CH 2.1

Chapter 2: On-Site Jadeite Cutting

Lin Luo lay in bed and rested for a while. When the time was almost up, he went to the next door and knocked on Sun Hong’s door.

“Xiao Luo?” Sun Hong was stunned when he saw Lin Luo, but he soon realized something, and his face instantly showed some joy, “Did someone from the Xing family come to choose a stone?”

Sun Hong and Lin Luo had a good relationship. Knowing that Lin Luo would basically not go out at night unless someone came to choose a stone, he would be called to go with him. He likes watching the excitement the most. There is no entertainment on such a remote planet full of yellow sand. Fortunately, he can watch other people betting on rocks to have fun.

“Yes.”

“Lets go!” After that, the two of them walked towards the management center together.

When Lin Luo and Sun Hong arrived at the management center, a lot of people had gathered outside, and almost all the staff from the mining area came to join in the fun.

Normally the management center would not be brightly lit and would have its doors locked at night. He Fei, the head of the mining area, accompanied a group of well-dressed people to select jadeite from the management center warehouse. After miners dug the jadeite from the mine it would all be stored here.

The Xing family is one of the four major families of the empire. This resource planet named Kulta is an industry under the Xing family. The Xing family regularly sends high-paying consultants with rich experience in stone gambling to select stones here.

The reason why it is called stone selection, not stone gambling, is because the main business of the Xing family is jadeite trade, not stone gambling. The advisory group will screen the newly dug up jadeite and divide it into five grades: excellent, good, medium, inferior, and poor.

Excellent jadeite usually get very good results, and it is highly possible to get rare jade variants such as glass jade and ice jade. Good jadeite perform slightly worse, but it is still possible to receive good jade better than water jade from them. The probability of medium quality jadeite being able to reveal good jade is very low. Generally, you can only count on getting jade such as water jade and waxy jade at best.  Inferior jadeite can only contain jadeite such as bean jade at most. Poor jadeite is basically the same with but with lower probability- more often than not it is no different from ordinary stones.

Excellent  jadeite is usually left for the Xing family, and the other four grades of jadeite are to be sold.

The price of good jadeite is the highest, and it can often be sold at a high price of seven or eight figures; the price of medium jadeite is about hundreds of thousands; the price of inferior jadeite is probably between several thousand and tens of thousands; and the poor jadeite is usually sold by the catty, and the price is extremely low.

The advisory group held many labels with different colors in their hands, representing different rankings. Big red represents excellent, green represents good, yellow represents medium, blue represents inferior, black represents poor, and white represents uncertainty. After the gambling consultant has put up the labels, there will be special movers who will move the jadeite to different areas according to the classification of the labels.

The jadeite with white labels will be left alone and will be identified by all stone gambling consultants at the end. Both the risk and the reward from these stones are usually very high as while it is possible to obtain high quality jade from these stones, once a improper sort or wrong cut is made the Xing family may suffer heavy losses.

Although there are not many consultants, the speed of selecting stones is relatively fast. Before Lin Luo and the others arrived, they had already screened the new batch of jadeite. After the movers removed the jadeite that had been screened, they began to discuss around a small pile of white-labeled gambling stones.

This time, there is a very eye-catching man among the consultants who came to planet Kulta to select stones. He has neat, short hair and a tall stature. He is actually a bit taller than the others around him. The deep facial features look handsome and compelling, but there is a trace of hostility between his brows, which make him seem very inaccessible. While others are discussing around the pile of gambling stones, he stood aside and to listen silently, but did not speak.

“Who is that person? Is there actually such a young stone gambling consultant?” Sun Hong  lowered his voice to ask Lin Luo about the man sticking out from the crowd.

Lin Luo shook his head. It was the first time he saw this man, but seeing He Fei’s respectful attitude when speaking to him, his identity was definitely not ordinary.

“Xiao Luo!” Lin Luo was suddenly patted on the shoulder.

Lin Luo looked back and saw Li Jun standing behind him with a smile.

“Grandpa Li!”

Li Jun smiled and nodded, “Come with me, the consultants should be finished in a while.”

“Okay.” Lin Luo and Sun Hong both said hello before Lin Luo followed to work as an assistant for Li Jun. Although he had a genetic defect in vision, the lighting of the warehouse was bright, and he was only helping out, so there would be no problem.

After a short while, the consultant team in the warehouse finished the discussion. Most of the white-labeled jadeite was replaced with labels of other colors, while the rest were put on the cart by the consultants and pushed out of the warehouse.

The consultants’ views on these controversial jadeite are polarized. Some of them believe that good jade can be found, while other consultants believe that they will fail. Such jadeite will be cut open on the spot to avoid possible losses.

The miners who were waiting outside immediately surrounded them with excitement, and walked towards the cutting machine behind the advisors.