Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 317: Chapter 314: The Difference between Mountain Material and Seed Material

Just by casually following someone, she actually got a free lesson from a teacher, Bai Yishan and the others were all stunned.

Even Su Qingqing, who was fearless and careless, had never done such a thing, yet Huo Sining not only did it, but she succeeded!

The man explained some basic identification methods to Huo Sining in detail, and Huo Sining roughly got the hang of it.

”It seems like you’ve understood. I’ll be leaving then. Take your time picking. It’s normal for a newbie to pay some tuition fees. Theory alone isn’t enough; you need to slowly gain experience through practice.”

The man could tell Huo Sining had understood by her expression, nodded with satisfaction, got up, and left with his luggage bag.

As soon as the man left, seeing Huo Sining still standing in front of the stall, Bai Yishan and the others quickly came up and asked eagerly, ”How did it go?”

Huo Sining nodded, ”Not too bad, I understood about seventy percent, enough to get started anyway.”

Su Qingqing was incredulous, ”You’re amazing, any random person you meet can teach you, what kind of damn luck is that!?”

Huo Sining looked Su Qingqing up and down, with a strange expression in her eyes, which made Su Qingqing somewhat baffled, ”What?”

Huo Sining smiled and said, ”You didn’t recognize that man just now?”

Su Qingqing frowned, ”How could I possibly recognize him? This is Wei District, not S City. It’s my first time here, how could I recognize everyone.”

Huo Sining shrugged her shoulders, ”Then let’s pretend I didn’t say anything.”

”I remember now!”

Li Quan, who had been quiet up until now, had been staring at the man the whole time. He felt the man looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

Hearing what Huo Sining said, a light bulb went off in his head, and he suddenly realized, slapping his forehead, ”I remember who this man is!”

”Who?” Su Qingqing didn’t recognize him, and Bai Yishan had only just returned to the country, so it was even less likely she would. Both looked at Huo Sining and Li Quan with puzzled faces.

Li Quan laughed, ”Ji Kun! The expert who often appears on the treasure appraisal program on CCTV!”

Su Qingqing was taken aback; she rarely watched TV and hadn’t seen any treasure appraisal programs, so she hadn’t heard of this Ji Kun.

Li Quan, seeing Su Qingqing’s confused look, knew she didn’t know and quickly continued to explain:

”CCTV Channel 4 has a folk treasure appraisal program, very famous. They often invite antique experts to help with appraisals. This Ji Kun is very well-known in the appraisal circle, and he’s also a famous professor and expert at a museum in the capital, with deep research into antiques.”

”But how did you come to know this person?”

After explaining, Li Quan felt something was amiss and turned back, looking at Huo Sining in surprise.

Huo Sining shook her head, ”I didn’t know him. At first, I just thought he looked a bit familiar, so I followed him. I had no idea he was some expert professor. It was only while he was explaining jade to me that I realized who he was.”

Bai Yishan was at a loss for words upon hearing this, while Su Qingqing seemed somewhat unconvinced, ”Television is mostly for show-off. This guy is just in his thirties, right, and he dares to call himself an expert professor? Who knows if he’s just fishing for fame and reputation anyway, my Professor Xie must be way better than him!”

Huo Sining did not deny this—Professor Xie was indeed an old expert in the field and certainly had much more experience than Ji Kun, who had just appeared.

However, Huo Sining had a good impression of Ji Kun; his willingness to explain things openly without hiding anything showed that he was broad-minded and not like ordinary expert professors who tend to put on airs and act pretentiously.

Choosing jade is a complex art, but Su Qingqing and Bai Yishan weren’t too particular about it. After a trip to Pingzhou, they had picked at random and still made money. Jadeite raw materials are smaller than mutton-fat jade and hence are cheaper, so even if they made a wrong purchase, the loss wouldn’t be significant. That’s why they were also prepared to buy a few pieces just for fun.

Naturally, Su Qingqing’s favorite was Mutton Fat Jade. She had seen the pair of Mutton-fat Jade Bracelets belonging to Huo Sining; the texture and feel of them were irresistible. Unfortunately, Huo Sining did not wear them herself, so Qingqing couldn’t possibly ask for them. Therefore, on this trip to Hetian, she wanted to buy a piece of Mutton Fat Jade to see if her brother could help her carve a pair of jade bracelets.

In the summer, holding a piece of authentic Mutton Fat Jade in hand, a layer of crystalline water would appear on the surface of the jade, while in the winter, it would not feel as bitterly cold as jadeite. Instead, it would have a sense of warm and tender feeling.

Su Qingqing had a special affection for Mutton Fat Jade and casually picked out a stall to start choosing. Before long, she picked a piece from a pile of colorful stones and handed it to Huo Sining, ”How about this piece?”

Huo Sining took the jade into her hand and promptly let out a surprised ”oh.”

”What is it?” Bai Yishan curiously looked over.

Huo Sining shook her head, ”It’s nothing.”

In fact, the moment Huo Sining took the raw material in hand, the Azure Pearl on her forehead had emerged, flashing a faint light.

This surprised Huo Sining greatly because the jade’s surface looked smooth and seemed to be seed material.

But there was no water on the jade, so why did the Azure Pearl emerge?

Hetian Jade is divided into mountain material and seed material. Since seed material is dug from riverbeds and their edges are mostly washed away by water, similar to pebbles, they are rounded and smaller. However, these seed materials have a fine and moist quality; one can feel the difference when holding them in hand.

Huo Sining was puzzled, but she soon guessed the reason.

The Azure Pearl needed water for appraisal; after being washed by river water for tens of thousands of years, the jade’s internal structure would have absorbed water molecules to form natural water. Although invisible to the naked eye, the Azure Pearl could still feel it.

To confirm her guess, Huo Sining picked up a few pieces of mountain material and seed material with obvious external features from the stall, and the result was indeed as she had suspected.

The Azure Pearl could not appraise the quality of mountain material, but it could distinguish each piece of seed material.

This discovery left Huo Sining feeling both surprised and delighted.

Seed material is dug from riverbeds; hence, the distinction between mountain material and seed material inherently lies in whether it contains natural water.

If the Azure Pearl could automatically detect the presence of natural water in jade, then she didn’t need to spend any extra effort to choose these materials. She could even find overlooked treasures, which was something Huo Sining hadn’t anticipated before coming to Hetian.

The piece of jade that Su Qingqing had picked was clearly seed material without a doubt, but the quality wasn’t very good. The glimmer from the Azure Pearl was faint, indicating the low value of this piece of seed material.

Huo Sining was about to carefully select a better piece of material from the stall when she suddenly heard a loud argument not far away.