Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 790: Chapter 786: Is the Raw Material Fake?

Those who understand stone cutting know that when cutting jadeite, they generally wouldn’t make the first cut through the middle of the rough stone.

Because the possibility of finding jadeite in the middle part of the rough is highest, if one were to cut through the center, the jadeite could be severed, and if the jadeite is large enough or not exactly in the center, that might be okay.

But if the jadeite is too small, such a cut could result in a piece that might have yielded a bangle turning into waste, ultimately only being turned into a few facets or beads, leading to a substantial loss.

So usually, during stone cutting, people would avoid the central area, especially the experienced stone solver masters, who tend to start cutting from the part where jadeite is most likely to be found, cautiously making a small initial cut, slicing off a thin layer of the stone’s skin. Based on what’s revealed inside, they then decide whether to continue cutting the stone or to opt for polishing it instead.

Like Huo Sining drawing a line boldly straight through the center, not only the onlookers but also Zhong Zifan and Liao Song had never seen anyone do that before.

Yang Wen, who had been closely watching Huo Sining’s movements, looked at the line she had drawn, then stared at the piece of Hei Wusha for a long while, unable to fathom what Huo Sining intended by drawing her line that way.

Yang Wen was somewhat confused, and being a straightforward person unversed in craftiness, he finally couldn’t contain his impatience and couldn’t help but ask directly.

”Miss Huo, did you draw this line incorrectly?!”

Huo Sining looked up at Yang Wen, her lips revealing a faint smile, ”No mistake. It’s meant to be drawn like this.”

As she spoke, she prepared to lay the stone on its side, ready for a vertical cut.

However, this piece of Hei Wusha was more than double the size of the previous Shui Fan Sha, making the weight somewhat challenging for Huo Sining.

Zhong Zifan, seeing this, hurried forward and said, ”Let me do it! Just tell me how to cut, and I’ll follow your directions!”

Seeing this, Huo Sining nodded. Stone cutting was indeed tiring work, particularly the grinding. She had only cut one piece of Shui Fan Sha, and after using the grinding machine for an hour, she felt her arms begin to ache.

The workload of the stone in front of her would be no less than with the Shui Fan Sha, and if the rubies inside were to be completely revealed, it certainly wouldn’t be easy.

Since she had planned to gift the contents inside to Zhong Zifan and Liao Song as a congratulatory present for their store opening, and since it was destined to become property of Dianshifang, why wouldn’t she be happy for Zhong Zifan to do the cutting?

Huo Sining didn’t contend, and readily allowed Zhong Zifan to take over the stone. Being a man, Zhong Zifan had much more strength in his hands than Huo Sining. He easily handled the weight of the stone, which was twenty to thirty pounds.

”How should I cut it?” Zhong Zifan, using the machine, hoisted the cubic meter stone onto the stone cutting machine’s operating table and began to observe how to mark and make the cut. But after looking at Huo Sining’s lines, he was puzzled too and could only look up at Huo Sining for guidance.

Huo Sining smiled and pointed to the line, ”Start with this line, go slow, when the depth reaches three to four inches, switch to the opposite side for a cross cut.”

Zhong Zifan listened but didn’t quite understand. Huo Sining made some additional gestures on the stone, and he finally grasped what she meant.

Though he now understood how to cut, the method itself left Zhong Zifan even more befuddled.

It wasn’t just Zhong Zifan who was confused; most people present were as well. They couldn’t comprehend what Huo Sining was attempting to do with such haphazard actions—was this really a way to cut stone?

Wang Zhongwei’s gaze revealed an expression of surprise as he examined the lines Huo Sining had drawn on the raw stone, thought carefully about what Hu Youmin had told him earlier, and had a flash of inspiration that helped him vaguely understand why Huo Sining was doing this.

Was this young lady planning to split the stone into two to reveal its true nature? But if that were the case, why didn’t she cut all the way through with one stroke instead of making two cuts?

Wang Zhongwei’s eyes showed a puzzled look, but he stared unblinkingly at the activity on the stage.

Zhong Zifan’s mind was in a muddle, following Huo Sining’s instructions with mechanical movements.

The electric saw whirred, the water pipe washed, and following the line drawn by Huo Sining, Zhong Zifan cut through the piece of raw stone.

Stone chips flew, and a sizzling sound came from the stone cutting machine.

Everyone waited for the outcome of this cut, but a few people nearby had strange expressions, especially Yang Wen, whose face full of anticipation suddenly tightened, fixing his gaze on the piece of stone in Zhong Zifan’s hand, his eyes betraying confusion and surprise.

These people were veterans in the stone gambling circle, well-acquainted with raw stones after decades of stone solving and gambling.

The sound that the saw blade made when it cut through just now was different from the usual sound when cutting rough stones.

Because jadeite raw stones are hard, stone solvers generally use mechanical grinding wheels, which spin rapidly. When they enter the jadeite, the noise is heavy and sometimes has a piercing quality.

However, when Zhong Zifan was cutting just now, the noise from the grinding wheel sounded as if it were spinning freely, indicating that it was cutting through an air pocket, the inside of the rough stone was hollow, and the wheel hadn’t hit solid rock.

What was going on?

Yang Wen and the other stone gambling veterans exchanged glances, each having a vague guess.

Could this raw stone be a fake?

Yang Wen looked at the raw stone in Zhong Zifan’s hand, then at Huo Sining, who seemed calm and seemingly unaware of the anomaly. The question he was about to ask was forcefully swallowed back.

Yang Wen, as the Vice Chairman of the Fuzhou Jade Association, carried a bit of arrogance himself.

He knew of Huo Sining’s reputation and was amazed at her rapid rise. A young lady not even twenty years old had established such a formidable jade company in less than a year, indeed no easy feat.

But just as the saying goes that scholars often belittle each other, the same was true in the stone gambling circles.

Many veteran stone gamblers believed that stone gambling was an affair that relied on the accumulation of time and experience. People like Yang Wen had clambered through the stone gambling circles for decades, gaining experience and lessons from repeated failures in gambling, and had worked their way to this position step by step with solid effort.

Now, a young upstart had suddenly appeared and effortlessly achieved what they had striven for their whole lives, naturally causing these people to feel an implicit threat to their status.

Particularly now, as Huo Sining solved stones with such high-profile, it made them feel even more uneasy.