Brother Bao wore a satisfied smile. It seemed Bo Gang was swayed; otherwise, he wouldn't have called back in the middle of the night with concerns. Just then, a bearded Burmese man entered from outside. Seeing Brother Qing from a distance, he greeted him as if they hadn't met in a long time.
Brother Qing beckoned him over and introduced him to Brother Bao.
Brother Qing said, "This is Mr. Teng Ji, my old friend. He owns five or six mines in Damakan, and he provided quite a few of the rough stones for this public auction."
At this point, Brother Bao stood up. Brother Qing continued, "This is my brother Ah Bao from the interior. He's a dominant figure in Ruili. I hope you two can connect, communicate, and cooperate more in the future. This old man can then benefit from your success."
Teng Ji didn't speak much Chinese, but he understood. He nodded repeatedly, and then the two men shook hands, performing a Burmese greeting to signify their acquaintance.
I didn't know Qing Ge's intentions in introducing this bearded man to Brother Bao. Was Brother Bao looking to transition into the jade industry? Or did Qing Ge have other plans?
Teng Ji said a few words in Burmese. Qing Ge then translated, "Teng Ji wants you to inspect his mines. As long as the rough stones don't exceed 100 kilograms, he can directly clear them through customs without needing to report to government departments."
Brother Bao nodded and told Brother Qing, "We can discuss it after the public auction concludes."
As expected, Brother Bao was indeed considering a business in rough stones. This meant Qing Ge was certainly more than just a broker in this situation; there had to be some kind of transaction involved.
With that in mind, the giant stone became much simpler. At least subjectively, Brother Qing wouldn't try to manipulate anything with that particular stone. Whether it contained anything or not would purely be a matter of luck.
Just then, the sound of a bell echoed from outside. Brother Qing invited everyone to move out; the public auction had begun.
On a temporarily erected platform, an official-looking man was speaking. He spoke entirely in Burmese, with no translator present. Everyone looked bewildered.
Although this was an internal public auction and most guests were from the mainland, they should have considered the guests' comfort.
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 there for the giant stone and wasn't interested in other rough stones. I told Brother Bao that the giant stone hadn't been revealed yet and that I would go examine other stones first.
My master once told me that public auctions were the true exhibitions of rough stones, where one could find truly superior pieces. Of course, if one misjudged, they could also lose their fortune.
In other words, here, besides fully revealed rough stones, gambling on unrevealed stones relied on skill and luck.
I didn't linger among the revealed stones. Revealed stones were almost all top-quality, with prices set at the ceiling. Unless one was dealing in finished products, jade gamblers wouldn't stop here.
I went directly to the area of unrevealed stones.
There were many unrevealed stones from various mining areas. Their skins were all thoroughly cleaned and sorted into piles based on weight.
When I arrived, I had received a card from Jing Lei. If I found anything suitable, I would try my luck at the public auction.
I bypassed the black sands stones and went straight to the rough stone area of Damakan.
The Damakan mining area is located in the downstream of the Wudu 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 blocks found there are collectively referred to as Damakan gamble stones. Most of the jade deposits are alluvial. In the early days, the topsoil sands from the riverbanks were mined. The jade deposits here had not undergone significant water erosion or long-distance transport, so the roundness was not pronounced. They were classified as semi-weathered, semi-transported alluvial sand and gravel jade material from semi-mountainous and semi-water deposits. The lower mineral layers were very hard, with carbonate calcium and clay as the binding agents, becoming more difficult to mine the deeper they went. Damakan's mining history is not very long. Famous mining spots represented by the Damakan field include Damakan, Què Bǐng, Da Sān Kǎ, Yīng Gé Dié, Huáng Bā, and nearly 20 other mining spots. Da Feng Novel Network.
The highest quality in Damakan is the semi-mountainous, semi-water stone. The rough stone skin is generally thinner, and the individual jadeite pieces are smaller, usually not exceeding five kilograms. These types of rough stones involve gambling on the "fog" – the fog can be red, yellow, black, or white. Generally, ten fogs have nine that contain water.
Brother Qing mentioned earlier that Teng Ji's mine was in Damakan. It's likely these stones came from his mines. The Damakan stones were placed in three different locations: mountain stones, semi-mountainous semi-water stones, and water stones.
Mountain stones are found in the surface layers of the mineral deposit. Their blocks are much larger than semi-mountainous 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-mountainous semi-water stones and squatted down, searching for a stone I liked.
Damakan has undergone many 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 semi-water stones have become very rare, with most being water stones.
These are likely existing inventory.
Semi-mountainous semi-water stones have undergone riverbed transport, so their edges are somewhat blurred, but they are not as rounded as water stones, making them relatively easy to distinguish.
I picked a stone weighing about five kilograms. Its skin was earthy yellow, and it was very dense. When I shined a light on it, it wasn't very translucent. I suspected it might have a dark fog that absorbed the light.
This stone was about the size of one and a half palms, ten centimeters thick, and flat, resembling 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 bracelets, pendants, and amulets.
I touched the surface. The grain was not very pronounced, like fine sandpaper. I saw no cracks or fissures, and the color was very uniform, like a giant mango that had been flattened.
I checked the number and the reserve price: 03236, with a starting bid of one thousand US dollars.
This starting price was not low. The final transaction price would incur an additional 40% tax, so the tax needed to be considered when bidding.
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 unrevealed stones here. As long as no one maliciously outbid you, the bidding price could generally secure the stone.
The bid boxes were opened once every hour. One person read out the bids, and another recorded them, similar to voting in a village election. The highest bidder won.
Revealed stones were opened only once a day, not until the afternoon.
After waiting for a while, I heard the bell and assumed the unrevealed stones were about to be auctioned. I walked over to the platform to wait for the staff to announce the bids.
Since it was just the opening, there weren't many bidders. After calling out a few bids, they reached the stone I had bid on. It was my bid price, and no one else bid higher until the end.
I went to the cashier to pay with my card. The staff helped me process the international currency 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 Renminbi.
The staff returned my card shortly. I took the receipt and went to collect the stone.
On the other side of the platform were a row of cutting machines, waiting to cut stones for customers.
I took the stone over and handed it to a young craftsman, telling him to make a cut on the top.
The craftsman secured the stone and made a cut about one centimeter deep on the smaller end.
After the stone was cut, the craftsman handed it to me. The cut surface was very flat and smooth. I couldn't see the water or texture; it was a layer of black-gray fog. Even with a flashlight, I still couldn't see inside. From this view, it just looked like a black, stony lump.