Imperial Treasure
Chapter 330 - 235 Red Mountain Park_2

Chapter 330: Chapter 235 Red Mountain Park_2

The person who had extracted jade naturally couldn’t just leave Xinjiang with the jade immediately; some would entrust it to the Swiss branch for safekeeping, and then the branch would send someone to escort the jade to a specific location...

Elder Tang had also intended to send these pieces of jade back, as Sui Yi’s place was not safe. After all, nobody would dare to rob the Palace Family, especially not Gong Jiu and Miss Gong!

The problem was that Gong Jiu wouldn’t allow it, saying, "Don’t bother; I’m sure I’ll extract a good amount of jade after the Public Trading Platform event and can send it all back together. It’s better than having to submit so much paperwork and contracts twice..."

To her words, Elder Tang and the others could only chuckle...

Putting your hope in her is even less reliable than expecting Sui Yi to dig up more jade...

As the others got more and more off-topic, Sui Yi interjected, "Where is the location for the Public Trading Platform?"

Instantly, the main topic was brought back.

"Red Mountain Park"

Yu Quan was more knowledgeable about Red Mountain Park since he had visited it in his early years. As the name suggests, Red Mountain Park is focused on Red Mountain, a mountain park located in the center of Urumqi city. Red Mountain, with an altitude of about 910 meters, is the symbol and landmark of Urumqi. The mountain is made of purple sandstone and is reddish-brown in color, hence the name "Red Mountain."

Driving through the bustling city on the traffic lane, an hour later, Sui Yi could see the mountain ahead, with green trees stretching far and wide, red pavilions sprinkled throughout, blue towers and red rocks—it truly lived up to the name Red Mountain.

"I originally thought they would choose some square, but this is indeed very thoughtful," he said.

"It’s probably for promoting tourism; otherwise, the authorities wouldn’t be so supportive," Sui Yi revealed sagely.

"Looks like it. It’s much busier than in past years," Yu Quan stroked his chin.

Soon, everyone was cursing the busyness.

Their vehicles came to a complete stop more than 20,000 meters from the park, still a distance away from the square!

Completely stuck!

Helplessly, the group had to get out and walk. Fortunately, Anayi knew the quickest routes and confidently led them through the streets, eventually arriving in front of the park square.

As expected, there were loads and loads of people. The Red Mountain Square, akin to a football field, was filled with crowds. There were tourists who had received promotional messages and came specially, as well as merchants from various places... And more tragically, it was the weekend when many students were off from school—don’t get me started on how many there were...

With so many people around, sights like "Tower Reflecting the Sunset," "Ancient Tower under Moonlight," "Dragon Fountain," "Heroes’ Stele," "Boating on South Lake," "Tiger Head Red Cliffs," "Remote Sacrifice at the Altar," "Buddhist Temple in the Mist," and so on were all irrelevant at least for people like Sui Yi.

By the time Sui Yi and the others arrived at the Public Trading Platform, they had spent an extra two hours more than the expected normal time.

They were more than an hour behind most traders, so much so that by the time they arrived, the Public Trading Platform area was already packed with people.

Gong Jiu felt that she could write an essay on her return—on the importance of traffic congestion for economic development.

Flower Demon was planning to discuss "The Importance of Traffic Jams for Touching Up Makeup..."

The Public Trading Platform required invitations; those without invitations could only hang around the periphery, join in the fun, and visit some of the Gambling Stones stalls on the sidelines, but could not enter the main venue. Even so, there were still many people inside the venue, including numerous attendants of the merchant visitors.

It just so happened that Sui Yi and his group did not have invitations...

But this was hardly a problem for Gong Jiu, Elder Tang, and the like. They had used various connections to secure invitations long before leaving: the former displayed their industry and heritage, prompting the organizers to issue an invitation directly, while the latter used personal connections and money to easily acquire one. They even had one extra invitation, so Anayi was able to enter as well.

The large square had over a hundred shaded tents, and the remaining open space was almost all rough stones. Nearly two hundred security guards were patrolling, there to prevent any opportunistic theft...

However, most of those invited usually had some status; normally, no one would steal the rough stones, especially given that each one was not small, making them not something you could just sneak out, since exits were all monitored.

"So many rough stones, that one looks good; see how it’s been cut open and there’s green!" Gong Jiu was instantly attracted to a rough stone ahead and wanted to rush over to buy it. Flower Demon held her back and rolled her eyes, "Where are your eyes and brain? Didn’t you see that all of these stones here have been cut open? Better to buy a line than a whole face, don’t you understand?"

"Heh, Miss Gong, the Gambling Stones here are divided into two parts: Open Bidding and rough stones. Rough stones are raw, completely obscured materials where you can only rely on your eyesight and luck, also known as full gamble, while Open Bidding refers to these rough stones that have been slightly opened to reveal some of their surface value. It’s a mixed bag, but at least there’s some visible worth, making it a semi-gamble and thus more expensive than full-gamble rough stones," explained Anayi, who seemed to be a bit more knowledgeable than Gong Jiu and the others. After her explanation, she felt slightly embarrassed when she saw everyone looking at her, but Sui Yi spoke up to ease the awkwardness, "Gong Jiu, whether it’s Open Bidding or rough stones, neither can be directly priced for trade. They are categorized into open bids and blind bids."

Blind bids refer to when merchants, after eyeing a rough stone they wish to purchase, fill out a bidding form with the number issued to the buyer by the organizers, the buyer’s name, the number of the item they wish to bid on, and the bid price, and then drop it into a crate labeled with the number of the rough stone. Since bidders do not know each other’s bid items and prices, the process is opaque, hence termed "blind bids." (To Be Continued. If you like this work, we welcome you to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes, monthly tickets, and your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)