"Ugh, I just told them to study the stone gambling downstairs, didn't I? At home, they even memorized all the books on stone gambling. But he was so careless earlier, looking around everywhere and not paying attention to the stones at all. I gave him a stern look and he knew he was wrong." Yang Jian said.

  Yan Qingchun smiled: "Governor Yang is indeed lenient towards his subordinates."

  Yang Jianxiu shook his head and sighed: "It's still because of their usual cleverness. If it were someone else, I would have let him roll back to receive punishment."

  It was just a small matter, Yan Qingchun didn't take it to heart and casually asked about it. Gong Zhimin's attention was focused on the stone, and he didn't hear what Yan Qingchun and Yang Jianxiu were saying.

  Ye Zhuo took this opportunity and didn't care if Yang Jianxiu would adopt the stones she had chosen. She carefully selected the raw stones. As it turned out, the raw stones on this floor were more expensive than those downstairs, and the probability of producing jade was higher. Some of them could produce very good jade. Ye Zhuo spent a lot of effort and finally chose a few pieces of extremely good quality raw stones, which she presented to Yang Jianxiu with great fanfare. Yang Jianxiu probably also felt helpless, as he didn't understand anything himself and could only hope that Ye Zhuo would really be lucky enough to choose the right raw stones. He used all his skills to persuade Gong Zhimin and Yan Qingchun to select the raw stones that Ye Zhuo had presented. However, this time, for some unknown reason, Yang Jianxiu chose a piece selected by Gong Zhimin instead of buying one from Ye Zhuo's selection.

  Everyone pulled the stone and took it to the side to let the stone master unlock it.

  Yan Qingchun saw that Gong Zhimin was enthusiastically letting people appraise the stone, but Du Haoran still hadn't appeared, and he couldn't wait any longer. Seeing Nie Qing standing beside him without leaving, he asked: "Is Master Du in this hall? I seemed to see him enter here when we went upstairs just now. Just now, Zhimin was presenting Master Du's appraisal downstairs, and instead of losing money on the original stone, he even made a small profit. We were about to invite Master Du to have dinner together."

  "Master Du is busy in the small hut next door and has no time for now. However, I will definitely help convey the intentions of the adults to him." Nie Qing replied, turning around and going into the small hut next door.

  Until Gong Zhimin opened the original stone he had spent 2,000 taels of silver on, only to find that it was all rocks inside, without even a thread of jade, and stood there in a daze. Yang Jianxiu suppressed the joy in his heart, put on a serious face, and let Ye Zhuo and Yang Yuan lift the original stone onto the anvil. Nie Qing came out of the house and said to Yan Qingchun: "Du Gongzi said that he was busy with something and couldn't leave. The intentions of the several adults have been received. Just now it was just a matter of lifting one's hand, Gong Daren doesn't need to worry about it."

  Yan Qingchun was extremely disappointed and said a few polite words to Nie Qing before listlessly watching Yang Jianxiu carve the stone.

  Yang Jianxiu had been a chief official for over ten years, but he was still relatively clean and only had savings of around 2-3 thousand taels of silver. He spent two thousand taels of silver on this one piece of stone, and his heart was extremely anxious, fearing that like Gong Zhimin, it would all be a waste of money. He asked Ye Zhuo somewhat nervously: "Yang Shuo, what do you think of the raw stone I chose?"

  Ye Chou went forward and took a closer look. He shook his head, hesitated and said: "I'm not sure either. Although the quality is good, but... that... seems like..." with a troubled face.

  "Never mind, let's not talk about it." Yang Jianxiu was already uncertain in his heart, and after Ye Zhuo said this, he became even more uneasy. Although Ye Zhuo had performed poorly downstairs earlier, the stone she helped Gong Zhimin choose was indeed extraordinary. While luck played a large part, what if her words came true? This was his life's savings! If he couldn't bring down Yan Qingchun, how would he manage in the future? Without even some silver to bribe with, it would be extremely difficult for him to return to the prefecture.

  "Rumble, rumble..." Master Shi cut for a while, and the stone shell "cracked" off. A basin of water was poured on it, revealing a purple color on the cutting surface, which looked very good with the water glistening on it.

  "Wow, it's gone up." The owner of the jade carving workshop next to them was the first to shout. The jade material on top is not something that the small workshop owners below can afford to sell, so they didn't follow earlier. Now the onlookers are different people.

  "Violet, glutinous rice, congratulations to the boss, big rise!" Those with sharp eyes immediately gave this jade material an evaluation.

  Violet is a rare color in jade, especially favored by women. If the quality is good, it's priceless. The "kind" in the boss's words refers to the texture of the jade: fine and dense, uniform and translucent are considered top-grade; coarse and loose, with visible particles, are secondary. Rongzhong is a mid-range quality jade, which can be further divided into coarse rong, fine rong, ronghua, and bingrong, with prices ranging from medium to high. The piece of jade Yang Jianxiu gambled out has only opened a small window, but it's already showing signs of being top-grade. Not to mention how much jade is inside, just the color and texture alone make it a mid-to-high-end jade. This half-open stone can sell for 4,000 to 5,000 taels of silver.

  As expected, as soon as they took a closer look at the color and texture of that cross-section, someone spoke up: "I'll give 4,000 taels of silver for this piece of fur. Will you sell it?"

  This sudden turn of events left Yang Jianxu momentarily stunned, as just a moment before he was worried that his ten years' worth of savings would be reduced to ashes. But in the blink of an eye, he suddenly rose from hell to heaven, not only preserving his original two thousand taels of silver but also unexpectedly earning another two thousand taels on top of it. He felt as if he were dreaming.

  "I spent 4,200 taels."

  "Four thousand five hundred taels." The bosses bid one after another. This piece of raw jade has such good quality and color, even if it's just a small piece, it can be sold for five or six thousand taels of silver; if you're lucky enough to get a big piece of jade, isn't that a fortune? Taking the risk of losing some money, but gaining the opportunity to make a huge profit, isn't that how people get rich?

  These bosses' offers not only didn't surprise Yang Jianxiu, but also gave him a heart-pounding feeling. Just now downstairs, Gong Zhimin's example was vividly in front of his eyes. At that time, someone offered 1,600 yuan, he refused to sell and continued to cut, resulting in cutting losses, almost selling the wool at 400 yuan. If it wasn't for Du Haoran pulling him back, he would still be carrying a load of debt now - of course, now he is also carrying a load of debt, but this debt is different from that one, not the same thing.

  Now it's time to make a decision. To sell or not to sell? If sold for 4,500 taels of silver, although 2,200 taels of silver would be earned, but if others can get jade material worth more than 10,000 taels of silver from that original stone, wouldn't I regret it to death? But what if I cut it open myself? The jade material obtained is not even worth the cost, wouldn't I lose a lot?

  At this time, Yang Jianxiu also hoped that Du Haoran would come to give himself some guidance. Unfortunately, he turned his head and looked around, but there was no sign of Du Haoran in the hall. He had to cast his eyes on Gong Zhimin and Yan Qingchun. As for Ye Zhuo, she was completely ignored by him: just now when she mentioned this stone, she wanted to say something else!

  Gong Zhimin didn't have the mood to care about Yang Jianxiu at this time. Within less than two hours of entering Nie's house, he had already owed Yan Qingchun a debt of 1,100 taels of silver, which was not enough to pay off even if he sold his house; and heaven seemed to be stimulating him further by making the stone he personally selected for Yang Jianxiu skyrocket in value, earning over 2,000 taels of silver overnight. Under these two stimuli, Gong Zhimin had entered a state of numbness, his mind blank, his body shivering with cold, yet sweating profusely, his legs weak and almost unable to support him, nearly collapsing to the ground. Fortunately, his servant saw that something was wrong and quickly brought over a chair to support him as he sat down.

  Yan Qingchun's stone was still unbroken, and he had amassed a large amount of wealth. Even if he lost one or two thousand taels of silver, it wouldn't shake his foundation. With a good mindset, his head remained clear. Seeing Yang Jianzhu's dazed expression, he walked up to him, patted his shoulder, and said: "Whether you sell or not is your own decision."

  Yan Qingchun's words were as good as unsaid, but with this one slap, he actually slapped Yang Jianxiu's heart that was hanging in mid-air back down. In just an instant, he made his decision and raised his head to say to the last bidder: "Alright, 4,500 taels, I'll sell it to you."

  He also understood that there is a bowl of rice to eat, this is the right path. Since he himself did not have the skill to gamble on stones, relying on luck to win a large sum of money from a stone, having a profit of 2,500 taels of silver should be enough. The reason why Gong Zhimin ended up in such a predicament was that he didn't understand this principle and was greedy for more. Now, he couldn't follow in his footsteps, it's better to be content with what he has and not take any more risks.

  This deal was extremely simple and pleasant. The boss took out a handful of silver tickets from his pocket, counted four one-thousand-liang silver tickets, along with five hundred-liang ones, handed them to Yang Jianxiu, then had the porter carry that half-open window fabric away and left. Those in this line of work would take the fabric back home for further examination or ask a gambler expert to help take a look. If they thought the probability of winning was high, they would open it up; if not, they would sell it as semi-gambled fabric and still make some money.

  Ye Zhuo knew that the original stone had very valuable jade material, but he remained silent and just watched with a cold eye. This gamble on the stone can be said to be the fate of all living things. A person's character and personality, whether they are timid like a mouse, afraid to move forward, or take risks to seek stability, or greedy and adventurous, risking their life, can be fully revealed in a game of gambling on stones. As the saying goes, "at three years old, one can see the greatness, at seven years old, one can see the old age", this sentence means that personality determines fate. The path of life is laid out there, and when you encounter difficulties or crossroads, how you choose is the key to what kind of fate you have.

  At this time, Yang Jianxu was able to calm his mind in the face of financial temptation and choose to stop while he was ahead. Such a man may not achieve great things in his life, but is more suitable for domestic life. He won't make you rich, but also won't put you in a situation where you can't afford food or clothing. For Zheng Shi, such a man is the most suitable.

  There will be an update tonight. Thank you habehappy for the New Year's red envelope reward!

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