Warm Jade on the Xinjiang Winds

At a jade market in Shanghai, the heroine meets Aili, a young man from Xinjiang, and they spend a happy time together. Later, Aili returns to Xinjiang because his mother is gravely ill, and she loses touch with him. Remembering Aili’s words, “You should go to Hotan in Xinjiang and see how jade diggers live. Then you won’t think Hotan seed jade is so expensive,” she sets off alone for southern Xinjiang and Hotan. In this unfamiliar place, she meets Driver Wen, a ride-hailing driver who takes her to places like the Yulong Kashgar River and the Kalakash River. They have many amusing adventures along the way, and when she gets into danger, he comes to her aid. The two develop feelings for each other, but in the end, reason prevails over emotion, and they both manage to keep their feelings in check at the last moment. Xiao Ke, a jade cutter, used to be an engineer. Unwilling to settle for an ordinary life, he quit his job while still young and went into the Hotan jade trade. Clever and quick to learn, he became an expert in Hotan jade after being burned twice. He specializes in buying large pieces of Qinghua seed jade that look like a complete mess on the outside. Such stones are easy to bargain down, but they’re a gamble: they might contain top-quality jade with sharply defined black and white patterns, or even suet-white jade. As the saying goes, “Qinghua yields suet-white jade.” In Hotan, he unexpectedly runs into the heroine, and the two of them go in together on a piece of Qinghua seed jade that looks like a dirty rock. When they cut it open, ink-black liquid splashes everywhere, turning a whole basin of clear water pitch-black. They are overjoyed: Xiao Ke’s eye was right once again. The heroine then goes on an expedition to Lop Nur with Driver Wen and Xinyue, a new friend of hers. Along the way, they face many more tests of human nature.