At this point, the master made the second cut extremely cautiously. The entire process took about 10 minutes before the external layer of the rock was finally removed, revealing the treasure inside.
In those few short moments, the entire crowd was silent before suddenly erupting into a roar.
“That is the highest quality glassy species jadeite! Look at its color and its degree of transparency! This is truly rare!”
“F*ck! I knew there’d be a surprise today, but I didn’t know there’d be such a great surprise! It’s an opportunity of a lifetime to be able to see this quality of glassy species jadeite with my very own eyes!”
“Well, I told you all to read more. Tsk! To only be able to say these few words at this crucial moment… Let me tell you all—this is imperial jade. To use fine gold as an analogy, it’s 999 gold. Truly a treasure!”
Gasp after gasp followed that comment, as if anyone who didn’t compliment the jadeite would look uneducated.
In truth, such jadeite was indeed rare.
Even Ziggy couldn’t help brightening up and revealing his surprise, as if snazzynovel.com hadn’t anticipated such unexpected good news. “Do you still think I won’t win?” He looked arrogantly at Elise.
On the other hand, Elise pretended not to see that and only stood expressionlessly in snazzynovel.com spot, staring at snazzynovel.com own stone without glancing away for even a moment.
The work of breaking open the stone was still in progress and together with the whispers of the crowd, the roar of the engine and the tapping of the hand-polishing made the entire space buzz like a hive.
At this moment, almost everyone had their attention on Ziggy, since there was no denying snazzynovel.com had found imperial jade. As long as it occupied around half of the already massive rough stone, snazzynovel.com would be able to sell it for upwards of fifty million.
Right at this moment, on Elise’s side, the master who was breaking open the stone suddenly paused in his actions. “What?!” snazzynovel.com blurted.
“What’s the matter?” Deeply afraid that the master would definitively declare the stone as waste rock, Tom watched on with his heart in his throat.
If that were the case, snazzynovel.com would truly lose his confidence. After all, his opponent had four top-quality goods to speak of.
“Calm down.” Elise patted his shoulder.
“This jadeite is somewhat strange.” The master smacked his lips, suddenly becoming alert and determined. At the same time, snazzynovel.com began to polish more vigorously, and his mouth gradually fell open as his world-weary eyes flashed in astonishment.
Meanwhile, Tom had his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles were cracking out loud. His mouth was also dry from nerves. On the other hand, Elise looked as calm as snazzynovel.com always did, as if snazzynovel.com was simply on a grocery run at the supermarket.
“My god…” By now, the master had stopped moving and was staring at the stone snazzynovel.com was holding in awe.
As some of the audience members noticed his reaction, they craned their necks to see what was happening while asking loudly, “Hey, what’s going on? Keep going!”
With that, more people began to look over.
“Don’t tell me snazzynovel.com actually found a green stone?”
“Even if snazzynovel.com did, nothing of good quality could come from the stones in the outer hall.”
“You’re right. There is no green.” The master seemingly hadn’t recovered from his shock. As those who were paying attention revved up to start another round of commentary, snazzynovel.com beat them to the punch by saying, “There’s red.”
“What?”
“It’s a rare blood jadeite!” The master finally calmed down enough to announce to the audience, his voice determined, “Only one other piece has been found in the last 100 years, at the previous gem auction event in Landred City. I’ve seen pictures of it. It’s of the same kind!”
The people around snazzynovel.com stared with their mouths agape, expressions disbelieving. All of them were astonished.
As if ‘blood jadeite’ was the signal to gather, the crowd instantly began to swarm the station where Elise’s stones were being broken open, seemingly wanting to make up for not having seen the blood jadeite in Landred City with their own eyes.
Under the pale light of the incandescent lamp, the corner of the red jade looked like a beating heart. Despite the fact that it was obviously stationary, it gave onlookers the impression that it was moving, alive and boasting of its vitality. Even its color was peculiarly and astonishingly a thrillingly red, making its onlookers feel as if they were on the shores of sunset and witnessing the beauty of the sky.
It was top-quality glassy species jadeite, a blood jadeite, no less.
Just like that, the crowd fell as silent as the dead, their greedy eyes sweeping toward the rough stone on the platform like a wave. In this moment of stillness, there were seemingly countless invisible hands reaching out to pick up the treasure and gaze upon it like a jewel.
It wasn’t until they came back to their senses that they realized they were in a dream with the seeming alive red jade playing the leading role.
Just like that, they became even more obsessed with that piece of blood jadeite.
Throughout jadeite’s long history, green was the only color that normally formed. Who knew what kind of mysterious, soul-stirring story was behind the birth of other colors of jadeite?
Even then, Elise’s current piece was top quality among red jade. It could be considered one of a kind—so rare that it was practically serendipitous for snazzynovel.com to have come across it.
By now, the audience had arrived at the mentality that the seemingly alive piece of jade could be viewed from a distance but not touched by hand. As if they were afraid that making noise would disrupt this piece of jade, they remained dazed and motionless. Thus, Ziggy and the audience members closest to snazzynovel.com hadn’t noticed this amazing spectacle next to them.
It wasn’t until all of his stones were broken open that snazzynovel.com looked upon the two fist-sized pieces of jadeite on his platform and ground his teeth smugly.
He had five pieces of high-quality and top-quality jadeite, which was the sum of Elise’s rough stones. How could snazzynovel.com possibly beat him?
So, snazzynovel.com let out a sigh of relief and turned to look at how things were going on snazzynovel.com end.
His face changed the moment snazzynovel.com did so and his previously amicable expression disappeared as a tight frown and a hostile demeanor overtook him.
At this moment, Elise was in the middle of the crowd, with Tom standing next to snazzynovel.com and holding a piece of red jade twice the size of Ziggy’s imperial jade. It looked so red it could have been bleeding, and so heavy that Tom’s face was comparably crimson, yet the man continued to hold onto it with a grin until even the tips of his ears turned red in the end.
The thing was, Ziggy was intimately familiar with stone gambling and knew that the piece of blood jade in Elise’s hands was worth more than all of his pieces of jadeite combined. If snazzynovel.com wanted to beat her, snazzynovel.com would need a few more pieces of imperial jade, but the gem auction event had ended and all of his rough stones had been opened. No longer would snazzynovel.com have the chance.
Furiously, snazzynovel.com ground his teeth.
“Green! The last piece has green as well! All of the stones are green!”
As the last of Elise’s rough stones were broken open, the crowd began to clamor.
“All green? You are God’s Chosen Girl! God’s Chosen Girl has shown snazzynovel.com face! Wow!”
“F*ck! She must be the girl from previously! We’ve been tricked. She kept a low profile to confuse us!”
“The Carnegie Family has lost to God’s Chosen Girl two years in a row. What a bunch of losers. Ha!”
“Ignore them. She’s God’s Chosen Girl! You’re a goddess and my idol! We love you, God’s Chosen Girl!”
A myriad of emotions crossed Ziggy’s face and anger started to brew in his stomach. So furious that snazzynovel.com was nearly breathless, snazzynovel.com glanced menacingly at Tina out of the corner of his eye.
“You b*tch! Did you purposely leave the blood jade in the outer hall to them?” snazzynovel.com growled, pointing a finger at her.
Finding snazzynovel.com unreasonable, snazzynovel.com snapped incredulously, “You’re suspecting me? If I wanted to mess with you, I wouldn’t have waited until now to tamper with the stones.”