Chapter 384
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Chapter 384: Diamonds
“Diamonds?”
Luo Ji smiled at the word, not with much surprise or elation, but simply a smile.
Standing below, Li Ke, without overthinking it, recounted Li Yuanjie’s initial discovery of diamonds.
This made Luo Ji smile even more broadly.
As an ordinary modern person, what adjectives first come to mind when hearing the word ‘diamond?’
Expensive, and valuable, these two adjectives undoubtedly dominate most thoughts.
Based on this, when an ordinary person suddenly discovers a diamond mine, they are naturally overjoyed and prone to acting foolishly like a nouveau riche.
Through Li Ke’s words, Luo Ji learned that one of the stupidest things Li Yuanjie did was to pave his bed with the excavated diamonds.
The fellow didn’t even seem to mind how uncomfortable it was.
But Li Yuanjie got one thing wrong, diamonds are a subtle thing.
To put it bluntly, if Luo Ji says a diamond is valuable, then it is valuable.
If Luo Ji says it’s just a glittering worthless stone, then it can only be a worthless stone.
In their early days, diamonds were cherished by aristocrats for their dazzling appearance and scarcity, becoming symbols of power, status, and wealth.
No one dislikes beautiful things, and scarce production further increased the diamonds’ value.
After all, many things in this world can have their value boosted to some extent simply by adding words like ‘limited edition,’ ‘rare,’ or ‘unique.’
So how did they become popular in the Celestial Dynasty later on?
To put it bluntly and harshly, it was due to a worship of foreign things.
Of course, it can also be understood as a victory of marketing.
“A diamond is forever,” many people must have heard this advertising slogan, right?
And once upon a time, they were even brainwashed by this advertisement.
It was precisely this marketing that completely established the image of diamonds as precious and eternal.
Subsequently, an overwhelming influx of advertisements directly linked diamonds with ‘love,’ ‘faithfulness,’ and ‘marriage.’
When proposing to a woman, bringing a small diamond ring could dramatically increase your success rate.
Because for women, a diamond ring could satisfy their vanity and allow them to bask in the envious gazes of those around them, while also proving the man’s faithfulness and love for her.
Of course, the larger the diamond, the better, and the larger it was, the more it proved his love.
The establishment of this concept made the Celestial Dynasty suddenly the country with the highest demand and sales of diamonds in the world at that time.
But let’s delve beneath the surface and examine the essence. In fact, the larger the diamond, the only thing it could prove was how much money the man had.
Of course, having money is very important, which is why the diamond market has not been as prosperous in recent years.
This is because the Celestial Dynasty people now prefer to give cars and houses for weddings.
Li Yuanjie, though a bit foolish, evidently discovered the true nature of diamonds after some time.
After all, in this era, there were no unscrupulous merchants to market these diamonds.
The beastmen under his command looked at him holding a pile of glittering stones and foolishly grinning, making him appear increasingly idiotic
It was impossible not to notice, so gradually, Li Yuanjie simply tossed those diamonds into a warehouse and ignored them.
Now, Luo Ji asked Li Ke to retrieve those diamonds.
It must be said, there was quite a substantial quantity.
Presumably, upon their initial discovery, Li Yuanjie was overjoyed, wasting considerable effort to mine the raw diamonds and even more effort to polish them into finished diamonds.
However, the craftsmanship of this era was limited, and the diamonds themselves looked incredibly rough.
Despite this, they still emitted dazzling light under the sun.
Yet, after admiring this brilliance for a moment, Luo Ji casually tossed the thumb-sized diamond, which would surely drive many people crazy in modern times, onto the table.
These diamonds were indeed brilliant and eye-catching.
However, stripped of the layers of meaning bestowed upon them, Luo Ji quickly felt a sense of aesthetic fatigue.
To put it pretentiously, this thing was too superficial, vulgar, incredibly elaborate in appearance, but conveying nothing.
It was merely a facade, far less appealing than the black jade carp he held daily or the jade thumb ring on his thumb.
Of course, given the current situation, Luo Ji didn’t mind marketing these diamonds to achieve his goal of stimulating commercial development in the beastmen tribes.
“Oh?”
As he pondered this, a flash of unusual color from the small basket of diamonds caught his eye.
Luo Ji reached in and rummaged, quickly pulling out a sky-blue diamond.
Holding it up to the sun, the blue diamond immediately radiated brilliant colors.
“This one isn’t bad. It’s just too big. It would be suitable for a crown or a scepter, but if used for jewelry, it might look a bit vulgar.”
With this thought, Luo Ji’s lips curled into a slight smile.
He told a nearby guard to pick up a stone from outside, then aimed at the blue diamond on the table and slammed down with force.
Diamonds are indeed known as the hardest minerals in the world, but their toughness is insufficient.
In other words, they cannot withstand heavy impact and are easily shattered with a strong blow.
Thus, that blue diamond, which in modern society would be among the top few in the world by size, met its end at the hand of a casually picked-up stone by Luo Ji.
After striking it, Luo Ji casually tossed the stone aside, then fiddled with his fingers, selecting two pieces of roughly the right size.
“Not bad, not bad. These two will do.”
As he murmured to himself, Luo Ji quickly took out a piece of paper.
While drawing on it, he casually asked.
“He Liang, how are the silver mines discovered 2 months ago progressing with their excavation and research?”
“According to reports from below, it’s going very smoothly, Your Majesty.”
“Excellent.”
Luo Ji nodded in satisfaction, then handed the drawn design and the two blue diamonds to one of his nearby guards.
“The methods for cutting and polishing diamonds, and the styles, are all on this design.”
“Go find the best craftsman in Myriad World Civilization and have him work with silver to make those two blue diamonds into earrings.”
“As for the rest…”
At this point, Luo Ji glanced at the pile of ‘debris’ on his table.
The once whole blue diamond was now shattered into pieces, large and small.
The larger pieces, in modern times, would likely still fetch an astronomical price.
Discarding them like this seemed a bit wasteful.
After pondering for a moment, Luo Ji finally made a decision.
“The rest will be made into a bracelet.”
