Imperial Treasure
Chapter 339 - 240: Mysterious Raw Material, Spring-colored Jade!

Chapter 339: Chapter 240: Mysterious Raw Material, Spring-colored Jade!

As everyone knows, every public trading platform has its King of Bids, just like Huaguo Mountain inevitably has its Monkey King.

What does King of Bids mean?

It’s the one with the highest sale price, of course!

And it seemed very likely that, at this first session of the public trading in Xinjiang, the title would go to the raw material right in front of them.

It was performing extremely well; no wonder the starting price was so high—this was the feeling unanimously shared by knowledgeable people like Zou Xueqin after they had seen the raw materials, and in fact, Zou Xueqin had finally found something to leverage against Xiao Xianting—this guy actually didn’t know how to assess raw materials!

Because there had just been an elder, looking like a gambling stone master, who had said negligently: "No cracks, coarse sand, coarse meat, slightly green in color and uniform inside..."

Xiao Xianting listened attentively, and after the elder finished, he calmly asked a specialized gambling stone master nearby, "What does he mean by that?"

Is this how you gambling stone professionals always talk in riddles?

Ha! Purple Sand Jewelry’s boss can’t assess raw materials, a layman?

This simply astonished everyone present beyond measure.

Zou Xueqin laughed lightly and said, "Mr. Xiao is the boss of Purple Sand Jewelry, and he doesn’t know how to evaluate raw materials... This really is embarrassing for us."

Xiao Xianting looked at him, "You really should be embarrassed, clearly knowing how to evaluate raw materials yet your store still lacks jade."

F*ck! That’s not even the same thing!

It seems that Mr. Xiao speaks in a style similar to someone else’s—that of making his own statement and leaving others speechless.

However, everyone agreed on one point; they were all quite optimistic about this piece of raw material. At this moment, Gong Jiu and another person came bustling over. Given their notorious and venomous style, the discontented merchants around had no choice but to step back a bit, well, beauties do enjoy some privileges, after all.

Sui Yi was among them.

At the moment, her complexion was still somewhat fragile, but she looked much better compared to before, proving her earlier excuse of fainting from seeing too many raw materials. As soon as Sui Yi approached, Mei Dexian came over, laughing as he asked, "Miss Sui, are you interested in this too?"

"Not really an interest," she replied.

"Then why are you still looking at it?"

"Bored."

"..."

Zou Xueqin’s lips curved into a smile: "Not interested? But Miss Sui has great talent and ability~~She.."

Before he could finish, Pan Ling interjected, "This piece of raw material does perform very well, one of the better ones I’ve seen recently..."

As she spoke, she leaned closer to the raw material, examining it very carefully and attentively, interpreting that elderly man’s earlier remarks into plain language~~

But Gong Jiu and her companion were slightly annoyed by her, wondering if the others didn’t understand, well, indeed they didn’t, but repeating the same thing someone else had said was tedious—she merely wanted to capture others’ attention and compliments...

"But," Pan Ling suddenly added, causing Flower Demon to flicker her gaze.

"But there’s a crack here... too bad," she said no more, implying a profound depth, which made many of the gambling stone masters and merchants at the scene reveal meaningful expressions.

To people like Anayi, these expressions seemed utterly baffling: "So, is this raw material good or not?"

Elder Tang chuckled, What do you think?

Flower Demon and Gong Jiu exchanged a look, their expressions inscrutable.

"Miss Sui, what do you think?" Pan Ling suddenly asked again.

At that moment, Sui Yi’s hand was resting on the surface, seemingly distracted. Hearing the question, she turned to look at Pan Ling and said: "If I say it’s good, it doesn’t necessarily stop someone who doesn’t want to buy from buying, and if I say it’s bad, it doesn’t necessarily stop someone who wants to buy from buying, so what significance does my opinion have?"

This was a somewhat philosophical and conspiratorial response, leaving Pan Ling, who reputedly wasn’t very scholarly, momentarily speechless, not knowing what to say next. Both Jiang Yun and Li Yong were rather surprised by her cleverness!

Noticing that everyone seemed to be pondering, apparently admiring Sui Yi’s sharp response, a cold light flickered in Pan Ling’s eyes as she smiled lightly, "Then, Miss Sui, do you think this raw material is worth buying?"

She was decidedly setting a trap for Sui Yi. If she said it wasn’t worth it, and jade was later found in this raw material, it would be like slapping her own face. If she said it was worth it and no jade was found, she would be slandered for it—either way, it would be a mistake.

However, Sui Yi’s response came quickly, as if it were an offhand remark,

"It doesn’t matter whether it’s worth buying or not, it depends on whether you have the money."

Those with money don’t care, and those without money, no matter how much they care, it’s futile.

Uh... Did anyone else feel that leap from philosophy to market economics and the study of supply and demand?

The atmosphere suddenly turned weird, like it was inappropriate to laugh, yet feeling like laughing at one’s self—it was a very strange feeling.

Pfft!

Mei Dexian was the first to laugh, "That’s well said, I have the least patience for those who whine whether they are rich or not."

"Speaking of having no money, Miss Sui can’t afford this raw material either," Hu Yuan took the opportunity to attack.

Who says we can’t afford it! Talking about money, we’re no worse than you! Gong Jiu and Flower Demon wouldn’t let others belittle them, but they saw Sui Yi hum softly and then turned around.

Hmm?

Is it that she’s not buying because she has no money?

Or does she not want to buy?

Or is she pretending not to want to buy?

After Sui Yi and her companions turned around, those behind them also dispersed one by one, seemingly losing interest in the raw material.

But the actual situation remained unclear...

"Look at those people, acting as if they’re in a play... the way they’re holding back first and pushing forward later is quite good," Flower Demon said with a seductive smile to Sui Yi, "I think that raw material has quite a gambling nature. If you’re short on money, the three of us pooling together to buy it wouldn’t be hard, right, Idiot Gong?"

"I also think it’s quite gamble-worthy. Pan Ling is obviously not a good person, his last sentence was to dissuade others from buying, but who knows the actual situation... Logically, people here are all crafty, why would they gather around and openly evaluate this raw material~~ good or bad they would keep it to themselves~~ "

They might not understand raw materials, but they know how to do business and understand human nature, which is why they thought that raw material was worth gambling on, but they were not 100% sure it could rise in value, so buying it together among the three of them made the most sense.

They found the calculus easy, but little did they know Sui Yi was having trouble deciding. Why?

First, when she first examined this piece of jade, she saw a strange black vortex inside, which was very unusual and even more shocking to her than any top-quality jade.

Second, when she touched it the second time, there was nothing inside the raw material!

Was she hallucinating? After feeling it again for a while, it was still empty!

Sui Yi instantly doubted whether the black vortex she initially felt was a hallucination, yet the terrifying consequence of suddenly being drained of strength told her it was not a hallucination.

Therefore, this piece of raw material was undoubtedly bizarre.

Buying it was the best way to resolve her doubts. The problem was, she didn’t have enough money to buy it!

If she were to buy it using the method of collaborating with Gong Jiu, it was very likely they would end up with trash material, at least it wouldn’t be jade, which would undoubtedly be cheating others. If she borrowed money to buy the jade herself, wouldn’t that be too petty? It would be very hurtful...

Thus, Sui Yi felt troubled for a moment but soon made a decision.

"I’m not optimistic about it and I don’t plan to buy it," she said.

This statement extinguished most of the enthusiasm Gong Jiu and the others originally had to buy it. Sui Yi was rarely wrong, but she also usually didn’t like to absolutely criticize something without explaining, and now speaking so frankly suggested some hidden deliberation.

So, this raw material was not good?

Caught between Pan Ling’s fake innocence and Sui Yi, Gong Jiu quickly chose Sui Yi, while Flower Demon was more independent. She wanted to observe the reactions of others before deciding. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Sui Yi; she just felt that with gambling stones, nobody could be certain, and she trusted her own judgment over others on top of trusting Sui Yi.

------

Time flew by, and it was nearly five o’clock, with only half an hour left before the bidding would end.

Gong Jiu and the others, catching the time, fluttered off like butterflies to place their bids. Anayi, who had already been by Sui Yi’s side right from that earlier moment, signaled that she too had finished placing her bids. Now following Sui Yi, she approached her.

"All the bids have been placed. Do you have any more to place?"

"This is the open material zone; if there’s anything to bid on, it’s open bidding," Sui Yi reminded, causing Anayi to suddenly laugh, "I almost forgot... By the way, I noticed those merchants... including Zou Xueqin, some people sneaked off to that raw material. Is it really worth the gamble? Elder Tang and the others asked me to come over and ask you if you need funds, they can arrange a loan."

Can everyone tell that I really want to buy that piece of raw material?

Sui Yi felt helpless inside, but could not help but smile, "You think I want to buy it too?"

"It feels that way."

"It’s not that I really want to, just more curious, but looking at the current timing and my own situation, it doesn’t allow me to buy it. Perhaps it’s fate," Sui Yi’s smile, originally faint, suddenly paused and deepened, her radiant and melodious laugh momentarily stunned Anayi, who didn’t notice Sui Yi’s gaze falling on the half-human-height, over five hundred pounds of raw material beside her.

This piece of raw material...

With the remaining bit of her Magnetic Sensation for the day, Sui Yi sensed a large swath of violet color, the sort brimming with violet charm as if heralding an oriental purple qi, rendered rich within the clear water hue, but dispersed amid threads of smoke-like green silk. Smoky, yet the green within the smoke was solidly striped, giving off a sensation both thoroughly green and supremely violet, stunningly beautiful.

A term suddenly popped into Sui Yi’s mind.

--Spring-colored Jade.

In the world of jade, "spring" represents violet, and jade with spring is also called Violet Jade. "Color" represents green, referring to green jade.

So, what jade is the most valuable in the world of jade?

In layman’s terms, what is the most valuable? (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it on qidian.com, subscribe or cast your monthly vote. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)