Since I decided to go to the China-Myanmar Street, I called Wang Gui and asked him to come over to cut the stone. I told Wang Gui to wait for me at the China-Myanmar Street and to take my stored car with him.
Zhongmian Street is located in the Jie'ao border trade zone, with boundary markers on both sides, stretching three miles long. The section within China is called Zhongmian Friendship Street, while the section within Myanmar is called White Elephant Street.
In the middle of the China-Myanmar Street, there stands a magnificent, resplendent, and highly distinctive "national gate."
On both banks of the winding river that flows south live the border residents of China and Myanmar, drinking from the same river. The people of the two countries live across the river from each other, with their chickens and dogs able to see each other.
However, even though there is only a fence separating the two places, the living standards of the people on either side are worlds apart. You can see a little girl on the other side of the fence, wearing tattered clothes, holding out a bowl and begging for money. It's very heartbreaking.
On the China-Myanmar street, vehicles and people constantly pass through. Myanmar people come to China to work and earn money, vendors do small business across the border fence, and Myanmar children cross the fence to China to take photos and earn money. This is all normal; you can only say there are two kinds of lives on one street.
Jiegao, this commercial port has many places related to stone gambling. On "China-Myanmar Friendship Street," there are dozens of jewelry shops. The storefronts are primarily in the style of pitched roofs, featuring architectural characteristics of Southeast Asian countries, and also showcasing the unique local characteristics of Ruili.
The shops are connected to each other, and each jade shop has glass counters displaying various sizes of jade and jadeite items. From large Pi Xiu statues to small pendants, everything is available.
Valuable items are placed inside the counter, while inexpensive trinkets are displayed on top of the counter. Whenever tourists pass by, the shopkeepers call out to attract business.
As Ma Lan and I walked along the road, many people greeted us, but our destination was not the small commodity jade here, but the gambling stone area.
Jiegao has two jade gambling areas. One is the jade gambling area established by the Chinese, called Yunrui Jade City, which is mainly in the first half of Jiegao. The second jade gambling area is behind the Sino-Myanmar Street, which can be said to be already detached from the Sino-Myanmar Street. Here, there is the largest jade gambling city, which is a place dedicated to jade gambling.
Yunrui Jadeite Market can only be considered a semi-jadeite market; their business is primarily focused on finished products. However, the jadeite market behind Zhongmian Street is dedicated solely to jadeite gambling. Most of the materials inside are brought back from Myanmar by Sino-Myanmar merchants in collaboration, and they do not have a finished product area or engage in recycling. Merchants who come to Ruili to hunt for materials and stock up will gather here.
We walked for a while, passed through three miles of Zhongmian Street, and saw a tall building. On the building's main gate, there were three words: "Rough Stone Area," with no hiring. These three words were the signboard.
We walked over, and this street is basically connected. The shops of each family are gathered on the first floor of this building. We saw Wang Gui and Zhao Kui at the entrance. It seems he is very familiar with this place, arriving even before me.
"Fei Ge..."
Two people called out to me, I nodded and said, "How is your mother doing?"
Zhao Kui said, "The doctor said it's very stable, no need to worry."
I nodded and said, "Wang Gui, are you familiar with this place?"
Wang Gui smiled confidently and said, "I learned my craft here, buddy. There are thirty-two shops in the gambling stone area, twenty run by Burmese and twelve by mainlanders, but each has shares owned by the Sha Jiao Gang. This is common knowledge. Brother Fei, let's go gamble in District Six. They have a complete range of materials there, and the highest number of stones worth over ten million are produced from there."
"District Six?" I'm a bit confused, why are there still districts?
Wang Gui said, "Feige, the rough stone area is divided into thirty-two sections, just like the public auction in Myanmar. The participating units are divided into regions for easier recognition by gamblers and better management. When I was learning my craft here before, I saw that many tens of millions worth of materials came out of Section Six."
I nodded and said, "You know the way, lead on."
Wang Gui said this and led us into the rough stone area. There weren't many people inside, possibly because the building area was too large, making it seem somewhat sparse. Looking around, the entire hall was divided into grid-like sections, with shelves in each small area displaying rough stones.
Wang Gui led us inside, and when we arrived, I saw the number six written on the shelf, and the same number "six" on the stone. Then there was a horizontal line, and behind the line, there was a weight marked very carefully. This number is used to distinguish the materials of each shop, so when cutting the stones, we won't mix up the shops.
I looked at the materials, all placed on the gambling stone board. The materials in this area varied in size, but they were all arranged very neatly. They were much more high-end than the materials in Yunrui Gambling Stone City. As expected, this is a place specialized in the gambling stone business.
Malan looked at Shitou and said, "Zhao Fei, show us what you've got..."
I smiled and didn't say anything, but instead took out a flashlight from my pocket. I really need to show my skills this time. This is crucial to whether Seventh Master can help us. If I can't make Seventh Master trust me and can't make him switch sides, he will be forced to deal with Qian Guang. Once the four of them team up against Qian Guang, I'm afraid even if Qian Guang had three heads and six arms, he wouldn't be able to handle it.
I looked at the material; there were many pieces of semi-transparent material cut in half. I picked one up; it wasn't very big, only the size of a fist, about two kilograms. It had a gray skin, was sanded, had a good texture, and had an open window. It looked like Moxisha material to me. I examined the surface of the window; it was slightly translucent, with fine crystals, slightly good water content, slightly good luster, and a noticeable color gradient
I looked at the price below, and I was shocked. This little piece costs two hundred thousand! Damn it, at Boss Wei's place, it would be at most fifty thousand. Just for opening a window, it has increased fourfold. What a scammer!
I heard that Burmese rough stone merchants like to do one thing, which is called "window killing." They often buy a piece of rough stone they like for a high price. They don't do anything else but open a window on the rough stone. As long as they see color, they sell it, but the price is five to ten times what they bought it for. Moreover, if the window doesn't show color, they immediately dispose of it, covering the window with a veneer and then selling it again.
It seems that this District 6 was established by the Burmese.
I looked at this row of small materials, and they are basically all windowed, just a little opening, with some color on top, but they are sold for an outrageous price. It makes me feel a bit nauseous.
So I went around to the big bet area, and Malan said, "Yeah, you have to go big."
Wang Gui said with a smile, "Yeah, women all like big ones..."
After I listened, I still didn't understand, but Malan said, "But it has to be tough, right..."
After hearing that, I was a bit surprised. Damn, Malan really can joke with anyone. I ignored them and continued looking at my materials; I needed to focus.
I took a look around and saw a ten-kilogram piece of material. The surface was white, probably white sand skin. After flipping it over, it felt very good to the touch, likely a shallow layer of wood sand skin.
The wood from Mu Na is all high-quality stuff, hard to come by, especially a ten-kilogram piece. When I looked at it, I was surprised to see it was a windowed piece, with a window opened on the surface.
I'm a bit anxious. I thought I could gamble on the head fabric, but damn it, I can't. I can't rush it. If it's window fabric, then it's window fabric. It's expensive, but as long as I can win the gamble, it's fine.
I looked at the surface of the window, the base is dead waxy ice type, the crystals are relatively fine, the water head is good, the luster is good. I shone a light inside and found that the cotton-like texture was slightly prominent, but this cotton is extra, in the industry, the cotton from the wood material is called "starry sky," very dense and beautiful. The clear base is slightly green, it could be made into bracelets or full-color pendants, no cracks
I looked at the price and thought, "Damn, four million? That's so fucking overpriced." No matter how expensive the materials are, they can't be worth more than their actual value, right? So I immediately threw it away.
"Out, out... hey, fire the cannon, hurry up and fire the cannon... Zone Six..."
At that moment, I heard someone shouting. I glanced to the side and saw a few people in the stone-cutting area shouting loudly. Suddenly, fireworks started outside, which startled me. I thought it was probably the end of the work shift.
Out of curiosity, I walked over and saw a boss holding a piece of material, grinning from ear to ear. I looked at the material; it wasn't big, just over four kilograms. From the skin, it looked gray-black and oily, likely a semi-gamble stone with a window cut in the middle. There was a window at the top, and he cut it straight down the middle. I looked at the cut; it had a glutinous feel, the crystals were slightly fine, the
I asked the boss, "How much did you get it for?"
"Hey, a million is settled, take the red envelope, don't complain it's too little..."
The boss happily said, "Here's a red envelope for you," and I took it and said, "Thanks, spreading some good luck..."
After saying that, we left. Malan opened the red envelope and cursed, "Damn, only five hundred? So stingy. Hey, Zhao Fei, don't just stand there, hurry up. I'm waiting to give out red envelopes, and I'm giving a thousand."
I was also very anxious to hear this. All the materials here are open-window materials. I don't really like betting on open-window materials because my father lost his life the first time he bet on them, so I have a mental block. But there's no choice; all the materials here are open-window materials, and the surfaces of the open-window materials are very good. What's even more enviable is that someone just offered ten million for a piece.
I asked, "Malan, how much money do you have?"
Ma Lan said, "I have 15 million here. If it's not enough, I'll ask my dad for more."
Fifteen million, I glanced around, walked towards the larger material area, there was a row of materials weighing over a hundred kilograms each, I took a look, all were over ten million.
I said, "Malan, let's go big, are you up for it?"
Malin smiled and said, "You fucking ask me if I dare? If you can't win over my dad, I guarantee the money will be gone within a week. By then, I won't be able to protect you either."
After hearing this, I was speechless. Damn it, I'm not betting on Malan now, I'm betting on myself. I'm betting my life!