Lavender Jadeite

Lin Yue's pulse thundered as emerald light flooded her vision. She stared at Huo Xuan, shock dilating her pupils.

"Your luck holds—ice-grade imperial green?" Huo Xuan feigned surprise.

"Likely." Lin Yue's trembling fingers produced a jeweler's loupe. Sweat pearled her nose as she bent over the exposed jadeite.

Chen Fusheng's jaw tightened. How does this gutter rat keep winning? That stone's worth more than my quarterly profits!

Ye Qian's nails bit her palms. The boy I discarded now commands Linyue's admiration? Her past cruelty calcified into denial: Begging him would taste like ash.

Lin Yue straightened, voice trembling. "Borderline ice-to-glass transition. If consistent..." She swallowed. "...conservative estimate: tens of millions."

Myanmar's depleted mines birthed this scarcity—jadeite prices now dwarfing gold. A fist-sized glass-grade imperial green commanded nine figures. This specimen's limpid clarity straddled ice and glass, its value anchoring firmly in eight-digit territory.

Chen Fusheng's throat dried. Ten million? My entire subsidiary's annual yield!

Ye Qian's gaze welded to the glowing slab. Pride warred with avarice—words stuck like broken jade shards.

Huo Xuan's astonishment proved genuine. Intellectual knowledge crumbled before physical proof—this glowing rock could buy thirty suburban villas, elevate his parents from provincial obscurity to leisure-class comfort.

"Two percent profit share," Lin Yue reminded, mirth tempering business rigor. "You've graduated from scholar to capitalist, junior."

Huo Xuan's chuckle carried tectonic shifts. Father's arthritis treatments. Mother's dream tea shop. All attainable now.

Lin Yue exhaled audibly, signaling bodyguard Li Hu to secure the jadeite slab. "We still have three million yuan's quota. Let's continue—can you replicate this miracle?"

Huo Xuan's casino winnings entitled him to select stones under 3M yuan cost-free.

Must conceal my X-ray vision. Two consecutive wins already drew too much attention, Huo Xuan internally cautioned. Aloud: "Senior, even blind squirrels find nuts occasionally. Don't expect repeat luck."

Chen Fusheng seized the lifeline: "Fortune's wheel never stops for fools!"

Ignoring him, Lin Yue hooked her arm through Huo Xuan's. "My gut says your streak continues."

Watching them retreat, Chen Fusheng's jaw muscle spasmed—the campus alpha now eclipsed by his former underling.

Ye Qian gnawed her glossed lip. "Let's... try our luck too?"

Chen Fusheng's gaze swept her Dior-clad form—once worshipped campus goddess now exposed as department-store mannequin. "Buy whatever trash amuses you."

Her porcelain facade cracked.

In his mind's eye, Lin Yue's silhouette eclipsed all: Wealth, status—only she matches my pedigree.

Ye Qian's voice pierced his fantasy: "Why stare?"

Chen Fusheng snorted dismissively. "Buy stones if you crave humiliation."

Huo Xuan and Lin Yue selected dozens of stones across Zones C and B. In Zone B, they paused before an oval-shaped ​white salt-sand gravel measuring 50 centimeters in diameter, its ash-gray surface marked with deep green pine-needle patterns—a type of jadeite rough comparable to black wusha gravel.

Huo Xuan stood motionless for thirty seconds, his expression unreadable.

Lin Yue examined the stone and asked, "Does this one stand out?"

Huo Xuan replied flatly, "Nothing special. Just seems overpriced."

Glancing at the 880,000 yuan price tag, Lin Yue countered, "The vivid pine-flower patterns justify the cost."

"Then let's take it," Huo Xuan said, instructing an attendant to log the stone's serial number.

Lin Yue rolled her eyes. "At least pretend to inspect it properly!"

"Luck guides me," he shrugged.

Internally, his pulse raced. This stone harbored ​glass-grade lavender jadeite rivaling the earlier imperial green specimen.

Lin Yue had once mentioned: A single glass-grade lavender jadeite bangle recently sold for 5 million HKD. This massive stone could yield over a hundred such bangles.

Market value: over 100 million yuan. Huo Xuan's heart hammered against his ribs.