My Pet Beast is Super Fearsome-Chapter 232 - 231 Underground Platform Gambling Stones

Chapter 232: Chapter 231: Underground Platform Gambling Stones

Chapter 232: Chapter 231: Underground Platform Gambling Stones

Although the free trade zone was crowded, it was not as difficult to move around as at the entrance.

The glass cabinets displaying goods were neatly arranged, and the popularity of the products being sold could be judged by the number of people in front of each cabinet.

Since he was looking for bargains, Shao Zifeng decided to check each one, walking up to the nearest glass cabinet and briefly glanced at the items displayed inside; he pursed his lips.

No wonder there was no one at this booth; even those without any tools had their own ways to discern the value of the items.

The stones inside this cabinet had peculiar shapes, and the story introduced on the electronic display was intriguing, but it couldn’t hide the fact that they were just ordinary stones.

Without lingering, Shao Zifeng examined a few more deserted glass cabinets and realized that there was a reason these booths were neglected.

These shop owners weren’t really here to do business but rather to scam newcomers,

as the saying goes, “Not open for three years, but once open, enough for three years,” even selling just one item would be a profit.

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Thinking this, Zifeng lost interest in continuing to browse the unpopular booths and turned toward a nearby booth that was so crowded it was impenetrable.

“It’s rising, it’s rising, damn it, I finally bet on a rise!!”

Before even approaching the crowd, he heard a man’s hysterical roar.

Amid the encouraging shouts of the onlookers, a middle-aged man holding a stone pushed and squeezed his way out of the crowd.

The man had a weary face, a shabby beard, a fat body with a short stature; his bloodshot eyes could not hide his joy, and his crumpled gray suit made him look like some nouveau riche small boss.

“Hey, hey, hey, buddy, don’t go. We offer $500,000,”

“Buddy, we offer $550,000.”

Soon after the short, fat man squeezed out, a few young men in suits and leather shoes followed, appearing somewhat cautious of each other, clearly not together.

Yet the man ignored them, pushing and shoving his way out, constantly knocking people over and causing a stream of curses.

The young men, clearly unwilling to give up on the stone, quickly followed him with their briefcases in hand.

Zifeng watched the departing men with interest, having a good idea of what the shops inside were about.

Taking advantage of the moment the men left, Zifeng entered the crowd and looked at the two-tiered glass cabinet filled with various stones, confirming his suspicion.

The upper layer of the glass cabinet displayed several pieces of stones with windows opened in them; the weathered outer shell was polished away, revealing the polished, crystal-clear, dripping green jade inside. These open-window stones were priced highly, with the most expensive one marked at five million.

The lower layer contained stones of duller color, varying in shape and size, with some as big as a football and others smaller than a fist—these were the so-called “full gamble” stones, with a higher risk and therefore comparatively lower prices.

These full gamble stones were wrapped in a weathered outer shell, generally preferred by either experienced craftsmen or newcomers who liked to gamble. Jade traders tended to buy clearer or semi-clear stones.

Of course, this is not to say that open-window stones are always safe; many vendors polish the open-window stones to make them shiny and smooth to cover up the imperfections of the stone.

Worse yet, some vendors embed good pieces into the edges of opened waste stones, using a series of methods to greatly inflate their prices; of course, this dishonest practice is not something those prepared to establish themselves in the jade industry would do.

The owner of the gamble stone booth was a dark-skinned middle-aged man who always smiled, revealing a row of yellow teeth. He continually joked with the crowd around him, appearing to be quite open-hearted.

At that moment, a young man squeezed into the crowd and shouted at the owner while pulling out his phone, “Get me a $5,000 full gamble stone.”

“Alright.”

The dark-skinned man, seeing business come his way, immediately beamed even more brilliantly. After the young man paid, he swiftly took out a piece the size of a sweet potato of pure gambling material from the lower shelf and started cutting it on the spot.

Whirr—

The piercing friction noise arose, but it didn’t affect the crowd’s enthusiasm at all, much like how the cooling water sprayed beside the cutting blade couldn’t cover up the sparks flying around.

Crack.

As the cutter stopped, a third of the cut stone was taken out, and the boss held a flashlight tightly against the cut face. The dim little circle of light proved it was just a piece of ordinary waste stone.

“Damn, bad luck.” The young man cursed loudly after seeing it.

“Hey, your materials are not good, boss.”

“True, this material looks like it was picked up randomly by the riverbank in Izumo.”

“Go on, this is authentic Burmese old pit material. Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand.” After saying this, he put the stone on the glass counter, looking at the young man who just bought the material, “Young man, your stone is cut open, do you want to take it or?”

“Forget it, keep this lousy stone for yourself.” After saying that, the young man left the crowd with an annoyed look on his face.

The boss watched the onlookers with a beaming smile, “Which boss wants to try again, authentic Burmese material?”

Zifeng planned to watch the excitement for a while and then leave. His plug-in only responded to energy and couldn’t see through, so it was better not to touch such things.

“Boss, where is the stone I asked for?”

“Oh, Mr. Li is here. I’ve kept the stone you wanted. Let me get it for you.”

As he spoke, the jade stone shop owner crouched down and searched, but just then, Zifeng caught a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye and squinted at the spot that had triggered the reaction.

As the stones were moved, there seemed to be a stone the size of a ping-pong ball among them, sending out energy signals.

He was about to take a closer look at what it was when it was covered by other stones the boss was moving.

Zifeng stepped forward two paces and tapped on the glass counter. The dark-skinned boss looked up at Zifeng with stones in hand, “Young boss, you look unfamiliar. Which stone caught your eye?”

“Can I pick out my own stones here?” Zifeng asked curiously.

The boss was startled for a moment, then laughed heartily, “Of course, you can, young boss. Just wait a moment, let me finish cutting this one.”

As the sound of the cutter stopped, amid a round of teasing, the dark-skinned boss wiped his hands of the cooling water, “Young boss, would you like to pick one yourself?”

Upon hearing this, Zifeng squeezed through the crowd to the back of the glass counter and crouched down where he had seen the reaction, and sure enough, he found a few small stones.

The stones were all grey and black, the largest no bigger than a baseball, the smallest about the size of a ping-pong ball.

Zifeng thought for a while and picked up a few, “I’ll try my hand at picking a few for the first time. Boss, how much for these stones?”

The boss looked at Zifeng in surprise. Generally, beginners liked to pick the bigger ones, but someone as restrained as Zifeng was indeed rare. He pondered for a moment and then said, “Since it’s the young boss’s first time, let me take a lucky draw too. Each will be 200 yuan.”