Earth, early November 2025. Westeros, early November 298 Aegon's Calendar.
Luke's figure once again appeared in the prosperous southern city of Yangcheng.
Unlike the air of rust, blood, and ambition in Westeros, here the atmosphere was filled with the clamor of a modern tropolis, the fragrance of tea, and a more refined comrcial vibe.
His destination was Pingzhou, Yangcheng's famous jadeite distribution center.
Soon, a modest but notable piece of business news began circulating in local circles: a mysterious buyer had acquired the long-established "Li Family Jade Appraisal and Carving Company" for a full ten million dragon yuan in cash and renad it "Icefire Jewels Co., Ltd."
Icefire Jewels Co., Ltd. was Luke's first official enterprise on Dragon Kingdom soil, with him holding 100% of the shares.
Inside the company's original premises, in a reception room decorated in classical style with the traditional charm of a jade shop, the atmosphere was subtly tense.
Li Chun—the gentle, elegant girl Luke had t twice before—had already graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. She had planned to inherit the family business, only to discover that the "family business" had already changed hands.
Dressed in a professional suit, she stood to the side brewing gongfu tea with practiced grace. Her gaze, however, kept drifting involuntarily toward the young man seated at the head of the table chatting and laughing with her grandfather. Two faint, almost imperceptible blushes crept across her pretty face.
Master Li, the chief carver and forr pillar of the company, still looked energetic, yet his brows carried the fatigue of a businessman who had lost ground and the cautious scrutiny of a man eting his new boss.
He took a sip of tea and sighed. "Boss Lu, you really are young and accomplished. The mont I saw those few rough stones you brought last ti, I knew you had excellent taste. I never expected you to beco my boss so quickly."
Luke waved his hand modestly. "You're too kind, Master Li. What boss? I'm just an ordinary man who got a bit lucky. Those jade pieces back then were pure coincidence."
"Even my trip to Arica was just stepping in dog shit and stumbling upon that red diamond… I really don't have any special skills. It's all luck. Please, just call Little Lu. It feels more friendly."
Both grandfather and granddaughter looked slightly strange at those words.
Luck? Coincidence? Stepping in dog shit?
A top-grade jadeite worth over a hundred million—pure coincidence?
A "red diamond of the century" worth hundreds of millions of dollars—stumbled upon by accident?
This wasn't just "good luck." It was as if the Goddess of Fortune had moved her entire house into his pocket!
This kid must be the Goddess of Fortune's secret lover!
The Goddess of Fortune was probably under him right now… getting fucked hard!
Master Li had lived most of his life and seen many storms. He believed in skill and insight far more than pure luck.
Li Chun, however, blinked her large eyes. Their new boss was not only young, handso, and shockingly wealthy—he was also incredibly "humble." He was… really special.
Master Li shook his head and spoke seriously. "Since you had the boldness to buy our company, you are naturally the boss. There are so things I must tell you plainly."
He sighed. "To be honest, this company… has actually been struggling for a long ti. If you hadn't brought those top-grade jade pieces in May and let us recover so face at the auction, we would have closed our doors back then."
He gestured toward the sowhat quiet street scene outside the window. "The jadeite market right now… the mid- and low-end segnts are oversaturated, viciously competitive, and profits are paper-thin. As for the high-end market, it's 'prices exist but no goods.' Real top materials are getting rarer, prices are sky-high, and there are constant 'technological tricks' and scams stirring up the waters. Many longti clients have grown cold and are holding their money, waiting and watching."
The old man's tone carried a senior's earnest advice. "Little Lu, you have money. Why not do sothing else? Internet, new energy—anything would be better than jadeite right now. You're being foolish!"
Luke listened quietly the whole ti, a gentle smile never leaving his face.
Only after Master Li finished did he speak unhurriedly. "Master Li, I understand all the difficulties you ntioned. But my view might differ from yours a little."
He picked up his teacup and gently stroked the warm surface. "The mid- and low-end market is indeed severely involuted with razor-thin profits. But the high-end market, as you said, is exactly 'prices exist but no goods.'"
"'Prices exist' ans that the collectible and investnt value of top-grade jadeite has never wavered among people with real vision and capital. In fact, it continues to rise as resources dwindle."
"'No goods' is precisely our opportunity… if we have a stable, high-quality supply of premium materials."
"We won't touch the low end. We only do high end!"
"Supply?" Master Li smiled bitterly. "Easier said than done! The Myanmar public auctions are a bloodbath. Prices are insane and the risks are huge."
"Private channels… the water is too deep. Real and fake are hard to tell apart. Even if you get the genuine article, transport, customs, taxes—every step is full of trouble."
Luke smiled without directly contradicting him. He simply dropped a piece of information: "You don't need to worry too much about the supply issue, Master Li. I have… so rather special connections in Myanmar. I can't say we'll have unlimited top-grade rough, but maintaining the high-end line for our company should not be a problem."
Master Li remained skeptical.
Special connections?
In the deep, shark-infested waters of the jadeite trade, anyone who dared speak so confidently was either truly connected at the highest levels… or a reckless fool who didn't know the depth of the water.
Looking at Luke's young yet unusually steady face, he couldn't quite tell which.
Over the next week, Luke partially dispelled Master Li's doubts through action.
He took the old man, under the na of the newly established "Icefire Jewels," on a personal trip to Myanmar.
They did not attend the smoke-filled public auctions. Instead, through several seemingly legitimate yet faintly "mysterious" interdiary channels, they purchased batches of jadeite rough totaling over fifty million dragon yuan.
Throughout the process, Luke moved with practiced ease, as if he already knew every back door.
What surprised Master Li even more was how excessively complete all the paperwork was.
Myanmar export permits, Dragon Kingdom customs import approvals, full tax paynt certificates—everything was in perfect order.
Moreover, Luke insisted on full "sunshine" declaration. He proactively requested customs inspection, professional valuation, and paid the substantial duties and VAT according to the law.
"This… this raises the cost a lot!" Master Li privately reminded him.
Many insiders cut corners on customs to protect profit margins. Luke's completely above-board, full-tax approach would severely compress profit margins under current market conditions.
Luke rely smiled calmly. "Master Li, we are in this for the long term. We want peace of mind. Every tax that should be paid will be paid in full."
Master Li fell silent. He had gained a new understanding of his new boss's style: bold, yet exceptionally cautious and rule-abiding.
More than a week later, the sealed, fully docunted rough stones finally arrived safely at the company warehouse in Pingzhou.
That night…
The warehouse was cleared. Only Luke and Master Li remained.
Under the lights, piles of burlap sacks and wooden crates gave off the distinctive earthy sll of raw jadeite.
Master Li rubbed his hands together, eager to examine the new batch of "gambling stones."
Although he still had reservations about Luke's "connections," professional instinct made him curious about any stone.
At that mont, however, Luke took several items wrapped in soft cloth from an unassuming black briefcase and placed them gently on the nearby workbench.
"Master Li, take a look at these first," Luke said.
Master Li unwrapped the cloth with curiosity. The mont he saw what was inside, he froze as if struck by a petrification spell!
They were three pieces of unworked jadeite rough!
Each was only fist-sized, yet the water, the color… they looked as if they had been cut straight out of a top-tier jewelry catalog!
One was an intense, vivid, perfectly even Imperial Green of glass transparency, glowing with fluorescence and completely flawless.
One was a misty, dreamlike Royal Purple of icy transparency, the purple rich and uniform, noble and mysterious.
The last was a rare Yellow Jadeite, the color like ripened honey, icy and glutinous in texture, fine and warm to the touch.
With Master Li's decades of experience, he could tell at a glance that each of these three pieces was worth a fortune!
Especially the Imperial Green—it was heirloom-grade. Anyone who wanted to bid would need at least several tens of millions and still feel embarrassed about the price!
"This… this…"
Master Li's voice trembled. His fingers wanted to touch them but dared not. He suddenly looked up at Luke, eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
"Boss! Where… where did these co from? Our stones are still in the sacks unopened! These… I have never seen material like this! The quality is too good! Too good to be real!"
Faced with Master Li's near-frantic questioning, Luke did not answer imdiately.
He simply walked to the other side of the workbench, picked up one of the unremarkable rough stones they had just brought back from Myanmar, weighed it in his hand, then looked back at the three flawless pieces. The corners of his mouth curved into a aningful, almost wicked smile.
He turned around and gazed steadily at Master Li. His expression was calm, yet it seed able to pierce straight into a person's soul.
Master Li felt a chill run down his spine.
The warehouse fell so quiet that only the hum of the ventilation fan could be heard.
In that instant, he understood everything… Fuck, soone was "washing" jadeite!
He didn't dare ask, and he didn't dare say!
Could it be… an even more "special" channel?
Or perhaps… connecting it with Luke's earlier "lucky find" of the priceless red diamond, an even more outrageous yet strangely plausible thought surged up uncontrollably.
Was capital playing a long ga? Using this kid as a puppet, betting behind the scenes on what he would do next?
Was this the world of The Truman Show, and this kid was Truman?
Master Li's mind was in a storm.
Luke neither confird nor denied it.
He simply looked at Master Li in silence until fine beads of sweat appeared on the old man's forehead and his eyes shifted from shock and doubt to a kind of enlightened dread and silence.
So things did not need to be spoken aloud!
"Master Li, in the future, more 'special material' like this will continue to be 'opened' by us!"
"You are not only a master carver, but also a master of the city. You possess a pair of eyes that can see through everything… You are the male lead of a Dragon Kingdom urban legend novel!"
Luke finally spoke, his voice calm yet carrying unquestionable authority.
Master Li's eyes beca as clear as a fresh graduate's. He pointed at himself. "Am I really that aweso?"
"Yes. If I say you're aweso, then you are aweso!"
"What we need to do is use the 'Icefire Jewels' platform, along with your craftsmanship and reputation, to let these pieces 'reasonably' appear on the market, turn them into exquisite works of art, and transform them into legitimate wealth."
"Every procedure that needs to be followed, every tax that needs to be paid—not a single cent will be missing. We are here for long-term, stable, clean business. Do you understand?"
"This is the real reason I bought this jewelry company!"
Master Li took several deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the turbulent waves in his heart.
He looked at the three breathtakingly beautiful pieces of jadeite, then at the young boss before him—far too young, yet shrouded in layer upon layer of mystery.
He knew he had been pulled into a secret far beyond his imagination.
But at the sa ti, as an old craftsman whose skills were on the verge of being lost and who had a lifelong obsession with top-grade jade, these three pieces exerted a fatal attraction on him.
After a long silence, Master Li slowly nodded, his voice a little hoarse. "I… understand, boss. These old bones of mine can still wield a carving knife. Leave these stones to ."
He knew that from this mont on, "Icefire Jewels" would no longer be an ordinary jadeite company.
And his own fate would be tightly bound to this mysterious young boss.
Besides acquiring Icefire Jewels, Luke's dostic layout had not stopped.
He quickly registered another company—"Lu's Cross-Border Trade Co., Ltd."—and acquired or rged more than a dozen cross-border logistics and supply-chain companies in the two major cities of Yangcheng and Pengcheng. The business scope covered import and export of all kinds of goods.
The company publicly claid it was coordinating with his "Lu International Trading Company" in Arica to integrate supply chains and optimize logistics.
Only Luke knew that one of the true core purposes of these companies was to build a complex yet seemingly compliant comrcial network.
It would provide layered cover and transit channels for moving Earth supplies to Westeros and "legitimizing" Westerosi treasures into Earth.
Bulk-purchased grain, tools, and building materials could be ordered, transported, and warehoused through the trading companies, then "reasonably" disappear at certain links.
Westerosi gold, silver, gems, and special raw materials could be introduced and monetized through "Icefire Jewels" or other future "art" and "antique" companies.
Every economic activity would strictly follow the laws and regulations of each country. Declarations would be made, taxes would be paid—no obvious loopholes would be left.
He was not after the small profits of tax evasion. What he wanted was a safe, continuous, and controllable exchange channel between the two worlds' resources.
Money had already beco re numbers to him. He pursued far grander goals.
These companies were the necessary "pipelines" and "converters" hidden beneath the cloak of legitimate business that would help him achieve those goals.
The neon lights of Yangcheng flickered outside the window, illuminating the side of Luke's thoughtful face.
The struggle and construction in Westeros were in full swing, while his comrcial layout on Earth was quietly unfolding.
Under his precise control, the gears of the two worlds shed ever more tightly, providing endless power and cover for his growing ambition.
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