Chapter 1520: Making A Mark

More than a billion and 40 million yuan — this was how much they earned in a single night!

This was more thrilling and addictive than winning the lottery, which explained why many people lost themselves when they gambled on rocks; it was just too thrilling. Gold had a fixed value, but jade did not. As long as you found a good rock, you could stand to make a windfall and reverse your fortune overnight!

Zhong Dapao and his gang were in a similar situation. Before they started gambling on rocks, they lived frugally, carefully calculating how much they spent on necessities like food. Now, after only two days, they had over thirty million in cash!

It was a shockingly large sum of money, but it did not shock the masses all that much since they have seen or heard of equally large, if not larger, sums circulating in this business. This was especially so during the public auction where there were stones worth more than a million before they were cut open. For those rocks, the winning bid would go as high as 5 or 6 million RMB which was absolutely appalling to someone who was not in this line of work.

However, that was something that would only occur during a public bid where they had the best rocks from all the markets and mining areas. It was different from what was happening here right now. Now, on a regular day, there was a rock priced over a billion — a price that was reached after the rock was cut to produce tens of jade pieces. It was quite legendary.

Aside from the days of public auctions, the value of jade cut from rocks on a regular day at public markets was not usually as high as this time. Even finding a rock worth ten million was an impressive feat. As such, taking everything into consideration, what Li Du and his colleagues reaped today was truly something to marvel at and talk about.

His bet with Old Hua truly paled in comparison to such a harvest. Zhong Dapao and Liu Zi howled, vocalizing their excitement. Da Mao, on the other hand, stood in front of the jade like a fool, taking all of it in.

Out of all of them, Li Du was the only one who could maintain his composure. He told Old Hua, “One million.”

After that, he turned to the banker who supervised the bet. “Five-to-one odds, so that makes it five million for every one of us here. Pay up.”

The banker laughed bitterly. “F*ck, I’m done for this time. Guess I’ll have to pay!”

Those were just empty words. If it really came down to that, the banker, while not making a profit, would not lose much either. He did not actually have to pay all that much, because those who made their bets earlier mostly placed them on Old Hua since no one believed a single rock could be worth more than a billion. Especially not when its owners were Zhong Dapao and Liu Zi, who were infamous for their bad luck. Everyone in the crowd knew just how unlucky they were.

What they had thought was a sure win had turned out to be a loss, so the crowd was in despair and people were saying things like “lucky b*stard”.

Zhong Dapao was red in the face. He was not young anymore, so he would usually be in a really bad condition after pulling an all-nighter, but his fatigue evaporated once the results were out as if he were on drugs.

“Pay up, Old Hua, pay up! Give me my million!”

Old Hua paled visibly and there were envy and hatred swimming in his eyes, but he was no sore loser. For people who dabbled in this game, a million was not a sum big enough to lose sleep over.

He wrote a check to Zhong Dapao then chuckled coldly. “Careful there, Master Pao. You might have gotten lucky tonight but this isn’t that big a deal. Hmph, I’ve got a good rock here myself and I’m gonna earn just as much tonight!”

At his words, Da Mao retorted immediately, “You think that rock of yours is going to go up in price after you cut it? How naive can you be? It’s obviously going to be a loss!”

Old Hua was filled with rage. Their confrontation from before stemmed from Da Mao’s criticism of the stones he bought and now the boy was bringing up the same thing to gloat over, so it was no surprise that Old Hua would be angry.

It was one thing to be angry and another to lash out. This time, he knew better than to scold Da Mao to his face. Earlier during the rock cutting, Li Du had been intentionally steering the conversation and attributing all the credit of discovering the rock to Da Mao.

Da Mao made his mark with this single victory and rose to fame. Now, everyone in the public market knew that it was he who chose the rock for Zhong Dapao and Li Du. It was he who was the real prodigy of gambling on rocks.

Old Hua kept his anger in check after Da Mao’s assessment and said, “Boy, don’t be too full of yourself. What’s going to become of the rock I have?”

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Da Mao was undeniably the star of the night. He had never been treated in such a manner before, so he was a little giddy with glee. In response to Old Hua’s question, he walked over and gave the rock a kick before saying, “I don’t know what about the rock caught your eye, but it’s garbage.”

Old Hua’s face was gloomy. “What’s so bad about it, exactly? Look at the python stripes, aren’t they pretty?”

Da Mao burst into laughter. “What an idiot. Did you set out to buy a rock or a stripe? You can try to dress it up and call it a python but a python is, at the end of the day, still just a snake. Have you actually seen a snake with stripes as broad as this? What did you buy, a gargantuan boa?”

The crowd roared with laughter and joined in the mocking. “Hey, what’s wrong with a gargantuan boa? It’s still a snake!”

Da Mao sneered. “It went extinct ages ago, that’s what! You guys are so old school. Don’t you understand? The green on a stripe is a much more reliable indicator than the green on a large piece of bark. Buy a stripe, not a piece — don’t you know this much? F*cking idiots, the lot of you.”

Old Hua hauled the rock up onto the platform and said coolly, “Cut this open, but just a little.”

Da Mao said, “There’s no need for that, it’s impossible for the value to go up—”

Li Du pulled him over with his eyebrows furrowed as he asked, “Aren’t you getting carried away?”

The admonishment calmed Da Mao down considerably but he still sneered, “Hehe, I’m just being nice and giving him a tip.”

Li Du said, “That’s enough. Take the money, we’re leaving.”

Da Mao rubbed his hands together. “What’s my cut?”

Li Du handed over a few checks to the boy. “This is the hundred thousand I promised I would give you. This half-million is your cut from the win earlier. As for your advice tonight that has proved to be valuable, I’m giving you another red packet, a big one, like we agreed. 666, for good luck.”

“Six million, six hundred and sixty thousand?” Da Mao asked excitedly.

Li Du nodded. “That’s right. Let’s go.”

Liu Zi held him back. “Wait, Master Li, let’s not leave so soon.”

Li Du frowned. “What, you want to stay for the spectacle?”

Liu Zi chuckled darkly. “No, it’s just that we’re too conspicuous. What if we leave and someone pounces on us? I’ve called a few of my buddies from the village to escort us. Let’s wait till they’re here.”

Li Du turned his words over in his head and realized the man was right. Having a rock worth a billion and 40 million was more or less on par with having a target painted on their back. There were definitely more than just a few people who had their eyes on the bunch of them, and Hpakant was known for its ruffians. There was just no telling what such people would do to get their hands on the rock!

The polishing master wielded his knife like a sword. Under his ministrations, Old Hua’s rock quickly diminished in size and the man became increasingly pale with every cut. Finally, the rock was cut to no profit. “It’s a loss!”

It’s amazing how much despair a mere two words could cause.

Old Hua was crushed. He said quietly, “This rock cost me two million… to think it would be a loss!”

The rock was not that much more expensive than the bet he had lost earlier, but for being who gambled with rocks, the strain of losing was not solely financial. The loss dealt a blow to their morale and psychology as well, which was arguably the killer shot.

Zhong Dapao and Liu Zi became more excited, and the crowd was no longer paying attention to this fiasco. Instead, they were staring suspiciously at Da Mao.