Stone Gambling: The Legend of the Horse Caravan

When Old Guotou suddenly died, eighteen-year-old Lu Zhao inherited three things: a string of old copper bells, a family heirloom book on assessing rough stones, and a staggering debt of 1.876 million yuan.

The caravan fell apart, the workers scattered, and creditors came knocking one after another. There was even a fake piece of jade in the warehouse that someone had tampered with. Everyone was certain the orphan wouldn't last three months.

His father's final words, “We were sold out in the Savage Mountain,” became the heaviest secret weighing on Lu Zhao's heart.

No System, no X-ray vision. He had only his family's traditional skill at assessing rough stones and the principle that had kept the Yunnan-Burma caravans going for a hundred years: trust. That was how he fought to survive against all odds.

At the Ruili night market, he spent two hundred yuan on his first uncut stone and sliced it open to reveal fine-grained, vivid green jade. He took on tests of judgment, three-cut challenges, and sealed bids at public auctions, one hurdle after another. As traps involving fake stones, old debts, and a bloody case sealed away for twenty years came to light, the truth slowly emerged.

When gambling on stones, you bet on your eye. When making deals, you bet on trust. When building trade routes, you bet on taking responsibility.

To pay off his mountain of debt, the young man dragged a nearly ruined old caravan into the new era on sheer grit.