Although "Cuiyu Building" is located deep in Feicui Street, it is easy to find because the store is very large. It is an ancient style building with two doors and four windows in a row and a total of three floors.
The roof is the most classic ancient architectural style in China: double eaves on the top of the mountain.
Although it is a simple version, it still has cornices and carved beams.
The huge plaque has the words "Cuiyulou" written in gold letters on a black background from right to left, with iron paintings and silver hooks, which is quite impressive.
Shen Yu estimated that the cost of this plaque alone, from materials to engraving to painting, would be huge. Therefore, compared with those self-built houses built indiscriminately, the Cuiyu Building can be said to stand out.
This store does not face the street, and there are even nearly thirty open-air parking spaces in front of the door. However, at this moment, they are all full of cars, including some BBA luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi.
Standing in front of the store, Shen Yu suddenly smiled: "With such a high popularity, it seems that selling gambling stone wool is very profitable!"
Gambling stone is a professional term in the jewelry industry, also called gambling material.
Stone gambling has a long history. It is said that some people started gambling on stones during the Qianlong period.
Before that, people's favorites were white jade and sapphire, but after jade came in, ordinary people, dignitaries, and even emperors immediately fell in love with this beautiful green jade.
The jadeite at that time was also called: green jade.
Qianlong was very fond of jade, or Qianlong loved jade very much, because at that time it was called jade among the people, but in the court, it was called Yongchang jade, cloud jade or Dian jade.
Hiding and appreciating jade was a very important one among Qianlong's many hobbies, and he was even a bit obsessed.
If you can name all your sons with jade, what else can this be but obsession?
In the first year of Qianlong's reign, the "Ruyi Pavilion" was set up in the palace to manufacture jade wares (and later also porcelain).
When making more important jade articles, Emperor Qianlong had to personally inspect everything from drawings, mold making, to polishing. Sometimes he even participated in the design himself if he got interested.
Ji Xiaolan of the Qing Dynasty recorded in detail the rise in the price of jade in the Qing Dynasty in Volume 15 of "Yuewei Thatched Cottage Notes".
"The weight of the covering depends on the taste of the time, and there is no fixed standard. I remember that when I was young, ginseng, coral, and lapis lazuli were not expensive, but they are expensive now.
"Turquoise is expensive, but it is getting cheaper today.
"Jadeite was not regarded as jade at that time. It was just like the dry yellow of Lantian. It was known as jade. Now it is regarded as a treasure, and its price is much higher than that of real jade!"
This means that the jadeite Ji Xiaolan had when he was a child (during the Yongzheng Dynasty), like other ornamental stones, cannot be regarded as jade.
But by the time Ji Xiaolan wrote "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage" in his later years, that is, in the late Qianlong Dynasty, jadeite had become a treasure, and its price far exceeded that of real jade.
Nowadays, high-end jadeite is synonymous with wealth. Anyone who wants to wear an ice bracelet must have a super rich family. Those who have no money cannot buy high-end jadeite.
Looking at the black black sand in his hand, Shen Yu smiled again. It was impossible for such a big store to not have a stone dissolving machine. Whatever he said today, he had to sell the low-ice Zhengyang Green inside.
There were a lot of people in the store, and it was noisy like a market.
But it's not depressing, because the first floor of the Jade Tower is six meters high, and it even feels cool in these hot days.
All you can see in the store are wooden cabinets or shelves, filled with all kinds of stone gambling materials.
Most of the cabinets are full of jade, and the cheapest ones cost a hundred yuan each. It is difficult to say that these are rough jade stones, because they have no characteristics.
And so on, with a maximum cap of 2,000 yuan.
Further up are the kilograms of materials sold by the kilogram, all placed on wooden shelves and guarded by special personnel.
It is worth mentioning that there are very few semi-gambling materials.
There is not even a single piece of information.
There are three small stone-breaking machines placed near the east wall. They are surrounded by people. It seems that someone is working on the stone-breaking machine.
Shen Yu leaned over to see the situation, but there were too many people to squeeze in, so he had no choice but to wait.
After about five minutes, one of the machines gradually stopped and it seemed that it was untied.
"Oh, it collapsed."
"Seeds, water, and colors all don't flow into the river. It's just bricks!"
"Yeah, it's completely ruined."
“This material doesn’t even cost enough to make a bracelet.”
"Impossible, how could a piece of wool worth a hundred thousand yuan collapse so badly?"
The owner of the woolen material was a well-dressed middle-aged man. At this moment, he was grabbing his hair in disbelief. Perhaps the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and he squatted on the ground and began to cry loudly.
No one felt pity for him. Seeing that there were no leaks to pick up, everyone turned to watch the other two stone cutting machines.
The people who watch the stone cutting are not all idle people who have a hard time. These people are actually trying to make some money by standing around in the dust of gravel.
Most of them are employed by major jade and jewelry stores. Once good materials are found, they will be obtained as quickly as possible.
A small number of them are professional jade merchants who buy and sell to make a profit, otherwise who would be watching the excitement on a hot day.
After everyone left, Shen Yu could clearly see the true appearance of the broken jadeite. It was a piece of wool about the size of half a newspaper, split in two from the middle, and the two sides were green and full of cracks. It was really completely broken.
This kind of crack is called a spider web crack, which is what people who gamble on stones are most afraid of seeing, and it is even impossible to sell it to some jade carving shops.
Because there are too many cracks to carve jewelry, it is difficult for apprentices to practice, which can be said to be worthless.
What surprised Shen Yu was that the leather shell of this piece of wool was very good. The stone was off-white and the skin was wrinkled. It was a typical old elephant skin from Moxi battlefield. No wonder this person would spend so much money on such a small piece of wool. Buy it for 100,000.
Seeing the middle-aged man coming to see him, Shen Yu quickly avoided it. He couldn't pity anyone in a shop like this that sells raw jade stones.
"Little brother, I think the material you have is good. How about we exchange it?" the middle-aged man shouted to Shen Yu.
I have to say that this person has very good eyesight. He saw the black sand material in Shen Yu's hand at a glance.
"Thank you, I'm here to cut stones, not exchange them." Shen Yu refused directly.
"Little brother, think about it. You see, my material is so big, I can continue to cut it."
Shen Yu shook his head and walked towards the store and stopped talking to him.
Stone wool is not priced based on size, but based on the performance of the outer shell.
When jade is mined, the jade flesh is wrapped in a weathered leather shell. Until it is completely cut open, no one can know whether there is jade inside or what kind of jade there is.
But after cutting it, you can basically judge the value of a piece of wool. For a middle-aged man, this piece of wool is completely ruined, and even the Emerald King can't save it.
At this time, the middle-aged man who had lost his mind from gambling was full of shops looking for people to sell his brick materials. The price was finally reduced from 50,000 to 3,000, but no one bought it.
I was about to call someone to ask if there was any free stone cutting machine, when a clerk came over.
The clerk was in his early twenties, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and he looked very smart. When he saw Shen Yu holding a piece of wool, he immediately understood: "Sir, are you here to analyze stones in our store?"
Shen Yu smiled and nodded: "I wonder if your store has any free stone dissection machines? If so, I would like to rent one."
The clerk returned the smile: "Yes, there is, but it is not wool purchased in our store. There is a charge for calcite."
"Of course, there is no point in using it in vain."
"Then come with me." The clerk led the way and led Shen Yu towards the back of the store.
"I wonder how many stone dissolving machines your store has?" Shen Yu asked as he walked.
"Three in the front and six in the back, a total of nine. Don't worry, there will definitely be free machines."
The store in front was extremely noisy, but when we walked to the backyard, it suddenly became quiet.
The backyard is very large, covering an area of 700 to 800 square meters. Except for a small green bamboo forest and a pavilion, the entire yard is filled with jadeite stones, as many as thousands of pieces.
What surprised Shen Yu was that there were many people in the backyard using bright flashlights to select stones. Those who liked them would take them to an awning to observe carefully.
Although they also talked to each other, it was far less noisy than the front yard.
In the pavilion, a man wearing a silk shirt and a slicked back hair was sitting on a recliner reading a book.
The cover is Mr. Liang Yusheng's martial arts novel "The Legend of Lianjian Fengyunlu".
The man looked at it with great interest and paid no attention to the sounds of conversations and footsteps around him.
The clerk strode over: "Brother Li, there is a customer who wants to rent the stone dissolving machine in the store."
The man raised his head when he heard this. He was about thirty-five or six years old. He also had thick eyebrows and big eyes. His appearance was similar to that of the clerk, so he should be a cousin.
