I'm A Baller

Chapter 442: This Is Not the Life I Wanted

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Wang Yan returned to Shanghai on the 19th. As soon as he arrived at the hotel, Black Tiger rushed over, wanting to set off immediately.

“Are you crazy? Can you wait for me to take care of my matters at hand?”

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The young master didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Then hurry up! I’ve been waiting for you for two days already, and the other side is constantly urging me…”

Black Tiger was quite agitated. It was obvious that he was very excited. He did not know what made him so agitated.

Wang Yan had no choice. He simply gathered with Jianwu and the others and continued to be a hands-off manager. He left all the preparations for the establishment of the club to them. At 4 a.m., he boarded the passenger plane to Guang City.

There were a total of three people in the group. Wang Yan, Black Tiger, and one of Black Tiger’s big brothers.

Li Yixu was busy with An Xiaofang, so he didn’t have time.

Chu Xin wanted to go out with Wang Yan, but Black Tiger didn’t allow her to be with him, so he offended the young lady badly.

Black Tiger said with conviction, “This is a secret. If you’re willing to bring her the next time, you can bring her here yourself. No one will care about you even if you both sleep in a room…”

Eh?

It made sense.

Wang Yan ignored him and turned to chat with the other brother.

The brother’s surname was Sun. He was 35 years old and his name was Sun Hongwei. He looked old-fashioned and had a shocking aura. The Maybach that came to deliver the machine had a Shanghai A01 license plate.

According to Black Tiger’s introduction, Brother Sun started traveling with his father when he was 13 years old. He was now in the Jade Business and was a famous Muggle in Shanghai’s watch circle and a big shot in the Jade Circle.

Muggles specialized in buying expensive things. If they didn’t buy the right ones, they wouldn’t have a systematic collection and would lack core beliefs.

When Wang Yan heard this, he immediately felt a sense of respect. “Brother Sun, you are my role model!”

Black Tiger sneered. “The two of you are really well-matched. You definitely don’t lack common ground. Wang Yan’s piece of imperial oak is simply the pinnacle of ugly and expensive.”

The two people who were being criticized were being very calm.

What kind of storm had they not experienced before that they would be afraid of you flirting with them?

Wang Yan shook his head and sighed. “Your aesthetic standards are not on the same level as mine. Really. That’s why you can only hold on to history and data. You are full of artistry!”

“F*ck!”

Black Tiger raised his middle finger. “If you don’t look at history and don’t look at the craftsmanship, then what are you looking at?”

Wang Yan casually replied, “In the past, I looked at the aesthetics of design. Now, I’m looking at spiritual beauty that can touch people’s hearts… forget it, forget it, you don’t understand.”

Your acting was so infuriating!

Black Tiger really didn’t understand. He only thought that Wang Yan was acting pretentious again.

“Gouzi, you’re wasting your talent as a director. You should become an actor. No one can act better than you when it comes to being pretentious!”

The young master chuckled and didn’t continue to argue with him.

Actually, what he said was true.

Ever since he finished reading that photo album, Wang Yan’s perception had undergone some miraculous changes.

Er, to be more precise, it had evolved.

His eyes are still the same eyes. His vision was very good, and it’s not an exaggeration.

There’s still so much that can be seen, but it’s more “deeper” than before.

Don’t think of it as visual evolution. In essence, it’s an evolution of “processing.”.

For example, when seeing a beautiful woman, he used to be able to see only superficially, but can now recognize where her skeleton is at a glance. He can see exactly the same things, but can now refine things to a deeper level.

It was a bit like having an x-ray vision.

It sounded magical, but in fact, every one of us has had this ability.

Then, the more we learned and assimilated into society, the weaker that ability would be.

Those who could not control this ability were either trained to be great artists or locked in hospitals for injections.

Those who possessed both rationality and spirituality were all favored, having enough to leave their names behind in the history of mankind.

Wang Yan’s idol, the first great man of the dynasty, was a super genius with astonishing intelligence and equally astonishing spirituality.

A great military strategist, a great politician, and a great writer.

Isn’t it weird with the three titles put together?

Pragmatism, temperance, and romanticism, the combination of diametrically opposite qualities made the great man full of contradictory charm.

Wang Yan did not dare to compare himself to his idol, but he had indeed grown quite miraculously.

He had not lost his rationality, but his spirituality was gradually rising. Without the skills of a great artist, his sense of beauty was becoming more and more acute.

Looking back at the piece of offshore royal oak that Black Tiger had attacked… well, it was indeed a little ugly and cute.

But that kind of spirituality was definitely something that the Diamond Ring royal oak could not compare to.

In other words…

The Diamond Ring royal oak was even more f*cking ugly!

Wang Yan glanced at Black Tiger, and he simply smiled and looked away.

Sun Hongwei saw this simple action and suddenly thought of something.

“Little Wang’s eyes are a little interesting…”

“Huh?” Black Tiger was stunned. “What did you just say?”

Brother Sun chuckled and explained, “I used to know an old man who practiced using his eyes specially when he was young. He used to carve flowers on Jade as tiny as a grain of rice. The clarity of his eyes was very similar to Wang Yan’s

“Little Yan, have you practiced any martial arts before?”

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‘I used a cheat before…’

Young Master Wang silently ridiculed him. After thinking for a moment, he vaguely said, “It’s just a small trick.”

Otherwise, it would really be hard to explain.

Previously, when he concentrated on his eyes, he thought that there would be some surprises. However, when he was not using his special ability, his appearance was improved by 2 points.

Alright, he was floating in the world of martial arts. The most important thing was to look good.

Wang Yan was very content. However, when people asked him about it, he couldn’t say that he was born with it — his parents really didn’t have that gene!

Brother Sun’s face was full of ‘as expected’. He smiled happily and said, “See, I knew that you’re not simple!”

“Not just simple?”

Black Tiger was a little jealous as he helped to brag.

“That evildoer just got the nickname of Car God. He broke the record of a single lap in Shanghai’s car racing scene for amateurs!”

Brother Sun obviously did not understand cars and was not interested in them, so he did not know what kind of status Wang Yan had in the domestic racing circle. He asked casually, “Oh? Little Yan is a professional?”

“That record is even more awesome than a professional!”

Black Tiger began to gesture, with spittle flying everywhere. “Professional drivers have multiple events. Rallying, driving cross-country, driving for endurance, and going in field races. Except for F1, who is faster than our Car God Wang, all the other professional drivers are just younger brothers. Just one word — awesome!”

“Pfft!”

Sun Hongwei spat out a mouthful of water. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

In Shanghai dialect, calling someone awesome didn’t literally mean they were awesome.

Looking at Wang Yan, his eyes were a little surprised. “Little Yan is a top talent in the industry?”

Wang Yan knew what he was talking about. He smiled and waved his hand. “It’s not that exaggerated. All the gods are running in new north and NASCAR. There are no official GT3 level competitions in the country. My current lead is more because there is no one else of that caliber right now.”

“You have to possess a great amount of skill to start with in order to stand out from the crowd to start with!”

Sun Hongwei appreciated Wang Yan’s modesty. He had thought that Wang Yan was just a child of some rich family and did not want to get close to him. Now, he finally paid attention to him.

“No wonder Brother Hu was willing to bring you along…”

Oh?

From his tone, this trip to Pingzhou was really not simple!

Before Wang Yan could figure it out, Sun Hongwei said, “No matter what you play or how you play, happiness is the most important thing. Little Yan, if you have time, come visit my house. Pick a few watches and I’ll transfer the original prices to you.”

“Okay, I’ll definitely pay you a visit when I have time. Thank you, Brother Sun!”

Wang Yan was quite grateful, but he didn’t take it seriously.

In the end, Black Tiger became extremely jealous.

“D*mn, Little Yan, you got a huge bargain! Brother Sun has a few hundred watches in his house. It’s a huge collection, but there are also quite a number of unique pieces. I’ll help you look through them later and promise to pick out the treasures. Then, all you have to do is give me one of them. Are you in?”

A few hundred watches?

Based on the average price of one million per watch, that would be a few hundred million just in watches!

A collection-grade watch should sell for more than a million. That house should have a collection of at least 500 million?

Big Brother, Big Brother, I’m sorry!

There was a famous saying among the rich second-generation called “the poor play with cars, the rich play with watches.”

Although it was biased, it could really reflect a part of the truth.

Fatty Fu was the number one car player in the country. With dozens of cars and over 300 million yuan, it was like looking at the sky.

Below that, Yin, Sun, Jiang, and Wang all had around 100 million yuan. These four had many cars, but most of their cars were not in the country.

What about watches?

According to Black Tiger, any big shot in the domestic watch circle would have a collection of over 100 million yuan.

If it was a small collection, it would be worth hundreds of millions, but if it was a big one, its value not be counted.

In the entire country, those who played yachts did not even match up to those in the watch circle.

Currently, there were only 39 superyachts in the country, and more than half of them were not as valuable as Sun Hongwei’s house of watches.

Black Tiger had only played with watches for a short time, and had invested only about ten to twenty million dollars into it. It looked like 40 to 50 million dollars, though. Usually, he would drive a big G550 and did not like showing his collection. Who could tell that he was actually a ruthless person who had a manor in Shanghai?

Therefore, Black Tiger had always looked down on those people from the club and never got involved.

He was only a friend of Zhou Jianwu’s. Moreover, there was also a gap between them.

To be able to get along so well with Wang Yan, a small part of it was because they shared the same interests, and a large part of it was probably because they were both beaten into submission. Who knew who had taken advantage of their excitement?

Cough cough!

The chatter in and out of the circle was an eye-opener for Wang Yan. It was very informative.

In fact, until now, Wang Yan still didn’t know who Sun Hongwei was. The lack of knowledge couldn’t be made up for in a short time, so he could only slowly grind it out.

However, Brother Fugui had a good mentality and didn’t delve into it. They just got along with each other normally and didn’t care who they liked.

The result was very much to Sun Hongwei’s taste. Despite being a generation apart, they still chatted very comfortably.

They got off the plane in Guang City, and a car came to pick them up. They went straight from the airport to Foshan.

They arrived at the small town of Pingzhou before they reached the downtown area of Foshan.

Sun Hongwei was an old horse who knew the way. Wang Yan did not need to look up any information. He just needed to wait for the information to come to him.

“Pingzhou is now the largest jade market in the country. Not only is it the largest in the country, but it’s even rivalling Myanmar…”

“Wait a minute!”

Wang Yan was a little confused. “Isn’t Myanmar the origin of jade?”

“In the industry, there’s a saying, ‘Jade comes out of Myanmar and is distributed in Pingzhou’.”

Sun Hongwei explained slowly. The first sentence was concise, and then in a few more words, he cut through the root of the problem.

“The domestic economy is developed, and it has always been the largest consumer market for jade in the world.”

“The origin of all this is the raw materials business. At most, it can only be used for rough processing. How can it compete with China?

“The largest market, the most convenient logistics, the richest gamblers, the lowest cost of fine processing, and the most skilled sculptors are all from China. Why can’t Pingzhou be the best in the industry?

“The annual turnover of Pingzhou has long surpassed Myanmar’s public markets.

The largest jade market in the world is here. Even 80% of Myanmar’s finished jade products come from China.

If you have the chance to visit Myanmar in the future, buy raw stones and not finished products. They are all made in China, so you don’t have to come back to brag and make a fool of yourself…”

What the heck!

Wang Yan was both surprised and shocked.

It turned out that this was another country’s specialty, which had been turned into a Chinese specialty by us.

The young master had never finished middle school, so he suddenly felt a sense of national pride and excitement.

Looking at everything in front of him, his mood changed again.

A long street bustling with people, and there were jade shops on both sides.

They were all lined up in a row, with no end in sight.

Black Tiger smiled and said, “The shopping mall is even more shocking. There are hundreds of thousands of jade products, of high, middle, and low-end, in all kinds of colors and styles. You won’t see such a scene in your life until you come here. During my first time here, and I was almost dumbfounded!”

Wang Yan was a little dumbfounded now. He had rarely touched jade jewelry, and even the bracelets on the roadside were beautiful.

“Let’s go, I’ll show you the top-tier goods in the mall!”

Black Tiger excitedly walked in, and Wang Yan immediately followed.

Purple jade, blue jade, pink jade, yellow jade, black jade…

Guan Yin models, Buddha statues, Jade tokens, bracelets, rings…

Many things were marked with a price of ten to twenty million yuan. In this place, money seemed to be just a number.

After seeing purple jade with his own eyes, Wang Yan finally realized the difference —

The stalls outside were selling rubbish stones, and the purple jade in front of him was the real deal!

That kind of spirituality could be seen with the naked eye.

Seeing Wang Yan’s fondness for the purple, Black Tiger smiled evilly and urged, “If you like it, then take it, Young Master Wang. It’s only 17 million or so. It’s peanuts for you. Buy it and give it to Miss Chu!”

What kind of joke was this?

Wang Yan did not understand, but it did not stop him from being rich and noble.

“Go away! I’m not that kind of person.”

F*ck, I don’t understand!

Hei Hu pondered for a long time, but he did not understand the true meaning of Wang Yan’s words. He could only ask, “What kind of person? Don’t tell me that you don’t like Chu Xin!”

The young master held back his laughter and patted the other party’s chest. “As for you, you can only throw money at her. As for me, I usually collect money from her…”

“F*ck!”

F*CK!

Brother Hu was furious.

Wang Yan couldn’t be bothered with him anymore. Looking at the colorful shopping mall, his eyes lit up. “If it’s possible, I’d rather personally pick out a raw stone…”

“Simple, there’s a public forum on the next street!”

Black Tiger had been waiting for this for a long time. He immediately dragged Wang Yan downstairs.

Brother Sun was still as steady as ever. He walked slowly without saying a word.

He went to the entrance of the public forum, verified his real name, and paid a deposit.

The threshold of 100,000 yuan per person was quite high. Even so, there were still a lot of people crowding around, as if it was the spring festival rush.

Brother Sun finally opened his mouth when he took the ticket and was about to enter the venue.

And it was not a casual conversation. His expression was especially serious.

“Little Yan, Little Hu, before you go in, listen to my advice.”

“Last year was actually a disaster for the industry. This year, according to my judgment, it should be the continuation of the cold. I don’t have the data on hand, so I’m only talking about my personal feelings — in the industry, about 70% of the merchants have already been eliminated.”

“Look, there are so many people today, right?”

“Actually, it was due to the war in Myanmar this year that the public auction might not be able to open, that’s why there are so many people gathered.”

“However, no matter how many people there were, the entire jade industry is going downhill. There’s no doubt about it.”

“Swindling, cheating, and hyping built up a lot of rage among the people. It is time for them to suffer the backlash!”

“So be careful. If you want to play, you can, but don’t get too involved.”

“Especially you, Little Yan. You’re young and have little social experience. If it weren’t for Little Hu’s strong request to bring you along, I probably wouldn’t have brought you here.”

“Let me be clear. If you’re willing to listen to advice, I’ll help you out.”

“If you are not willing to listen, you will have to be on your own. Don’t let a little money affect our friendship. Do you understand?”

Sun Hongwei’s words were both elegant and responsible. He sounded like a big brother.

Wang Yan was not a clueless person. He was only grateful.

“Thank you for the reminder, Brother Sun. I understand. Don’t worry.”

Then, he followed behind Sun Hongwei and started wandering around. He only moved his mouth, not his hands.

“Brother Sun, why are they all half-opened? Aren’t the legendary stone gambling pieces all leather?”

Brother Sun didn’t answer but asked instead, “Where did you hear this legend?”

“Uh, in novels”, Wang Yan answered honestly.

In high school, Wang Yan read a lot of online novels. He liked fantasy the most. He killed decisively and became a god, but he also occasionally looked through the city.

Until now, stone gambling was still a popular element in urban novels.

At first, Wang Yan thought that Sun Hongwei might not understand. However, what he did not expect was for Sun Hongwei and Black Tiger to both love reading novels.

Brother Hu laughed loudly. “Stone gambling has been bragging for two to three years. Do you still take it seriously?”

Brother Sun held back his laughter and patted Wang Yan’s shoulder.

“You’re talking about Rui Li. With your wealth, going there to play will lower your value.”

What did he mean?

Wang Yan did not understand.

“This is a very interesting secret.”

Sun Hongwei smiled and slowly explained to Wang Yan.

“Let’s start from the source.

First, the source of the ore.

Jade is produced in the Myitkyina region of Myanmar. It is the only place in the world that jade could be found. Remember, that is the only source. It was only a few hundred kilometers away.

After that, that place is jointly managed by the Myanmar government and the military. It was a very strict place.

The law stated that private mining was not allowed. The warlords used military control to ensure that the mining area was clean.

Therefore, when the ore was mined, it had to go through two procedures before it could be traded.

The first step was to pay taxes to the military.

The second step was to hand everything over to the government for checking.

After that, the government would grade the raw stones and ship them back to the capital at A or B grade. They would be open for sale every year. The C and D grades would not be open for sale directly, but they would still have to be labeled.”

Hearing this, Wang Yan suddenly realized something was wrong.

“Huh? I thought there is no technology capable of seeing inside the stone. How is it graded?”

“Smart!”

Sun Hongwei gave him a thumbs-up and asked with a smile, “People have been playing with jade for hundreds of years, and the jade trade accounts for nearly 50% of their GDP every year. A country that depends on raw jade can’t tell whether the material is good or bad… do you believe it?”

I don’t believe you!

Young Master Wang immediately understood.

It should be true that current technology was not capable of seeing the internal situation of raw jade.

But at the same time, those mine owners and experts must have enough experience and insight to confirm the general value of the stone.

Otherwise, the raw stone trade would be a national joke.

It was not impossible for laymen to pick up the scraps, but it was too coincidental.

Sun Hongwei opened the Thermos Cup and drank a mouthful of water before continuing leisurely.

“Now, we already know that the mine owners and the government have the ability to generally distinguish between good and bad jade.”

“So, the selling plan to maximize the value is to simply open the window, cut the raw stones into semi-transparent materials, reduce the chance of it being rubbish, and use the higher chance of obtaining a good profit to attract businessmen to invest more enthusiastically.”

“From another perspective, the state-run public market did not have a benchmark lower valuation limit. If it was all based on gambling, there would be simply no way to manage it.”

“In fact, the good materials in the public market were all semi-transparent. No one would use actually good materials to gamble.”

“Thus, we have to ask where did all these semi-transparent materials come from?”

Sun Hongwei was very talented in telling stories. Young Master Wang’s curiosity was piqued and he was very focused on thinking.

There was no loophole in the mine, as it would be cut open by the government. Because both sides were in charge of supervision, the government could not hide it, so it was not right.

So, the problem could only come from the mine itself. Could it be the military?

No!

The military should be under the government’s reverse supervision at the same time. It would be acceptable for ten or eight pieces to come out. But how could so many pieces come out?

Wang Yan could not understand. He shook his head and looked at Brother Sun.

Sun Hongwei smiled and then sighed inexplicably.

“Myanmar is a poor country that is often at war. The government is poor, and the people are even poorer.”

“At the same time, Myanmar is also a Buddhist country. The society is very particular about giving back and cultivating prosperity.”

“So there is a very interesting unspoken rule –”

“When the mine owners are not mining every day, they will set aside a period of time to let go of the military control and allow the people to go to the edge of the mine to pick up all the waste material left there.”

Although it was waste material, there would occasionally be treasures hidden inside. There would always be a chance.

If one was lucky enough to pick up a piece of good material, their lives could be changed.

In Myanmar, there was no faster opportunity to turn things around for their poor citizens.

From this, a huge group of scavengers was born. The Burmese word for this phenomenon was ‘Yimusi’, which meant people who picked up stones.

They were not allowed to use machinery to pick up scraps and waste, the poor could only rely on manpower to dig and carry it. Therefore, the government also turned a blind eye and tacitly agreed to this matter.

“More than 95% of this material came from the poor.”

“But think about it, what can be obtained from such materials?”

Black Tiger nodded in agreement.

“To the rich, earning in nine out of ten wagers would be a loss. Earning in ten out of ten wagers would be good.”

Did they really think that just because these people were poor, that their eyes were bad, and there was no one among them who knew how to read materials?

Each and every one of them was better at recognizing what was good and bad than those from the rich!

They would filter the waste again, pack it up and throw it at the rich. The merchants would sell 100 pieces before actually mixing a piece of trash into it. They would pick a cushion, cut it up, and then continue to sell them as jade.

How do you think the IQ of those clueless people developed?

“I don’t even understand. How can they really believe that real money-making treasure can be found in all these waste materials?”

Sun Hongwei laughed and said to Wang Yan, “That’s why I said you should go there to purchase at a lower price. With your wealth, as long as you are ruthless, it won’t be a problem to sweep away all the stones on the market in Ruili. What can be cut out… it’s basically a cart of tofu.”

What the heck!

The waters are really deep in this matter.

Wang Yan felt that it was an eye-opener. At the same time, his dream of becoming rich by playing jade was completely destroyed.

But he was still unwilling, and he felt that something was wrong regarding this.

“If that’s the case, it’s completely meaningless to gamble in any of this. Why does it still exist?”

Black Tiger sneered, “There are too many lazy people and too many greedy people. Everyone wants to get rich quickly. This industry will always be here.”

Brother Sun shook his head and started talking about dry goods.

“In fact, there is still a chance to make a lot of money with this trash. However, the first condition to meet is not to have experience and technology, but connections and luck.”

Huh?

What did this mean?

“First of all, you have to sift through the rocks layer by layer. All the good stuff that you bet on is basically concentrated in the hands of the leaders of these mines, small leaders, and smugglers. You can only meet them if you have connections. Otherwise, you will only be able to spin around in tofu dregs. No matter how good your skills are, it will be useless.”

“Second, after many verifications, all the good stuff that you bet on has a bottom line and a limit. All the experts have a clear idea of where the bottom line and the limit are.”

“You have to spend the bottom line and set the limit in order to make a profit.

“However, the probability to be able to do so is not high. Basically, you have to buy at the middle price and bet on the top and bottom line. There win be gains and losses, and it all depends on your luck.”

“If you buy at the middle price and end up with an extremely low chance of getting rubbish, then you will make a huge profit.”

“So at this point, luck is more important than anything else.”

Come on, it’s a fucking game of Bingo!

Publicity is all just chicken soup, you have to drink it to know if it’s poisoned, this world is just the same?

Wang Yan suddenly found it very boring.

No, this is not my life!

Sun Hongwei suddenly changed the topic, “This time, the reason I came to Pingzhou, in fact, is to see a leader who dabbles in this trade, he is my old friend for many years, with a batch of high-quality material for people to gamble on.”

Hearing these words, Young Master Wang’s spirit was immediately revived, and his eyes were shining.

Now that’s right.

This is the life I want!

Where is that brother?

Go, go, go, it’s on me, let’s all drink together!