Power and Wealth

It was 9.20 am. Dong Xuebing took out his sling bag, which contains 110,000 RMB from the sales of the antique books, from his closet. After that, he went to the ICBC bank across the road from his house. This was a small branch, and one-day notification was needed for withdrawals more than 50,000 RMB. Dong Xuebing, who had wanted to withdraw 100,000 RMB from his account, was lazy to go to another branch. So, he only withdraws 50,000 RMB. 160,000 RMB should be enough. He pulled up the collar of his jacket and walk out to the streets to flag a taxi. He went straight to the stores outside of Panjiayuan. Many stores were selling raw stones there.

"Boss, do you have any unprocessed jade stones?"

"No. We only sell finished products here. You can try other shops."

"Excuse me, can I gamble stones or jade here?"

"Oh, we do not have these."

"Do you know where I can gamble stones?"

"Stone gambling? There is not a lot of such places in Panjiayuan. If you are interested, you can go to the Haidian or Chaoyang districts. Every weekend, there are auctions for unprocessed stones. The prices are reasonable, and the quality of the stones are higher." Dong Xuebing also know about the auctions in Haidian's antique market. But the procedures there was to pay for the stones first before cutting. It takes too much time. His 6 minutes was not enough to even bid for the stones. This was why Dong Xuebing was targeting those smaller shops.

Dong Xuebing carries on walking around Panjiayuan.

Suddenly, there were sounds of a stone cutting machine from a distance.

Dong Xuebing's eyes widen. When he was working part-time in the past, he had seen people gambling stones. This was why he was familiar with this sound. He raised his head and walked towards the direction of the sound. But when Dong Xuebing reaches the shop, he saw a man using the stone cutter to cut a stone. It was not a jade stone. From the color and shape of the stone, it should be uncut crystal stones. Natural crystals. Crystal gambling? This was rare. Dong Xuebing hesitated for a while and then entered the shop. Crystal gambling, Agate gambling, turquoise gambling, Nephrite jade gambling, and jade stone gambling, can all be considered stone gambling. Dong Xuebing does not need to specifically to look for jade stones or Nephrite jade stones. The returns for crystal gambling was high too.

The cutter machine stopped, and a small window was cut out of the natural purple crystal stone.

The buyers were a young couple, and the girl asked. "Is this crystal good? How much can it sells?"

"The color inside is ordinary." The overweight boss put down the cutting machine and take a closer look at the stone. "It's worth 800 to 1,000 RMB."

"We bought it for 5000 RMB, and we can only sell it for 1,000 RMB?" The woman heard the boss and gave her boyfriend a slap angrily. "I told you not to buy it, and you insist. See, we lost!" Only 1 out of 10 wins in stone gambling. Although the risk for crystal stone gambling was not as high as jade stone gambling, it's almost the same. It's normal to pick worthless stones. If anyone could find an unprocessed stone worth tens of thousand RMB with 5,000 RMB, it will be abnormal. Furthermore, Beijing was not a place known for stone gamblings. All the unprocessed stones were brought in from other places and were the leftovers from the quarries. This increases the difficulties of winning in stone gambling.

That man was pissed to hear his girlfriend scolding him. He gritted his teeth: "This and that! Open up these two!"

The girl shouted angrily: "Stop buying! You can put the money to better use!"

The man ignored her and paid the boss.

"Ok. I will cut it the same way as earlier." The overweight boss grabbed the stone cutter and start to cut the stone steadily. The blades of the cutter cut across the surface of the stone. Crystals were not as hard as jade, and it was faster to cut a crystal stone than a jade stone.

1 cut……

5 cuts……

10 cuts……

Screeched…… after a while, both the big and small crystal stones were cut, and the colorless crystal was exposed. The bigger stone had air bubbles, and it was worthless. The smaller one did not have any defects, but the color was normal, and it was not worth the price he paid for it.

The young couple left the shop with their crystals arguing.

Not long later, an old man spent 10,000 RMB to buy a bigger yellow crystal uncut stone. In the end, there was some dirt, the size of a fingernail, in the crystal and the value of this crystal dropped. At about 11 am, a group of tourist entered the shop and bought 4 to 5 pieces of natural crystal stones. The best piece was valued at the price they purchased, and the rest were worthless.

This was stone gambling. There were more losers than winners. It all depends on luck.

Dong Xuebing had doubts. After standing there for so long, there was not one person who won. Can he really make money from this?

"Young man, do you want to try your luck?" The fat shopowner asked as he wiped his hands with a towel.

Dong Cuebing, who was standing by the entrance, was not ready yet. He shook his head and entered the shop to look at the crystal ornaments on display. He pointed to a few of them and asked: "How much is this pink crystal necklace? 800 RMB? What about that purple crystal Guanyin statue? 20,000 RMB? How about that piece? 130,000 RMB?" The items on display ranged from tens of RMB to over 100,000 RMB. The prices depend on the color, clarity, and size of the crystals.

"The finished products are expensive." The shop owner tried to entice Dong Xuebing. "Why not try your luck with these stones? Maybe you will be rich overnight!"

Dong Xuebing just smiled and thought to himself. He might also be bankrupt overnight!

After lunch, Dong Xuebing returned to the shop and spent one hour standing there watching and learning. Soon, he understood how crystal stone gambling and how the crystals were valued. Natural purple crystals were more valuable than natural yellow crystals. Natural yellow crystals were worth more than colorless crystals. The darker the colors, the more expensive was the crystal. One-color was worth more than multi-colors ones. The purer crystals worth more than those with impurities. The weight also plays a part in determining the value. The heavier the crystal, the more valuable it was. If there were acicular inclusions in the crystal, it will worth more. The value would increase further if the acicular in the crystal were in the same direction.

After learning this, Dong Xuebing had a plan in mind. He started to calculate the time needed to cut a crystal stone. If the stone were cut carefully from the sides slowly, it would take a longer time. But if a bigger portion was cut, without worrying about damaging the crystals inside, it will be much faster. It will take less than a minute.

10 minutes later, Dong Xuebing was ready to act out his plan.

Dong Xuebing took a deep breath. Ok! Let's start!