Xinjiang Desert.

There is an endless gravel beach with countless stones scattered on the ground.

There is a riverbed protruding on the ground that is hundreds of millions of years old, and many pebbles are embedded in it, all of which have been weathered.

The Hetian jade seed material is hidden in it.

However, places like this have been searched countless times over the past hundred years.

Now there are still many "treasure hunters" holding shovels coming here to look for treasures.

Everyone is betting on luck, betting on the luck of getting rich overnight.

The only difference is that the probability of digging for jade is about the same as the probability of winning the lottery, or even lower.

After all, there are always people who win the lottery jackpot, but no one has dug out top-quality jade here for many years.

Just some beautiful stones.

There are many tourists picking up stones here.

If you pick up a beautiful one, you can either make a bonsai out of it or go to a processing shop in the city to have a bracelet made out of it.

You only need to pay for the labor cost.

Some people don’t care about the price of jade, they only care about its appearance.

I made a bracelet out of the low-quality jade I picked up, which I feel is quite commemorative.

This is also the best mentality for playing with jade.

There is everything on the roadside, some are quartzite, some are pebbles, and some are jade of various colors.

There are all kinds of jade, including cracked, white with red skin, turbid color, and translucent color.

Xu Yang drove a rented car to the place where he picked up the jade.

There are all kinds of SUVs parked on both sides of the road.

They all got off the car to pick up jade.

Looking closely, on the vast desert on both sides, many people were holding shovels and buckets, searching for jade.

Similar to gold diggers, these are "jade diggers".

But as the locals said, these places have been dug up countless times by people. Not to mention the top-quality jade, all the stones with beautiful colors have been dug up.

It is really a fantasy to think that you can find jade here.

You can only go deeper.

“It’s really crazy!”

Xu Yang sighed as he looked at the SUVs parked on both sides of the road.

There are more people than you think.

Xu Yang found a place to park.

He knew that there would be no good jade in the areas on both sides of the road, so he had to go deeper.

It was like he was chasing the mountain.

There are absolutely no mountain products in the area around the village, not even mushrooms. If any mushrooms appear around the village, they will be picked as soon as they grow.

So, after Xu Yang parked the car, he walked straight inside.

He carried a backpack, a sturdy shovel, and wore a straw hat.

Although he is tall and has an outstanding temperament, no one will pay much attention to him when he walks in the Gobi Desert.

All everyone sees is jade, beautiful jade, valuable jade.

The ground is covered with stones, some of which are of various colors.

People pick them up, look at them for a long time, and keep them if they think they are beautiful.

In fact, if you buy this kind of stone online, you can buy a lot for ten dollars.

Worthless.

Xu Yang walked all the way inside.

No one noticed him.

There are tourists on both sides of the road. Further in, there are people who are professionally looking for Hetian jade, as well as middlemen who come here to buy jade.

Jade dealers will occasionally ask jade diggers if they have any good goods, and sometimes transactions can be made on the spot.

Xu Yang walked for about half an hour.

This is a barren Gobi desert with rising hills.

These hills are riverbeds that were hundreds of millions of years old and are filled with rocks.

The so-called jade mining does not mean digging from the ground, but knocking the stones off the riverbed bit by bit.

Among the weathered pebbles, there may be valuable gems.

It all depends on luck, but because you can get rich quickly, many people come here to dig for jade.

day to day.

Xu Yang looked at the surrounding area and silently called up the treasure hunting compass panel.

He is different from these people. He does not rely on luck, but on strength.

Xu Yang chose to use the treasure hunting compass, but to his surprise, the treasure hunting compass gave a prompt:

[This is not a designated natural area for the treasure hunting compass. The treasure hunting compass is currently limited to use in mountains, forests and oceans. 】

"What?"

Xu Yang was stunned for a moment.

He came here with great anticipation to dig for jade, but at the critical moment, the treasure-hunting compass failed to work.

This is a bit embarrassing.

The surrounding area is a vast Gobi desert with no weeds at all, just rocks.

It is indeed not within the scope of application of the treasure hunting compass.

Just when Xu Yang was stunned, the treasure-hunting compass gave another hint:
[Trigger a rare treasure hunt mission: Jade in the Gobi Desert.]

[You need to use 10 times to redeem. Do you want to redeem? ]

Hearing the prompt, Xu Yang's expression changed slightly.

Rare treasure hunt?
Now that he was here, he naturally chose to exchange it.

Mountain darkly, vista.

My mood has been up and down, which is really unexpected.

[Exchange successful, treasure hunting compass searching.]

【Search successful! 】

Soon, a prompt sound came from the system.

There are now treasure hunting instructions on Xu Yang’s mobile map.

So he headed towards the treasure spot according to the direction of the treasure hunt.

The treasure spot is a raised riverbed.

It is inlaid with stones of different sizes.

It has been standing in this place, weathered by wind and rain for who knows how many years, yet it still remains standing.

Compared with the things in nature, human beings are indeed too small.

The jade was deep in the riverbed, so Xu Yang followed the example of others and started digging.

This place is all stone and soil. The geographical location is very remote and there are no precious resources, so you can dig it at will.

You'll be fine as long as you don't go to the regulated jade mines.

Xu Yang took the shovel, turned it over, and hit the riverbed with the shovel one by one.

As the shovel hit it, pieces of stones fell down with a rustling sound.

Mixed with some soil.

Fortunately, he was wearing a mask, so he didn't have to worry about breathing problems.

The stones that fell off were all ordinary stones, nothing worth seeing. Almost no one came to the area where Xu Yang was digging.

These veterans knew that this area was full of small stones and there were no valuable jades.

No one paid too much attention to Xu Yang. After all, everyone came here to make money. Everyone was only focused on their own work and had no time to care about others.

And if someone produces a large quantity of goods, they will not publicize it.

The jade stone that Xu Yang located was in a very deep place.

Still need to dig for a while.

But Xu Yang felt full of strength.

This is normal. Who knows if there is a large amount of goods inside?

Soon, the sun rose higher and higher, and the temperature gradually increased.

There is no shade at all, and the jade diggers just keep digging at the stones under the scorching sun.

They have expectations in their hearts, so they don’t feel tired.

No wonder most of the people who go jade hunting have dark skin.

If you stay in the sun for such a period of time, it would be strange if you don’t get tanned.

Occasionally, someone would look in Xu Yang's direction. It was said that if an outsider found a large piece of good jade, it would easily be snatched away.

After all, the value of jade is uncertain before it is identified, and calling the police will not help.

In the afternoon, when Xu Yang was digging for jade, a local came to watch the fun.
"Young man, this is a bad location. There is no jade here. You have to dig inside."

The local guy seemed kind enough.

"I'm just digging for fun."

Xu Yang responded calmly.

"Did you find any beautiful rocks?"

The local asked again, his accent having a strong flavor of kebab.

"We haven't dug it up yet. It's all gray stone."

Xu Yang replied generously.

Seeing that Xu Yang didn't look like he could lie, the local left.

Xu Yang increased the speed of digging jade.

Because he didn't need to stop and look, he just had to keep digging, so he dug very quickly.

He shoveled away pieces of stone and soil.

This continued for several hours, and he finally dug up the jade that the treasure-hunting compass had located.

It is a piece of white jade the size of a quail egg. The surface is extremely smooth with some slight traces of red, which does not affect its beauty at all.

Xu Yang just took a look and put the jade into his pocket.

He knew that the best quality Hetian jade is white. This white is not the translucent white of ordinary pebbles, but a kind of lustrous and restrained white.

Generally, white jade will have some deep red color embedded in it.
Jade carving masters will carve the jade into a shape based on the structure and color of the jade.

Then, Xu Yang continued digging as if nothing had happened.

After digging for another ten minutes, he seemed to be discouraged. He threw the shovel aside and sat in the shade under the riverbed to rest.

He took out a bottle of water from his backpack and drank it slowly.

An actor’s self-cultivation.

Some people were still digging in the distance.

This area is really big.

The riverbed stretches endlessly, as if it were the remains of an ancient time.

It is not difficult to imagine that a long, long time ago, there was a huge river flowing here.

Countless rocks of different sizes have been deposited here.

Modern people are searching for treasures from ancient times in ruins like these.

After resting for a while, Xu Yang put on his backpack, climbed to a high place on the riverbed, stood there and looked into the distance.

The terrain here is undulating, but there is no sign of life as far as the eye can see.

There is no green to be seen.

Dust was rising in many places.

"This is the Great Gobi Desert. If there weren't so many people here, this place would be too scary."

"There is no hope at all."

Xu Yang couldn't help but sigh.

He likes the vibrant feeling, but it's the exact opposite here.

After wandering around for a while, Xu Yang left.

A few locals noticed him but ignored him.

In their eyes, Xu Yang, like thousands of other outsiders who dreamed of getting rich quickly, was taught a lesson by reality and could only leave in disgrace.

……

Xu Yang drove to the city and had a good night's rest.

The next day, he started looking for jade sellers.

There is no shortage of merchants buying jade here, just like there is no shortage of pharmacists buying ginseng in Changbai Mountain.

Moreover, these people are very professional. Xu Yang found an appraiser from a large organization, who is more authoritative.

The appraiser took the jade, touched it with his hands, shone it carefully with a small flashlight, and then measured it with a machine.

An offer of $75 was given.

"How many?"

Xu Yang raised his eyebrows and asked in a slightly surprised manner.

"Your piece is indeed good, and it is of collectible quality, but high-end jade is not that easy to sell. 75 is already a high price."

"There is no way a private buyer would offer us this price."

The other party responded.

What surprised Xu Yang was the price of jade, which was so strong.

It’s hard to sell ginseng at this price.

In fact, it can be seen from the scale that there are not many people digging ginseng every year, but the people digging jade are everywhere in the Gobi Desert.

There is no gain without early action.

"Okay, I'll go to a few other stores and compare prices."

Xu Yang responded generously.

After all, these big brands are competitors, so there is no need to worry about them colluding.

This is how shopping works. Compare prices from three different stores and you’ll have a rough idea.

Xu Yang went to ask two more companies, one quoted 60 and the other quoted 55.

None of them are as good as the first one.

So, Xu Yang decided to buy the jade to the first company.

There is no tax for private cash transactions, as the jade dealers here all trade in cash.

You have to pay taxes through formal channels.

Large institutions use formal channels, so Xu Yang naturally agreed.

So, the deal was done.

I came to Hotan and made hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It was a worthwhile trip. (End of this chapter)