Fields of Gold

Naturally, since it was more likely for someone to get jadeite when choosing the stones from the half gamble area, the cost of buying these ores were much higher too. A stone that was about the size of a medium-sized ball was actually around ten thousand taels. Of course, if more than half of this type of raw ore was occupied by jadeite within, it could be sold for at least twice the previous buying price. Thus, getting rich overnight wasn't an uncommon thing at the gambling stone hall.

Dong Ming noticed that Long Tianba was hesitating and proposed an idea, "We don't know much about this, so how about we first go outside and take a look?"

Long Tianba had gotten his father's permission this time before he came here. Thus, he had around fifty thousand taels in banknotes on him. However, even with that much money on hand, there weren't a lot of options for him to pick from, especially in the half gamble array of stones. Any one of those partly opened ores commanded a price in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Long Tianba was well aware of the sky-high price of jadeite. He had given Young Master Dong a hanging ornament made out of bright green jadeite that was of glass quality. It was only about the size of half a palm's length but cost him over thirty thousand taels. As for the piece of high-quality majestic green jadeite, which was the size of his head, it'd be able to supply enough material to make tens of hanging ornaments with extra material to spare. If it was used to make a fine jadeite bracelet, it could be sold for around the high price of a million taels.

After calculating it in his head, asking for a hundred and fifty thousand taels for a raw ore really wasn't that bad! After all, that high quality jade had immediately been bought by someone as soon as it was revealed. Furthermore, the man who bought the jadeite was named Businessman Liu and had been congratulated by everyone around him, "This piece of majestic green jadeite can make around eight to nine bracelets as well as some hanging ornaments and face ornaments. You could make ten times the profit after selling those off. Businessman Liu, you move too fast ah!"

"I was lucky, just lucky!" Businessman Liu gleefully held onto his newly bought jadeite. Of course he needed to be fast and swift when a good piece of jade came out. Otherwise, wouldn't everyone else steal it away from him?

Didn't getting ten times the profits mean that he would make ten million taels soon? Long Tianba's previously hesitant heart suddenly became interested again.

However, he still decided to follow Young Master Dong's proposal and arrived at the full gamble stone hall to watch how other people picked their stones. Young Master Dong was quite well-known in these circles. Many of the more knowledgeable people here all treated him with politeness and patiently answered his questions.

The people here blabbered on about gambling on 'color, type, clarity' as well as looking at ores outer shell, pine-flower patterning, and python marks...Long Tianba felt his head spin after hearing all of this and his temples began to pound.

Young Master Dong seemed to be the same as him and didn't seem to quite understand what was going on. In the end, he said, "Older Brother Long, how about...we first choose a couple stones from these bins that are sold by weight. In any case, they're not very expensive, so we wouldn't lose too much anyway…"

"Jackpot! Hit the jackpot ah! It's the three fortunes three color jadeite!" In the northwest corner of the stone gambling hall, they could suddenly hear a ruckus that interrupted Young Master Dong's words. The two of them exchanged a look and began to move to that area.

There was a youth around twenty years old holding onto a piece of jadeite that was about the size of a basketball. He had a giant foolish smile on his face. The jadeite had stripes of green, purple, and red colors. Even though it hadn't been polished yet, it still glittered with a mesmerizing glow.

"This young master, are you willing to sell the jadeite or not?" A middle-aged merchant came up and asked the youth.

"Sell! I'll obviously sell it!!" The youth looked like he came from a relatively ordinary family and the clothes he wore were only of middling quality. Those who knew him knew that his family had only opened a couple of grocery stores in the north part of the city. Thus, his family was only moderately well-off. He didn't have a lot of money on hand and could only buy from the general bin of stones, spending three hundred taels in total. Who would have thought that he'd encountered Lady Lucky today and the stone would reveal a decent quality three fortune's jadeite?

The middle-aged merchant took the jadeite over and looked at it before saying, "I offer you thirty thousand taels for this jadeite. What do you think?"

Thirty thousand taels? He had actually made a hundred-fold profit in mere minutes? Long Tianba was so shocked that his mouth fell open. The youth who owned the jadeite was so excited that his face turned red.

"Businessman Xiang, the price you offered isn't fair. You only want to offer thirty thousand taels for such a good quality three fortunes jadeite?" Another old man showed up. He had a large belly and snowy white beard. He rubbed at his whiskers as he addressed the young man, "This old man never cheats the old or young when doing business. Young man, I offer you fifty thousand taels."

The middle-aged man who had been addressed as Businessman Xiang didn't expect that someone would butt in halfway through his deal. He huffily said, "He's offering you fifty thousand, but I'll offer you sixty thousand!"

"Eighty thousand!" The fair and fat old man countered. Long Tianba recognized this man. He was a famous jewelry merchant in Jiangnan. He would have never expected that he'd see him here, buying jadeite in the capital.

"I offer a hundred thousand!" If this material was used to make bracelets, they'd be able to be sold for twenty to thirty thousand taels each. Paying a hundred thousand would still allow him to make a tidy profit.

Finally, the three fortunes jadeite had been bought by the fair and fat old man for a price of a hundred and fifty thousand taels. Jiangnan's market for jadeite jewelry and accessories had just started, so the prices there were higher than the ones sold in the capital. After going through processing, the material he bought for a hundred and fifty thousand taels could be sold for at least an additional thirty to forty thousand taels in profit. The reason why Businessman Xiang couldn't go higher was because of where he sold his goods. He was closer to the capital, so the prices of jadeite were a bit more suppressed by Wisdom Jade Pavilion.

"Three hundred taels to buy the ore but the jadeite inside was sold for a hundred and fifty thousand...he made five hundred times of what he invested ah!" Long Tianba muttered to himself in disbelief. The fire in his heart had been ignited by what he had just seen.

Young Master Dong sighed, "If I could be that lucky, it'd be worth it even if I got beaten by my father!"

"How about...we try our luck?" Long Tianba was thinking. Let alone three hundred taels, even if he had to spend three thousand or thirty thousand taels, it'd be worth it if it sold for a hundred and fifty thousand. He might be unlucky with the first one, or the first ten, but if he bought a hundred, he had to be lucky with one of them, right? Otherwise his luck would be too crappy right?

Long Tianba and Young Master Dong both chose two pieces from the general pile and it came out to be around a thousand six hundred taels. Long Tianba insisted and ended up paying for the both of them. Furthermore, he also picked out an ore from the full gamble pile, which cost around five thousand taels, to bring to the opening table.

The two that Young Master Dong picked out cost around six hundred taels total. After opening them, one revealed a white milky stone and the other one had some jadeite but it was only the size of a baby's fist. It could, at most, make two jadeite buttons. At best, it would be worth around five hundred taels.

"Sigh...my luck is not good, darn it!" Young Master Dong sighed heavily.

The older gamblers comforted him, "That's already considered quite good! Some people bought ores worth tens of thousands but ended up with absolutely nothing! They lost a lot!"

When it came to Long Tianba's ores, he became incredibly nervous. He stared rigidly at the stonemason who was opening the stones with his hands balled up in his fist. His lips were pressed into a thin line.

"There's jadeite!" After the stone mason created his first slice, he used some water to wash the surface and shouted out in excitement, "It's red jadeite! Clarity looks very good; you've hit the jackpot!

He had selected this jadeite from the general bin and spent eight hundred taels on it. When the entire jadeite was extracted from the ore, it was about the size of two fists and flickered with a red glitter under the sun.

"The color of this red jadeite is pure and is of icy quality. Not bad, young man, are you willing to sell it for twenty thousand taels?" The man surnamed Xiang sidled over and asked him anxiously.

The fair and fat old man had recognized Long Tianba and came over with a smile on his face, "Fourth Young Master Long, this old man will offer twenty-six thousand taels, what do you…"

"Old Man Zhao, are you here today to fight against me?" Businessman Xiang saw that the old fat man had come over to steal business again and was so angry that he was about to start hopping.

"Not selling, not selling!!" Does this young master look like I lack that kind of money?" Long Tianba was starting to act arrogant again, "I plan on using this jadeite to make my mother and younger sister a set of bracelets."

"Fourth Young Master Long is a filial child who loves his mother and younger siblings. When you get back to Jiangnan, you can find this old man to turn the raw jadeite into bracelets. I'll give you half off the fee!" The old man, who was named Zhao Xing, smiled.

The second ore that was opened revealed nothing and was a complete dud. Not even a single speck of jadeite could be seen. However, with this red jadeite on hand, even if everything else was a dud, he still made back his investment.

The last ore he had bought had cost five thousand taels. A man who knew more about jadeite nodded in approval, "The outside has a speckled sand appearance and has a pearly-white shell. It has a high chance of revealing bright green jadeite inside…"

Long Tianba grinned widely and attentively watched as the stonemason began moving.

"There's jadeite, more jadeite! This is pure golden-green jade and looks to be around at least ice quality!" When the first slice was opened, the people nearby howled in excitement.

"Younger Master Long, your luck is quite good ah! This piece is a true good find!" Old Man Zhao Xing had an expression full of envy. He had also tried buying a few stones but all of them were duds. This rash young fellow had actually managed to hit the jackpot with two stones, so his luck was out of the ordinary.

"Haha! Young Master Dong, earlier, this younger brother said that I knew a bit about jadeite but I was only being modest. I've truly spent quite a lot of time studying jadeite ores in the past!" Long Tianba was so ecstatic that he couldn't even remember his own name anymore.

"Older Brother Long is truly quite skilled! That'll be enough for me today. I still have stuff to do, so let's meet up together some other time." Young Master Dong refused Long Tianba's offer to give him the golden-green jadeite before he separated from the other youth at the door.

After he watched Young Master Dong leave, Long Tianba struggled inwardly for a long time and finally remembered his father's cautious words. He went back to the guesthouse to see his father and report on his doings.

After he left, Young Master Dong appeared at the inner office of the stone gambling center to report back to his master, "Your Highness, the bait has been set, so now we're just waiting for the fish to bite!"

Zhu Yunxuan nodded and a cold smile curved up on his lips, "The bait is so attractive so I have no doubt that that idiot will take it!"

After tasting the sweet flavor of success, Long Tianba threw all of his father's cautionary words out the window. He started to appear more and more frequently at the gambling stone hall and began spending more and more money on the raw ores. At first, he had both successes and failures, with the successes outranking the failures. Thus, he ended up with quite a collection of jade that was worth more than ten million taels.

Following that, he had spotted an ore that had been already opened at the half gamble section. The jadeite that peeked out was of glass quality and it was a majestic green color. The price marked on the ore was twenty-six million taels and the raw ore was around three hundred kilograms in weight. Even if the jadeite inside only took up ten percent of the raw material, he'd get at least double his investment back.