Returning from the Immortal World - Chapter 639

Chapter 639: Gold Has Its Own Value, But Jade Is Priceless.

After waking up from his vegetative state and learning that he had a son, Tang Yunde had learned about the situation pertaining to his son, and never did he regard Tang Xiu as a child. It was said that the children of poor families were able to manage the household. He knew that his son and wife had gone through a hard life all these years, and was naturally aware of the fact that he had a very mature personality.

Upon hearing that his son just adopted a blind child, however, he still frowned and expressed his thoughts, "Do you have that much time and energy, Xiu'er? You should know that there's a big difference in raising a blind child and a normal one."

"I understand what you are saying, Dad," said Tang Xiu. "But this child is very special. His eyes may be blind, but not his heart. He can see many things normal people can't, and this is the very reason why I want to adopt him and take him as my disciple. It's because I think that he can be molded. You should know that my vision won't go wrong. Just look at Yinyin, isn't she a very good example?"

"Oh, yeah! Master is right," Gu Yinyin grinned. "Yinyin also wants a Junior Brother."

Tang Yunde and Su Lingyun exchanged looks, and the tense atmosphere eased down. Both of them knew that Tang Xiu was no longer an ordinary human. Though they were oblivious as to when and how Tang Xiu became a cultivator, but they had witnessed his ability and were crystal clear about it. Hence, they did not speak about it any longer.

Mu Qingping asked in a low voice, "I'm going out to buy some daily necessities for children. Also, I'll clean up the room next to Yinyin's. How do you see it?"

"That's great!" Tang Xiu smiled and nodded.

After the breakfast, Tang Xiu took his car and drove out. He originally planned to fetch Little Blind before the New Year, but the Dean of the welfare house called him later on, saying she wanted Little Blind to stay there to celebrate his last New Year in the welfare house, a request he consented. After the New Year he had to go to Beijing, thus delaying the matter.

At the entrance to South Gate Town, Long Xueyao, who got a call from Tang Xiu, was waiting there early and brought with her two large suitcases. Upon seeing Tang Xiu, who parked his car in front of her, she immediately knocked on the window and smilingly said, "Open the trunk, I bought some stuff for the children, so I'll take them now while convenient."

Tang Xiu opened the trunk and got off the car to help put two suitcases into the trunk. Then he smiled and said, "There are not many young women who have a kind and warm heart like you nowadays. I even suspect that nearly all of your money was spent on the children of the Bluestar Welfare House, you know."

"Don't praise me, will you? You made me embarrassed for nothing." Long Xueyao softly smiled. "Besides, my salary is very high, to begin with; tens of thousands yuan a month."

Tang Xiu smiled in response and said no more. Long Xueyao indeed had a quite high salary. According to what he knew, she visited the Bluestar Welfare House a few times every month, and the gifts she sent every time amounted to quite a sum. For example, her visit last year when he was with her, she spent around 20-30 thousand yuan.

After getting on the car, Long Xueyao smilingly said, "Are you curious about it, Tang Xiu? Anyways, Long Hanwen is my uncle, and you know that he's a rich and wealthy man. So I thought, why don't I ask him to support the Bluestar Welfare House financially, too? Hence the effort."

After starting the car, Tang Xiu nodded and said, "Yeah, I was quite curious about that. It's reasonable to say that a mere drop of support from the bucket of wealth possessed by the Long Family can make a tremendous change for the Bluestar Welfare House, so the house won't have to go through that kind of difficulty again."

"As a matter of fact, this uncle of mine has his own charitable foundation, and he allocates hundreds of thousands of yuan every year for me, so I can spend the money on the children of the welfare house. It's just that most of the children there have the poor physical condition and bad health. Nearly half of them contracted some illness, so I have to spend 200-300 thousand yuan to take them to the doctors for treatment every year!"

Tang Xiu nodded without speaking, but he too understood the situation. Most of the children in the Bluestar Welfare House were frail or were sick. Excluding Little Blind, one of the children there even had a congenital heart disease and needed to go through treatment every year, it was quite expensive. A major surgery that child had last year cost more than 200 thousand yuan.

Quickly, the two people had arrived at the Bluestar Welfare House. Tang Xiu accompanied Little Blind to pack up his stuff. He did not spend much time in the welfare house as he then took Little Blind to leave, while Long Xueyao had nothing to do today, so she stayed.

Inside the SUV Range Rover, amid the classical music being played, Little Blind sat in the front passenger seat, listening to the music with a tranquil expression. After driving on the road for several kilometers, Tang Xiu stopped at a traffic light intersection and spoke while waiting for the red light to change, "The documents for your adoption have been settled, but I haven't listed your name in the family register. So, we'll go to the Civil Affairs Bureau, and after we are done with your name registration in the register, you will become a member of my family."

"Alright." Little Blind nodded gently.

"Your family name later will be Tang, and I'll give you a new name, Tang Xiaohan. What do you think?" Said Tang Xiu once again.

Little Blind thought for a while and suddenly asked with a smile, "How should I address you in the future?"

"We're going to hold a discipleship ceremony after we return home," said Tang Xiu. "You will be my fifth disciple in the future."

"Understood!" Little Blind nodded. "That name is so pleasant to hear, Master. I like it very much."

"It's great that you like it." Tang Xiu smiled. "Anyways, do you still remember what I've promised you? I'll make your eyes able to see the light again in the future. I'll take you to a certain place after a period of time and by then, you will officially embark on the cultivation path."

Cultivation path, a term that Little Blind couldn't figure it out at all. But he had a faint feeling that his future would never be the same again.

The Civil Affairs Bureau was located in the Old River District of Star City.

After Tang Xiu arrived there with Little Blind, or was now Tang Xiaohan, he met Long Zhengyu at the entrance. At this time, the fella was wearing a down coat, and yet he kept moving his feet and warming his hands with his breath.

"We are not late, are we, Zhengyu?" Tang Xiu grabbed Tang Xiaohan's hand and walked towards him.

"Nah, you're not late," said Long Zhengyu with a smile. "Anyways, is he Little Blind, the one you mentioned to me?"

"His name is Tang Xiaohan now," corrected Tang Xiu.

"Alright, did you bring the adoption certificate with you?" Long Zhengyu nodded. "You'll need that and your ID card for registering his name in the family register."

"I've brought all of them. Let's go inside!" Said Tang Xiu.

China was a country where the relationship between people and favor was important. There was even a saying that "one may be recommended and put in an important position if his relatives or friends have status and power, and the same goes if you want to get things done". Long Zhengyu had a close relationship with someone of authority in the Civil Affairs Bureau, and his arrival made the second-in-command of the Bureau accompany him. The proceedings with the family register were quickly done, and the other party modestly invited them to his office and they stayed there for a while.

After leaving the Civil Affairs Bureau and while glancing at Tang Xiaohan, Long Zhengyu spoke with a hesitating expression, "I wanted to take you to a fun place, but now it seems you can't go."

"What exactly is this fun place?" Asked Tang Xiu.

"Several rich people got a batch of raw stones from the Southern region, and they are now officially selling them at the Star City Convention and Exhibition Center. Putting it plainly, it's a kind of gambling on the stones," explained Long Zhengyu.

Gambling on stones?

Tang Xiu's expression moved and he looked at the yawning Tang Xiaohan. Yet his mind was lit up and already caught up in the net. He needed precious jades and stones, a massive number of high-quality precious jades and stones to be precise. Whether it was used to craft magical tools or lay arrays in the future, or even to refine storage items, precious jades and stones were the best choices.

"Xiaohan, let's not go home first. How about going out to play with Master?" Tang Xiu held Tang Xiaohan's hand and asked with a smile.

"OK."

Keenly sensitive as he was, though Tang Xiaohan was unable to see anything and disliked lively places, he was willing to follow Tang Xiu wherever he went. Because he believed that he would spend his life following his Master, Tang Xiu—the person that would be his closest family member in the future.

After boarding Tang Xiu's car, Long Zhengyu took a seat in the front passenger seat. He turned back to glance at Tang Xiaohan, who sat conscientiously in the back seat, and then spoke to Tang Xiu, "Anyways, since you want to go with me, have you prepared some money? I heard that these rich people have gotten quite a massive number of raw jades and stones with good quality. You're gonna need a ton of money if you wanna play."

"I do have some money in hands now." Tang Xiu nodded. "I'll buy those raw jades and stones if I find them satisfying."

"Satisfying raw jades and stones?" Long Zhengyu shook his head and smilingly said, "There's no such satisfying raw jades and stones in the world, mate. Whoever has an X-Ray vision and can discern clearly which are precious jades and stones among the lump of rough and raw stones, he will definitely become the richest man in the world quickly."

"What you said is kinda exaggerated, don't you think?" Tang Xiu smiled. "100 million yuan for those top billionaires in the world is nothing but a unit. How much money do you think I can get just by betting on some rough raw stones, huh?"

"That is if you don't have a genuine knowledge regarding precious jades and stones' attributes, mate," said Long Zhengyu. "I'll tell you something. In the past few years, there was a young man surnamed Zhuang that relied on his keen eyes and knowledge pertaining to precious jades and stones. He traveled to the southern and western regions and even ventured to Africa to bet on these stones. He bought those precious jades and stones and used them materials for his jade business. And you know what? He made a fortune from it. There's someone hailed as the Buddha of Jade in the Western region, and he also holds this young man named Zhuang in high esteem. This fella now has a net worth of more than 10 billion. Listen to me clearly, what I'm talking about is U. S. D!"

Tang Xiu pondered for a moment, before nodding slowly and saying, "Gold is indeed valuable, but the jade is indeed priceless. Anyhow, if I can get so far as to really get tons of high-quality jades, obtaining tons of money is indeed feasible. Except that it's a pity I have too little time to spare on the jade business, else I'd really like to meet this young man surnamed Zhuang."

"I want to see him in person, too, but it's hella difficult to meet him. Besides, he's also a very busy man!" Long Zhengyu smilingly said. "However, he should comply to your request to meet him given your identity, though. I tell you, mate. That guy is my idol!"

"Hahaha." Tang Xiu couldn't help but break into laughter. "It's so unlikely for you to go that far, no? Though your Long Family is not as rich as him, it's unlikely for you to go so far as to make him your idol, man!"

"Hey, what I'm telling you is not about making money," said Long Zhengyu while pouting his lips.

"Then, in what aspect are you talking about?" Asked Tang Xiu, astounded.

Long Zhengyu grinned and smilingly said, "This Zhuang fella's techniques in managing chicks have reached the point of being perfect, mate. You know what? He has several wives in his house, and his wives get along with each other very harmoniously. Our country is not the likes of some foreign countries and only allows a man to have one wife. His other wives have no status as a legal wife by law, though, but those women willingly follow him as long as they can be with him."

Ugh…

Tang Xiu was stunned and stared blankly. He immediately raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up as he praised, "That guy is so amazing."

Chapter 640: Massive Capital

Star City Convention and Exhibition Center.

Security guards in black security uniforms numbering over 100 men secured the order in the venue. The guests who came to participate in the Stone Gambling could were too many to count. Tang Xiu just entered the venue while holding Tang Xiaohan, and with a glance, he guesstimated that there were at least two thousand people here, creating a very busty and lively scene.

"How come there are so many people here?" Asked Tang Xiu, feeling a bit incredible.

"The Stone Gambling should have been held in the Blue City," said Long Zhengyu with a smile. "But some rich and powerful bigwigs in Star City moved this Stone Gambling event to our city after using all sorts of relationships and means. Hence the reason why the riches who love jade came to Star City from all over the country. That's right, have you heard the news about the hotels in our city? All the hotels in Star City are fully occupied with guests now."

"How many raw stones material did these local millionaires get? How can they attract rich people from all over the country?" Asked Tang Xiu, surprised.

"It's a massive in number, I tell you," said Long Zhengyu in a whisper. "I even heard that they pulled half of the raw stones produced in the Southern region. Also, some businessmen who own a jade business also heard the news and thus came over, bringing a batch of their raw stones to sell. Shortly put, you can spend all the money you have today."

With eyes lit up, Tang Xiu recalled that he only had a few raw stones and jade materials at this time, and he just realized it upon hearing Long Zhengyu's narration, so this occasion was like it prepared for him.

Going along with the stream of people entering the exhibition center, Tang Xiu now could clearly see a lot of raw stones piled up in a temporarily built shed, each of which had its own staff taking care of it, while each pile of raw stones had a price tag on it.

Some stones were priced at a few hundred yuan, some were priced at a few thousand yuan, but some others were priced at a few million. What made Tang Xiu feel even more incredible was that several stones that were priced at more than 10 million. This was just merely the scene he saw at random at the outermost shed, and there were at least dozens of sheds more when he looked around.

"Zhengyu, do you also plan to play some?" Tang Xiu turned to look at Long Zhengyu and asked with a smile.

"I'm a poor bloke, mate." Long Zhengyu shook his head. "I will still be fine if you want me to fork out a few hundred thousand yuan, but I'm going to go broke if you ask me to fork out a million. I'm really a poor bloke!"

"Bah, go to hell." Tang Xiu cussed. "Nobody can be called as rich under the Sun if you're a poor bloke, man! You don't need to act like you're a sorry figure! With so much money, why bother investing in the business, then? Besides, aren't you the one who manage my construction projects? Supposing that you really can't turnover the capital, you still can use it for the occasion just fine, no?"'

"Nope, that won't do." Long Zhengyu sternly rebuked. "What I get from your projects is being used to rebuild Nine Dragons Island. Unless the project is done, only then can I use the profit, else using it now before the project is finished is a big no no."

"Whatever you say, then!" Tang Xiu shook his head. "In any case, I won't bother with your things, you have your own way around it."

As they continued moving forward with the stream of people, Tang Xiu's gazed continued sweeping through the raw stones in the sheds. After having observed several sheds, he finally stopped in front of a shed that sold jade materials. Rough raw stones also filled this shed, but most of them were jade materials. The jades, however, were obviously just taken from the pile of raw stones.

"The quality is average." After observing it a for a while, Tang Xiu had already his own judgment inwardly.

"Do you want to buy some of them, two gentlemen? These jades of mine are of good quality." A middle-aged man with a plump belly asked the duo with a beaming smile. Behind him were four young men in suit who kept scanning the guests in the shed.

Tang Xiu put Tang Xiaohan down and walked inside while holding his hand. There, only then did he respond and smilingly said, "We're going to have a look at them first. Might buy some if we find some good ones."

The smile on the middle-aged man immediately turned more bright. He patted his chest and said, "Two little brothers, these jades of mine here are definitely of good quality. I have Jade Seeds, Nephrite Jade, and also Jadeite. And you can be sure that these jades here have absolutely fair prices."

While observing the jade materials and the prices tagged on them, Tang Xiu forced a smile inwardly. The jade materials here were tagged with high prices. Though he was not short on money at this moment, wanting to hoard a massive number of jades at such prices would make him bleed, as it would cost him a lot of money.

Ten minutes later, Tang Xiu turned to the middle-aged man who was currently greeting other guests. He called him and said, "I have seen all the jades you have here, but the price is way too expensive, and most of them are only of average quality. Let me put it this way, I'll take all of them if you give me a fair price for all the jade materials here."

"What?" The plump middle-aged man was dumbfounded, and he looked at Tang Xiu with an incredulous expression, saying, "Tell me, Little Brother, are you kidding me? I got tons of jade here, and all of them should be no less than 1.8 billion…"

Tang Xiu raised his hand to interrupt him and seriously said, "I'm not joking with you. I need to buy a lot of precious stones and jades, and you happen to have ready-made ones here. We can strike a business deal directly as long as we can agree on the price."

The plump middle-aged man looked more serious as he carefully observed Tang Xiu a few times. Then, he suddenly furrowed his brows and said, "Where have I seen you before, Little Brother? How come I feel like you look so familiar?"

"I can guarantee this is our first time meeting," said Tang Xiu. "This face of mine is common among people, so you feel that I look a bit familiar."

The middle-aged man nodded without speaking. He looked around first and then spoke in a deep tone, "I'll give you a 10% discount if you really buy all the jade materials I have here."

"40% is my bottom line." Tang Xiu shook his head.

"You don't bargain for such lower price like that, young man." The fat middle-aged man called out loudly. "40% off? I will eat quite a loss if I sell them at a 40% discount. If you're not serious in buying, I had better forget it."

"We can't have a business deal then, it seems." Tang Xiu shook his head. "It doesn't matter, though. I'll look elsewhere since you don't want to accept it."

Upon seeing Tang Xiu's intention of leaving, the fat middle-aged man hastily said, "15%! How about 15%? This is the bottom line I can afford."

"40%." Tang Xiu still shook his head.

Having said that, he grabbed Tang Xiaohan's hand and walked toward the outside with Long Zhengyu.

The expression of the fat middle-aged man was constantly changing. He looked at Tang Xiu's back and wanted to call him, but the jade he bought did not come at a cheap price. If he were to sell it to Tang Xiu at 40% discount, not only would he not make a profit, but he would also lose some money. He would break even if he was to sell them at a 30% discount.

20% discount was his bottom line!

Just as Tang Xiu and Long Zhengyu were about to step of the shed, the plum middle-aged man strode to overtake them and shouted, "How about 20%, Little Brother? We'll have a deal if you can agree with it. But if you can't, you can have a look at another shed."

Tang Xiu's pace came to a halt as he re-examined the jade stones in the shed. "What is the estimated total price for all the jades you have here?"

"A total of 645 million yuan before the discount. We have sold some of them before, and the remaining goods should be around 610 million," answered the fat middle-aged man.

"Then we have a deal!" Tang Xiu nodded after giving it a thought. "Calculate the price with the discount, then have all the jade materials here delivered to the address I'll give you."

The middle-aged complied and quickly calculated the total price of the remaining jade stones. After spending some time to calculate, he took the bill, came to Tang Xiu and said, "It will be 485.32 million yuan. Since Little Brother is so straight, I'll cut off the fraction of the number for you, for a total of 485 million yuan. You need to pay 85 million deposit in advance if you want me to deliver them to your designated address, and the address must not be out of Shuangqing Province. We can settle the account for the goods afterward."

"No need to be that troublesome," said Tang Xiu. "Just send your people to load all the jade materials into a car, and then come with me together. My place is not far from here and is located in the Star City urban district. When the goods have arrived in my place, we'll conclude with the payment."

The plump middle-aged man immediately nodded and said, "No problem. I'll have it arranged now."

While looking at the hundreds of blocks of stones in the corner, Tang Xiu then said with a smile, "Would you like to sell all those stones to me, too? I'll give you 15 million yuan for each, that should do, no? How about 500 million yuan and I take all of them?"

"The total price of each of those raw stones is 30 million, Little Brother." The fat middle-aged man smiled bitterly. "Even if I give you a 20% discount, it's still about 25 million yuan. You… you're really too ruthless."

"What if I buy raw jade materials from you in the future? As long as the quality is not worse than these ones, I'll buy them from you however many you can provide. How about it?" Said Tang Xiu with a smile.

The plump middle-aged man stared blankly for a moment and then asked with an astounded expression, "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious." Tang Xiu chuckled. "But you shouldn't be too ruthless, either. I won't be able to afford it if you send me billions of jade materials that are worth billions of yuan in a year!"

The plump middle-aged man was excited. Though he felt the following words from Tang Xiu were a bit unreasonable, for a person who could buy jade stones worth 500 million yuan was definitely very rich, more so that he would also buy his jade stones again in the future, so the tens of millions of yuan loss he would suffer would be recovered. After thinking about this, he quickly said, "Deal!"

Long Zhengyu, who had been standing next to Tang Xiu and saw the two men happily struck a deal, suddenly said, "Aren't you way too extravagant, Tang Xiu? You don't do jade business, yet you bought 500-million-yuan worth of jade all of sudden. What are you going to use it for?"

"Well, let's say that I'm going to craft a batch of jadeware whenever I have some spare time later," said Tang Xiu with a smile.

Long Zhengyu immediately understood. He knew that Tang Xiu owned Nine Dragons Island with a big castle built on the island, and more manors were likely to be built after the reconstruction. If at that time the utensils on Nine Dragons Island were all made of jade, that would definitely look very elegant and classy. But still, spending so much money on jadeware carvings... Wasn't this way too extravagant and nothing but burning your own money?

At this moment, the fat middle-aged man was stunned.

Tang Xiu? Could it be that he is from the Star City Chinese Medical Hospital… that miracle-working doctor, Tang Xiu?