NOVPUBAfter entering the antique market, Chen Nan started looking around for stalls that sold jade.
There were indeed some small stalls selling jade.
And the quality of the jade appeared to be quite good.
But for Chen Nan, none caught his eye.
In fact, Chen Nan didn’t understand jade, but as a cultivator, he trusted his first intuition, even if some jades that looked intact and brightly colored gave him an odd feeling.
Those jades appeared flawless and exquisite, leaving no room for criticism.
But Chen Nan knew
that there couldn’t possibly be so many flawless fine jades in the world; most of the jades that appeared intact and brightly colored were processed later on.
"Finding a bargain is impossible!" Chen Nan let out a sigh. He had hoped to stumble upon a deal, to spend the least amount of money on a high-quality piece of jade.
But after wandering for over three hours, he hadn’t found a single jade pendant that caught his fancy.
Eventually,
Chen Nan stopped in front of a jade store called "Bao Yu Xuan."
This store had three floors and was housed in an ancient building, with intricately carved beams and painted rafters, looking very impressive.
Even the three characters for "Bao Yu Xuan" were written by a famous artist.
"Welcome to Bao Yu Xuan!"
Just as Chen Nan entered Bao Yu Xuan, two elegantly poised and delicately made-up women in white qipaos greeted him with a slight bow and a gentle smile on their faces.
Chen Nan gave a slight nod as a greeting and got straight to the point, "I’d like to see some jade, Hetian jade."
He might not understand jade, but he knew that jade was divided into soft jade and hard jade.
Hetian jade from Xinjiang was representative of soft jade.
Hard jade, on the other hand, referred to jadeite.
The difference between the two was significant.
"This way, please, sir!" A tall staffer gestured for him to follow and led Chen Nan to a large glass cabinet, inside which were variously shaped and colored pieces of jade.
Compared to the jade Chen Nan saw at the stalls, these pieces almost all had certain flaws, some with fine cracks, others with impurities inside.
Nevertheless,
they felt very comfortable to Chen Nan.
It was obvious that these materials were genuine jade, uncolored and unprocessed.
Eventually,
Chen Nan selected an oval piece with a date-red skin, slightly bigger than a one-yuan coin, although there was a fine black line on the date-red skin.
But, that was the piece he was most satisfied with.
Chen Nan casually asked, "How much for this piece?"
The staffer smiled and said, "Two hundred and eighty-eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight!"
"Isn’t that way too expensive!"
Chen Nan almost spat out a mouthful of blood, clearly not having anticipated that this piece of jade, only slightly larger than a coin, would cost nearly three hundred thousand.
While he could afford this price, he felt that the piece didn’t warrant so much. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
And there was an even more important point.
He was buying the jade solely as a vessel.
The price of the jade was not the main concern; what mattered was the amulet he was going to draw on it.
If the jade he bought was too expensive, it would be putting the cart before the horse.
The staffer’s smile did not waver, "Sir, the piece you are looking at is genuine Hetian jade from Xinjiang. Hetian jade is divided into mountain material and river bed material."
"River bed material is recognized as the best kind, and within river bed material, date-red skin is the most sought after, so naturally, the price is a bit higher."
Chen Nan weighed the jade stone in his hand and said with a bitter smile, "If I’m not mistaken, this piece only weighs a bit over ten grams."
"The price per gram is too expensive."
"I’ll take a look at the others instead!"
Chen Nan reluctantly set down the jade stone in his hand.
Gold was only over six hundred yuan per gram, while the price of this jade stone reached a staggering over twenty thousand yuan per gram, truly far beyond the norm.
Afterward, Chen Nan began to look at the jade pendants that had been cut into rectangles.
The pendants had no decorations, only a round hole so they could be worn with a cord.
Because they were unadorned.
They were also called "Amulets of Non-Affliction."
Symbolizing health and safety.
The price of these amulets was quite down to earth; one could buy a decent one for just a few thousand yuan.
But.
After purchasing one, Chen Nan revealed a look of disappointment; the jade had already been cut open, and its internal structure had been damaged, making it completely unsuitable for creating amulets.
In the end.
Chen Nan’s gaze returned to the piece of date-red jade stone, then he looked at the staff: "Could that piece be a bit cheaper?"
The staff member showed an apologetic expression: "I’m sorry, sir, but our store does not negotiate prices."
Chen Nan fell into deep thought.
He certainly could afford this jade stone.
But...
Anran would definitely know the price of such a stone, and if he gave her such an expensive gift, she would surely feel guilty about accepting it.
After all, whenever he transferred her a few thousand yuan for spending money, she returned tenfold to him.
He didn’t want Anran to feel guilty.
"Mr. Chen, I didn’t expect you to come here!"
"I was wondering why there was a flock of magpies chirping non-stop outside this morning; turns out it was a distinguished guest arriving!"
Accompanied by a hearty laugh, Wang Guodong descended from the second floor, his face glowing rosy.
Chen Nan was full of surprise, not expecting to bump into the business magnate Wang Guodong here. Regaining his composure, he joked, "President Wang isn’t the owner of this jade shop, is he?"
Wang Guodong laughed: "Once you reach a certain age, you start to like things like jade, so I opened a jade store."
Pausing, he continued, "Mr. Chen, which piece caught your eye? I’ll just give it to you."
"No, no, no!" Chen Nan quickly said, "I don’t want to owe you such a big favor, a discount will do."
"Such a small matter!" Wang Guodong turned to the staff: "Fetch the piece Mr. Chen is interested in."
"Right away, boss." The staff member, full of respect, turned around and fetched the piece Chen Nan had taken a liking to.
"Mr. Chen, you really have a discerning eye!" Seeing the piece Chen Nan liked, Wang Guodong said with a smile, "This is the best small piece in my shop, a standard Hotan seed jade with a date-red skin."
"Since you’ve taken a liking to this piece, I won’t give you any discounts. I’ll just charge you the cost price!"
Chen Nan smiled: "That’s fine."
Being charged only the cost price was something Chen Nan could accept, even if they were friends, he couldn’t let the other party make a losing deal.
Wang Guodong held up three fingers.
Chen Nan was taken aback: "The cost price of this thing is only thirty thousand yuan?"
Wang Guodong said with a laugh: "Drop a zero!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Nan’s scalp tingled: "Damn, the cost price is three thousand yuan, and you’re selling it for two hundred eighty thousand? Why don’t you just rob people?"
