Failed Hype

In the past, Feng Jun had hated it when people called him poor. It was precisely because he lacked a financial foundation that he had broken up with his girlfriend.

Now that he had his strange encounter in hand, he no longer cared much about it—hardship was temporary, while the future was bright.

But when the other party said he had gone crazy from poverty, he was still a little unhappy. Still... that was exactly what he wanted.

So he sneered. "Reddish-brown blending into ink black—this stone isn't worth ten thousand? Do you even know anything about stones? If you don't, quit spouting nonsense. And if you do... have some shame, will you?"

He truly knew nothing about stones, but he surfed the internet regularly and had a Dual Degree in the humanities, so he had picked up some knowledge.

Besides, there had been stones everywhere in that river valley. He had only picked up a few—could there have been no reason for that?

What Wang Weimin valued was precisely why he had picked up this stone.

So while rare stones were difficult to appraise, everyone had a rough idea of whether a stone was good or bad. Some liked them, while others did not care much, which was why valuations differed.

Seeing Wang Weimin at a disadvantage, the class beauty could not help speaking up for him. "Didn't you say you weren't selling it? Now you're saying it's worth ten thousand?"

Feng Jun glared. "My stone was worth more than ten thousand to begin with. He insisted it was only worth a thousand, so I was just making an analogy... Hey, could someone please call the police?"

"You're sick!" Wang Weimin shot him a glare, stepped forward, snatched up the five hundred yuan, and turned to leave.

The moment he heard the words "reddish-brown blending into ink black," he knew he had misjudged this time. The other party clearly knew stones too, and offering five hundred yuan had indeed been taking advantage of him.

Of course, he did not think this stone was worth far more than ten thousand yuan. But with this sort of thing... there was no way to argue reason.

At the very least, in the eyes of most experts, this stone was worth far more than a thousand yuan.

In Yang City, Wang Weimin was not afraid of twisting logic, but he absolutely did not want to be exposed.

It was not that he could not handle trouble. It was just that making a huge fuss over such a small matter was not worth it at all... people would laugh at him.

Treasure-Gathering House might even suffer serious damage because of it—when dealing in jewelry and jade, reputation was fundamental. Without credibility, who would do business with you?

"Don't you dare leave!" Feng Jun shouted, hopping madly, but the man only walked faster.

The class beauty looked around, saw that no one was paying attention to her, and slipped away along the wall with her head lowered.

No one stopped them. These days, everyone kept their heads down when trouble did not concern them.

"This isn't over!" Feng Jun shouted into the crowd. "Go eat prison food at the police station... friends, I'll trade this stone for that man's name and address!"

Someone in the crowd heckled, "Kid, give us cash. We don't want the stone!"

They were all pretty clever, Feng Jun secretly sighed, though his expression remained unchanged. "If it's cash, I can only offer ten thousand. Just don't complain about taking a loss."

No one there was blind. The moment he said that, it confirmed that his stone was worth at least ten thousand.

Should they ask for cash or the stone? Some people began to hesitate.

Ah, quit overthinking it. The important thing was to find out that man's name and address first.

As for what reward to choose... there would be time to think about that when they collected it.

Of course, everyone had to photograph the stone too, lest it get swapped out later.

Someone even reached out to weigh the stone in their hand, silently memorizing its texture.

After all, no one was stupid these days. Nobody made a move without seeing the profit first.

Someone even reached for Feng Jun's bag, wanting to know what else was inside.

Feng Jun shrugged the hand away, gave the middle-aged man a cold look, and turned to leave.

Soon after, someone wanted to ask for his contact information, only to discover that he had already disappeared.

Feng Jun had no idea what results this little performance would bring. Still, people who ate at fast-food restaurants were usually fairly trendy. They used Moments, social feeds, and the like—surely someone would make a post about it?

The facts proved that he had overthought things again. The news did not make the slightest splash online. It was a trivial matter; without major influencers, paid posters, or promotion, there was no way to hype it up.

There were, however, two posts on Yang City's online community—Yang City Hotline—and each had only a dozen or so replies.

In one of the posts, an ID stated that they were willing to pay ten thousand yuan to buy the stone. "...If you are interested in selling, please contact Treasure-Gathering House Jewelry Store. Phone number: XXXXXXXX."

Feng Jun never visited Yang City Hotline. He did not have that habit.

That afternoon, he went to Antique Street and asked about the prices of his other stones. But he was a complete unfamiliar face, so the offers he received were predictable. Some even said, "If you think this stone is too heavy to carry, you can put it down. But don't expect to get any money for it!"

After wandering around for half a day, he finally came to his senses: I never should have come to Antique Street!

Besides, these stones did indeed look a little amateurish.

Feng Jun returned to the hotel for another night. The next day, he changed his strategy. He took half of the jade box to ask for quotes, and instead of going to Antique Street, he went straight to jewelry stores.

After another day of running around, he made a small gain. The jewelry stores recognized the jade—regardless of its shape, they were willing to buy the jade itself.

Their offers varied. The lowest was eight thousand, while the highest was twelve thousand.

Feng Jun felt there was some padding in those offers. He did not intend to sell for an outrageous price, but he could not take too much of a loss either, could he?

What he did not know was that early that morning, someone who knew him had noticed him in Moments.

They could not really be called acquaintances. They had only met twice—strictly speaking, three times. It was that girl who was rather good at fighting.

The girl was named Xia Xiaoyu. She saw someone post a video in Moments: "A local Yang City oddity: O mighty Moments, can anyone tell me whether this stone is really worth ten thousand?"

She tapped it open and felt that the stone really... probably... might not be... Sigh, everyone who played with stones was crazy.

Wait, why did this guy who was nearly robbed look a little familiar?

The video was blurry and shook badly. Most of the time, it focused on the stone. Even Wang Weimin got more screen time than Feng Jun.

But she still seized the opportunity. The video in Moments could not be paused, so she saved it to her phone. That did the trick.

"Isn't this that... that Feng Jun from Hongjie Club?"

She had always been grateful to Feng Jun. Although she had treated him poorly when she went to the club that time, it was because Liu Shuming had disgusted her. In truth, she knew very well that if Feng Jun had not stepped in that day, she would not only have suffered an immediate loss, but might even have been humiliated.

Young girls her age cared greatly about their dignity. No matter what price they had to pay, they were unwilling to endure such humiliation.

So later that afternoon, Xia Xiaoyu went to Hongjie Club and specifically asked to see Feng Jun.

At first, no one at Hongjie Club paid attention to her. Why? It was simple: she had sent Liu Shuming to the police station!

Although many people at the club disliked Coach Liu, they had still been coworkers. They could not help feeling some shared resentment—she was formidable, and they could not afford to provoke her, but could they not at least avoid her?

In the end, Zhao Qi came in from outside and said with barely concealed delight, "Him? He was fired."

Xia Xiaoyu was greatly surprised and immediately pressed for the reason, but Zhao Qi said he did not know. "Go ask our lobby manager."

Guo Yueling also found this girl rather troublesome, but she had to show some responsibility and could not push everything onto the boss, so she roughly explained what had happened.

The moment Xia Xiaoyu heard that Feng Jun had been fired because of this incident, she became upset. "Aren't you making me look like someone who repays kindness with ingratitude? Are you deliberately making things difficult for me?"

Manager Guo could only say, "I have no personal grudge against him. This was our boss's decision."

"I'll go find your boss," Xia Xiaoyu said angrily as she left.

Red Sister was not at the club. She did not return until after six in the evening. Xia Xiaoyu had long since grown impatient, and she marched up to her and fired off a barrage of questions. The general point was simple... others might not know, but did Red Sister not know what Feng Jun had done?

But how could Society's Red Sister possibly be stumped by a female student? Wasn't society best at crushing all kinds of students?

She calmly said that there were other reasons behind this matter. Hongjie dismissing an employee was also an internal company matter, and outsiders need not interfere.

Then she changed the subject. She knew Feng Jun had helped Xia Xiaoyu, and the company had considered that as well. They had thought that if he came to Xia Xiaoyu for help, then as long as she was willing to step forward, his job could be saved. But... it seemed that he had not asked her for help, right?

Xia Xiaoyu truly was a student girl. The question made her quite embarrassed—Feng Jun had really ignored her.

So she asked again, "Then do you know where he went?"

Red Sister did not care much about her, so she answered bluntly, "We fired him. Why would we need to worry about where he went?"

Xia Xiaoyu could not stand that. "You think I don't carry enough weight, right? Do you want me to find someone important enough to speak to you?"

Red Sister was a little unhappy as well. "I know you're with that little girl from the Yu family. Are you trying to use her to pressure me? Let me tell you, this happened precisely because someone wanted to curry favor with the Yu family!"

The person who had contacted her was a deputy director from the Yang City Sports Department. He wanted to curry favor with the Yu family but did not know where to begin, so he helped the Yu family's young lady stand up for herself. He wanted a topic to discuss when he met the Yu family later.

Given Red Sister's influence, she did not care much about a deputy director from a municipal bureau. However, although he was only a deputy, he was with the Sports Department and directly oversaw Hongjie's business operations. If he wanted to make trouble for Hongjie, it would be far too easy.

Secondly... this was not a major matter, truly not. It was merely the dismissal of an insignificant waiter.

If anyone truly tried to damage Hongjie's foundation, Red Sister would not mind letting them experience her strength.

Red Sister naturally regretted losing Feng Jun as well, but the young man was too poor at handling people. To protect such an insensitive employee, she would have to risk offending the deputy director. To make that choice would be rather idiotic...

Everyone chose their own path. In her view, Feng Jun himself was mainly to blame for things developing to this point.

Red Sister had not realized that Manager Guo had played a role in fanning the flames.

After hearing this reasoning, Xia Xiaoyu was a little dizzy, but she had to admit that it seemed... somewhat reasonable.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "Fine, I admit what you said makes sense, but... I want to know where he is now."