It was early May, and the temperature in Su City was just right; a gentle breeze blew, feeling exceptionally comfortable on one's face.
By the time Zhou Yuchen arrived at the Antiques Street, it was already bustling with people.
Stalls were laid out on both sides of a long street stretching over four hundred meters, displaying an endless array of various small objects.
Zhou Yuchen locked his electric bike at the street's entrance and, full of anticipation, walked towards the stall he had visited yesterday.
Soon, he once again saw the "ru kiln big jar" that had caught his eye.
The owner was a middle-aged man in his forties, with dark skin, appearing somewhat simple and honest.
His memory was excellent; he sized up Zhou Yuchen and said, "Young man, it seems you visited my stall yesterday afternoon, didn't you?"
Zhou Yuchen hummed in affirmation, his eyes still fixed on the big jar, and said, "That's right."
The owner took a puff of his cigarette, chuckled, and asked, "What? Are you interested in this ru kiln big jar?"
Zhou Yuchen ignored him and directly used a Reality Scroll.
Several lines of text immediately appeared before his eyes.
"Item: ru kiln big jar (replica)"
"Era: 1993"
"Value: 520 yuan"
Zhou Yuchen felt greatly disappointed, but his face remained impassive as he said, "The item is good, but unfortunately, it's too expensive. I can't afford it."
Just then, a beautiful woman in her thirties walked over and said, "Handsome, are you also interested in this big jar?"
Zhou Yuchen stood up, nodded, and said, "Yes."
"What a coincidence!"
The beautiful woman clapped her hands and said happily, "I'm also interested in this big jar. It's just that the owner is asking too much. I can pay a maximum of 300,000. Little brother, do you have 220,000? How about we buy it together?"
Zhou Yuchen glanced at the beautiful woman, then at the owner sitting there smoking, and already had a suspicion in his heart. He said, "Big sister, I can't even come up with 10,000 yuan, where would I get 220,000?"
With that, Zhou Yuchen turned to leave.
The beautiful woman grabbed his wrist, saying, "Little brother, don't go, let's discuss it further."
Zhou Yuchen's arm shook, shaking off her hand, and his eyes, sharp as knives, stared intently into hers.
His piercing gaze made the beautiful woman show a look of panic, and she couldn't help but retreat two steps, turning her head away.
Zhou Yuchen said indifferently, "I don't like watching plays, and even less do I like acting in them. Boss, may I leave now?"
The owner quickly stood up and said, "Of course."
Zhou Yuchen nodded at him and strode away.
"Brother, that young man's eyes are so scary."
As soon as Zhou Yuchen left, the beautiful woman let out a long sigh of relief.
Just now, she almost thought Chen Haoyu was going to kill her in broad daylight.
The owner's expression was very serious. He said, "If I'm not mistaken, that young man's martial arts are extremely high. We'd best not provoke him."
The beautiful woman hummed and said, "He seems to have seen through our deception."
The owner sighed, a bitter smile on his face, "A bad start, indeed."
What the two of them didn't know was that Zhou Yuchen also felt like he had a bad start.
Zhou Yuchen could, of course, tell that the beautiful woman was putting on an act, trying to swindle him out of his money.
Once the two of them jointly bought the big jar, if they simply found an expert to declare it fake, then Zhou Yuchen's 220,000 yuan would be wasted.
However, Zhou Yuchen didn't care about their tactics.
What he truly cared about was that if that beautiful woman had appeared a bit earlier, he wouldn't have needed to waste a precious Reality Scroll.
Now Zhou Yuchen only had two chances left, which was a big loss.
After strolling around Antiques Street, Zhou Yuchen walked into a small jade raw stone market in the southeast corner.
There were more than twenty stalls here, each filled with raw stones of varying sizes and shapes.
Many people were holding flashlights, squatting on the ground, observing the stones in front of them.
Regarding antiques, Zhou Yuchen had done some research after becoming wealthy.
But as for stone gambling, he had truly never encountered it.
Walking up to the busiest stall, Zhou Yuchen looked at the prices of the raw stones.
Goodness, regardless of size, all these raw stones were above 100,000 yuan.
The most expensive one was a raw stone about the size of a football, with a crack revealing a faint green hue, priced at a terrifying 12 million yuan.
Even so, several men were still discussing it.
Zhou Yuchen glanced around, then focused his attention on four raw stones priced between 350,000 and 400,000 yuan.
There were two reasons for choosing this price range.
First, he only had 400,000 yuan in his bank card, which he could just afford.
Second, although he didn't understand raw stones, he understood one principle: the more expensive the price, the higher the chance of finding jade.
Anyway, Zhou Yuchen had Reality Scrolls; if he detected no jade inside, he simply wouldn't buy it, and wouldn't lose any money.
Zhou Yuchen looked back and forth twice, and finally used a Reality Scroll on the largest of those raw stones.
"Item: Jade raw stone"
"Source: Burma River Old Mine"
"Value: Between 2.3 million and 3 million yuan"
Zhou Yuchen's body trembled; he forcefully suppressed the joy in his heart, pointed at the oval-shaped raw stone, and shouted, "Boss, raw stone number twenty-six, I'll buy it."
The stall owner was a middle-aged man in his forties. Hearing Zhou Yuchen's shout, he immediately walked over and said, "Sir, raw stone number twenty-six is 370,000 yuan. I have a POS machine here, you can swipe your card directly."
Zhou Yuchen took out his bank card and said, "No problem."
Soon, Zhou Yuchen paid 370,000 yuan and bought this raw stone.
"Boss, you should be able to cut stones here, right?"
"Of course. For any customer who cuts stones at our stall, I won't charge a single penny."
"Then cut it directly."
"Alright."
The owner seemed very happy; he picked up a loudspeaker and shouted, "Raw stone number twenty-six will be cut on site!"
Upon hearing this, the customers all put down their raw stones and gathered around.
For them, nothing was more exciting than cutting stones.
Placing Zhou Yuchen's raw stone on the table, the owner started the stone-cutting machine and began to cut.
"Screech!"
With the first cut, a small portion of the raw stone was removed.
The owner sprinkled clear water on the cut surface, and immediately a hint of green appeared inside, visible to everyone.
"Holy cow, it's green!"
"There really is green, but it's hard to say how large the area is."
"The key is the second cut."
...The owner's face showed joy; this was the first raw stone he had sold today.
No matter how big the jade inside was, as long as there was some, it would be good publicity.
The owner took a deep breath and made another cut; a captivating green emerged from the stone, radiating brilliant light under the sunlight.
"It's jade!"
"It's a win, and a huge win at that!"
"Wow, ice-grade vibrant green!"
"This young man's luck is truly amazing!"
...Seeing that the stone gamble was a win, everyone was even more excited than Zhou Yuchen, and they all cast envious and jealous glances at him.
Zhou Yuchen let out a slight sigh of relief, a brilliant smile spreading across his face.