Ruili is a border city in the western part of Yunnan Province.
Due to its bordering Myanmar, it has become the first gateway for Burmese jade to enter China.
And now Ruili has become China's largest Burmese jade trading center.
Upon arriving at the market, Yu En explained the surrounding situation to Qin Xuan in standard Mandarin.
"This is Delong Market. These are the street stalls, gathering most of the merchants selling rough or finished stones."
"It's daytime now, so there are fewer customers."
"At night, there's a night market here, which will be much livelier than it is now."
As she spoke, Yu En pointed to a white building not far away.
"That's Delong Hotel, which also sells rough and finished stones."
"A hotel?"
"Selling stones?"
Qin Xuan was taken aback.
It was the first time he had heard of hotels having such business.
Yu En nodded, not thinking as much as Qin Xuan did.
"The stones in this hotel are mostly consignment goods. The merchants here are like intermediaries in other industries."
"They bring the mine owner's goods to sell inside, but correspondingly, the price will be significantly higher than their own goods."
Qin Xuan realized, "So that's how it is."
"Then let's go to the hotel to have a look first."
After speaking, Qin Xuan led Yu En towards the hotel.
In his opinion, it didn't matter if the selling price was a bit higher; the main thing was that the hotel had air conditioning...
Entering the hotel, Qin Xuan and Yu En followed the signs to the room where jade stones were sold.
The curtains in the room were drawn, and it was very dark inside, with no light source except for the light cast from the doorway.
After a slight adjustment, Qin Xuan turned his gaze to the rough stones in front of him.
Rough Jade Stone A: What kind of water do you want? My marble is also stone!
Rough Jade Stone B: Come and take a look, small bean seeds can also break even!
Cut Surface Material A: I have a lot of green, it's just not very profitable!
Cut Surface Material B: Don't look at me, I'm only good in the middle, there's no green anywhere else.
...
Qin Xuan shook his head with some disappointment.
In the inner voices of these rough stones, there was nothing that made his eyes light up.
He took Yu En into another room and chatted casually with her.
"Yu En, do you understand jade?"
Yu En nodded gently and whispered to Qin Xuan, "My family is in the jade business, so I know quite a bit about these things."
"Then tell me about the tricks of stone gambling?"
"No problem."
Yu En hesitated for a moment, then added, "But I still want to remind you, stone gambling is just for looking. Without enough insight and experience, you will definitely lose money."
"So it's okay to play around, but I don't recommend you invest too much."
Qin Xuan nodded, deeply agreeing with Yu En's words.
Before coming to Yunnan Province, he had also checked information about stone gambling online.
But without exception, videos and some articles alone were not enough for him to gain much understanding of stone gambling, let alone how to correctly select rough stones.
But fortunately, he had the inner voices as his backup.
He was not afraid of losing money at all.
Walking into a new room again, Yu En picked up a rough stone the size of an egg and shone a strong flashlight on it.
After finding a few angles, she handed the stone to Qin Xuan.
"Mr. Qin, what do you think of this rough stone?"
Qin Xuan looked at the stone under the flashlight.
A rich green instantly caught his eye.
"This looks very beautiful!"
Qin Xuan exclaimed, but then he heard the inner voice of the rough stone.
Rough Jade Stone: Beautiful, right? Buy me, and you'll lose your shirt!
Qin Xuan: ???
Seeing Qin Xuan's stunned expression, Yu En thought he was attracted by the rich green.
She pursed her lips and smiled, then began to analyze it carefully for Qin Xuan, "Actually, this kind of rough stone is not considered very excellent."
"In the hotel, merchants will draw the curtains and reduce the brightness to make the jade look more beautiful and alluring."
"But if you are an expert, you won't be fooled by such superficial phenomena."
As she spoke, she pointed her flashlight at the cracks on the rough stone, "Look here, here, and here."
"They are full of cracks."
"If the cracks are deep, half of the rough stone is ruined."
"If it's even more extreme, and the cracks penetrate the entire stone, making it impossible to get suitable material, the entire rough stone is essentially ruined."
"So that's how it is."
Following where Yu En was pointing, Qin Xuan indeed saw many cracks on the green jade.
And combined with the inner voice of the rough stone, these cracks had probably already penetrated the entire rough stone.
Taking the stone and shining the light on it himself, Qin Xuan curiously asked the boss, "Boss, how much is this rough stone?"
The boss glanced at it and quoted a price: "100,000."
"100,000?!"
Qin Xuan clicked his tongue.
He didn't expect a rough stone the size of an egg to be priced at 100,000 yuan.
That was already two years' salary for many people!
Putting down the stone, Qin Xuan and Yu En continued to the next room.
After visiting more than a dozen stalls, the two still hadn't found a suitable rough stone.
Just as they were about to head back, Qin Xuan suddenly saw a stone in the corner of a room.
Rough Jade Stone: I really have full green glutinous ice jade inside!
This was a rough stone the size of a fist, yellow and white, resembling a piece of fatty meat.
The middle of the rough stone was cut horizontally several times. Due to being piled together, the cut surfaces inside could not be seen.
Qin Xuan picked up the stone from the corner and examined the cut surfaces.
There was a little bit of green, but it wasn't in large patches.
Qin Xuan casually weighed the stone, "Boss, how much for this material?"
The boss was stunned.
Having been in this business for over ten years, this was the first time he had seen someone want to buy a ruined piece of material.
However, if someone dared to buy, he dared to quote a price.
"10,000!"
The boss closed his eyes and quoted a high price.
Qin Xuan was amused.
"Are you out of your mind for money?"
"This scrap material is about to be thrown in the trash, and you're telling me it's 10,000?"
"Why don't you just rob me?"
"If it weren't for the bit of green on this material, and I wanted to make a bracelet for my girlfriend to play with, do you think I would want it?"
To bargain, Qin Xuan resorted to fabrication, even pulling Yu En over to make his words more convincing.
Looking at the blushing Yu En, the boss was speechless, "Then how much do you say?"
Qin Xuan: "50!"
"Any more and you can throw it downstairs yourself."
The boss helplessly said, "Fine, fine, it's yours, it's yours."
Just as Qin Xuan said, this broken stone was originally brought back by someone who had a bad cut and was looking for trouble.
If Qin Xuan didn't want it, he would have to throw it downstairs himself.
Now, not only could he save himself the trouble of walking, but he could also earn some money for cigarettes, so the boss was quite willing.
Emerging from Delong Hotel with Yu En, Qin Xuan couldn't help but feel in a good mood.
Yu En, on the other hand, was completely confused, not understanding why Mr. Qin was so happy about buying a broken piece of material that had been poorly cut.
Seeing Yu En's confusion, Qin Xuan smiled mysteriously, "Little girl, you don't understand!"
"My intuition tells me that this scrap material is not as simple as it looks."
"Let's go, take me to a place to cut stones."
Yu En nodded in confusion and soon led Qin Xuan to a stone-cutting shop.
As soon as Qin Xuan entered, he didn't dawdle and shouted towards the inside, "Boss, cut stones!"