Seeing Zhou Botong being so gossip-hungry, Lin Tian briefly recounted the incident at Xinyi Mall again.
"So much happened afterwards, sigh, young people are just impulsive," Elder Zhou took a sip of his tea and exclaimed.
But little did he know that Sun Decai was impulsive, but he didn’t go as far as to smash the glass of the jewelry counter. It was just Lin Tian who had set him up afterwards.
"Brother Lin Tian, it’s a pity I wasn’t there for such a fun event..." Zhou Botong was about to continue when he was silenced by his grandfather’s stern look.
Elder Zhou helplessly glared at his grandson and said to Lin Tian, "I’m very glad Botong can have a friend like you. He’s usually too frisky; I hope he can learn something good from you. After all, you’re both young and can relate to each other."
"Elder Zhou, it’s natural for young people to be vivacious, and I think Botong is a fine person—loyal, honest, and trustworthy," Lin Tian spoke honestly. Although he felt Zhou Botong was a bit verbose, he was genuinely a decent person.
You see, if a young person were to be burdened with a gloomy disposition, then they wouldn’t be young anymore. Lin Tian’s words struck a chord with Zhou Botong, who kept giving Lin Tian thumbs up under the table. It seemed that he was seldom praised in front of his grandfather.
"Hahaha, Xiao Tian, don’t praise him too much, or his tail will start to lift into the sky," Elder Zhou said ostensibly not to praise him, but a smile bloomed across his face.
After all, this grandson was brought up by him, so Lin Tian’s praise for Zhou Botong was equivalent to praising Elder Zhou, showing that he had done well in his family education. Elder Zhou laughed heartily and then asked with a smile, "Xiao Tian, are you currently studying or doing something else? With your talent in jade appraisal, are you interested in learning how to appraise jade?"
His words took Zhou Botong by surprise. Botong was very aware of the high esteem his grandfather held in the jewelry and jade industry, and he had never seen his grandfather take such a liking to a young person before.
"Elder Zhou, I’m currently a senior in high school, with the college entrance exam in just over a month. I’m very interested in jade appraisal, but with the exams coming up soon, I likely won’t have much time to learn," Lin Tian was indeed interested in learning about jade, as he had plans to make a fortune with his X-ray vision in the future.
If he could learn more about this field from such an authoritative figure in domestic jade appraisal, it would surely be a great help. Although Lin Tian had the ability to see inside a piece of jade, he didn’t know what type of jade was valuable and what was ordinary.
If he mistook a piece of jade that he thought was valuable, but in reality was only worth a few hundred yuan, while treating a jade worth millions as mere stones, that would turn into a huge joke.
Elder Zhou nodded and said with a smile, "Hmm, the college entrance exam is indeed very important, but studies also require a balance between work and rest. How about we take this opportunity today to look at my collection of jades and learn about jade culture? It is to learn the way of the gentleman as espoused by Huaxia, as the Book of Songs says, ’When one thinks of a gentleman, warm as jade,’ which speaks to this truth."
Lin Tian might not know much about jade, but he was comfortable with such ancient poetry. With his photographic memory, Lin Tian’s reading volume over the past few days was extraordinarily large. Understanding Elder Zhou’s reference to the gentleman being warm as jade, he smiled and said, "Confucius also said jade has eleven virtues, benevolence, wisdom, righteousness, propriety, music, loyalty, faith, heaven, earth, virtue, and the Way."
"Hahaha, Xiao Tian said it really well, let’s go have a look," Elder Zhou seemed even happier than when he was praising his grandson earlier, standing up and heading towards the back of the living room.
Lin Tian felt somewhat embarrassed; it wasn’t that he spoke particularly well, he had simply quoted the words of a Saint. He didn’t understand the ways of a gentleman; he just acted according to his own heart. In the mouths of the Xiao sisters, he had been given nicknames like "scoundrel" and "rascal," which were quite far from gentlemanly. However, seeing the old man so happy, Lin Tian didn’t want to spoil the mood.
Zhou Botong, trailing behind, quietly tugged at Lin Tian, still wearing a look of grievance, resembling nothing so much as a wronged little wife.
"Brother Lin Tian, you’re really something. You’ve just come to our house, and grandpa has broken his rules twice already. He never lets us touch his tea leaves or his collection of jade. Today I get to take a look only thanks to your blessing. Oh God, who really is the blood grandson here?" Zhou Botong complained incessantly as if voicing all his grievances.
"Enough already, you’re the grandson. I won’t vie with you," Lin Tian said, mentally shaken like crispy on the outside and tender inside, hurrying to distance himself before Zhou could spray him with saliva.
Following Elder Zhou to the back of the villa, they arrived at a locked room. Elder Zhou took out a key from his pocket and opened the door gently. As Lin Tian entered, he was amazed by what he saw. It wasn’t that the room was filled with all sorts of jade, but rather in the center of the room sat a massive piece of jade.
Involuntarily, Lin Tian’s gaze pierced through the giant piece of jade. Inside, the material was dense with no cracks. The colors, like ink wash painting, were black in varying degrees of intensity and snow white. These colors resembled mountains and water flows, collectively creating a lifelike ink wash painting.
"A Landscape of Thousands of Miles..." Lin Tian murmured softly.
He had never seen such a heart-stirring piece of jade. In his memory, jade was just the kind exhibited in glass cabinets—jade pendants, jade bracelets. He had never imagined jade could be so magnificent.
"This is grandpa’s most cherished piece of jade. The landscape on it formed naturally, without any embellishment. That’s why grandpa named it ’A Landscape of Thousands of Miles,’" Zhou Botong said, standing beside Lin Tian; then he added in a whisper, "Someone offered grandpa five hundred million yuan for it, but he didn’t sell."
Five hundred million yuan! Lin Tian took a sharp intake of breath. In his wildest dreams, he couldn’t imagine a mere stone fetching a price of five hundred million yuan. The world was too crazy.
"You rascal!" Elder Zhou, whose ears were exceptionally sharp, heard Zhou Botong and gave him a good thump on the head, saying discontentedly, "Don’t talk about five hundred million, even ten billion won’t do. Even if it wasn’t valuable to begin with, in my eyes, it’s a priceless treasure."
In the eyes of some, what they cherish is a priceless treasure, much like a lover’s ordinary gift, which a woman might also consider deeply meaningful and worth its weight in gold. Of course, Lin Tian thought it best to exclude the flamboyant mistress he had seen the day before.
"Elder Zhou, this jade is so large, I’m afraid it may be the biggest in the country. I wonder how much it weighs," Lin Tian said, walking around the massive jade and asking.
When Elder Zhou talked about jade, he rattled off information like counting his treasures, chuckling, "Hehe, this isn’t the largest piece of jade. If we’re talking about the largest, it should be the ’Jade Emperor’ found in Xiu Yan County, standing 25 meters high with a maximum diameter of 30 meters. It has a total volume of 24,000 cubic meters, weighing a total of 60,000 tons. However, the most famous would be the Jade Buddha of the Jade Buddha Garden; you all should visit it if you have the chance."
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