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Chapter 37.2
Bai Jing went to the third shop.
He had heard many people say during the stone solving process that jadeite of the bean seed variety had been solved in the offcuts here, and there were indeed many customers here, so there should be quite a lot of good materials.
Of course, what attracted him most was the rows of rough stones placed on the stone table at the entrance.
One by one, they had been cleaned thoroughly and their sizes were arranged in order from smallest to largest, neatly arranged, very similar to the feel of the rough stone section at the Gu Conglomerate.
Moreover, each row of rough stone on the stone table had a corresponding price tag, which was extremely clear at a glance.
At least for Bai Jing, the atmosphere here made him comfortable and his first impression of the shop was excellent.
He looked along the rough stone platform, from the front to the back.
The first two rows were offcuts sold by the kilo, a little more expensive than the ones at first shop at 500 starcoins per kilo.
At the back were the better performers, at 1000-3000 starcoins per kilo for all-bet rough stone.
In addition to this, there were half a dozen half-bet rough stones that had their windows polished open, with high individual bids, all above two million starcoins.
Bai Jing took a few glances at them then skipped right past the area where the off-cuts were placed and went to the rough stone section where the prices were even higher.
After observing along the stone platform for ten minutes continuously, he found that this shop had a really good eye for selecting rough stones.
Not to mention the half-bet rough stones that cost millions, just looking at these dozens of pieces at 3,000 starcoins per kilo, one could tell that each of them would perform respectably well and were equivalent to the top grade rough stones in the Gu Conglomerate’s Zone C.
Bai Jing selected the six best pieces of rough stones that looked liked they would perform well.
Of these six, two of them had an unbroken surface of pine blossoms and python bands and the pine blossoms were bright, which showed that there was a possibility that they would produce high quality jadeite.
The third was a fine crust white sandpaper skin with a symmetrical distribution of pine blossoms on its surface, which also had a higher probability of producing high quality jadeite.
The fourth was a variety from an old pit, a dark ebony skin rough stone covered with a waxy crust which also had some probability of producing high quality jadeite of either the ice-glass or glass variety, although the probability wasn’t great.
The other two pieces were very thinly crusted pear skin crust rough stones, the green color of which could be clearly seen inside under the glare of a strong light, both of which looked like they would perform very well.
According to his estimation, there were at least 2-3 pieces of jadeites that could be produced from these rough stones, but whether or not they could produce a rise in bet depended on the size of the jadeite inside.
Bai Jing split his sense perception ability into two strands and sent them into the rough stones only to retract them after a moment, his brows knitting slightly as the expression on his face turned thoughtful.
Because his sense perception ability had detected that none of the six pieces of rough stones had jadeite in them!
For the first two that had pine blossoms and python bands on them, one was full of flocculent white cotton inside and the other, a white, flowery stone.
The white sandpaper skin rough stone and the dark ebony skin rough stone that looked like it would perform well, again had not a single active reaction inside.
As for the two other pieces that had pear skin crust from which green was visible from the surface, only the layer near the crust had it. It was a thin layer of green skin.
Not right, it wasn’t even a thin layer of green skin!
Bai Jing observed it carefully and found that the thin layer of green skin was only against the shell of a thin layer.
How should he put it?
It was as if someone had dug out the insides of the rough stone in advance, leaving only a layer of ‘skin’ behind.
Perhaps other people couldn’t see the difference between the two, but Bai Jing was different.
As he spent most of the day in the Gu Conglomerate’s underground warehouse observing rough stones, together with the fact that he selected rough stones for gambling wars and had seen tens of thousands of raw rough stones and had probed no less than five hundred rough stones with his sense perception ability, any slight difference couldn’t be hidden from him.
No matter how similar the conditions were, there would always be a slight differences in thickness, luster and texture.
But this piece of rough stone, despite the best efforts made to fake the appearance of it having a ‘thin layer of green skin’, this thin layer of ‘skin’ was simply too uniform, not at all like a creation of nature.
So, a bold guess came to Bai Jing’s mind. This shop was– faking the materials!
Not only because of the ‘thin layer of green skin’, but also because in terms of the rate of betting increase alone, it was unreasonable.
The current Bai Jing, even without the use of his sense perception ability, could still control the rate of betting increase to more than 20%, which was the strength a Level 3 Stone Gambler or even close to that of a Level 4 Stone Gambler possessed.
And the probability that all six rough stones he had just looked at had collapsed was too outrageous.
Unfortunately, perhaps due to the use of more advanced techniques, the other four rough stone didn’t show any signs of forgery for the time being.
The two pieces with pear skin crust had to be verified with professional testing equipment after the ‘skin’ was removed to be able to detect that it was a fake, otherwise the shop wouldn’t have been open for over a month and still be in good condition. All this showed that no one had discovered any foul play.
While he was thinking about this, his eyes unconsciously rested on the rough stone that had a pear skin crust next to him, causing the shopkeeper to think that he had his eye on this piece.
The shopkeeper, Wu Xing, sized Bai Jing up from head to toe, lingering for a moment especially on his finely textured clothes and the space button he wore around his neck, then judged Bai Jing to be a young master of a prominent family.
Although the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose were a bit rustic, it was most likely a hobby of these children from prominent families, and at the age of 17 or 18, it wasn’t surprising that they had all kinds of strange and weird ideas.
Wu Xing had a casual smile on his face, his attitude not overly attentive but sincere: “Little young master, do you fancy this piece of rough stone?
This is from a new batch that arrived recently, a typical pear skin crusted mountainous rough stone.
This kind of rough stone has a high chance of having jadeite in it and it belongs to the top grade rough stone, which wouldn’t cost less than seventy to eighty thousand starcoins in other shops.”
This pear skin-crusted rough stone was of average size and was marked with the weight tag: 13.4 kg.
At 3,000 starcoins per kilo, it was only 40,000 starcoins, indeed much cheaper than elsewhere.
If Bai Jing hadn’t discovered that this shop sold fake things, he would have probably had a very good impression because of his attitude.
Compared to shop owner Wang Ping’s indiscriminate bragging and his glib tongue, this shopkeeper Wu was earnest in his words and had his own temperament.
Moreover, he obviously knew a lot about rough stones as well as their market prices and his tone was full of affinity, so if he used it properly he could definitely attract a large number of customers, unfortunately–
Bai Jing’s eyes swept through the rows of rough stones then he casually touched a rough stone next to him and said indifferently, “I’m just browsing casually.”
As soon as Wu Xing noticed this teenager’s rusty movements, he knew for sure that this was this little young master’s first time gambling on rough stones and immediately had a thought in his mind.
This was the best target that had appeared today, what’s more it was also a ‘big fish’. How could he possibly let it go?
So Wu Xing’s tone became even more gentle: “It’s okay, you can take a look first. If there’s anything you don’t understand, we have a professional gambling consultant here to answer your questions at any time.”
Then he sent a message with his light brain and immediately a middle-aged man came out of the shop.
He looked to be around thirty years old, was well-groomed and had a silver badge on his chest that indicated that he was actually a level 2 Stone Gambler!
Stepping forward, the middle-aged man introduced himself, “My name is Liao Guang, I’m a Level 2 Stone Gambler. Little young master is this your first time coming to gamble on rough stones?”
Bai Jing was noncommittal: “Hm.”
Liao Guang slowly guided him to the 1000 starcoins per kilo rough stones, explaining: “You don’t need to choose such expensive rough stones for your first time in case it collapses. If that happens you will be heartbroken; nor should you choose the cheap ones like the offcuts, as the probability of having a rise in bet from them is too low. You can take a look at this row of rough stones.”
Liao Guang spoke in a very pertinent tone, as if he was really thinking about the teenager. Bai Jing unconsciously followed along, matching his rhythm and the corners of Liao Guang’s lips curled up mockingly. Sure enough, he was an unsophisticated young master from a prominent family. The progress was much smoother than he had expected.
“Look at this piece of yellow sand skin rough stone. The sand is evenly grained with a certain amount of desanding, indicating that the quality is much better than other yellow sand skins.
Then take a look at this mass of green on the surface, it’s called ‘pine blossom’. It’s an important basis for betting on color, and it is generally said that the greener and fresher the color, the better ……..”
“Now look at this one, a bacon crust water stone. The skin is red like bacon, smooth and transparent, smooth to the touch and free from sand……”
After introducing several rough stones in a row and seeing that Bai Jing was listening carefully and nodding from time to time which an expression that showed that he was being educated, Liao Guang felt that a trust level had almost been cultivated.
So his tone took on a bit of compulsion.
“Little young master, if you trust me, I will pick a cheap piece of rough stone for you to experiment with.
If it is a rise in bet, then wouldn’t it be safer for you to choose from the ones that perform well?”
Bai Jing nodded: “Sure.”
Liao Guang took him to the end of the row of rough stones and casually selected a piece of rough stone with average performance, not big in size and not more than ten thousand starcoins at most.
The skin of this piece was slightly rough, with a few sparse clusters of dotted pine blossoms.
Generally, such rather scattered pine blossoms were very difficult to connect to the green inside.
Bai Jing dropped his gaze after a few glances. With the way this rough stone performed, he would have ruled it out from his selection process.
As Liao Guang began his introduction, Bai Jing sent his sense perception ability inside the rough stone, and his sense perception ability split into two strands in the air, probing even the piece next to it.
Soon after, Bai Jing withdrew his sense perception ability and a flash of understanding crossed his teal eyes.
These two adjacent pieces of rough stones actually all had jadeite in them!
Although they were low-grade jadeite of the bean variety, they could definitely produce a rise in bet.
It seems these pieces of rough stones had been specially designed for ‘fishing’.
Just like the pear skin crust that just had a layer of skin left, these two pieces of rough stones also had tiny traces of having been swapped. They had probably replaced the stone inside with jadeite of the bean seed variety that had been solved from somewhere else using high-tech technology to achieve such a perfect swap.
After one had a rise in bet with the rough stone used for ‘fishing’, he would then use psychology to take advantage of the win and get one to buy the more expensive rough stones.
It had to be known that people here believed in luck, so if the first piece of rough stone they came here to pick went up, that person would feel overwhelmed by the luck, making it difficult for them to stop.
This was a clear grasp on the mentality of a gambler, greed.
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Thanks for the chapter!
Brilliant chapter! Looking forward to more!!!