Chapter 47 Stupid Elly
After lunch, perhaps in order to promote the huge stone, the Burmese host announces the bidding price of some of the raw stones. He claims that if no one wants to raise the price, the owners of these stones will be settled.
Stones can be cut open in public after the owners are settled. If there is jade in them, the price of the huge stone will rise greatly.
The Burmese man has been trading raw stones for years. He doesn’t have much knowledge on picking raw stones but he indeed is sophisticated.
He is uncertain about whether there is jade in the raw stone so he chooses to announce the current bidding price of the popular ones—For example, No. 96. The Burmese man isn’t optimistic on it at first, and he only brings it here to make up the number. The base price of it is just a trap but someone actually offers 2.5 million yuan. He believes that if he is not dreaming, these inland buyers must have lost their mind.
2.5 million is a peculiar number. Except for the Burmese host and Elly, all the people start to laugh when the host announces the price and owner of stone No. 96.
Elly doesn’t understand what they are laughing at. She asks Li Anping in a low voice then realizes the meaning behind the number 250—Elly vents her frustration on Li Anping and adds more scratches on his arm.
The Burmese man asks Elly if she wants to cut the stone open. Elly has realized that she is fooled and Liu Zheng may already see through her trick of eavesdropping or else he won’t deliberately seduce her into offering a price like this.
There is no way for Elly to back down now. Everybody is looking at her and waiting for a joke. If she is afraid of cutting open the stone in public, she may disgrace Fortune House.
“Cut it open! Right now!”
The host asks his people to upload stone No. 96 on the cutting machine and asks Elly how she wants to cut it. Elly now feels that the “think tank” she brings here are useless, so she tells him to cut the stone randomly.
The Burmese man has been bearing a grudge against Elly for a long time. Hearing that he can cut the stone randomly, he asks his men to cut it right through the middle without hesitation. Stone No.96 is cut into halves!
“There is jade in the 250!” It is w.a.n.g Miao’e who are screaming behind her hands. With her eyes wide open, w.a.n.g Miao’e looks surprised. Also, she is talking about a joyful event of “containing jade”. However, the “250” in her words is unpleasant at all.
Elly looks to the stone. There is a quite large section of jade in the middle of both halves of the stone. Elly can see from its color that the stone is profitable so she just pretends not to hear what w.a.n.g Miao’e says.
“The 250 stone contains glutinous jade. So surprising.” Lin Luoran knows the man who is talking. It is the Guangzhou guy she met at Mr. Zhang’s stone-cutting plant. His praise seems strange with his nonstandard mandarin.
Compared with w.a.n.g Miao’e who is waiting to get back to Elly later and the Guangzhou guy who leaves leeway while speaking, Fatty Cui has no scruples. He says, “A strip of jade is so much better than a thin piece. Cutting the stone in the middle ruins it all. Didn’t Miss. Elly say the same last time?”
Last time when Lin Luoran cut her stone open in Mr. Zhang’s plant, Elly did say that. Elly doesn’t expect that Fatty Cui still remembers this. She glares at him but is provoked by his fat and wretched appearance. Elly hurries to take back her eyesight and says to everybody,
“Even the jade is greener, it will make a great profit. Does anyone want to take it over?” Elly is trying to sell the stone. Looks like she is really frightened by Fatty Cui’s words.
First of all, 250 is an ominous number. Secondly, all the other traders have known about Elly’s eavesdropping. Finally, after what Fatty Cui says, everybody cast a closer look at the stone and refuse to offer any price.
Only a trader from Fujian Province who doesn’t know of Elly’s origin offers 500,000 yuan, but he is soon scared by Elly’s stare and backs off.
“A bunch of sillies!” Elly scolds and asks the Burmese man to cut the stone all open.
Liu Zheng looks at Lin Luoran who is laughing secretly and whispers, “How about we take the stone over with a low price?”
Lin Luoran shakes her head. Other traders all refuse to buy the stone without knowing its real quality. As far as Lin Luoran knows, Elly really makes a wrong choice by cutting the stone in halves.
Lin Luoran worries that if the other unimpressive stones she likes are won by someone else. She is looking forward to Elly’s “250” stone to be cut open quickly.
She looks around and happens to see Foppish Mu who gives her a daunting smile back. Lin Luoran withdraws her drifting sight and pays attention to the knowledge on jade appraisal Liu Zheng is telling her.
Anyhow, Lin Luoran at least has drawn lots of Reiki during this trip so she doesn’t have to care about anything else. She will be happy if she can trick Elly and make the b.a.s.t.a.r.d couple suffer. If not, she won’t lose a thing. So why not have a try?
Liu Zheng notices that Lin Luoran is somehow distracted. He smiles without saying anything.
Finally, Elly’s stone is cut open.
Clamors of comments rise,
“The stone is stupid as its price. So lucky I didn’t buy it!”
“Right. The jade is a complete waste.”
“Stop talking nonsense, you two. It’s just that the cutting ruins the stone. Or else the jade will be enough to make several bracelets. How can it be unprofitable?”
…
Elly is standing still. The big sungla.s.ses fail to cover her expression.
How can the green-mix glutinous jade be worthless? It’s such a pity that there is only a thin layer of jade in both halves of the stone. Just like the other traders said, if she didn’t cut the stone open in the middle, the jade will be enough to make some bracelets… Now, she is not sure whether it can be made into a few little jade eggs to stop the loss.
All of this is due to the fact that Elly imprudently chooses to cut the stone in the middle!
For the first time, Elly feels that her temples are tight. She is not distressed by the 25 million yuan. She is angry with herself by spending 25 million to buy a bad reputation. Elly will never let these things happen because she is sensitive about her reputation.
Elly steps back and draws Li Anping aside, “Tell me again. What did Lin Luoran say to you?”
Li Anping hides those cheesy things he says to Lin Luoran and tells Elly that Lin Luoran doesn’t want Elly to bid on the huge stone. He adds his own opinions—According to Lin Luoran’s personality, she must think the stone is good.
Elly a.s.sumes that Lin Luoran is a loser since she can’t keep her man. However, based on the situation last time and this time, Lin Luoran may have some secret skills on the judgement of jade. Elly refuses to believe that all Lin Luoran has is luck.
Thinking that she has spent a stupid number of money to buy a useless stone, Elly starts to hesitate. Is the huge stone really worthy to gamble on? Or this is just another trick of Lin Luoran?