"President Wang, you can rest assured that there has never been a problem with anything I’ve handled! Ouch—"
Huo Sining hurried back from the restroom, only to collide with a middle-aged man around the corner of the corridor. The man’s suitcase fell to the ground.
"I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice you there, my apologies. Nothing got damaged, did it?"
Huo Sining hastily apologized, immediately crouching to help the man with his fallen suitcase.
As he lifted it, Huo Sining felt a sense of surprise; the suitcase didn’t seem large, but whatever was inside was quite heavy, he had no idea what it contained.
The middle-aged man and his companion seemed very displeased, especially the middle-aged man. Seeing his suitcase on the ground, his complexion changed dramatically. He hurriedly snatched the suitcase back and didn’t forget to give Huo Sining a fierce glare.
Since Huo Sining had bumped into someone else’s belongings first, seeing the man glaring at him made him feel embarrassed and regretful, "Sir, please check it. If anything inside is damaged, I will certainly compensate you for the loss."
The middle-aged man hesitated, looked at his companion, and upon seeing the companion nod, he quickly knelt down, laid the suitcase on the ground, unzipped it, and took out the contents inside.
Seeing what the middle-aged man held, Huo Sining was stunned.
The suitcase actually contained a rock.
If he was not mistaken, it was a piece of Hei Wu Sha from the old pits. Merely judging by the size of the Iron Sand Skin, one could tell the stone weighed at least thirty pounds.
What astonished Huo Sining the most was that the surface of the Hei Wusha looked excellent. The rounded and smooth surface, dark-brown skin adorned with Python Bands and Pine Flowers was all intact. Most importantly, on the other side of the Hei Wu Sha, Huo Sining also saw something—patches of red. Those red patches were subtly reflective under the sidelight.
For jadeite betting, red patches symbolize the potential for high-quality green hues. Typically, if a raw stone’s surface has red patches, the possibility of the stone’s value increasing after cutting exceeds seventy percent. Furthermore, in eight or nine cases out of ten, the jadeite would be right beneath the red patches.
This raw stone, with just the Pine Flower Python Bands, was already quite valuable. Now, with the addition of the red patches, the betting allure of the stone had increased even further. This caused Huo Sining to be very surprised; could it be that hidden within this stone was a piece of Superior Jadeite?
Huo Sining really wanted to ask the middle-aged man if she could also have a go at handling it, but she didn’t know this person, and she had just bumped into him. Now, to make such a presumptuous request, Huo Sining felt it would be rather embarrassing.
While Huo Sining was still hesitating and conflicted, the middle-aged man in front of her had already inspected every inch of the raw stone. After confirming that there was no issue with it, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at his companion.
"President Wang, it’s not damaged."
President Wang, hearing this, finally relaxed his tense expression, his dark eyes faintly revealing a hint of a smile:
"That’s good. Mr. Hu, I trust your skills. I had heard about them before, and this incident today has allowed me to witness once again your superb craftsmanship, truly living up to your reputation! Now I can rest easy. Once the deal is done, the remaining one hundred thousand will be transferred directly into your account!"
Mr. Hu, upon hearing these words, couldn’t help but show a trace of pride, but still maintained a modest front, "Those are kind words. It’s my honor, Hu Youmin, to resolve concerns for President Wang. Now, I shall wait here for your good news!"
The man surnamed Wang nodded indifferently and repacked the Hei Wusha back into the suitcase, then pulled the suitcase and left the hotel directly.
Only then did Hu Youmin turn around to look at Huo Sining and said coldly, "Since the item isn’t damaged, you don’t have to compensate. Next time, little girl, don’t be so reckless or else you might cause a disaster you can’t explain to your family!"
Huo Sining lowered her head and apologized again. With that, Hu Youmin snorted coldly and, keeping a distance of several tens of meters behind the man surnamed Zhong, also left the hotel.
As Huo Sining watched Hu Youmin disappear at the entrance of the hotel, the conversation between him and the man surnamed Wang still seemed to echo in her ears.
The excellent Hei Wusha was obviously Hu Youmin’s, yet in the end, it was the man surnamed Wang who took it away. This suggested that the two were likely involved in a transaction of gambling stone materials.
Yet, the words "craftsmanship," "after the success," "another hundred thousand," immediately alerted Huo Sining to something fishy.
If it were a normal gambling stone transaction, such an installment payment would certainly not happen.
Because if the deal wasn’t settled immediately, once the raw material was cut open and turned out to be a bust, the buyer might refuse to pay; and if the gamble paid off, the seller might refuse to honor the deal.
Therefore, to avoid such troubles, the buyers and sellers in gambling stone deals usually choose to settle in full during the transaction to avoid complications.
But Huo Sining hadn’t misheard what the man surnamed Wang said; she realized instantly that something was wrong with their transaction, that there was a problem with the raw material!
Without the raw material being cut open, both men had made such moves, proving they both knew in advance whether the stone would increase in value or not. But even a Heavenly Eye can’t predict the outcome of jade cutting, so how did these two know what lay inside the raw material?
The answer was almost upon her.
Huo Sining’s gaze grew darker. Although her involvement with gambling stones hadn’t been for long, she had already heard of the dark, filthy dealings within the circle. Yet, this was her first time coming into such close contact with fabricated material.
She had been closely observing the appearance of that Hei Wusha raw material. Just by sight alone, its quality could be described as stunning, and even she couldn’t help feeling a bit tempted to try her luck, let alone others.
With the Heavenly Eye as her safeguard, Huo Sining naturally didn’t have to worry about being deceived, but what about ordinary people without the power of the Heavenly Eye?
This thought gave rise to a faint look of concern in her eyes.
From Hu Youmin’s conversation with the man surnamed Wang, she had already vaguely discerned their intention.
The man named Wang, spending so much on fake raw material, was definitely up to no good, and was very likely aiming to scam someone.
This made Huo Sining secretly nervous for the person about to be deceived, wondering which unlucky soul had offended Mr. Wang to warrant such a venomous retaliation.