After saying goodbye to his mother, he pulled his suitcase out of the village, reached a deserted corner, channeled a bit of crystal energy into his hand, and after wrapping it around the large suitcase, the suitcase instantly disappeared.

Feeling unburdened, Ethan Bolton withdrew 2,200 yuan in the small town and then took a bus to Wuhan.

First, he mailed the contract for the novel "Castle in the Sky" at the post office, then bought a new China Mobile SIM card. After taking care of these matters, Ethan Bolton looked at the remaining 1,800 yuan, pondered for a moment, and decided to go stone gambling first!

Stone gambling, also known as "gambling on goods," refers to the practice where jadeite, when mined, is covered by a layer of weathered skin, making it impossible to know the quality inside. Only after cutting it open can one determine the quality of the jadeite—this is called "stone gambling." Jadeite from old mines all has skin, but jadeite found in riverbeds, known as water jadeite, is also considered old mine jade, with very thin or no skin. Most jadeite from new mines has no skin, but those found in slope deposits do. The thickness of the skin mainly depends on the degree of weathering—the more weathered, the thicker the skin. Sometimes, a piece of jadeite rough has color on the surface and looks great; when the first cut is made, green appears, but after the second cut, the green may be gone—this happens often. Away from the jadeite mines, the chance of a "rise" in value is only one in ten thousand (referring to colored material), while at the mines, the odds are much higher.

A single lucky stone gamble can make you rich overnight!

Although it's said that nine out of ten stone gambles end in loss, that's because it's impossible to see what's inside the rough stones. Even with today's technology, there's still no way to tell from the surface whether a rough stone contains jadeite.

But what Ethan Bolton was confident about was that, although his crystal energy was still weak, he could clearly sense the inside of some small rough stones. If he used crystal energy to sense people, his control wasn't strong enough and the energy would be directly absorbed by the other person's body, but when sensing stones, this problem didn't occur!

Ethan Bolton wasn't a gambler by nature, but when it came to something that was basically like picking up a bargain, he wasn't going to be polite.

After thinking it over, Ethan Bolton took a bus straight to the largest rough stone market in Wuhan.

Markets like this are lively almost all the time, but the busiest period is in the afternoon.

Of course, coming to gamble on stones with less than 2,000 yuan is basically a joke, because stone gambling usually involves tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. With only about a thousand yuan, you can only try your luck at some of the smaller shops.

Ethan Bolton looked around as he walked; there were quite a few small shops here, and many bearded, big-eyed merchants had set up small stalls, displaying stones of various sizes in red, green, and white.

As Ethan Bolton walked by, he noticed that these small shops didn't have stone-cutting machines, but the larger shops not far away were equipped with them, so Ethan Bolton wasn't worried.

There was a huge flow of people here, and most of the regulars were wealthy, so if you did get lucky and your stone's value rose, you didn't have to worry about being cheated or robbed.

"Hey, young man, want to buy some rough stones? This one was specially selected from the old pit at the Ulong River in Myanmar. Look at these green stripes on it—they look like a belt! If it's even greener inside, it could turn out to be top quality! Maybe even imperial green!"

A sweaty, bearded man shouted at Ethan Bolton. These people were as shrewd as foxes. Even though Ethan Bolton's clothes were all cheap street stall goods, his confident and calm demeanor was extraordinary!

Because of this, the bearded man hurried to pitch his stone.

This piece of rough was indeed from the old pit at the Ulong River in Myanmar, but it wasn't the only one—there were at least two tons of it! These rough stones weren't all owned by this man; he had spent 300,000 yuan to buy them from a big boss, getting three pieces in total. Two of them had already been cut and both lost money. This one looked even less promising than the other two, and if he lost again, it would be a huge loss. So, he figured if he could sell this one for about 150,000 yuan, he wouldn't lose too much.

"Heh, if this is really such a top-quality piece, then why doesn't this big brother cut it himself?" Ethan Bolton glanced at the stone, then swept it with his crystal energy. Instantly, he sensed a small cluster of transparent, glass-like green inside, slightly to the right. The center of this green cluster was especially bright! As Ethan Bolton's crystal energy flowed through it, he felt a cool and comfortable sensation, like coming home.

The green cluster wasn't very big, about the size of an egg, but Ethan Bolton's heart still skipped a beat.

However, his expression remained calm and composed, without the slightest hint of panic, as he quietly steadied his excited heart.

"To tell you the truth, little brother, this rough stone was also bought from someone else. I bought three pieces in this batch, spending nearly 420,000 yuan. This one is the most average of the three. The best and the worst ones have already been cut, and I barely broke even, actually losing over 100,000 yuan! I'm in this business, and gambling like this isn't good for me, so I decided not to gamble anymore. If you want it, I'll give you a real price—140,000 yuan!"