Rhinestones, the Worthless Kind

After leaving the dinner table, Li Mao headed straight for a secondhand pawnshop.

He planned to sell that diamond waist chain Wan Fuqi had given him—the whatever-the-hell "disgusting" thing he had told Li Mao to wear for him next time.

That mad dog was so rich. Surely he wouldn't give such a tacky gift as plastic diamonds, right?

If they were real diamonds, they had to be worth something.

It would be just enough to register at a proper top-tier hospital and see whether the mark on his body could be surgically removed.

Certain of Wan Fuqi's financial means, Li Mao shoved open the pawnshop door with great momentum and slapped the black jewelry box onto the counter.

"Take a look at this. How much can this... diamond chain sell for?"

The term "waist chain" was simply too embarrassing for an Alpha who was straight as steel. Li Mao truly could not bring himself to say it.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and called it a "diamond chain." As long as he emphasized the word "diamond," that was enough.

The clerk perked up slightly upon hearing it was a diamond chain. With great professionalism, he put on white gloves for examining jewelry and carefully opened the black velvet jewelry box, which practically screamed "high-end luxury" at first glance.

After giving the exquisitely made diamond waist chain a cursory look, the clerk said to Li Mao, "Sir, we need to use instruments to appraise all jewelry before we can quote a price. The workroom is completely transparent, so you can watch our appraiser's entire process. If that is acceptable, you may sit here and wait for a moment."

Li Mao craned his neck to glance at the fully transparent workroom behind the clerk. Thinking that this was probably the most upscale pawnshop in Willow City, he plopped down in a seat.

"Okay, okay. I'll wait right here."

"Certainly."

After receiving the seller's consent, the clerk took the waist chain into the workroom. When he returned, he politely asked Li Mao,

"Sir, would you like something to drink? We offer complimentary tea, coffee, and bottled water."

"Can I have... have one of each?"

Li Mao's expression was serious, but his stammering made him look rather comical.

The clerk thought Li Mao was trying to strike up a conversation with him, and nervously began stammering as well.

From the moment Li Mao had walked in, the clerk had thought the Alpha was handsome.

Lowering his head with a shy smile, the clerk played along. "You're so funny. If you would like them all..."

"I... I do want them all!" Li Mao looked at the clerk, who was laughing so hard his whole body trembled, in confusion. "And if... if possible, could you get me two bags of Crispy Corners too?"

Li Mao had always loved snacks.

But during that week at Wan Fuqi's home, a certain Enigma who monopolized the power to order meals had only ordered all sorts of fancy Western food that looked like it had neither color, aroma, nor flavor.

Li Mao was seven years older than him, so he was somewhat embarrassed to ask for snacks.

So he endured it for an entire week.

Although every meal had cost as much as his monthly food budget, by the time he walked out of Wan Fuqi's house, his eyes were glowing green with hunger.

That hotpot meal just now had finally put some grease in his stomach.

Now that he saw someone offering free Crispy Corners, he could not hold himself back again.

Besides, anything free was a profit if you ate it. That had always been one of Li Mao's guiding principles.

"Uh... certainly..."

The clerk's little white teeth had not even had time to retreat behind his lips before he awkwardly got to his feet and went to gather every free food item in the shop for Li Mao.

Once the clerk left, Li Mao propped up his chin and sprawled over the counter in boredom, staring at the diamond waist chain in the transparent workroom as the jewelry appraiser carefully examined it with instruments Li Mao did not understand.

He wondered whether there was any relationship in the world more impossible to cut cleanly or sort out than the one between him and Wan Fuqi.

An Alpha who had become the perpetrator for money, drugging someone else, only to ultimately become the victim himself.

And an Enigma who had originally been utterly innocent, but had gone along with the mistake and become the one leading a relationship that should never have happened.

Before he had knocked on the door of that VIP suite, they had been two complete strangers, yet they had somehow become entangled.

By now, neither of them could escape blame.

But what Li Mao could not understand most was how two people who had initially been utterly incompatible, who had wanted nothing more than to kill each other,

had managed to spend seven days of their susceptible periods in the same bed, and then somehow started talking about love and whether they loved each other.

They had even started giving gifts?

Was Wan Fuqi going to ask him out on a date next?

The moment Li Mao thought of that, he shook his head in fright and pulled out his phone.

He did not even look at the dozens of unread messages from Bunny Baby at Home.

He even tossed Wan Fuqi's threats to the back of his mind.

Without hesitation, Li Mao blocked him.

Things had already gotten absurd enough. He had also scored a diamond chain, so this was where it should end. Let them both be well and leave each other in peace.

From now on, Wan Fuqi could walk his grand sunlit road among the upper class, while Li Mao continued across his shabby one-log bridge below. They would never see each other again.

Just as Li Mao finished blocking Wan Fuqi, the jeweler who had appraised the diamond waist chain emerged from the workroom with his item.

Li Mao hurriedly put away his phone and swallowed hard in nervousness.

After all, this appraisal concerned the funds for buying back the freedom of the rest of his life.

The jeweler pushed the chain in front of Li Mao and said, "Sir, these are rhinestones, and the chain is only silver. It is not worth much."

Li Mao, who had been full of anticipation, immediately deflated.

And that bastard had the nerve to talk about love!

He even wanted them to love each other?

What a cheapskate!

He lived in an apartment that cost over a hundred thousand per square meter, yet he gave Li Mao rhinestones!!!

He would have been better off sleeping with some rich older woman.

He had deleted him too soon. He should have cursed him out one more time before blocking him.

But the jeweler spoke again. "However, this is from a niche designer brand and is quite rare on the market, so we can offer a slightly higher price. How does 2,450 sound?"

The moment Li Mao heard the four-digit offer, the hand that had been about to take back the chain immediately pushed it forward instead. Grinning, he said, "Don't... don't quibble over fifty or eighty. Make it... 2,500, and we'll call it a deal!"

The jeweler lowered his eyes and stared at the diamond chain for a long while. After pondering for quite some time, he finally agreed with a somewhat troubled expression. "All right. When the clerk returns, I'll have him issue the receipt and process the transaction."

"G-good!"

At last, a hint of a smile appeared on Li Mao's face.

Though the price was far lower than he had imagined, rich people were not idiots.

It was already good enough if they did not exploit ordinary people like him. How could they possibly give away real diamonds as though they were doing charity?

2,500 it was!

Getting something was still better than getting nothing!