CH 8.2

Just as Bai Jing was about to leave, an extremely angry voice came from behind him, “Stop!”

Bai Jing was going to ignore it, but he was surrounded by a group of more than twenty people following the youth, firmly blocking the way.

Min Qing Shi looked Bai Jing up and down with a very unpleasant expression, and when he saw his plain outfit and the scraps in his shopping cart, contempt flashed in his eyes and an expression of disgust spread across his face.

”Heh, so rustic, you’re from the slums, right?”

Basically sure of his identity, Min Qing Shi spoke even more condescendingly: ”Yes you, put that piece of rough stone back immediately or it will be considered a provocation to the authority of a level 3 Stone Gambler!”

Bai Jing frowned, his tone cold: “I have already bought this piece of rough stone.”

Min Qing Shi snorted and looked at Bai Jing condescendingly, “So what if you bought it, I told you to put it back. Don’t you understand, you slum bast*rd!”

Bai Jing’s eyes instantly went cold: “What if I don’t put it back?”

“Then we’ll bet on whether this rough stone will produce jadeite or not – I’ll bet on it not producing jadeite.

If I win, you will get down on your knees and apologize to me and then go back to your slum, it turns my stomach to see you here.”

“If you win,” Min Qing Shi grunted, thinking it was a pipe dream, “how about half a million starcoins for you, seeing as you’re so poor?”

When this statement was made, the people next to him all followed suit and laughed, looking at Bai Jing with derision and contempt.

As citizens of the Empire, they had a natural sense of superiority over the trash from the slums. These useless trash should be exterminated, as their living was simply a waste of resources!

“Five million starcoins.” Bai Jing said indifferently.

“No problem!” Min Qing Shi smiled, ruffling the messy hair in front of his forehead. It didn’t matter if it was half a million or five million starcoins, he definitely wouldn’t lose!

And he could just take this opportunity to make a name for himself, so why not? If he was lucky enough to get to Young Master Gu’s ears and be looked at differently by him –

“Let’s go, let’s go and solve the rough stone.”

Min Qing Shi was unusually excited and even a little impatient at the moment. He wanted to let everyone know about his extraordinary eyesight and ability to gamble on stones!

Bai Jing didn’t say a word as he followed him in the direction of the stone solving area. The twenty or so people also followed closely behind, drawing the attention of the others in Zone D.

A young man and a few friends were touching a rough stone and couldn’t decide what to do. When they saw the wave of people walking by, they couldn’t help but pat one of them on the shoulder: “Dude, what’s going on here?”

“Huh? Young Master Min made a bet with a novice who doesn’t know any better, and the bet is quite big. Everyone wants to see that novice on his knees begging for mercy.”

After saying that, seeing the group he had been walking with pull away from him, he hurried to follow.

The youth and his friend looked at each other, noted down the number of the rough stone in their hands and followed suit.

By the time Bai Jing reached the stone-solving area, there were already quite a few people behind him.

There were a total of twenty stone solving rooms here.

The first five were VIP areas, which were only for rough stones in Zone B or above to be solved along with the best stone solvers; the last five were self-service stone solving areas, were places where gamblers could solve their own stones.

The middle ones, numbers 6-15, were ordinary stone solving areas, ranked from high to low according to the Master Stone Solvers ability. The Master Stone Solver in solving room number 6 cost 1,000 starcoins for one go, while the lowest room, number 15, cost only 100 starcoins.

And Bai Jing chose the Master Stone Solver in room 15, which was the cheapest.

He had asked around and discovered that the Master Stone Solvers who could be hired by the Gu Group were very good and basically never made a mistake.

Min Qing Shi laughed out loud when he saw this. The first thing he had learned before becoming a Stone Gambler was stone solving, moreover it was only when he himself solved the rough stone he chose that he felt the most accomplished.

But even if he were to choose a Stone Solver, he would choose the best Stone Solver who was in Room 6.

Tsk, slum people were really poor. They couldn’t even afford to hire a good master.

There were about two or three people lined up in front of Room 15, so Bai Jing waited a little before it was his turn. The person before him should have lost his bet, seeing as he came out with a horrible expression on his face.

Bai Jing took out the rough stone numbered ‘D025’ and handed it to the Master Stone Solver.

The master stone solver in room 15, surnamed Wang, was also a master here. He observed the distribution of the pine flowers and python bands on the surface of the rough stone carefully, then operated the stone cutting machine to make a cut along the direction of the fine locks.

This cut off a two-finger wide piece of skin and, unsurprisingly, the inside was white with a number of tiny cracks in the cut.

Bai Jing wasn’t surprised. He had sensed that the jadeite was near the middle, a certain distance away from where it was now cut off.

“Not a sign of green at all, so I’m guessing that winning is out of the question.”

“Yeah, nearly a third of the way through this cut and nothing at all!”

“That fine lock is all the way in, even if there was any jadeite in there, it would be destroyed.”

The crowd murmured, most of them not optimistic, but there was a different voice, a middle-aged man with more experience in gambling who said: “That’s not necessarily true. Look, the cracks are showing signs of weakening, maybe green will come out in the next cut.”

Min Qing Shi looked at the middle-aged man with displeasure and when Xiao Ren, who was standing next to him saw the look on his face he was delighted, thinking in his heart, this was a good opportunity to show off.

He blurted out hurriedly, ”Young Master Min has already looked at this rough stone and advised that there are deep internal locks at the bottom, it’s just that we don’t have the same excellent eyesight as Young Master Min. This little brother was unrepentant even though he had clearly heard it, so Young Master Min really had no choice but to make a bet with him.”

At these words, the middle-aged man who had just spoken fell silent.

He was merely an amateur, but Young Master Min was a level 3 gambling master. Perhaps he had really misread the situation?

The people who had followed halfway also understood after hearing this and looked at Min Qing Shi with adoring gazes, then turning to Bai Jing, shook their heads repeatedly.

As a novice, instead of obediently learning about gambling on stones and observing the experience of the person with experience in choosing stones, he was only spending his days thinking about speculation and even bent on doing what he wanted when a professional Stone Gambler had given him advice. He really couldn’t tell good from bad!

When this rough stone was completely solved, his face would be swollen right?

When Min Qing Shi felt the crowd’s flattering gaze and the fame he was gradually attaining, he gave Xiao Ren an appreciative glance, with the latter secretly sniggering to himself, thinking that he might be able to hitch a ride with Young Master Min this time.

”The Min family made their fortune from gambling and although they weren’t as good as the capital star’s aristocratic and distinguished families, they could still be ranked in the top in Proxima Star. If he could get a ride with Young Master Min, wouldn’t he soar to great heights?

Bai Jing’s pretty teal eyes stared intently at the rough stone, not caring at all about what the others were saying. After conferring with the Master Stone Solver, he began to make the second cut.

Master Wang’s technique was fast, steady, accurate and clean, so with the second cut, one could see the cracks at the cut disappear and instead a layer of translucent white mist-like crystals emerge.

He sprinkled some water on the cut, and when he shone a yellow light on it, a light green hue emerged from inside, which was absolutely pleasing to the eye.

“This….. this is fog?!” In the reigning silence, someone whispered first.

“It’s fog, and even white fog at that!”

“There’s green in the fog, it’s definitely a big gain -“