Chapter 41: The World’s Jade, Pingzhou’s Craftsmanship!

Sitting on the subway, Chen Jie tapped on his phone to look up the "Bai Group" that Bai Yiheng had just mentioned.

He wouldn't have known if he hadn't checked, but checking left him startled!

This Bai Group turned out to be a massive listed conglomerate with total assets reaching hundreds of billions.

It owned over a dozen wholly-owned subsidiaries on a grand scale, holding significant weight throughout South China.

Real estate, hotels, biotechnology, traditional Chinese medicine, energy, logistics...

The scope of its industrial investments was vast, with business branches even extending to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

From the scale of the "Bai Group," it was easy to see that Bai Yiheng's identity was extraordinary and his background profound.

Recalling his interaction with Bai Yiheng just moments ago, the man had been consistently polite and well-mannered, speaking with great courtesy, which made Chen Jie feel very comfortable.

Personal refinement and temperament could not simply be bought with money.

It seemed that when he sold his wild ginseng in the future, he would have many more opportunities to deal with Bai Yiheng.

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Taking the subway from Tianhe District in Guangzhou to Pingzhou in Foshan took only half an hour.

With his backpack containing the bracelets and jade plaques strapped to his back, Chen Jie headed straight for the "Jinhuicui Jewelry Store" in Pingzhou, Foshan.

Jinhuicui Jewelry Store!

This was the company dealing in jade and emeralds that Chen Jie had contacted that very morning on the high-speed train.

"Heaven's jade is crafted in Pingzhou!"

This was the praise bestowed upon Pingzhou by the jade and jewelry industry.

Pingzhou did not produce jade, and it was quite far from Myanmar.

Yet, relying on exquisite jade carving and processing, Pingzhou had become a leader in the industry, gathering raw emerald and jade materials from all over the world.

It was one of the four major jade processing centers in South China, and whenever a public auction began, the transaction volume reached billions.

Jinhuicui Jewelry Store had four branch stores in South China, offering a one-stop service encompassing raw stones, processing, and sales.

Chen Jie was not here to sell raw emerald stones, but rather finished products directly.

According to the information provided by the other party, because high-end rough emeralds on the market were becoming increasingly scarce, Myanmar had not yielded high-end goods for a long time.

Therefore,

Jinhuicui Jewelry Store had placed advertisements online to acquire high-end finished emerald products.

Chen Jie had checked the details, and the general manager was named Zhang Fengyi.

He had already called him while on the subway.

When Chen Jie arrived at Jinhuicui Jewelry Store, he was stopped by a security guard who asked if he had an appointment.

Chen Jie naturally replied that he did, having hung up the phone less than twenty minutes ago.

However,

seeing that Chen Jie was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, the security guard looked skeptical.

He asked Chen Jie to call Zhang Fengyi and required him to register his information before allowing him to enter the office building.

"Why is it so troublesome?" Chen Jie instantly felt a bit impatient.

Coming straight here from "Rongji Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacy," the difference in treatment was like night and day.

Beep, beep—beep, beep—!

Chen Jie dialed Zhang Fengyi's number, but to his great annoyance, the other party simply didn't pick up.

Damn it—!

What is going on?

Was this guy standing him up?

Holding his phone, Chen Jie turned around, ready to leave.

To hell with selling jade!

It looked like this "Jinhuicui Jewelry Store" was a bit unreliable.

He had just contacted Zhang Fengyi twenty minutes ago, and now they wouldn't even answer the phone.

Chen Jie thought about it and decided to give it one last call.

If they didn't answer this time, he would just go back.

Anyway, he currently had nine million in his possession, which was enough to last him quite a while.

To his surprise, however, the call went through this time.

An impatient voice came from the other end of the line: "Who is this? Speak! Why do you keep calling me? Don't you know I'm busy right now?"

Busy my foot!

Hearing this, Chen Jie flew into a rage.

Everything was fine just a moment ago on the subway, and now, less than half an hour later, he was being told he was busy?

Once you have money, you get a spine!

If it were in the past, Chen Jie might have forced a smile, apologized to the other party, and offered some explanation, saying he was sorry for disturbing them and feeling quite embarrassed.

But now, he wasn't desperate for the money from selling jade, and his temper naturally flared up.

"Director Zhang, what do you mean by this? Twenty minutes ago when I called you, that wasn't what you said!"

"If you really don't want the goods, just make it clear to me!"

"Now I'm damn well at your company entrance, and you tell me you're busy?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Fengyi was momentarily stunned.

He quickly recalled that he indeed seemed to have answered a call just now.

"I'm sorry! Are you Mr. Chen, the one who said they wanted to sell us finished emeralds?"

"I got caught up in a meeting and completely forgot about it! I'm sorry, I am truly sorry—!"

"Where are you? Have you already arrived at our company? I'm coming down right now!"

After all, doing business was about making a fortune, not holding grudges.

He hadn't intended to put on airs or stand Chen Jie up.

Right after taking the call earlier, he had been swept into a meeting and completely forgot about Chen Jie's matter.

The moment Chen Jie's call connected again, it all came back to him.

Because the market for high-end jade and emeralds had been exceptionally good lately, supplies were short everywhere.

The Myanmar public auctions hadn't produced any truly top-tier materials recently either.

Consequently,

high-end emeralds were scarce on the market.

Under poor economic conditions, jewelry businesses such as jade and emeralds were actually thriving.

Because many wealthy individuals feared their money would depreciate, they purchased jewelry in large quantities.

Purchases of gold were restricted and could not be made in large amounts, so a lot of capital flowed into the jewelry market instead.

The scarcity of high-end emeralds caused prices to skyrocket, prompting many jade suppliers to start hoarding stock.

Jinhuicui Jewelry Store's high-end emeralds had recently sold out entirely, leaving them in severe shortage.

Zhang Fengyi had posted an advertisement online to acquire finished emerald products, hoping to secure some goods to prevent Jinhuicui Jewelry Store from having empty shelves.

When he received Chen Jie's call earlier, he had been extremely enthusiastic.

Although Chen Jie spoke harshly, he knew he was entirely to blame, especially after seeing several missed calls on his phone, which helped him understand why Chen Jie was angry.

A moment later, Zhang Fengyi came down from the third floor.

Seeing Chen Jie standing at the entrance with a backpack slung over his shoulder,

a smile appeared on his face as he greeted Chen Jie:

"Hello, are you Mr. Chen?"

"I am truly sorry. I was leading a meeting just now, had my phone on silent, and completely forgot our prior arrangement!"

"The company's been dealing with some issues lately that have driven me half crazy. I'm busy as hell every day, yet I don't even know what I'm busy with!"

"Come on, let's go up to the office for a cup of tea—and we can chat properly!"

Chen Jie had originally intended to leave.

Seeing Zhang Fengyi's sincere attitude and realizing he hadn't intentionally stood him up,

his anger subsided a bit, and he followed Zhang Fengyi up to the second-floor office.

A few minutes later,

several senior executives and jade artisans from Jinhuicui Jewelry Store entered the office.

Obviously,

these people had just been summoned by Zhang Fengyi.

Chen Jie took out a pair of jade bracelets and placed them on the table.

Let's test the waters first!

One of these bracelets was an imperial-style oval "concubine bracelet," the very same high-end emerald appraised at 1.2 million by Teacher Catfish last night in the "Zixuan Treasure Appreciation Livestream."

The staff members of Jinhuicui Jewelry Store gathered around the bracelets, observing them for a moment while nodding continuously.

One veteran artisan looked up at Chen Jie and said,

"Young man, where are the rest of the goods? Judging by the ice-seed of these bracelets, the raw stone they came from must have been quite large!"

"When it was cut open, there should have been more than just two bracelets, right?"

Chen Jie was momentarily stunned, then shook his head and said,

"What raw stone? I'm selling finished products, not rough emerald stones!"

The veteran artisan frowned slightly and said in a deep voice,

"High-ice material like this is rare on the market. Strange—in the past ten years, I haven't seen any such high-ice material being cut!"

"Young man, can you tell me when the raw material for this pair of bracelets was mined?"

Generally speaking, top-tier emeralds cut at public auctions had records.

For every high-end piece in the jade industry, one could roughly guess which stone it had been cut from.

However,

Chen Jie's two bracelets left this veteran artisan completely unable to trace their origin.