Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On the smooth surface road at the airport, an electric flatbed car slowly drove down.
On the planks, which were as flat as the ground, was a statue, about the same height as a man, in all shades of green. When the golden sun shone on it, a warm glow washed all over it.
It was a jade carved statue that was almost equal to the size of a human.
The statue was a whole piece of jade that was delicately carved. The whole of it was made of jade of ordinary water source. There was light lavender shining from the head, shoulder, back, hands, feet, and other parts. These were a number of high-value violet jadeite pieces, which were like ornaments or jewelry that added more luster and attractiveness to the statue.
Looking at the glittering jade carving, Sophie was mesmerized. She murmured, “My God, this is glorious!”
When the flatbed approached her, Sophie’s eyes widened and she saw clearly what the statue looked like. It was elegantly smiling and had beautiful eyes, and was carved in detail copying her own figure.
Sophie stared at the statue dumbfounded and was silent for a long time.
Taking her hand in his, Li Du held up a small box on one knee and said, “Sophie Martin, will you marry me? We can get married soon if you say you do; and if you don’t, think it over and you might want to.”
Sophie stared at him blankly, lost for words.
There were laughter and voices coming from next to them, “Wow, you are blessed!” “Marry him! Marry him!””Sophie, wake up! Say ‘I do’, say ‘I do’!”
Sophie turned and looked around again. Her parents, Li Duʼs parents, Bell and Magic Hand, and other treasure hunters, Hans and his sister, as well as Cole Winston, Porter, the Ford brothers, and Steve were there. She did not know when they showed up at the airport.
Barbara, who looked more agitated and nervous than her, made a trumpet with her hands and shouted, “Say yes, Sophie!”
Sophie looked down at Li Du, who was smiling as he kneeled down, and suddenly she laughed too. “I have thought about it very seriously, Mr. Li Du. It is my honor to be with you for the rest of my life.”
She pulled Li Du up and they embraced, surrounded by applause from the people around.
Li Du wrapped one arm around Sophie and waved with the other hand. Then he felt Sophieʼs body twitching. He looked down and saw her crying in his embrace.
He patted Sophie on the back lightly, sighed and said, “Donʼt cry now, silly girl. Save your tears, you might need them after marriage.”
Sophie gave him a punch and said, “How thoughtful of you. The day I waited for was finally here. What took you so long to propose?”
Li Du said, feeling wronged, “I was waiting to find something special, like this big piece of jade ore, to make a proper proposal.”
After receiving the gift from Tang Chaoyang, he did not want to go to Myanmar at first, but then he thought of a news article he had read.
It was a piece of news about Myanmar producing extremely large emerald jade ore, from more than a few tons to dozens of tons. The texture of the jadeite itself would not be very good, but because of the size, even if it had an ordinary water source, it would still have a great value after being carved into a statue as big as an adult man.
He did some search on the Internet at that time. There was a similar statue in his hometown, which was the Maitreya Buddha jade carving. It was more than two meters high. In the Guangdong and Guangxi province, there was another jade sculpture of the Goddess Guanyin. This was even larger, more than five meters high!
The jade used to make these types of sculpture was naturally not the glass species or the rare dragon jade species. Their main body was a common jade, which was not valuable. The water source was not good, and if it was broken down and made into bracelets, it would probably cost only a few hundred per piece.
However, with such a large size, the value of the statue would be high. The Guanyin in Guangzhou and Guangxi was a national treasure, and it would not be sold off for any price. The value of the jade Maitreya Buddha was 100 million yuan.
Li Du thought of going to Myanmar to search for himself, and if he came across a large enough piece of jade, he would carve it into a sculpture of Sophie as a wedding present.
He had been in the mining area for a few days and harvested a lot of precious jade, but did not come across any large piece of jade.
Then he went to Mount Dena, and at last, he found a large piece of jade in the local mine, fit for his purpose. He had told the mayor of Wooku Town at first that he was looking for something in Mount Dena, not to sell it for a profit, but to find a large piece of jade to make a statue.
However, the statue was not made with the jade found there. The largest piece of jade he found on Mount Dena was just over a meter high. This piece of jade was found in the Canton auction just by coincidence.
Da Mao was the one who found this stone. Zhong Dapao and Liu Zi thought there was no jade in the stone. Li Du was surprised to discover there was jade in it when he looked inside it, and it was a huge piece of 1.8 meters in length.
Of course, the jade texture was very poor, so it was not reflected on the skin of the stone.
He bought the stone and found the best sculptors through Cole, and they worked together and carved the masterpiece.
Li Du sent Hans on a tour around the world, but in fact, he did not go anywhere. He went to Seagull Island to take care of the wedding arrangements.
Their plane had been fine the previous two days, but he needed time for his parents to get to Seagull Island first, so he made up a reason to stop over with Sophie for two days.
The wedding that Li Du had in mind was not grand, but very elegant. Hans led the wedding plans and made great efforts for the wedding. Seagull Island was decorated for the event in a way that was beautiful and extraordinary.
Because Sophie and her parents were very interested in Chinese culture, the wedding was arranged according to the Chinese style. Li Du even built a Suhang garden on Seagull Island!
That was why he invested so much in Seagull Island, which had plenty of rocks and plenty of water, but not enough plants and trees. That was the reason why the renovation took a long time.
Most of the greens were brought in from China, which was a very troublesome thing. Australia had very strict control over immigrant plant species. Because Seagull Island was far away from the mainland, and Li Du had a lot of connections, he managed to get the approval.
Pavilion, platform, building, stands, spring, stone, flowers, wood… with these elements together, a Chinese garden appeared on Seagull Island.
At that moment the garden was decorated in a very festive manner. Red decorations were hung in the pavilion, red characters made out of silk could be seen everywhere, and the atmosphere was filled with joy.
Li Du monitored the island development by frequent video calls, so everything was familiar to him, but it was different for Sophie. She hasn’t been to Seagull Island for a long time, so all of these were a surprise to her.
Li Du did not come to Seagull Island in person for a long time precisely in order to make a surprise for her. Otherwise, if he came, Sophie would follow him, and she would know his plan.
Hans decorated the island’s small airport dispatch office, which he made into a temporary bridal dressing-room. Sophie was taken in, where a makeup artist was waiting for her.
Looking at a room filled with beautiful silk clothes, Sophie was dazzled. She turned to Li Du in surprise and asked, “When did you prepare all of this?”
Li Du winked at her and said as he smiled, “It is a secret.”
