The profile picture looked familiar. The region listed: Dehong, Ruili.
Wait! This was exactly the pretty Myanmar girl I'd seen at the airport—the one in the white pants!
What time was it? Why was she adding me now? Puzzled, I accepted the friend request.
"Hello."
I immediately received a reply: "Good evening~ You're going into the emporium tomorrow?"
I replied: "Yes, you?"
Sunny: "Not in a rush. I'll buy materials around the area for the next couple of days first."
So she wasn't here for the emporium? I was wondering how to continue the conversation when another message came: "Which hotel are you staying at?"
A mixture of awkwardness and nervous excitement hit me. A pretty girl who just added you on WeChat is asking which hotel you're in—it's both inappropriate and intriguing.
I looked up and asked Uncle Harvey, "Uncle Harvey, do you know the girl I was talking to at the airport?"
Uncle Harvey perked up at this, took a sip of beer, and asked, "You rascal, you were already thinking about girls."
"I don't know her." Uncle Harvey looked at the profile picture. "She's quite pretty! You liar—you already got her WeChat at the airport. I saw you talking to her when I found you, weren't you?"
I pulled the phone back. "No, she added me."
I scratched my head and took a sip of beer, unsure how to reply. Uncle Harvey leaned over and asked, "What's she saying?"
"She's asking which hotel I'm in."
"Damn, damn, no fair!" Uncle Harvey laughed at me from the sofa. "You should go! See if she wants to come find you. Everyone's abroad, swapping stories! Hahaha! But be careful, okay?"
Uncle Harvey's expression had a playful edge, but I had no idea what he meant. So I replied to Sunny: "I'm at the Hilton."
Quickly, she replied: "I'm at the Jade Palace Hotel."
She sent a location pin, followed by: "We're not far from each other!"
Then another message: "I'm so bored~ Handsome, why don't you come over and find me~"
And then two more messages:
"Room 8411."
"Don't overthink it~ Just want to chat about jade raw stones with you!"
And finally, a selfie: half of Sunny's face, and behind her, the bed was indeed covered in raw stones.
"Go if you want to!" Uncle Harvey saw my hesitation and called it out. "Get out of here, go! Tomorrow morning, emporium."
At the time, I had no idea whether this was a romantic encounter or an ambush.
---
I went back to my room. First I grabbed my wallet and was about to leave, then reconsidered and tidied my hair in the mirror. On second thought, I changed my T-shirt for a button-down shirt. For some reason, I felt the need to look presentable. I caught a taxi at the front desk and headed over. In the cab, I felt the Myanmar night air—far from cool, uncomfortably hot and humid.
At the hotel, I knocked on the door of room 8411. A voice from inside called out: "Just a moment."
It was the same voice from WeChat. A moment later, the door opened. Sunny peered out, her hair loose as if she'd just blow-dried it. She wore hotel slippers, high-waisted yoga shorts that clung to her, and a sports tank top that left her arms bare. Her bronze skin, even in the dim lighting, looked incredibly smooth. She appeared perfectly calm. I, on the other hand, was inexplicably flustered.
"Come in." Sunny leaned against the doorframe and smiled. "You came alone, right?"
"Yeah." I walked in clumsily.
Once inside, Sunny poked her head out again—her body still in the room—and scanned the hallway left and right. Seeing no one, she swung back inside and pulled the door shut with a decisive *bang*.
"Hi, I'm Zane."
"I know. I'm Shangshang, but you can call me Sunny."
"Have a seat." Sunny gestured to the bed, then plopped down on the room's only chair herself. It was a standard room with two small beds, and the one closer to us was covered in raw stones and slab pieces. She hadn't been lying—she really had been buying jade raw stones in the area. The room didn't have the air conditioning on, and I felt like I was melting.
"It's so hot in here."
"Is it? I think it's okay."
I was wearing a button-down shirt and getting nervous; my undershirt was already soaked with sweat.
"I can turn on the air conditioning," Sunny offered. "We're used to it in Myanmar. The weather's turned a bit cooler these past two nights—you even need a jacket if you go out."
Sunny looked at me and laughed. "You're probably hot because you're overdressed. Unbutton a bit."
"No, no, that would be improper." I was a bit flustered.
"You came to see me," Sunny crossed her right leg over her left, leaning back in the chair, speaking slowly. "What do you want to do?"
"Just to meet you, make a friend!"
"Nothing else?"
"Nothing else."
"So it's just the two of us. Let's be direct—what do you want to talk about?"
This threw me off balance. I could only say, "Let's talk about jade."
"Wow, a true gentleman!" Sunny seemed a little annoyed. "Look, the jade is right over there. Just talk about jade!"
She sat up straight, pointed to the other bed, and said, "Go look for yourself! Buy whatever catches your eye."
I didn't know what I'd done to annoy her. Was she expecting me to say I came because I found her attractive? I could only follow her lead and go look at the stones. Spread across the bed were raw stones and slab pieces, most of which seemed less than impressive. But right in the center sat one piece that was obviously top quality even at first glance. I walked over and picked it up for a closer look.
It was a cantaloupe-sized piece with a yellow-sand rind and a rubbed window, likely from the Muna mine site. The rind had three major cracks—two horizontal, one vertical—likely deep fissures. But these flaws didn't detract from its beauty: where the rind had been rubbed away, the interior was crystal clear, reaching ice-grade transparency. The color was extraordinarily saturated, a brilliant blue—like a pool of cold, still water, or ice tinged with frost.
"This is so beautiful!"
"Muna old pit, sky blue. The ice grade bets on high-ice, even betting on glass-grade material."
"You call this 'sky blue'?" I laughed. "It really is as blue as the Myanmar sky."
"Isn't the sky in Beijing blue too?"
"It is. Beijing's blue sky days are really beautiful." I continued asking: "When you say 'bets on high-ice,' meaning it's reached standard ice grade, but you're gambling on whether the interior reaches high-ice?"
"Correct. 'Betting' means gambling on the state after cutting. Actually, saying high-ice is modest. Once cut, this should approach glass-grade. Those cracks running through—if you cut along them, there are no micro-cracks inside. It could yield thick plaques and cabochons larger than pigeon eggs."
"Impressive, impressive!" I continued holding it, turning it over, knowing this piece would be very expensive, but it was truly stunning.
"You like this kind?"
"Huh? No, just asking."
"What kind of jade do you like, handsome? My family is in Myanmar. I can source any kind of material."
"How much is this one?"
"Five million RMB."
"Wow, so expensive!"
"Fine things command fine prices."
I couldn't help asking: "Is this an inflated price because you're afraid I'll haggle? Would you sell it for 500,000?"
Sunny's face suddenly turned serious. "If I sold it for 500,000, how much would I lose? If I sold it for 500,000, would you even dare buy it?"
"Haha, well..."
"I'm serious. How much do you want to pay?"
"No, no," I said quickly. "I was just casually asking."
Sunny's expression darkened. "In Beijing, do you also ask prices without any intention of buying?"
Oops! I thought to myself. Indeed, the industry rule was that you shouldn't ask the price if you didn't intend to buy. Even for a fairly priced item, it was inappropriate—because once the seller agreed, you were obligated to follow through. No backing out.
"No, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just genuinely curious. Let me keep looking."
"Looking? Then look at other pieces."
"Let me take my time considering. This is business."
"Business, sure. Take your time!" Sunny's tone was visibly impatient.
I picked up a few more raw jade stones and examined each for a few minutes, but nothing caught my eye. And every time I tried to ask a key detail, Sunny would give vague, half-hearted answers—never a direct response. I started wondering whether she didn't know enough to answer, or whether she was deliberately dodging.
I remembered my master's constant reminders not to gamble on stones. Tomorrow, I'd be at the emporium, looking at thousands of pieces of clear stone. Whatever kind of material I wanted, whatever I planned to carve—it would all be available there.
There was truly no need to buy any rough material from Sunny tonight.
I pulled out my phone and messaged Uncle Harvey: "I need an excuse to get out of here. She keeps trying to make me buy stones."
Uncle Harvey's reply was worrying: "Be careful. Where are you?"
I replied: "Jade Palace Hotel, room 8411."
Uncle Harvey: "Are they forcing you to buy?"
Sunny, sitting nearby, saw me ignoring her while texting, and grew impatient.
"You can't just ask about everything, have me explain everything, and then not buy anything. That's a waste, don't you think?"
"Let me think about it a bit more."