PRG – Chapter 4

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Chapter 4 – Casino Pride

Du Ziyu was indeed possessed.

The reason why he chose the small stone was because he saw an emotionally moving jade green colour on the surface of the exterior. However, when he saw the stone yesterday, it clearly had a sand exterior. It was very clean, but it did not have any colour.

The first time, when he first saw the white fog, to the moment someone had shouted “white fog”, the master had been grinding for more than ten minutes. The second time when the white fog had been scrubbed off and the meat was revealed, ten minutes had also passed. Scrubbing the stone for ten minutes takes off 3-5mm. The line Du Ziyu drew was based on this estimate. Although this speculation was too unbelievable, everything was telling him that he, Du Ziyu, was able to see the condition of the stone 3-5mm under the surface.

“Li Wu, whenever we worked together, have I ever deceived you?” Du Ziyu pulled at his brother-in-law, who almost jumped, and patiently explained: “You were familiar with me since the first day? I thought you understood what kind of person I am?”

Although he had the small white face of a pampered son of a wealthy family, Du Ziyu had always been smart and prudent, so in his early 20s, he took over his third sister’s shop. After four to five years of hard work, he became the boss of the small shop, with business doing very well. It’s reasonable to say that, normally, Li Wu as his brother-in-law, would not care about his reckless performance today. However, this was not some small object worth ten to twenty thousand yuan. He couldn’t joke around with cutting gambling stones that were worth one to two hundred million yuan.

Du Ziyu saw that he was still hesitating and simply said: “Then, I won’t take the colourless ice-type jade. The $135,000 will be to pay for the cut. If the gamble is successful, like before, we’ll evenly split the earnings. If the gamble is a failure, I’ll treat it as an expensive lesson.”

“Cut it! Cut it!” The crowd began to cause a commotion. Du Ziyu had already said all he had to say and everyone else couldn’t stop him. Although upsetting, no one could guarantee that the cut would be successful. But since he was so confident that he wanted to cut it, it should be a piece of cake. Just cut it already!

With everyone coming to the same agreement, the old master brought down the knife until a layer of lush green was seen. Li Wu’s gambling eyes filled with excitement and he smacked Du Ziyu’s shoulder: “Damn! Kid, these skills, you were hiding them so deeply!”

Du Ziyu was unexpectedly expressionless, which seemed unfathomable in people’s eyes, but in reality, Du Ziyu’s heart almost collapsed. It was really heaven’s favour. He merely did merciful and virtuous deeds for 24 years, and he successfully opened his third eye?

“Little boss, do you still want to cut it?” The old master, judging the situation with his veteran experience, was excited for the boss who had good fortune. He used water to rinse the chicken egg sized stone and handed it to Du Ziyu.

Du Ziyu bowed his head to look. The green areas were vivid and hydrated, and the exterior was like dried sand. The other three sides of the stone appeared to have meat on the inside and could be revealed by cutting it bit by bit. But the stone, this thing, if the next cut reveals colourless stone, the price will drop by double the value. Right now, the window was completely opened¹. He was afraid to sell it for five to six hundred thousand. If he cut off the shining white areas of the stone, the price will instantly jump right to $300,000. Du Ziyu closed his eyes and rested for a moment. He opened them again, and still he couldn’t see anything. It seemed that God still had some reservations and only gave him 5mm of merit.

“Should I sell?” Du Ziyu sought Li Wu and his two companions’ opinions.

“Not cutting it?” Li Wu frowned.

“Definitely cut; get rid of it.” Ah-Mao wasn’t good at gambling stones, but the Burmese strongly believed in one’s fortune. Every cut made while extracting the jade was done prudently. He thought for a bit: “Let’s solve this problem first.”

The last few stones were not so good – one was completely shit and the rest were mid-grade jade. There were also some that had cotton² and mixed impurities. They wouldn’t sell for much. The four of them discussed. Ah-Mao took out $30,000 and divided it with the others, as he planned to process the stones and sell them as mid-grade jewelry.

“I must say, if you wanted to sell this small piece here, you’ll have to continue scrubbing the white sand exterior off!” Li Wu weighed two stones and ultimately gave the larger one to the old master. After all, this type of White Sand Exterior stone had a high chance of being good quality jade. They had already revealed that it was ice type. If they continued scrubbing, the price would double.

“Grind another side of it.” Du Ziyu couldn’t dissuade Li Wu. It was best to look for a side that he couldn’t see inside for the master to grind. This time, the master had been grinding for about half an hour and Du Ziyu still could not see the meat through the surface. He frowned and was about to speak when suddenly a fine layer of glass-like meat unveiled beneath the grinder.

“It’s ground out! It’s ground out!” This time, Du Ziyu did not open his mouth. The voices around him were already rising and falling. As the old master scrubbed more and more, the crowd heated up like oil in a hot pan. Du Ziyu finally reacted. What he saw was no different from what the others saw?

He immediately turned over the stone. The area where the stone was just ground had transparent ice-clear jade. No matter how he looked, he couldn’t see the black spots he saw before.

At this moment, the stone had already been bid up to one million yuan. The four men hesitated for a while. A Jiangzhe boss bid 1.6 million yuan to buy the two pieces. The men made up their mind and simply sold them.

“Is it alright this time?” Li Wu burst with joy, having earned four-hundred-something thousand yuan out of thin air. The Du Family’s third sister only gave him the job of hunting for goods and he ended up exceeding expectations. Li Wu proudly winked at Du Ziyu.

“I didn’t earn enough to cover the cost of the thumb ring.” Du Ziyu shook his head helplessly. There was a new confusion in his brain. He kneaded the nasal bone between his eyes. He really didn’t understand why he was able to start seeing through the stone, but later, couldn’t see…

Was it because he bumped his head during the car accident? Did he need to do a full body check at the hospital when he went back?

That night, the Li-Du pair stayed in Ruili for one last night. Early next morning, they would return home with nearly one million yuan net profit. During the whole ride back, Du Ziyu kneaded and twirled the ink jade Pixiu in his hands. He didn’t know if this thing could really bring fortune and let him easily profit, or if this thing conflicted with the evil-exorcising blood jade thumb ring, making him directly lose the family heirloom…….

“How about when we return, we won’t mention anything about gambling stones, and simply say that I sold the thumb ring for one million yuan?” On the flight back, Du Ziyu pulled off his eye mask and suddenly came up with this sentence.

“Young Master Du, it seems like you want to test Grandfather Du. Is this old ginger not hot enough?³” Li Wu rolled his eyes. He could already vaguely see the scene of Du Ziyu going home and getting chased by his grandfather.

“I think I should first go hide at my sister’s house for two days….” Du Ziyu pulled the eye mask back over his eyes, forcefully exhaled, and began to rub the Pixiu. He mentally whipped the man who stole his thumb ring over and over.

June to July was the rainy season in his hometown. Du Ziyu was caught in the rain after he got off the airplane. It rained for two days, and he had no choice but to stay at home. He took the chance to follow Ah-Mao’s instructions to consecrate his Pixiu.

He collected rain water as ‘rootless water’ to purify the Pixiu, and used a red cloth to wipe it clean. Then he dotted the Pixiu’s eyes with two drops of sandalwood essential oil to open its third eye, and so it would recognize him as its master. He took out paper money, jewelry, antiques, and jade for it to familiarize itself with the taste. Finally, he covered the Pixiu with his palm and stroked it three times from head to toe. He wrapped the Pixiu in the red cloth and placed it under his pillow. After sleeping on it for seven days, the Pixiu would recognize him as its master and would never serve another in its lifetime.

Du Ziyu finished it with difficulty. His cellphone vibrated; it was a WeChat message from his childhood sweetheart-like friend.

[ Ziyu, you’re finally willing to come back? You want to die? You didn’t contact me this whole time! Leave! Laozi⁴ will hold a welcome banquet for you⁵! I can come out at any moment! ]

He didn’t feel like going…..

Du Ziyu yawned. The WeChat profile picture was a pretty young man. The name was Shi Lai; it was the same “Shi Lai” as in “Shi Lai Yun Zhuan”⁶.  He had been entangled with the boy’s fate since kindergarten. All of the bad things that happened in the first half of his life almost entirely involved this guy, Shi Lai.

Du Ziyu shook his head, took out the Pixiu from under his pillow, and hung it on his neck. He silently said a phrase in his heart: “May carrying this jade bring safety”. Replying with a simple “okay” to Shi Lai, he got out of bed and headed out the door.

Speaking of “receive wind, wash dust”, he really went to “wash dust”⁵.  Shi Lai booked a bathhouse. The Thai-style massage at this place was not bad. Each guest had their own separate suite, dressing room, dressing table, hot spring, and sauna. Massage and pedicure rooms were also available, and they also had an individual service with Thai physiotherapists.

“Bro, is this place okay? Hope you enjoy⁷!” Shi Lai held Du Ziyu and pushed him into the room. He made a money gesture at Thai physiotherapist, indicating that their service was very good and he should tip well.

“Corruption.” Du Ziyu said as he raised his brow. Nevertheless, Shi Lai’s arrangement was welcomed. He waved his hand and walked into the room. The Thai technician helped him take off his coat and he took off the Pixiu pendant. He invited him to take a bath in the hot spring first.

He hadn’t soaked in a hot spring in a long time. Du Ziyu half laid in the hot spring and closed his eyes. The ‘chan chan’ sound of the water by his ear was extremely hypnotic. After a while, he felt a bit sleepy. Within the hazy mist, it seemed like there was a person coming. Thinking it was a massage technician, he lazily groaned: “I’m still soaking.”

No one replied and Du Ziyu was too lazy to repeat his words. Not long after, someone reached out and touched his hair. Cold fingertips touched from the ends of his hair to his temples, and slid down to his chin.

“Is this a massage?” Du Ziyu felt that something was wrong. He reached out his hand to grab, but grabbed a slender, well-defined hand. Then there was a sweet scent at the tip of his nose. Du Ziyu’s body suddenly shivered. Immediately, he opened his eyes and looked back. He felt his anger go straight to his head.

“You……” He stared wide-eyed at the man across from him. This face had been engraved in his mind countless times; a face he would never forget, even if he were dead.

“You’re a technician here?”

After speaking, Du Ziyu felt what he said was a bit preposterous.  He simply didn’t know how to disclose the secret fatal attraction between the two of them. He fiercely stared at the man’s stiff neck, annoyed that he couldn’t bite it. “Where’s my thumb ring?”

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1. “the window was completely opened” – I think they’re still talking about the small stone here. DZY told the master to cut off a corner, so now a cross section of the stone could be seen. ↩
2. cotton – Refers to white crystal impurities in the jade. It makes the jade low quality and undesirable. ↩
3. “Is this old ginger not hot enough?” – Refers to the idiom “姜还是老的辣”, which means “the older the wiser”. Li Wu’s basically asking DZY if his grandfather isn’t respectable/scary enough. ↩
4. Laozi – arrogant way to say “I”; also means “father” or “I, your father” ↩
5. 接风洗尘 (jie feng xi chen) – literally means “receive wind, wash dust”; it refers to holding a welcome banquet for your guests ↩ ↩
6. Shi Lai (时来) in Shi Lai Yun Zhuan (时来运转) – ‘Shi Lai’ means “time has come”.  时来运转 is an idiom that literally translates to “time has come, fate has turned”. The English equivalent would be “every dog has its day”. ↩
7. enjoy – was written in English. ↩