Filed to story: Disdained Son-in-Law, Destined Riches >>
Jasmine was almost persuaded, but then, she turned back to Joe. His expression was calm, almost as if he didn’t have a care in the world, and this made her doubts arise again.
Quilt shot Joe a cold glare, knowing that Jasmine was under his influence, causing her to have yet to make a bid. Hence, he suggested, “Well, since Mr. Smith mentioned that this jade was a fake, I’d like to know how he came to that conclusion. Let’s see what you’ve got!”
He knew that if Joe tried to bluff his way through this, Jasmine would realize that he was just pretending and would then make her bid without further hesitation.
The others murmured in dissatisfaction as well, “He’s just a good-for-nothing brat, what would he know…”
“Yeah, who gave him the right to bluff like that?”
“If you guys aren’t interested, don’t waste our time.”
Facing everyone’s insults, Joe merely stared at Quilt in amusement. “Are you sure you would like me to explain?”
“Of course! Just speak your mind!” Quilt chuckled. “I would also like to see how you con artists lie to others!”
Joe shrugged. “I didn’t want to expose you guys, but if you insist, it would be rude for me to ignore you.”
“Expose? So you’re saying that we have overlooked something?” The calm and collected Matthew Gibson laughed.
Joe took a glance at him and laughed. “He is the most idiotic one out of all of you…”
“Do you have a death wish, you brat?” Matthew was infuriated.
“The jade is real, don’t get me wrong.” Joe then added, “But it’s not some bloody jade from the Zhou dynasty, nor was it blessed by a powerful monk. This is just a high-quality nephrite, but it is worth around fifty thousand maximum.”
“Bullshit. Can’t you see that the jade is red in color!?” Quilt scowled.
Joe continued as if he had never been interrupted. “The red color of the jade is due to it being corrupted by potassium permanganate minerals. Did you really think that it was doused in the blood of some powerful monk?”
“What about the warm aura that it just radiated?” Graham asked, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.
Joe shook his head. “This little thing doesn’t have any power of that sort. One merely has to saturate the jade in a solution made from the African Gholag Weed for half a year for it to possess such an effect. Plus, it’s not that it radiates a warm aura, it’s just a hallucination caused by the drug. It’s fairly easy to get rid of it. You’d just need to burn the jade.”
“You brat! How dare you speak such foul lies!” The man slammed his hand on the table and stood up.
Travis’s expression darkened as he glared at the fat man. “Then, why don’t we test it out?”
The fat man began sweating bullets. “What do you mean ‘test it out’? This brat is obviously lying! Why are all of you buying into his crap?!”
Graham tapped his finger impatiently. “If it still radiates a warm aura after burning, I’ll buy it from you immediately. However, if the effect wears off, you know what’s coming for you… Although us Quintons are facing certain problems right now, we will never let anybody walk all over us!”
Jasmine nodded in agreement. “If what Mr. Smith says is false, carrying out the test won’t be much of a problem. After all, jades are inflammable. However, if it turns out that he was right, you would owe us an explanation!”
The fat man was now panicking, cold sweat running down his chubby forehead. All three of these families were not people he should ever piss off. He had only agreed to set this up because Quilt would be there to convince Jasmine. That way, they could split the money from this scam. However, he hadn’t expected Joe Smith to expose this set-up!
In actual fact, Joe had absolutely no clue on how to appraise jades. However, being able to spot the problem in this piece of jade was all because of the . He didn’t understand why, but the answer just came to his mind naturally when he saw this piece of jade. It would seem that appraisal was one of the abilities listed in the apocalyptic book.
Noticing that the fat man had not said a word, Joe smirked. “Well? Are you guilty? Why aren’t you defending yourself?”
The fat man’s face was pale, but he refused to speak up about carrying out the flame test.
Joe was now furious. “Do you think you can get out of this by not talking, fatso? I’ll have you know, this is Aurous! Don’t you know that the people in this room are all just as powerful within this area? They can have you die in a ditch as long as they say so! I’d advise you to tell us the truth this instant, otherwise, you won’t even be able to save yourself!”
Jasmine knew that Joe was trying to manipulate him, hence, she put on a stern expression and played along. “The Moore family is fairly powerful. If anyone intends to scam any of us, we will surely teach him a good lesson. After all, if we were to spare them, our reputation in the public’s eyes would certainly be damaged!”
The fat man was shocked to his core. He knew that the Moore’s indeed held extreme power in this area. If he were to piss Jasmine Moore off, he would surely die in Aurous!
Panicking, he turned to Quilt in desperation. “Quilt, help me out! This isn’t what we agreed on!”
Quilt’s facial expression changed. “You… What are you talking about? Scamming the Moore’s and wanting to put the blame on me?! I’ll kill you!”
Pulling a dagger from his pocket, Quilt’s stare was cold and chilling as he rushed toward the fat man’s direction.
The fat man glared at him. “Fuck, you backstabbing bastard! You were the one who told me the Moore’s trusted your appraising abilities fully! You were the one who said this piece of shit would be sold as long as you said so! You’ve framed me!”
Jasmine stared at the two coldly as they fought before turning toward Joe. “Please excuse me, Mr. Smith. Thank you for accompanying me here, let’s leave now. My family will send someone here to clean up this mess.”
Joe nodded. “Okay, let’s go then.”
The two stood up and prepared to depart. As Jasmine walked out of the lobby, Quilt groveled at her feet, visibly terrified. He didn’t even bother trying to kill the fat man anymore. “Miss, please spare me! For the sake of all the years that I have served your family, please just spare me this one time…”
Before Jasmine could respond, Travis stood up and scoffed. “Hah, do you have a death wish, you old fart? You wanted to scam me, and you wanted to scam your master! Even wanting to scam as much as two to three billion dollars! Do you really think the Moores will spare you?”
Quilt’s face drained of color and he froze in shock, paralyzed on the ground.
Travis then added, “Even if they did, I, Travis Lane, will never let you off this easily!”
Quilt immediately broke down into tears as his body fell to the ground.
At the sight of this mess, Jasmine shook her head in disappointment. “Pardon me, Mr. Smith. It was our mistake to have hired such an incompetent bastard, how embarrassing.”
Joe replied, “There’s always darkness as long as there is light, you don’t have to blame yourself, Miss Moore.”