Yan Aohan chuckled, shaking his head. "Yes, you are very frugal."
Zhu Yanyi made a funny face. She walked to the waste area. The stones here were big as bricks or small as fists. Usually, stones this size had no value. They were just scraps left after cutting.
Zhu Yanyi looked around. She picked an oval stone, about the size of an enamel cup. She walked back. "I’ll take this one."
"Why this one?" Yan Aohan asked curiously.
"Because it looks like a goose egg from home," Zhu Yanyi said. The stone really did look like a goose egg. Yan Aohan laughed loudly. "So you pick stones based on whether they look like eggs?"
Zhu Yanyi pouted, looking at her. "Of course not. I just think it’s pretty. If there’s no jade inside, I can use it as a pebble to grow narcissus flowers."
It only cost one yuan. Zhu Yanyi felt she could afford to waste it.
"Do you want to cut it?" Yan Aohan asked.
Zhu Yanyi looked at the stone in her hand. "I’m curious. But I’m afraid cutting it in half will ruin its round shape."
"Then we can just rub the side," a worker suggested. Stones in the waste area rarely had anything inside. Zhu Yanyi thought for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, rub it. But don’t ruin the round shape. If there’s nothing inside, I still want to take the stone home."
"I’ll take you over. There is a fee for cutting. One yuan per time," the worker said.
Zhu Yanyi sighed. "One yuan for the stone, one yuan to rub it. I really am a spendthrift."
"Pfft." Yan Aohan was speechless at her claim of being a spendthrift.
Yan Aohan paid the money. Soon, a young man came over. She seemed to be an apprentice. After knowing Zhu Yanyi’s request, she took the stone to a grinding wheel nearby and started rubbing it. Zhu Yanyi wasn’t in a hurry. She was just playing around. But after only two minutes, the young man said, "Green appeared."
Zhu Yanyi was stunned. She looked at Yan Aohan. "So fast? Did I get lucky? It really has green." Even a bean-sized piece of jade inside a one-yuan waste stone was a huge gain. So Zhu Yanyi had definitely won big.
Yan Aohan tapped Zhu Yanyi’s head. "How can you talk about yourself like that?" Only Zhu Yanyi would say she got lucky by chance.
Zhu Yanyi smiled. "I really didn’t expect jade inside." She pulled Yan Aohan over. Indeed, a faint green color appeared where it had been rubbed. It really was jade.
"Shall we rub more?" the employee asked. His eyes showed excitement. For an apprentice like him, if he could independently reveal jade, it would be seen as good luck. It would help him graduate early.
"Rub it," Zhu Yanyi said with a smile. She wasn’t surprised if there was none, and if there was, she considered it luck.
But soon, Zhu Yanyi found her mood infected by the apprentice. She rubbed and washed carefully, holding the stone as if it were a treasure. Her tension made Zhu Yanyi nervous too. Seeing this, the corner of Yan Aohan’s mouth lifted slightly. It was right to bring Zhu Yanyi here. At least for now, she was slowly blending into this world. She could feel other people’s emotions.