bookcurios Chapter 139 Gambling on Stones
Chapter 139 Gambling on Stones
A group of people gathered at the entrance of the jade shop to watch the fun. Shen Mingzhu also became interested in gambling on jade, and squeezed into the crowd with her two children and two maids.
There were more than a dozen raw stones on the jade stall. From the outside, each raw stone had a small gap on it.
Some people carefully look at the cracks on the raw stone, trying to judge the best quality jade based on their understanding of jade and previous experience in gambling on jade.
The jade shop owner said loudly to the crowd:
"Everyone knows it! The jades mined from the raw stones of my Wang Laosan family are of extremely high quality. I, Wang Laosan, never cheat anyone. When it comes to gambling on jade, the first thing to look at is your experience, and the second is your luck."
"I have marked the price of each rough stone on the sign in front of it. We will cut the stones on site. There are three batches of rough stones in total today."
He turned around, pointed to the two rows of stones behind him, and talked incessantly about the good rough stones that others had mined in the past.
Shen Mingzhu used her clairvoyance to get a clear picture of all the raw stones here. She watched calmly as the raw stones were bought one by one.
A dozen people excitedly picked a rough stone, gave fifty taels of silver, and excitedly held the rough stone to let the stone-cutting master cut it on the spot.
The first batch of raw stones on the stall were sold, and the boss was lobbying hard again.
Shen Mingbao looked at those people and wondered why they spent fifty taels of silver to buy a broken stone. He asked Shen Mingzhu in disbelief:
"Cousin, why are these people so generous? They spent fifty taels of silver to buy a stone."
"Fifty taels of silver! In our Shenjia Village, that's ten years' income for a family."
Someone nearby heard Shen Mingbao's words and wrote:
"What's so strange about this? If you spend fifty taels of silver and get a piece of top-quality jade, wouldn't that be a huge profit?"
"Betting on stones, betting on stones, is all about heartbeats, what do you know as a child?"
Shen Mingyu stared at the man angrily, clenching his fists tightly. Shen Mingzhu pulled Shen Mingyu, pointed at the most expensive stone, and asked Shen Mingbao:
"Mingbao, what do you think of that piece? Will it yield a fine jade?"
When Shen Mingbao saw the price of the stone, his eyes widened in surprise.
"Cousin, that stone costs 888 taels of silver. This is simply too scary!"
Not only Shen Mingbao was surprised, but even Shen Mingyu widened his eyes and asked Shen Mingzhu in disbelief.
"888 taels of silver to buy a stone, sister, are you crazy?"
The man next to him also saw the rough stone that Shen Mingzhu pointed at, and clasped his hands and said mockingly:
"Little girl, aren't you afraid that the wind will blow your tongue away?"
"888 taels of silver, even if I sell you, I won't have that much silver. You are boasting without considering the place. This is the capital, not your Shenjia Village."
This person deliberately raised his voice to make everyone around look at Shen Mingzhu and the others.
Someone in the crowd said disdainfully, "What are you doing here, little kids? Is this a place for you to come? Go back now! Don't delay us from gambling on stones."
"You are such a little girl, but you are so arrogant. Do you know what 888 taels of silver means? Let alone using 888 taels of silver to buy a stone, even if you can come up with 8 taels of silver, we will admire you."
Shen Mingzhu ignored the sarcasm and ridicule from people around her.
Some people just like to brag. If they don't have any ability, they think others can't do it either.
Shen Mingzhu ignored these people's ridicule. She was going to slap them in the face later.
Well, is there anything more satisfying than slapping someone in the face?
Shen Mingyu, who has a fiery temper, directly responded: "What's wrong with a child? Can't a child afford to buy stones?"
The person who started the trouble said disdainfully, "Didn't that kid just say that in Shenjia Village, a family can only earn fifty taels of silver in ten years? I don't know where this kid came from, but he came to the capital to show off."
"Don't look down on us kids from the mountains. What's so great about people from the capital? We kids from the mountains are capable of doing a lot more."
Shen Mingyu retorted indignantly, Shen Mingzhu pulled Shen Mingyu and said disdainfully:
"Mingyu, don't argue with someone who is so self-righteous and thinks he is a city dweller but has no experience. It will only waste your breath."
"What? Who are you calling ignorant? Today I will show you, a country bumpkin, what it means to be a Beijinger."
The man was furious and rolled up his sleeves to deal with Shen Mingzhu. At this moment, several stone-cutting masters were about to cut out the stone, and someone shouted excitedly:
"Hurry, look, it's about to bloom."
Everyone shifted their attention to the stone. The scene suddenly fell silent. People stared closely at the stone in the master's hand, afraid of missing the excitement when the treasure was uncovered.
Shen Mingzhu already had an idea in her mind. She glanced at the crowd. They were all very excited, especially those who were buying stones. They stared at the stones without blinking, their eyeballs almost popping out.
Shen Mingzhu could even hear the strong heartbeats of these people. She thought calmly that whether it was gambling on stones or anything else, she couldn't gamble.
These people are destined to be disappointed.
As Shen Mingzhu expected, none of the dozen or so raw stones produced good jade.
What comes out is either waste material that has not been completely transformed into jade, or material of very poor jade quality.
There were also people at the scene who screamed "Wow!" and started to cry on the ground.
After the man cried bitterly, he suddenly stood up, grabbed the boss's collar, and yelled wildly:
"You liar, pay me back, liar, pay me back."
The man grabbed the boss's collar and cried heartbreakingly:
"Woo woo, if I hadn't gambled with stones here, would I have lost everything? If I hadn't gambled with stones here, would my family have been ruined?"
"This fifty taels of silver is the money I received from the loan shark! It's over. Everything is over now. I want to pay you with my life."
The man grabbed the boss and frantically strangled him by the neck. The boss struggled desperately and tried to explain:
"You wanted to gamble on the stone, I didn't force you to do it. Gambling on the stone depends entirely on luck. If you don't have this luck, who can you blame?"
"It's all your fault. You always said that you could find top-quality mutton-fat jade here, and that someone found top-quality white jade, jasper, and black jade here. You lied to us and said that the jade found here by someone was sold for a lot of money."
"You are cheating us. You are cheating us out of our money. You have to pay me back and pay for my house."
"You liar, you have already opened the real good raw stones, and the stones you took out are all useless waste."
"Fifty taels of silver! I just spent fifty taels of silver to buy such a broken stone. I was really blinded by the devil!"
The man cried heart-wrenchingly, tears of regret streaming down his face. Just as he was about to exert more force, he was hit on the back of his neck with a stick and passed out.
The boss had the man carried away and continued introducing the jades as if nothing had happened.
When people saw the crazy man, they all became dissatisfied with the boss and no one was fooled into buying raw stones anymore.
The boss was so angry that he had to lower the price. The stone that was originally priced at 888 yuan was now sold for only 50 taels of silver.
No one bought it after offering 50 taels of silver. The boss then lowered the price to 10 taels of silver, but still no one bought it.
You know, ten taels of silver is not a small amount. It only costs fifteen taels of silver to buy an ordinary servant. Who would be willing to be a sucker and spend ten taels of silver to buy a piece of broken stone?
The lesson I just learned from that person is still fresh in my mind!
The boss wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and hated that man in his heart, but he had no choice but to lower the price again.
When no one asked, a clear female voice rang out.