zhiming, a jade carver at "Play Jade Workshop" on Jade Street. The workshop is also one of the most famous and largest jade shops on Jade Street.

  As for Li Zhiming, the two of them met by coincidence too. It was three months ago on a Tuesday when Liu Yiyang happened to stroll around here and coincidentally encountered a pickpocket who had stolen a woman's purse and phone.

  The woman didn't notice after the thief succeeded, but was seen by Liu Yi Yang and another man at the same time.

  The two men shouted almost simultaneously and rushed towards the thief in two directions, one after another, pressing him to the ground.

  Such a commotion naturally attracted many people, and the woman also discovered that her belongings had been stolen, so she rushed over.

  The thief was not alone, and another accomplice wanted to rescue him. As a result, another man saw his identity and directly pressed him to the ground. The thief's partner had only one person, and he was not tall, but he was caught by that man.

  That man is Li Zhiming.

  The two of them went to the police station together to make a statement, and then returned to the antique city together. From then on, the two also became acquainted with each other because of this matter, occasionally sitting and chatting together, becoming inseparable good friends.

  Liu Yi Yang knew that Li Zhi Ming's greatest wish was to become a jade carving master and then return to his hometown to bring glory to his ancestors.

  Li Zhiming's hometown is Foshan, Guangdong, in the most famous Pingzhou Town. There, a good jade carver has a high status and a better life. Li Zhiming used to be an apprentice there, after learning he was found by the boss of the Jade Play House here and specially invited him over. He plans to practice for a few years here before returning home to continue his studies.

  Liu Yi Yang's understanding of everything on Jade Street also came from this friend.

  Jade Street is mostly modern jade, mainly with nephrite as the main material, and Hetian jade and other jades are secondary. Nephrite has a biggest characteristic, that is, its raw material has a high degree of speculation, so nephrite rough stone is also called speculative stone.

  Jade Street is said to be Jade Street, but it's better to say it's a gambling stone street. Every household in the jade shop now has gambling stone materials and their own stone cracking machines. Some larger shops like Yu Fang have their own jade carvers.

  The gamble is very big, after opening it may make money or lose money, it's very exciting, this excitement also attracts many rich players, every weekend the Jade Street is very lively, today is Tuesday but there are not few people.

  The biggest feature of jade stone is its gamble, every day there are many people buying jade stones here, and many of them are cut open on the spot. Unfortunately, many of these cut-open jade stones have no jadeite or the jadeite is not as valuable as the original material.

  There are also some who don't make money and a small number of people who make money from gambling on stone wool.

  If the value of the jadeite after being understood is much higher than the original material, then it's a gamble. As long as you make money, you can say it's a gamble, but there are also big gambles and small gambles.

  Only making a little money, or having a big investment return but not that much, are just small gains. Only when you can make a lot of money and the profit is several times higher than the original cost, that's called a big gain.

  Whenever there is a big rise, the shop owner will hang firecrackers to celebrate, which is also the source of the firecracker sound on Jade Street.

  Upon hearing the firecracker sounds, Liu Yiyang knew that someone in front had made a big win and was definitely going to make a huge profit, which also explained why some people were showing envy. Anyone who understood the gamble of the stone wouldn't want anything but a big win.