The ninth grade in the United States is equivalent to the first year of high school in the Chinese education system, and it is now summer, which is supposed to be the summer vacation time, so the students who will be in the classroom are not formally in class, but participating in interest activities.

Principal John introduced that although there are not many students in this school, the students still organize some clubs, such as this mineral interest club, although it has only been established for seven or eight years, but it has already built a small mineral museum in the school.

“… Every year, some field activities are organized, but this time it is not, this time it is to organize students to visit Washington-Shengton.

I will leave tomorrow, and today is to make a pre-departure mobilization education, mainly to visit several museums, especially the National Museum of Natural History is the main goal of this trip..."

I see, the principal is quite proud of this, "We are a public school, and we have limited funds, so we can't support long-distance travel by relying on the school.

The school did not take a penny for the children's visit to Washington-Dhon, which Mr. Williams earned with the children in the previous year..."

Principal John accompanied Zhang Nan into a large classroom, where Zhang Nan already knew that the school's students were similar in population to the entire Battle Mount Garden, with the vast majority of the students being white, a small number of African-Americans, Latinos, Indians, and two Chinese-American students.

There are not many children from rich families, and small towns are relatively poor, and as for the small number of children from rich families, some of them are sent to study in big cities and do not stay in their local areas.

There is a virtue in the world, and if there is a condition, choose a school.

For Zhang Nan's arrival, the students of this interest group were warmly welcomed, and they did not jump out to find trouble.

This is not one of those prestigious schools that seem to be high, just a small western town, and there are a few students who are thorns, and when they meet the real richest man in the world, they will be bored and show themselves as if they are really not interested.

Maybe some students are unhappy with Zhang Nan, but do they dare to show it?

The principal accompanied people in, followed by two characters who understood at a glance that they were bodyguards, and the aura of this big man was still a little bit.

Unless it's a really heartless second fool, no one wants to take the initiative to find it unpleasant - this is the west, and the consequence of despising others is often to solve problems with firearms, and a fifteen or sixteen-year-old hairy kid who jumps out embarrasses Mr. Allen with words, so as to show his maverick in front of his classmates?

There may be such fools, but there is no such worldly masterpiece in this classroom.

The old routine, the big man told the students a few words about life ideals or something, but Zhang Nan didn't follow the routine, but took a chair and sat down to talk about minerals with the students.

Looking for minerals to earn study tour fees, it won't be gold, and students are unlikely to pan for gold, so what will it be?

Zhang Nan is the owner of a subordinate jewelry group and a large number of diamond mines, and guesses that the minerals found by the students should also be a kind of mineral, which seems to be produced in the western wilderness region of the United States.

Sure enough, the students were collecting stones in the mountains, stones that could be processed into jewelry: Mr. Williams was older than Principal John, looking in his 50s, not tall, lean, this body type is not common among Americans, and he unlocked the secret of making money for students for Zhang Nan.

"In the West, including Nevada and Arizona in the south, there has been an ancient profession since the time of the Civil War, the gem hunter.

These people are looking for gems in the wastelands and mountains of arid regions, and they are not limited to a certain variety, they are generally collected as long as they are beautiful stones, and even some beautiful red alabaster has a market.

Although our land in Battle Manting is barren, there are scattered olivines in the ravines in the southeast, and there are fire opal mines in the south, which are relatively scattered and have almost no value for large-scale industrial mining, but some can still be found in scattered collections.

The students of the interest group organized and set off on the holidays to take a carpet search, and basically every time there was a little bit of a gain..."

Hearing this introduction, Zhang Nan asked, "Then how to sell it?"

Williams explains: "There are specialized gem dealers who make regular purchases, usually every few months, and this is a fragmented industry in Nevada, where there are individual gem hunters who collect gems and buyers have their own regular customers.

Occasionally, we find a good quality stone, and we will deliver it to your door, to an auction company, to an auction, but this is rare. ”

Auction companies are not the top ones in the world, and there are many auction companies and auctions of all sizes in the United States, some of which are like parties in villages and selling old goods.

Zhang Nan asked a question tactfully: since gemstones are produced, why is it still relatively poor, why don't the poor make a career of looking for gemstones?

The answer is too fragmented.

If you become a professional gem hunter, unless you are lucky, you will only earn four or five thousand dollars a year, and it is not as easy as working on a ranch for a short time.

Students search according to their interests, adopt the customs of the Indians, and distribute them uniformly, and they can earn a few hundred dollars in less than a year, which is almost enough for the cost of a simple long-distance study tour.

There are no precious gems and diamonds produced in the United States, but some of its semi-treasures are quite beautiful, such as the fire opal that Mr. Williams said.

Last month, the interest group discovered a piece of fire opal, a large block of gray-brown sedimentary rock that can weigh more than 10 kilograms, wrapped in a few dotted, fiery red opals.

Zhang Nan didn't know much about Opal, and he wasn't very interested, but he also knew that the flame-colored fire opal was the most valuable in this opal, followed by the black opal, and then the white, milky white, and blue opal.

This Opal is also embedded in the stone, the largest may have twenty or thirty carats, because the fire Opal is more brittle, and the opal itself is brilliant in color, which is generally polished with the shape, and will not be worn out Standard Cut, such Opal has been very large, more cherished, and it is estimated that there will be 20 carats after completion.

Williams said the ore had been cut in the afternoon to see how big the opal could be, and if it was heavy enough, it would be taken to Washington to see if the seller could be contacted, and the money from the sale could be used to fund the interest group.

This Yang cutting is a bit similar to the jadeite gambling stone, this Zhang Nan is also interested in seeing, this is the scene cutting.

After more than an hour, all the fire opals that could be taken out of the ore were all released, and there were seven or eight grains, and the largest one could be more than 20 carats.

The unpolished rough stone is a bright bright red color in the water, almost completely transparent, and you can feel like you are looking at a small flame after a few glances!

Opal, the Chinese people are not very familiar with it, even people who know something about it do not call it opal, generally call it opal, it is a very interesting Western half treasure.

What's interesting is that its color will flash and change, but it is not that the more it flashes and the more powerful it becomes, the more expensive it becomes.

"How much is it worth?"

Zhang Nan was a little curious, holding the 20-carat hanging zero in his hand, which was also sharp and angular, and even asked Mr. Williams with a lot of rough stone slag on it - he can play with diamonds and gemstones, but he really doesn't know the price of this Western-style half-treasure like Fire Opal.

I didn't care about it before, it's just a half-treasure, and no one in the family particularly likes this thing; It's going to be a question to ask, don't be ashamed, in the western United States, then use the western way.

It was cut by Williams before, and this rough stone had already been seen through, and when he heard Zhang Nan's question, he said: "This one feels good in color and hardness, and it may be worth five or six thousand dollars." ”

Gem hunters, you still know the price.

Quite a few of them are first-hand amateur treasure hunters, like mines in the diamond industry, who don't make the price of finished jewelry in Manhattan's high-end jewelry stores.

It's very beautiful, Zhang Nan took it in his hand and looked at it a few more times, and said to the principal and Williams: "Sell me, 10,000 yuan, you can make a small pendant for my daughter, it's very beautiful, and you don't have trouble." ”

Zhang Nan is more pleasing to the eye of these teachers and students, even if he goes back to public welfare activities and helps the poor in the United States, he doesn't think about picking up cheap.

No problem, the interest group unanimously agreed to sell.

Before leaving, Zhang Nan told the principal and the students of the interest group that if there was time for this study tour, Xingchen Group invited them to go to New York after visiting Washington, and the itinerary and expenses of the second half of the study tour would be borne by their own company.

Before Principal John could say anything, the students in the classroom cheered!

Going to New York, the students are very interested.

The invitation to make his own opinion, Zhang Nan does not need to consider the feelings of other principals and teachers, he will do it when he thinks of it, this will have already reached a position where he can do whatever he wants except for a few things, just follow his own heart.

Principal John smiled, which means that the students thank Zhang Nan for the invitation.

Why not?

It is undesirable for a small public school in a poor area to catch the line of this super-rich man, and as for Zhang Nan, it can also be regarded as a trivial matter to establish a good relationship with the locals for the future mining in this vicinity.

Besides, it doesn't matter if it doesn't work, it's easy to get started, and the cost doesn't cost much, so I really think these students are good.

Xingchen Sunshine Group has a special outreach department, so the bodyguard gave the other party a phone number and asked for the school's contact information, and someone will contact them soon.

It took almost 3 hours in the school, and it was already an hour since a Cessna 560 was transferred to the airport - it would have been faster if it had been transferred from a Gulfstream 4, but although the Battelle Mount Airport was made of reinforced concrete, even the airport administrators said that they could not guarantee that there were no small stones and branches blown up by the strong wind on the runway.

No way, it is impossible to line up to patrol the runway every day if people don't have enough hands, and it is safer to take off and land here or honest and practical propeller aircraft, and the kind of delicate, luxurious, and high-grade Gulfstream 4 is better than don't come.