Chapter 148 Emotion
Translator: 549690339
The weather in Yanjing was a bit cool by mid-September.
As the weather cooled down, the number of pedestrians walking on the streets also increased.
With more pedestrians, the clientele of the shops increased as well.
The “Qingyu” jewelry store, located near the Imperial Academy, was doing much better business than in the summer. Thanks to its good reputation, many people came here specifically to buy jade and jewelry.
By noon, the number of customers had slightly decreased, allowing the employees who had been busy all morning to finally catch their breath. Good business meant high sales, and with more jade and jewelry sold, they earned higher commissions. Although busy, the employees were quite happy.
Taking advantage of the relatively few customers at noon, many employees were busy eating their lunch.
Just as many employees were having lunch, a tall woman in a long dress, sporting sunglasses and a sun hat, got out of a very understated Audi A4.
Behind her, not far off, followed another woman, also wearing sunglasses and dressed in black.
The woman in black maintained a distance of about five meters from the woman in the long dress. The woman in the long dress walked directly into the “Qingyu” jewelry store, but the woman in black didn’t follow; instead, she stood guard outside the shop’s entrance.
Seeing a customer arrive, a sales assistant immediately came forward to greet her and warmly asked what type of jewelry or trinkets she wanted to buy.
“I am looking for Sir Huang, Huang Yunze,” said the woman in the long dress as she took off her glasses, revealing an incredibly beautiful face, “Is he in the shop?”
“Yes, yes,” the female employee who received her was so taken aback by the beautiful appearance of the girl in the dress that she paused for a moment before quickly leading the girl to a studio marked “No Admittance” and then said to another person who seemed to be a supervisor, “Mrs. Li, this lady is looking for Mr. Huang.”
“Please wait a moment,” said the supervisor, who, after taking a second look at the woman in the long dress and filled with astonishment, walked into the jade carving studio to call for Huang Yunze, the most respected master jeweler there.
Huang Yunze was an esteemed master jeweler employed at the store for a high salary, and he possessed a very high standing in the jewelry appraisal industry. Many television programs about jewelry appraisal had invited him as a guest.
However, not many people knew that he worked there, and those who came to find him were either people of extraordinary status or well-acquainted with Huang Yunze.
The girl in the long dress had asked for Huang Yunze by name, so the store supervisor did not dare to refuse and immediately went in to inform him.
After a short while, the white-haired Huang Yunze emerged from inside,
and the old man, wearing reading glasses, was visibly shocked when he saw the young woman in a long dress.
“Miss, is it you? Please, come in and have a seat!” Seeing clearly who the woman in the long dress was, Huang Yunze hurriedly invited her inside.
The respectful manner of Sir Huang greatly surprised the supervisor standing aside.
There weren’t many people who received such a courteous treatment from Sir Huang, which indicated that the identity of the beautiful girl must be very unusual.
The woman in the long dress followed Huang Yunze into the jade carving studio, and he immediately closed the door behind them.
“Miss, what brings you to seek this old man today?” Huang Yunze said with a smile as he looked at the beautiful girl who had taken off her hat, “If you need anything, just a phone call would suffice; why bother coming here in person?”
The woman in the long dress replied with a smile, “I came here today to ask Sir Huang to appraise a piece of jade I’ve just acquired!”
As she spoke, she took a small box out of her bag and handed it to Huang Yunze.
Huang Yunze solemnly took the rather plain box from the woman in the long dress and opened it with a sense of puzzlement.
As he opened the box, his eyes clearly paused for a moment, followed by a face full of disbelief.
“Miss, where did you get this piece of jade from?” Huang Yunze’s voice trembled slightly, and he looked quite excited.
“A friend gave it to me,” the girl in the long dress, seeing the change in Huang Yunze’s expression, couldn’t help but feel a bit surprised and didn’t conceal the truth. “He didn’t know what kind of jade it was, just came across it by chance. So, taking advantage of today’s free time, I came to have Sir Huang appraise it.”
“This is top-quality Red Jade, extremely precious. In my life, I’ve only seen it three times,” Huang Yunze suppressed the excitement in his heart, “The previous two pieces of top-quality Red Jade I saw were much smaller and didn’t have such good color!”
While speaking, Huang Yunze carefully picked up the jade and began examining it against the light.
After a few glances, he became even more excited, “This is top-quality Red Jade with excellent texture, something that has never appeared before. Miss, you are really fortunate to have acquired such a precious piece of jade!”
The girl in the long dress couldn’t help but show a look of surprise on her face: “Is this jade really as precious as you say?”
After carefully inspecting the jade for a while more, Huang Yunze said very solemnly to the girl in the long dress, “Based on my conservative estimate, even without polishing, this piece of jade is worth at least eight figures in the market, not less than twenty million. If it’s polished properly, crafted according to its texture into a pendant, the price will be even higher.”
“Oh my God!” the girl in the long dress exclaimed softly, looking incredulously at Huang Yunze, then back at the red piece of jade still in his hands, “Sir Huang, are you really certain?”
“Completely certain,” Huang Yunze nodded very firmly, “This is an extremely rare item, Miss must treasure it well!”
“Thank you Sir Huang, I understand,” the girl in the long dress thought for a while, then said to Huang Yunze, “Then please keep this jade here, and craft it into a pendant following the texture for me!”
“Please rest assured, Miss. I will polish it carefully and make a beautiful pendant for you,” he assured.
“Then I’ll be leaving now,” the girl in the long dress didn’t stay much longer, smiled at Huang Yunze, and then left the jewelry store.
When she left the jewelry store and returned to the inconspicuous Audi A4, the black-clothed woman who had been waiting at the shop’s doorway also got back into the car. The girl in the long dress sat in the back, with the black-clothed woman driving.
After getting into the car, the girl in the long dress didn’t speak or give any directions.
“Miss, shall we go back to school, or home?” Eventually the black-clothed woman couldn’t help but ask.
“Back to school,” the girl in the long dress sighed, and took out her phone from her bag.
She opened WeChat, found a contact marked “Luo Ziling,” typed out a message, but then just sat there.
After thinking it over, she eventually didn’t press the send button and instead deleted everything she had written.
“Better not say anything at all, anything I say would be superfluous!”
Meanwhile, as she was caught in her indecision, Luo Ziling, who had just finished the morning’s military training, was having lunch with the three guys from his dorm.
“Boss, considering you’ve been quite undisciplined recently and haven’t treated us like brothers, we’ve decided that you need to be punished,” Cao Jianhui said indignantly while eating, glancing at the group of young girls who occasionally looked in their direction: “Unless you treat us to a big meal tonight, we’re not going to keep treating you like our boss.”
Li Fuming and Wu Longjiang immediately joined in the clamor, urging Luo Ziling to treat them to a lavish meal.
Luo Ziling eventually agreed, promising them to have a big meal together that evening.
But no one expected that the evening meal would lead to quite a big commotion.