"So what if I take your stuff? I'll beat you up, too! Then I'll haul you off to the police station!"
At the mention of Yang Bowen, he was already glaring as he stepped forward and grabbed Qian Chenghe by the collar. Having heard the whole story, he was seething inside.
Now he finally understood why his boss had been so intent on finding this old man at the construction site. The man was clearly a repeat scammer. He had even swindled someone out of his retirement savings, driving him to a brain hemorrhage from distress. There was no limit to his depravity.
Someone like this belonged behind bars!
"Wait, Yang. What are you doing? Let go of him. We're just here to buy something. What does it have to do with us whether he scams people?"
Just as Yang Bowen was brimming with righteous indignation, Xia Xu suddenly stopped him.
"Boss?"
Yang Bowen froze and turned to look at him.
"Let this elderly gentleman go. He's not entirely wrong, you know. Antiques can be real or fake. If you misjudge one, isn't it normal to accept your bad luck? You can't blame him."
Xia Xu gave him a meaningful look, then stepped forward and pried his hand loose.
"Young man, how can you not tell right from wrong? Young people these days really are..."
Lin Zhengping was so furious that he forgot about Qian Chenghe for a moment. He pointed at Xia Xu, his raised arm trembling with anger.
"It's you!"
Xia Xue had been focused entirely on Qian Chenghe until now, and only just noticed Xia Xu.
Recognizing him only made her angrier.
Hadn't she helped him before, at least? How could he turn around and speak up for a scammer?
"Sir, I didn't stop you for any other reason. I just took a liking to this Guanyin Statue and wanted to buy it. Four thousand, right?"
Xia Xu ignored them for the moment and turned back to Qian Chenghe.
"Well..."
Qian Chenghe's gaze flickered, and he hesitated for a moment. But greed instantly overcame fear, and he gritted his teeth. "No. Forty thousand, minimum!"
"Straight up to ten times the price? That's not very fair of you."
Xia Xu's gaze turned cold.
"Forty thousand. Not a cent less. Otherwise, quit talking about buying it. If you've got the guts, just take it by force."
Qian Chenghe grew defiant instead, craning his neck as he said, "Do you think I'm an idiot? You still want to buy this Guanyin Statue after all this? Either a donkey kicked you in the head, or you're very sure you've spotted a bargain. Forty thousand, not a cent less."
He was convinced that the man before him wanted to snap up an overlooked treasure and was inexplicably confident he could pull it off.
Of course, if it really were something valuable, he wouldn't be stupid enough to sell it to someone else.
Although he had no idea why this kid thought the Guanyin Statue was a hidden treasure, he was certain it couldn't possibly be genuine.
The Guanyin Statue was an obvious fake. Anyone who knew even a little about the trade could tell at a glance.
Besides, he had bought this Guanyin himself as a mass-produced craft ornament. His late father had been a Buddhist, and he had happened to make some money and been in a good mood, so he had picked it up for him. At most, it was an old object with twenty or thirty years of history.
On this trip home, he had no idea what had possessed him to go to all the trouble of digging out this lousy Buddhist statue. At first, a touch of sentiment had made him want a keepsake, but within a couple of days, the more he looked at it, the more it bothered him. He had simply decided to put the junk to use and sell it with everything else.
"Fine. Deal."
Xia Xu stared at Qian Chenghe for a moment before finally nodding. At the same time, he warned, "Don't even think about changing your mind and raising the price again. My patience has limits."
The money didn't matter. He had to buy the thing first. In any case, he had no intention of letting Qian Chenghe walk away today.
"Don't worry. I still have that much professional integrity."
Qian Chenghe broke into a mercenary grin. Ignoring the glares from Lin Zhengping and the others, he said to Xia Xu, "Will that be cash or a bank transfer? Once I have the forty thousand, this extraordinarily efficacious Guanyin Bodhisattva statue is yours."
"Indeed. I think this Buddhist statue works wonders, too."
The expression on Xia Xu's face thawed. He took off his backpack and pulled out four large bundles of cash, a notebook, and a red pen. "Cash. And put it in writing. Sign it and leave your thumbprint so there won't be any disputes."
Third-party payment platforms were not yet widely used on Blue Ocean Star, and bank transfers were rather troublesome. He had therefore withdrawn all the money on his way here to hunt for a bargain.
"No problem. Cash is perfect."
Qian Chenghe agreed readily. Taking the paper and pen, he wrote out a simple sales contract, signed his name, then colored his thumb with the red pen and pressed down a thumbprint.
"A pleasure doing business."
Xia Xu put away the paper and pen, then smiled as he handed over the four bundles of crisp red banknotes.
"A pleasure doing business. Hope you've found yourself a treasure and can sell it for a good price."
Qian Chenghe smiled as well, though there was a hint of mockery and amusement in it.
"No need to sell it. I'm actually just an idiot with too much money. I only wanted to buy it so I could smash it and hear the crash."
Smiling, Xia Xu picked up the Guanyin Statue from the blue woven sheet and raised it above his upper body, poised to smash it. Then he stopped and looked at Qian Chenghe with a smile. "Mind sticking around a moment to enjoy the show? I think it might sound even better with an audience."
The Guanyin Statue was naturally hollow. Porcelain pieces generally couldn't be made solid, so it wasn't particularly heavy.
"If you're going to smash it right now, I'd be more than happy to..."
Crash!
Qian Chenghe had thought Xia Xu was merely joking or bluffing and had started to needle him.
But before he could finish speaking, there really was a crash. Xia Xu brought the raised Guanyin Statue down onto the ground, shattering it.
Now, not only Qian Chenghe, but Lin Zhengping, Xia Xue, and the others were stunned.
He actually smashed it just like that?
He had spent tens of thousands on something just to smash it on the ground and hear the crash?
Was he insane?
If he had so much money he didn't know what to do with it, couldn't he donate it to people in need?
Rumble, tumble...
While they stood dumbfounded, more than twenty small cardboard boxes tumbled out of the shattered Guanyin Statue. A few happened to roll right to Lin Zhengping's feet.
"These... these are..."
Lin Zhengping's breathing grew heavy and rapid. Trembling, he scooped up several of the little boxes. "Angong Niuhuang Pills. They're all Angong Niuhuang Pills from over twenty years ago..."
"Are these very valuable?"
Yang Bowen picked up a box as well, but couldn't make anything of it. Puzzled, he asked Lin Zhengping.
But Lin Zhengping paid him no attention.
"Y-young man, did you already know there were Angong Niuhuang Pills inside?"
Lin Zhengping's lips and hands were shaking as though he might faint at any moment, yet his eyes burned with intensity. Breathing rapidly, he said, "Could you sell me a few pills? I'm willing to pay twice the market price..."
"Don't worry. I'm not angry with you. I was the one in the wrong just now. Honestly, even I wanted to punch myself for acting like that."
Xia Xu hurriedly stopped Lin Zhengping, who seemed about to slap himself, and reassured him, "I was going to sell these Angong Niuhuang Pills anyway. It makes no difference who buys them, so of course I'd be happy to sell them to you, sir. But there's something I need to deal with first. Shall we discuss this a little later?"
"Yes. Yes, yes, of course."
Lin Zhengping nodded excitedly, agreeing over and over. His heart finally settled.
He and his wife had weathered a lifetime of ups and downs together. She was the one person he could least bear to leave behind. But some time ago, she had fallen into a coma after a stroke, and prolonged treatment had done nothing. He had kept asking people to search for this medicine, with no news at all. He had almost decided he might as well join her in death.
He had never imagined that, just when all seemed lost, a new path would open before him.
Before you continue