Chapter 46: The Mysterious Stone City (Part 1)

  The Strange Stone Festival is still a few days away, but large and small businesses have already made preparations. As soon as nine o'clock passed, they put out all kinds of strange stones in various shapes and colors. The variety is dazzling.

  Walking in the alleys of Qishi City, Zhao Haifeng truly felt what it means to have a world without borders, and the beauty of nature's craftsmanship. Block by block, cold and hard stones grew mysteriously between heaven and earth, and under natural erosion, they transformed into vivid works of art.

  Although Panjiayuan and Liulichang also have strange stone sales, and they are quite large in scale, but compared to Longcheng's Strange Stone City, they still fall short. Because this is a completely stone-based business and cultural exchange center.

  After walking for a while, Zhao Haifeng gave a thumbs up: "I'm really convinced that this Qishi City is indeed famous and not in vain. How many stones are there inside?!"

  As for this question, Qu Wen, as a person from Longcheng, cannot answer it either, because the daily traffic in Qishi City is too large and it's difficult to make specific statistics. It can be estimated that there are at least tens of millions.

  In recent years, with the price of jade soaring day by day, the prices of various strange stones have also continued to rise, and a rare "crazy" hot trend has emerged. As long as the color is beautiful and the shape is peculiar, it may be possible to sell these stones at a good price.

  Qu Wen shrugged and replied perfunctorily: "How would I know? Why don't you count it out block by block?"

  The entire Qishi City, apart from the large and small shops, is most attractive with its street stalls. The majority of stall owners are stone farmers from surrounding areas who collect various forms of peculiar stones with certain values from mountains or other places and casually display them on the ground, making this place the best treasure-hunting spot.

  Compared to the street stalls, the strange stones in the shops are a grade higher. In addition to the stones themselves, each one is paired with intricately carved wooden bases, and the types of wood used also vary in quality, ranging from rare redwood to common camphor wood. The strangely shaped stones are given names, placed on exquisitely crafted bases, and displayed in the store, with prices ranging from tens of thousands to tens of millions, enough to make one marvel at the madness of stone appreciation.

  Some better odd rocks contain spiritual energy, Qu Wen has known it for a long time, but it's too thin to absorb, let alone absorb, so Qu Wen didn't plan to do such an unprofitable thing.

  The spiritual energy is divided into different levels, which can be roughly categorized as strong and weak, pure and impure. There are obvious differences between high-quality and ordinary antiques, so not all ancient artifacts have such strong spiritual energy.

  What puzzled Quwen was that the antiques from the same period, or even earlier, often had less spiritual energy than the later-made masterpieces. This could be sensed from several exquisite antiques he encountered, especially a piece of fine imitation Ming Qinghua porcelain, which, although lacking the familiar condensed spiritual energy, was enveloped in an aura that couldn't be absorbed.

  He specifically found dozens of fine imitation works for this song, but it made him even more confused. Except for that strange Ming Qinghua, other imitations did not have the existence of spiritual and strange atmosphere. As if there is only one in the world.

  In this way, the only way to distinguish the purity of a strange stone is by spiritual awareness. For example, jade carvings, the better the material, the stronger the spirit. In addition to distinguishing between good and bad strange stones, one must also consider factors such as texture, shape, color, and pattern.

  Zhao Haifeng saw Qu Wen staring into the distance in a daze, and thought he had discovered something good, so he slapped his shoulder: "What are you looking at? You're completely absorbed!"

  "No, I just thought of something, have you seen Meng Shi Zhai?"

  The Qishi Castle is very large, and after searching for half a circle, the Mengshi Zhai was still not found. This matter can only be blamed on Gu Quan for not making things clear, saying that it's in Qishi Castle but not specifying the exact location.

  "Ask someone else." Zhao Haifeng spread his hands out in a helpless gesture.

  "It seems that's all there is." Qu Wen said and walked to a nearby stall to ask the owner about the location of Meng Shi Zhai.

  The boss, upon hearing this, showed a look of surprise and admiration on his face, and immediately pointed to the deeper part of Qishi City: "Go another 200 meters inside and turn left, you'll see it, there's a big sign hanging."

  As expected, at a bend in the distance, Qu Yun and Zhao Haifeng found the Meng Shi Zhai that Gu Quanzhong had mentioned.

  No rush to enter the store, the two of them first looked outside for half a day. First, the entire storefront is quite large, about three times as wide as the adjacent shops. Next is the name with poetic meaning, which means "stone in dreams", no wonder this store's strange stone is not ordinary, and it is carved from a whole piece of giant wood, can be seen at a glance from afar.

  Merchants in other industries, as long as they have some strength, like to place two lions or Qilin at the door, symbolizing auspiciousness and avoiding evil. The gate of Mengshi Zhai is placed with two huge and rare stones, which are 70-80% similar to lions and can be paired together.

  Zhao Haifeng gazed at the giant stone outside the door, lost in thought for a while before exclaiming: "Although it's just an ordinary mountain rock, its shape is lifelike and has a deep spiritual charm. Especially when paired together, whether viewed from afar or up close, it evokes a sense of beauty that transcends the ordinary, stirring the soul of those who appreciate stones. With such an extraordinary stone placed at the entrance, what's inside can't be too bad either."

  Just as the words fell, a man in his 40s happened to walk by from the side, dressed in bright clothes and standing upright, looking like a wealthy and dignified master.

  Upon hearing Zhao Haifeng's words, the middle-aged man stopped in his tracks and gazed at Qu Wen and the others for a moment. He felt that these two young people had an uncommon air about them, especially with Zhao Haifeng's one sentence, guessing that he should be someone who understands jade.

  "Neither of you two young brothers are locals, are you here to visit the Strange Stone Festival?"

  The middle-aged man spoke Mandarin, but with a very strong local accent, which is related to the pronunciation habits of Longcheng people. Normally, Longcheng people speak and shoot guns quickly, and it's hard for them to speak Mandarin with correct tones and rounded mouth.

  "Older brother, I'm not an outsider, just stayed in the north for a few more years. Today, I was sent by Master to deliver a message." Qu Wen smiled and replied in the local dialect of Longcheng.

  "Pass the word!" The middle-aged man was stunned, then took a closer look at Qu Wen again. Today, an informal small meeting is to be held in Meng Shi Zhai about the activities of the upcoming Qishi Festival. Most of the people who came were relatively well-known private owners within Qishi City, but he had never seen two young people like them in that store before.

  "May I ask who your master is?"

  Seeing each other without malice, and saying a word won't kill anyone. Qu Wen has no reason to hide anything.

  "My master's name is Gu Quan."

  "Oh, you're Qu Wen, the new disciple of Gu Lao!"

  This time, the middle-aged man's gaze stayed on Qu Wen for a full three minutes, making Qu Wen feel hairy in his heart and wonder if this guy had some special hobby. However, he shouted out his own name, leaving Qu Wen stunned for a while.

  "How did this big brother know my name?"

  A middle-aged man laughed and said, "I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Luo Yongliang, I'm an old friend from Shengyuanhang in the front, and I've been temporarily appointed as the vice president of Qishi City due to everyone's appreciation. Nowadays, your name is very famous in the city and within the industry. Everyone knows that Old Man Gu has a high vision and generally doesn't take a liking to ordinary people, but he took you on as his apprentice, so everyone is both curious and envious of you."

  "I didn't expect you to be a celebrity!" Zhao Haifeng teased from the side, making Qu Wen even more depressed, feeling that the word "celebrity" should never be associated with him. Just by looking at Luo Yongliang's expression when he saw himself, he knew what it would be like once they went inside.

  "Stop making a fuss, I'm also a celebrity." Qu Wen's personality is casual and unrestrained, he doesn't have high demands for clothes, three to five hundred yuan is considered high-end goods to him. Today, as usual, he wore a T-shirt with jeans, which is a very common style.

  Outside the store, he exchanged a few pleasantries with Luo Yongliang before entering Mengshi Zhai. At this time, the room was already packed with people, and at a rough glance, there were about sixteen or seventeen of them, mostly middle-aged men, with three or four young people like Qu Wen.

  "Lao Luo, you've arrived. Please take a seat and wait for Mr. Gu to arrive before we can start the meeting." A middle-aged man with a big belly came up to greet him with a smile as soon as he entered the store, his originally small eyes appearing even smaller on his chubby face.

  "I don't think so, Gu Lao is busy today, so he let his apprentice take over." Luo Yongliang replied.

  "Master Gu's disciples are all abroad, I don't know which one came to Longcheng, is it Bao Guoqiang or Xia Junliang?"

  Luo Yongliang shook his head: "Neither, you forgot that Gu Lao had just accepted a new closed-door disciple a few months ago."

  The middle-aged man thought for a moment and nodded vigorously: "Right, right, there is such a thing, but I haven't seen the person in a while and couldn't think of it at first. Where is he?"

  "Right here." Luo Yongliang stepped back half a step, letting Qu Wen move forward, and introduced them to each other among the fat men: "This is Gu Lao's closed disciple Qu Wen, this is the boss of Meng Shi Zhai Chen Tuan."

  I originally thought that someone who could open a store with such an elegant name would be a scholarly and refined person, but unexpectedly he turned out to be someone whose face, body shape, and attire all exuded the aura of a nouveau riche. And his physique really lives up to his name.

  However, Qu Wen himself was also a nouveau riche and younger than Chen Tuan, so he took the initiative to shake hands with him.

  "Hello, Mr. Chen."

  As the article thought, Chen Tuan was indeed a nouveau riche. Seven or eight years ago, he was just a laid-off worker from a bankrupt enterprise. Later, he discovered the business opportunity of strange stones from others and started to engage in this business, becoming one of the first people in Longcheng to sell strange stones on stalls and in stores, and also one of the first people to make a fortune from strange stones. After making money, Chen Tuan still couldn't shake off his petty bourgeois mentality for decades, liking to show off his wealth, so from clothes to shoes, watches to wallets, everything was eye-catching brand-name goods.

  "Hello, hello, I've long heard of your great name. Today, seeing you in person, it's indeed true to the rumors, with an outstanding temperament and a handsome demeanor."

  When Chen Tuan spoke, Zhao Haifeng laughed even more exaggeratedly. If it weren't for the fact that they were in front of a crowd, Qu Wen would have definitely kicked him all the way to the river outside the city.

  "Boss Chen, it's not as good as you said. I'm just here to pass on a message from my master. He's been busy these past few days and will naturally attend the Qishi Festival opening ceremony. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now."

  As Qu Wen was about to leave, Chen Tuan suddenly grabbed his hand: "That's not possible, after all, Gu Lao is also an honorary president of our Qishi City, he can't come so you should say a few words on his behalf."