Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The person who had stopped Da Mao was the leader of the security team in charge of the field area. He was a famous person in the local sphere.
Obviously, he had already learned about the legends surrounding Da Mao and knew about his talent and capability in stone gambling.
Compared to a casino, the stone gambling fields and areas were more open-minded. They welcomed capable experts to come forth and gamble on the stones. That was because the fields and field areas needed a reference for the crowd. They were unafraid of someone making big money but were wary of everyone losing their bet. If that happened, they would gain a bad reputation and no one would go there to buy stones anymore.
The trade of stone gambling treated promotional activities very seriously. News of someone buying a particular line of stone in a particular place, at a particular timing, and what it revealed when cut would leak out. The news would stay as a hot topic and be discussed in the stone gambling circles for some time. It would help to attract the public.
Besides, stone gambling was related to a chain of businesses. The owners of the fields and field areas would not monopolize all the stones. They only monopolized the mines and then mined for the stones to sell to businessmen.
These mine stone businessmen were people like Master Dao. They would then re-sell the stones to another chain of businessmen or stone gamblers. The chain of business thus went on.
People were willing to travel to Hpakant to gamble on the stones, rather than go to Ruili or other places, because Hpakant was the start of the chain. The stones at other places would have gone through a few rounds of transactions and the price would have been jacked up.
Under such circumstances, the more profitable stones that people bought were from the hands of the mine stone businessmen. As they were not making money off the field area bosses, these bosses were happy for experts to go to their turf for stone gambling.
Da Mao’s act as a deaf-mute confused the team leader. Zhong Da Pao clasped his hands together and greeted the security team leader. Then he smiled and pulled Da Mao away.
After entering the field area, they headed towards the public auction. The King of Hpakant had previously insisted on going to mill to cut open the stones first.
However, after entering the field area, they had gained protection from the local security. Things were not solely up to the King anymore.
Li Du brought along Da Mao with him and stopped. He said, “Wow, the market here is really huge! There are so many good stones? That’s fantastic, let’s make a big windfall today!”
Da Mao said, “Ahh baa, ahh baa, ahh baa, ahh baa!”
The King raised his voice, yelling, “I will kill your mother! Halt the gambling, first cut open those stones. If they are low-quality, dude, let me tell you, you are doomed!”
Li Du said, “You can do whatever you want. The stones are here, you can bring them away. In any case, I’m going to continue buying more stones. There are so many good stones here. They won’t be here tomorrow if I let them go today. What if someone buys them before us, right, Mister Tulsi?”
‘They won’t be here tomorrow if I let them off today’, those had been the words that Tulsi said previously. Li Du used his own words to get back at him.
Tulsi was so angry that he was speechless.
Li Du continued, “If you guys are no longer willing to work together, we can agree that our partnership has ended. However, it’s you guys who broached the termination of the partnership. So the initial profit split discussed earlier would not hold anymore.”
The King pointed at him and said spitefully, “Wishful thinking. Let me tell you, you scum, if you cause me to make a loss, I will take your life!”
Li Du straightened his back and said, “Go ahead, come on, take my life. Look at those people behind you, they have guns. You can snatch those and shoot me.”
They were standing in front of a bunch of field security men. They indeed had guns. Besides, their group’s weapons had been confiscated, so Li Du was unafraid that the King and his people would do anything to him.
Whoever came over was a guest, and a guest had to be treated like royalty. The owner of every field area would protect the customers who have entered their turf. That was unless someone became rowdy.
Tulsi held the King back and started to whisper into his ear.
It was unclear what he said, but the King’s anger slowly dissipated. Finally, he pointed at Li Du sternly and said, “Dude, listen to what I say. You like to play with fire, right? Very well, I will play with you. Let’s see who will be destroyed at the end!”
He pulled out another ATM card and drawled, “There’s another fifty million dollars in there, do you dare to take it?”
Li Du secretly bit his tongue. The Pagan King was really rich. How much money would he be able to leave for his descendants?
Thinking about that, he took the ATM card. Flicking it, he laughed, “Then let’s continue with our purchases. Master Pao, where’s the place at which the big stone sale is happening?”
Da Pao pointed around them. “This is it!”
All the way from outside the field area to where they were, both sides of the streets had stores and stalls peddling stones. There were many people around.
Some of the places by the street were not stalls. There were just some people seated there. That was another way of sales. Those who sat by the roadside were people who bought the stones. They did not need to move. The peddlers of stones would bring their merchandise out to the street and offer it to potential customers.
Just like what Li Du had seen in the teahouse back in Old Hpakant, the peddlers would bring out the stones for the businessmen to inspect. If the businessmen liked a piece, they would ask for a price and make an offer. Those who did not like the stone would shake their heads and the peddler would take his stones to the next businessman.
Li Du found a place to sit down and waved to a peddler. Very quickly, he bought two stones that had already been milled for 500,000.
Seeing that Li Du had bought those two pieces without much inspection, some opportunistic peddlers squeezed and gathered around.
Li Du continued with making casual purchases. He only looked at the stones briefly. Once he set his eye on one, he would ask for a price. When he did not see one that he was keen on, he would shake his head.
The peddlers who were rejected by him did not give up and pleaded, “Bro, look at this carefully. Look at this piece you bought. The surface has so many of these dots, the parts where it has been milled are blue and hardly transparent. How can that piece compare to mine?”
“That’s right, this piece of mine is much better. It has the promise of full color. The area where it has been cut reveals icy green. What does that tell you? Just this, there must be jade inside!”
“Look at this piece of mine, mine is cheaper and very good. Look at the surface, the markings and the texture. Isn’t this a classic winning piece? Let me tell you, bro, a bracelet made from such jade will be of excellent quality. The areas where the color starts spreading will also increase its value. The value will rise sharply!”
Li Du shook his head. “I don’t like the look of it. Come, you guys move over a bit. Lady, you come here. These two stones of yours look good. How much are they?”
Li Du was very busy on his end, while the King’s face was very pale. He said, “I swear, I swear on Grandpa’s name, that once I have invested so much money, if I don’t make more than one billion, I will definitely kill this guy!”
Tulsi said softly, “Don’t worry, boss. This is our turf. If they displease us, they will have no way of keeping their lives!”
The King said with a dark expression, “Have you made the arrangement with the men?”
Tulsi replied confidently, “Everything has been planned out!”
They had bought many stones. Besides, all these were huge stones that weighed over ten kilograms. The bamboo baskets of the bodyguards could not accommodate them.
Hence, Li Du said to Zhong Da Pao, “Master Pao, find a place to keep these stones.”
Tulsi said, “Hang on, you guys don’t have to worry about a place to keep the stones. We coincidentally have a warehouse here. You can keep them in the warehouse.”
Zhong Da Pao laughed coldly. “Really? We don’t trust you guys.”
Tulsi replied, “And you think we can trust you?”
Li Du spoke up, “Stop fighting. Number the stones and make a mark on them. Then put them in their warehouse. If we find out that some stones are missing…”
Tulsi said confidently, “Alright, that will do. You guys can make the marks, but keep the lot on our turf.”
