The moment the man said he wanted to sell the jadeite, several people immediately started bidding.

"I’ll offer fifteen hundred for this piece of jadeite."

"Come on, Boss Fang, you’re being too stingy. I’ll bid eighteen hundred."

"I’ll offer two thousand."

"Twenty-three hundred!"

In the blink of an eye, the bidding for the jadeite had reached twenty-three hundred. The man holding the jadeite was so excited his hands were trembling. ’Twenty-three hundred! How many times over is that?’ He had only spent fifty yuan on the raw stone, and that had been an impulse buy. After all, fifty yuan was nearly two months’ salary for him.

’I’ve really hit the jackpot this time.’

Soon, the bidding rose from twenty-three hundred to twenty-six hundred. After that, no one else made a bid. In the end, the piece of jadeite was bought by a boss from Xiangcheng with the surname Xu.

"Quick, who else wants to cut a raw stone? Next one, next one!" someone else said hurriedly. Everyone who came here would buy a piece or two, more or less. Soon, someone else placed their raw stone on the cutting machine.

But unfortunately, this one was a bust. When it was cut all the way through, it was nothing but plain white rock. The owner of the stone had been hoping to be like the last person and strike it rich with a piece of jadeite. In the end, forget a big profit, there wasn’t even a small one. He hadn’t made a single cent back on the thirty-yuan raw stone. The man’s face instantly fell in disappointment.

One of the women who had come with Su Qing let out a little cry. "So not every raw stone has jadeite in it."

A person nearby overheard the woman and laughed. "You must be joking, ma’am. It’s called stone gambling for a reason. You’re betting on your judgment, but even more so on your luck. If you’re lucky, you can buy one stone and strike it rich. If you’re unlucky, you could buy five or six and not even find a speck of jadeite."

"Oh, I see," another woman said, realization dawning on her. "So if you don’t find anything, you’ve just wasted your money."

"Of course," the person continued. "This whole game is all about the thrill."

The woman clutched her chest. "It’s thrilling enough, that’s for sure. If it were me, my heart would leap out of my throat."

The few people around them laughed at her words.

However, it was clear that Brother Qiu had a sharp eye; the customers he brought over were not short on cash. Although the women didn’t know how their own luck would fare, they all decided to buy two or three stones to try their chances. What if they got lucky and cut open a piece of jadeite?

Su Qing didn’t say anything, simply following the other women over to the raw stone area.

"Ladies," Ah Sheng said with a cheerful smile when he saw Su Qing’s group approach. "Looking to buy some raw stones, are you? Let me tell you about the different types, and you can decide which ones you want."

With that, he began explaining the prices of the various raw stones to Su Qing and the others.

The raw stone area was divided into three sections. The leftmost area held stones that were already partially cut open, also known as "semi-gambling" stones. Without exception, you could see some jadeite in all of them. Naturally, these were the most expensive stones, priced at three thousand yuan each, regardless of size. The middle section was for "full-gambling" raw stones. The large ones were fifty yuan, and the small ones were thirty. As for the rightmost section, according to Ah Sheng, it was mostly filled with leftover scraps. It was rare to find jadeite in them, but there were exceptions. Therefore, they were the cheapest, selling for five yuan apiece, regardless of size.

After hearing Ah Sheng’s explanation of the prices, the other women ran over to the middle section. The semi-gambling stones were too expensive, but they could afford to buy a few of the full-gambling ones to try their luck.

Watching the women pick through the raw stones as if they were choosing watermelons, Su Qing couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t know how to pick them either. She picked up a palm-sized raw stone and examined it from every angle, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

But Su Qing had just come to test her luck today anyway. ’If I don’t know how to choose, I’ll just have to rely on luck.’

Su Qing put down the stone in her hand and picked up another one nearby to examine. This time, however, she froze for a moment. She realized that her Wood Ability superpower was stirring faintly within her. It was very subtle, but Su Qing clearly felt it. At the same time, some kind of energy within the raw stone seemed to ripple in response.

’How should I put this?’ She had a Wood Ability superpower. Even if there was energy in the jadeite, it wasn’t the kind she could absorb. But her Wood Ability had stirred nonetheless, as if it were greeting the energy within the raw stone. And the energy in the stone seemed to have responded in kind.

This left Su Qing at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. ’It can even work like this?’

But the advantage of this was obvious. Su Qing could now tell with great accuracy which raw stones contained jadeite. If there was no jadeite, a raw stone couldn’t possibly produce this kind of energy.

Placing this raw stone in the basket Ah Sheng had given her, Su Qing went back to looking at the others. Just as she expected, she went through several in a row with no reaction. It wasn’t until she’d checked more than a dozen that she found another, smallish raw stone. The fluctuation from this one was even more distinct than the last.

She stood up and glanced around. Seeing that the others were still engrossed in picking their stones, she decided not to choose any more. Besides, there weren’t that many raw stones here to begin with. Based on the ratio of stones she had sensed energy from, she estimated there probably weren’t many left that contained jadeite.

So, Su Qing casually grabbed two more raw stones that had no fluctuations. This way, a fifty-percent success rate wouldn’t be too conspicuous.

"These few come to a total of one hundred and twenty yuan." Su Qing had only picked small raw stones. Ah Sheng glanced at them and quoted her the price.

Su Qing nodded, took out twelve ten-yuan notes, and handed them to Ah Sheng. Then, she carried her four raw stones over to the cutting machine.

"Miss, do you want to cut the raw stones you bought?" By this point, three or four stones in a row had been cut at the machine, all of them duds. Gamblers like these tended to be superstitious about luck. Seeing the streak of bad luck, no one was willing to put their own stone up next. ’Are you kidding me? What if I follow this losing streak and my stone is a bust too?’

So, when a man saw Su Qing approaching, he greeted her enthusiastically.

"Yes, I’ll have them cut," Su Qing said with a nod.

"Alrighty! Which one do you want to cut? I’ll take it over for you," the man said with a busy smile.

"This one," Su Qing said, picking up the first raw stone she had chosen. It was about a size smaller than a basketball—not particularly large.

"You got it." The man hurried to deliver Su Qing’s raw stone to the cutting machine. The master in charge of cutting the stones examined the raw stone, found a spot, and made the first cut along one side.

The cut surface was plain white rock. The surrounding crowd held their breath and watched.

The stone-cutting master looked at it, then made another slice along the same cut surface.

"Whoa, I think... I think there’s green!" someone with sharp eyes suddenly exclaimed. "That’s right, it really looks like there’s green!"