Super-rich: Spending money is just a job!

Her subordinates, like mice thrown into a rice jar, frantically scrambled for the best items in the gem merchant's warehouse. Meanwhile, Xiaomeng sat upstairs in the company's sunlit garden, sipping tea and enjoying snacks.

The businessman mobilized all his wives, daughters, and nieces to entertain the visiting group.

Since Mohammed has two wives and three daughters, there are two female hosts to entertain Xiaomeng and her female assistant.

This was mainly because one of the important guests was Lin Xiaomeng, a very young Chinese businesswoman. In Alibaba, the boundaries between men and women are very clearly drawn; male businessmen generally do not entertain female clients. Important terms must be discussed through male business personnel.

That's how it is in more feudal countries; women are not openly allowed to play cards.

Things are more open now; young girls can go abroad to study and come back to help with the family business after graduation.

Mohammed's eldest daughter, Alia, speaks fluent Mandarin and English, suggesting she has studied abroad. She was delighted to host a young Chinese businesswoman like Xiaomeng, and was the most enthusiastic person in the room.

She was the daughter of the first wife, and I heard she also had a younger brother from the same mother.

Mohammed's second wife is more traditional, and her clothes are more conservative than those of the first wife and her daughters. Her two daughters are also shy and only speak English, not Mandarin. It's said that this second wife also has two sons.

With two wives and such a large family business, this businessman, Mohammed, must be incredibly wealthy.

In families with many children, there is always competition. In this round, it seems that Aliya has the upper hand, making her sisters look like invisible people, unable to get a word in edgewise.

To please Xiaomeng, Aliya even brought out all of her father's unsold stock.

“Miss Lin, we recently acquired a huge piece of lapis lazuli. It’s very beautiful. Would you like to take a look?” Aliya said, mentioning the family’s inventory, when she suddenly remembered a rare item.

Xiaomeng was indeed very interested when she heard this topic. "Huge? How big?"

Aliya gestured as she described the lapis lazuli ore, noting it was over two meters tall and weighed more than a ton. Its size wasn't its most striking feature; rather, it was its exceptionally pure color. The gold and white content on the surface was less than five percent. The experienced workers speculated that if it were cut open, the purity of the lapis lazuli would be even higher.

When Aliya said that, Xiaomeng became interested. The largest lapis lazuli ore she had ever seen before was only ten or twenty kilograms. "Can I see it with my own eyes? What, isn't this piece in the warehouse downstairs?"

"She's not here. She recently moved to a warehouse in the suburbs," Aliya said, indicating that she could take Xiaomeng to see it.

Xiaomeng immediately decided to go along; a ton of lapis lazuli—she had to go and see for herself.

Without even telling her father, Aliya drove her Land Rover, taking two cars full of people, to another warehouse location.

Aliya was driving a large car with one of her cousins ​​and two armed bodyguards.

Xiaomeng was driving a Mercedes SUV with a female bodyguard, a driver, and two male bodyguards equipped with automated weapons.

Although the city they lived in was considered a relatively peaceful area in the country, they still had to be wary of robberies in some of the streets and alleys.

They travel in large cars, and their bodyguards look intimidating; this way, they can avoid trouble when going out to handle business.

The two cars drove slowly for more than half an hour, passing through the dusty city, and finally stopped in another heavily guarded compound.

Aliya said the place was a family warehouse and processing plant.

To Xiaomeng, this place looked like a simple little workshop. Only the high walls and the high-definition cameras on top of the walls reminded her that this was a major jeweler's warehouse.

The warehouse was underground, and Xiaomeng was quite bold, daring to go into the warehouse with only two bodyguards carrying AKs.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong; this was indeed a warehouse. Inside, there really was a huge piece of lapis lazuli, completely unpolished, with many impurities on its surface, and a dusty, grayish appearance.

The warehouse manager took out a basin of water and poured water onto the surface of the raw stone.

This thing is huge; it lies flat on the ground like a giant blue granite block.

In the past, some Chinese emperors were fond of this blue gemstone, feeling that its color resembled the blue of the sky. Wealthy people at the time also liked to have lapis lazuli set in earrings, rings, and bracelets. Some even had large pieces of lapis lazuli carved into various vases, miniature landscapes, and plaques.

By the way, Chinese people only like pure blue lapis lazuli; the bluer the better, the more expensive, and the blacker the better. Moreover, they prefer a purity level where there's absolutely no gold or white inclusions. A little gold flecks are acceptable for lower-end pieces. But if it has white haze or white lines, its value drops drastically.

Those importers wouldn't even glance at it, let alone offer a high price.

Xiaomeng had seen her share of fine things, but she had never seen such a beautiful lapis lazuli in such a large size.

Oh, no, she had seen one before, a smaller one, but that one had already been made into a plaque.

It's that plaque that spans two dynasties, with the names of both dynasties carved on both sides. It's now in a museum.

After the plaque was taken down, people discovered that it was carved from a single piece of blue lapis lazuli.

It was only during the Ming Dynasty that such a large piece of land was acquired by scouring the world for the best resources.

Back then, there was no substitute for the braids, so they could only turn them over, carve the name of their dynasty on them, and then hang them back up.

So many years have passed, and China still hasn't been able to get similar gemstones. Right now, all we can do is hang up a stone plaque.

When Xiaomeng went to the museum to see the good stuff, she thought, "When will I be able to find a similar big gemstone and bring back a big plaque for the Chinese gate? It would be lapis lazuli or green jadeite, no matter what."

Now that Xiaomeng has seen this lapis lazuli raw stone, she likes it more and more. Isn't this ready-made plaque material?

"This rough stone is really amazing, I love it. How much do you want?" Xiaomeng squatted down and examined it carefully, looking for cracks and impurities.

I've looked at it over and over again, and I've already started to consider how to open it.

She had already decided that if this family demanded an exorbitant price... well, there was nothing she could do. She'd just negotiate a lower price and buy it; let them make a profit. After all, such a fine piece was extremely rare. After paying, it would be airlifted back to China the next day. If all went well, the seal carving could begin next month, probably in time for National Day.

Upon seeing the young lady bring distinguished guests to visit the site, and noticing that the guests had taken a liking to the enormous rough stone, the warehouse manager broke out in a cold sweat. He repeatedly said that the rough stone seemed to have already been discovered and that they should contact its original owner, Mohammed.

This naturally requires contacting the owner. A ton of lapis lazuli rough is worth hundreds of millions of pink coins, so the owner's approval is definitely needed before it can be sold.

Xiao Meng returned to the headquarters of Mohammed's company and went directly to Mohammed himself to ask him if she could buy the rough stone.

He also showed photos of the raw stones to Manager Huang of the mining company and quietly mentioned his plans.

Manager Huang stared in surprise at the photo of the raw ore. "The ore is excellent, Miss Lin. Do you really want to acquire this raw ore and donate it to the country?"

“Absolutely! The moment I saw it, I made up my mind. Something this good should be brought back as a National Day gift. What do you think?” Xiaomeng whispered to the manager.

Mohammed looked troubled. "Miss Lin, no, there's already someone interested in this piece of jade. A wealthy businessman from India has his eye on it and they've almost finalized the price."

Xiaomeng disagreed, "Just because we're discussing the price doesn't mean the deal is done. What price did he offer? Can't I win by offering 10% more?"

“Ah, Gao Yicheng.” Mohammed was genuinely tempted. “We’ve now reached an agreement on seventy million US dollars…”

"How about I offer seventy-seven million dollars?" Xiao Meng rarely wanted something so badly, and she was truly determined to get the good stuff regardless of the cost.

Manager Huang was starting to sweat. With such a high unit price, was he worried about overpaying?

Mohammed was incredibly tempted, but after weighing the pros and cons, he gritted his teeth and replied, "Sorry, we can't lose our credibility."

Why wouldn't you make money? Is this Alibaba businessman really that trustworthy?

Xiaomeng added, "What if I increase the price by 20%? Eighty-four million dollars?"

Everyone in the room stared at Mohammed, but after thinking for a long time, he gritted his teeth and refused, "I'm sorry, miss, this giant rough stone has indeed been reserved, but the payment method hasn't been finalized yet, so the other party hasn't taken the goods away. Therefore, I cannot sell it to you."