The next morning, while Li Shi was studying the Chinese textbook for the second year of high school, he received a call from Gemstone Sister and immediately switched to a WeChat video call that lasted over twenty minutes.
After ending the video call, Li Shi opened the 12306 app and purchased a high-speed train ticket to Peng City.
Sure enough, Gemstone Sister was very helpful.
She picked out two pink diamonds for Li Shi at a familiar store in Shuibei Long Exhibition Wholesale Market. In addition to the cost, one of them met all his requirements in every other aspect.
In Gemstone Sister's words, it was a rare small pink diamond with a GIA certificate, weighing only 0.22 carats. However, its clarity level was IF flawless, it had a heart-shaped cut, proportioned nicely, and its natural intense pink color was beyond doubt. The only flaw was its price.
The merchant's initial asking price was 100,000. Gemstone Sister negotiated it down to 85,000 and the seller refused to drop the price any further.
Looking at the glittering little pink diamond on the screen of his phone, Li Shi was reminded of a 15.56 carat heart-shaped pink diamond he had seen while researching, which sold for over nine hundred thousand US dollars.
Compared to the IF flawless grade, its clarity grade was only VS1 inclusion, which was two large grades lower.
Having purchased his ticket, Li Shi packed up, put his newly bought tablet into his backpack, and hailed a cab to the South High-Speed Rail Station.
On the way, instead of studying, he was leaning against the back seat, pretending to rest his eyes, while he studied the learning panel in his mind.
The time he had had the panel was too short, only three days, and there was much hidden information to uncover.
"Can I redeem just 0.1 of my Wealth Attribute Points at a time? Even 0.01?"
He probed his mental touch tentatively, turned his thought into a command, and then received an affirmation.
"Can I choose the shape and other specific states of the things to be exchanged? Like exchange 10 grams of pure gold in the shape of a baozi?"
His mental touch received another affirmative response. However, while exchanging, he needed to visualize a detailed concept and appearance of the object in his mind.
...
Li Shi lived in Kai Fu District. The South High-Speed Rail Station was in Yuhua District. One was in the north of the city, the other in the south. The 20-kilometer journey took him from home at 10:40 am and arrived at 11:15 am. He quickly swiped his ID to enter the station, bought a bun in the waiting room, and boarded the G883 train to Peng City North Station at eleven thirty.
It was the end of June, the hot season, and some heat-averse passengers were already wearing shorts. However, the stewardesses on the high-speed train still wore their purple uniforms with black stockings underneath. As one of the stewardesses brushed past Li Shi, the inadvertent friction against his short-sleeved arm resting on the armrest made him stare.
The feeling was like a spring breeze rippling over Heart Lake.
He reluctantly looked up at the departing stewardess and, after 2.38 seconds, hurriedly averted his eyes.
Staring at a woman's voluptuously swaying backside was impolite.
"With a physique rating of 11.5, I indeed have more abundant energy. It feels like when I was seventeen or eighteen years old. Ah, this feeling is pretty good."
Li Shi stroked his chin and took out his phone to look up his travel guide.
It was his first time visiting Peng City and Buddha Three City, so he sought to know the transportation and accommodation information ahead of time. This way, he wouldn't feel nervous and could stay calm.
Peng City, a modern metropolis built upon a fishing village, had a permanent population of seventeen to eighteen million people. The city went from nothing to its present scale in just a few decades, a true miracle.
He came out from the east square of Peng City North Station, waited for a while, and then got in a taxi. After asking the driver, Li Shi immediately called Gemstone Sister to tell her that he would arrive in about half an hour.
Since he was in a hurry, the driver, who had a strong accent, chose to take the overpass. At first, the sight along the road was not what Li Shi had imagined. There were few tall buildings on both sides of the road, but there were mountains and rivers. After checking the map, he found out that they had to go through a park.
The greening of Peng City along the way left a deep impression on him.
This was a city full of greenery, as if the entire city was built among the trees.
Through the car window, he could occasionally see such a wonder: looking down, you could see a small hill covered with green trees, but looking up, you could see a skyscraper under construction.
The map navigation showed he was almost at the Long Zhan Jewelry Wholesale Market, so Li Shi sent another message to Gemstone Sister on WeChat.
"Okay, we're waiting for you at the main entrance of the market."
After seeing her reply, he put away his tablet and started to mentally prepare himself for the upcoming social interactions.
A few minutes later, Li Shi met the real-life 'Gemstone Sister', a woman with a delicate make-up and average facial features.
"Gemstone Sister, it's nice to finally see a live person!" Li Shi was the first to speak, jokingly in a tone of a fan.
"Mr. Li is efficient and decisive, you arrived so quickly. Plus, you're more handsome in person than in videos. How about you appear on my video? With your face comparable to young Wu Yan Zu, the likes will definitely increase by twenty thousand."
Li Shi was pretending, whereas Gemstone Sister was a true social butterfly, lavishing praise with familiarity that could probably persuade anyone else to agree.
After chatting for a bit, she also introduced her assistant.
Because the wholesale market was closing soon, they hurriedly exchanged pleasantries and went directly to the business place.
On the way, Gemstone Sister continued to communicate with Li Shi.
"I have to shoot an ending later, my assistant will pay attention to the shooting angle and won't capture your face, at most your silhouette. I will supervise the editing later and blur the necessary places. You can rest easy about this."
"By the way, I managed to negotiate an additional five thousand off the price for you. Eighty thousand. Honestly, given the market conditions I know, this pink diamond's quality, it's already a great deal at this price. However, you're the buyer, so make the final decision after inspecting the goods."
Li Shi quickly expressed his gratitude.
...
The wholesale market was filled with counters selling gold jewelry, leaving one dazzled.
Following Gemstone Sister and her assistant, Li Shi arrived at a store on the third floor and saw the pink diamond he was preparing to buy.
He didn't really know how to identify diamonds; all he knew was from reading up.
The focus was on checking the GIA certificate.
Li Shi first looked at the "Color Origin," which read "Natural" indicating the diamond's color was naturally formed and hadn't undergone any artificial treatments.
After carefully checking the other data on the certificate, which matched what Gemstone Sister had told him, he found no inconsistencies.
Meanwhile, using a magnifying glass, Gemstone Sister was inspecting the diamond too, explaining that the certificate matched the diamond, so there were no issues.
"This pink diamond's quality is too perfect. At ten times magnification, it could absolutely be auctioned off." After inspecting for a while, Gemstone Sister couldn't help but exclaim.
Li Shi was slightly taken aback when he heard this.
Increased tenfold?
He chuckled to himself, tenfold was only 2.2 carats.
By then...it would be much more!
After making the payment and while the owner was organizing the invoice, Li Shi immediately picked up the diamond for a pretend appreciation. He actually summoned the learning panel and initiated an exchange with the intention of getting 0.000000000000001 point of wealth attribute for a natural pink diamond.
He emphasized "natural pink diamond" in his intention.
This was his ingenious way of using the exchange function of the learning panel to identify if the gemstone was genuine.
Soon, a speck of pink diamond dust, invisible to the naked eye, appeared out of nowhere and landed on the ground.
Getting feedback on the successful exchange, Li Shi was secretly delighted.
So, he bought the right sample!
Looking again at the learning panel—
Name: Li Shi
Physique: 11.5
Wealth: 0.999999999999999[Exchange?]
Learning: Chinese (Proficient-)
Finished Learning Repository: None