Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 524: Chapter 521: Ruili Gambling Street

Huo Sining had booked a hotel not far from Ruili Gambling Plaza, but since the market hadn’t opened yet, the plaza was deserted. Apart from its size, it didn’t seem much different from any other square that Huo Sining had seen.

After settling in, Huo Sining didn’t rest; she packed up her things and left the hotel with her backpack.

As she arrived in Ruili, from a distance, she saw people hawking jade roughs along the street. The sight of those stones made Huo Sining’s heart come alive.

Upon reflection, she realized it had been quite a long time since she’d last handled jadeite roughs. Now that she could touch these beautiful stones again, her heart couldn’t help but throb uncontrollably, and she was eager to try her hand.

Seeing that Huo Sining was restless and wanted to leave, Su Qingqing and the others naturally couldn’t stay in their rooms either. Without a word, they followed right behind Huo Sining.

Huo Sining wasn’t familiar with the place, but fortunately, after arriving, she had brought Wu Jun with her. Wu Jun was from Yun Province; although he hadn’t been to Ruili before, he could at least communicate with the locals.

The dialect of Yun Province was really hard to understand. As Wu Jun was asking a local for directions, the guide’s dialect made Huo Sining and the other three frown in confusion—they really didn’t understand a single word.

Wu Jun asked very carefully until he understood, then thanked the local guide and led everyone towards the legendary Ruili Gambling Street. It wasn’t long before Huo Sining faintly heard the sound of firecrackers.

Huo Sining’s eyes lit up. She turned her head and asked Su Qingqing and the others, ”Listen, did you hear the firecrackers just now?”

Su Qingqing listened carefully and indeed heard the firecrackers, but she was puzzled about why Huo Sining cared about the sound of firecrackers.

”Have you forgotten? Back in Pingzhou, whenever jade was revealed during stone cutting and it increased in value, they would set off firecrackers. Now it’s March, not a major holiday, so why would anyone set off firecrackers for no reason? Someone must have won their bet. Let’s hurry; Gambling Stone Street should be just ahead!”

No sooner had Huo Sining finished speaking than she saw several people emerging from nearby houses and hurrying towards the direction of the firecrackers. Huo Sining’s eyes were filled with certainty as she pulled Su Qingqing and Bai Yishan and ran following those people.

Following them, Huo Sining and her group arrived on a street.

Huo Sining noted that this street stretched all the way to the end, and all along it were gambling stone shops.

”This must be Ruili’s Gambling Stone Street!” Seeing those shops, Su Qingqing exclaimed excitedly.

Huo Sining smiled but didn’t say anything, and followed the people in front of them to a store called ”Dian Cui.”

Because someone had a successful bet on a rough piece, the shop was surrounded inside and out with quite a few people. In the midst of it all, on the stone cutting machine, a person was cutting into a type of rough called ”ma meng.”

The ”ma meng” rough had been polished on several sides, which looked to be of Hibiscus Kind, classified as mid-to-high grade jadeite.

Although the piece of rough wasn’t very large, judging by the area it had exposed, it was possible to carve out a pair of bangles, and the remaining material could be made into several pendants and ring faces. Calculating like this, this person’s rough truly had significantly increased in value.

As the fifth face was revealed, the fate of this stone was practically sealed; there was nothing more to see. It was better to spend the remaining time feeling other stones.

As more and more onlookers gathered, Huo Sining lost interest in the stone and simply stepped aside into a nearby Gambling Stone shop.

The shops on Ruili Gambling Street are quite different from those in Pingzhou.

When Huo Sining was in Pingzhou, he had visited each shop on Jade Street, where most mainly sold finished jade artifacts, with stone gambling being secondary. The rough stones found there were mostly brick materials, so it was difficult to find a stone with good quality jadeite on Pingzhou Jade Street.

However, the stone gambling shops in Ruili were completely different. The street was the old street, and the shops were the old shops. Once inside, all one could see were all kinds of rough stones for gambling, including those fully for gambling, those partially gambled, and even those that were mostly cut to reveal the stone, but there were hardly any finished jadeite products.

Huo Sining had learned from browsing posts on jade forums that Ruili’s finished jadeite artifacts are not sold on Gambling Stone Street. If one wants to buy finished jadeite, they must go to the tourist area, where many jade shops sell finished jadeite artifacts. Gambling Stone Street is exclusively a hub for the stone gambling business.

Because the neighboring shop ”Dian Cui” was drawing a crowd due to a stone price surge, the other shops nearby had lost their customers, probably all having gone to watch the excitement. The owner of this shop hadn’t left, though. Taking advantage of the lull, he was busy eating from his lunchbox.

It was already past three o’clock, and only now was he eating lunch, but there was not even a hint of displeasure on the shop owner’s face. On the contrary, there was a subtle joy in his eyes, indicating that the day’s business had been good.

The shop owner, who probably wasn’t expecting Huo Sining and the others to come in at this time, seemed somewhat frustrated when he looked up. He must have been very hungry, as he had just taken a big bite of food, which prevented him from speaking and momentarily left him choking.

Seeing the shop owner’s comical situation, Huo Sining and the others could not help but grin, and Su Qingqing even covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.

Hearing the soft laughter, the shop owner came to his senses, hurriedly drank some water, and forcefully swallowed the food that was stuck in his throat.

”What kind of rough stones would you like to buy?” The owner noticed that Huo Sining and his group were all quite young and that three of them were women. Although he somewhat doubted whether they were really there to buy rough stones, his instincts prevailed as he smiled and approached them to ask.

Huo Sining glanced over the rough stones in the store and noticed they were sorted into piles and asked, ”Boss, what are the prices for the fully gambled rough stones and the partially gambled rough stones here?”

Hearing Huo Sining speak, the shop owner realized she was not a newcomer who knew nothing and was immediately surprised. This girl only looked seventeen or eighteen years old, yet she was truly into stone gambling. There weren’t many women who gambled on stones, especially such a young girl.

With that thought, the shop owner couldn’t help but take a few extra glances at Huo Sining.

”That pile of fully gambled rough stones is five thousand yuan per kilogram. The price for the stones with windows is different, based on the rough stone and surface appearance after the window is opened.”

The owner was not one to turn away business, regardless of whether his customers were women or men. All that mattered to him was making money.

Huo Sining nodded. This price was not considered expensive. The shop next door had priced stones at eight thousand yuan per kilogram, and now with someone betting on a rise, the price might go up even more.