Chapter 156

Tang Feng walked into the courtyard with a heart full of excitement.

In his mind, he was still fantasizing about making a windfall.

But when he activated the system and finished scanning the pile of stones in front of him, he was completely dumbfounded.

It wasn’t that these pieces of raw material were too good.

It was that they were too bad.

So bad that it was ridiculous!

Logically speaking, even if the chance of a significant increase in value among a batch of raw material wasn’t high, there should at least be some with relatively good prospects.

Yet, there wasn’t a single piece with value in this pile.

All of them were waste!

At first, he thought maybe it was just this pile that was bad, and that there might be valuable pieces elsewhere.

But after he scanned all the stones in the courtyard, he made a startling discovery.

All the stones in this courtyard were waste.

Not a single one held any value!

He almost thought there was a BUG in his system.

But it wasn’t until he scanned Mr. Fang, who was chatting with Zhou Bingrui, that he realized where the problem lay.

Because this guy was a complete scammer.

According to the information from the system, this guy was a manipulator of Pig-butchering Scams.

First, he would buy a bunch of waste material at extremely low prices from some dealers, then hype it up through various means to lure in high-end players.

Once he had scammed a group, he’d immediately skip town and move on to the next target.

The world would never run out of suckers with more money than sense.

Without revealing his thoughts, Tang Feng withdrew his gaze and scanned the female gambler who had just bet on a rise in value.

The woman was still surrounded by a crowd, a look of excitement on her face.

However, the information from his scan revealed that she was just a stooge brought in to act the part.

Now everything was crystal clear.

The stone gambling event today was completely a setup.

All of them had been taken for pigs to the slaughter.

At this moment, Song Lele and Xu Xinling each had selected a piece of raw jade and were about to go pay.

Tang Feng hurried to stop them, “Wait a moment, you two.”

Song Lele looked at him puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

“Uh… stone gambling is really tricky, and if you don’t understand it, it’s just like throwing away money.” Tang Feng didn’t know how to explain, so he made up an excuse.

“It’s fine, this piece of raw jade is only 50,000 yuan. Even if we lose, it’s not a big deal,” Xu Xinling said unconcernedly.

“Just listen to me for now, buy when I say you can buy,” Tang Feng said, his tone growing a bit stern as he realized they weren’t heeding his advice.

50,000 yuan isn’t money? Wouldn’t it taste better spent on meat?

Such a spendthrift woman.

Both Song Lele and Xu Xinling, seeing him getting angry, though perplexed, didn’t dare to say more.

Tang Feng turned and walked toward the woman who was still putting on an enthusiastic performance, pretending to look enviously at the piece of jade in her hand, “Big sister, you’re so lucky. So many people have lost their bets, but only you won.”

The woman’s face was full of self-satisfaction, “Yes, I didn’t expect to be this lucky. I only spent 100,000 yuan on this piece, and it’s made me tens of times that.”

When the others nearby heard “made tens of times,” they became as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood, wishing they could buy up all the raw jade in the courtyard.

Tang Feng’s lips curled into a slight smile as he continued to fix his gaze on the woman, “Big sister, do you have any techniques for picking raw jade? Can you share a trick or two with us?”

Several nearby people also pricked up their ears to listen.

The woman looked somewhat embarrassed, “Heh, what kind of techniques could I possibly have? Stone gambling is all about luck.”

“If you’re talking about techniques, it’s just to buy more, cut more. As long as you win on one piece, you’ll recover everything.”

“That’s not right, isn’t this the first piece of material you’ve cut today?” Tang Feng suddenly asked a question, though he wasn’t sure, he guessed randomly.

However, the woman’s face changed color; clearly, he’d guessed correctly.

“Haha, yes, this is indeed the first piece I’ve cut today. I didn’t expect to win right off the bat, quite a stroke of luck,” she said with a forced laugh.

“It’s probably not luck, right? I clearly saw that after you came into the courtyard, you didn’t look at other materials but went straight for this piece. Is there some kind of mark on it?” Tang Feng said half-jokingly as he reached for her stone.

The woman quickly hugged the stone tightly, “You… you’re talking nonsense; what kind of mark could there be on this?”

Panic had already set in her heart.

Mr. Fang had only asked her to act excited after winning, he hadn’t mentioned this part.

No way, she needed a raise for this.

Just then, Fang Ziqiang hurried over, “What’s this? Why is everyone crowded around here instead of picking stones?”

Seeing him, the woman felt like she had seen a savior and took a deep breath of relief.

“Mr. Fang, we’re asking this lady for her technique on how to pick raw jade,” Tang Feng said with a smile as if nothing was amiss.

“What technique could there be for that? As the saying goes: ‘Even immortals struggle to value jade by the inch.’ Stone gambling is mostly about luck; Mr. Tang, don’t believe in any technique, they’re all deceiving,” Fang Ziqiang said, all the while smiling harmlessly as he earnestly advised.

Had one not known his true colors, they might actually think him an open-hearted person.

Tang Feng sneered inwardly, but nothing on his face gave it away, “Actually, I do have a technique for picking stones, and I can ensure a 100 percent accuracy rate.”

His words instantly attracted the attention of many people present.

Crowds gathered around, eager to hear about his method that guaranteed a 100 percent accuracy rate.

Fang Ziqiang, unsure of what Tang Feng was plotting, nevertheless smiled and waved his hand, “Mr. Tang must be joking, how can there be any technique that ensures 100 percent accuracy? Don’t make fun of me.”

But Tang Feng was relentless, “What if I really can achieve 100 percent accuracy?”

Fang Ziqiang, feeling pressured by his insistence, frowned slightly, “Alright, then tell us your method. How can you guarantee 100 percent accuracy? Let’s broaden our horizons.”

The people in the courtyard all burst into laughter.

The very word “gamble” in stone gambling implied that no one could be certain of winning.

Forget about being 100 percent sure, even 10 percent was improbable.

Everyone thought Tang Feng was just joking around.