Chapter 1575: The dragon stone speciesTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“This hotel has another name, which is the Gemstone Hotel. There are long-term rooms for old guests and VIP people from the field site.”
“Xie Laohou’s field site has a few long term rooms in the KAK hotel too. I know which rooms belong to him. He must be staying there. I guess that if Lu Dayou and his men take Da Mao there, they will meet in one of those rooms.”
“We must try to find out which room they are staying in. We must not enter just like that, because during the auction, some of the rooms in the hotel are used as reserve warehouses for the market. There is jade in stock and the military police are on guard here. If we go in without warning, we will be charged as robbers, and the military police can fire at once!”
Zhong Dapao told what he knew and helped Li Du learn about the hotel and Xielao Hou’s background.
When the trishaws came to the door of the hotel, Li Du paid the owner a hundred-dollar bill and motioned for the trishaws to stop.
The owner turned around and said, “Boss, I have no change for the hundred dollar bill. Can you give me a smaller sum?”
Li Du said, “The rest is for tips. Wait here and do not move.”
The owner waved his hand and said, “Master Pao’s friend is my friend. No need to tip me, just paying for the trip would be ok…”
Zhong Dapao kicked the trishaw. “Hey, don’t mince words, accept the hundred dollars that Young Master Li gave you. Buy some meat for your children later, and don’t only let your son eat it. How thin has your daughter become?”
The owner grinned and said, “Daughter would be married away someday no matter how.”
Li Du asked Zhong Dapao to wait there for him and walked down by himself.
Due to the public auction, a large number of Chinese people came to the hotel these two days. Many of Li Du’s compatriots were staying there. He wore expensive clothes, so when he walked into the hotel, no one questioned his ident.i.ty.
The six-story hotel resembled a Chinese creel but was lavishly decorated, with carpeted corridors, gold wallpaper, and armed guards on duty on every floor.
Zhong Dapao told Li Du that Xielao Hou’s field site’s room was on the fourth floor. Li Du took the elevator up to the fourth floor and tried to find Xielao Hou’s whereabouts with releasing the s.p.a.ce-time bugs.
There were about a dozen people in the elevator, all but him in pairs, and it wasn’t that difficult to guess what sort of relations.h.i.+p the older men had with scantily clad young women.
In the elevator, the old men did not keep their hands to themselves, and the girls were not decent either. some even took off their tops and giggled, and the atmosphere was lewd.
Li Du did not like this and was about to go out to take the stairs. However, when the elevator went to the second floor and the door opened, he looked ahead and recognized Master Dao!
The s.p.a.ce-time bugs entered the fourth floor, so he did not notice the situation on the second floor. The appearance of Master Dao was very abrupt; he saw the other side, but the other side did not see him. Because he was in the corner of the elevator, the men and women around him blocked him from view.
Master Dao did not pay attention to him; his eyes were looking l.u.s.tily at the s.e.xy girls once he stepped into the elevator.
Li Du shrunk back a little and sent the s.p.a.ce-time bugs into two places, one to the fourth floor to check out the rooms, and another back to the second floor.
On the fourth floor, after pa.s.sing through a few rooms, the s.p.a.ce-time bug found Xielao Hou, who was smoking on the sofa, with a shelf full of jade ore beside him.
The elevator went up to the fourth floor. Master Dao went out of the elevator first. He did not think that Li Du would find the hotel so soon, so he was not cautious.
Li Du continued to hide in the corner, the elevator continued to go up, and he went out on the fifth floor.
He had spotted it on the second floor. Lu Dayou and others were in room 0226. Da Mao was there too. His facial expression was distressed.
Therefore, since Da Mao has not fallen into Xielao Hou’s hands yet, things became simple to deal with. He intended to call Zhong Dapao and tell him to take people up directly to room 0226 to get his man back.
He was ready to take back the s.p.a.ce-time bug from the fourth floor, but then the s.p.a.ce-time bug flew through a mineral stone, and Li Du was stunned.
The s.p.a.ce-time bug went into the ore and he saw a piece of intoxicating green!
He had seen a lot of jade all this while, and his ability to identify the emerald-like sort had increased. He could now give an approximate value of the jade by just looking at the stone once.
When he saw the jade in the mineral ore, he was shocked: the crystal jade color was green as if after ten thousand years of water erosion the rough stone packaging could not hide that amazing substance. The jade had a pleasant brilliance, and with just one look, Li Du was mesmerized.
Li Du had a sudden recollection of the term: the dragon stone species!
He had got a piece of imperial green before. It was excellent jade, but not the top. The imperial kind had a sub-type which of supreme quality, and it was called the dragon stone species!
Dragon stone was the top variety in jade, also known as “agate species” in the Myanmar jargon. In Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other places, it was called “dragon species” or “G.o.d dragon stone” to express praise of its superb quality.
From a professional viewpoint, this kind of jade had a few characteristics. The green had a brilliant emerald hue, the root was colorless, there was groundwater confluence, and the translucence was high.
Using the professional jargon, the dragon stone was an old species of Yang color. The color was positive, with strong fluorescence, colorless root, and little impurity.
Each of these features in a piece of jade could make it soar in value, but together? That would certainly make a piece exceedingly valuable!
Naturally, it was very rare to have so many characteristics together, and a dragon stone species was seen maybe once in ten years. Hpakant would have to produce tens or hundreds of thousands of jade pieces for one dragon stone species to be found.
Each dragon stone species of jade would cause great turmoil in the world luxury industry. If this piece of jade appeared in a chaotic area, it could also cause a blood war.
This species of jade was too precious, and color had the perfect combination. The base did not trap the color, and the color would not cover the base; the color uniform in the base was without grain and impurities, smooth and nice.
If the emperor green was the emperor of jade, the dragon stone was the G.o.d of jade, as its name implied. The G.o.d dragon would only show its head and not its tail!
This was the highest-grade variety in jade, and it could reflect the beauty of jade most ill.u.s.triously. Once a piece of dragon species was identified, its owner would have enough money to be rich for ten lifetimes.
Li Du’s heart drummed wildly, and he had to pinch himself to make sure he was awake.
Fortunately, the pain of the pinch told him that this was not a dream; he did encounter the rare and exceedingly valuable dragon stone species!
Coming across a piece of dragon stone jade was the wild dream of most stone gamblers!
Li Du wanted to tell Zhong Dapao and his men to go directly to the second floor in order to get Da Mao. However, seeing the dragon stone species made him change his mind. Xie Laohou was not aware that he had such a precious possession. Since the fella dared to s.n.a.t.c.h his man, Li Du would not be too scrupulous with him!