"Don't worry, I'll come back safely!" I said.
Jing Lei replied, "My father's open-lot jade sold for a good price this time. He wants to treat you to a meal. He rarely invites people over; in my memory, you're the second. The first was that uncle from Hong Kong who does jewelry business."
"Okay, thank Uncle for his generosity first. It's just that I'm on the move these few days. Please tell him for me that I'll be the one hosting and inviting Uncle for a gathering."
"Since Father said he'd arrange it, I'll set the time. We'll have him make arrangements after you get back this time."
"I understand. I won't say goodbye before I leave. I'll be back as soon as possible after I finish my business."
She hummed in response and said nothing more.
I knew that in this silent understanding lay so much worry and blessing. At this moment, all words seemed pale and weak. Only a safe return could console her heart.
I put down the phone and closed my eyes for a long time before I could shake off the melancholy.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. I walked over and opened it to find Wen Siqiang accompanying the divine doctor at the entrance.
The divine doctor was dressed as usual, but he now carried a coarse cloth satchel, bulging as if it contained the Chinese herbs he had prepared for Wu Guodong.
I quickly invited the divine doctor in and motioned for Wen Siqiang to keep watch outside, preventing anyone from discovering the divine doctor's presence here.
I asked the divine doctor to sit down and got straight to the point: "I want to go with you."
The divine doctor was taken aback, then quickly waved his hands, saying urgently, "No, absolutely not. It doesn't matter to me; as a monk, I'm indifferent to life and death. But you can't. You're still so young, and it's not worth risking your life for this."
"Why can you disregard life and death?" I asked.
"In my understanding, there is no such thing as life and death. Only the physical body perishes; your soul will exist in this world in another form."
At this moment, a bearded Burmese man entered from outside. Seeing Qing Ge from afar, he greeted him as if they hadn't met for a long time.
Qing Ge beckoned him over and introduced Bao Ge to him.
Qing Ge said, "This is Mr. Teng Ji, my old friend. He owns five or six mines in Damakan, and he supplied a lot of the rough stones at this public auction."
At this, Bao Ge stood up. Qing Ge continued, "This is my brother from the mainland, Ah Bao. He's a dominant figure in Ruili. You should connect, communicate, and cooperate more in the future so that this old man can also benefit from your success."
Teng Ji didn't speak much Chinese, but he could understand. He kept nodding, and then the two men shook hands and performed a Burmese greeting, signifying their acquaintance.
I didn't know Qing Ge's motive for introducing this bearded man to Bao Ge. Did Bao Ge want to get into the jade business? Or did Qing Ge have other plans?
Teng Ji said a few words in Burmese, and Qing Ge translated, "Teng Ji wants you to inspect his mines. As long as the rough stones don't exceed 100 kilograms, he can directly pass them through customs without needing to report to the government departments."
Bao Ge nodded and said to Qing Ge, "Then we'll decide after the public auction ends."
As expected, Bao Ge was interested in the rough stone business. This meant Qing Ge was not just acting as a go-between; there must be some transaction involved.
If that were the case, dealing with that giant stone would be much simpler. At least subjectively, Qing Ge wouldn't try to play any tricks with that stone; whether it held any value would depend entirely on luck.
Just then, a bell rang from outside. Qing Ge invited everyone to move outside, signaling the start of the public auction.
On the temporarily erected stage, an official-looking person was giving a speech entirely in Burmese, with no translator. Everyone looked bewildered.
Although this was an internal public auction, 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, and people could start bidding on stones.
Bao Ge was here for the giant stone and was not interested in other rough stones. I told Bao Ge that the giant stone hadn't been revealed yet and that I would go and look at other stones first.
I had heard from my master that public auctions were the true rough stone expos, where one could find truly exceptional pieces. Of course, if one misjudged, they could also be ruined.
In other words, here, besides the open-lot jade, the gamble with the closed-lot jade was about skill and luck.
I didn't linger among the open-lot jade. Most of them were top-quality, with prices fixed at the ceiling. Unless one was involved in selling finished products, those who gambled on rough stones wouldn't stop here.
I went directly to the closed-lot jade area.
There were many closed-lot stones, from various mining sites. Their skins had been thoroughly cleaned and sorted into piles based on weight.
When I arrived, I had obtained a card from Jing Lei. If I found anything suitable, I would try my luck at the public auction.
I bypassed the black sand-skinned stones and went straight to the rough stone area of Damakan.
The Damakan mining area is located downstream of the Wulu River, west of the old mining area. Damakan is adjacent to the Pakan mining area, about 30 kilometers from Pakan. Centered around Damakan, the jadeite deposits found there are collectively referred to as Damakan gamble stones. The jade deposits are mostly alluvial. In early years, the topsoil sands along the riverbanks were mined. The jade deposits here did not experience major water impact and were not transported far, thus the rounding was not significant. These are semi-weathered, semi-transported, accumulated semi-mountain, semi-water sand pick jade materials. The lower mineral layers are very hard, with the cementing materials being mainly carbonate calcium and clay. Mining becomes more difficult as one goes deeper. Damakan mining history is not very long. Famous mining sites represented by the Damakan field include Damakan, Quebing, Dasanka, Ingge Die, Huangba, and nearly twenty other mining sites.
The highest quality Damakan material is the semi-mountain, semi-water stone. The rough stones generally have thin skins, and the jadeite pieces are relatively small, usually not exceeding five kilograms. These rough stones are gambled on based on the "fog" (a layer of sediment), which is divided into red, yellow, black, and white fog. Generally, ten fogs have nine water.
Qing Ge mentioned earlier that Teng Ji's mine was in Damakan. It's likely that these materials came from his mine. The Damakan materials were placed in three areas: mountain stones, semi-mountain, semi-water, and water stones.
Mountain stones are in the surface layer of the deposit. Their pieces are much larger than semi-mountain, semi-water stones, with distinct edges and various shapes, resembling a pile of rubble used for building foundations.
I walked over to a pile of semi-mountain, semi-water stones and squatted down to look for a piece I liked.
Damakan has been mined for many years, and the mine pits have reached depths of twenty to thirty meters. From the original surface to the current fifth and sixth layers, semi-mountain, semi-water stones have become very scarce, with most being water stones.
These are likely existing stock.
Semi-mountain, semi-water stones have undergone riverbed transport, so their edges are somewhat blurred but not as rounded as water stones, making them relatively easy to distinguish.
I picked a stone weighing about five kilograms. It had a clay-yellow color, and the skin was very tight. When I shone a light on it, it wasn't very translucent. I thought it might have a dark fog that absorbed the light.
This stone was about half a palm in size and ten centimeters thick, flat and thin, like a flatbread made from corn flour in the north.
If this rough stone had good flesh, a fine texture, and sufficient water, it could yield bangles, pendants, and ornaments.
I touched the surface; the grain was not heavy, like fine woodworking sandpaper. I didn't see any cracks or fissures, and the color was very uniform, like a very large mango that had been flattened.
I glanced at the lot number and the reserve price: 03236, with a bid of one thousand US dollars.
This reserve price was not low. The transaction price would also incur a 40% tax, so the tax needed to be considered when bidding.
I wrote down "1,800" and placed the completed bid form into the bid box.
There were thousands of closed-lot stones here. As long as no one maliciously outbid you, you could usually win the bid at your offered price.
The bid boxes were opened once 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 open-lot jade was opened only once a day, with the results not until the afternoon.
After waiting for a while, I heard the bell and guessed that the closed-lot jade was being opened for bids. I walked over to the stage to wait for the staff to announce the bids.
As the auction had just begun, there weren't many bidders. After announcing a few, it was the turn of the stone I had bid on. It was my offered price, and no one else bid higher until the end.
I went to the cashier to pay with my card, and the staff helped me process the international remittance.
1,800 plus 720 in tax came to 2,520 US dollars, nearly 20,000 renminbi.
The staff returned my card shortly. I took the receipt and went to collect my bid item.
On the other side of the stage, a row of cutting machines was set up, waiting to cut stones for customers.
I took the stone over and handed it to a young craftsman, telling him to make one cut on the top.
The craftsman secured the stone and made a cut about one centimeter deep on the smaller end.
After cutting the stone, the craftsman handed it to me. The cut surface was very flat and smooth. I couldn't see the texture or water content; it was a layer of blackish-gray fog. Even when illuminated by a flashlight, I still couldn't see inside. From this view, it just looked like a black lump of stone.