Chapter 207 - Stone-gambling Turned into Buying Train Tickets (2/2)
“You should have told me if you need it.” Zhou Yuan also smiled and teased Hao Ning. He said, “Under my apartment, they’re doing infrastructure construction. I can make you some as well.”
Zhou Yuan knew from Hao Ning’s face that Hao Ning was obviously about to burst out when he just spoke, so for his safety, he switched the topic by asking Xiao Hong, “By the way, Xiao Hong, what did you say just now? Why should we go back home now?”
“Because all the stones today have been already picked up.” Xiao Hong sighed and said, pointing towards the outside of the door. “No wonder I feel that it is unnatural today, and that these people all wear bitter faces. I just walked out and looked around the rough stone spot outside, only to find that no jade was left.”
“None?” Hao Ning, hearing that, was to crash up. Everything went wrong today. He was cheated first, and now he even lost the chance to compensate his cost. “Why? Even the stones outside are false? All are concrete?” After saying that, he peered at the three false stones in the basket, really wanting to give himself twos slaps on the face.
“No way. People here can identify these stones at least.” Xiao Hong only meant to introduce the fact, which made Hao Ning even more upset after hearing his words. Xiao Hong could only shake his head and smile reluctantly. “Seriously speaking, people here are all at a high level indeed. The reason why no jade was left outside among all the stones is that they are all gripped by these people.
“You’ve seen all of the stones?” Hao Ning said bewilderedly, “You can’t look into the stones by yourself, right?”
“I can.” Xiao Hong corrected and said, “But I can’t say it out, nor give any cues, nor pick one for you, not to mention picking one and selling it myself. These are cause and effect. So, when I went out and looked around just now, even if I discovered there were some stones, I couldn’t tell you, and you have to pick one yourself, while no one could foresee that none was left. As for the rough stones possessed by the people here, you’d better look into it yourself.”
“In these people’s hands…” Hao Ning took a breath this time. He put his hand seriously on Xiao Hong’s forehead and calmed himself down. Then he said, “Lend Me Your Mana!”
As expected, Hao Ning cast a look at them and found that there was some fragmentary jadeite inside the stones help by all the people here. Though it was not in a good texture, none of them held an invalid stone.
“Xiao Hong, you are really awesome!” Hao Ning gave a thumbs-up. “You can look through everything with only a glimpse and some accumulative experience. No wonder these people all wear a gloomy face. It turns out that the jadeite in their hands is so crude.”
“That’s the worst!” Xiao Hong sighed and said, “Is it clear to you?”
As soon as Xiao Hong finished his words, Zhou Yuan and Liu Shuai’s faces changed, and they put their mobile phones into the pockets silently with gloomy faces. “We’re done. We’re done!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Hao Ning didn’t understand at once. “Why are you unhappy? Even though we have no stones today, we can come back several days later!”
“Haven’t you got it?” Liu Shuai, who was very upset, waved his hand and found a vacant bench to sit down. “Why was no jade left among the stones outside?”
Hao Ning showed a face of dementia. “I don’t know.”
Liu Shuai rubbed his forehead. He knew why Hao Ning couldn’t make sense of it. He thought for a while and switched to another question, trying to lead Hao Ning. “Why does each stone held by them contain jadeite?”
“I don’t know.” Hao Ning pondered for a while, and he suddenly got it. He smiled and said, “You are silly. Didn’t we say just now that the stones outside contained no jadeite because they were all picked up by these people here? You’re confusing me.”
“You’re the silliest one…” Liu Shuai, seeing that Hao Ning understood a little, continued to say with his cues, “Why does everyone happen to hold a stone containing jadeite? Meanwhile, since they all have jadeite in their rough stones, why do they look unhappy?”
“Because no jadeite in their rough stones is a supreme. If it were you, and you spent a long time, only to end up with inferior jadeite in your rough stone, would you be happy or not?” Hao Ning thought in his heart that it was such a meaningless question, while the moment he finished his words, he got stunned as well. “No, I’ve ignored that…”
“Yes.” Zhou Yuan, seeing that Hao Ning finally figured it out, nodded and sighed. He said, “How could it be such a coincidence? An invalid stone is held by no one, and all of them contain jadeite? Even if I say that they picked them out with the help of their luck and experience, will you believe that?”
Liu Shuai took a breath and then said, “They haven’t cut open their stones yet, so how could they know that the stones in their hands contain surely jadeite, moreover, of inferior quality?”
“For a normal stone-gambling, even the one with excellent experience will get it wrong sometimes.” Xiao Hong nodded and added, “So, their faces when getting the stones should be worried, palpitant, or excited, with speculation. But absolutely, it shouldn’t be like what they are…” As he said, Xiao Hong pointed at everyone. “So gloomy. It seems that they’ve all known thoroughly about the items in their hands.”
“But they have to take them because only when they have picked up all the rough stones containing jadeite, will there be no more choice left outside.” Hao Ning got it instantly. “In other words, among them, there is someone who knows about the stones containing jadeite, so they’ve screened and picked all the rough stones outside. But they’re unhappy with the quality of the jadeite, right?”
“Not someone.” Zhou Yuan looked around and felt even more upset. “Without any errors, it should be these people.” Saying that, Zhou Yuan pointed at the crowd. “This, this, this, and these. Everyone wearing a bitter face has the ability.”
“Exactly!” Xiao Hong was already quite sure at this moment. He knew whom Zhou Yuan referred to. “Everyone beside the rich should be the one who can manage to know the quality inside the stone. They must have reached an agreement with the sponsors beside them so that they should select the jadeite for the sponsors. But there isn’t any good jadeite by coincidence today. Thus, everyone wears a bitter face like this.”
“The sponsors?” Hao Ning pondered for a while and shook his head. He said, “If these people are able to do that, they can participate in the stone-gambling themselves. Why do they cooperate with the sponsors?”
“As for this…” Xiao Hong pondered for a while and then said, “It’s hard to say. It’s possible that these people have a great capacity but have no strong backup. They fear that even though they can afford to gamble, they can’t afford to take the money.” After saying that, Xiao Hong peered at Hao Ning. “Think about it yourself. If everyone here has the ability, it’s already an open secret then. Some conventions in this field might exist. If someone breaks the rule…”
“No…” Zhou Yuan smiled bitterly and said, “I thought that after having the clairvoyance we would be as powerful as it was depicted in the fiction, while we are still so weak like this in reality.” Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan got the inspiration and said, peering at Liu Shuai, “Liu Shuai, If they all can manage to know about the jadeite inside the stones, then they’re likely to have reached it by…”
“Book Elf!” Liu Shuai responded quickly, and he made it out suddenly. “These people should have used Book Elf and obtained the skills, such as gold X-ray eyes in the fiction or something else. They wanted to make a fortune here, while by accident, all the people here have the clairvoyance. It means that everyone is on the same starting line again. They’re forced to be an advanced worker, who has woken up from the dream of being rich overnight.
“We’re done for!” Hao Ning slumped into the chair. Liu Shuai’s speculation was reasonable. Hao Ning just didn’t expect that so many people would have such an ability. “In this way, we’ll lose the chance forever? Every time we come here, they will manage to know about the condition of these rough stones. The good ones will be grabbed by others.”
“Aside from that…” Xiao Hong sighed and said, “There are still some people who may use some similar measures and save the stones of good jadeite upstream. In this way, when it comes to us, there may not be any good things left.”
“Aren’t they playing the stone-gambling in the way of buying train tickets?” Hao Ning uttered without thinking. Seeing the perplexed faces of others, Hao Ning explained and said, “They didn’t know before what was in the rough stones, so it depended on luck, and it could be called stone-gambling. Now they all know it, so what they compete in now is that whoever can queue up to get the stone first will make a fortune, right? Isn’t it the same as queueing for train tickets?”
“I see. But what should we do now?” Zhou Yuan frowned and said, “In this case, we’ll have to come and join the queue later on?”