Unsuccessful Hype

In the past, Feng Jun disliked 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 a miraculous encounter in his hands, he didn't mind it as much—hardships were temporary, and the future was bright.

However, when the other party said he was "poor to the point of insanity," he was still a bit displeased, but... it actually played right into his hands.

So, he sneered, "Ochre red bleeding into ink wash—you think this stone isn't worth ten thousand? Do you know anything about stones? If you don't, stop spouting nonsense. If you do... can you have some shame?"

He didn't actually know much about stones, but he surfed the internet often and, as a dual-degree holder in liberal arts, he had a bit of knowledge stored away.

Especially since there were so many stones in that river valley; he had only picked up a few, so could there be no reason for it?

The aspect that Wang Weimin valued was precisely the reason he had picked up this stone.

Therefore, while rare stones are difficult to value, everyone has a general idea of whether a stone is good or bad; it's just that because some people like them and others don't care, discrepancies in valuation arise.

Seeing that Wang Weimin was being put on the defensive, the class beauty couldn't help but chime in to take his side, "Didn't you just say you weren't selling? Now you're saying ten thousand?"

Feng Jun glared, "My stone was never worth just ten thousand; it was him who insisted it was only worth one thousand, so I was just making a comparison... Say, would someone mind helping me call the police?"

"You're sick!" Wang Weimin glared at him, stepped forward, snatched up the five-hundred-yuan note, and turned to walk away.

When he heard the words "ochre red bleeding into ink wash," he knew he had misjudged the situation this time. The other party was clearly also someone who played with stones, and offering five hundred was truly bullying him.

Of course, he didn't believe this stone was worth far more than ten thousand, but in matters like this... there was no reasoning with people.

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

In the territory of Yang City, Wang Weimin wasn't afraid of twisted arguments, but he didn't want to be exposed at all.

It wasn't that he couldn't handle the situation, but making a scene over such a trivial matter was simply not worth it... it wasn't enough to be laughed at by others.

Jubaozhai might even suffer a blow to its foundation because of this—in the jewelry and jade business, reputation is everything. Without a reputation, who would do business with you?

"If you've got guts, don't run!" Feng Jun shouted while jumping on his heels, but that guy walked even faster.

The class beauty looked left and right, and finding that no one was paying attention to her, she lowered her head and slipped away along the wall.

No one went to stop them; these days, everyone follows the "mind your own business" philosophy.

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

Someone in the crowd heckled, "Young man, give us cash instead; we don't want the stone!"

They were all quite sharp, Feng Jun sighed inwardly, but his face remained calm, "If it's cash, I can only give ten thousand; don't complain if you lose out."

The crowd was not easily fooled; once he said that, it confirmed that his stone was worth at least ten thousand.

Should they want the cash, or should they want the stone? Some people began to waver.

Sigh, stop overthinking it; finding out that man's name and address is what really matters.

As for which reward to choose... it wouldn't be too late to decide when it came time to collect the bounty.

Of course, everyone had to take photos of what this stone actually looked like, just to avoid it being swapped later.

Some people even reached out to weigh the stone, silently memorizing its texture.

In any case, there were no fools these days; everyone was cautious until they saw the prize.

Someone even reached out to grab Feng Jun's bag, wanting to see what else was inside.

Feng Jun shrugged his shoulder, gave the middle-aged man a cold look, and turned to walk away.

Immediately after, someone wanted to ask for his contact information, only to find that he could no longer be found.

Feng Jun didn't know what kind of result this show would have, but people who came to eat at fast-food restaurants were usually quite trendy. Between chatting on social media feeds and posting on social diaries, there had to be some posts, right?

As it turned out, he had overthought it again. This news didn't cause a single ripple online. It was a trivial matter; without big influencers, paid posters, or promotion, it couldn't be hyped up at all.

Instead, on the local online community—Yang City Hotline—there were two posts, but the replies didn't even reach twenty comments.

In one of the posts, a user ID stated they were willing to pay ten thousand yuan to buy the stone, "...If you are interested in selling, please contact Jubaozhai Jewelry Store, contact number: XXXXXXXX."

Feng Jun never visited Yang City Hotline; he didn't have that habit.

That afternoon, he went to the antique street to ask for the price of the other stones, but he was a complete stranger, so the quotes he received were predictable. Some even said, "If you think these stones are too heavy to carry, you can put them down, but there's definitely no money!"

After walking around for half a day, he realized: I shouldn't have come to the antique street!

Moreover, these stones really did feel a bit amateurish.

Feng Jun returned to the hotel for another night. The next day, he changed his strategy; he took half of a jade box to ask for prices, and instead of going to the antique street, he went directly to jewelry stores.

After another day of running around, he had a small harvest. The jewelry stores recognized the jade—ignoring the craftsmanship, they only bought the material.

The prices they offered varied; the lowest was eight thousand, and the highest was twelve thousand.

Feng Jun felt there was some "water" in these quotes. He didn't intend to sell it for a huge profit, but he couldn't afford to lose too much, right?

What he didn't know was that early that morning, an acquaintance had noticed him on social media.

It couldn't exactly be called an acquaintance; they had only met twice—strictly speaking, three times—that girl who was quite good at fighting.

The girl was named Xia Xiaoyu. She saw someone post a video on their feed: "Local Yang City oddity: Oh, almighty social media, can anyone tell me, is this stone really worth ten thousand?"

She clicked on it and felt that this stone was indeed, perhaps, maybe... Sigh, people who play with stones are all lunatics.

Wait, why do I feel like this guy who almost got robbed looks a bit familiar?

The video was very blurry and shook violently. Furthermore, for most of the duration, the focus was on the rocks, and even Wang Weimin appeared on camera more often than Feng Jun.

However, she still seized the opportunity. Since the video couldn't be paused, she saved it to her phone, which was enough.

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

She had always felt grateful toward Feng Jun. Despite her poor attitude toward him during that visit to the club, that was because she had been disgusted by Liu Shuming. In truth, she knew very well that if Feng Jun hadn't stepped in that day, she wouldn't have just suffered a minor setback; she could have faced real humiliation.

A young girl of her age valued her pride immensely; she would rather pay any price than be pushed around.

So, later that afternoon, Xia Xiaoyu arrived at Hongjie Club, specifically asking to see Feng Jun.

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

Although many in the club couldn't stand Coach Liu, he was still a colleague after all, and it was inevitable that they would feel a sense of shared resentment—You're tough, sure, but can't we just avoid you?

In the end, it was Zhao Qi who walked in from outside and said with a gloating expression, "Him? He's been fired."

Xia Xiaoyu was shocked and immediately pressed for the reason, but Zhao Qi claimed he didn't know—Go ask our Manager Guo.

Guo Yueling also found this girl quite a headache, but she had to take some responsibility; she couldn't just push everything onto the boss, so she explained the situation briefly.

As soon as Xia Xiaoyu heard that Feng Jun had been fired because of this incident, she immediately blew up, "If you do things like this, doesn't it make it look like I'm ungrateful? Are you trying to make things difficult for me on purpose?"

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

"I'm going to find your boss," Xia Xiaoyu said, storming off in a huff.

Shehui Ni Hongjie wasn't at the club and didn't return until after six in the evening. Xia Xiaoyu had long since grown impatient, and as soon as she saw her, she launched into a barrage of questions. The gist of it was: Others might not know, but don't you know what Feng Jun did?

However, how could the dignified Shehui Ni Hongjie be stumped by a mere student? Wasn't the specialty of the social scene exactly that—crushing students of all kinds?

She stated calmly that there were other reasons for this matter and that firing an employee was an internal company affair, not something for outsiders to question.

Then, she changed her tone, "I know he helped you, and the company considered that factor. If he had come to you to plead his case, as long as you were willing to step up, his job could have been saved. But... he doesn't seem to have asked for your help, right?"

Xia Xiaoyu was truly a student; this question left her feeling incredibly awkward—That guy really did ignore me.

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

Hongjie didn't really care about her, so she answered bluntly, "We fired him; why would we bother keeping track of where he went?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Xiaoyu couldn't take it anymore, "You think I'm a lightweight, don't you? Do you want me to find someone with enough weight to talk to you?"

Hongjie was also getting annoyed, "I know you're with the little girl from the Yu Family. Are you trying to pressure me with her? I'll tell you straight: this whole thing happened because someone else was trying to suck up to the Yu Family!"

The person who had reached out to her was a deputy director from the Yang City Sports Bureau. That guy wanted to curry favor with the Yu Family but didn't know how to go about it, so he decided to stand up for the little girl from the Yu Family, hoping to have a topic of conversation when he eventually met them.

With Hongjie's influence, she didn't really care about a deputy director from a municipal bureau. However, even though he was a deputy, he was in the Sports Bureau, which directly oversaw the operations of Hongjie Club. It wouldn't be hard for him to make things difficult for them if he wanted to.

Secondly... the matter wasn't big. It really wasn't big at all; it was just firing a mere waiter.

If it were a matter of shaking the foundations of Hongjie, Hongjie wouldn't mind letting the other party feel the weight of her influence.

Of course, Hongjie also felt it was a pity about Feng Jun, but this young man didn't know how to play the game. For her to protect such an oblivious employee, she would have to risk offending a deputy director. To her, making that choice would be truly brainless...

Everyone chooses their own path, and she believed that the fact things had reached this point was actually Feng Jun's own fault.

Hongjie didn't realize that Manager Guo had played a role in fanning the flames.

After listening to this logic, Xia Xiaoyu felt a bit dizzy, but she had to admit that what the other party said seemed... to have some merit.

She thought for a moment before speaking, "Fine, I admit what you said makes sense, but... I want to know where he is now."