I Spy With My Secret Eyes

Chapter 28

Julian was sharp-eyed, noticing the emotions flashing in Oliver’s eyes. Julian chuckled and said, “If I hadn’t found out you have nothing to do with Hailey, I would have destroyed you. Fine, you can go to Radford alone. The driver will send you to the airport. Hailey, get out of the car.”

Hailey was trembling with anger, but looking at Julian, she snorted fiercely and exited the car.

“I’ll have to trouble you, Oliver,” Hailey said, bending down to look at Oliver.

“Okay,” Oliver simply responded.

Julian seemed impressive. The fearless Hailey, in Oliver’s impression, actually gave in to Julian, which was enough to point

out an issue.

Julian leaned close to the car window and said to Oliver, “Pay attention to your identity and status, Oliver. Do what a lackey is supposed to do. Don’t have any crooked thoughts. Hailey is beyond your reach. You have done well till now, but if I find out you have intentions about Hailey in the future, I will turn you into a cripple.”

Julian made it sound like a joke and spoke with a smile, but it looked ominous. Oliver could tell he was being serious.

“This guy must be a ruthless character that would keep his word,” Oliver thought.

The driver seemed afraid of Julian and kept quiet, driving into the toll station.

Oliver went to the airport alone. After arriving at the airport, he picked up his boarding pass and waited at the gate.

Regardless, he could not vent his anger anywhere.

The reason why Julian could be so arrogant was that he had the backing to act this way. He could easily crush Oliver. Ultimately, Oliver could not stand up for himself.

“Since I can’t win right now, I should save up for now. When I’m sure I can win against him, I’ll pay him back with interest,” Oliver thought.

It took two hours to fly to Radford. After exiting the airport, they took a taxi and headed downtown.

Radford was a very distinctive city. There were advertisements about jadeites everywhere.

Oliver did not trouble himself. He first went to Radiance Hotel and booked a room before going for a walk.

He wanted to get to know the city before making plans.

There was a huge market for jadeite and jade ware in Radford. Oliver asked around and went over there to take a look.

The vast majority of the market was filled with semi-finished and finished products. There were brokers everywhere, offering customers something good. The scene was filled with jadeites. When asked about the price, it could be no less than 100 thousand dollars.

Naturally, Oliver would not let himself be scammed and suffer a loss. Once the gemstones were appraised, most of them would be exposed as inferior products worth less than hundreds of dollars. Some are even straight-up fake.

The products in the market were not all inferior. There were also good ones priced in the hundreds of thousands, which was at least several times higher than the actual value.

None of these people were easy to deal with.

Oliver thought, “If one wants to earn a lot of money, it seems that only stone gambling is the most cost- effective in finding a true gemstone.”

That was why the prices in stone gambling varied. No matter how high the price of a raw stone was, it would be much lower than that of a jadeite.

However, there were no raw stones in the market. Oliver casually asked a broker, “Sir, where is the stone gambling venue?”

“You want to gamble? Come on! I’ll take you there.” The broker invited him with a smile.

The man looked like he was in his mid-20s. He was thin, but Oliver could see the craftiness on his face. The man introduced himself, “My name is Fabian. I’m a jadeite and jade stone businessman. If you need anything, just look for me. I’m certain you’ll get the prettiest gems at the lowest price without scamming you. Nowadays…”

Fabian leaned closer to Oliver and whispered, “Scams are everywhere.”

Fabian spoke as if he was not a scammer at all.

Oliver was not afraid of being scammed. Whether raw stone or jadeite, he could spot the good and bad with his eyes.

No matter how hard these brokers tried to scam him, they would not dare to snatch it. At most, they would only dig a hole and set up traps.

However, no one could deceive Oliver’s eyes.

Seeing that Oliver did not object, Fabian excitedly took him out of the market and drove to the suburbs.

Fabian drove a pickup truck with two seats at the front, while the back was used to store jadeites and raw stones.

He took Oliver to a raw stone wholesaler who bought the low-grade raw stones from the Manchernius mining area and sold them in the country.

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The wholesaler did the same thing as Willie, but their business was more than ten times larger than Willie’s.

After arriving at the wholesaler’s raw stone factory, the wholesaler asked him, “How many do you want?”

Jadeites piled up like a mountain on the ground in the wholesaler’s courtyard. The trucks transporting the rocks in and out of the place were not counted by blocks but weighed in tons.

Oliver was a little stunned. “Aren’t we supposed to choose first?”

The wholesaler became uninterested when he heard Oliver picking a number to buy. The wholesaler waved his hand, and Fabian had to deal with him. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Oliver stared at the pile of raw stones and found stones were only worth a few dollars. They were all scraps with cracks and impurities.

Fabian was puzzled as Oliver did not look like an experienced and skilled veteran because he was young, nor did he look like a wholesaler.

Wholesalers did not care about the quality of raw stone at all. They directly bought tons of them, transported them back, picked out slightly better-looking ones for auction, and then transferred the rest.

Oliver examined the rocks individually without using equipment, such as a small flashlight for raw stone.

The most common trick stone gamblers used was shining a small flashlight against the raw stones and observing it through light.

“That guy just used his eyes to look a few feet away. Can he even see anything?” Fabian pondered.

On the other hand, Oliver had not found any high-quality stones. All of them were only worth a few dollars.

After a while, he finally gave up. He turned around and asked Fabian, “Look, buddy. These are all scraps. Are there any better stones?”

Fabian shrugged and said, “Wholesalers only have goods of this quality. The better ones basically will be transferred to their respective clients of different channels.”

Oliver sighed and wondered if he should call Hailey to report the current situation and ask for her opinion.

Fabian leaned over and said, “There is still another way to get good stones.”

Oliver was surprised and asked, “How?”

Fabian said, “Go to Manchernius. You can either bid in the official auction or buy from private mine owners. The government controls the big old pits and mines, while the private mine owners bought some low-grade pits and mines. They also have stones, but their quality won’t be as good as the old mine material.”

Oliver immediately became upset and said angrily, “I don’t even have a passport. How can I go to Manchernius?”

Fabian smiled and patted his chest. “That’s easy. You don’t need a passport. You just need an ID to get there. I can make a temporary transit jade merchant certificate for you. If you give me 400 dollars, I will get it done in one day.”

Oliver thought for a while and immediately nodded. “Okay, I’ll transfer you 600 dollars first. The 400 dollars is for you to make the certificate, and the 200 dollars is for your hard work. If you buy me a good stone, a few thousand dollars is nothing much of a reward.”

“That’s a deal!” Fabian smiled and promised. Brokers like them often helped jade merchants without passports to cross the border for stone gambling.