Chapter 55: Top-Grade Imperial Green

In Jiang Cheng's mind, this one hundred million was practically free money.

Of course, in Huang Chengye's mind, Jiang Cheng was already a cripple!

Both harbored their own secret agendas, and each firmly believed that the ultimate winner would be himself.

However, Murong Xue, Lin Zhou, and Wang Hao standing nearby could not help but feel a rising wave of worry.

One after another, they tried to dissuade Jiang Cheng from entering the high-stakes wager with Huang Chengye!

Jiang Cheng merely smiled, insisting that he must place the bet no matter what.

With a fool delivering one hundred million straight to his door, how could he possibly turn it down?

Wouldn't that make him even more foolish than the idiot himself?

Seeing that Jiang Cheng refused to listen to their advice, the group had no choice but to give up in resignation!

Murong Shan was also filled with a lingering curiosity. If someone claimed Jiang Cheng had the means to know there was treasure hidden inside the raw jade stone, he might have believed it to a certain extent.

But to claim that Jiang Cheng could accurately predict the exact market value of a jadeite rough was something he would never, ever believe!

Even if someone possessed X-ray vision, it would be impossible to precisely estimate the exact value of a piece of jadeite rough, wouldn't it?

Furthermore, the value of jadeite is entirely subjective; what one person considers worth one hundred million, another might dismiss as worthless. Everyone holds their own opinion, and there is never a fixed standard!

Of course, there was one other possibility: that the value of the material inside the rough exceeded one hundred million by such an astronomical margin that no one could possibly dispute it!

Yet, a piece of raw stone worth one hundred million was already as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns in this day and age. A piece worth far more than that was even more of an absolute impossibility!

Added to the fact that Jiang Cheng was only cutting a single piece of rough, his chances of winning were essentially zero.

Internally sneering, Murong Shan thought that this Jiang Cheng was already no different from a waste whose eyes had been gouged out and hands chopped off!

In his heart, he had already concluded that Jiang Cheng was bound to lose!

Half an hour later, at the Murong family's stone-cutting yard.

Liu Ruiming hurried over, nodding and greeting Murong Shan and the others.

He had been utterly bewildered when Murong Shan suddenly summoned him today, completely unaware of what had happened.

However, the moment he heard about the wager between Jiang Cheng and Huang Chengye, he was struck by a shock so profound it defied description.

The gaze he directed toward Jiang Cheng was filled with utter pity.

He hurriedly pulled Jiang Cheng aside and earnestly tried to persuade him: "Young Brother Jiang, why on earth would you gamble your own eyes and hands just for one hundred million? As long as you have a healthy body, you will always have the opportunity to earn money. But if you become a disabled cripple, having all the wealth in the world will be entirely in vain!"

Looking at Liu Ruiming's sincere expression, Jiang Cheng felt a quiet surge of warmth in his chest.

Truth be told, he had only met Liu Ruiming a few times, and there were no shared commercial interests between them. The fact that Liu Ruiming would try to advise him like this made it obvious to Jiang Cheng that these words came straight from the heart.

He smiled and gave Liu Ruiming a respectful bow: "Thank you for your concern, Elder Liu. However, since I have already accepted this wager, there is no possibility of Jiang Cheng backing down!"

Liu Ruiming heaved a long sigh: "Alas! Young Brother Jiang, why must you be so stubborn? What does a momentary loss of face matter? One hundred million is absolute chump change to the Huang family; even if you lost, they would earn it back within a few days. But your eyes and your hands are irreplaceable to you! Once they are gone, they are truly gone forever!"

Jiang Cheng still just smiled: "Elder Liu, how about we make a little wager as well? Let's bet on whether I win or not. What do you say?"

Hearing this, Liu Ruiming was struck dumbfounded, followed immediately by a sudden sense of amusement.

Jiang Cheng's intention could not have been more obvious: he was completely certain of his victory!

Liu Ruiming could only shake his head with a helpless smile: "You, oh you!"

During the pre-battle exchange of harsh words, Jiang Cheng completely ignored Huang Chengye, simply instructing the master artisan to take the No. 14 rough stone he had won back at the auction and prepare it for cutting.

This was, after all, a genuine Imperial Green jadeite worth a staggering 520 million!

As the blade of the stone-cutting machine began to spin at high speed, everyone's expressions grew increasingly solemn.

Anything involving gambling was bound to twist people's nerves tight.

The unknown outcome was just like a woman's mysterious depths—brimming with irresistible temptation.

Everyone desperately wanted to know the final verdict: who would win, and who would lose?

Huang Chengye was only gambling against Jiang Cheng.

Whereas Jiang Cheng was not only gambling against Huang Chengye, but against himself as well.

Not only did he have a wager with Huang Chengye, but he was also engaging in high-stakes stone gambling on his own terms!

To say nothing of the one hundred million bet, just looking at stone gambling itself, who could ever claim to have it figured out?

Countless people had lost everything on a single cut, their lives ruined as if mourning the dead, numerous as the stars and sands of the Ganges.

Everyone present was convinced that Jiang Cheng was destined to lose!

Because his chances of winning were practically zero.

Every single pair of eyes was glued to the movements of the veteran artisan.

The hearts of Murong Xue, Lin Zhou, and Wang Hao leaped straight up into their throats.

The three of them clenched their fists so tightly that their entire bodies were trembling slightly.

They genuinely hoped that Jiang Cheng would win!

Yet all three of them knew deep down that it was impossible for Jiang Cheng to win!

Twenty-odd minutes later, the veteran artisan skillfully washed down the cut surface and wiped it clean with a towel.

A second earlier, Huang Chengye was still daydreaming about the scene of Jiang Cheng being blinded and crippled, but the very next second, he froze completely.

He stared fixedly at the freshly cut surface of the raw stone not far away, his eyes bloodshot and terrifyingly red.

"Impossible! Impossible! How can this be!"

When that intensely vivid, mesmerizing emerald green was finally revealed before everyone's eyes, the entire crowd was stunned stupid!

The entire venue plunged into an instant, pin-drop silence!

After a dead silence that lasted for a full minute, a sudden cry of shock broke the quiet!

"This... this is the Imperial Green!"

"It's the Imperial Green! A genuine Imperial Green!"

"Glassy species with a glowing luminescence! Just this single cut must be worth at least fifty million!"

"How long has it been since anyone has laid eyes on such a breathtaking shade of green?"

Even Murong Shan, who had witnessed plenty of top-tier materials in his time, fell silent at that moment, his eyes filled with shock and undisguised envy.

Murong Xue leaped three feet into the air, grabbing Jiang Cheng tightly by the arm as her lovely eyes sparkled with countless stars!

She cheered ecstatically: "The Imperial Green! I haven't seen an Imperial Green this large and translucent in all these years! Jiang Cheng, you are simply amazing, you're my absolute lucky star!"

If she hadn't made an agreement with Jiang Cheng beforehand, and proactively lent him the money to bid on the stones—assuming Jiang Cheng had the funds himself—this top-grade Imperial Green might very well have been snatched away by that little hussy Chu Yanran.

Her own supreme shop-镇店之宝 (treasure of the shop) would have instantly vanished like a soap bubble!

Murong Xue felt all the more grateful that cooperating with Jiang Cheng was the absolute best decision she had ever made in her life!

Lin Zhou and Wang Hao both let out collective sighs of relief.

They weren't merely astonished by the Imperial Green; rather, they were celebrating the fact that Jiang Cheng had successfully kept his hands and eyes.

As for Liu Ruiming, he stroked his slightly graying beard, looking at Jiang Cheng with a gaze full of deep appreciation.

This young man really had remarkable luck!

At that moment, however, Huang Chengye scoffed disdainfully: "Heh! What are you all celebrating for? Just because of two cut faces and it's worth fifty million? How do you know there isn't white pulp inside? Do you dare make another cut?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present hesitated.

That's right! Just a moment ago, they had been completely dazzled by this single surface of Imperial Green!

They had temporarily lost their composure.

The gazes they cast back at Jiang Cheng became complex once more.

A single cut alone was not enough to definitively determine the ultimate value of this rough stone.

Who knew if the interior flesh would turn out to be mediocre and disappointing?

If a white, chalky core was exposed beneath the surface, the value of this piece would plummet drastically.

At this juncture, Liu Ruiming had already begun trying to persuade Jiang Cheng.

"Young Brother Jiang, my advice is not to cut any further. Based purely on the two faces from that last cut, if you put this on the auction block, fetching seventy or eighty million won't be a problem at all. There's no need to take any more risks! What if the next cut ruins it? The loss wouldn't be worth the gain."

Liu Ruiming's primary concern was simply that Jiang Cheng might ruin the stone on the next cut and lose the wager.

"Elder Liu, seventy or eighty million won't win me the wager!" Jiang Cheng smiled at Liu Ruiming, then turned to the stone-cutting artisan and instructed: "Master, leave room for a bangle, and make another cut."

Murong Xue clenched her small fists, nervous to the extreme.

She hoped Jiang Cheng would win to prove his capability and fiercely slap Huang Chengye across the face, but at the same time, she worried that another cut would destroy everything!

That would make a fool of her too!

Another thirty-odd minutes later, an uproar swept through the crowd once again.

"Holy crap! It's the Imperial Green again! A massive jackpot!"

"Just this single slice can yield at least a dozen bangles!"

"This kind of luck defies the heavens! With this cut, its value has gone up by at least another fifty million!"

"Fifty million? Are you sleepwalking? Look at the quality of that other cut face—Imperial Green, glassy species! Based on that alone, this rough is worth well over one hundred million!"

Jiang Cheng looked with casual indifference at Huang Chengye, whose face had turned as dark as charcoal, and chuckled: "Well, Young Master Huang? Would you like to ask Elder Liu to appraise it again, or go hire someone else yourself to verify whether this piece is worth one hundred million?"

At this very moment, Huang Chengye had no need whatsoever to ask anyone else for an evaluation.

Even an absolute layman in the jade trade could tell precisely what kind of astronomical value such a piece held!

He clenched his back molars tightly, feeling as though his face was being repeatedly slapped by Jiang Cheng in sharp, ringing blows!

The gaze he fixed on Jiang Cheng was brimming with killing intent.

Seeing that Huang Chengye had fallen silent, Jiang Cheng offered a playful smile.

As for who won and who lost this wager, the verdict had already been set in stone!

Jiang Cheng walked over toward the stone-cutting machine. The question was no longer whether it was worth one hundred million; the real question now was just how many hundreds of millions this block of Imperial Green was truly worth.

He picked up a marker and began drawing cutting lines along the route he had long since mapped out using his X-ray vision.

Pointing directly at the marked areas, he gave detailed instructions to the veteran artisan: "Master, follow the lines I just drew. Grind away the outer rind right here, and make another cut over here!"

In this entire world, Jiang Cheng was probably the only person who could bring out the most perfect form hidden within this rough stone!

More than an hour later, the stone-cutting machine finally ground to a halt.

The material was presented before everyone's eyes in its absolute perfection.

Looking at that vibrant, positive emerald green revealed after stripping away the outer rind, coupled with those freshly cut faces that possessed a glowing, luminescent Imperial Green quality, everyone couldn't help but draw in another collective breath of cold air.

This was simply too flawless!

At this moment, not a single person dared to harbor any doubts whatsoever!

Even without shining a flashlight, the value of this rough stone was glaringly obvious at a single glance!

"It's soaring in value! It's soaring again!"

Murong Xue could no longer suppress the wild joy surging in her heart. She leaped three feet into the air and threw herself directly into Jiang Cheng's arms, clinging to him tightly like a little koala bear in a display of intimacy that could not possibly have been more suggestive!

However, no one paid any attention to their affectionate movements; every single person's gaze had shifted entirely to that magnificent block of Imperial Green.

Everyone was eagerly waiting for Elder Liu's official appraisal.

Pulling back his flashlight, Liu Ruiming wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looked at the crowd with an excited expression, and declared enthusiastically: "For this piece of material, my conservative estimate is that it is worth at least five hundred million!"

"What? Fi... five hundred million?!"

"Hiss..."

Everyone once again drew in a sharp breath of cold air—save for the calm and composed Jiang Cheng.

However, what Jiang Cheng failed to notice was that a trace of unnoticeable greed flashed swiftly across the eyes of Murong Shan and Ye Rong!