When Wang Zhuo saw that huge, black, ox-like rough stone in the factory workshop, Qiu Lu, Pan Fengying, and others were carefully peeling the jade away from it downwards.

This required precise skill; the entire jade piece had a horizontal crack running through its center, meaning it couldn't be stripped off all at once. Furthermore, each half of the jade weighed over a hundred catties, so dropping it or even slightly bumping it against anything could result in irreparable loss.

Qiu Lu and his apprentice started peeling this rough stone yesterday afternoon... They worked until six o'clock when the masters finished their shift, and the overall contours of the jade were already beginning to emerge. Everyone present was a seasoned professional who dealt with this daily; the alternating black and green streaks of jade immediately brought to mind watermelons. Seeing this marvelous sight, none of them could bear to leave.

Qiu Lu was too engrossed in his excitement, and by the time he remembered the need for secrecy, the news had already spread throughout the entire factory. Even the security guard making his rounds that night locked the main gate, let the four fierce dogs run loose in the yard, and quietly snuck over to watch the spectacle.

A stone-cutting revelation yielding such an incredible result—not just Qiu Lu, but even seasoned master artisans like Pan Fengying had never witnessed anything like it. Pan Fengqing even remarked that neither her father nor her grandfather, in their day, had ever cut a rough stone like this; not even in Beijing’s famed Liulichang.

This massive 'failed' stone Wang Zhuo hauled back from Yunnan had effectively outshone both the Pan family legacy and Liulichang.

This might sound like an exaggeration, but everyone present understood exactly how extraordinary this 'Jade Watermelon' was, so Wang Zhuo, Qi Fei, and Guan Yingying, being shareholders, received the news immediately.

Qi Fei arrived through the frost that lingered late into the night, while Guan Yingying arrived at dawn. As for Wang Zhuo, he first stopped by the electronics market, bought several video cameras, and then arrived somewhat belatedly...

"Xiao Xu always has the best habits, starting to take photos and record videos before the stone is even cut. This footage will be precious material later on."

Guan Yingying praised Qiu Lu’s apprentice, a young man named Liang Xu, who was the same age as Wang Zhuo. He had a square face, a square nose, and a square mouth—almost everything about him was angular. The masters at the factory had jokingly nicknamed him Liang Fang, and later just called him Xiao Fang, and the name stuck.

By now, no one was talking about how much profit was made or about bonuses. No one could assign a price to this rough stone; even Sister Li, the pricing expert Wang Zhuo had hired at great expense, could only offer a wry smile and shake her head.

"Master, if the Empress Dowager Cixi’s Watermelons were found now, how much would they be worth?" Liang Xu asked, humbling himself. He had assisted Qiu Lu in peeling the outer layer of this large rough stone. Though he was no longer qualified to touch it now, having helped strip the skin once was an honor he could boast about for half his life.

"I truly don't know about that," Qiu Lu replied with a smile. "Your master spends all his time studying carving; I’m not very knowledgeable about prices."

Liang Xu nodded, his gaze sweeping over Wang Zhuo, who was currently filming with a camera. "Brother Wang, you're the big boss; you must know more than my master. Can you estimate a price?"

Wang Zhuo had actually considered this question. Seeing Liang Xu ask, he casually replied, "Around 1.5 billion, perhaps."

Whirrrr. The Shanghai master operating the stone-cutting machine paused, threw up his face shield, and said with a mix of laughter and exasperation, "1.5 billion? Boss Wang, are you talking about the market from ten years ago? Now, it's easily over 15 billion, no?"

Wang Zhuo was genuinely startled and asked, "Master Jiang, surely it’s not that exaggerated?"

Guan Yingying, nearby, was busy covering her mouth to stifle a laugh. Qi Fei pointed a finger at Wang Zhuo and teased good-naturedly, "If you don't know, don't just talk nonsense, okay? The moment you opened your mouth, you showed your inexperience."

Wang Zhuo puffed out his chest slightly, unresigned. "Then why don't you two tell us, how much are those two Jade Watermelons worth?"

"Let me put it this way," Qi Fei explained in the most concise language. "Let's compare it to the bronze animal heads from the Old Summer Palace. In '07, a Horse Head sold for 69.1 million Hong Kong dollars, nearly 70 million. Where was that Horse Head usually kept? In an open courtyard in the Old Summer Palace. Where is the Jade Watermelon kept? In the Empress Dowager Cixi's treasury, guarded by specialists. What is the Horse Head made of? Every Chinese person knows it's cast bronze. What is the Jade Watermelon made of? I don't need to say. In '06, a Qianlong porcelain bowl auctioned for 150 million Hong Kong dollars. That bowl was porcelain."

When Qi Fei finished speaking, Guan Yingying added just four words from the side: "Got it, mate?" ( - Ang de si dan - a phonetic approximation of "Understand it?") Wang Zhuo realized Guan Yingying was teasing him for his lack of general knowledge.

Liang Xu, on the sidelines, had grasped the meaning and exclaimed in astonishment, "A bronze Horse Head sold for seventy million, and a porcelain bowl for 150 million—so this pair of Jade Watermelons must be priceless treasures?"

Everyone gave him a "You guessed correctly" look. Liang Xu realized he had once again acted like a novice and scratched his head awkwardly. "Then how much is our Jade Watermelon worth? Is it perhaps carved to imitate that famous pair?"

This question... had led them right back to the beginning. So, everyone returned to their tasks: those cutting continued to cut, those recording continued to film, and those chatting continued to chat. No one paid any attention to Liang Xu anymore, because no one could estimate the price.

That afternoon, the shareholders and key figures of Shengshi Dynasty gathered in the factory office for a meeting. The central theme of the meeting was two words: Security.

If it weren't for those two pieces of watermelon material, the factory Wang Zhuo had established would have been quite secure—high walls, deep courtyards, searchlights, and electric fences offered no fear of thieves.

But with material this priceless, the situation changed entirely. Even though this was Jiangzhou, what did that matter compared to the Forbidden City? Nowadays, people dared to rob banks and hijack armored cash transports. After all, these were all capital offenses; robbing this jade would be more profitable than robbing ten cash transports combined. Who was to say such a venture wouldn't be attempted?

In 1996, Zhang Ziqiang kidnapped Li Ka-shing's eldest son, Richard Li, securing a ten-billion ransom—dubbed the crime of the century, shocking the world. This piece of jade might well be worth ten billion.

Ten billion—how many zeros was that?

Moreover, there was another question everyone discussed: How large were Empress Dowager Cixi's watermelons, really? They couldn't have been the large, twenty-pound northern watermelons, could they? Jade has about four times the density of a watermelon. The Old Buddha couldn't possibly play with an eighty-pound melon, could she? If they were small, southern watermelons, then the implications were huge; those two pieces of rough stone could be carved into n number of pieces...

Therefore, security was the immediate and most urgent priority, needing to be completely resolved before the news spread further.

This issue left even the worldly-wise Qi Fei and Pan Fengying at a loss. They felt as if an armored vehicle might burst through the gate at any moment, disgorging a group of terrorists armed with submachine guns, who would open fire, seize the goods, and be gone within an hour, loading the two revealed materials onto a speedboat heading for international waters.

Other jewelry companies had faced similar problems, but they had grown gradually, snowballing their way up. Their security measures had accumulated step-by-step; their personnel were reliable, their foundations solid, and their secrecy maintained well. The situation at Shengshi Dynasty was different—they had built a skyscraper before the foundation was even fully dug; their roots were unstable.

After much deliberation, Wang Zhuo finally recognized that the current predicament could not be solved merely by upgrading security tiers. This meant the jade had to be moved to a secure location.

"Where is the safest place?" he posed the question abruptly.

Fortunately, everyone's thoughts were already centered on this problem, so it wasn't hard to understand. Qiu Lu spoke first: "The Public Security Bureau?"

Guan Yingying joked, "The Government Building would be good too. Don't you know Mayor Qin Xue?"

Both locations were obviously impossible, so everyone dismissed the idea with a smile. Pan Fengying chuckled, "The military would be good too, more reliable than the police."

Hearing this, everyone burst out laughing. Indeed, they had heard of criminals charging into police stations and killing officers, but never of outlaws daring to attack a military base to seek death. It seemed the military, sworn to defend the nation, was indeed more dependable than certain 'violent institutions.'

"How could I have forgotten this?" Wang Zhuo suddenly slapped his thigh. "Aunt Pan's suggestion is actually brilliant; this might really work!"

Qi Fei quickly asked, "What? Do you have any useful connections in the military?"

Wang Zhuo grinned slyly at her and walked outside with his phone. Seeing him acting so secretive, everyone grew curious—who was he calling?

Moments later, Wang Zhuo strode back in, beaming with joy. "I have an eighty percent chance of getting this done. It should be settled by tomorrow at the latest. Everyone start preparing now!"

"Preparing for what?" Guan Yingying asked hurriedly.

"A business trip," Wang Zhuo chuckled. "You can't go. Sister Qi who draws the blueprints, the two Aunt Pans and Sister Ma Ling who will do the primary carving, plus Brother Qiu and Xiao Fang—they all have to go with this material. Once things are finalized, they’ll need to stay at the military base."

Guan Yingying strongly considered mentioning her foreign trade business that needed attention, preventing her from staying tied up with Shengshi Dynasty all the time. But with the priceless rough stone sitting downstairs, and being a shareholder herself, how could she hold the team back at this crucial moment?

Leaving the others at the factory to handle the jade and pack the tools, Wang Zhuo packed a small cloth bundle around his neck, drove his car straight to the school, intending to pick up Qin Siqing so they could visit Old Master Qin Jingzhong at the government compound.

When Pan Fengying suggested the military base for safety, Wang Zhuo immediately thought of Qin Jingzhong. This old gentleman had spent his entire life in the military, and even in retirement, people still addressed him as 'Old Commander.' Wang Zhuo was also a fast friend of his; if not him, who else should he approach?

Furthermore, he had long known that Qin Jingzhong enjoyed jade, but he never had anything suitable to present to him. Anything too expensive, the old man wouldn't accept; anything too cheap wouldn't suffice. Now that he needed a favor, he couldn't visit without bringing a suitably high-class gift.

On the way, he called Qin Siqing to wait for him at the school gate. While driving, Wang Zhuo pondered: the Jade Watermelon would surely yield more than just two finished pieces. Should he perhaps display one in his own living room?