Reborn As Super Heiress

Early in the morning, Badasang drove a large Hummer to pick up Huo Sining and the group to head to the public plate venue. The Sedona Hotel is not in the city center, so the route the business car took yesterday was on the outskirts of Yangon, merely passing by the sprawling Shwedagon Pagoda.

Huo Sining had not been as close to observe the exotic scenery of Yangon as she was today.

Yangon looks like a giant park; there is not much vegetation on the outskirts, but the city center is almost overflowing with plants, flowers, and pagodas. Many monks, with bare left shoulders wearing red kasayas, walked barefoot on the street, greeting people with clasped hands as they passed.

The buildings in Yangon also bear visible traces left from colonial times.

The dark red roofs are typical of British architecture, Hindu temples are decorated with various god statues, thick moss covers the tops of the towers, and what one sees along the way are churches, pagodas, with pigeons frolicking in the sky.

What made Huo Sining even more astonished was the presence of many open-air bathrooms on either side of the roads in Myanmar, with just a wall separating from the street, where groups of women, bucket in hand, stood inside washing.

Huo Sining could clearly see the snowy-white ***** and plump shoulders exposed above the wall while seated in the car.

Seeing such scenes made Huo Sining somewhat uncomfortable, and others felt a bit embarrassed too; only Su Qingqing seemed genuinely curious, staring intently as if trying to see a flower.

Badasang seemed not unfamiliar with such settings, his face remained calm.

Thinking about it, it made sense; growing up in this area, they would naturally see these local customs as mere common sense.

Though Myanmar borders Huaxia Country, the Euro is more practical here than RMB, with a higher exchange rate. Fortunately, Gu Xu had a Swiss Bank account, making it easier to transfer into Euros.

Due to Myanmar’s unique national conditions, the Myanmar Government exercises very strict control over the Yangon Public Plate, unlike the domestic jade public plate, which allows entrance upon obtaining a pass.

According to the Myanmar Organizing Committee’s regulations, those wishing to attend the Yangon Public Plate must hold an invitation letter, otherwise, entry is forbidden.

Invitation letters are usually divided into three categories: First, guests invited by various levels of Myanmar government; second, persons invited by various levels of Myanmar jewelry associations; third, invitation letters issued by Myanmar Gems Trading Company.

In Myanmar, what is referred to as jewelry trading companies are actually owned by the Myanmar Government.

The latter two invite methods must have the inviting party report to the organizing committee for approval through a secured approach; businessmen wishing to participate in bidding for jade raw materials, similar to boarding a train in Huaxia Country, can only enter the venue with the invitation letter in hand.

Of course, if someone does not have an invitation letter, it’s not entirely impossible to enter the public plate, but these people need to find a Myanmar Gems Company for endorsement, simultaneously paying as much as ten million Myanmar Currency as a security deposit.

Ten million Myanmar Currency is equivalent to one million RMB, and these deposits are fully refunded to the mortgagor after the public plate concludes. However, ordinary people often can’t come up with a million, so typically, those who can enter the Myanmar Public Plate are never just ordinary folks.

Each invitation letter issued by Myanmar allows entry with at most two additional people, but Huo Sining’s group does not need to worry about this, as they are officially invited by the Myanmar Government and led by General Badasang, thus not requiring an invitation letter for direct entry, and there are no limits on the number of people.

The earliest jade public plate held in Myanmar dates back to fifty years ago, when the military had just taken over the Myanmar government. To plug tax revenue leaks, the rare jade raw materials were used by the Myanmar Government to create more foreign exchange income, leading to the first jade raw material public plate in Yangon.

After experiencing the benefits of the first public plate, the Myanmar Government realized the importance of jade raw materials for their economic development, thus intensified control over raw material exports, with an especially stringent crackdown on smuggling.

The jade public plates in Myanmar have grown to become the largest source of foreign exchange income for Myanmar today.

For this reason, the Myanmar Government has even established new laws for jade public plates—the ”Jewelry Law”: All jade raw materials extracted from mine areas must be centralized in Yangon for categorization, grading, numbering, and base pricing before being shipped for sale to various locations.

Of course, these laws still have loopholes, especially as the Myanmar Government has little authority over the five major families, and many local smugglers can generally procure raw stones through special channels.

Regarding such matters, the Myanmar Government essentially turns a blind eye, as these issues involve the interests of the five major families, and they cannot control them.

Myanmar’s jade public plates, like the Pingzhou public plates, are divided into open bids and concealed bids, but there is a difference from the Pingzhou public plate. The concealed bids in Pingzhou are submitted collectively for bidding, with the highest bid calculated by computer.

Myanmar’s concealed bids are different, with a bid box corresponding to each bid. Bidders only need to put their bid sheet into the respective bid box, making the statistics simpler and more convenient.

To facilitate the guests attending the public plate, the Myanmar Government has specifically established special transportation channels for these gamblers following the bid unveiling. Upon settling the procedures, the organizing committee can immediately handle customs clearance, transportation procedures, and permissions for processing and selling on the spot for customers, covering all procedures without buyers needing to worry about the security of the raw materials.

Of course, if there are cases of bidders absconding with unpaid taxes after winning bids, the penalties are quite severe, with the organizing committee imposing indefinite cancellation of local Myanmar registration or a hundred-year foreign nationality eligibility to attend the public plate, and foreign merchants also face restrictions against entering the country within five years.

This seemingly mild penalty may not hold much deterrence for ordinary people, but for those raw material merchants who rely on jade public plates for stone gambling profits, it is deadly.

Raw material merchants depend on jade raw materials for survival; if they do not have the qualification to enter the public plate to gamble on stones, they will not be able to obtain jade raw stones, and can only remain idle.

The car soon arrived at the venue for Myanmar’s jade public plate: Myanmar National Gem and Jewellery Trading Center.

Upon getting out of the car, Huo Sining and others saw a row of armed soldiers at the entrance of the public plate, with several armored vehicles parked at the entrance of the trading center.

Outside the steel structure surrounding wall, squads of soldiers were patrolling, seemingly to prevent anyone from scaling the walls to enter the public plate.

Seeing this setup, Huo Sining couldn’t help but feel a sense of illusion, as if she wasn’t here for stone gambling, but rather for military drills at a heavily guarded camp.