Chapter 687 - 683: Moron

At this, everyone present looked up to see who had spoken.

The wall of people parted, and a middle-aged man in tinted glasses appeared before the crowd.

The man wasn’t tall, standing at about five-foot-seven. A slight paunch from middle-aged weight gain strained against the front of his shirt. In his hand, he rolled a string of exceptionally fine jadeite God beads. Although he wore a wide smile, no one present dared to underestimate him.

This was because the man was Chase Churchill, a heavyweight figure renowned in both the business and jade circles of Lorcain.

Two people stood on either side of Chase Churchill. The lovely young woman holding his arm affectionately was his daughter, Kylie Churchill. On his other side stood Shawn Lane.

"Mr. Churchill!"

Upon seeing him, Mr. Cole and Lord Quincy, who had been sitting on the sofa, quickly rose to their feet. They were clearly all acquainted.

Chase Churchill greeted Mr. Cole first, then turned to Lord Quincy. "I was enjoying the show from outside for a while," he said. "I really thought you were about to sell that treasure of yours, Lord Quincy."

At Chase Churchill’s words, Lord Quincy recalled the earlier scene and couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. He gave a sheepish laugh. "You must find this amusing, Mr. Churchill. And this must be your daughter?"

"Yes, this is my daughter, Kylie."

Kylie Churchill greeted him with poise. "Hello, Mr. Quincy."

Then her tone changed. "Mr. Quincy, don’t worry about what happened earlier," she added. "That girl couldn’t possibly afford your treasure. She’s just never seen anything valuable before and got carried away. She was bluffing, afraid of being exposed."

Kylie Churchill’s words left Lord Quincy confused all over again.

Bluffing?

’It didn’t seem like it!’

He had clearly felt the young woman’s powerful presence. That wasn’t something you could just fake.

"You don’t believe me?" Kylie Churchill sneered, tilting her head toward Shawn Lane. "Shawn, tell Mr. Quincy what the deal is with that girl!"

Lord Quincy looked to Shawn Lane, but Shawn just smiled, perfectly composed. "Well, I’d rather not gossip about people behind their backs," he said. "I’m sure Mr. Quincy can judge for himself."

Lord Quincy blinked, his mind now in a complete tangle.

He couldn’t tell what was real anymore.

"If she has the nerve to put on an act, she shouldn’t be afraid of getting called out. I was already doing her a huge favor by not exposing her in front of everyone. And I only did that because she’s an old classmate of yours."

Lord Quincy seized on the key point, looking at Shawn Lane to ask, "She’s your classmate?"

Before Shawn Lane could reply, Kylie Churchill jumped in. "Yes, Mr. Quincy. That girl was a college classmate of my friend here. She comes from a very ordinary family, and she’s incredibly vain and materialistic. Forget fifteen thousand—I doubt she could afford your treasure if you sold it for a buck fifty."

"Well..."

At this point, with an old classmate of hers right there, Lord Quincy had no choice but to believe it.

Someone in the crowd spoke up. "So, we were all just being played?"

"Kids these days, they’re really something else!"

"I know, right? Telling such a huge lie without batting an eye."

"What if Lord Quincy had agreed to sell it to her? How would she have gotten out of it?"

The crowd clicked their tongues and shook their heads in amazement. Lord Quincy, however, was furious. He felt like he’d been made a fool of—and not only that, but he’d been lectured by her in the process.

Seeing his expression, Chase Churchill couldn’t help but laugh heartily. "Lord Quincy, don’t think about what just happened. Let me take a look at the treasure. I could tell from a distance it was no ordinary thing."

Lord Quincy came back to his senses and sighed, respectfully gesturing for him to sit. "Mr. Churchill, please have a seat."

Kylie Churchill and Shawn Lane sat down nearby as well. Still fuming, Kylie turned to Shawn and whispered, "Why did you stop me earlier? I could have exposed her in front of everyone. It would have been the perfect way to get some payback for you."

Shawn Lane gently shook his head. "Forget it. It’s not a big deal. We were classmates, after all."

"You... you’re just too kind!"

Shawn Lane smiled but said nothing, his hand naturally finding and holding Kylie’s.

Meanwhile, Cecilia Sterling was completely unaware that in the less than ten minutes since her departure, public opinion had done a complete one-eighty. She was now considered a "consummate actress," and her performance had earned unanimous praise.

"Miss Sterling, please inspect the quality and condition of this pair of white jade bracelets."

In front of the display case, the pair of White Jade Bracelets that Cecilia Sterling had her eye on had been brought to her. She casually picked one up to examine it. It was flawless—a fine piece of jade.

Julian Summers nudged her from the side. "Aren’t you going to haggle a little?" he reminded her. "Are you just going to agree to whatever price they ask?"

Cecilia Sterling glanced at him and said casually, "Jade doesn’t have a fixed price. For a fine piece like this, whatever I pay for it becomes its value."

Its value is ultimately what people assign to it.

The seller heard this and couldn’t help but smile knowingly. "Miss Sterling, you may be an amateur, but your understanding of jade’s value is more precise than most people’s. It would be an honor for these bracelets to be purchased by you."

’Both were selling treasures, but the sellers’ attitudes and understanding were worlds apart.’

Cecilia found these words very gratifying, especially after the frustrating encounter she’d just had. She raised an eyebrow. "Wrap them up. I’ll pay now."

Julian Summers grinned. ’Cecilia Sterling is just obscenely rich,’ he thought. ’To her, buying these two bracelets is as casual as buying a few pounds of meat from the butcher.’

After paying, Cecilia Sterling handed the items and Yoda, who was in her arms, to Julian Summers. "Go wait for me by the entrance. I’m going to the restroom."

"Aren’t... aren’t we looking around more?"

"I’m not in the mood anymore. Besides, we bought a pair of bracelets, didn’t we? It wasn’t a wasted trip." Then she looked at Julian Summers and asked, "Or do you want to keep looking? Are you planning to buy some jade, too?"

Julian Summers quickly shook his head. He had come purely to expand his network.

’Buy jade? If I had that kind of money, I’d rather invest it in the Go-Kart Club and get a larger stake.’

Seeing this, Cecilia Sterling turned and went straight to the restroom.

And as soon as she walked in, she ran into Kylie Churchill at the sinks.

Kylie Churchill spotted Cecilia Sterling in the mirror, and in an instant, a scornful smirk instinctively touched her lips.

Cecilia Sterling didn’t pay her much mind, walking to the side and pulling out two paper towels. But before she could turn around, Kylie Churchill, unable to contain her contempt and disdain, finally spoke. "You’re really quite the actress. It’s a shame you didn’t go into acting."

Cecilia Sterling froze. They were the only two in the restroom, so there was no doubt who the other woman was talking to, and her tone was clearly hostile.

Cecilia turned to look at her, her eyes chilling as she scoffed. "What the fuck, was I playing your mom?"

The words were utterly vulgar. Kylie Churchill looked shocked, as if she never imagined that such a beautiful woman could say something so nasty the moment she opened her mouth.

"You..." But she was a sheltered rich girl, after all. The curse words were on the tip of her tongue, but she was too ashamed to speak them. She could only glare angrily and say, "You know full well what you did. If you know what’s good for you, get out of here. When my dad buys this place, I’m going to have people like you explicitly banned!"

She might have been too embarrassed to curse, but Cecilia had no such qualms. She rolled her eyes and spat, "Dumbass."

With that, she went into one of the stalls.

But just as she finished disinfecting the toilet seat and sat down, a thought suddenly struck Cecilia Sterling.

’Wait, what did that idiot say?’

’Buy this place?’