PRG – Chapter 3

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Chapter 3 – Blood Jade Thumb Ring

Within the sound of rushing water, Du Ziyu stood under the shower with his eyes closed as he let the water run from his head to his feet.

To some degree, he was a neat freak. So with regards to love, he was also picky. Not only was he a picky lover, he also had strange hobbies.

For example, he didn’t like kissing, or having sex with strangers.

However, just now, he accidentally ‘shot the gun while polishing’¹ with a man he didn’t even know the name of. He even swallowed his pride and let the man do whatever he pleased. The most humiliating thing was…how fast the man’s touch tore down his defences…

Du Ziyu brushed his hair in frustration as the water gently washed away the traces of the man from his body and took away the lingering heat. His sanity was restored. The unique aroma of the bathroom was giving him a headache. He couldn’t help but to recall the clean smell of the man outside.

It really was such a wonderful scent.

Di Ziyu let out a defeated sigh, turned off the shower, wiped his body, and walked out of the bathroom. “Change your…” His voice trailed off as he was stunned. The bed was empty. The wrinkles on the bed left evidence of their round of ridiculousness, but he couldn’t even find a shadow of the culprit?!

Du Ziyu laughed and placed his hand on his forehead. The bottom of his heart became clear. He had a sneer on his face as he grabbed his wallet: “Hmm…money’s still here?” He hummed as he swept his eyes over the bed, the bedside table, and the carpet. Suddenly his pupils constricted and his fingers viciously sank into the leather of his wallet.

“This bastard…really knows the good stuff!” Du Ziyu’s eyes leaked out a fierce sharpness. He narrowed his eyes, tossed his wallet, and slowly stroked his left thumb with his right hand.

This immortal had his fun and escaped! It was only a round of paid sex, and he actually lost the ancestral blood jade thumb ring!

*

“Check the surveillance, alarms, and portraits. I don’t believe he can’t be found!” Du Ziyu, wearing a silk robe, crossed his legs and sat on the sofa with a cold expression. He had a death grip on the ink jade Pixiu while mercilessly rubbing it.

Li Wu stood by his side with both hands on his shoulders. His eye bags were dark, his Yin Tang was black², and he had a chicken nest on top of his head as he nodded his head repeatedly in agreement: “Check check check! He dares to swindle our money, swindle our bodies, and swindle us until we lose our homes? No foresight!”

Du Ziyu glared at him: “Are you using sarcasm at me? You think I can’t tell?”

“You got the prostitute yourself, then lost the family heirloom, and you’re still not allowing people to make jokes!” Li Wu mischievously laughed: “Aiyo, your family’s grandfather views that thumb ring as a precious treasure. People say your ancestors obtained it when they went tomb robbing with Sun Dianying. The blood silk-like veins are the most expensive! It was stuck in a dead person’s throat; top quality mutton fat jade soaked in blood…You’re the only son in three generations of your family, and your grandfather was willing to let you wear the family heirloom. If you don’t get it back, you’re going to be skinned!”

“You also can’t tell when I’m joking. If it’s really lost, you won’t be able to eat well either.” Du Ziyu’s face sank even more. First, he didn’t want to think about getting punished by his grandfather. Second, he hated himself for losing his head over lust³.

At this moment, the doorbell rang, and Li Wu immediately went to open the door. The hotel lobby manager came in. Du Ziyu’s heart sank the moment he saw his difficult expression.

“Mr. Du, I am really sorry. We carefully reviewed the security system according to the time period you said, but no one had ever entered your room. We also reviewed the hotel’s exterior surveillance cameras, and there’s no possibility that someone could climb the wall and come in through your window…” He said as he took out a USB. “This is a copy of the video. You can review it yourself again.”

“There was no one on the surveillance camera? Surely you don’t mean it was a ghost?” Du Ziyu’s voice raised a bit and his anger made him somewhat calm. He sighed and waved his hand towards the hotel lobby manager. “Alright, we’ll continue this after the police come.” Afterwards, he plugged the USB into the computer in the hotel room and began to focus on the video.

Li Wu walked over and pulled the hotel lobby manager, indicating that he shouldn’t worry and it was fine to leave. Li Wu was extremely able to endure Du Ziyu’s temper. He (DZY) appeared to be arrogant, cold, and hard to please, but in reality, he was angry at himself.

Was it so easy to find the swindler who stole the jade thumb ring? He didn’t even know the man’s name, origin, or nationality; he only remembered his good-looking skin. What was the use? When the police comes, it will be like as if they were only passing by. It was impossible to find the man.

Li Wu left Du Ziyu who was staring at the surveillance video and went to the in-room coffee bar to make two cups of coffee. He gave a cup to him: “Ziyu, listen to brother-in-law’s words. When the frontier old man lost his horse, how could one know if it was truly an unfortunate event?⁴ Perhaps tomorrow, when we crack open those raw stones, we’ll find one that’s worth ten of your jade thumb rings.” He said as he patted him on the shoulder. “However, you definitely cannot escape Grandfather Du from giving you a beating!”

The development of things was as Li Wu expected. The police came, and a report and police sketch were made. On top of that, Du Ziyu spent all night watching the surveillance video, however the mysterious man was still not found. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air. There was no information in the police system, no surveillance footage, and no footage of him entering or leaving the room. It was like what Du Ziyu had said, a ghost!

In the end, even Li Wu had suspicions: “Young Master Du, is it that you lost the ring yourself, was too afraid of going home to get a beating, and made up this nonsensical ghost story?”

“Get lost!”⁵ Du Ziyu’s face completely blackened.

*

As the old saying goes, “unlucky in love, lucky at cards”⁶. Du Ziyu, who had recently been unlucky in both love and money, was surprised that the old saying came true, having recovered everything at the gambling house!

The gamble, naturally speaking, was stone gambling⁷.

The next morning, the group of people went to the jade yard to find an old master to ‘open the skylight’. A large shop in the jade yard was crowded with people. In reality, before gambling stones could be bet on, cutting the stone open was key. Where would they find a knife that could reveal the jade’s colour without damaging it? It was all knowledge. If not, then why would they have the jargon “One knife is poor, one knife is rich, and one knife pierces through linen”⁸.

“Boss, how is this piece going to be cut?” Ah-Mao was looking for a skilled old master. The old man took the palm-sized stone and looked at it carefully, but did not dare to lightly reply to the buyer’s helper. After all, the stones were often worth millions.

“I see this stone is not big anyways…let’s scrub it? For a degree of insurance?” The big brother handling the machine suggested. Scrubbing was also industry jargon, which meant using a polishing method to grind away the surface bit by bit. You stop the moment you see colour; it was a method with minimal risk. See a lot but don’t buy; scrub a lot but don’t alter; this was the golden rule of the stone business.

“Scrub!” Li Wu nodded, as he dragged a stool and sat in front of the old master. As they began the process, people immediately gathered around. The couple of people who were watching for fun were unimportant. Once the stone was cut, there would be people who would shout a price to buy it, willing to pay one to two million dollars.

Du Ziyu also sat down and his eyes fell on the raw stone in the hands of the old master. This piece of ‘White Sand Exterior’ type of raw stone that they had had the highest rate of being green. The old master used an iron brush to sand off a layer of the stone, revealing a layer of white. It was ‘fog’!

‘Fog’ was a layer of translucent stone between the jade and the stone exterior. It could be thin or thick. Gambling stone meant gambling fog as well. You could infer the appearance of the jade inside according to the colour of the fog. ‘White Sand Exterior’ type had a white fog and a hydrated interior jade that could easily be ice⁹ or glass¹⁰ type. Du Ziyu rejoiced in his heart and wanted to eagerly share the news with Li Wu. He turned his head but found that Li Wu was still intensely staring at the polishing machine, as if he was winding himself up like a spring. His expression was also completely focused and he was not surprised to see the white fog.

“Li Wu, do you see it? There’s fog!” Du Ziyu couldn’t help reminding him.

“Where? Where?” Li Wu was taken aback. He took the stool and sat closer, hating the fact that they couldn’t just plunge into the stone. The old master also momentarily stopped his work: “Little boss, are you seeing things? Where’s the fog?”

From time to time, a few snickers popped up from the crowd. Du Ziyu furrowed his brows as he clearly saw the layer of fog on the stone.

“Then continue with your scrubbing.” Du Ziyu waved his hand in annoyance and rubbed his eyes.

The old master began working again and he watched as the fog was wiped away clean. Clear, colourless jade was exposed; the transparency¹¹ was excellent. Du Ziyu’s eyes lit up and he wanted the old master to stop. He heard a shout from the crowd: “It’s just like he said, there’s fog! White fog!”

Du Ziyu swallowed the words that were forming in his mouth. He poked Li Wu: “Do you not see the meat¹² yet?”

“Damn, Du Ziyu, what nonsense are you saying? Meat my ass, that is white fog! We’re off to a good start!” Li Wu was so happy that he didn’t have time to talk to Du Ziyu. He only urged the old master to scrub faster. Du Ziyu felt a little weird. He stared at the window of moist jade meat and watched the master grind for a while. It was still moist and translucent. At this time, the old master stopped scrubbing and rinsed the stone with water. He mumbled in a low voice: “Good stone…this is ice type!”

He didn’t even finish speaking and the crowd immediately exploded with discussion, wonder, shouting of prices, and desire to buy the stone…

The stone left the old master’s hands and into Li Wu’s hands, who then passed it to Du Ziyu. He took a strong flashlight to see the colour of the jade meat. Immediately he saw small pock-like black spots inside. Du Ziyu once again looked at Li Wu: “Have you seen inside?”

“I saw it! Not a single speck of variant colour! It’s an excellent colourless ice-type jade!” Li Wu took the stone back and handed it to the driver and Ah-Mao to confirm. Finally, the stone was handed back to the old master: “Master, continue to scrub!”

Du Ziyu wrinkled his brows but didn’t say anything. He just quietly watched for any changes as the master continued to scrub. After a few minutes of effort, the other side of the stone presented a completely different state – the white fog had disappeared, directly exposing a layer of dead grey coloured jade meat. Du Ziyu fiercely stood up and pulled at the old master’s arm: “Stop scrubbing! There’s so many more stones to be scrubbed. I am in a hurry to leave!” He took the stone and turned towards the crowd: “Name your price. I’m selling this stone.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Li Wu yanked him and stared straight into his eyes: “A stone with a ‘White Sand Exterior’ shell, white fog, ice type interior, and you still want to sell it? I fucking want to sell you!”

“Little boss, I bid $100,000. Sell it to me!”

“I bid $200,000!”

“$500,000!”

The price rose higher and higher. Li Wu saw the situation and was even more determined not to sell it. Du Ziyu was unable to persuade him and had no choice but to try another route: “Not selling is also fine. Right now the bid is at $500,000. I’ll take $135,000. You give me the money and the stone is yours. Whether you cut, scrub, or sell it, it doesn’t involve me.” He gave the stone to Li Wu, and examined the remaining five raw stones. He chose the smallest one and gave it to the master. “This one doesn’t need to be scrubbed.” He drew a straight line at the corner with his slender white finger: “Cut here.”

“Du Ziyu, what’s wrong with you today?” Li Wu felt played by him. Although the boy knew some things about stone gambling, he had never seen him act like this before. Was he possessed today?

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1. 擦枪走火 – Had unintended sex ↩
2. Yin Tang – An acupuncture point located between your eyebrows. If it’s black, it means you have serious health problems. ↩
3. 色令智昏 – Idiom; going sex crazy ↩
4. 塞翁失马焉知非福 – Proverb from a tale in Huai Nan Zi, meaning “A setback may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.” In it, a frontier old man lost his horse, and while others thought of it as an unfortunate event, the old man replied “Why should I conclude this as unfortunate?” As a result of him losing his horse, a chain of events happened that ended in his greater fortune instead. ↩
5. 滚 – Literally means ‘roll’. Used to tell someone to get lost or ‘roll’ away haha ↩
6. 情场失意，赌场得意 – Proverb that’s kind of said to comfort people when they’re unlucky in their love life. The phrase can be reversed (Lucky in love, unlucky at cards). “Cards” refers to gambling in general. ↩
7. 赌石 – It is when uncut raw jade stones of unknown quality are sold and bought. Some of these stones literally look like grey rocks, so you’re taking a gamble on the interior quality of the stone. You ‘open the skylight’ (cut it open) to see if your gamble was successful. If the stone turns out to be high quality, you could potentially double or triple your initial investment. ↩
8.   一刀穷，一刀富，一刀穿麻布 – A stone gambling specific idiom. Gambling stones have to be cut open to reveal their value. That cut could possibly make you poor, rich, or completely bankrupt (you’re so poor that you have holes in your linen clothes). ↩
9. Ice Type – Translucent jade ↩
10. Glass Type – Almost completely transparent jade ↩
11. 水头 – Refers to the degree of transparency or hydration in jade ↩
12. 肉 – They’re referring to the interior jade of the raw stone ↩