Helpless, Ma Lianhao had no choice but to lead Jiang Feng to the g@mbling site. The place wasn’t far—just a few hundred meters away. From a distance, they could already see a large crowd gathered, the atmosphere buzzing with excitement.
Jiang Feng swept his gaze over the scene and immediately spotted a pile of raw stones on a stall in the middle of the crowd. Each stone was clearly priced, and buyers could purchase them on the spot. After buying, they could either take the stones away or have them cut open right there by a master cutter.
However, a few dejected individuals stood among the crowd, their faces ashen—clearly, they were buyers who had just lost their bets, much like the man who had bumped into Ma Lianhao earlier.
Jiang Feng and Ma Lianhao squeezed through the crowd and saw an old man cutting a stone. The onlookers craned their necks, staring unblinkingly, not daring to even breathe loudly.
Stone g@mbling was a game of extremes—one cut could bring fortune, the next could spell ruin. A single slice could lead to heaven or hell.
With Earth’s current technology, there was still no reliable way to see inside a raw stone. Thus, stone g@mbling remained a primitive form of betting, relying entirely on experience, intuition, and sheer luck. Yet even the most seasoned experts could misjudge and pay the price.
The grinding sound of the cutter filled the air as stone fragments flew in all directions. Some people were hit by the debris but refused to step back. Jiang Feng glanced briefly but didn’t linger—that stone already had an owner, so whether it contained jade or not had nothing to do with him.
He crouched down and picked up a stone priced at 2,000 yuan, carefully sensing it. This was no high-quality rough from an old mine—just a worthless rock dug up from some random mountain. He had already checked discreetly—there wasn’t the slightest trace of spiritual energy in it.
Jiang Feng tested a few more small stones in the same price range. Unsurprisingly, they were all just plain rocks. No wonder so many people here ended up losing their bets. He couldn’t help but feel exasperated.
Just then, a crisp crack echoed as the stone being cut was fully split open. The fragments scattered messily on the ground. The old cutter held a small piece in his hand and announced impassively, “It’s a loss.”
The owner, a young man, had been sweating nervously even before the final cut. Now, his face was drenched in panic. “But I had such a good feeling about this! How could it be a loss?” he stammered.
The old man sneered. “What a strange thing to say. If everyone could win just by relying on some vague ‘feeling,’ wouldn’t the whole world be full of billionaires? Why would I even bother selling raw stones? I’d just sell jade directly and make a fortune!”
A pudgy middle-aged man standing beside the old man turned pale at these words and hurriedly intervened, “Uncle Mo, he’s just here to have a little fun with some spare change. Winning’s great, but losing happens—no need to rub it in, right? You’re just making him feel worse.”
The old man snorted. “What, am I not allowed to speak now?”
The chubby man forced a bitter smile. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just… your words are a bit harsh.”
“Harsh? If you can’t handle losing, then why even play?” The old man waved him off dismissively.
The young man’s face burned red with humiliation. He didn’t know whether to leave or stay, his hands fidgeting awkwardly.
The fat man—the owner of the stall—looked deeply embarrassed. He clasped his hands and bowed repeatedly to the crowd. “My apologies, everyone! Uncle Mo just has a… strong personality. Please don’t take it to heart. Just enjoy yourselves! It’s hot today—later, I’ll treat everyone to tea, on the house! Please, do me this favor!”
The crowd didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The old man wasn’t just stubborn—he was like a hard, stinking rock, acting as if he wanted to drive all the customers away. If they didn’t know he was the stall owner’s hired cutter, they’d have thought he was a saboteur sent by a rival.
The old man snorted again, tossing aside the cut stone. “Anyone else want their stone opened?”
The crowd exchanged uneasy glances. No one spoke up. After all, an uncut stone still held some value, but once opened—if no jade appeared—it became worthless.
Plus, the old man’s temper was unbearable. If you won, fine. But if you lost? You’d have to endure his mockery. Who could stand that?
After about half a minute of silence, a middle-aged man beside Jiang Feng hesitantly spoke up. “Um… I just bought a stone. Can I get a refund?”
The man wore a wrinkled black suit and dusty leather shoes—clearly not wealthy. He had probably come to try his luck, but after seeing so many losses, he was having second thoughts. He didn’t want to throw away his hard-earned 1,000 yuan.
The fat stall owner wiped his sweaty face with a tissue and shook his head. “Sorry, friend. All prices here are fixed—no cheating, no refunds.”
“But—” The man wanted to argue. His stone was the cheapest here—just 1,000 yuan—but that was half a month’s salary for him. It wasn’t a small amount.
“No ‘buts.’ You bought it, so deal with it. Stop wasting time,” the old man cut in impatiently.
Jiang Feng furrowed his brows slightly and patted the middle-aged man on the shoulder with a smile. “Friend, could I take a look at that rough stone in your hand? If it suits me, I’ll buy it.”
The middle-aged man glanced at him, noting his distinguished air—clearly someone with money to spare. Eagerly, he handed over the stone as if it were a hot potato.
Jiang Feng found it amusing, but he understood the nature of g@mbling on jadeite. Everyone here was a g@mbler, driven by the same desperate hope that a single cut would reveal green. Yet the odds were slim, and those with weak nerves could hardly bear the tension.
Taking the stone, he examined it briefly and felt a faint stir in his heart—a trace of spiritual energy. Though it was incredibly weak, almost imperceptible unless he focused, it suggested that if there was jade inside, its value would far exceed a thousand yuan.
Truthfully, he hadn’t expected much from such a small stone. His reason for buying it was simple: he was nearly broke. None of the other stones he’d inspected—priced around two thousand—had shown even a wisp of spiritual energy. This one, at least, offered a bit of fun. To him, a thousand yuan was no different from a single yuan, and if he could help this man in passing, all the better.
Unexpectedly, his casual act of kindness had rewarded him with a pleasant surprise.
“Will you sell this stone?” Jiang Feng asked, tilting his head.
“Yes, yes! Just give me a thousand—no, eight hundred! Eight hundred is enough!” the man stammered, as if afraid Jiang Feng might change his mind.
Jiang Feng chuckled, counted out a thousand yuan, and handed it over. Tossing the stone carelessly at the old cutter’s feet, he said, “Cut it.”
The old man gave him a mocking look. “Young man, you don’t actually think this scrap will yield jade, do you?”
“Won’t we know once it’s cut?” Jiang Feng replied evenly.
The old man smirked. “Kid, you don’t seem short on cash. If you really want to g@mble, I can recommend better stones. No guarantees, but they’re far likelier to produce something than this one.”
Jiang Feng grinned. “You’ve misjudged me. I’ve only got a little over a thousand to my name—and I still need a few hundred for meals. Cheap stones are all I can afford.”
The old man sighed. “Even with a tight budget, there are better options. Why buy someone else’s castoff? Aren’t you worried about bad luck?”
“Call it fate. Maybe this man will bring me good fortune,” Jiang Feng said, still smiling.
Shaking his head, the old man muttered, “These days, bargains are rarely what they seem. But if you insist on testing your luck, fine. Consider this thousand yuan a lesson.”
His tone was dripping with condescension, and the onlookers snickered, clearly convinced Jiang Feng was a fool chasing easy gains. In this business, the greedier you were, the quicker you lost.
But a thousand yuan was a trivial sum, hardly worth their attention.
The middle-aged man flushed at the old cutter’s words. “I—maybe I shouldn’t sell it to you. I don’t want you to lose money…”
Jiang Feng, who rather liked the man’s honesty, waved him off. “No need. A deal’s a deal. If I win, it’s my luck. If I lose, keep the money—it’s on me.”
The man opened his mouth to protest but fell silent.
The old man began cutting. The stone was small, barely a third the size of a football, so he split it straight down the middle. With a few precise grinds, it fell into two halves.
After rinsing them with water, the old man smirked. “Well, kid? Convinced now?”
Jiang Feng paused. He’d sensed spiritual energy earlier—how could there be nothing? Had he been mistaken?
After a moment of silence, he stepped forward and picked up the two halves. A closer look confirmed it: his intuition hadn’t failed him. The jade was simply too sparse.
Handing the left half back to the cutter, he said calmly, “I have a bad habit—I never quit until I’m proven wrong. Cut this half as well.”