The mocking look in Cheng Beilin’s eyes made An Zhiwei even angrier. Just as she was about to say something else, An Zhiqian frowned and whispered, "Xiao Wei, shut up."

An Zhiwei turned to look at An Zhiqian. Seeing his dark expression, she didn’t dare say another word. Her brother was usually fine—protective and doting, even—but if she truly angered him, she would face dire consequences.

Seeing An Zhiwei quiet down, An Zhiqian secretly clenched his jaw, once again regretting that he had brought her along. He knew his own sister best. In the socialite circles of Xiangcheng, everyone called An Zhiwei an airhead, and they weren’t wrong. She never liked to study, was empty-headed, yet vain and materialistic. She loved showing off everywhere she went and always spoke without thinking. Her status as a Xiangcheng socialite was genuine, but her behavior, talent, and knowledge... He wasn’t trying to put his own sister down, but truly, not a single aspect of her lived up to that title.

It was only because she was born into their family. Otherwise, with her personality and sheer stupidity, who knows how many times she would have been beaten up and stuffed in a sack by now. He found it strange. The people of the An Family had never been stupid, so how did they end up with an oddball like An Zhiwei? Never mind anyone else—just look at their second uncle’s daughter, Zhiyun. The comparison was a train wreck.

Meanwhile, Su Qing’s raw stone had already revealed some green. The stonecutter proceeded with even greater caution, carefully slicing away at the stone’s edges. Soon, two more sides showed green.

"Whoa, looks like it’s a decent size," the onlookers murmured as they looked at the exposed jadeite.

"Wow, that’s amazing!" Cheng Beilin was even happier than Su Qing, not at all bothered that her own stone hadn’t shown any green. "Su Qing, you’re incredible!"

Su Qing smiled faintly. "Just lucky."

Soon, the stonecutter had freed the entire piece of jadeite. It was a pea-green stone about the size of two fists.

The jadeite’s translucency wasn’t very good, so large companies like the Cheng Family and the An Family wouldn’t be interested. However, many smaller jewelry companies were also present, and someone immediately asked Su Qing if the jadeite was for sale.

Su Qing wasn’t particularly fond of the jadeite’s color, so she nodded.

When they saw Su Qing agree to sell, many people immediately started shouting bids. The price shot up to five hundred yuan before Su Qing could even say a word.

Seeing that the price was still rising, Su Qing quickly said, "Everyone, please hold your bids. I owe Boss Shi a favor, so I will give him priority in buying this jadeite."

Shi Youda was overjoyed when he heard this. He had been bidding just now as well. In truth, he hadn’t been very confident that Su Qing would give him priority. After all, their meeting was just a chance encounter. Although he had given her the address to this event, that was the extent of it. If Su Qing had been unwilling to sell to him first, there was nothing he could have said.

Now, hearing Su Qing’s words, Shi Youda was so happy his eyes crinkled into slits. Someone he knew patted his shoulder in envy. "Not bad, Old Shi."

Shi Youda grinned, a little smugly. "Hehe, it’s alright, it’s alright."

With that, Shi Youda said to Su Qing with a broad smile, "Little Su, I’ll give you eight hundred yuan for this jadeite. How about it?"

Eight hundred yuan was a very good price for a piece of jadeite of that size and translucency.

Su Qing smiled and nodded. "Okay, no problem."

The two quickly completed the transaction. Looking at the jadeite in his hands, Shi Youda couldn’t stop grinning. The Cheng Family and the An Family might look down on this piece, but for a small jewelry company like his, it was quite a good find.

Meanwhile, Su Qing had the stonecutter move her second raw stone onto the cutting machine. This was the one that was half a meter square.

Seeing the surface of this stone, many people shook their heads. They weren’t optimistic about this one; it simply had too much "moss."

Stones like this often contained jadeite, but this black moss would also infiltrate the jadeite inside. When that happened, even if you cut out jadeite, it would be a worthless piece of scrap.

"Why did this young lady choose a stone like this? It’s an obvious waste of money."

"Yeah, if this stone only had moss on one side, it would have definitely been cut into a ’windowed’ stone and placed in the semi-exposed section. The fact that it was thrown in the full-gamble area clearly means no one thinks it’s any good."

"That’s right. Sigh, what a waste of money."

"Well, it was only sixty yuan. That’s not much."

As the crowd murmured, An Zhiwei didn’t say anything this time, but she rolled her eyes at Su Qing. She was filled with scorn. ’Hmph, what a clueless little girl. No connections, no background, and she comes here hoping to strike it rich? Does she think it’s that easy to find a score in stone gambling? She really thinks she’s something special just for cutting out a piece of pea-green jadeite? I’ll just wait for this moss-covered stone to teach her a harsh lesson.’

Cheng Beilin told the cutter working on her stone to just cut it however he wanted, then she sidled up to Su Qing and whispered, "Su Qing, if this one ends up being a bust later, don’t get discouraged. It’s stone gambling—you win some, you lose some. It’s no big deal."

Cheng Beilin was worried that Su Qing would be disappointed if the stone was a failure.

Su Qing laughed. "It’s fine. It’s only sixty yuan. If it’s a bust, it’s a bust. No big deal."

Cheng Beilin smiled back. "Right, that’s the spirit. No big deal."

As the two were talking, the stonecutter had already sliced off a piece of the mossy rind from one side of the stone.

"Whoa, that jadeite looks pretty big!" Many people gasped as the slice came off.

It was no wonder everyone was surprised. The raw stone was half a meter square, and the stonecutter had revealed green after just one thin slice.

However, just as everyone had predicted, the black moss had infiltrated the jadeite.

You could tell the quality and translucency of the jadeite were quite good, nearing the ice type. But the black moss that had seeped into it had utterly ruined the stone. The color, which should have been crystal clear, was now fractured by threads and patches of black. It was like a beautiful woman’s smooth, flawless skin suddenly covered in dense black spots—a sight that made people feel an inexplicable sense of pity.

A pleased smile crept onto An Zhiwei’s lips. ’Serves her right,’ she thought.

The stonecutter glanced at Su Qing.

Su Qing said calmly, "Sir, please continue cutting."

"You got it." The stonecutter nodded and continued. Sure enough, the piece of jadeite was huge. There was only a thin layer of stone rind around it; the rest was all jadeite. But just as before, all sides of the jadeite were riddled with black moss.

"What a shame."

Seeing such a large piece of jadeite corroded by black moss, many people sighed and shook their heads.

Such a pity. A real, terrible pity!