Free Web NovelChapter 42: Chapter 42: Bought a Worthless Stone
The stall had few customers, but plenty of raw stones. However, it was obvious they weren’t newly excavated; they’d been sitting there for a long time. Anyone with even a little knowledge of stone gambling would never pick materials from a place like this. They subconsciously believed that freshly unearthed stones had a higher chance of striking green. By comparison, these stones, which had already been picked over by others, had an even slimmer chance.
However, none of that applied to Seraphina Sterling! With her experience and skill, she could easily find a diamond in the rough. She might mistakenly pass over a piece of peerless jade, but she would never spend a fortune on a raw stone that contained nothing!
"Come on over and take a look, young lady. If you see something you like, I’ll give you a good price!" The chubby stall owner had an unfamiliar face; he was probably from a neighboring town.
"Seraphina, you’re not actually going to buy a stone to have it cut, are you?" Summer looked at Seraphina Sterling in surprise. While she knew Seraphina’s family wasn’t in dire straits like Willow Hale had claimed, spending so much money on a rock still seemed like such a waste!
"Sir, we’re just here for the fun of it. We’re only looking, not buying!" Mindy Linton, afraid Seraphina would get scammed, quickly turned the chubby stall owner down.
"Well, since you’re here for the fun of it anyway, you might as well look at my stones! They may not be fresh from the quarry, but the chance of striking green is still high, and they’re cheap. Take a look, pick one you like. They’re just a few hundred yuan each. If you buy one, I’ll even cut it for you for free. And if it really has green inside, you can sell it directly to those men in suits. They’ll definitely pay a high price for it!"
The chubby stall owner was a smooth talker. Seeing that Seraphina and her friends were just students, he tried to entice them with the prospect of easy money.
"Then let’s pick one. I still have the prize money I won from my exams!" Seraphina said with a warm smile, her two dimples making her look even more adorable. Seeing a potential sale, the chubby owner immediately beckoned Seraphina forward.
"This one’s too big. It must be expensive!"
"What kind of shape is this? It’s so strange."
"This one is just plain ugly. How could a stone this ugly possibly have beautiful jade inside?" frёeωebɳovel.com
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Seraphina looked around, being extremely picky and muttering critiques under her breath.
As soon as the chubby owner heard her, he knew Seraphina was a total amateur. He grew even bolder with his sales pitch, spinning tales about how bigger stones had a better chance of containing jade, or how heavier ones were more likely to yield a prize. Meanwhile, the stones he was recommending were ones you could tell at a glance had absolutely no chance of striking green.
"I think this one looks good!" Seraphina selected a raw stone about the size of a tissue box. ’After watching for so long,’ she thought, ’this is the only one at this entire stall that could possibly contain jade.’
"You may be young, but you’ve got a good eye, miss. This is the best stone I have at my stall. Since you’re students, I won’t ask for much—just a thousand yuan!"
"Boss, I only have three hundred yuan!" Seraphina pulled out three hundred-yuan bills and looked at him helplessly. Her meaning was clear: if he didn’t lower the price, she couldn’t buy it.
The chubby owner suddenly felt like a scholar trying to reason with a soldier—it was utterly pointless. A stone this size would normally sell for at least five thousand yuan, yet this young girl was only offering him three hundred! ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"Seraphina? Have you lost your mind? Three hundred yuan for a worthless rock! Even if you have the money, you can’t just throw it away like that!" Summer was a frugal girl. Even though her family owned a hotel, she never spent money recklessly.
"Yeah, Seraphina! We came here to look around, not to throw money away! I know it’s your scholarship money, but you can’t just spend it like this! Three hundred yuan could buy a decent down jacket. The winters here get really cold, and since this is your first one here, you’re definitely not used to it!" Mindy Linton also tried to get Seraphina to give up on the worthless rock.
"Right, Mia is right! Buying a down jacket is way better than buying a worthless rock!" Summer said, grabbing Seraphina’s arm and trying to pull her away.
The chubby owner saw how determined the two girls were and realized the sale he’d thought was in the bag was about to slip away. The thought that he hadn’t sold a single stone all day made him grit his teeth. With a heavy heart, he stomped his foot and agreed. At least it would be his first sale of the day!
"Alright, young lady, cash for the stone! But since I’m already selling this to you at a loss, I can’t cut it for you!" The chubby owner stared at the three hundred-yuan bills in his hand, his heart bleeding with every passing second. In his five years of reselling stones, this was the cheapest he had ever sold one for!
Seraphina didn’t say a word. ’This is perfect,’ she thought. ’If I really cut it open here and found jade, I’d have to worry about the owner going back on the deal.’
All the way there, Summer and Mindy Linton wouldn’t stop lecturing Seraphina. Seraphina just smiled and said nothing. ’After all,’ she thought, ’if it weren’t for them trying so hard to talk me out of it, I never would have gotten such a large stone for just three hundred yuan!’
The venue was packed with people, but there were very few who, like Seraphina, were walking around carrying a raw stone. Usually, the place that sells the stones also handles cutting them open. Stone gamblers are an impatient lot and want to know the results immediately, so vendors always have a stone-cutting artisan on hand. Therefore, Seraphina and her friends, carrying a large stone, drew quite a bit of attention.
"Seraphina Sterling! What are you doing here? And carrying a rock, no less! Don’t tell me you’re so broke you’ve lost your mind and think you can make money selling stones here?"
Sylvia Jennings had been jealous of Seraphina for a long time. ’Why should Seraphina, a mere transfer student, get into the advanced class while she was stuck in a regular one? Why should Seraphina be the object of the entire school’s envy and admiration, while she was forced to be nothing more than Willow Hale’s lackey? Now that the Hale Family had finally run into trouble and she had taken Willow Hale’s place, she was determined to crush Seraphina under her heel!’
Seraphina didn’t even glance at Sylvia Jennings. Her goal was to make big money; she didn’t have time to waste on small fries. Seraphina bypassed Sylvia and walked toward the stone-cutting artisan provided by the convention. However, it seemed the spot had been commandeered by the adjacent stall owner; many people who had bought stones there couldn’t get them cut in time and had been sent over.
All Seraphina could do was wait.
Seeing that she had been ignored, Sylvia Jennings immediately stepped in front of Seraphina and deliberately raised her voice. "Did you think you could sell just any old rock at the Stone Fair? Just picking up a random stone from the side of the road and trying to pass it off! Hmph! You can’t possibly think the people here are that easily fooled, can you? Let me tell you, I will absolutely not allow someone like you to ruin our school’s reputation and the reputation of Tollan Town!"
Sylvia Jennings spoke with righteous indignation, her words dripping with condemnation. Her performance successfully drew the crowd’s attention, and all eyes focused on Seraphina.
