Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 126: Chapter 123 A New Use for the Water-Repelling Pearl

“Ow…”

The middle-aged woman fell to the ground all at once, and the four or five gambling stones in her bamboo basket also rolled out onto the ground.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice you, are you alright, ma’am?”

Huo Sining, seeing what happened, panicked and quickly crouched down to help the middle-aged woman up, apologizing while attempting to pick up the stones from the ground and put them back into the basket, but she froze when she had picked up only half of them.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing, I can pick them up myself.”

The woman who was helped up had just fallen and was drenched all over, looking quite a mess, but she didn’t seem to mind at all, instead offering Huo Sining a reassuring smile.

...

The woman spoke in Cantonese, which Huo Sining didn’t pay attention to as her gaze was fixed on the piece of rough stone she was holding in her hand, her entire being stunned.

Because of the rain and having rolled onto the ground, the rough stones in the woman’s basket were all covered with rainwater.

Huo Sining helped pick up the rough stones, and there seemed to be no issue with the first few pieces, but when she picked up this particular piece, the Water-Repelling Pearl on her forehead emerged once more, and its faint luminescence was even stronger than when she had grasped the Hibiscus Jade earlier.

From jumping into The Bund to fetch a diamond ring, to fishing out an Eastern Pearls from the Yellow River, and unearthing ambergris on an island, multiple experiences had proven that Azure Pearl could automatically identify objects in water, and the higher the value of the object, the more intensely it would flicker.

Previously, when Su Qingqing poured half a bottle of mineral water over the Hibiscus Jade, Huo Sining had once again verified the magical ability of the Azure Pearl.

But she had never imagined that she could use it to gamble on stones in this way.

Feeling the intense flickering of the faint luminescence of the Azure Pearl on her forehead, Huo Sining stared at the piece of rough in her hand with a mix of surprise and uncertainty.

Could it be that there was jadeite inside this chunk of rough she held in her hand?

Huo Sining’s heartbeat missed a beat, as countless thoughts flashed through her mind.

The people who had run to the shelter of a shop canopy to escape the rain finally realized someone was missing and turned back to see Huo Sining bending down in the curtain of rain, holding a piece of rough stone and daydreaming.

“Ningning, what’s happened?” Su Qingqing immediately became anxious upon seeing that Huo Sining was in some sort of trouble and called out to ask.

Su Jinyuan thought Huo Sining had gotten into a conflict and rushed over without a second thought, “What’s going on?”

Huo Sining snapped back to reality and saw Su Jinyuan’s stern face looking at the middle-aged woman. Knowing he had misunderstood, she quickly explained, “It’s nothing, I just accidentally bumped into this lady.”

“It’s not the young lady’s fault, I was walking too hastily. You are here in Pingzhou to play with gambling stones, aren’t you? With such heavy rain, you should go ahead and seek shelter from the rain upfront, it’ll stop in less than half an hour,” replied the middle-aged woman, also realizing that Su Jinyuan looked displeased, offering reassurance with her broken Mandarin, and smiling.

Huo Sining nodded and discreetly placed the piece of rough stone back into the woman’s bamboo basket. Yet, her eyes couldn’t help but steal a glance towards that piece of rough stone.

Noticing that Huo Sining’s expression was somewhat strange, Su Jinyuan asked quietly, “What is it?”

Huo Sining shook her head subtly; the reaction from Azure Pearl didn’t seem feigned, proving that the rough stone she had just held must hold the potential for an increase in value.

Thinking of this, she hurriedly called out to the middle-aged woman getting ready to leave with a bamboo basket on her back, “Auntie, please wait a moment!”

The middle-aged woman paused, turning her head with a puzzled look at Huo Sining, “Young lady, is there something else you need?”

A sly glint flashed in Huo Sining’s eyes as she quickly walked up to the woman, pointing to the bamboo basket on her back and asked with a smile, “Auntie, where are you taking this rough stone to? Are you planning to sell it?”

The middle-aged woman grinned and said, “Of course, I’m selling. I brought it from my family’s warehouse, and my son’s shop is just ahead on Jade Street. I’m restocking for him.”

Upon hearing this, the corners of Huo Sining’s mouth couldn’t help but lift slightly, “How much are you selling this rough stone for? Can I pick one out?”

It seemed that the woman often encountered customers who would intercept her midway to inquire about the price, so she wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, she happily nodded, “Sure, of course. Feel free to pick one, and if you’re not satisfied, you can also have a look in my son’s shop ahead. These are all old quarry ‘Wusha’ skins. Young lady, if you fancy one, I won’t cheat you.”

With that, the woman stretched out her hand showing five fingers with a smile, “Five thousand yuan each, pick any you like.”

Five thousand yuan each? Su Jinyuan subconsciously glanced at the stones in the bamboo basket and couldn’t help but frown.

The rough stones were about the same size, each weighing four or five kilograms. Although they were from an old quarry, there was not a hint of Pine Flower Python Belt, making it completely impossible to discern any jadeite features. One could tell at a glance that they were leftover stock that had gone unsold for many years, worse in quality than the rough stones they had seen in the first shop they visited.

Such material could be found in lesser-known gambling stone shops in S City and definitely wouldn’t cost more than five hundred yuan each. It was surprising to find that the price had inflated tenfold when it came to Pingzhou—despite the woman’s claim not to cheat, the price was exorbitantly high.

Knowing that Huo Sining didn’t understand stone gambling and seeing that she wanted to buy on a whim, Su Jinyuan was about to advise her not to fall for it.

But before he could stop her, Huo Sining had already nodded in agreement, “Okay, put down the basket, and I’ll pick slowly.”

If there had been no discovery of jadeite in that stone, let alone five thousand yuan, Huo Sining wouldn’t have been willing to buy it for even fifty yuan. But now, knowing that there was jadeite inside, there was no reason for her to let a good find slip away from her hands for nothing.

As the rain poured harder, Huo Sining quickly invited the middle-aged woman to run to the front of the store where Su Qingqing and her group were standing, picking through the rough stones while taking shelter from the rain.

Being a novice, Huo Sining was very casual about selecting rough stones, embracing the notion of not letting any opportunity slip by, she turned over every single damp stone from the woman’s bamboo basket one by one.

However, to Huo Sining’s disappointment, the quality of these rough stones was truly poor. Among the dozen or so rough stones, other than the one that Huo Sining had inadvertently found to contain jadeite, the rest held nothing inside.

No wonder there’s a saying that in stone gambling, nine out of ten bets collapse. With so much material being nothing but fluffy cotton, it would’ve been odd to see any increase in value.

Huo Sining appeared to casually pick up the rough stone Azure Pearl had identified earlier and laughed, “After looking around, it seems this one is the biggest, so I’ll choose this one.”

The two purchasing masters couldn’t help their mouths twitching at the words, and Su Jinyuan was also at his wit’s end.

Gambling on stones is about the jadeite inside, not about the size of the rough stone. What’s the use of picking out the biggest one?