Riverstone City is a leisure-oriented place, perfect for vacations and living comfortably. As a result, there are plenty of wealthy people here, which means a strong demand for luxury activities. That's why there are three jade gambling halls in Riverstone City.
The first is the jade gambling hall at Redleaf Mountain Resort, which mainly caters to the elite.
The second jade gambling hall is called Red Star Jade Casino. It's a chaotic place, drawing all sorts of people from every walk of life. Many of the rough stones here are fakes, but the clever owner mixes in plenty of high-quality stones too. If your eye is sharp, you might pick out the good ones. That's why Red Star Jade Casino stays popular and is also the largest of the three venues in Riverstone City.
The third jade gambling hall is called Jackpot Jade Casino, which caters only to high-end clients. There's a minimum spend of ten million yuan per visit, and rumor has it the owner has deep ties to the military of Blackden, a country famous for jadeite.
Since Ian Song didn't want to attract the attention of Cliff Fu and the others, he ruled out Redleaf Mountain Resort first. With just over a million yuan in assets, Jackpot Jade Casino was also out of reach. That left only Red Star Jade Casino as the place he could go.
So, the next day, Ian Song bought some disguise props, made himself look like a man in his thirties, and took a cab to Red Star Jade Casino.
As soon as he stepped into the jade gambling hall, he felt a completely different atmosphere compared to Redleaf Mountain Resort's hall.
It was noisy and bustling, filled with stall owners shouting and haggling. In some ways, Red Star Jade Casino felt more like a wet market than a casino.
It's said that about seventy percent of the stalls here are run by Red Star Jade Casino's owner, with the rest operated by independent vendors.
The entire hall covers roughly three thousand square meters.
After wandering around for nearly half an hour, Ian Song figured out the trading rules here. There are over a hundred rough stone stalls, and once you've chosen a stone, you usually don't deal directly with the stall owner—instead, you go to the central trading hall to complete the transaction.
For rough stones priced under fifty thousand yuan, the casino doesn't take any commission.
For stones priced above fifty thousand, the casino charges a commission of three to ten percent from either the seller or the buyer.
Of course, if the casino takes a commission, stone-cutting is free. If not, you have to pay a cutting fee.
After spending the last two days studying jade theory online, Ian Song could now roughly tell real from fake stones. Otherwise, relying solely on his Clairvoyant Vision to distinguish fakes would be a waste of such a power.
After observing for a while, Ian Song noticed that stalls number 5, 67, 99, and 108 had a lot of customers buying rough stones.
So, he visited each of these four stalls and found that almost none of the rough stones there were fake.
There are many ways to fake rough stones, like using dye to penetrate, gluing a layer of real stone onto an ordinary rock, or making a fake opening that exposes only a thin layer of jade.
That's why it's usually very hard for beginners to tell real from fake.
But Ian Song has the Mastery Insight divine art, so after absorbing knowledge online, he can process and understand it quickly.
That's how he's able to judge whether a rough stone is real or fake.
Stall No. 5's owner had a good reputation and did brisk business. When Ian first arrived, there were over eighty rough stones on display; after half an hour, he'd sold about a third. Of course, this was also because his prices weren't high.
Most of the stones at his stall were priced between five thousand and eighty thousand yuan.
Since business was good, the stall owner didn't pay much attention to Ian Song when he arrived.
Ian Song carefully examined the rough stones, and after forty minutes, he picked out five that he thought might contain jade based on his knowledge.
Clairvoyant Vision!
With a thought, he activated Clairvoyant Vision and examined the five stones.
He was a bit disappointed—of the five stones he picked, only one had jade inside. It really is hard to predict what's in a stone, even after studying so much. His hit rate was still only twenty percent.
And the jade inside was only low-grade, but the profit was still decent—the stone cost just 8,800 yuan, but it should be worth around 10,000.
Can you give me a better price, boss? Ian Song asked, pointing at the stone.
The stall owner was a dark-skinned, plainly dressed man in his fifties. Although he hadn't paid much attention to Ian Song, he noticed he'd been browsing for forty minutes. From experience, he knew these kinds of customers were likely to make a purchase.
You look like a new face, friend," the stall owner said. "How about 8,000 yuan? If that works for you, take it—let's call it making a new friend."
Alright.
Ian Song nodded and agreed, since the transaction was less than fifty thousand yuan and could be handled directly with the stall owner.
Before coming to the jade casino, Ian Song had withdrawn fifty thousand yuan to bring with him.
After paying, Ian Song took the stone to the cutting area, spent a hundred yuan to rent a cutting machine, and cut the stone himself. If you want a professional to do it, there's an extra labor fee based on the stone's size.
After twenty minutes, Ian Song finished cutting the stone and got three pieces of low-grade jade—one large, two small.
Congratulations, boss, that's a lucky find," the staff member said with a smile.
Thanks," Ian Song replied with a smile, handing the staff member a 200-yuan tip. "Do you buy jade here?" he asked.
We do, boss. Please come with me." After getting the tip, the staff became much friendlier and led Ian Song to the area where they buy jade.
In the end, the buyer paid ninety-eight thousand yuan for Ian Song's three pieces of jade.
He made a profit of nearly ninety thousand yuan.
Although it wasn't a huge sum, Ian Song was quite pleased. No wonder so many people love jade gambling—if luck is on your side, you can make more than in the stock market. Of course, the losses can be terrifying too; some rough stones are priced in the millions, and if you cut open a dud, all that money goes down the drain.
With ninety thousand yuan in hand, Ian Song headed to stall number 67.
The owner of this stall was a woman in her thirties. Compared to the last stall owner, she was much more enthusiastic, constantly trying to sell Ian stones.
No rush, I'll take a look first," Ian Song said, waving her off.
There were more than two hundred rough stones at this stall, and Ian Song spent over an hour picking out eight that he thought might contain jade. Then he used Clairvoyant Vision on all eight.
The results surprised him—three of the eight stones had jade inside. One of them, although low-grade, was as big as a washbasin and worth at least five million yuan.
Ian Song was thrilled.
As for the other two stones, one contained low-grade jade worth about fifty thousand yuan, and the third had medium-grade jade, though it was small—maybe worth three hundred thousand.
I'll take these three stones, ma'am," Ian Song said, pointing to the stones.
The owner pulled out her calculator and said, "The total for these three stones is 369,900 yuan. I'll round it down to 360,000 and pay the commission myself. How does that sound, brother?"
Knowing these three stones would bring in millions, Ian Song didn't bother to haggle and nodded in agreement.