Beyond the three rows of machines, every wall and corridor was stacked with burlap sacks and wire cages, packed with jadeite rough of all sizes. There were even piles of cutting scraps—tiny broken pieces that could sell for a hundred or two in Ruili, or fetch a thousand at Beijing's Panjiayuan antique market—just heaped in corners on the bare concrete floor.
Among all this raw material, the small batch of "suspected dragon-stone jadeite" that Uncle Harvey had selected looked like a single grain of rice in an ocean.
Boss U immediately ordered his workers to begin cutting the raw stones. The pieces were quickly distributed among the crew. It was clear that when the boss gave the orders personally, the workers moved with more urgency. The stones went onto the machines, and everyone held their breath.
During the cutting process, nothing is visible. But people like me, or Uncle Harvey's clients, always liked to watch at the machine—our anticipation making it feel like staring might somehow reveal the outcome sooner. What was truly worth watching were the expressions on people's faces.
Uncle Harvey looked as if he already knew the result—less interested in the cutting than usual. Boss U stood straight as always, but his face betrayed unmistakable anxiety. After all, this was his mine; this was the fortune he'd broken the rules of the trade to pursue.
Stones were cut one after another.
Split one open. Nothing inside.
Next one. Kilogram-grade material.
Next one. A bit of spring color—not it.
Next one. Decent texture and transparency, but nowhere close.
Next piece. Water-moss jade—not jadeite at all.
Another one. This one had color, but it wasn't right.
Another. Floating patterns—still not it.
In the end, the entire batch purchased from the Yemuxi produced zero dragon-stone jadeite. Not even anything that could be called "relatively top-grade." Boss U stared at the last two halves of stone, said nothing, and walked silently out of the room. Uncle Harvey sighed and followed him.
Boss U stood on the cliff edge overlooking the entire mine and pulled out a cigarette. Uncle Harvey went to offer a light, but after being soaked in the lake, his lighter wouldn't catch. He searched his pockets and had no other. Boss U just gave up.
He said quietly, "Next month, I'm closing this mine. I'll start shutting down the equipment in a few days."
Uncle Harvey said, "That's extreme. Even without dragon-stone jadeite, the mine is still worth operating. Kaqin is an old pit."
Boss U: "I turned on my own miners and broke the rules of the trade. No Yemuxi will ever come back here."
"No Yemuxi, but you can still mine with machines, can't you?" Uncle Harvey asked.
"It's pointless. This mine looks busy on the surface, but it hasn't produced good material in a long time. I think the jadeite is running out. We've dug to the left—nothing. To the right—less and less."
Uncle Harvey nodded.
Boss U sighed and sat down right there on the ground, continuing to gaze out at his mine.
"I wanted to make one last push. I really, desperately wanted to find out where the dragon-stone was coming from. This mine—my grandfather worked here as a laborer. In his day, conditions were terrible, no heavy machinery, everything by hand. But they found dragon-stone jadeite. I wanted to restore the glory of my grandfather's era. In these last two and a half years, I wanted to find dragon-stone!"
"Your grandfather found dragon-stone jadeite?"
"He never found it himself—his coworkers did. When my father was young, our family was very poor. But after my grandfather passed away, they relocated the workers' quarters. When they demolished my grandfather's old quarters, they found a huge piece—green, ice-grade jadeite, over a hundred kilograms. My grandfather spent his entire life sleeping just a few meters above a treasure trove, working relentlessly, digging hundreds of meters into the mountain—and never found it."
"Ah," Uncle Harvey sighed. "In Chinese, we say fate mocks us."
"My whole life has been like this. No more mining. The wisdom of fate isn't something humans can understand."
"You're really shutting it down?"
"The government's closing all the mines in 2022 anyway. I'm going home to rest, spend time with my wife and kids. Maybe I'll learn to carve jadeite like you! I still have plenty of jadeite! Hahahaha."
They both laughed. Boss U's laugh was deeply masculine.
I watched a tear roll down his cheek.
The tear hit the ground and was instantly absorbed, becoming a tiny ball of dry earth.
This mine was so parched, so harsh, so exhausted. A thought struck me: if they really shut it down, would new vegetation grow on this barren mountainside in ten years? Maybe, right beside the lake where we'd fallen in, a tree might take root.
We returned empty-handed. Uncle Harvey and I were heading back to Ruili.
---
In the car, Uncle Harvey suddenly said, "Zach, don't be fooled by mine owners looking powerful—they're gambling too."
"Mine owners have mountains of stones. They just cut them open—how is that gambling on jade?"
"Their gamble is much bigger—they're gambling on mountains. An average person gambles on a few stones a year. Boss U gambles on hundreds or even thousands of tons of material per year. When luck is good, they strike it rich beyond imagination. But his family's luck has been terrible—they haven't found anything worthwhile."
"Hearing what he said back there, I really felt for him."
"Feeling sorry for him?" Uncle Harvey gave a little laugh. "He'd think we're the pitiful ones. A starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Boss U could casually pull out a hundred million and not even blink. And you feel sorry for him."
"You're still joking? How are you going to explain this to Twin Gold Towers? We found nothing."
"At least we know the mine can't produce new dragon-stone jadeite."
"But what about that batch of antique material?"
Uncle Harvey looked out the window at the sunset and said, "Don't worry. Heaven looks after its own. Let's go home first."
The drive back to Ruili was through heavy rain. After crossing back into China, even the familiar streets of Ruili looked somber and gray. Uncle Harvey dropped me at my place, said he had business to attend to, and drove off into the torrential downpour.
That night in Ruili, the rain stopped and people started setting off fireworks again.
The *boom-boom-boom* of fireworks always reminded me that someone had made money—while I had nearly died in Myanmar and returned empty-handed. Listening to the fireworks, I felt an aching emptiness.
Early the next morning, before I was properly awake, Uncle Harvey called and told me to get to the National Gate immediately.
What was so urgent at the National Gate this early?
I caught a taxi and headed over. The driver was listening to the morning news on an old radio with poor reception: "Ruili Customs Anti-Smuggling Division has... busted a major jadeite smuggling case... at 5:00 AM Beijing time, jadeite... concealed under fruits and vegetables... massive value... the primary suspect... has been apprehended by Ruili Customs."
Customs catching smugglers wasn't unusual in Ruili. But the value was described as massive—could Uncle Harvey's summons be connected to this?
When I arrived, Uncle Harvey was indeed standing at the customs office, chatting with a police officer. He saw me, waved me over, and looked relaxed. He showed me a photo on his phone.
"Isn't this the dragon-stone jadeite we saw in Mandalay?"
"It is!"
On his phone was the raw stone we'd spied on in Mandalay. I still remembered how carefully I'd resealed the tape.
"You took a photo?"
"No, I took this one today. The stone is right behind me." Uncle Harvey pointed at the customs office. "And the Yemuxi boss we never got to meet, along with their dragon-stone jadeite—it's all been confiscated."
"How are you this good? You even knew when the Yemuxi boss would cross the border?"
"I didn't," Uncle Harvey said. "But I knew it had to be someone connected to the Yemuxi orchestrating this. And this batch of dragon-stone jadeite had to enter the Ruili market for the price war rumor to work."
"So how did you know who it would be?"
"It doesn't matter who—they're just hired hands. People working for money all have one thing in common."
"What?"
"Greed. Declaring this batch of dragon-stone jadeite properly through customs would cost a fortune in duties!"
"So you were gambling again!"
"That's right—gambling on human nature." Uncle Harvey said, "Whoever incited the Yemuxi and spread the rumors to flood the market with dragon-stone jadeite was working for whoever's behind all this. For such a valuable shipment, they'd personally escort it to Ruili. I bet that person was too greedy to declare it—they'd smuggle it to pocket the savings. If they were going to smuggle, it was just a matter of timing."
"We took over a day to get from the mine back to Ruili."
"Exactly. They must have pushed hard and arrived about a day before us. This kind of smuggling typically happens the following morning—disguised as border farmers, jadeite hidden in baskets under produce, covered with a cloth, then smuggled through the gate. So I called in a tip from the mine, warning customs about a possible smuggling operation."
"How did you know customs would catch them?"
"You don't need to know. You just need to trust them."
Phew. In any case, Uncle Harvey's mission was successfully concluded.
I suddenly thought of his employer and asked, "What about Twin Gold Towers?"
"They'll definitely want to buy this batch of raw material. And the main problem has been resolved."
"Because dragon-stone jadeite has been confirmed as non-renewable—it's still a rare treasure."
"Exactly, Zach! Next week, dinner's on me. We're going to Tengchong!"
"Tengchong? You can't take me somewhere like Dubai?" I thought to myself: Tengchong is just a three-hour drive. That counts as a vacation?
"It's not just for fun," Uncle Harvey said with a sly grin. "There are some old stories I think it's time to tell you."