Chapter 123
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang were still mentally communicating. Shao Qingge saw that Mo Xuemin’s face was full of confusion and couldn’t help touching his nose with a smile. “Old Mo, don’t care about them. I want to ask you something first.”
The dazed Mo Xuemin recovered and quickly said, “Okay, you can ask.”
“Does the City of the Moon have a jade processing plant or a raw stone acquisition station?”
Mo Xuemin nodded. “I know there is a company in the northern suburbs that specializes in the acquisition of jade raw stones. Do you want to buy or sell?”
Based on his expression, he didn’t know anything about the jade of Liuxi Village. It was clear that Old Mo didn’t perfectly clear 4 of Spades or get the hidden reward.
Shao Qingge laughed. “I want to gamble with stones. I’ll go and check it another day, thank you.”
Xiao Lou heard this and finally ended his conversation with Yu Hanjiang. He looked back and Mo Xuemin and said, “Old Mo, thank you so much for today. You recommended a good place for us and told us a lot about the World Weekly. How do you want to receive the consulting fee? Cash or transfer?”
Mo Xuemin smiled and waved his hand. “No, it can be considered destiny that I made friends with you. If you have any questions then you can continue to call me.” He paused and a trace of sadness flashed in his eyes. “In this world, it is unknown how long I can live. If it wasn’t for my daughter, I might’ve given up.”
Liu Qiao suddenly said, “Uncle Mo, you can’t give up. Your daughter must be waiting for you to go back.” Mo Xuemin raised his head and looked into the girl’s clear and bright eyes. She looked at him seriously and said, “It is just like how my father is waiting for me to go back.”
Mo Xuemin was stunned and his heart suddenly quivered. He looked away with embarrassment and spoke in a trembling voice, “You’re right. My daughter is a few years younger than you and she only has one relative. How can I give up? I must go back!”
Xiao Lou reached out and gently patted Old Mo’s shoulder. “Don’t lose heart. According to your opinion, tens of millions of people participate in the World Weekly and only a few million are eliminated. An elimination rate of nearly 10% isn’t particularly high. As long as you find a good team, you will surely pass the instance this week.”
Old Mo smiled. “I’ll borrow your words. Please take care of yourself!”
The group returned to Room 311. Xiao Lou told the other three people the result of his spiritual discussion with Group Leader Yu. “We want to upgrade the contract book and add Old Mo as well as the couple from Liuxi Village. What do you think?”
Liu Qiao stated, “I don’t think Old Mo is a liar. The expression he made when he mentioned his daughter, not even a movie emperor can act like that.”
Xie Qi said, “Old Mo is a bit like a guide after going to a strange world. He knows a lot and there is no harm in adding him to the team. In addition, Professor Xiao said he got an A rating in all secret rooms. This shows he is a jack of all trades!’
Xiao Lou smiled and said, “The most critical point is his profession.”
Yu Hanjiang nodded. “He is a designer of a decorating company. He opened his own decorating company in the real world and found a part-time job at a decorating company in the Card World. Designers are very sensitive to space and our team doesn’t have anyone particularly good at mazes.”
Xiao Lou added, “Yes, think about it. Last week’s World Weekly was the Rotation Maze where the maze would rotate 90 degrees after a certain period of time. Old Mo was unlucky to meet hunters. He had to run for his life while looking for the exit of the maze. The difficulty was raised by several times and 80% of the people were eliminated. His team was almost completely destroyed so how did he survive?”
Liu Qiao’s eyes brightened. “It shows he is very good at mazes. He probably used the complex paths of the rotating maze to avoid being killed and found the exit in a limited amount of time.”
Xiao Lou nodded. “Our team needs such a person but our current understanding of him is based on what he told us. It is too one-sided. Thus, after discussing it with Group Leader Yu, I have decided to go to the Intelligence Bureau on Wednesday. We will help Little Liu find her sister while at the same time, I will spend some money to check Old Mo’s details. If he is okay then we can try to invite him to join the team. Is this okay?”
Shao Qingge made an ‘I’m responsible for lying down to win’ expression and said, “I don’t care.”
Xie Qi stated, “I support Professor Xiao’s decision.”
Liu Qiao nodded. “I agree.”
Things were decided so Shao Qingge suggested, “Today is Monday. Tomorrow, we should go to the northern suburbs to find the raw stone acquisition company and sell all our jade wool stones to first save some funds. It isn’t suitable to stay long term in a hotel. My opinion is that if we have enough money, we can directly rent a villa. It is better for us to live together than in a hotel where fish and dragons might be mixed together.”
Yu Hanjiang said, “Okay, tomorrow we will meet downstairs at 8:30. It isn’t early so we should all go to bed.”
At 11 in the evening, the five people went back to sleep.
At 8:30 the next morning, everyone gathered downstairs on time and took two taxis to the northern suburbs.
Shao Qingge took everyone to the factory that Old Mo mentioned. The owner of the factory was a bearded middle-aged man. He heard that Shao Qingge wanted to sell raw stones and was very disdainful. “Just now, someone came to me to sell a raw stone but there was only a worthless piece of jade in it when I opened it. How about your raw stone? I’m not a garbage dump that collects bad things!”
Shao Qingge smiled. “Does the boss want to bet on it?”
The boss raised his eyebrows. “How do you want to bet?”
Shao Qingge turned to look at the workshop where they processed raw stones. “If an excellent jade is obtained from my raw stone, you will pay us 70% of the market price. The 30% can be your processing fee. If an excellent jade isn’t obtained, I’ll pay you one million gold coins per raw stone.”
The boss looked at Shao Qingge like he was stupid. “Won’t you lose money if you lose the bet? Aren’t you crazy to make this type of gamble?”
Shao Qingge pointed at his head and smiled. “I’m very sober.”
The boss thought that if a good jade was obtained, there would be a 30:70 share. This was much higher than the usual share but it wasn’t difficult to accept. If there was nothing, the other side would pay. This gambling method was a sure way to make money!
The boss nodded. “Okay, follow me and let me see your goods.”
The five people followed him and came to the workroom.
Shao Qingge pulled a raw stone out of his card bag and materialized it. The boss frowned carefully. The appearance of this raw stone was flat and small. It didn’t look like it could hold the best jade stone. However, the other side was smiling and looked very confident. This made the boss call over his most skills master to open the stone.
He didn’t expect that when his piece of raw stone was opened—it was a great jade!
The green jade was crystal clear in the light and the boss’ eyes were bright. He excitedly extended a hand to touch the small piece of jade. Then he saw that his exposed emotions were too obvious and the boss coughed lightly. “This is just a general emerald. I will give you 100,000 gold coins.”
Shao Qingge smiled as he took back the stone and looked at it in the light. “This jade is relatively small and can be used to make jade pendants. Generally, you need to look at the type of jade, the colour and the quality. My jade has a fine texture, uniform colour and clear transparency. It is the most transparent type and the colour is absolutely the best. It can be processed and carved into a good-looking shape. Can’t it be bought for a few million?”
The boss became more alarmed the more he heard. He thought that these people didn’t understand the market and wanted to fool them by giving them a low price. Unexpectedly, he met an expert. His face looked a bit embarrassed.
Shao Qingge added, “I don’t want much. Four million and you can get my raw stones. If not, I’ll go somewhere else.”
The boss’ face changed and he hurriedly stopped the other person. “It is good to have a discussion. Do you have any other raw stones? Look again!”
Shao Qingge smiled. “It depends on the boss’ sincerity.”
The boss realized that he might’ve bumped into a special betting stone god. He immediately had people bring tea and water, respectfully inviting the group to the separate office next door. Shao Qingge followed and had Xiao Lou’s group take out their raw stones.
They contained several pieces of jade and some chrysoberyl stones. The boss was stunned. “Where did you get so many excellent raw stones?”
Shao Qingge smiled.”You can rest assured that the source is absolutely legal. Boss, do you want to take it?”
The boss nodded like he was pounding garlic. “Receive! All of it!”
There were many poor quality jade on the market and the price fluctuated greatly. A few thousand gold coins could be used to buy a cheap bracelet but these types of top quality jade were usually bought by collectors. The income could be increased by dozens of times.
The boss almost wanted to massage Shao Qingge’s shoulders. This was simply a god of wealth!
Shao Qingge wasn’t greedy because they needed to make money as soon as possible. In fact, they could make more money by processing and selling the finished products, rather than the raw materials. However, the World Weekly would arrive soon. It was better to sell the raw materials directly so the boss could process and sell them himself, saving time and effort. In addition, they had the priceless chrysoberyl bracelet.
The 3:7 price was too high. The boss’ face was about to become a bitter gourd as he said, “This gentleman, I have no eyes and didn’t expect you to bring so many excellent products. Can we discuss it again? How about a split of 5:5. You can see that I have to extract the raw materials, process it and carve it. These are all technical process and the masters do it by hand. They also need to eat!”
He thought that Shao Qingge would refuse. He didn’t expect Shao Qingge to simply say, “Okay Boss, if you take all the raw materials then you can get a discount. How about all the raw materials for 30 million?”
The boss calculated the amount and his eyes brightened. He immediately found the finance department and had them transfer 30 million gold coins. He personally escorted Shao Qingge’s group out with a smile. “Great gods, if you have this type of excellent raw stones in the future then please come to me!”
Shao Qingge smiled and waved. “Okay.”
Xiao Lou hadn’t spoken from beginning to end. He didn’t want to mix in with things he didn’t understand. In any case, Chief Shao was an expert and the boss couldn’t pit them. This batch of raw materials was sold for 30 million gold coins, nearly 300,000 yuan. This was a huge sum of money.
Shao Qingge smiled. “We will go to the bank and divide it between our accounts first. Each account will get 6 million gold, so that if anything happens in the later secret rooms, we won’t become poor.”
As he spoke, he suddenly saw two familiar people coming out of the factory. Coincidentally, it was the couple they met in Liuxi Village.
The two people were dejected. Apparently, they hadn’t sold their raw stones at a good price.
Xiao Lou had wanted to go to the Intelligence Bureau to find their whereabouts. He hadn’t expected to meet these two people here. The man saw Xiao Lou and was shocked. Then he wan over in an overjoyed manner. “Brother Xiao, are you here to sell the raw stones as well?”
They had all perfectly cleared the instance and got a reward from the village chief. However, the raw stones were selected by themselves. Shao Qingge’s picks were excellent while their picks were ordinary.
The woman smiled and asked, “How much did you sell it for? We only sold it for half a million.”
Half a million was equivalent to 5,000 yuan. The stones they picked were big but the colour was too bad.
Shao Qingge smiled. “We are pretty much the same.”
They didn’t say that they sold it for 30 million, lest they hit the two men.
Xiao Lou told them, “The fact that we could meet in the City of the Moon is fate. Let’s have lunch together. I also have some things to discuss with the two of you.”
The couple agreed and immediately followed.
After a conversation, they found that the two people had also gone to 4 of Clubs after leaving Liuxi Village. They had lost a lot of gold coins in 4 of Clubs but won many cards. They also copied two S-grade cards: Chameleon and Long Jump. They had come to the City of the Moon and ran to the northern suburbs. They found that a jade factory was in the northern suburbs. The couple spent a night lurking here to check that the factory was okay. Once it opened for work, they came to sell the raw stones and happened to meet Xiao Lou’s party.
The man said, “Brother Xiao is right. Meeting in such a big city must be fate! Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Long Sen, after the forest. This is my wife… no, it should be considered fiancee Qu Wanyue. We are both 25 years old this year.”
Qu Wanyue smiled helplessly. “We were really unlucky and there was a car accident on our wedding day. The wedding car crashed and our wedding is still unfinished.”
The group looked at them and thought that this was really bad luck.
All the guests were invited to attend a wedding banquet. As a result, the happy event turned into a funeral. Both of their parents would be sad…
Xiao Lou saw their sombre expressions and changed the topic. “Yes, we are currently missing teammates to upgrade the contract. Do you want to join our team?” He looked at the two men with a smile. “I have worked with you in Liuxi Village and we knew each other. I would like to invite you to join us in this week’s World Weekly.”
Long Sen was excited. “We’re willing! We wanted to form a team with you at that time but the masked man asked Old Han and Old Han said there were no spots in the team. Thus, we didn’t have the nerve to ask…”
Qu Wanyue was cheerful. “Yes, if Old Han leads then we will definitely listen to his commands. Your strength is clear. It was so comfortable to lie down and win in 4 of Spades.”
Shao Qingge smiled. “If you join the team, perhaps you can continue to lie down and win.”
Long Sen laughed. “We will be embarrassed to always lie down and win. I have copied the Chameleon card in 4 of Clubs. You can leave the investigation work to me if there are no high-rise buildings and it is a desert terrain where the little girl can’t fly.” He looked at Liu Qiao, who nodded, “Yes, I can only jump if there are landing points.”
Qu Wanyue stated, “The Chameleon card now has no restrictions. We can use it on any terrain including underwater, the desert or the snow. We can be completely integrated with the environment in two seconds. Later, I will be responsible for investigation along with Xiao Long.”
Long Sen nodded. “Yes, we can’t fight but our escape speed is first-class!”
Xiao Lou smiled. “I believe you since I have seen it in Liuxi Village.”
The couple’s personalities were forthright. Xiao Lou gave the upgraded contract book to them. They signed it extremely quickly. Apparently, they were afraid that Xiao Lou would change his mind.
After all, they had followed these people and managed to lie down to win once. Now they could always lie down to win.
