Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 525: Chapter 522: The Black Fog

Stone gambling is like this, as soon as one store’s stones reveal jadeite, a crowd will swarm, and the prices of that store’s stones can ride the wave higher.

Now, good quality raw material is becoming scarcer, and merchants with good roughs naturally drive up the prices. Compared to Pingzhou’s roughs, Ruili’s stone gambling prices are not considered expensive.

Of course, it’s not to say that expensive roughs will definitely yield high-quality jade. In the stone gambling business, although there are many theories, often there’s a large gap between theory and practice.

Theory is merely general rules, but roughs are unpredictable. Many pieces that appear promising on the surface end up cut into stones with white spots or flaws. Some unimpressive pieces with no indications often hide high-quality jade.

In the stone gambling world, there’s a saying that’s widely used: ”Better no book than believing in a book wholeheartedly.”

There are many theories about stone gambling, but they cannot be applied directly. If you think you’ve learned stone gambling just by reading a few specialist books and understanding a few professional terms, then you’re heading for bankruptcy.

Huo Sining walked toward the pile of roughs with great interest, touching both the all gamble and half gamble roughs. Now that she had the Heavenly Eye, these roughs had nowhere to hide before her; by simply touching them, she could see exactly what was inside the stones.

Half gamble roughs didn’t offer much gambling potential to Huo Sining, but no one could guarantee there weren’t any missed opportunities within the half gamble. If there were good roughs at a low price, she wouldn’t mind gambling on a half gamble rough.

However, after examining the half gamble roughs, Huo Sining spotted a problem.

The pile appeared quite promising at a glance, but there were only two or three pieces of truly good material. Moreover, from the windows cut into them, it was clear they were the work of a Stone Solver Master. Without a second thought, it was obvious their prices would be high.

The rest were mostly greenish leftovers from other cuts, colloquially known as ’waste material.’ It was just that the skill of the Stone Solver Master, combined with some simple treatments, made these roughs look as if they had just been mined from the earth.

Nevertheless, selling waste material as half gamble roughs was now an unspoken rule everyone was aware of, present in most stone gambling stores to some extent. This situation was essentially a test of the gambler’s vision, not a particularly rare phenomenon.

After examining the roughs, Huo Sining silently shook her head and turned towards the all gamble roughs area.

The owner there watched for a while and privately shook his head. Seeing how Huo Sining chose roughs, he knew this young lady wasn’t very knowledgeable. A person who really knew how to pick roughs wouldn’t browse hastily and carelessly like her.

Noticing this, the owner didn’t bother to watch any longer. He hadn’t even finished his meal yet. Knowing it would take a while for the people to make their selections, he decided it was more important to fill his stomach first.

Wu Jun had absolutely no interest in those dim and lackluster stones. If it weren’t for ensuring Huo Sining’s safety, he would have preferred to stay in the hotel.

Bai Yishan, having gambled on stones with Huo Sining on Pingzhou Jade Street, was well aware of what Huo Sining was like when gambling stones, so she quietly watched from the side, without saying much.

Since the Pingzhou Public Plate, Bai Yishan had opened a studio with the jadeite roughs provided by Huo Sining, something Su Qingqing had seen and understood, fully aware of Huo Sining’s special talent in stone gambling.

However, upon seeing those half gamble roughs, Su Qingqing still couldn’t help feeling the itch in her hands, wanting to try her luck yet again.

Huo Sining didn’t pay her any mind and devoted herself to choosing her own raw materials. After going through a selection, she finally picked out a small one.

It was a bayberry skin stone, weighing roughly seven or eight kilograms. The raw material looked very ordinary, but on one side of it, there appeared a faint layer of black mist.

Seeing mist didn’t necessarily mean there was green; white or green mists indicated the possibility of Little Colorless or High Jade, but black mist in gemstone gambling was generally an ominous sign, often leading to losses in the stone’s outer layer.

However, black mist wasn’t absolutely bad; that’s because there’s a distinction between dead black and live black in the mist.

Dead black was just that, a solid black throughout the interior of the stone. Under such circumstances, one definitely shouldn’t gamble, as the material would be worthless once cut.

Live black, on the other hand, referred to green behind the black mist, a transformation from dead to alive. In such cases, the resulting green was definitely high quality, with a very high chance of turning out to be glassy.

But determining black mist required a great deal of expertise from the gambler, and ordinary gamblers might not see through this. Even if they spotted the black mist, they might not dare to take the gamble due to its high risk; without absolute confidence, generally, no one would make a move.

”Hey! I spotted this stone first and set it aside; do you even know the rules?”

Huo Sining had just finished selecting her first stone when she heard Su Qingqing’s rebuke.

Turning around to look at the half-gamble raw material area where Su Qingqing was, she saw that several customers had entered the store without her noticing, and at the moment, Su Qingqing was glaring at one of the middle-aged men, who was holding a rather large piece of material in his hands.

Actually, anyone with a bit of knowledge of the rules of gemstone gambling knows not to crowd in when someone else is selecting raw materials, nor to take the materials others have chosen, unless that person has clearly indicated they don’t want it anymore. Otherwise, it’s taboo to meddle presumptuously.

But the middle-aged man clearly didn’t care for Su Qingqing’s stance, showing complete disregard for the rules she mentioned. Holding that stone, he gave her a defiant look and said in a condescending tone:

”Young lady, I think what you’re saying isn’t quite right. What do you mean ’you saw it first’? Have you paid for the raw material? Business is conducted fair and square, money for goods. If you haven’t paid, then anyone can buy it, right?”

Seeing Su Qingqing’s face turn red with anger while Wu Jun beside her had a face like thunder, apparently ready to explode, Huo Sining couldn’t help but frown and quickly walked over to Su Qingqing’s side, taking her by the arm and whispering advice:

”There’s no need to fight with him or try to outdo him; it’s just a piece of material. You can just choose another one.”

Su Qingqing wasn’t someone who was willing to take things lying down. After all, she was in the right, and even if she sought the owner to argue her case, the owner would have to side with her.

But there was Huo Sining, insistent on pulling at her and giving her meaningful glances. Su Qingqing, slightly stunned, understood what Huo Sining meant.

Clearly, Su Qingqing also knew that Huo Sining’s ability in gemstone gambling was not mediocre. For her to act this way meant that there was something strange about that stone; otherwise, with Huo Sining’s personality, she wouldn’t let the man off so easily when they had the upper hand.