Seeing this, Xiao Jinhan stood up and introduced the group, "Uncle Zhou, this is Hua'er, and the other two are Hua'er's nephews, the eldest and second sons of the Su family."
After saying that, she turned to Su Hua, a slight smile playing on her delicate lips, "Hua'er, this is Uncle Zhou. Uncle Zhou is an old man who served my maternal grandfather. He watched my mother and me grow up. You can call him Uncle Zhou like I do..."
Upon hearing this address, Uncle Zhou's already piercing eyes instantly lit up like searchlights.
Over the years, whether in the Southern Frontier or back in Tangshan Prefecture, my young master has never had a single female mosquito by his side, let alone a young girl. Now, he's calling a young girl so affectionately?!
Looking more closely at the little girl, one could see that her nose was a nose, her eyes were eyes, and her clear black and white pupils were clean and pure, without a trace of impurity. She exuded a captivating spirit, and standing next to her young master, they were a perfect match.
Su Hua met Zhou Bo's bright eyes and blushed for no reason. This should be considered as Xiao Jinhan introducing her to the Yu family members besides Yu Feng and Yu Yu.
She curtsied to the old man in a junior's greeting and smiled, "Uncle Zhou, thank you for bringing these raw stones today."
"Ah, good, good, good, good, young lady..." Upon hearing this, Uncle Zhou said "good" three times in a row, and then glanced at the gentleness on Xiao Jinhan's face, his smile deepening. "It's just opening a few stones, it'll only take a few blinks of an eye."
Moreover, the young lady's affairs are the young master's affairs, and the old servant's affairs; it's not hard work at all."
Su Hua's face flushed upon hearing this, and she quickly pulled Su Dalang and his brother over to greet Uncle Zhou. The two obediently cupped their hands and said, "Greetings, Grandpa Zhou! Su Dalang and Su Erlang greet Grandpa Zhou!"
"Yes, good! Good! You all are well too." Uncle Zhou smiled and nodded, and indeed he could no longer keep up the jokes. Instead, he called the servants to set out the snacks and fruits, asked the Su family about their preferences, and instructed the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Only after all this was done did I sit back down in the courtyard.
The stone-cutting table and tools were also brought over. However, his stone-cutting tool was not the large saw he had seen at Liu's shop, but a very small... knife.
The knife was about a finger's length, with an extremely thin blade, the edge of which was polished to a shine, and the back of the blade was rounded. It looked quite old.
The knife was very handy in Uncle Zhou's hands. The tip of the knife touched the outer shell of the raw stone, and with a gentle push, the outer shell fell off, revealing a piece of green.
To avoid disturbing him while he was cutting the stone, Su Hua and her group stood some distance away, but they could still see it clearly. As she watched him cut out a piece of jade in the blink of an eye, her almond-shaped eyes widened slightly. "Uncle Zhou's movements are incredibly swift!"
The stone-cutting master of the Liu family took the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to cut out the spring-colored stone, but for Uncle Zhou, cutting stone was as easy as peeling the skin off a sweet potato, without the slightest hesitation.
Even the observation before cutting the stone is completed in just a few breaths, and the whole process takes no more than two minutes from start to finish.
Moreover, the jade was completely intact, without any scratches or dents.
Xiao Jinhan smiled, took a cup of apricot blossom drink from the table and placed it in Su Hua's hand before explaining, "Stone cutting is just like stone gambling; it also requires talent. Experience is not that important. People who are good at stone gambling are also good at stone cutting."
Su Hua was a little thirsty, so she took a sip of the apricot blossom drink. The drink not only had the sweet and sour taste of apricots, but also a hint of refreshing peach blossom fragrance. One sip and it was cool and refreshing.
"Hmm... Zichen, are you saying that Uncle Zhou is good at gambling on stones?"
“When Zhou Bo was young, he was a leading figure in the jade gambling industry.” Xiao Jinhan nodded. “However, the jade gambling industry is very complex and involves huge interests. If Zhou Bo selects ten rough stones, at least nine of them will be of good quality. It’s like turning stones into gold.”
The tallest tree in the forest is bound to be felled by the wind. After Zhou Bo produced five pieces of imperial green jade in a row, he was eventually targeted by several local forces. When they failed to win him over, they tried to destroy him.
At a crucial moment, I happened to meet my maternal grandfather, and afterwards I stayed by his side.
Su Hua was surprised to hear this, "Isn't Uncle Zhou equivalent to the gambling king?"
She could barely distinguish the quality of raw stones by relying on the spatial sensing of the bracelet, but Uncle Zhou could pick out a string of imperial green stones with just his eyes.
That's an amazing skill.
He'd be a gambling king no matter which dynasty he lived in.
No wonder, even though Da Bai was fully armed and the 'king' mark on his forehead had been erased, he could still tell at a glance that it was a little tiger. There really wasn't a simple one in the Yu family.
"The King of Gambling?" Xiao Jinhan raised an eyebrow, gradually getting used to this novel title. "Uncle Zhou should be considered the King of Gambling, right?"
Anyway, before Hua'er, no one had ever won at Zhou Bo's jade gambling all these years.
"Before me? Hahaha... Zichen thinks too highly of me!" Su Hua covered her mouth and laughed, almost spitting out the flower drink from her nose.
If she were truly more capable than the gambling king, why would she need to open a restaurant? She could simply go and cut open a rough stone every now and then and be completely at ease, not just herself, but even the entire Su family could be doing well.
Seeing her shake her head and smile, Xiao Jinhan didn't say anything more. He simply took out a handkerchief from his wide sleeve and gently wiped away the floral drink juice from the corner of her lips.
Beside them, the Su brothers, who were not shy at all, sat obediently on the bench, drinking tea and whispering to each other.
"Brother, there really is red jade! I wonder if it's the red jade that those people were talking about when we were at the jade gambling street today? This red looks even better than the red dress Miss Wei is wearing today."
"I told you to call me Big Brother, not Da Lang." Su Da Lang rolled his eyes, raised his hand and gave the other a sharp rap on the head. After the other man shrank back, he pursed his lips and said, "This red one seems to have been picked by Da Bai. Da Bai usually likes red the most, so this one is just what it wants."
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