Chapter 380 - 378: Treasure Hunt

Chapter 380: Chapter 378: Treasure Hunt

"Master, on the street behind this one, there are plenty of shops with warehouses. It may not look as bustling as it does here, but there are still a lot of people gambling on stones. It also seems to me that the raw stones there are more numerous and much larger than in the shops here."

Seeing Gu Nuan Nuan just standing there watching the endless stream of people without making a move to join in, Cao Cao knew she was a little unsure of where to go. It thoughtfully used its spiritual power to scan the entire area before speaking.

"Hmm, this street must be mainly for first-time, casual customers. The street behind is for the regulars." Gu Nuan Nuan nodded. Looking at the bustling scene, she didn’t feel the need to waste any more time. "Lead the way. We’ll go there directly and take a look. They all know we’ve come here, so how could we not take this chance to get some Jade for the family?"

When it came to stone gambling, Gu Nuan Nuan had been clueless in both her past life and her present one. However, telling whether a raw stone contained Jade was no trouble at all for her and Cao Cao. They didn’t need to shine high-powered flashlights on them like everyone else. All she had to do was sense it. A raw stone with Spiritual Energy was guaranteed to have something inside, and the denser the Spiritual Energy, the better the quality of the Jade it contained.

"Hehe, you’ve got that right. Just follow me, Master. I promise you won’t go wrong." Cao Cao was thrilled that it could help Gu Nuan Nuan. They moved quickly and, in just a few moments, arrived at the street Cao Cao had mentioned. Gu Nuan Nuan glanced around. This street was indeed not as prosperous as the last one.

Every single shop here was a Jade store. They all seemed to follow the same model: a storefront in the front, with piles of raw stones stacked from the entrance all the way inside, looking more numerous and larger than those on the previous street. The shops also had cutting machines, with a cutter helping with the work.

Gu Nuan Nuan used her Divine Sense to check the other shops. Their layouts were all quite similar. Most had a small or large courtyard connected to the back, followed by rooms used as warehouses. There were piles of stones everywhere—some were uncut raw stones, while others were waste material from failed cuts. The sheer volume of stone piled up was a magnificent sight.

She picked a fairly popular shop at random and walked inside. The moment she entered, she heard someone cry out in surprise, "It’s a high-grade, vivid green!"

Gu Nuan Nuan took a closer look. The person who had cried out was a tall, thin man with glasses. However, he clearly wasn’t the owner of the stone. The owner was a woman in a blue dress standing next to him, who looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six. She was covering her mouth, her eyes glued to the stone that had been cut open, revealing a whole surface of shimmering green. Her face was a mask of uncontrollable excitement.

"One hundred thousand! I’ll pay one hundred thousand!" While the woman was still caught up in her excitement, a bald, middle-aged, overweight man in the crowd of onlookers shouted.

"Tch, a hundred thousand? Isn’t that a little low? The man just announced it’s a high-grade, vivid green. How could a hundred grand be enough for a piece this big?" A young man in his early twenties, also in the crowd, curled his lip and chimed in. "Sell it to me. I’m much more sincere. I’ll offer three hundred thousand."

The overweight man from before glanced at the stone, then back at the young man, and gritted his teeth. "Three hundred and fifty thousand."

"Five hundred thousand," the young man replied, raising the price without missing a beat.

The overweight man hesitated. He looked at the stone with longing, his mouth hanging open. The thick flesh on his cheeks trembled twice, but in the end, he closed his mouth and fell silent.

"Ma’am, think it over carefully. Five hundred thousand, and you transfer this stone to me. No matter what happens next, you come out ahead. If you insist on cutting it further yourself, you’re taking a huge risk. If the rest of it turns out to be a dud, this one good face won’t even be worth a hundred thousand."

The woman hesitated, looking up at the tall, thin man with glasses beside her for his opinion.

"Sell it to him. We only spent six hundred yuan on it, after all. Five hundred thousand is a massive profit. If we get any greedier, who knows..." The man with glasses looked at the stone and spoke decisively. The woman was still a little hesitant, but she ultimately agreed with him and gave a firm nod. The three of them then took the stone aside. Instead of continuing the stone cutting, they quickly began to finalize the deal...

The master stone cutter seemed completely unfazed by this scene, calmly continuing to help the next person in line cut their stone. He might have been calm, but the surrounding crowd was not. Several people who had been on the verge of giving up in disappointment seemed to have their hopes reignited after witnessing the exchange. Filled with renewed anticipation, they dove back into the piles of stones to continue their search—

’So it’s true, "one cut to poverty, one cut to riches."’ Gu Nuan Nuan, who had watched the entire process with great interest, communicated with Cao Cao through her thoughts. ’Cao Cao, I can feel that the Spiritual Energy in that stone is quite abundant. The guy who bought it for five hundred thousand definitely won’t be taking a loss.’

’Hehe, it is pretty interesting. Master, let’s pick out a few stones too! If we make a move, we’re sure to make everyone here burn with envy!’ Cao Cao thought that letting Gu Nuan Nuan feel the burn of everyone’s envious stares would be just like feeling it itself. It was eager to experience it and made the enthusiastic suggestion.

’Are you an idiot? Ever heard of not flashing your wealth?’ Gu Nuan Nuan gave Cao Cao a massive eye-roll in her mind. ’What’s the fun in being gawked at by a crowd of jealous people? Who’s to say we won’t have a few unsavory characters tailing us afterward?’

’What’s there to be afraid of? You think we can’t handle them?’ Cao Cao’s fighting spirit was undiminished.

’It’s a hassle. It’s more fun to get rich on the down-low,’ Gu Nuan Nuan countered. ’In a minute, we’ll try to pick out small stones with abundant Spiritual Energy—’ She paused, a little regretful. ’Why did I forget to bring my backpack? It would have been perfect for carrying the raw stones. Oh well. I’ll just have to ask the shop owner for a bag later.’

’How boring,’ Cao Cao pouted.

Gu Nuan Nuan ignored it and fixed her eyes on a pile of smaller raw stones. Just like everyone else, she began to rummage through them. Soon, she was holding two or three raw stones. She wasn’t greedy; she only picked the two or three stones with the most abundant Spiritual Energy from each pile before moving on.

She went from shop to shop, searching just like that. Eventually, Gu Nuan Nuan found an opportunity to pull a backpack from her storage ring and put it on. Whenever she picked out a new raw stone, she would toss it into the bag, but in reality, she was instantly transferring it into her storage space. Cao Cao’s sulking didn’t last long, and it soon began helping Gu Nuan Nuan select raw stones again. With its help, Gu Nuan Nuan was happy to take it easy and left the rest of the selection task to it.

After going through the entire street, with only one last shop to visit before their treasure hunt came to a successful conclusion, Cao Cao suddenly let out a sound of surprise. ’Huh?’ it exclaimed, followed by an awed, ’The Spiritual Energy is so dense!’