Closer to Revealing My True Self
Chapter 641 - 416: Raw Stone_2

Chapter 641: Chapter 416: Raw Stone_2

"It’s settled! Tickets are really tight these past few days—the advertising campaign was so worth it. This morning alone, three tour groups came by charter bus, so it’s incredibly crowded. The mine has closed the online ticket booking channel, and I had to pay extra to get my hands on these tickets; otherwise, we would have to settle for tomorrow’s."

Mark handed over the tickets to Feng Yi and then smoothly took the banknotes from Jia’s hand.

What he had paid on top of the ticket price was nothing compared to this!

Wearing an even more enthusiastic smile, Mark started sharing the news he had heard while purchasing the tickets with Feng Yi.

"The mine owner, Tama, has come over. He’ll be visiting the mine these few days, and it was his decision to temporarily close the online booking channel. He never expected the advertising to work so well."

The mine owner had never anticipated that those bogus adverts could actually lure so many tourists!

But the mine’s capacity to host tourists is limited, and it’s hard to manage with too many people. Once things get chaotic here, his losses would be even greater—what if someone took the chance to steal diamonds?

Yet, the mine owner can’t bear to watch the money slip away and is now looking for solutions.

As Mark speculated, starting from tomorrow, the mine will likely hire additional security guards and temporary miners.

Moreover, there’s no need to wait until tomorrow. Today, there will probably be even more buzz in the news to hype this place up as a trendy check-in spot online.

Mark glanced at his watch and said to Feng Yi:

"The afternoon session hasn’t started yet. Boss, do you want to check out the shop across the street first?"

He was referring to the diamond jewelry shop on the opposite side, also part of the mine area.

"Inside, they display some of the smaller diamond roughs that have been mined here over the past few decades, but the larger ones have long been sold on the market and wouldn’t be put on display here for sale," said Mark.

"Let’s take a look," Feng Yi was indeed more interested in those diamond roughs.

A diamond rough cut and polished into jewelry might only retain a third of its original size, and its original surface would be ground away as well.

Feng Yi wanted to see the surface of those rough diamonds!

Just as he had once played with meteorites, after handling them for a while, a special substance would form on their surface.

Similarly, in the caves he had visited in the mountains, the walls of underwater caves also had a special substance.

The ancestors used diamonds to assist in shedding their skin, suggesting that those diamonds had been in contact with a sufficient amount of diffused energy. It was likely that the surface would undergo some special changes, which might not be detectable by instruments, but Feng Yi would recognize them on sight.

After eating, the group headed to the shop across the street.

Feng Yi was still only wearing a pair of sunglasses, but because his clothes were rather plain, he didn’t stand out.

In contrast, tourists wearing group hats were much more noticeable, moving about in long queues, chatting in various languages and exhibiting different cultural mannerisms.

Feng Yi paid no attention to them; he headed straight for the diamond shop across the street with a clear goal in mind.

Hanging at the entrance of the store was a particularly conspicuous sign—No Blood Diamonds!

Blood diamonds are not red diamonds; they refer to those mined in the backdrop of war, amidst countless exploitation and ruthless traders, and so on.

Cai Bing looked at the sign with a touch of sarcasm: "So that’s why the certificates are valuable, they trace the origin, prove that they’re not blood diamonds, and make it easier to resell in the future. Big brand jewelry stores won’t sell such illegally obtained ’conflict diamonds’. At least not openly."

Mark said, "When all is said and done, it’s still the diamond players who set the rules. However, adapting to these rules can be profitable as well. As for collecting, it’s all the same. I know a rich guy who bought a diamond for eighty million and sold it a few years later for over a hundred million!"

Just flipping it netted several tens of millions, and envy flickered in Mark’s eyes.

However, Cai Bing was skeptical about diamond collecting: "It’s all a market game, but the future is uncertain. Aren’t diamonds just a hype, an allotrope of carbon? Besides, diamond cultivation techniques are getting more advanced now."

After the period of climate anomalies, with the rules reset, synthetic diamonds quickly captured the market, and technology kept improving—who can be sure about future trends?

That was Cai Bing’s way of reminding Feng Yi to be rational when buying such items.

Talking about this outside the shop, they kept their voices down, but once they entered, they stopped discussing it entirely.

Because to do so inside the shop would be asking for trouble.

Feng Yi walked into the store, his gaze briefly passed over exquisitely crafted jewelry, and then he moved on, heading straight for the rough diamond counter.

Besides the goods counter, there was a very large display case next to it.

All the exhibits were uncut diamonds found at the mine. They served a promotional purpose and also let tourists know what uncut diamonds looked like, so they wouldn’t mistakenly throw them away as ordinary stones.

There were also corresponding photos and clippings of related news reports. Some of the newspaper clippings had a feel of age.

The authenticity of these items aroused doubt among the tourists, but such doubts did not dampen their enthusiasm for diamond mining or their beautiful fantasies.

No matter how much of the news was true, diamonds had indeed been produced here. Even if the resources in the mine were now exhausted, surely there must be a little bit left, right?

What if I were the one to find that little bit left?

Many of the tourists came with such fantasies.

The tourists were somewhat frenzied, but Feng Yi was quite calm.

He looked at the uncut diamonds displayed in the showcase.

The sizes of the uncut diamonds varied, some were regular in shape, and others looked like chunks chipped off from somewhere.

And Feng Yi’s focus was on those irregularly shaped nuggets.

As he had expected, there was indeed the substance he could sense, but there wasn’t much, only a few had it.

Feng Yi called over the salesperson.

The salesperson asked very politely, "Sir, which one caught your eye? I can help you get it out."

Feng Yi raised his hand and pointed one by one, "This, this, this and those two there, plus the one above, oh, and that broken one over there, I’ll pick a few pieces."

The salesperson paused for a moment and asked, "...All of these? Everything?"

Feng Yi thought about it, since he wanted to study how his ancestors had left those things on the diamonds, he would certainly need to get hands-on experience.

"Well, that compartment over there with the more regular shapes, pack those up for me," he said.

The salesperson wiped the sweat from his forehead and with a polite and respectful smile said, "Please wait a moment. My authorization is limited, I’ll call our store manager right away!"

Soon, a slightly chubby middle-aged man in a short-sleeved shirt jogged over, introduced himself, and after reconfirming Feng Yi’s intent to purchase—not just look—the manager quickly took out the uncut diamonds Feng Yi had pointed out from the showcase and invited Feng Yi to a private room at the back of the store.

"Sir, the diamonds you requested are here. You can check to make sure these are the ones you’re interested in. Should we package them all together? We have a variety of gift boxes to choose from," the manager said.

Feng Yi: "Just pack them together."

The manager saw a mix of stones worth a few hundred bucks and others worth over a hundred thousand, all shoved together, big and small.

The manager couldn’t understand, his mind filled with questions about the customer’s taste and preferences.

These uncut diamonds, with their various sizes, shapes, colors, and levels of clarity—there was no commonality to discern! Among them were even lab-grown diamonds!

Despite the myriad speculations inside his head, the manager maintained an enthusiastic and appropriate smile and offered a business card, "If you have the need for bulk purchases, please contact me. We have stable, reliable, and cost-effective sales channels!"

Feng Yi took the card but made no comment on the offer of "bulk purchase needs," keeping his identity to himself.

The store manager was satisfied with the customer taking the business card and wasn’t concerned about whether the customer revealed their identity.

His only concern was whether the customer would pay.

After Feng Yi completed the payment, the manager was even more attentive, kindly opening another door on the side of the store, which was more discreet for Feng Yi to exit through.

However, Feng Yi didn’t leave through that door because he hadn’t taken the diamonds out of the store at all.

"Keep it here for now, I’ll come back later with the receipt and proof to pick it up from your store," Feng Yi said.

Feng Yi still planned to experience diamond mining and didn’t want to carry around a box all the time, better to leave it here directly.

Mark, who was following close by, very much disagreed.

Are you really that confident leaving purchased diamonds here, boss?

What if they deny it when you come to pick them up?

Can you just flatten their whole store??