"Actually, not everyone who sets off fireworks won," Uncle Harvey said, trying to comfort him.
The group wandered around a bit longer, but Mr. Xu had lost interest. Uncle Harvey asked if he wanted to go back for tea. Mr. Xu had no heart for it and said he'd head back to the hotel to rest. Uncle Harvey had his assistant drive him back.
After saying goodbye to Mr. Xu, Uncle Harvey looked at me. "Tea?"
I said, "Absolutely."
---
We returned to Uncle Harvey's shop and settled into the tea room in the back. Uncle Harvey started boiling water and brewing tea.
"Why so interested in cutting stones today?" Uncle Harvey asked leisurely. "Didn't Master Wells have you practicing polishing?"
I did want to talk about jade gambling. I asked quickly, "Uncle Harvey, there's something my master said that I can't figure out. He told us not to touch jade gambling, or we'd be expelled from his workshop. He said jade carvers shouldn't gamble on stones."
"Isn't that perfectly clear? What don't you understand?"
I raised my counterexample: "But aren't you a jade gambling shop owner? And a renowned jade carver yourself?"
"True. But jade carvers really shouldn't touch jade gambling."
"Why not?" He wasn't getting to the point, and I was impatient.
Uncle Harvey was still grinning. "Because if everyone starts thinking they can make quick money gambling on stones, nobody will put in the hard work to learn jade carving. Then Master Wells would have no disciples left."
I felt a bit helpless. Uncle Harvey poured the now-boiling water over the tea leaves and continued.
"I'm not joking with you. Seriously, jade gambling is a business where the sellers make the money. Jade carvers buying clear stones is the industry standard, and there's a reason for it."
I pushed back. "But didn't Mr. Xu almost make money today?"
"Almost?" A faint, knowing smile appeared on Uncle Harvey's face. He pulled out his phone, opened WeChat, and said into it, "Duncan, you back at the company yet? Come to the tea room."
In the time it took to finish one cup of tea, there was a knock at the door. It opened, and a man in a blue jacket walked in. I looked carefully—this was the same blue-jacketed man who'd offered 340,000 for Mr. Xu's stone!
"Wow, so you're Uncle Harvey's plant!"
The blue-jacketed Duncan laughed. "How is it being a plant? I genuinely had the money ready and was going to buy it for real."
"You were going to give Mr. Xu money?" I looked at Uncle Harvey, blurting it out.
"You're sharp, Zane."
"I don't understand," I said. "Why didn't you just have Mr. Xu pick a stone from your shop?"
"I wanted to give him money, not make money from him. Naturally, I couldn't have him buy something from my shop. And I didn't want to just give him a stone for free either."
"Then why did you arrange for Duncan to bid up the price? How big a favor is Mr. Xu doing you that you'd gift him that much money?"
Uncle Harvey took a sip of tea and spoke slowly. "Actually, it's not that simple. I wanted to give him money, but I hadn't planned on spending any money either."
What did he mean, he hadn't planned on spending money?
Uncle Harvey's expression turned slightly serious. "Remember this: jade gambling stones are finished products in their raw form. What they sell is dreams."
Dreams. I was even more captivated now.
"That stone Mr. Xu cut today—after it was cut, it did look quite good. From my experience, the color was probably about as deep as it would go. But a layman would think, what if? What if it goes all the way through in a big green patch? That's the dream."
I nodded. Of course—who doesn't have a greedy heart?
"So this stone, in my hands, could sell for close to 400,000. This way, I could both give Mr. Xu money and not lose money myself."
"Selling something worth over 300,000 for only a small profit of a few tens of thousands is because if an industry insider buys it and resells it, they can still make money. The imaginative potential of that color line is enormous. If the 'dream' is worth over a million, finding someone willing to pay 500,000 or 600,000 isn't impossible."
I was still chewing on that line: finished products in raw form.
Sometimes, even before a stone is cut, its value has already peaked—at least for an expert like Uncle Harvey, who could read it clearly.
But for a layman, it could still sell dreams.
I suddenly wanted to ask Uncle Harvey a pointed question but felt embarrassed. I opened my mouth, then said nothing.
Uncle Harvey smiled. "Go ahead. Ask whatever you want."
"So... do you ever misjudge stones?"
Uncle Harvey said, "That's exactly why I don't gamble on stones myself."
I could only nod vigorously.
"Of course, for jade carvers like us, even if a poor-quality stone ends up in our hands, we can still recover the value through carving, right?" This statement from Uncle Harvey seemed like encouragement to try jade gambling.
I thought hard about the color and shape of Mr. Xu's stone. Indeed, it could be made into a clever color-carved ornamental piece—the green line carved into plum blossoms, the black-gray portions rendered as mountain rocks. It would take skill and time, but it would be an elegant and precious scholar's treasure. At a Beijing auction, with the right buyer, it could sell for 200,000 or 300,000.
"But if Mr. Xu had agreed to sell the stone, wouldn't bringing it back to your shop just tie up your capital? Is it really that easy to sell a jade gambling stone? What if nobody wanted those two cut pieces?"
"You're right—if that happened, the money would be locked up in the stone." Uncle Harvey poured another round of tea, that enigmatic smile still on his face. "Many bosses have assets worth hundreds of millions on paper, but it's all tied up in stones. Very little actual cash."
"But I'm not one of those people who ties everything up in stones." He poured another cup, his smile growing more mysterious. "And I never expected to actually spend that 340,000."
The gambling trap—what was going on? The more I listened, the more confused I got.
"I had a gambling element too," Uncle Harvey paused, looking slightly smug. "I was gambling on Mr. Xu's personality."
At this, Duncan, who'd been silent the whole time, let out a laugh.
Uncle Harvey continued: "I bet he would definitely want to cut again. If he did, there was a good chance the stone would crash. That way, I wouldn't need to spend any money. Duncan just needed to make an offer, and Mr. Xu would still remember that I helped him pick a 340,000 stone. The favor was done."
I nodded rapidly, thinking Uncle Harvey really was a sly fox. No wonder he made money.
"If Mr. Xu had cut and won repeatedly—which is unlikely but entirely possible—that would be even better. He'd be even more willing to come buy stones from me in the future. But based on what I know of him, I didn't think he could stop himself. Once someone's in that moment, it's very hard to pull back."
Uncle Harvey stopped there and poured another round of tea. On the outside of his sleeve, there was still some jade powder from the earlier cutting. I didn't know if it was from the cut that had yielded 250,000 or the cut that had sent the value crashing back down.
"How about we make a little bet ourselves?" Uncle Harvey suddenly looked at me.
"No, no, Uncle. With my net worth, I can't afford jade gambling."
"Not cutting stones. We're betting on something else."
"What?"
"Mr. Xu. Next month. I bet you'll run into him again."
I didn't even know Mr. Xu—where would I run into him? I was puzzling over this when it hit me!
I asked Uncle Harvey, "Next month is September. You don't mean—"
Uncle Harvey grinned. "Smart! Mr. Xu didn't come to Ruili just for fun. Besides me, he'll be visiting other industry insiders. That means he's serious about investing in jade. So there's no way he'd miss September."
"The Myanmar Emporium!" I blurted out.
"Correct. The Myanmar Emporium. This year, you're coming with us!"