"Lin Tian, what do you think?" Xiao Manxuan also knew she wasn’t very knowledgeable, and such an expensive stone, she dared not buy it recklessly like in area one.
Before Lin Tian could speak, a voice came from behind them, "Do you want it or not? If not, please move aside, so I can note down the number."
Lin Tian turned around to see a middle-aged man with a bulging belly, holding a cigar, looking quite imposing. Standing next to him was a seductive woman with an ordinary face, but dressed revealingly. With no striking features, she could only attract attention by wearing such clothes, but it might also be the middle-aged man’s preference, liking his woman dressed this way.
Her tight mini skirt was even shorter, and yet she moved through the crowded venue as if it were nothing. Was this an exhibitionist tendency? Such attire made it clear she was the middle-aged man’s mistress. If she were his wife, how could she possibly allow herself to dress like that?
The seductive woman saw Lin Tian and her eyes lit up like a wolf spotting a lamb.
"Oh no, my purse has fallen." The seductive woman glanced at Lin Tian and bent deeply to pick up her purse from the ground.
The moment she bent over, her already scant clothing felt constricting, looking like it might burst open at any moment. Furthermore, wearing so little, Lin Tian from his angle saw more than he should have.
This woman really is provocative. She’s actually seducing me right here, Lin Tian thought regretfully. The teacher was right; indeed, society is full of temptations.
As he was validating his teacher’s words, he felt a sudden squeeze on his waist, two pairs of small hands had twisted around the soft flesh there. It’s just a look, why such big reactions from these two sisters, when the woman herself doesn’t mind.
"Young man, have you had your fill yet, never seen a beauty before?" The middle-aged man took a puff of his cigar, astonishingly ignoring the several beauties right in front of him.
This man really had a unique taste. The mistress picked up her purse and straightened up, casting another glance at Lin Tian, her gaze seemingly electrocuting.
"Cough cough..." Lin Tian pretended to cough twice and said, "Miss, let’s go. This stone is worth at least eight million, we can’t afford it."
Then he turned to leave, to avoid escalating the sisters’ fury further. The middle-aged man clearly didn’t understand stone gambling; he muttered discontentedly after hearing Lin Tian’s words, "Can’t afford it and still come to gamble on stones, the organizers really invite all sorts, just knowing about stone gambling isn’t of any use without money."
After his muttering, he actually wrote a price of ten million on a slip of paper.
Once they had walked away, the Miss chuckled, "Lin Tian, you really are bad, deceiving that man like that."
Xiao Manxuan also giggled, "Yeah, Lin Tian is really wicked, always looking at that woman."
Secretary Xu smiled silently beside them, Lin Tian, with his thick skin, wasn’t bothered by their comments, and solemnly said, "You are not pure in thought. As a half doctor, I am seriously studying people’s body structures, everyone is different. To improve my medical skills, I am constantly doing research, which you wouldn’t understand. Sigh, let’s continue looking at the materials."
He shamelessly sighed, astonishing the beauties behind him dumbfounded, wondering if anyone could be more shameless?
This event had invited many who knew nothing about stone gambling, like the middle-aged man earlier who was clearly an amateur. Lin Tian thought, as he walked, the existence of such people would definitely artificially inflate the overall bidding prices, eventually earning the organizers more money. They really were extremely shrewd.
"Hmm, this piece of material isn’t bad." Although Lin Tian was walking, his penetrating gaze was scanning the jade raw materials displayed on both sides.
He bent down to examine a piece, the surface was free of python patterns, but had a very light green moss, it felt grainy to touch. The jade inside had reached the quality of ’ice’, unfortunately, the color was only that of apple green.
Lin Tian shook his head with a self-deprecating smile, realizing that his continuous exposure to top-grade jade had heightened his expectations too much.
Actually, apple green was already quite good. In terms of the ranking of greens, Emperor Green was the best, followed by seedling green, and then apple green. Moreover, the distribution of the green in the jade was even, with no biased colors, although it was a bit small, only the size of a fist.
He looked at the information on the tag, which marked the base price as five hundred thousand. Considering the performance of this material, five hundred thousand was a bit expensive. Later, Lin Tian came to know that some well-connected jade merchants mixed some ordinary-looking materials into zone two to inflate their prices.
However, once the jade was cut from this material, its value should be no less than five million.
"Miss, take down this number," Lin Tian said as he turned his head.
The miss took out a notebook from her bag and noted it down with a pen. Her knowledge of gamblers’ stones was limited; she left the selection of materials to Lin Tian and focused on the operations.
Having noted down the number, Lin Tian continued walking forward. It wasn’t time to place bids yet, as many people would wait until the last moment to do so.
As Lin Tian walked, he examined the materials through his sight. There were too many stones, and he was the only one picking. If he examined each piece carefully, he wouldn’t need to even think about opening his new shop.
Moreover, he had standards for selecting raw materials—the type of jade had to be of high quality, at least of glutinous texture. However, if the color was good enough, he could compromise slightly on the texture.
Zone two deserved its reputation as a gathering place for good materials. Lin Tian had walked half a circle and had already picked out hundreds of pieces. Half of them were of ice type, and although he hadn’t seen any of glass type, the greens were still very appealing.
If he could successfully acquire these stones along with the top-grade materials selected in the morning, they would suffice to support the new store for a while, especially since there was only one store for now.
However, Lin Tian wasn’t satisfied; he wanted to stock up on as many jade raw materials as possible. The output of jade mines was decreasing year by year, and resources would eventually run out. Whoever controlled more resources in the future would have a voice in the market—it was a strategic reserve.
Just as Lin Tian finished examining another piece of raw material, a noisy commotion suddenly arose from afar, drawing more people toward it.
"What’s happening?" Lin Tian asked, curious.
"It seems they are about to unveil the key raw material of this session," the Miss said, eyes twinkling.
The key raw material? And an unveiling ceremony too? Lin Tian had never heard of such a thing. It was just a stone, after all; why make such a fuss?
Driven by curiosity, the four of them also headed over. A large space had been cleared in the area where the crowd gathered. When Lin Tian arrived, there was already a circle of people discussing among themselves.
In the middle of the space, there was a built platform with something taller than a man placed on it, covered with a red silk cloth.
A host, who seemed to have just finished speaking, invited two leader-like figures to the stage. After announcing that the auspicious moment had arrived, they unveiled the red cloth on the platform.
"Wow..." a wave of astonishment rippled through the crowd upon seeing a large and a smaller piece of jade raw material on the stage. The larger one was over two meters tall, and the smaller one was almost two meters as well. The sight of such gigantic raw materials excited the onlookers as if they had been injected with adrenaline, each one stirred up in excitement.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢