Chapter 68: There Can Only Be One
Ye Chen nodded. They headed straight to the biggest building in the antique town after walking out of the Precious Treasure Pavilion with her.
The building was nine stories tall and occupied around 500 square meters. The decoration was rather vintage, it was the style of a republican mansion.
With red bricks and green tiles, it looked stylish.
Meanwhile, there were tens of luxurious cars parked below the building. There were ten ladies dressed in revealing uniforms standing at the entrance. Each of them was a woman of quality.
Ye Chen could not help but exclaim secretly. These ten ladies alone would attract many to this place.
One could tell that the owner of the building was great at doing business.
Gu Yingying had a cold expression on her face. She seemed to have innate hostility towards these revealing ladies. After coldly speaking to them, a lady led them into the building. They took the elevator and headed straight to the fifth floor.
As soon as they got out of the elevator, Ye Chen heard noises that came out of the room next door.
As Gu Yingying opened the door, a square lounge welcomed them. It was already crowded in there at the moment. There were many cutting machines and abandoned raw stones around.
The crowd gathered around and stared at the middle of the circle. They would cheer every now and then.
Gu Yingying frowned as she looked for Third Uncle among the crowd. She subsequently walked to a big guy and asked, “Brother Zhang, where is my Third Uncle?”
“He’s in there.”
The man called Brother Zhang pouted at the crowd and forced a smile. “Third Master Gu is gambling with someone in there. He has already lost 150 million within half an hour.”
“More… more!”
“Green… a green one this time!”
Somebody yelled and it led everyone else to yell.
“Ah, it’s a gone case!” Someone was extremely disappointed.
A hysterical laugh came. “Hahaha, Gu No.3, your material is sh*tty. You lost another ten million. Added with the sum you owed me earlier, it would be a total of 65 million.”
“Liu, get over yourself. It’s just ten million, I didn’t even blink.” An enraged voice responded to him.
Gu Yingying angrily pushed the crowd away and dragged Ye Chen with her. Two middle-aged men dressed in designer clothes stood in the middle. Both of them had completely different expressions on their faces.
One of the men who had thick eyebrows and big eyes looked elated when he saw Gu Yingying. “You’re finally here, little girl.”
“Third Uncle, why are you gambling again? How did you lose so much?” Gu Yingying was pissed.
He glanced at the man before him and smiled coldly, “It’s unfortunate that I bumped into this bastard Liu Chuang here. I get pissed as soon as I see him. I want to put out his overbearing fire. Oh yeah, little girl, did you bring money? Lend me 50 million now, I’ll return you later.”
Ye Chen looked at him. He was pale without a beard, his eyes were empty. He had messy hair that looked like a chicken coop. He gave out a feeling that he would stay in a cyber-cafe for three days and three nights in a row.
So this was the Old Master Gu’s son Third Master Gu?
He could not help but feel a little disappointed.
“Third Uncle, do you think I’m an ATM machine? Where do I get 50 million from?” Gu Yingying rolled her eyes and angrily said.
Liu Chuang who looked strong suddenly smiled. “Gu No.3, I’m embarrassed for you to be borrowing money from the young ones. Tell me if you need money. Of course, it’s under the premise of you giving up on the business in the south.”
“Liu, stop f*cking plotting against me. Do it under the light if you can.” Third Master Gu was furious.
At the moment, an old man in a bright robe stood out and said while smiling, “Alright, alright. Both of you are among the prominent people in Tiannan, why do you fight like bitches whenever you meet?”
The duo only shut their mouth in front of the man. This old man was the person in charge of the building.
Third Master Gu scoffed and turned his head to look at Gu Yingying. “Girl, quick, lend your Third Uncle ten million. I’ll return it to you later. I don’t believe that I would lose to this guy named Liu all the way today.”
“Third Uncle,” Gu Yingying stomped and said, “There’s someone that I want you to meet.”
“You can introduce him to me after you’ve lent me the money.” Third Master Gu had all of his attention in gambling. He did not notice Ye Chen who was standing aside at all.
Gu Yingying was speechless and could only helplessly take out a bank card from her purse. “There’s 20 million in there, let’s be honest here, I’m only lending you ten million.”
Third Master Gu took over the bank card before she was done speaking.
Gu Yingying could not help but smack her forehead. She peeked at Ye Chen in an apologetic manner and introduced him to Third Master Gu. “Third Uncle, this is Master Ye. He’s the man that grandpa told you about the other day.”
Third Master Gu nodded at Ye Chen and said in a casual manner, “Master Ye, wait and watch first. We’ll go drinking when I’ve won against this guy named Liu.”
Ye Chen nodded while smiling. He thought that this Third Master Gu inherited Old Master Gu’s straightforwardness and hot temper.
“Third Master Gu, I never thought you guys even invited a master. Since he’s a master, why don’t you let him gamble once for you? Perhaps he can turn the tables around.” Liu Chuang who was standing aside glanced at Ye Chen and smiled out of disdain.
‘The Gu family must be desperate.’
‘I can’t believe they’re calling a little brat master!’
“Liu, quit yapping. let’s just gamble,” Third Master Gu coldly glared at him.
He did not have much impression on Ye Chen. All that he heard was that the old master mentioned that Ye Chen could refine medicinal pills and was an expert in martial art.
He had zero interest in those at all. Third Master Gu was known to be a rich person among the second generation. He refused to enroll in the military despite having great resources, he refused to become an officer. All he did was to find troubles everywhere he went.
Ye Chen frowned.
The duo was really like bitches fighting on the street, they could not stop yapping like little bees.
Gu Yingying seemed to have noticed his doubt so she immediately introduced him.
It turned out Liu Chuang was from Xiangnan. There was a river between Xiangnan and Qiannan. Liu Chuang’s ancestors were pirates, they became rich from smuggling. When it was passed down to his generation, he started a transportation company, which further blossomed the smuggling business.
Meanwhile, Third Master Gu ran an international trading company. One could say that both of their ships would have to pass by the river. As the saying goes ‘There can’t be two tigers in a mountain, and there can’t be two dragons in a river’. Naturally, the duo despised each other. Nobody knew how many times they had gambled, both of them won and lost.
About the old man in the bright robe, his name was Hong Jindou. He was the person in charge of the building. He had a very high position in the antique town such that even Liu Chuang and Third Master Gu would have to respect him.
Ye Chen came to a realization, it was no wonder that the duo was like enemies from the past life, whereby they were throwing shades at each other all the time.
Seeing that both of them were going to fight again, Hong Jindou frowned. “Alright, you two. There are so many people watching, are you guys still going to gamble?”
“Why not? But Boss Hong, is there something wrong with the materials here? I’ve spent up to 100 million but I haven’t gotten a good one.”
Third Master Gu angrily scoffed.
Hong Jindou said not sure whether to laugh or cry. “Are you doubting me? I’ll be honest, all of the materials here came from an old jade mine in Myanmar. I, Hong can guarantee you that the sources are legit. Whether you can get jade inside, it all depends on your luck.”
Gu Yingying explained to Ye Chen again. The stone gambling business called raw stones’ cave as the pit, and the raw stones that were mined were called materials or products.
Meanwhile, the pile of raw stones before them was priced from 500 to ten million. If they managed to find a jade or shade of green inside, it would mean that they won.
Naturally, it would be compared to the material’s cost. For instance, one would make money if the material that they bought at 1,000 happened to be jade that was valued at 10,000. They would lose money if it was the other way round.
Also, the step of disintegrating the raw stones was very important too. They usually needed an experienced master to disintegrate them with a cutting machine. They would be lucky if they purchase a stone with jade inside. However, if the cutting skill failed and caused the jade to be damaged, the jade’s price would drop significantly.
That was why the saying went ‘A slice could make one poor, it could also make one wealthy. A slice takes one to heaven, it could also take one to hell’.
All this was because there was no equipment in modern technology that could detect the internal structure of the raw stones. That was how the stone gambling business came about.
One could say that it all depended on a person’s luck. Many people became rich overnight because of this, while many lost everything and their family was wrecked because of this.
Ye Chen nodded. He then saw four strong hunks walk in while carrying a basket. It took quite an effort for them to do that.
Subsequently, they took out all sorts of stones of various sizes from it. The smallest one was the size of an egg, while the biggest one was almost the size of a basketball.
Liu Chuang looked at Third Master Gu. “Same old rule, we’ll choose our own material. Then we’ll decide who loses following the grade of green. It’ll be ten million per round.”
“Sure, I’ll pick first!” Third Master Gu clenched his teeth. He was only left with ten million. If he lost again, he would lose his face forever.
However, right at the moment Ye Chen took a step forward and said to Third Master Gu while smiling, “Third Master Gu, why don’t I pick for you in this round?”