Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After getting the stones, Xiao Liao became extremely happy.
Li Du said, “How are you planning to manage them? I’m actually quite puzzled. If you sell these stones off, you might not even recoup what you spent, right?”
Xiao Liao said enthusiastically, “I will cut them, of course. These all came from Damakan. If it’s all green, I will definitely make a huge profit!”
Li Du said, “Are you going to gamble on the stones again? Didn’t you swear off it?”
Xiao Liao giggled and did not say more. He passed the stones to Master Dao and said, “Mill all of them!”
Master Dao started work without another word. He started to mill from the second stone. He carefully polished off the surface of the stone.
They expected that the stone would be hiding a piece of jade within like the first stone Li Du had.
However, as one layer after another was shed off, the stone became smaller and smaller. There was no sign of green.
The crowd watching around them sighed regretfully, “It’s a goner!”
“Slice it open, buddy. There’s no use to milling like this anymore.”
“It’s just surface material. Perhaps you can make a gaming tile from it.”
Xiao Liao was stunned. He said, “How can it be like this?”
Master Dao’s face stiffened. He quickly brought out another piece of stone and started to mill carefully again. However, as carefully as he worked, there was only sand coming off. There was not even a sign of yellow, let alone green!
Seeing that, Master Dao could take it no more. He started to grind on the top of the stone. A big piece fell off.
With only a few rubs, the entire stone fell apart. There was no jade inside. There was nothing inside at all!
Xiao Liao looked beyond distraught. He looked at the remaining four stones and yelled, “How can it be like this?!”
Master Dao did not speak and had a solemn look on his face. Three stones out of the four were left. He placed them on the machine and started to slice them open. Ka, Ka, Ka! The stones fell apart into a few small pieces.
There was no hint of jade in any of them!
Master Dao looked up and was stumped. “Where’s Brother Su?”
“He’s outside, getting ready to leave,” a man who was watching said with a grin.
Some people looked to be familiar with them. They teased, “You guys have bumped into an expert this time around!”
“What do you mean?” someone didn’t understand.
“What do you think? Can’t you tell? Doesn’t this seem like a coincidence, when you consider what happened before? Doesn’t it feel like they are acting? Master Dao, Lu Da You, the four of them are in cahoots!”
Master Dao glared at that person fiercely. With an icy look, he said, “Shut up and get lost!”
Seeing that there was nothing in the stones, Li Du prepared to leave with the money in his bag. He had not gone far from the teahouse when Master Dao and Xiao Liao caught up with him. They blocked his path.
“What’s going on?” Li Du asked.
Xiao Liao did not have the pitiful look from earlier anymore. He said fiercely, “We’ve made a mistake today. We’ve been preying on our victims, but the supposed victim has turned around on us. Hooked us in and capsized our ship, I’d call it.”
Frowning, Li Du said, “What’s up, teaching me figurative speech?”
Master Dao pointed at him and said, “You are cleverer than we are, I admit it. Put down the money, leave, and we will have nothing to do with each other again.”
Godanwei, who was nearby, seemed shocked. “What exactly happened?”
Li Du suddenly broke into a smile and said, “What else could have happened? Can’t you tell? Some scammers failed in their ploy and fell into their own trap.”
Master Dao, Xiao Liao, Ma La Nian and Lu Da You, the four of them, were indeed in cahoots. Previously, they had only been putting up an act. Lu Da You and Ma La Nian were acting as a pair and Master Dao and Xiao Liao as another pair. All of it was on purpose to gain Li Du’s trust.
All in all, their motive was to sell off the stones that Master Dao had at a high price. Although those stones looked to be promising, they were actually unlikely to contain jade.
If it were so easy to come across stones with jade in them, what would be so difficult about gambling on the stones? Would it have been such a legendary trade?
Of course, they had to invest a lot of money and effort into their scam. Out of the seven stones, Lu Da You had sold one that was indeed worthy. Although it was not big, it was really from Damakan.
Lu Da You had really gone to an old shop to buy that piece of stone. It was priced at one hundred thousand RMB. Hence, Lu Da You had sold it off at one hundred thousand to Li Du. That was their bait, but they did not want to let it out just like that.
Come to think of it, that stone was priced at one hundred thousand because of their relationship. If it were bought by any other regular folk, the price would be twenty percent higher. Hence, the scammers used it as bait.
The other six pieces did not come from Damakan but were found in the dumpster.
The aforementioned dumpster did not collect the trash from the city. The full name of the dumpster was ‘Mine Dump’. Every day, the mine would produce a huge amount of stone. The raw jade stones would be picked out and the place where the rest of the stones went to was called the dump.
Sometimes, raw jade stones were discarded by mistake. Hence, in Hpakant, there was another trade similar to treasure hunting. People who engaged in it would root through the dump and look for jade.
Every dump had its owner. In order to enter, one had to buy tickets. The stones that were picked out would belong to the finder. However, to bring home any stones, they would have to pay taxes.
They had found those six stones in the dump in Damakan. As they had been dumped after experts studied them, they were clearly worthless.
The value of jade was huge. If the experts were not confident, they would not dispose of those stones casually.
The experts could tell that there was no value in those stones, but there were few experts in Hpakant. Hence, the crooks managed to create a scam. That was because those stones looked bright and promising from the outside.
Initially, the scam had begun as per usual. Li Du bought the stone from Lu Da You, and it turned out to be valuable. Then, Master Dao and Xiao Liao gained Li Du’s trust. In the end, he bought six pieces of those stones and they managed to make four hundred thousand off Li Du.
However, the happenings after that were out of their expectations. Li Du randomly cut two of the stones and both changed color. That meant that there was some value in them.
Scammers were driven by greed. Hence, Xiao Liao and Master Dao started to get jealous.
The stones from Damakan –were trash, that was widely known. But what if they made a mistake? Could those six stones really have come from the same source?
After some thinking, they decided to take the risk. After all, the thought of them being from the same source was too tempting. These people were so greedy by nature, so how would they be able to resist?
After receiving Master Dao’s instructions, Xiao Liao went to beg Li Du and bought the stones back for twice the price.
In the end, after slicing the stones, they realized that they had fallen into their own trap!
From outward appearances, everything looked normal. However, as scammers, Master Dao and Xiao Liao sensed that there was something wrong. It was undoubtedly a scam. They were scammers and yet they had been cheated instead!
Even if Li Du was not a scammer, they treated Li Du like one. That was because the happenings caused them a terrible loss. They bought six stones for eight hundred thousand. Lu Da You sold the stones for one hundred thousand. They had lost millions!
