Early the next morning, just as the sky began to lighten, Charlotte Lynch was already completely revitalized. Brimming with energy, she dragged Wendy Lynch out of bed.
"Wendy, get up! The sun’s already high in the sky! Let’s go check out the jade market!" Charlotte exclaimed, excitedly waving her phone.
"I looked up some travel guides, and everyone says the jade trading market is a must-visit when in Vulsan!
"With your recent streak of good luck, who knows? You might just dig up a raw jadeite stone that’s solid green!"
Naturally, Wendy couldn’t refuse her cousin’s request. She had been worrying about finding an excuse to visit a stone-gambling shop, and Charlotte had conveniently provided her with the perfect out.
After a quick breakfast of noodle soup in town, the two called a rideshare and headed straight for the jade trading market, located just six miles from the ancient town.
Unlike the relatively quiet and peaceful town, a cacophony of shouting voices and screeching cutting machines hit them the moment they stepped out of the car. The trading market was far more bustling than Wendy had imagined. The market was massive, stretching endlessly in both directions. At the entrance to the raw stone section was a sprawling open-air bazaar, packed with a bustling, lively crowd.
Both sides of the road were densely lined with all sorts of stalls. Some sold raw stones, others offered various jade bangles, and still others displayed an array of jade pendants. Some stones had small "windows" cut into them, revealing hints of green or white within, while crowds gathered around, scrutinizing the exposed interiors with flashlights and magnifying glasses. Other stones remained completely intact, constantly hosed down by stall owners to highlight their rough, textured skins.
Charlotte was utterly dazzled. Like a kid in a candy store, she dragged Wendy from stall to stall.
"Wow! Wendy, look at this one—it looks like there’s green inside!"
"Wendy, this bangle is so pretty! And it’s only two hundred bucks! Should we get one for each of us?"
"Sir, how much for this stone?"
Everything was a novelty to her. One moment she was picking up a carved jade pendant, and the next, she was squatting on the ground, curiously stroking a pitch-black raw stone.
Wendy, on the other hand, appeared much calmer. From the two future emails she had received, it was easy to see that the odds of making money from stone gambling were abysmally low. After all, the truly premium stones were always intercepted at the source. Although the market before them was massive, the raw stones here had already been picked over countless times. Any stone that made it to these stalls either contained mediocre jade or had such a low probability of yielding anything valuable that it wasn’t worth the gamble. While hidden gems definitely existed, relying on stone gambling to get rich was essentially a pipe dream for ordinary people.
Charlotte, however, was already thoroughly immersed in the thrill of an Amazom-style treasure hunt, pulling Wendy through the maze of stalls. Finally, she stopped in front of a stall specializing in small, rough stones.
The owner was a shrewd-looking, tall, and skinny man. Seeing two young women approach, his eyes immediately lit up. "Care to play with some stones, ladies? I’ve got all small cuts here. For just a few hundred bucks, you can try your luck. Who knows? One cut and you might strike it rich!"
Tempted by his pitch, Charlotte crouched down and began picking through the pile of stones. She grabbed a palm-sized rock with a hint of green on its crust and held it up to Wendy.
"Wendy, what do you think of this one?
"There’s green on it! I’ve watched video tutorials, and stones with green like this are super likely to have jadeite inside!"
The stall owner immediately leaned in, launching into a well-rehearsed spiel. "Oh man, you’ve got a sharp eye, miss! That’s called green pine-flower spotting—wherever there are pine-flower spots, you’re bound to find green!
"This is material from the Westwood Mine. It’s got a classic desanded crust, a genuine piece from an old, reliable mine.
"Since you’re my first customer today, I’ll let you have it for three hundred. Play around with it—you absolutely won’t lose! Even the tiniest bit of jadeite inside will make your money back!"
Although she knew how difficult it was to profit from stone gambling, Wendy understood that some lessons had to be learned through firsthand experience. If the stone in question cost thirty thousand bucks, she definitely would have stepped in to stop her cousin. However, this raw jadeite stone was only three hundred. In Wendy’s eyes, paying that price to teach Charlotte a valuable lesson was well worth the money.
After haggling with the owner, Charlotte easily snagged the raw jadeite stone for two hundred and eighty. Stone in hand, she couldn’t wait. "Wendy, let’s go get it cut open and see!"
A sizable crowd had gathered around the cutting area. However, because there were several Gem Cutters working simultaneously, the two girls didn’t have to wait long.
Their Gem Cutter was an expressionless middle-aged man. He took the stone in his right hand, picked up a thick oil-based marker with his left, and asked, "Should I just cut straight across this crack?"
Being a complete novice, Charlotte didn’t hesitate and simply nodded. "Y-yeah... just cut it there!"
The Gem Cutter expertly drew a line on the stone, secured it onto the cutting machine, and stepped on the pedal.
SCREECH.
A deafening cutting noise rang out as water splashed everywhere. Everyone’s eyes zeroed in on the small stone. A minute later, the machine stopped, and the Gem Cutter split the stone in two. The cut surface revealed grayish-white rock mixed with black impurities, looking as smooth as a piece of Aethel marble.
"It’s all white cotton. There’s nothing here," the Gem Cutter declared concisely. He looked up at Charlotte. "Toss it? Or keep cutting?"
Since it was her first time buying a raw stone, Charlotte stubbornly refused to accept defeat. "Make another horizontal cut!" With that, she pulled out her phone again and scanned the code to pay him a twenty-dollar cutting fee.
The Gem Cutter deftly clamped the halved stone back onto the machine. Another minute passed, the dust settled, and he placed four unevenly sized chunks of rock into Charlotte’s hands.
"Tough luck. It’s all white cotton. A total bust."
Staring at the rocks in her hands, the smile on Charlotte’s face instantly froze, and she deflated entirely. "How... how could this happen? Didn’t the boss say there were pine-flower spots?"
The surrounding crowd let out a sympathetic chuckle. There were clearly plenty of veterans among them, and hearing Charlotte’s dismay, someone immediately laughed and pointed out, "Having pine-flower spots just means there’s a *chance* of finding green!"
"Yeah, if every stone with spots had jadeite, they would’ve all been bought up long ago!"
"Don’t worry about it. Keep at it! If this one didn’t work out, the next one surely will!"
The crowd gathered quickly and dispersed just as fast. Seeing that Charlotte’s stone was a dud, they immediately moved on to spectate the next stone being loaded onto a cutting table.
"What a rip-off. My luck is terrible!" Grumbling under her breath, Charlotte walked back to Wendy. She had clearly lost her earlier enthusiasm.
Wendy patted her on the shoulder and offered some comfort. "It’s fine. Just consider it paying for tuition."
Even as she consoled her cousin, Wendy’s gaze drifted over the crowd. Finally, near the corner of an alley not too far away, her eyes locked onto a somewhat weathered wooden signboard. Four large characters were painted on it in bold, sweeping strokes: Good Luck Stone Gambling.
She found it.