I changed the world.

That morning, everyone in the team had breakfast at the hotel and then took a car to the public auction venue. Today was the bidding day, and the results of the first batch of sealed bids would be announced at nine o'clock this morning. Even before the public auction started letting people in, there were already hundreds of people waiting. Many of them looked a little uneasy, but also a little expectant.

At 8:30 a.m., the auction officially opened, and the thousands of people waiting outside immediately began to line up noisily, passing through the ticket gates and entering the auction venue.

Zhang Jing and his team members walked together, following the signs that the organizers had temporarily set up the night before, toward the bidding hall.

This bidding hall is also a simple steel structure building that can accommodate thousands of people. At this moment, ten huge LCD screens are hanging on the walls around the hall. After nine o'clock, the results of the sealed bids will be directly displayed on these screens.

In addition to seeing the bid opening information on the display screen in the bid opening hall, bidders can also check their bids at the winning bid inquiry machine placed in the hall after the bid opening. At the same time, the bid opening number will be continuously displayed on the screen in the bid opening hall for the buyers present to check.

In less than ten minutes, hundreds of people had gathered in the bidding hall. Many of them knew each other and kept whispering to each other, inquiring about the items they were interested in.

Zhang Jing noticed that, apart from him, the other members of the team greeted each other along the way, clearly having encountered many acquaintances from their peers.

However, despite their seemingly cheerful conversation, most people were actually quite distracted. Even Zhang Jing was affected by the atmosphere and began to feel anxious and uncertain.

This is called a sealed bid; until the very last moment, no one knows whether they have won or not, much like the announcement of the results of the imperial examinations in ancient times.

"Hongjian, did you submit a bid this time?" Jin Wang asked curiously when he saw Zhang Jing holding a small notebook.

In the days leading up to this, perhaps due to the sensitive nature of the topic, even team members generally refrained from inquiring about each other's bidding progress. However, at this point, it's perfectly acceptable to ask.

"Yeah, I bet. I bet three dollars, just to try my luck." Zhang Jing laughed. "What about Brother Fuyuan?"

"Then I wish you good luck. I bet over thirty yuan this time, but I don't know how much I'll win yet," Jin Wang said with a smile, wiping the sweat from his face with a handkerchief.

"I'm sure we'll succeed soon."

"Then thank you for your kind words, hahaha."

In the increasingly tense atmosphere, it finally arrived at nine o'clock. The screens around the hall lit up at the same time, and at the top of the screens, the raw material numbers, prices, and the winning bidders' numbers and names were displayed in yellow font.

The previously noisy crowd suddenly quieted down, and everyone picked up notebooks or mobile phones to check their winning bids against their own numbers and the bid numbers.

Today's announcement revealed approximately 5000 pieces of raw jadeite; the rest will be announced tomorrow. To ensure everyone can clearly see the text on the screen, only one hundred winning pieces will be displayed at a time.

Everyone, including Zhang Jing, was staring intently at the screen, afraid of missing their own raw materials.

"I won!! Hahaha, I won!!!"

"Great!!! It's a hit!!!"

"Sigh! I missed adding 3. I should have added more..."

Joyful laughter occasionally drifted from the surroundings, but there were also occasional sighs of regret, mostly from people who missed out on their desired materials due to a very small difference in price.

This situation also affected the people present, making many of them look even more serious, fearing that their bids for raw materials might not be successful.

B1-2186531 (ten thousand) No. 218 Zhang Jing

A screen had just been refreshed with a string of information when Zhang Jing spotted familiar characters and smiled. He had hit the jackpot on his first bet.

Just then, Chen Jian, who had been following behind Jin Wang, suddenly tugged at Jin Wang's sleeve and pointed to a screen: "Boss, look! We won!"

Upon hearing this, Jin Wang looked over sharply, then clenched his fist, his face beaming with excitement; it seemed he had also won a prize.

The batch of numbers refreshes very quickly. After one hundred numbers have been refreshed, about twenty seconds later, the next one hundred numbers will be refreshed again.

Zhang Jing noticed that even an elder like Li Xuezhe couldn't help but clap and laugh heartily after winning the bid.

In the subsequent bidding, Zhang Jing received another piece of good news: his second bid for raw material, 8.6 tons of B0-4521, was also successful. However, the results for the third bid have not yet been announced as of today's bidding deadline; it seems the bidding will have to wait until tomorrow.

Besides Zhang Jing, the rest of the team also made some gains, but judging from their expressions, they weren't too happy, indicating they missed out on quite a few good bids. The two rough stones they jointly bid on weren't up for auction today.

"It's too popular. The price is much higher than I expected." Li Xuezhe said with a frown. In the announcement just now, the old gentleman only won three pieces of jade, which was quite unexpected.

Chapter 103 Worth Hundreds of Millions

“Indeed, this price is even higher than the price at last year’s Guizhou auction…” Jin Wang said, stroking his round chin. He won five yuan today, which was more than the old gentleman, but still less than the number of bids he had submitted.

Ma Bo also won three pieces of jadeite, while Lü Yangzhong won the most, with six pieces. However, after discussing it together, everyone felt that given the current situation, jadeite prices were bound to see a surge this year.

In fact, similar discussions were common in the venue. Zhang Jing even noticed that some jade merchants had already called back home, demanding that their stores raise prices by at least 20%.

Next came the signing of the contract, payment, and delivery. Zhang Jing followed the crowd to the specially set-up window and waited for about twenty minutes before it was his turn. He first signed a "Winning Bid Contract" and then paid 1142 million Imperial Vouchers on the spot according to the winning bid price.

Of course, because the transaction amount of raw materials is generally large, there are quite a few buyers who cannot pay the full amount at once. These people need to pay part of the amount, while the other part of the amount can be delayed for up to 15 days.

After payment is made, the auction organizers can also handle on-site services such as stone cutting, temporary storage, and designated shipping. The latter two are especially needed by buyers. After all, most buyers are not locals, and it is neither convenient nor safe to carry valuable raw stones back home.

Zhang Jing opted for the stone cutting and quarrying service, while the other members of his group did not plan to cut the stones on-site, but instead chose to ship the rough stones back to Linzhou for processing.

Upon hearing that Zhang Jing was preparing to cut the materials on-site, the others who were traveling with him all gathered around, ready to go and see.

Upon arriving at the stone-cutting point, Zhang Jing handed his receipt to the staff. After verifying Zhang Jing's receipt, the staff informed him that he could go directly to stone-cutting point number 3 and wait for someone to transport the stone over.

The stone-cutting area is open to the public, and visitors are welcome to watch. In fact, watching the stone-cutting is one of the most popular activities at the public auction.

Zhang Jing was clearly not the only one who came to have his stones cut; some buyers who were eager to see their luck would choose to have their stones cut on the spot to find out for themselves.

Zhang Jing arrived at stone-cutting point number 3, which was a large stone-cutting machine. Clearly, the two rough stones that Zhang Jing had purchased were too large for ordinary equipment to handle.

A moment later, workers brought over the rough stones with a forklift and unloaded them after a flurry of activity. The enormous size of the two rough stones immediately attracted the attention of everyone present, and many people rushed over from other stone-cutting sites.

"Hongjian, did you take pictures of these two huge things?" Jinwang stared wide-eyed at the two enormous objects that required a small crane to lift.