Chapter 27: The Raw Material that Causes Toothaches and Heartache; I’m quite satisfied with your brother…
“Hey, hey, hey! Did you hear? That stone with the serial number ending in 2817 has been bought!”
“Holy crap, someone actually bought that ominous raw material?! Tsk tsk, don’t tell me it’s another prodigal son from some family with more money than sense.”
“Stop guessing over there. The stuff is heading to the stone-cutting area; looks like they’re going to cut it open right on the spot. Hurry, hurry! If we’re late, we won’t get a good spot!”
“No, your information is lagging behind,” a fourth voice suddenly interjected from the side.
“The stone-cutting area has long been packed like sardines. I heard the person who bought that super-ominous material is even betting against someone!”
What, what, what kind of thing is that?!
A bet, and involving that highly ominous 2817 stone!
Passersby who only caught a few sentences, whether they knew the context or not, dropped whatever they were doing one after another.
With the excitement and thrill of gossip written on their faces, everyone sprinted toward the same location in unison.
As for there being too many people or it being packed like sardines—didn’t hear it, didn’t hear it. Even if they did, a small problem was no problem at all!
…
“Hahahahaha, what did you say?
This is the semi-exposed material you’re using for the bet?”
Gu Xinxue first looked at Le Can in disbelief, and then, upon seeing the other party’s calm nod, couldn’t help but burst into loud laughter.
After laughing, the man whose eyes were accustomed to looking at the sky swept a disdainful glance over the 2817 raw material—which he had given up on at first glance—and its owner, who possessed nothing but good looks.
Finally, he looked with heartache at the man sitting quietly in the wheelchair, who still resembled a noble deity from the highest heavens.
Gu Xinxue: “Even if I chose the best material in the semi-exposed area, you shouldn’t have just given up on yourself and chosen such a thing.”
“Is this the attitude you use to treat someone as good as Xi Yun?!”
Le Can rubbed his ears, which were suffering from the noise. “Treat him how?”
The youth, squinting with a fake smile, extended his hand from behind Xi Yun’s ear downwards, frivolously clasping the man’s neck, and then applied slight force to lift the other’s chin.
“With this attitude? or treating him like this?”
Watching Xi Yun being manipulated quietly like a puppet, Xie Jun and Yuan Cheng, who knew him well, sucked in a cold breath in unison.
Xie Jun saw more than Yuan Cheng, who had regrouped with them later.
She noticed that after that ground-breaking public kiss, Xi Yun’s right hand, which had been lightly tapping on the wheelchair armrest, slowly came to a stop.
The usual Xi Yun didn’t speak much, but he was never as silent as he had been from that moment until now. He was like a vast, boundless sea—calm on the surface, but who knew how many undercurrents and whirlpools were hidden beneath…
She observed with heart palpitations for a while, silently shooting a “good luck” look at Le Can, who had repeatedly plucked whiskers from the tiger’s face.
Not only was now not a good time to speak, but when Xi Yun was truly angry, Xie Jun and others who knew his temper dared not say or do anything.
Anyway, they were a young engaged couple.
At most, he just wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for three days… right?
Unsurprisingly, Le Can didn’t receive Xie Jun’s signal at all.
Looking at the Little Peacock hopping mad with rage, wishing he could tear through the crowd and chop off Le Can’s hand, Le Can paused his hand that was about to retract and stroked the male lead’s chin again.
Honestly, the protagonist was quite particular about his grooming. The prickly stubble ordinary men would have on their chins was cleaned up neatly and refreshingly; at least Le Can didn’t get pricked.
The tactile experience was nice, and the effect of choking people was also good. Le Can withdrew his hand, prepared to pluck the “peacock feathers” one by one.
Who would have thought that turning his head, he would meet a pair of gloomy, sinister eyes.
Xi Ziyu’s pale, gloomy face wore a strange, bizarre smile, his gaze scraping over Le Can from head to toe like a scraper.
The moment he met Le Can’s gaze, the eccentric human with seemingly deepening dark circles slowly extended the tip of a crimson tongue and licked his dry lips.
“Is Sister-in-law wanting to dump Brother sooner and throw yourself into Di-di’s (younger brother’s) embrace?”
Le Can thought with dead-fish eyes: Probably that fake kiss with Xi Yun triggered the crazy brother’s illness again.
This was the downside of a “Bro-con.”
On one hand, thinking that no one is good enough for Xi Yun, and on the other, when someone actually leaves Xi Yun, wishing he could kill that group of “blind” people.
There was a high probability he was beyond saving; better to just find a place to bury him later…
Seeing Le Can not answering, Xi Ziyu laughed low. Those eyes, usually dark and drooping, slowly lifted, his cool voice carrying a tone of seduction.
“If Sister-in-law can’t wait, you might as well come over now…”
Witnessing this scene, Gu Xinxue, who was angry enough to tap dance on the spot, suddenly widened his eyes. With a look of someone eating a rotten melon from a wealthy family, his gaze shifted back and forth between Le Can and Xi Ziyu.
Le Can took a deep breath, deeply feeling how hard it was to come by a normal person he could communicate with.
If his brain really went fuzzy and he went over, what awaited him would certainly not be Xi Ziyu’s open embrace, but a knife or an axe cleaving straight into his face.
After all, the other party was too lazy to hide the murderous look in his eyes.
Le Can wasn’t stupid. He placed his hand on Xi Yun, and under the gaze of the two annoying pests, hooked his lips into a smile and patted the male lead’s pectoral muscles.
“Ah, definitely not.”
“I’m quite satisfied with your brother, truly.”
“As for your frail little physique…”
Without any hint of disdain, his meaningful little gaze looked over Xi Ziyu’s chest measurement. “Your brother still has more substance when pressing down.”
“Cough cough cough cough cough…”
As soon as the words fell, a chorus of coughs sounded from behind.
Le Can didn’t need to turn his head to know who was coughing. He shook his head secretly, feeling that the psychological tolerance of the people around him for speaking nonsense and hearing nonsense was too weak.
When you’re out and about, you give yourself your own identity; this was barely scratching the surface.
“Alright, enough talk. Any more nonsense is just annoying.”
The youth, completely unaware that his words were shocking, waved his hand impatiently. “Didn’t we say best two out of three? Why aren’t you planning to open the jadeite, but instead trying to beat me with your mouth?”
Although Le Can had a lot of tolerance for the God of Wealth who was sending him money, even tolerance had a limit. For things that couldn’t understand human speech, once you knew their nature after a few sentences, you should just press them to death so they never had a chance to appear before your eyes again…
It was annoying to look at them too much.
Staying together for too long, maybe he would become stupid too, and that would not be worth the loss.
“Then let’s start!”
Gu Xinxue gritted his teeth, wishing he could replace Le Can immediately.
Without Le Can’s urging, he was also eager to start right away. Ideally, win two games in a row, and then rightfully order this eyesore to stay far away from Xi Yun!
The other side answered readily. Le Can’s lowered peach blossom eyes instantly relaxed, and the tails of his eyes lifted slightly in a good mood.
“Yuan Cheng, solve the ‘Winter Melon Candy’ first. Help move it over.”
How could he play if he brought out the big guns right at the start? Serve some appetizers first to make the Little Peacock happy.
However, Le Can’s kindness was as limited as his patience—available once and only once. How Gu Xinxue felt after this, he offered no after-sales service for.
The reason Le Can called the first raw stone he chose “Winter Melon Candy” was because the shape of the raw material was both square and round, and coupled with the grayish-white skin, it looked exactly like an enlarged piece of winter melon candy.
Judging by Xi Yun’s action of receiving the raw material earlier, he could roughly confirm that there should be jadeite in this stone that caught his eye. As for what grade the jadeite was, Le Can didn’t hold out too much hope.
It was a stone he chose himself; if it really performed poorly, he couldn’t really blame the stone.
Probably because his internal expectations weren’t high, Le Can acted very casual and natural. At first glance, the uninformed crowd thought the material was excellent, but upon a second look at its ordinary appearance, they thought their eyes were playing tricks on them.
What Gu Xinxue brought out was a typical Mu Na “Bayberry Skin” raw material. Although it was only half the size of Le Can’s material, the arrogance on its surface was something two Le Cans couldn’t compare to.
However, anyone who knew a little about jadeite knew that with Mu Na material, the latter had a high probability of winning. No wonder he had confidence written all over his face.
The two handed their items to the stone-cutting masters at almost the same moment. Before long, the unique sound of the cutting machine rang out.
Even if it wasn’t their first time watching stone cutting, and even if it wasn’t their own raw material, everyone’s hearts rose to their throats in unison. Nervous!
As one of the parties involved, Le Can was not only not nervous but also turned to look at the most controversial stone, 2817, which he had entrusted Yuan Cheng to secure for him.
From the outside, 2817 looked like a triangular rice ball that had been bitten. The skin color was dark, covered with patches of black ringworm (spots) and green pine flowers.
Generally speaking, having ringworm and pine flowers indicated there must be green inside the jadeite. But “ringworm eats green”—if the ringworm also penetrated the interior of the stone and damaged the quality of the jadeite, then even the best green would only make one heartbroken over money thrown into the water.
Unfortunately, 2817 had two windows rubbed open. One window showed performance reaching the level of Ice Species Imperial Green. But within such full, spicy green color, spots of black ringworm were scattered everywhere.
Not to mention how heartbroken the buyers felt looking at it, even the seller of the raw stone hadn’t given up and opened a second window on the opposite side.
The performance of the second window was slightly better, but only slightly; the degree to which it caused heart attacks was still not low.
Because apart from the ringworm that couldn’t be ignored, this “Big Rice Ball” had a huge crack running from the top of the raw material all the way to the bottom.
It was hard not to worry whether the internal Ice Species or higher Imperial Green jadeite, if it survived without being affected by the black ringworm, would be affected by the crack.
After all, cracks also affect the final product yield. How much of the jade material can be used depends on whether the interior of the jade is intact.
As the saying goes, “Jade cannot become a vessel without crafting.” Even if a large piece of High Ice Species Imperial Green was cut out, if the inside was shattered like crushed ice on a frozen lake surface, it would be almost unsellable!
And the heart-stopping part about the second window was that while the ringworm looked less, the dense cracks inside were visible to the naked eye without even shining a light.
Such a piece of raw material, which made one’s teeth ache and heart hurt just looking at it; anyone who saw it had to shake their head. The seller here displaying it was probably regretful yet unwilling to give up.
But no matter how regretful, the performance was simply too poor; everyone who looked at it chose to give up. This was also why Le Can dared to stroll around before coming to buy the “Leftover Rice Ball.”
But it wasn’t without its benefits.
For example, based on the size and weight of the raw stone, this person-sized big fellow should have been at least in the tens of millions level, but now it was sold at a huge discount of 90% off.
Le Can picked up a bargain, snagging it for just over a million.
Consider it quietly picking up a big leak, hehehe!
“Hey hey hey, green is showing! Green is showing!”
Just as Le Can was immersed in the stunningly beautiful stone that only he knew about, an excited voice suddenly interrupted the even more wonderful sound of banknotes entering his account in his mind.
Le Can turned his head and saw a small piece of glowing green jadeite being carefully peeled from the skin.
About the size of two fists, the color was bright and beautiful Sunny Green, the flesh was fine, and the fluorescence was strong, reaching Sticky Rice Ice Species (Nuo Bing), one level lower than Ice Species.
Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted: “It’s a rise! A big rise!”
Although he pretty much knew the result, Le Can still frowned slightly, looking at his own pitiful “Winter Melon Candy” that no one was paying attention to.
It’s okay, cub. The face lost now, Daddy will win it back for you in a moment!
“Eh?”
The old master cutting the stone for Le Can suddenly stopped his movements in surprise.
After splashing clean water onto the cut surface, he confirmed he hadn’t seen it wrong. “It’s out! This one is out too!”
Instantly, the large group of people flocking to the neighboring cutting machine turned their heads back with a whoosh. Clearly, when it was just cut, it was all white stone; how did it come out? What came out?!
“But what came out isn’t green… hmm, it’s pink…”
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