Chapter 0268 – Mineral Vein (III)
After Mangzi heard Zhuang Rui’s words. Some embarrassed scratched his head and said, “Just now I saw a fish in the river, I thought to take the basket basket to bring it up, who knows that there is no stability, fell down, fell down, the eyes happen to see this stone, I fished it up.”
Mangzi’s words let the crowd look at each other, are speechless, this crowd pick and find half a day, thumb big jade have not seen a, Mangzi fell into the river, actually picked up a piece of jade, this luck let the crowd are a little sweaty.
“Brother Zhuang, you haven’t said if this is jade!”
Mangzi after answering, to Zhuang Rui asked, he is a sincere person, only a handful of dead force, for jade recognition jade basically is a know-nothing, just now if not happen to see the jade meat exposed outside, I am afraid that also do not know that this is a piece of jade.
Mangzi’s heart is true, and he followed Tiezi into the mountains, knowing that he could only help move some things, and his role is not very big, so after finding this piece of jade, he was very excited, and felt that he could make some contribution to the team as well.
“It’s jade material, look at this jade flesh white in color, pure and delicate texture, and lustrous and moist, it can be called a high quality variety of Hetian jade, this palm-sized piece, it can be worth at least 40,000 to 50,000 dollars.”
Zhuang Rui pointed to the jade flesh exposed outside and explained to Mangzi, he didn’t use his aura to look at its interior now, but rather made a judgment from the external performance of this piece of jade.
“Ah! Really? Great, Brother Da Zhi, Brother Tie Zi, we’ve made money!”
After hearing Zhuang Rui’s words, Mangzi jumped up like a child, when he had to go into the mountains in the previous years, there were always people who disliked him for being a brainiac and were not willing to take him, so this was also the first time that he had gone into the mountains, and being able to find such a piece of wool, Mangzi had also proved his worth.
“Mr. Zhuang is right, this piece of jade material is of good quality, although it is unlikely that the jade flesh will seep in too deeply. But with this piece of material, our trip to the mountain was not in vain.”
Tie Zi’s face also showed a smile, this piece of jade is good or bad, experienced people can tell at a glance, he and Zhuang Rui’s judgment is similar, just sugar skin material, jade meat will usually be in the middle, this piece of skin on the jade meat, I’m afraid that the material won’t be very big, it is estimated to be so big as the one seen in front of us.
“It’s not that we didn’t go into the mountain for nothing, but we all made a small fortune, according to my experience, this piece of jade flesh can still seep in at least fifteen centimeters, and the jade surface is twice as big as this.”
As soon as Tie Zi’s words fell, Zhuang Rui added, his so-called experience, naturally, was that when Tie Zi spoke just now, he used the aura in his eyes.
Through the aura, Zhuang Rui saw that the piece of jade flesh that was exposed extended out four or five centimeters to the left and right. And downward seeped in more than ten centimeters, is considered to be a large piece of material, just this piece of jade material, not like that piece of suet jade general, bring the effect of containing the eye in the aura.
According to the current market of nephrite market, this piece of white jade material should be worth about one million, one million and then divided into five, for Zhuang Rui, it seems to be only a small fortune.
“Brother Zhuang, when you say small fortune, how much is it?”
Mangzi scratched his head, he basically didn’t understand much about what Zhuang Rui said about the performance of the jade and whatnot, but the word “fortune”, he still knew what it meant.
“Brother Zhuang, what you …… you …… said is true?”
Tie Zi spoke out to interrupt Mang Zi’s question, originally has been called Zhuang Rui as Mr., now also shouted out the word brother, his face that is somewhat dark, actually appeared red light, can be seen the degree of its excitement.
Tie Zi is not compared to Mang Zi that jerks, he stayed in Xinjiang for almost twenty years, the history of the mountain jade mining also has more than ten years, for the jade market price is very understanding, he knows if it is really by Zhuang Rui said in the words, then this piece of jade will be able to sell a sky-high price.
The small fortune in Zhuang Rui’s mouth, in the minds of Tie Zi and the others, that would be a sky-high price, which was also determined by the duo’s economic base. It’s no wonder that Tie Zi is so excited, it’s Zhang Dazhi and Wang Fei, their faces can’t help but be overjoyed, only Mang Zi looks at Zhuang Rui in a daze, waiting for him to answer it!
“It shouldn’t be wrong, Mangzi, you bring that grinder over.”
Zhuang Rui nodded his head affirmatively, before he entered the mountain, he purposely asked Elder Gu to help him find a pocket sander with a compressed accumulator, Zhang Dazhi and the others had some objections to him bringing this thing, but it just came in handy now.
“Brother Zhuang, can you be sure?”
Seeing that the grinding wheel on the grinder had already turned, Tie Zi pulled Zhuang Rui’s arm, this time it wasn’t that he couldn’t trust Zhuang Rui, but that this piece of jade was just too valuable for a few of them.
To know, nephrite is much more fragile than jadeite, a little carelessness, it may be inside the jade flesh to destroy, also said the story of the jade, Tie Zi they are afraid of Zhuang Rui will be this piece of material to waste.
Jade quarrymen attach great importance to the integrity of the jade material. In ancient times, after picking up a relatively large piece of jade from the mountains, in order to prevent the jade from being damaged, a donkey had to be killed, the jade wrapped in donkey skin and tied with multiple ropes on the outside, and then transported to the capital.
As fresh donkey skin was used to wrap the jade, the blood on it would soak inside along the cracks of the jade, and the officials in charge of purchasing jade in the capital would recognize the jade as intact as long as they saw it soaked with blood.
After this, however, many jade players also tended to wrap the jade inside the skins of slaughtered dogs or donkeys. Some also bury it in the ground for several years. Allowing the blood color to better soak into it, this was also the origin of the blood jade forgery.
“Don’t worry! It won’t be wrong, if it damages the jade flesh inside, I’ll compensate everyone for how much this jade is worth.”
Zhuang Rui smiled confidently, what a joke! Hundreds of millions of jadeite he has unraveled, needless to say such a small piece of jade, Zhuang Rui heart really did not take it seriously.
Tie Zi was Zhuang Rui’s words some embarrassment, and quickly loosened his hand, somewhat embarrassed, said: “That’s fine, brother Zhuang, you come on! And don’t say whether to compensate or not, I trust you.”
The gears on the pocket grinder are a little small, can’t cut the jade from the middle section, Zhuang Rui along the jade meat place, the layer of sugar skin to polish open, around the area of white jade exposed, and Zhuang Rui said is not at all bad, Zhang Dazhi and Tie Zi and other people, face all show a happy color.
Horizontal rubbing open, Zhuang Rui and a little bit of grinding machine to the vertical deep cut to go, this piece of jade is not very large, more than half an hour later, a piece of white jade weighing about more than ten pounds, appeared in front of the crowd.
This piece of jade is quadrangular, up and down the width are about the same, the whole piece of jade fine light within, even in the sunlight, still gives a person a kind of thick and warm feeling, if not the color slightly flooded with a little bit of green, almost can be called the best white jade.
“Brother Zhuang, I, Tie Zi, am convinced.”
Seeing Zhuang Rui take out the jade material so completely, and the volume, weight and color of the jade material are not different from what Zhuang Rui said earlier. Tie Zi also gave Zhuang Rui a thumbs up.
Although this piece of jade can be unraveled just as well when brought back, but carrying a piece of jade weighing about ten pounds and a piece of wool of forty to fifty pounds of species, that’s completely different, now this piece of jade, one person can carry it, and if it’s not unraveled, then it will need two people to carry it.
“Mangzi, don’t look for the jade, put this piece of material inside the backpack, you just watch here!”
Zhang Dazhi spoke with a little tremor, it was caused by excitement, such a piece of jade, take it back to sell, no one can share at least two hundred thousand dollars, for them, this was previously unimaginable.
“Uh-huh!”
Mangzi nodded heavily, took out a blanket, tightly wrapped the jade a few times before placing it in his backpack, holding it in his arms, not willing to let go for a moment.
Zhang Dazhi and the others all stood up, ready to go look for the jade again, only Tie Zi suddenly said to Zhuang Rui: “Brother Zhuang, don’t go look for the jade either, sit here and chat with Mangzi!”
Zhang Dazhi and Wang Fei also nodded, Zhuang Rui’s role, which had already been confirmed just now, and his previous behavior, indeed he was not very good at picking jade, that’s why Tie Zi said the words to let Zhuang Rui rest.
“Alright! If you guys see a stone that you can’t decide on, just give me a shout.”
Zhuang Rui thought about it and nodded his head and agreed, this daytime reflection by the river was too strong, he couldn’t screen whether there was jade in the stones through his aura, so it would be better to take a rest and wait until the night to slowly go searching for it.
With Mangzi picking jade this episode, Tiezi and others mood has become very relaxed, this piece of jade, can make their future life changed dramatically, so no longer come before the kind of mood of fear, very pleasant in the river side sifting jade, Wang Fei is more every now and then sing a few lines of Xinjiang’s folk songs.
Just their three people’s luck, obviously not as good as Mangzi, after three or four hours of work, a few people behind the basket basket, or empty, only Tiezi hand took a fist-sized green jade, jade quality is very general, at most worth a thousand or so dollars.
Zhang Dazhi and Wang Fei are a few jade mining experience, this situation has long been psychologically prepared, coupled with this piece of jade picked by Mangzi, there is no expression of frustration, Wang Fei even showed a hand of marksmanship, hit a wild goat, will be skinned and washed, and then raised a campfire, ate a meal of roasted whole goat.
Spending the night in this canyon, the bonfire would not go out, after having dinner, the sky had completely darkened, it was now the end of June, although the night was good, the curved moon in the sky was like a thin hook, the visibility in the canyon was not very high.
“Da Zhi, what are you guys?”
Zhuang Rui picked up his basket and hiking stick and was ready to go to the river when he realized that Zhang Dazhi and the others were also fully armed, looking like they were ready to go jade picking.
Seeing Zhuang Rui’s strange expression, Zhang Dazhi smiled and said, “Brother Zhuang, jade will have a faint glow at night when it is illuminated by the moonlight, we are also going to try our luck.”
In this part of Xinjiang, many people go to pick jade before dawn or after dusk, and this is a custom passed down over the millennia, as to whether or not anyone picks jade at night, that’s unknown.
Several people pulled away from the distance of more than a hundred meters, did not turn on the flashlight, through the moonlight stepped on the cobblestones along the river, eyes on the ground, but this method is not known how many times by the predecessor used, has been out of the three or four kilometers, have not found a piece of jade.
Zhuang Rui was the one who walked at the very front, he spread out the aura in his eyes, covering the places within his sight, although he also found a few jade stones that shimmered with shimmering light, just that the quality of these jade stones was so poor that Zhuang Rui wasn’t even interested in picking them up.
“Brother Zhuang, let’s stop here today! Let’s go back.”
Jade picking was a very boring thing, and for Zhuang Rui, having a cheat, but not having the cheat material, it would be even more boring, and when Zhang Dazhi’s shouts came from his ears, Zhuang Rui was on his way back, simply letting his aura vanish into the ground, and looked deeper into the depths.
“Huh?”
This unintentional move of Zhuang Rui’s immediately surprised him, as he found that underneath a large stone on the ground, it actually flickered with a seven-colored light, and the aura emanating from within indicated that the quality of this piece of jade should not be bad.
For jade, Zhuang Rui is also considered to have seen a lot of knowledge, he has never heard of seven-colored jade, and immediately walked to the side of that big stone, assessed it, and felt that he could lift, so he did not greet Zhang Dazhi and others, and exerted his strength to push the big stone away.
Appeared in front of Zhuang Rui this piece of stone, there is the size of a soccer, even without the eyes of the aura, in the night can also be seen faint fluorescence, Zhuang Rui will be held up, found that the stone outside, there is a thin layer of color skin, the most Zhuang Rui feel odd is that the color of these colors of the skin is very miscellaneous, and he previously saw the same, a variety of colors are there.
In front of Zhang Dazhi again greeted Zhuang Rui, did not look carefully, Zhuang Rui put this piece of jade into the basket, continue to walk forward, this time with experience, he then use the aura, will look into the ground a few meters deeper, as expected, he found a few pieces of jade buried not too deep, the quality is considered to be OK.
When Zhuang Rui returned to the campfire, in the basket basket behind him, thirteen more pieces of jade, two of them were soccer ball sized, already filling up the basket basket.
“Brother Zhuang, this …… this is all what you picked up?”
When Zhuang Rui dumped the basket basket of jade on the ground, Tie Zi and the others were stunned, they had been busy for most of the day and had not been able to pick up a single piece of jade, but they did not expect Zhuang Rui to find out so much jade without a word.
“Yeah! I started to find this jade underneath a rock, and then I specifically peeled back the rock to find it later, and I found out this much, let’s all take a look, the quality of these jades is still considered good.”
In fact, in the underground far more than this more than ten pieces of jade, just some buried too deep, Zhuang Rui simply can not take it out, there are some quality is poor, Zhuang Rui lazy pick up, now this more than ten pieces, are of good quality, than Mang Zi that piece of nature is not as good as, but more than ten pieces together, can also be worth a five or six hundred thousand dollars.
“Aigoo, we are really stupid, why don’t we think of picking apart some stones to find it!” Tie Zi vigorously slapped himself on the head after hearing Zhuang Rui’s words.
As an old jade quarryman, Tie Zi knew that rivers like this one at the mountain passes, all of them have experienced thousands and thousands of years of mountain water scouring, and there is no telling how many stones that have been washed down from the mountains have piled up underneath, and on both sides of the river, naturally, it is the same, and the jade at the surface layer may have been picked up by people, but there is no guarantee that there will still be some good stuff left underneath.
“Da Zhi, Wang Fei, go, let’s go back.”
Figuring out this joint, Tie Zi jumped up from the ground, grabbed the basket, pulled his feet and ran to the side of the river, actually not willing to delay for a moment, Zhang Dazhi and Wang Fei looked at each other, also stood up and followed behind Tie Zi, walking towards the side of the river.
In fact, these three people heart are a little not too good, this time into the mountains five people, Mangzi needless to say, if not carrying too much supplies, certainly will not take him, and Zhuang Rui is a jade appraisal expert, and will not be picking jade, but it is the two jade picking layman, now picking jade, has been worth nearly two million.
This also makes the self-proclaimed old jade picker Tie Zi and Zhang Dazhi and other people, feel a little ashamed, so, do not work for free to get money, but instead became the three of them.
Zhuang Rui can see the mind of these people, also did not say anything, he is not very concerned about the million or so, this time into the mountains also want to feel the joy of jade mining, this way to see, Zhuang Rui is already feeling very worthwhile.
He had nothing to do, Zhuang Rui picked up the colorful jade that he hadn’t looked at carefully just now, and carefully observed it, the outer skin of this piece of jade was very thin, only a few millimeters thick, and inside it was all jade flesh.
The quality of the jade flesh is good, the spiritual qi contained inside, only a little worse than the piece of lamb fat white jade Zhuang Rui saw, only these jade flesh of different colors, different shades, but also entangled and intertwined, it is difficult to decompose it.
But this is Zhuang Rui hand picked up the first piece of jade, he would like to stay by himself, when the time to give the old man to see, can carve out what ornaments to, just this will be a few of them have gone to pick jade, Zhuang Rui to wait for them to come back to discuss before deciding, after all, it is before said all the picking of the jade is divided equally.
Looked at the campfire fell beside the fierce sleep, Zhuang Rui is no sleep, sitting on the ground feel a little cold, Zhuang Rui simply stand up, to the river into the mountain pass to go.
Mountain snow melted into the river, rushed to the bottom of the mountain, has become very fast, will be on both sides of the river, like with a sharp axe hard cleaved into a wide seven or eight meters of the ditch moat, the stream rushing down, splashing drops such as jade like water mist.
Zhuang Rui stood at the mouth of the river, using aura to find a few more pieces of jade, but found nothing.
Inadvertently looking towards the rock wall that was like a gate to a mountain, Zhuang Rui froze, because he saw that at a depth of five or six meters on the rock wall, inside a rock that looked like a magma layer, there were several huge pieces of jade wrapped around it.
“Jade Veins??”
A term surged into Zhuang Rui’s mind.