Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 538: Chapter 535: Uncle Jiang Qi’s Past

However, after hesitating for a moment, Huo Sining still took out that piece of stone. These two stones weighed a total of twenty kilograms. Huo Sining went to the counter in the store, swiped her card, and signed the sales contract before she began to examine the carefully selected raw materials on the curio shelf.

Compared to the materials in that courtyard, the ones on the curio shelf were undoubtedly of a different league.

Yet as Huo Sining’s hand moved over these raw materials, she didn’t find anything particularly good, either plain white rocks or mere skin-deep green. The only piece of ice-type Yang green had a window opened on it, so it really wasn’t worth the high price to buy it.

At this sight, a smile couldn’t help but appear on Huo Sining’s face.

She was sure that the shop owner was a gambling expert, and a very clever one at that.

He had singled out these well-performing stones but hadn’t cut them himself, naturally passing the risk on to the buyer.

Because he was well aware that not every one of these stones would yield jadeite, but because of their good appearance, he could ask for a high price—100,000 yuan per kilogram. Given the appearance of these raw materials, this price wasn’t considered too high.

Since the middle-aged man in the courtyard hadn’t finished cutting his stone, and Ouyang Jun and his group hadn’t come out, Huo Sining wasn’t in a hurry. She simply found a place to sit down in the shop, drinking tea while watching the patient Er Niu dealing with the ”mad old man.”

”Depend on skin green, all depend on skin green! Can’t deceive people, deceiving people means going to hell!”

After fiddling with the raw materials on the curio shelf, the old man suddenly spoke out, clearly out of his senses.

Listening to the old man’s rants, Er Niu, the shop assistant, couldn’t help but feel extremely frustrated.

However, it was clear that he knew the relationship between this crazy old man and his boss, so even though he was in a bad mood, he didn’t dare to lose his temper at the old man and could only persuade him:

”Uncle Jiang Qi, these are all top-quality raw materials that the boss personally selected from the new stock early this morning. There is definitely high-quality green in there. Could you please refrain from saying such discouraging words? It’s bad luck, you know? If your nephew’s business does well, he’ll take better care of you, and your life will improve, right?”

However, regardless of the soothing words, the old man was completely unreceptive, just mumbling about ”depend on skin green” ”worthless,” and ”deceiving,” as if he were convinced that no jadeite would come from those raw materials.

Watching the old man, Huo Sining suddenly had a thought and asked the assistant with a smile, ”Young man, forgive my intrusion, but may I inquire what exactly is the matter with this elderly gentleman?”

Er Niu, already aware of how much Uncle Jiang Qi revered Huo Sining, sighed upon being asked and poured out his complaints like spilling beans:

”Uncle Jiang Qi is the boss’s own uncle. Years ago, this shop belonged to him; the Jiang family was originally a hereditary family in the jade raw materials trade, but they gradually declined after liberation.”

”By Uncle Jiang Qi’s generation, only his and the boss’s father’s families remained in the business, but it was never really successful—they just got by.”

”Then, one time, Uncle Jiang Qi’s son fell gravely ill, and in a moment of desperation because he couldn’t raise enough money, possibly out of a mind clouded by his son’s illness, Uncle Jiang Qi decided to join several others in the raw materials business in making and selling fake materials.”

”They set a trap for a woman from out of town, and that poor woman foolishly spent two million to buy a fake raw jade stone and took it back with her.”

”Everyone thought that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly, the woman turned out to be a tough character. After finding out she had been deceived, she didn’t seek revenge on Uncle Jiang Qi; instead, she found several raw jade traders from Myanmar to retaliate against Uncle Jiang Qi and his partners.”

”Those Myanmar traders found an opportunity to get close to Uncle Jiang Qi intentionally, and after interacting with him for over half a year, under their deliberate arrangement, Uncle Jiang Qi came to know of their identities as Myanmar traders.”

”Knowing that these men were in the raw jade trade, Uncle Jiang Qi’s mind started to race, and he quickly became as thick as thieves with them—swearing brotherhood and getting cozy. Eventually, he indeed gained their trust, and they agreed to sell a batch of old pit raw jade to Uncle Jiang Qi at a low price.”

”Uncle Jiang Qi thought his chance to fortune had finally arrived, completely unaware that the raw jade traders were setting him up.”

”It was not until the raw jade was shipped back to the Jiang Family and the payment had been made, that Uncle Jiang Qi wanted to thank those men, only to find that the Myanmar traders had mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace to be found.”

”Unable to find these men, Uncle Jiang Qi finally sensed something was amiss, but at this point, he still couldn’t believe he had been scammed and pinned all his hopes on that batch of raw jade.”

”However, when he went back to inspect it, he discovered that out of the entire truckload of raw jade, only the top layer was from the old pit; the rest was just a pile of white rocks, not even qualifying as jadeite raw material.”

”Seeing that raw jade, Uncle Jiang Qi was so enraged that he fainted. When he awoke, he began frantically cutting into the raw stones.”

”But as one would expect, all of those stones were fake; even the old pit raw stones on the surface had only a layer of green on their skin, yielding no jadeite at all.”

”After cutting through those stones, Uncle Jiang Qi became delirious, and within a few days, he went mad.”

”Since then, whenever he saw someone else’s raw jade, he would claim it was just surface green, and if he saw a woman buying raw jade, he would curse at her.”

After recounting these old events, the helper Er Niu glanced at Uncle Jiang Qi with a pitying look, sighed helplessly, shook his head, and turned to busy himself with his own work.

Although the young helper had not witnessed the events of those days himself, he had come to understand most of the story through his boss and the old shopkeepers of the surrounding stores.

Though it had been over thirty years since those events took place, the elders still felt a rush of emotions when discussing them, advising people that as merchants, they should be honest and not be led by greed; for the madness of gambling on stones and the harm caused by avarice are profound.

After learning about such a story, Huo Sining’s mood also grew heavy. There’s a saying that everyone who is pitiable has their hateful side—had Uncle Jiang Qi not conned others, how would he end up in such a state?

It’s just a pity that in this world, there are no ’what-ifs’; heaven and hell, all lie in a single thought.

As he was lost in thought, a girl about fifteen or sixteen years old suddenly rushed into the store, her face mottled with sweat and breathing somewhat heavily; upon seeing the store’s staff, she urgently called out:

”Brother Er Niu, hurry up and tell Uncle Si to come back home. Someone from the Jade Association has come to collect his two raw stones.”