Chapter 28: Cutting Success

Yang Ning turned around and saw a woman in an OL uniform slowly walking into the conference room.

This woman had a figure no less impressive than Dongfang Fei'er's. Her tall and stunning silhouette could command an incredibly high head-turning rate on the streets. She looked to be around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with an exquisite face that carried a cold arrogance even more pronounced than Lin Manxuan's.

She wore gold-rimmed glasses, her jet-black hair tied up neatly, with strands of hair framing her cheeks on either side. Her entire being exuded the aura of someone in a position of power.

Combined with a figure that could drive men wild and a subtle, mature allure that seemed to emanate from her, this woman was undoubtedly a ripe fruit any man would desire to pluck!

Haughty, aloof, sacred, and untouchable!

An elegant lady!

A fully matured elegant lady!

Who was this woman?

“President Lin.”

Everyone in the room stood up, even Old Xu, who was usually sparing with words, showed no trace of arrogance.

Zhou Bokang, too, reined in his usual air of superiority, looking as nervous as a weakling. “President Lin, what brings you here?” he asked anxiously.

“Am I not allowed to come?” The woman cast a faint glance around the room, her gaze finally settling on Yang Ning. “You’re the Yang Ning that Old Zhao mentioned?”

Before Yang Ning could respond, she continued, “I heard you’re conducting the Six Division Assessment. How’s it going?” As she spoke, she turned to Old Xu, who was closest to her.

Old Xu explained, “So far, everyone has passed the vote, except for me, as I abstained.”

The woman nodded, and Zhou Bokang seized the moment to flatter her. “With President Lin gaining such a capable assistant, the Lin Corporation is bound to shine at this Appraisal Tournament. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave. I’ll send my resignation letter to your office later.”

“No need. Just hand it to Secretary Liu. She’ll handle the follow-up. I’m quite busy and might not have time to look at it,” the woman replied, showing no regard for his feelings.

Zhou Bokang’s expression stiffened, but he didn’t dare show any dissatisfaction.

As he was about to leave the conference room, Yang Ning called out to him. “Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. Since you’ve got nothing to do, why not come see if these stones can yield jade?”

“No thanks,” Zhou Bokang sneered inwardly, though he shook his head on the surface.

“That’s a shame,” Yang Ning said as he handed a raw stone to Lin Manxuan. “One million, and it’s yours.”

At these words, the entire room was stunned!

Even the cold and aloof woman showed a hint of surprise as she glanced at Yang Ning. She had heard a bit about the origins of these raw stones, and in her opinion, let alone one million, even a hundred bucks would be too much.

Yet when Yang Ning said this, no one dared to mock or question him. Even Zhou Bokang was dumbfounded, a faint suspicion creeping into his mind—could it be that this raw stone wasn’t just worthless scrap?

Lin Manxuan held the raw stone without even glancing at it, her eyes fixed on Yang Ning. “Are you sure it’s worth a million?”

“I didn’t say that. Gambling on stones—who can guarantee a sure profit? But I like the look of this stone, and I think it’s worth at least this much,” Yang Ning said with a smile.

In truth, the System had appraised this raw stone at seven hundred thousand. Given the System’s tendencies, this stone was likely worth at least two million.

“Alright!” Lin Manxuan had near-blind trust in Yang Ning.

The aloof woman merely frowned slightly but didn’t intervene.

“I wonder if there’s a stone-cutting machine here?” Yang Ning asked with a smile.

“There is. The company has a dedicated stone-cutting room and even hired two experienced stone-cutting masters,” Lin Manxuan replied, immediately understanding Yang Ning’s intent. “Shall we go now?”

“Of course.” Yang Ning nodded. As he passed by Zhou Bokang, he sighed with regret. “What a pity that Mr. Zhou isn’t interested in this stone-cutting session.”

Meng Jianlin gave Yang Ning a peculiar look, then glanced at Zhou Bokang, whose expression was extremely unnatural. Suddenly, Meng Jianlin had a feeling that something interesting was about to happen.

The group gradually left the conference room, leaving Zhou Bokang alone.

“I refuse to believe this nonsense!”

Zhou Bokang gritted his teeth inwardly and quickly followed after them. He felt that if he didn’t see this with his own eyes today, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

The raw stone in Lin Manxuan’s hands had received an excellent quality evaluation from the System. Items of this caliber often held significant collectible value.

To be honest, selling this raw stone to Lin Manxuan for a million made Yang Ning feel a bit of a pang, but if he didn’t sell it, Zhou Bokang would surely just walk away without a second thought.

Seeing Zhou Bokang quietly slip into the stone-cutting room, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Yang Ning’s lips, barely noticeable.

“President Lin, I think we should start cutting from here,” the stone-cutting master said, gesturing on the raw stone.

“Master Liu, go ahead and cut as you see fit. I’m not very familiar with stone-cutting,” Lin Manxuan rationally chose to leave it to the expert.

“Alright.” Master Liu glanced at Lin Manxuan and then at the cold, elegant woman beside her. He nodded slightly before discussing with his assistant how to make the cut.

On the way, Lin Manxuan mentioned to Yang Ning that this elegant woman was her cousin, Lin Ziqing, the general manager of Lin Corporation. As for herself, she was merely a vice president in name, with little real power in the company.

In recent years, much of Lin Corporation’s growth could be attributed to Lin Ziqing. Even the higher-ups couldn’t deny her contributions to the company. Veterans like Old Zhao, Old Feng, and Meng Jianlin all respected and trusted Lin Ziqing in business matters.

It was clear just how outstanding Lin Ziqing’s capabilities were!

At this point, Yang Ning was just over three hundred thousand short of completing the Main Quest [Millionaire]. With the five hundred thousand appraisal fee from earlier and one unallocated Attribute Point, he now had a total of six Attribute Points.

“The skin of this material looks relatively thin, but it’s definitely an old pit stone. How about this: let’s start by grinding a few centimeters with the sander. If we don’t see green after three centimeters, we’ll switch to another side,” Master Liu finally decided after discussing with his assistant.

With the sound of the sander’s gears turning, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the palm-sized raw stone. Layer by layer, stone fragments were ground away by the rotating gears, revealing fine white crystalline structures inside.

Judging by his technique, Master Liu’s stone-cutting skills were quite refined. With a slight exertion of force from his arm, a groove about two centimeters deep appeared.

Without needing a reminder from his assistant, he stopped the grinding immediately and instructed the assistant to pour clean water over the cut surface of the raw stone.

“Miss Lin, it’s green!” Master Liu exclaimed in delight.

“It’s green?”

“Really green?”

“How is that possible?”

Lin Manxuan and Meng Jianlin both showed expressions of pleasant surprise and immediately moved closer. Old Feng, Old Xu, and the others weren’t far behind, marveling at the raw stone in Master Liu’s hands.

Zhou Bokang was somewhat dazed, his eyes filled with intense disbelief. He couldn’t seem to reconcile these raw stones with jade. After all, the jade masters had said these stones had a high gambling risk, with a very low chance of yielding green.

Yet, a stone with such a high gambling risk had actually produced a successful cut?

“Master Liu, is this jade? What quality is it?” Lin Manxuan asked, a bit nervous.

Even the usually stoic Lin Ziqing looked at Master Liu with some anticipation, not to mention Minister Niu, Meng Jianlin, and the others.

Master Liu smiled, then lifted the raw stone in his hand, examining it against the sunlight. Gradually, the smile on his face turned serious, his body visibly trembling, and his breathing grew rapid.

Who in the room wasn’t a shrewd observer?

Seeing Master Liu’s expression, everyone’s breathing quickened as well. Of course, Yang Ning was the exception.

After a long moment, Master Liu looked at Lin Manxuan with excitement. “President Lin, it’s a success, a huge success!” He paused, then added, “The texture is fine and nearly flawless. This is definitely ice-type jade, likely ice-type with floating flowers!”