Chapter 47: The Mysterious Stone City (Part 2)

  Qu Wen never thought that his master, Gu Quan, would be the honorary president of Qishi City. He had never mentioned this before. When it came to attending meetings, Qu Wen was always at the bottom, listening to others speak from the stage, feeling that those people were particularly impressive, not because they were eloquent, but because they could stand on stage and talk for half a day without getting tired.

  "Isn't Boss Chen still here with Director Luo? Just let him speak and I'll applaud enthusiastically for you guys down there."

  Chen Tuan was amused by Qu Wen's words: "That won't do, we still need to select a few pieces of fine rare stones and then take them to the central venue for exhibition. Since Old Gu didn't come, you can help him evaluate the scores of the rare stones brought by everyone."

  He's not being pretentious, he really is that type of person who gets on stage and can't say a word, at least for now he still doesn't know what to say.

  "Let's just forget about it, and besides, I haven't spent much time with my master. Currently, I'm focusing on ceramic calligraphy and painting, so I don't know much about strange rocks. Otherwise, I can introduce you to someone who is a graduate of the Archaeology Department of Huqing University and has studied the appreciation of strange rocks at the Beijing Luli Factory for many years."

  When Chen Tuan heard Qu Wen's words, a look of delight appeared on his face, thinking that a great master had arrived, but besides Zhao Haifeng, there was no one else beside Qu Wen.

  "I don't know which brother Qu is referring to, can you please ask him to come in?"

  Qu Wen pushed Zhao Haifeng forward: "It's him, he's my senior brother's proud disciple, has been working in my senior brother's shop for many years, and has a good understanding of strange stones. Letting him be the judge is most appropriate."

  Qu Wen honestly said that his understanding of the strange stone came from Bao Guoqiang's teachings, and Zhao Haifeng, as Bao Guoqiang's direct disciple, naturally knew more than himself.

  Chen Tuan glanced at Zhao Haifeng and felt that he had an air of nobility about him, which was unrelated to his clothes, but rather a temperament cultivated over time in a good environment.

  Elegance is not something that can be shown off by just wearing a few good clothes and sporting a few gold chains, otherwise there wouldn't be the term "nouveau riche". In high society, when evaluating someone, it's not just about appearance, but also about behavior and demeanor. Whether or not someone has the elegance of a refined person is basically the standard for determining if they are nouveau riche.

  Qu Wen's words made Chen Tuan somewhat incomprehensible, feeling that there was something on him that made people feel close to him yet couldn't be put into words, especially Qu Wen's eyes, which were clear and wise, as if he were a transcendent being from another world.

  "Since that's the case, I won't force it. If there's an opportunity, please come to my house for a visit, I have many calligraphy and paintings that need someone like you with expertise to take a look." He then turned to Zhao Haifeng: "Zhao brother, since you're knowledgeable about strange rocks, help us out as a judge later, if you decline again it's like looking down on the people of Long City."

  Zhao Haifeng was secretly laughing just now, but he didn't expect Qu Wen to sell him out so quickly. Chen Tuan could only glare at Qu Wen secretly after saying things had reached this point.

  "Okay, I'll give it a try."

  Talking about the appreciation of strange stones and antiques is different, the evaluation of strange stones cannot be standardized. Generally, it relies on one's own cultural accomplishment and artistic accumulation to clearly distinguish the pros and cons of each piece of strange stone. Of course, apart from the artistic perspective, there must also be a considerable understanding of the origin and quality of the strange stone.

  As Luo Yongliang finished his opening remarks, Zhao Haifeng followed several judges to appreciate the stone, and his gestures all showed a bit of master style.

  Insiders look at the doorway, outsiders look at the excitement. Just by looking at Zhao Haifeng's action of selecting stones, it can be seen that this young man is indeed a stone connoisseur.

  If it's just an ordinary strange stone, Zhao Haifeng would basically just appreciate it and then put it aside, because his goal is those rare stones, strange stones, which have more potential for appreciation compared to ordinary strange stones. Modern people who appreciate stones not only pay attention to the strangeness, emptiness, transparency, and thinness of the stone, but also attach great importance to the texture, color, pattern, and monetary value of the stone.

  Whenever he sees a good quality strange stone, Zhao Haifeng looks at it more carefully. Occasionally, he will even use his hand to tap and listen to the sound of the strange stone, using his eyes, hands, and ears to analyze the texture and density of a piece of stone.

  Qu Yun didn't say anything, because he wasn't very familiar with the strange stone, and it's not like he had an artistic eye for it. If he hadn't studied with Bao Guoqiang for a short period of time, all these strange stones in the room would be no different from broken rocks on the side of the road to him.

  However, he wasn't just looking blindly, secretly releasing his spiritual awareness to investigate the spiritual energy on each of the strange stones. As expected, the more precious the stone material was, the more spiritual energy it contained. For example, the chicken bloodstone seal in the middle display case had a much denser spiritual energy than the large ornamental stones on the wall.

  "What's this stone?"

  Following the crowd, he didn't see much artistic value in the strange stones chosen by everyone. Qu Wen turned around and came to the wall display stand, where several rough-shaped stones were placed. To say that they had no artistic sense, not even beautiful, but one of the stones as big as a rice bowl was emitting a strong spiritual aura.

  As soon as the sound of Qu Wen's voice was heard, Chen Tuan walked over: "This is a jade rough stone. The black one is called black wusangpi, the yellow one is called yellow sand skin, and there are also white sand skin and iron sand skin besides this."

  I've seen many jade carvings, but this is my first time seeing a raw stone. My curiosity was piqued, and I asked Chen, "Isn't jade a type of precious gemstone? Why do you also sell it in your strange rock store?"

  Chen Tuan smiled to himself, thinking that Qu Wen's understanding of the strange stone was indeed not deep, no wonder he didn't dare to take responsibility for evaluating it, and had said so beforehand, which showed some self-awareness.

  "The scope of what is covered by the term 'qi shi' is very broad, and in a general sense, any natural stone that has ornamental value can be called qi shi. Therefore, it is also possible to classify gemstones as qi shi. Because there are many types of qi shi, and many ways to classify them, if we categorize by aesthetic appeal, they can roughly be divided into five major categories."

  "The first category is natural landscape stone, such as Huangshan's Fei Lai Shi, Feixian's Tian Jing Shi, Guilin's Luo Tuo Shi, and the world-famous Yunnan Stone Forest all belong to this category. The second category is courtyard landscape stone, which is generally larger in volume and used for outdoor courtyards, such as Taihu Stone, Fu Xi Shi, Ling Bi Shi, etc. The third category is potted landscape stone, which is smaller than courtyard landscape stone and mostly used for indoor decoration. The fourth category has a relatively high market value, known as craft stone or stone craftsmanship, using natural ornamental stone as raw material, processed into stone crafts such as stone carvings, stone seals, etc. And the raw materials used in this type of stone craftsmanship are also not ordinary, mostly valuable and precious original stones. For example, Shou Shan Shi, Ji Xue Shi, etc. The fifth category is similar to potted landscape stone, but smaller, used for indoor decoration and collection as a small art piece. Like this agate original stone, the quality is quite good, you can buy it back home as a decoration or process it into a small accessory yourself."

  To be honest, Qu Wen's understanding of strange stones is not much, if you can learn all the categories of collections in just a few months, it's not something that can be said in a day, it's simply against heaven.

  However, this piece of Hei Sha Pi original skin is emitting a strong spiritual energy. Judging from past experiences, it should be something good. As for how good it is, I won't know until later. Fortunately, I have money in my pocket now, so I don't mind buying a stone to take home.

  "Mr. Chen, can you sell this piece of raw jade?"

  Chen Tuan is a businessman, and it's only logical to take on any business that comes his way. He collects many types of items, each person excels in one area, and making more friends is always a good thing.

  "We opened the store door to do business, to be honest these few pieces of raw stone were bought with friends on Pingzhou public disk, spent a lot of money, looks good outside but all collapsed after cutting open, just for this I lost tens of millions, came back and was scolded by my wife. I'm a businessman not a pure gambler, don't do a one-shot deal, leave a few that can sell back some capital, count as leaving some reserve, auspicious. If you want it, this six thousand is sold to you."

  "Six thousand!" Qu Wen shouted in surprise.

  I know that jade prices are rising every day, but I didn't expect a raw stone to be so expensive. In the industry for some time, often heard that gambling on stones is even more crazy than gambling, overnight wealth is a myth, and there are many who have lost everything in one night, from which we can see that not all jade raw stones contain jade, and not every piece can make money. Now this fist-sized raw stone costs six thousand, no slower than robbery.

  "Boss Chen, this small one is already six thousand, isn't it a bit too expensive?"