Lady Lin's First-ever Journey to Immortality
chapter-53

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Gem washings along the Nangu River locates on the Sino-Burmese border area. Nangu River is one of the tributaries of Nanwan River, and a gem and jade zone which is a part of the Sino-Burmese gem and jade belt lies on its upper stream.

A nice ore belt which produces ruby and emerald lies along the Nangu River right between Ruili and Burma. For hundreds of years, dozens of large or small gem washings have opened in this area. However, gems there are sporadic and the mining cost is high, which lead to the close-down of all the gem washings.

Nevertheless, there actually are gems in this area. People in Ruili have a good idea— They manage to turn the mine field into a pleasure ground!

After paying the entrance fee, you can get a full set of tools and go gem-washing by the Nangu River. Players can take away all the ruby or sapphire they find within two hours.

The gem washings beside Nangu River can also help people process and appraise gem and jade. Also, they only sell real gem here.

Liu Zheng pays the entrance for both of them while telling Lin Luoran about the rules here.

Fifty yuan for each person, and they can use the tools for two hours and take away all the gem they find.

This is a place of pleasure. Seeing all those beautiful gems and couples holding hands, Lin Luoran feels a little embarrassed. Why does Liu Zheng choose to bring her here?

This place is nice. However, it is so misleading.

“Come on. We only have two hours.” Liu Zheng smiles at Lin Luoran with a fine basket in his hand which is used to screen the sand. Liu Zheng looks younger, as if he is no longer the strict and gentle young boss of Liu’s.

Lin Luoran smiles back. She casts her restraints aside and follows Liu Zheng into the gem washings.

It has been three days since the stone gambling. All the other traders have left early, so do Liu Zheng’s uncle. He goes back with many raw stones, including five leftover stones Lin Luoran buys from the Burmese man privately with 1 million yuan.

Liu Zheng brings Lin Luoran here to fulfill his promise of showing her around Ruili.

“How to use this?” Gem and jade are different. Lin Luoran can’t use Reiki to detect gem. For the first time, she looks at all the tools and doesn’t know where to start.

It seems that this is not Liu Zheng’s first time here. He neatly takes off his shoes and rolls up his trousers. Liu Zheng stands on the silver sand in the water and laughs, “Gems on the shore have long since being taken away by others. We have to walk a few steps in the water to find more gems.”

Lin Luoran takes off her boots, rolls up her trousers and goes into the water.

“The water is so cold!” Lin Luoran screams. She doesn’t expect the river water to be so cold since the weather in Ruili is nice.

Liu Zheng looks away and tries not to stare at Lin Luoran’s smooth calves. He explains, “Beautiful gems exist in the cold water. This is the marvel of nature.”

Stepping on the sand, Lin Luoran feels the warm sunlight in Ruili. She copies Liu Zheng’s action and digs into the sand with the basket.

The two of them dig in the shallow water for a while and find nothing. Lin Luoran laughs, “Seems that we don’t have the luck to find gem today.”

Lin Luoran is about to pour the sand in her basket while saying so. Liu Zheng holds her back on the wrist with his fast hands, “Don’t move!”

With a masculine hand with slender fingers grabbing her wrist, Lin Luoran freezes up because of the fervent male charm. A blush of red crawls behind her ears.

Holding Lin Luoran’s wrist, Liu Zheng picks out a black rectangle stone in the size of a fingernail from the sand inside of the basket.

“Who says we don’t have the luck? Isn’t this a sapphire?”

Lin Luoran looks at the random-shaped stone in Liu Zheng’s palm. She has a hard time connecting it with the shiny sapphires in the counter of Treasure House.

“This is…a sapphire?”

Seeing Lin Luoran’s surprise, Liu Zheng laughs, “It’s just like that jade is contained in raw stone. Before processing, gem looks exactly like this.”

He puts the stone in Lin Luoran’s hand, “You find it. You shall keep it.”

Lin Luoran grips the gem. Liu Zheng’s smell seems to be lingering around it, which makes her a little embarrassed. Later, they discover that Liu Zheng is still holding Lin Luoran’s wrist…

“Hee hee, where are you going!” A couple runs over them. The girl scoops up some water and pours on the boy. The boy runs beside Lin Luoran, laughing. Cold water splashes on Lin Luoran’s face. She subconsciously tries to dodge the water but slips—

“Ah…” The stone in her hand falls out. Somehow, Lin Luoran doesn’t want to lose it so she jumps out to catch it.

“Watch out!” Liu Zheng doesn’t know that Lin Luoran is trying to catch the stone. He just assumes that she loses her balance so he hurries to pull her back. Now Lin Luoran actually tumbles!

“Plop!” The two of them fall into the river!

Liu Zheng almost becomes Lin Luoran’s cushion and takes the impact of falling by himself. Even his gold-rimmed glasses are lost.

Lin Luoran wipes off the water on her face and notices that she and Liu Zheng are in an awkward position. She hurries to get up.

Liu Zheng is unaware of Lin Luoran’s embarrassment. Instead, he asks nervously, “Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself?”

Without the glasses, Liu Zheng’s eyes look like raw jade. Lin Luoran is stunned then comes to herself after hearing his questions.

“I’m alright. Where are your glasses?”

Liu Zheng finally notices that he can’t see things clearly. They fumble in the river and find his glasses, which luckily are not broken.

The young couple who causes the accident comes timidly to apologize, and they run away after being forgiven, holding hands.

Though their two hours are not up yet, Lin Luoran and Liu Zheng can’t keep searching for gems with the wet clothes. They go ashore ahead of time.

They change into new clothes and Liu Zheng leads Lin Luoran to the gem processing workshop nearby. The worker congratulates them with a smile, “This is a nice gem. You guys are lucky. I can make it into a ring for the lady as a souvenir. Is that ok?”

Liu Zheng thinks this is a good idea. He looks to Lin Luoran with an inquiring face.

Ring. Souvenir. Lin Luoran’s heart starts racing. She calms herself down and decides that she shall keep a distance from Liu Zheng because no matter how nice the man in front of her is, he is already engaged with Baojia.

“I think a pendant is better!”

Lin Luoran’s cold voice puts out the fire in Liu Zheng’s tender eyes.