"Why can’t I come in?" ’I can take my pet on a plane, to a nice restaurant, even on a live-streamed show. What makes your little jade shop so special?’

"Sir, as you can see, our shop is filled with valuable items. If your pet were to accidentally knock something to the ground and shatter it, who would be at fault?" At that moment, the owner came out. He had clearly encountered this sort of thing before, as he replied while maintaining his smile.

’Uh, now that he mentions it, that does make sense. If a customer was admiring a jade bracelet and my pet bumped into them or startled them, making their hand tremble and drop it... that could be a loss of tens or even hundreds of thousands. It would inevitably lead to a whole dispute. To avoid situations like that, it’s better not to let pets inside.’

’But if Egg can’t come in, am I supposed to evaluate the raw stones myself? It’s not like I have golden eyes or X-ray vision. How could I possibly tell which stone has jade inside? Isn’t that just throwing money away?’

"I saw you have a few stones on display, so I wanted to ask—are these raw stones? Are they for sale?" ’Might as well get a clear answer first,’ he thought. ’If they plan on processing them themselves instead of selling them for gambling, then I don’t need to waste my time.’

"Yes, sir. Our boss just had these shipped back from the South of the Colorful Clouds, and we were just about to put them up for sale. If you’re interested, you can come on in and take a closer look." The boss’s eyes lit up when he heard this. ’Judging by the way he talks, he’s obviously not in the business,’ the boss thought. ’He probably saw a few news stories about people striking it rich from stone gambling and wants to copy them. A sucker like this is the perfect target to fleece.’

"The lighting’s not great inside. I’ll just look out here. Bring them to the doorway for me." Shen Yibin was determined not to go inside. ’Without Egg, what the heck am I supposed to do?’ "Pah!" ’Why does that sentence sound so awkward?’ Shen Yibin silently cursed himself. He was starting to regret giving Egg such a ball-achingly awkward name.

"Sir, the lighting inside is perfectly adequate. Why don’t you just look at them in here?" the boss asked with some hesitation. Although the raw stones hadn’t been cut open, they were still valuable. It didn’t seem appropriate to just move them outside.

"Is looking under sunlight the same as looking under artificial light?" Shen Yibin said, feigning the air of an expert. "Just tell me how much one of them is. If the price is right, I’ll take a look. If not, you don’t have to bother moving them." He only had a hundred thousand yuan on his card; he couldn’t afford anything too expensive.

"These few are fifty thousand each. The larger ones in the back have varying prices, from eighty thousand to over two hundred thousand." Hearing Shen Yibin’s words, the boss wanted to laugh. ’Since when was there such a strange requirement? Besides, by the looks of it, he didn’t bring any tools. Is he planning to judge if there’s jade inside with his naked eyes alone?’

"Do you take cards?" After receiving an affirmative reply, Shen Yibin nodded. "Alright, just bring those fifty-thousand-yuan ones over to me first." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Uh, alright then." Boss Song looked left and right. Seeing no unwanted attention nearby, he gestured to his staff inside. The boss directed two employees to carefully move the raw stones to the doorway, then stood beside them to prevent any accidents. "My surname is Song. I run this little shop here. And you are, sir? Where do you usually try your luck? I don’t believe I’ve seen you around."

"Oh, my name is Shen. This is my first time here," Shen Yibin said vaguely. He then picked up a raw stone and pretended to examine it while shooting a look at Egg from the corner of his eye, signaling it to begin.

Seeing the way Shen Yibin handled and inspected the raw stone, Boss Song wanted to laugh again. ’A total amateur,’ he thought. ’These stones are all subpar pieces I shipped back for cheap. The chance of finding jade in them is slim. If an expert came by, they’d either not even glance at them or haggle the price down to a few thousand to cut one open for fun. Now that I’ve finally run into a sucker, I have to find a way to trick him into buying one.’

"Sir, look at the yellowish color on this stone’s skin. You can tell at a glance it’s authentic Pagang raw material. To pick this one out of so many on your first try... you’re clearly an expert." Boss Song gave a thumbs-up, lavishing Shen Yibin with praise. The two employees standing nearby kept their faces straight, desperately trying to hold back their laughter. ’The boss is swindling someone again.’

"So this is Pagang raw material." ’Pagang is one of the ten famous pits in Myanmar,’ Shen Yibin recalled. ’It’s a historical mine, one of the earliest to be excavated. The raw stone skins are mostly grayish-white and yellowish-white, with fine crystals, good grade, high transparency, and rich color.’ This was all information Shen Yibin had looked up last night.

"That’s right! Look at this skin color, and look at the green revealed in this ’window’..." Now Boss Song was even more certain of Shen Yibin’s sucker status. In reality, this stone wasn’t from Pagang at all; he had clearly just hauled it back from the South of the Colorful Clouds.

Shen Yibin made half-hearted small talk with Boss Song, but the corner of his eye was fixed on Egg. He saw Egg circling the raw stones on the ground, occasionally sticking its nose close to sniff them.

Of course, Boss Song saw this too, but he did nothing to stop it. ’Hmph. Jade isn’t braised pork. You think you can sniff it out? If it were that easy, why would we need to spend years training our eyes? We could just take a few dogs for a walk in Myanmar and be done with it.’

"Let me take a look at this one now." Shen Yibin gently put down the material in his hands and picked up another. Egg seemed to have spent a bit more time observing this one just now. ’I wonder if this one has something in it.’

"This one is Damukan raw material! Look at this yellowish-red skin. If you cut it open, you might find a fiery, blood-red fei cui jade! Red fei cui is extremely valuable, you know." ’Huh? Where did I pick this one up again? How could I have forgotten?’

For every stone Shen Yibin picked up, Boss Song would boast about its origin. It was either from Pagang, the Houjiang Old Pit, or Grey Card—all famous mines in Myanmar. But only he knew the truth: they were definitely not from any of the places he mentioned.

Although Shen Yibin couldn’t tell if the man was being truthful, he wasn’t placing his hopes on his own observations or on Boss Song’s words. As long as Egg didn’t react, he wouldn’t be pulling out his wallet.

Just as Boss Song was growing impatient, his mouth dry from all the talking, Shen Yibin saw Egg return to the raw stone with the yellowish-red skin. It stretched out its two little paws as if trying to push the stone into Shen Yibin’s arms.

’Could there really be something inside?’ Shen Yibin suppressed his excitement and asked, "Boss, is this one fifty thousand too?"

"Yes! All of these by the door are fifty thousand!" Boss Song was as excited as if he were about to elope with his sister-in-law. "You can pay by card inside. Are you taking this one?"

"Yes. Help me cut it open." Shen Yibin took out his bank card and handed it over.