A Five-Hundred-Thousand-Yuan Birthday Gift

"May I take a look?"

The elderly man raised an eyebrow as he asked Zhang Yang. Cheng Hai, who had long been trying to break into the antiques trade, immediately realized that the White Jade Hairpin might hold a secret he had failed to spot.

"Of course!"

Zhang Yang agreed readily.

"Elder Chu, is there more to the White Jade Hairpin than meets the eye?"

Cheng Hai knew Elder Chu. The man had given him a few pointers before, but the antiques trade ran deep, and Cheng Hai's limited expertise had led to setback after setback.

"I don't know yet. Let me have a look first."

Elder Chu had stepped forward because he had noticed something unusual. Besides, Zhang Yang, who had brought the White Jade Hairpin, had watched the whole time with a confident sneer.

"Please, Elder Chu." Cheng Hai spoke with respectful courtesy.

Only then did Elder Chu lift the White Jade Hairpin from the box Zhang Yang held out and examine it closely.

Elder Chu's full name was Chu Yaotian. A well-known figure in Gong City and a visiting professor at Gong City University, he had profound expertise in antiques and loved collecting them. Rumor had it that the shelves in his study were packed with pieces he had hunted down over the years.

Elder Chu studied the hairpin carefully, surprise plain on his face. He kept glancing at Zhang Yang and paid particular attention to the hairpin's pair of wings.

He even reached into his pocket and pulled out a magnifying glass with a handle.

Cheng Hai grew extremely nervous at the sight. Yang Su was puzzled too.

Could the White Jade Hairpin really be something special—something valuable that Zhang Yang had picked up for a bargain at the secondhand market?

Elder Chu truly loved antiques. He even carried a magnifying glass with him.

After a long while, Elder Chu grinned at Zhang Yang. "How did you come by this, Zhang Yang?"

"Oh, Elder Chu, I happened across it on Antique Street. I thought it looked nice, so I bought it." Zhang Yang did not tell the truth.

"Then you must have paid quite a bit for it?" Elder Chu sized Zhang Yang up. Though the young man was dressed well today in a suit, he did not look like an antiques expert. At most, he had stumbled onto an extraordinary bargain.

Zhang Yang grinned. Five hundred thousand yuan was nothing to him now.

"Just a little. It didn't cost much!" Zhang Yang answered with a foolish smile.

At that, Cheng Dongyu cut in again. "Ha! As if you could afford to spend much. You're a broke loser who relies on a woman to feed him."

Elder Chu shot Cheng Dongyu a sidelong glance. It was not his place to interfere in someone else's family affairs, but when he looked back at Zhang Yang, he suddenly noticed how unfathomable his eyes were.

"Let me see, let me see..."

The jeweler Ling Juntian pushed through the crowd and approached Elder Chu.

"Heh. Would you sell it to me for five hundred thousand yuan?" Elder Chu had tried to find out the price, but Zhang Yang had not taken the bait. So this time he made a genuine offer.

"Five hundred thousand? What is it that's worth so much? Let me see. No fine piece of jewelry escapes my eye." As Ling Junsheng spoke, he reached Elder Chu's side.

"Five hundred thousand..."

Everyone was stunned. How could a live-in son-in-law without even a job, a man who depended on his wife for pocket money, afford a White Jade Hairpin worth five hundred thousand yuan? Unless the stallholder who had sold it to him was a complete fool.

Cheng Dongyu and Xia Shiying exchanged a look, their brows furrowed. If that was true, their birthday gift today would not be the most expensive. It would be the cheapest.

If so, Cheng Dongxue and Xia Shiying's pride would take a terrible blow.

Everyone turned to Zhang Yang.

Cheng Dongxue was the first to show her surprise. Elder Chu had a sharp eye indeed: he had named the exact price Zhang Yang had paid for the White Jade Hairpin.

"Five hundred thousand? Ha..." Zhang Yang looked at Elder Chu with open amazement and admiration, then continued, "Elder Chu, you're an authority in this field—certainly among everyone here. But this is a birthday gift for my mother-in-law. I wouldn't sell it for five hundred thousand, or even five million. I hope you understand."

Zhang Yang had been quick on his feet. He had cast doubt on Elder Chu's price estimate without offending his mother-in-law. Otherwise, the Cheng Family might have spent the rest of the banquet tearing into him.

"Zhang Yang..."

Cheng Dongxue tugged at Zhang Yang's arm. She was annoyed that he had made such an absolute claim. How could the price possibly reach five million?

"Five hundred thousand?" Yang Su could no longer sit still. She rose abruptly and came closer to inspect the White Jade Hairpin, but she still could not see anything special about it, much less what made it valuable.

"Stop pretending and tell the truth. Did you buy some cheap trinket for fifty yuan and try to pass it off as a precious piece of jade?"

Cheng Dongxue felt her competitive pride had taken a hit, with no hope now of satisfying her vanity. She immediately piled on, disparaging Zhang Yang and putting more pressure on him.

"A useless man who lives off his wife could never afford a gift that expensive. Even I couldn't."

Xia Shiying suddenly chimed in. "There's no shame in not being able to afford it. But don't make a clown of yourself, and don't lie. Then it's not just a matter of being poor and useless—it's a matter of character. What good is a man who's incompetent and dishonest? Divorce him, Cheng Dongxue."

Xia Shiying's words were harsh. Perhaps everything that had happened had finally driven him into a rage.

"Exactly. What good is a man like that? He's worse than a big dog." Cheng Dongyu followed up at once, completely disregarding her younger sister Cheng Dongxue as she compared Zhang Yang to a dog.

Chu Yaotian and Ling Junsheng glanced at Cheng Dongyu and her husband and shook their heads.

The onlookers still looked down on Zhang Yang, but now someone had lost his temper and gone so far as to call for a divorce.

Some of the guests had their eyes on the beautiful Cheng Dongxue and could not understand why she had chosen a worthless man over anyone else.

But divorce was a serious matter. Even if they thought she should leave him, they were adults; none of them said it aloud.

"You've gone too far. Zhang Yang is your brother-in-law. Who tells her own sister to divorce her husband?" Even Lin Xiaofei could not bear to listen anymore. They sounded less like family than enemies.

Cheng Dongxue's chest rose and fell. She was furious, resentful, even a little hateful. Then she turned her gaze on Zhang Yang. It was all because he could not do better that people felt free to judge her too.

Zhang Yang, by contrast, gave a cold smile.

"Cheng Dongxue, don't be angry with them. They're not worth it. And I want you to know you didn't choose wrong. I'm not the useless man you used to think I was. I promise I'll give you the happiness you want."

Zhang Yang spoke softly to Cheng Dongxue, his warm lips nearly brushing her earlobe. A shiver ran through her, and she could not help remembering that they had, in fact, already slept together.