I lent my brother 500 yuan, and he offered his wife as collateral.

……

The Maybach drove through the night in Chengdu, with neon lights flashing outside the window.

"Buzz".

Qin Feng's phone, which was on the center console, vibrated.

The screen lit up with a message accompanied by a photo.

The photo is very clear; it shows a cut piece of raw stone with a strikingly red cut surface, resembling congealed chicken blood.

The accompanying text reads: "Many thanks to Mr. Qin for parting with this; this stepping stone is very smooth."

Su Qingxue leaned closer to look at the phone screen, her face immediately scrunching up: "Brother Feng, it's all red. Did we really lose out?"

In her opinion, any red stone must be valuable, and given Miss Su's arrogant tone, the price must have skyrocketed.

Qin Feng glanced at the screen, but instead of getting angry, he chuckled softly.

He reached out and turned off the screen, resting one hand on the steering wheel, his tone as relaxed as if he were discussing tomorrow's weather.

"Silly girl, what are you losing out on?"

"But..." Su Qingxue bit her lip, "She looks very pretty!"

"There's a kind of red in this world called a final burst of life before death." Qin Feng tapped his fingers lightly on the steering wheel, his eyes playful. "It's like the blush on the face of a terminally ill person before they die; it looks festive, but it's actually a death warrant."

That layer of red is just an illusion created by the top two centimeters of skin.

……

The Su family's underground jade gambling den.

The atmosphere was as lively as during the Chinese New Year.

Wang Defa was directing several stone-cutting masters to lift the "King of Stones," which weighed several hundred kilograms, onto the largest slicing machine.

He was surrounded by compliments.

Su Linglong stood in the center of the crowd, a slender cigarette between her fingers, enjoying the feeling of being the center of attention amidst the swirling smoke.

In this round, he not only made money, but more importantly, he defeated Qin Feng.

This made her feel even better than earning a billion dollars.

"Miss, how should we cut this stone?" Wang Defa ran over with a fawning expression. "Should we use a wire cutter to slowly grind it, or should we wipe a window to see the direction?"

Generally speaking, for jade of this grade, the safest method is line cutting to preserve the material, although it is slower, it results in less waste.

Su Linglong flicked off her cigarette ash and glanced at her watch.

It's 11 p.m. now.

If we can produce a few samples before midnight, tomorrow's headlines will feature real photos of the finished product, and the impact will be absolutely explosive.

"No need to dawdle."

Su Linglong waved her hand decisively, "Go straight to the large saw blade and slice it into two-centimeter-thick sheets! I want the best bracelet pieces; I want this batch of goods in Su's Jewelry's display case first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Alright! I'll listen to you!" Wang Defa was a little apprehensive, after all, he hadn't seen the meat inside yet.

But looking at that perfect cross-section, greed completely took over.

The cross-section is so bright red, how could it be fake?

"Turn on the camera! Turn on the camera!" Wang Defa roared. "Open your eyes wide and watch carefully! Let everyone see what true wealth and power really mean!"

"Boom!"

The massive stone-cutting machine started up again.

The sound echoed in the enclosed basement, making one's eardrums ache.

This time, no one found it noisy.

Everyone craned their necks, hundreds of eyes fixed on the slowly descending alloy saw blade.

That was a spectacle created by piling up 500 million in cash.

The saw blade contacts the stone.

"Sizzle—!!!"

A screeching sound rang out, and stone dust flew everywhere.

Su Linglong slightly raised her chin, her eyes filled with the smug satisfaction of being in control of everything.

She had even thought of her words when facing the board's questioning tomorrow—to turn the tide and to have a keen eye for talent.

One minute.

Two minutes.

ten minutes.

"Click."

With a crisp sound, the stone slab hit the bottom.

The stone-cutting master turned off the machine and waited for the dust to dissipate.

"Ship! Ship!" Wang Defa rushed forward impatiently, holding a powerful flashlight, ready to welcome the visual feast of a room full of red light.

Two workers took crowbars and forcefully pried the first slab of stone that had been cut off outwards.

"Clang!"

The stone slabs fell to the ground.

The cheers that the hundreds of people at the scene had prepared were abruptly cut off by an invisible hand.

A silence.

The audience was silent.

Su Linglong's smile froze.

The flashlight in Wang Defa's hand fell to the ground with a "thud".

On that huge cut surface, apart from the thin ring of red around the edge, all that could be seen was...

intermediate.

It's all black.

It's not the black of jadeite, nor the black of black-boned chicken.

Instead, it was a dry, rough, and dull black!

It's like a bright red apple that, when cut open, turns out to be a rotten, moldy core.

The black crystal, like a giant tumor, firmly occupied the core of the stone, leaving the surrounding thin layer of red jade riddled with holes.

shocking.

Extremely disgusting.

"What...what is this?!"

Wang Defa let out a bloodcurdling scream, like a pig being slaughtered.

He pounced on it like a madman, grabbed the water pipe next to him, and frantically rinsed the cut surface.

"Dirty! It's filthy! It must be oil from the saw blade! Rinse it off! Rinse it off!!"

Water jets.

however.

The more water washed over it, the more menacing and glossy the black color appeared.

Those black crystals are not stains, but rather "spots" that grow deep within the jadeite.

In some places, the black fungus has even deteriorated, oozing a yellowish-brown rusty liquid that flows down the cut surface, like pus.

Black mist seeps in.

Even gods couldn't stop it.

Qin Feng's words from before now echoed in everyone's ears like a prophecy.

"Impossible... It was clearly cockscomb red just now... Such good quality... How could it turn black?"

Wang Defa collapsed onto the muddy ground, clutching his hair with both hands, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

His hands trembled as he touched the cut surface.

Run.

But why is it so dirty?!

Let alone making bracelets, even making a decorative piece would be considered too ugly!

"Cut! Cut again!"

Wang Defa suddenly jumped up, roaring with a ferocious expression like a gambler who had lost everything.

"The problem must be in the middle! This part is dead cotton! There's also flesh around it! The stone is so big, it can't be all black!"

He pushed aside the stone-cutting master and took the knife himself.

They didn't care about the type of sheet material anymore.

Cut the remaining stones in half lengthwise!

"Sizzle sizzle—!"

The machines roared to life again.

Amidst the flying sparks, Wang Defa's face was illuminated, making him appear like a vengeful ghost.

Su Linglong stood there, the expensive cigarette had burned to the end, and the hot ash landed on her delicate fingers, burning a red dot.

She was completely unaware.

She stared intently at the stone, her body beginning to tremble slightly uncontrollably.

Five hundred million.

That wasn't 500 million ghost money; it was the Su family's last remaining liquid funds.

"boom!"

Make a second cut.

The two halves of the stone crashed down.

There was no miracle.

Only deeper despair.

The cut landed right in the center of the stone.

The areas I had expected to have flesh were instead covered with dense cracks.

The cracks were like a spider web, crisscrossing and running through the entire stone.

In the middle of the cracks, there was still that nauseating black scaly substance, occasionally mixed with a pitiful little bit of red, all of which was broken.

It’s over.

It's completely over.

The so-called "Blood Beauty" is nothing more than a rotten watermelon with a sugar coating on the outside and a rotten inside!

Even when making a cabochon, you can't avoid those cracks and black spots.

The value of this stone now is, let alone 500 million.

Nobody wanted it even for 50 million.

"Gulp."

Someone in the crowd swallowed hard.

The wealthy people around them, who had initially been filled with envy and jealousy, now looked at Su Linglong and Wang Defa with schadenfreude and even a hint of fear.

It's too cruel.

How could the Su family have intercepted the deal?

This is like deliberately sticking your head into a meat grinder!

"Manager Wang..."

The coal mine owner who had just been trying to curry favor with the Su family took two steps back and muttered under his breath, "This dark place... it looks a bit ominous."

This sentence became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

"Aaaaaah!!!"

Wang Defa knelt on a pile of rubble, frantically pounding the ground with his hands and letting out a beast-like howl.

"It's all fake! It's all fake! Qin Feng ruined me! Qin Feng ruined me!!"

He grabbed a piece of rubble covered in black spots and slammed it hard into the ground. The rubble shattered, cutting his cheek and drawing blood.

Five hundred million turned to ashes.

He couldn't afford to lose money even if he sold himself.

Su Linglong slowly walked over.

The high heels, shrouded in mud, lost their usual elegant rhythm.

She stopped behind Wang Defa, looking at the shocking black stones scattered on the ground, and then looked at the message she had already sent on her phone.

This stepping stone is very smooth.

Run is correct.

It's so dirty it's unbearable to look at.