The Crown Prince was the first to see me. He grinned from a distance and said, "What a coincidence, running into you here." Just then, a whiskered old Burmese man entered from outside. Seeing Qing Ge from afar, he greeted him as if they hadn't met in a long time.
Qing Ge beckoned him over and introduced Leopard Brother to him.
Qing Ge said, "This is Mr. Teng Ji, an old friend of mine. He owns five or six mines in Damakan, and he provided quite a few of the rough stones for this gem fair."
At this point, Leopard Brother stood up. Qing Ge continued, "This is my brother, A'Bao, from the mainland. He's a dominant figure in Ruili. You two should get in touch more often, exchange ideas, and cooperate, so this old man can benefit from your success."
Teng Ji didn't speak much Chinese, but he understood. He nodded continuously. Then, the two men shook hands and performed a Burmese greeting, signifying their acquaintance.
I didn't know Qing Ge's intentions in introducing this bearded man to Leopard Brother. Was Leopard Brother planning to switch to the jade business? Or did Qing Ge have something else in mind?
Teng Ji spoke a few words in Burmese. Qing Ge translated, "Teng Ji wants you to inspect his mines. As long as the rough stones are under 100 kilograms, he can directly export them without needing government clearance."
Leopard Brother nodded and said to Qing Ge, "Then let's decide after the gem fair concludes."
As expected, Leopard Brother was interested in the rough stone business. This meant Qing Ge was more than just a simple mediator; there was definitely some kind of transaction involved.
If that was the case, then the massive boulder would be much simpler. At least subjectively, Qing Ge wouldn't try to manipulate anything with that particular stone. Whether it yielded anything would depend entirely on luck.
Just then, the sound of a bell echoed from outside. Qing Ge beckoned everyone to head out; the gem fair had begun.
On a temporarily erected platform, an official-looking man was giving a speech entirely in Burmese, with no translator. Everyone looked bewildered.
Even though this was an internal gem fair, and the guests were all from the mainland, they should have considered the guests' feelings.
Fortunately, most of the service staff communicated in Chinese, which made things much easier.
After the man finished speaking, another bell rang, signifying the official opening. Everyone could now place their bids on the stones.
Leopard Brother was there for the massive boulder and wasn't interested in other rough stones. I told Leopard Brother that the giant stone hadn't been unveiled yet and that I would go and look at other stones first.
I had heard from my master that gem fairs were the true exhibition of rough stones, where one could find truly exceptional pieces. Of course, if one misjudged, they could also go bankrupt.
In other words, here, apart from fully revealed jade, gambling on the unseen parts of rough stones was a test of skill and luck.
I didn't linger around the revealed jade. Those were almost all top-grade pieces, priced at the ceiling. Unless one was dealing with finished products, those who gambled on rough stones wouldn't stop there.
I went directly to the area of concealed rough stones.
There were many concealed stones from various mining areas. Their skins were all meticulously cleaned and sorted into piles by weight.
I had obtained a card from Jing Lei before coming. If I found anything suitable, I would try my luck at the gem fair.
I bypassed the black sand-skinned stones and went straight to the Damakan rough stone section.
The Damakan mining area is located downstream of the Wulu River, to the west of the old mining areas. Damakan borders the old Hpakkan mining area, about 30 kilometers from Hpakkan. Centered around Damakan, the jade blocks found there are collectively called Damakan gambling stones. The jade deposits are mostly alluvial. In the early days, people mined the topsoil sands from the riverbanks. The jade here had not been subjected to significant water impact and had not been transported far, resulting in a low degree of roundness. These are semi-weathered, semi-transported, accumulated semi-mountainous and semi-riverine sand and pebble jade materials. The lower mineral layers are very hard, with calcium carbonate and clay as the primary cementing materials, becoming increasingly difficult to mine as one goes deeper. Damakan mining is not very old. Famous mining sites represented by the Damakan site include Damakan, Quebing, Dashanka, Yinggedie, Huangba, and nearly twenty other sites.
The highest quality stones from Damakan are the semi-mountainous and semi-riverine stones. The rough stone blocks typically have thinner skins, and the individual jade pieces are smaller, usually not exceeding five kilograms. These types of rough stones involve gambling on the "fog," which is categorized into red, yellow, black, and white fog. Generally, ten fogs often indicate water.
Qing Ge had mentioned earlier that Teng Ji's mine was in Damakan, so it was likely that these stones came from his mine. The Damakan stones were placed in three locations: mountain stones, semi-mountainous and semi-riverine stones, and riverine stones.
Mountain stones are found on the surface of the mineral deposit. Their size is much larger than semi-mountainous and semi-riverine stones, with distinct edges and irregular shapes, resembling a pile of rubble used for building foundations.
I walked over to a pile of semi-mountainous and semi-riverine stones and squatted down to look for a stone I liked.
Damakan has undergone years of mining, and the pits have reached depths of twenty to thirty meters. From the original surface to the current fifth and sixth layers, semi-mountainous and semi-riverine stones are very rare; most are riverine stones.
These are likely inventory.
The semi-mountainous and semi-riverine stones have undergone riverbed transportation, so their edges are somewhat blurred but not as round as riverine stones, making them relatively easy to distinguish.
I picked a stone weighing about five kilograms. It had a yellowish-brown color, and its skin was very compact. When I shined a light on it, it didn't seem very translucent. I suspected it might have a dark fog that absorbed the light.
This stone was about half the size of my palm, ten centimeters thick, and flat, like a flattened cornmeal pancake from the north.
If this rough stone had good flesh, a fine texture, and ample water content, it could yield bangles, pendants, and ornaments.
I touched the surface. The granular texture wasn't very heavy, like fine woodworking sandpaper. I didn't see any cracks or fissures. The color was uniform, like a very large mango that had been flattened.
I glanced at the lot number and the reserve price: 03236, with a starting bid of one thousand US dollars.
This reserve price wasn't low. The final transaction price would also include a 40% tax, so the tax had to be factored into the bid.
I wrote down a bid of one thousand eight hundred and placed the completed bid form into the bid box.
There were thousands upon thousands of concealed stones here. As long as no one maliciously outbid you, you could generally win at your bid price.
The bid boxes were opened every hour. One person would read out the bids, and another would record them, similar to voting in a village election. The highest bidder would win.
The revealed jade was only opened once a day, and it wouldn't be until the afternoon.
After waiting for a while, I heard the bell and guessed that the concealed stones were about to be opened. I walked over and waited by the platform to watch the staff read out the bids.
As it was just the opening, not many people were bidding. After only a few bids, it was the turn of the stone I had bid on. It was my price, and no one else bid higher until the very end.
I went to the cashier and paid with my card. The staff helped me with the international currency exchange.
One thousand eight hundred plus seven hundred and twenty in tax, totaling two thousand five hundred and twenty US dollars, which was about twenty thousand Renminbi. Da Feng Novel Network.
The staff returned my card shortly. I took the receipt and went to collect my bid lot.
On the other side of the platform, a row of cutting machines was set up, waiting to cut stones for customers.
I took it over and handed it to a young master, telling him to make one cut on the top.
The master secured the stone and made a cut about one centimeter deep on the narrower end of the stone.
After the stone was cut, the master handed it to me. The cut surface was very smooth and even. I couldn't see the texture or water content; it was a layer of blackish-grey fog. Even with a flashlight, I still couldn't see inside. It just looked like a black rock lump.