"Little Su, you’re quite familiar with the Cheng Family?" Cheng Beize knew many people at the raw stone yard. After a brief chat with Su Qing, he took Cheng Beilin to greet some acquaintances. Before they left, Cheng Beilin repeatedly urged Su Qing to visit Xiangcheng when she had the time.

Seeing the Cheng siblings leave, Shi Youda came over again and resumed his conversation with Su Qing with a smile.

"We just happened to cross paths on the road before," Su Qing said with a faint smile.

"Oh, I see." ’In Shi Youda’s mind, Su Qing’s importance level went up a notch.’ He had just heard the young lady of the Cheng Family repeatedly inviting Su Qing to Xiangcheng. It didn’t seem like simple politeness. Small-time businessmen like Shi Youda were skilled at reading people; with just a few glances, he could get a rough idea of whether someone’s intentions were genuine or fake.

Thus, Shi Youda smiled at Su Qing again. "The Cheng Family has an excellent reputation in Xiangcheng. Being on good terms with them brings nothing but benefits."

Su Qing thanked Shi Youda for the tip, but she had no plans to make a living in Xiangcheng in the future, so she just took his words with a grain of salt.

"Everyone, everyone! My apologies for the wait." Just then, a middle-aged man’s voice carried from the front of the yard. Shi Youda glanced over and whispered to Su Qing, "That man is just a figurehead put forward by the yard’s real owner. Nobody knows who the true owner is, but it’s common knowledge that they’re extremely powerful."

Su Qing nodded. ’That explains it,’ she thought. She had noticed that the operation at this raw stone yard was no small affair. There were trucks, it was located in a public area of the town, and there was no attempt at concealment. A large number of people had shown up today, many from Xiangcheng, yet no authorities had come to investigate.

Many people seemed familiar with the middle-aged man controlling the event. When he started talking, someone called out with a laugh, "Mr. Du, just tell us about the quality of this batch! Any chance for high-grade jadeite? What are the prices looking like?"

Mr. Du chuckled. "I get it, I get it. I understand everyone’s eagerness. But you can all rest assured. The quality of this batch is even better than the last, and the chances of finding high-grade jadeite are very high. As for the prices, they haven’t fluctuated much. Of course, once someone cuts open a fine piece, getting your hands on it will depend on your own competitiveness."

The crowd laughed at his words. One person called out, "We get it, Mr. Du! It’ll be every man for himself!"

Mr. Du smiled again. "I won’t say much more. I’m sure you’ve all had a look at the stones in the yard and have a rough idea of what’s here. I’ll just give you the general pricing, and then everyone can start picking out the stones they have their eyes on."

"Sounds good, Mr. Du! Go ahead," the crowd chimed in eagerly.

Mr. Du explained, "This time, same as before, we’ve divided the stones into ’full-gamble’ and ’half-gamble’ lots. Since the quality of this batch is a bit better, the prices are slightly higher. The full-gamble stones are priced at eighty and one hundred sixty. As for the half-gamble stones, we have three price points this time: two thousand five hundred, four thousand, and six thousand five hundred. We’ve already sorted them into their respective areas, and there are staff members on hand. When you want to buy a stone, just let one of them know. And remember the old saying: amiability breeds wealth!"

"Haha, don’t you worry, Mr. Du. Amiability breeds wealth, absolutely."

As the others scattered to inspect the stones, Su Qing excused herself from Shi Youda and headed straight for the full-gamble raw stones. She had no intention of touching the half-gamble ones, good or bad—they were simply too expensive.

She was relatively well-off now, with about thirty thousand on hand. However, if she were to spend it on half-gamble stones, she wouldn’t be able to buy more than a few.

Compared to the businessmen present, her bit of money was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

Su Qing didn’t know how to evaluate raw stones. However, she couldn’t just touch one for a moment and decide whether to buy it right in front of everyone. So, she imitated the people around her, picking up a stone and scrutinizing it. Of course, she couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was looking at—it was all just for show.

Sure enough, just as Mr. Du had said, the quality of this batch seemed to be quite good. Su Qing touched a few stones; only two of them gave no reaction, while the other four all had fluctuations of varying degrees.

Su Qing didn’t select all of them, only picking the one with the strongest fluctuation. It was a brick-sized stone, not very large, but its fluctuation was the most intense of the six she’d touched. Furthermore, Su Qing was very curious; this stone had three different frequencies of fluctuation inside. She was dying to know what kind of jadeite a stone like this would yield.

"Young lady, you must be with the Cheng Family. Amazing, knowing how to pick raw stones at such a young age!" Su Qing had been squatting by the pile of full-gamble stones, absorbed in her selection. Though she had deliberately slowed her pace, she was still a bit faster than the others and had already chosen three stones. Seeing this, a man in his fifties approached her with a smile.

’In the man’s opinion, while Su Qing was looking at the stones, her methods were clearly unprofessional. It seemed like she was just browsing casually, as if she were here to play around. He felt a bit of disdain, thinking she was just fooling around.’

However, he currently wanted a favor from her, so he offered the insincere praise.

He had witnessed the earlier incident involving Su Qing, the Cheng Family, and the An Family. He knew Su Qing wasn’t part of the Cheng Family, but he could see that Cheng Beilin seemed to hold her in high regard. That was why he was looking for an excuse to talk to her. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"No. I only just met the members of the Cheng Family by chance," Su Qing stated plainly.

"So, you’re not familiar with them?" the man asked quickly.

"No, not familiar." Su Qing nodded, her gaze returning to the raw stone in her hands.

"I see... Young lady, it looked to me like Miss Cheng has a good impression of you. Could you possibly..." ’The middle-aged man didn’t believe her for a second,’ but before he could finish his sentence, Su Qing stood up and walked over to another pile of stones. The man’s face soured. ’He found her incredibly rude.’ With an indignant flick of his wrist, he spun around and stormed off in the other direction.

He had been hoping to use Su Qing to establish a connection with the Cheng Family. After all, the Chengs were influential figures in Xiangcheng. Even though they were all in the same raw stone yard, if you tried to cozy up to the Cheng Family without any leverage, they wouldn’t give you the time of day.

As for the An Family, the man hadn’t even dared to dream of associating with them. The An Family was known for being even more snobbish than the Cheng Family, treating people differently based on their status.