A bearded old Burmese man entered from outside. Seeing Qing Ge from a distance, he greeted him as if they hadn't seen each other for a long time.
Qing Ge motioned for him to come over and introduced him to Brother Bao.
Qing Ge said, "This is Mr. Teng Ji, my old friend. He owns five or six mines in Dama Kan and provided many of the rough stones for this auction."
At this, Brother Bao stood up. Qing Ge continued, "This is my brother Ah Bao from the mainland. He is a powerful figure in Ruili. You two should stay in touch, communicate more, and cooperate. That way, this old man can also benefit from your success."
Teng Ji didn't speak much Chinese, but he understood. He nodded continuously, and then the two men shook hands and performed the Burmese greeting, signifying their acquaintance.
I didn't know Qing Ge's intentions in introducing this bearded man to Brother Bao. Was Brother Bao looking to go into the jade business? Or did Qing Ge have other plans?
Teng Ji said a few words in Burmese. 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 export them without needing to report to government departments."
Brother Bao nodded and said to Qing Ge, "We'll decide after the auction."
So, Brother Bao was indeed interested in the rough stone business. This meant Qing Ge was likely involved in more than just being a simple intermediary. There must be some kind of transaction involved.
If that was the case, the giant boulder would be much simpler. At least subjectively, Qing Ge wouldn't try to manipulate anything with that stone. Whether it contained jade would depend entirely on luck.
Just then, a bell rang from outside. Qing Ge beckoned everyone to follow him out; the auction was about to begin.
On a temporarily erected platform, an official-looking man was giving a speech. He spoke entirely in Burmese, and there was no translator, leaving everyone bewildered.
Although this was an internal 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, signaling the official opening. Everyone could now place bids on the stones.
Brother Bao was here for the giant boulder and wasn't interested in other rough stones. I told Brother Bao that the giant boulder hadn't been unveiled yet and that I would go look at other stones first.
I had heard from my master that auctions were the true expos for rough stones, where one could find truly exceptional pieces. Of course, if one misjudged, they could also go bankrupt.
In other words, here, besides open-faced jade, gambling on uncut stones was all about skill and luck.
I didn't linger in the open-faced jade section. These were almost all top-grade pieces with prices at the ceiling. Unless one was in the finished product business, jade gamblers wouldn't stop here.
I headed directly to the uncut stone section.
There were many uncut stones from various mining areas. Their surfaces were brushed clean and divided into piles by weight.
I had obtained a card from Jing Lei when I arrived. If I found anything suitable, I would try my luck at the auction.
I bypassed the black rough stones and went straight to the Dama Kan rough stone area.
The Dama Kan mining area is located in the lower reaches of the Wulu River, west of the old mining areas. Dama Kan is adjacent to the old Paukkan mining area, about 30 kilometers from Paukkan. Centered around Dama Kan, the jadeite blocks found there are collectively referred to as Dama Kan gamble stones. Most of the jadeite deposits are alluvial. In the early days, the surface sand deposits along the riverbanks were mined. The jade deposits here had not experienced significant water erosion and transport, so the roundness was not great. They were semi-weathered, semi-transported, deposited semi-mountainous, semi-water sand pebble jade materials. The lower ore layers were very hard, cemented mainly by calcium carbonate and clay, becoming more difficult to mine as one went deeper. Dama Kan was not mined for a very long time. Famous mining areas represented by the Dama Kan site include Dama Kan, Quebing, Dazhonga, Yinggedie, Huangba, and nearly 20 other sites.
The highest quality in Dama Kan are the semi-mountainous, semi-water stones. The rough stones generally have thinner skins, and the individual jadeite pieces are smaller, usually not exceeding five kilograms. These rough stones are gambled on for their "fog," which can be red, yellow, black, or white. Generally, ten fog stones have nine with water.
Qing Ge mentioned earlier that Teng Ji's mines were in Dama Kan, so these materials likely came from his mines. The Dama Kan materials were divided into three areas: mountain stones, semi-mountainous semi-water stones, and water stones.
Mountain stones are found in the surface layers of the deposits. Their sizes are much larger than the semi-mountainous semi-water stones, with sharp edges and varied shapes, resembling rubble used for building foundations.
I walked over to a pile of semi-mountainous semi-water stones and squatted down to look for a suitable one.
Dama Kan has been mined for many years, with mine pits reaching depths of twenty to thirty meters. From the original surface to the current fifth and sixth layers, semi-mountainous semi-water stones have become very scarce, with most being water stones.
These are likely inventory.
The semi-mountainous 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 out a stone weighing about five kilograms. It was earthy yellow, with a very tight skin. When illuminated, it didn't show much translucency. I suspected it might have dark fog that absorbed the light.
This stone was about one and a half palm sizes, ten centimeters thick, and flat, resembling a flattened cornmeal flatbread from the north.
If this rough stone had good flesh and fine texture with ample water, it could be used to carve bracelets, pendants, and ornaments.
I touched the surface. The grain was not very heavy, feeling like fine 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 checked the number and the reserve price: 03236, with a starting bid of one thousand US dollars.
This reserve price was not low, and the final transaction price would include a 40% tax. Therefore, the tax needed to be considered when placing a bid.
I wrote down a bid of one thousand eight hundred and placed the completed bid into the bidding box.
There were tens of thousands of uncut stones here. As long as no one maliciously competed with you, you could usually secure the stone at your bid price.
The bid boxes were opened once every hour. One person read out the bids, and another recorded them, similar to a village election. The highest bidder won.
The open-faced jade was only opened once a day, scheduled for the afternoon.
After waiting for a while, I heard the bell and guessed that the uncut stones were about to be opened for bidding. I walked over and waited by the platform to watch the staff read out the bids.
Since the auction had just begun, there weren't many people bidding. After only a few bids were read, it was the turn of the stone I had bid on. It was my price, and no one else bid higher by the end.
I went to the cashier to pay with my card. The staff helped me process the international exchange.
One thousand eight hundred plus seven hundred and twenty in tax totaled two thousand five hundred and twenty US dollars, which was about twenty thousand RMB.
The staff returned my card shortly. I took the receipt and went to collect my stone.
On the other side of the platform, a row of cutting machines was set up, ready to cut stones for customers.
I took the stone over and handed it to a young technician, asking him to make one cut on the top.
The technician secured the stone and began cutting into the smaller end, making a cut about one centimeter deep.
The technician handed me the stone after cutting. The cut surface was very smooth and even. I couldn't see the texture or water content; it was a layer of black-gray fog. Even when illuminated with a flashlight, I still couldn't see inside. It just looked like a black stone lump.