Chapter 212 - 210: The Foolish Boy in a Rage for a Beauty

Chapter 212: Chapter 210: The Foolish Boy in a Rage for a Beauty

After Jasper Rivers finished paying, he turned around to find a crowd of people surrounding them. Rian Sinclair felt incredibly helpless, but she could understand it. People were naturally curious. If it were her, she would have come over to watch the show, too.

Jasper ultimately said nothing, relieved that the commotion hadn’t drawn the old master over. However, this was Mr. Wayne Walsh’s turf after all. When Old Master Walsh did walk over and take in the scene, he was a bit surprised. Still, he was a man who had seen the world.

"What’s going on? Is someone about to cut open a top-tier jade stone?"

Generally speaking, when people cut stones and were confident they would get something good, they liked having an audience. So, seeing this crowd, Wayne naturally assumed that was the case.

But Old Master Walsh guessed wrong this time. The only reason so many people had gathered to watch was that an amateur young lady had spent a lavish amount of money on a pile of what they considered useless scrap stones. They were purely here to enjoy the show.

Hearing Wayne’s voice, someone in the crowd spoke up. "Mine Owner Walsh, a major big spender arrived today! Look at that massive basket of raw stones next to that young lady. She decided on them after just a few glances. A basket that big must have cost at least a hundred million.

"And you might not know this, Mine Owner Walsh, but the young man next to her paid for all those stones. He’s probably just playing the big spender to impress a pretty face."

Hearing this, Wayne glanced over and met Rian’s gaze. He then looked at the overflowing basket. He was just about to speak when he saw Jasper returning from paying the bill. The words on his lips turned into sheer disbelief.

"You’re the silly boy playing the big spender for a pretty face?"

Hearing Old Master Walsh’s voice, Jasper looked a little embarrassed.

The noisy chatter from the crowd instantly died down. Everyone pricked up their ears, ready to hear what was going on. Did these two know each other? The silly, lovesick boy and the shrewd, wealthy Mine Owner Walsh actually knew each other? The onlookers’ gazes darted back and forth between Jasper and the fuming mine owner.

"Old Master Walsh." Ignoring the stares of the crowd, Jasper stepped forward openly and greeted him.

Mine Owner Walsh glared at him and lowered his voice. "What’s going on? Are you really a fool with more money than sense?"

Although Mine Owner Walsh was a bit curious about the young lady, after hearing the gossip, he naturally assumed she was Jasper’s girlfriend. "If you’re spending this much money at this stage, you’ll be crying later."

Realizing the old master had misunderstood, Jasper quickly explained, "She’s not my girlfriend."

Wayne was even more dumbfounded by this. He looked at Jasper with a gaze full of pity and concern. "She’s not even your girlfriend, and you spent this much money? What, do you have a mine at home?"

Wayne was thoroughly exasperated. After all, he owned the mine, and he had already picked out the best of the premium goods. Compared to buying these raw stones that had already been classified as scrap, it would have been much better to pick from the partially cut stones on the opposite side.

After fuming for a while to no avail, Wayne called Rian over.

Rian had been watching the commotion and roughly understood the situation. She walked over. "Mr. Walsh."

Wayne gave a somewhat annoyed nod and pointed to the raw stones in the basket. "How did you pick these?"

Rian held up the flashlight in her hand. "With this."

Wayne looked a bit surprised. "You know how to read stones?"

Rian shook her head. She could only say she understood half of it.

"If you don’t know how, why did you buy them? Did you think there was something special about these stones?" He was very curious to know how this young lady had picked out these dozen or so stones from thousands of others. He wanted to know what made them so unique.

Wayne was doing his best to give Rian an out—or at least a reasonable excuse for buying this junk. If she genuinely thought these stones were special, he could accept that.

Rian looked at Wayne, wondering if her next words would anger him half to death. "I just felt... they looked pretty, so I bought them."

Wayne heard the one answer he could least accept. The corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.

"..."

Fine. He had overthought it.

"Do you want to cut them?"

Rian nodded, pointing to the large stone covered in black spots and a few other scraps. "Please cut these specific ones for me. I’ll take the rest back to the hotel. I want to study them myself."

Hearing this, Asher Rhodes had his bodyguards step forward to take the stones Rian wanted to keep back to his own stone storage area. It was well-guarded and very safe there. He then led Rian to the cutting area.

There weren’t many people in the cutting area at the moment. Since it was only the first day, most people were still browsing the stones. It wouldn’t get truly lively until tomorrow or the day after, which was the main phase for cutting stones.

Wayne’s master cutter looked at the basket full of raw stones, sighing with a hint of pity. "If this stone hadn’t been corroded by these black spots, it would have been considered top-tier material."

What a shame...

The master cutter examined the raw stone in front of him. "But we can’t say this entire block is ruined yet. After all, it’s such a massive stone—there might still be some good jade inside.

"If the green jade inside is enough to make a single bracelet, then you’ve made a profit! If it’s full of black spots inside, too, then it can only be carved into a large decorative ornament worth somewhere between tens of thousands to a little over a hundred thousand."

Jasper didn’t mind at all; he was more than willing to spend this money. In the past, whenever he had wanted to spend money on Rian, she had refused. Now that she had finally found a hobby, how could he, as her brother, possibly say no?

Listening from the side, Wayne rolled his eyes dramatically at the expression on Jasper’s face.

What a hopelessly smitten fool.

Seeing the master cutter place the stone onto the machine, Rian grew curious about how the material was cut and stepped closer.

Seeing how pretty and well-behaved she looked, the cutter smiled and asked, "Do you have any specific ideas, young lady? Or should I just use my own judgment?"

Rian didn’t decline the offer. She was afraid that a single misplaced slice from the master cutter might split a good piece of jade right down the middle. After thinking for a moment, she gestured on the raw stone. "Let’s start by cutting this thickness."

The onlookers had been keeping an eye on the cutting machine. Seeing the young lady hold up half a finger’s length, they all chuckled good-naturedly. It seemed this little girl was refusing to face reality until the bitter end.

The master cutter nodded. Following Rian’s instructions, he sliced straight down, cutting off the outer skin half a finger’s depth in.

Even though everyone assumed the stone was ruined, their curiosity still got the better of them, and they all craned their necks to take a look. Just as they had expected, the surface was still densely covered in black spots!

"I told you! It’s a scrap stone!"

"This material has been corroded so severely. There definitely won’t be anything good left inside."

"Well, it hasn’t finished being cut yet, so let’s keep watching. We aren’t the ones who paid for it anyway, so who knows, maybe some green will show up later."

"Why even bother looking further! Look at that cross-section! The black spots are even denser than they were on the surface! The deeper it goes, the more spots there are."

"Don’t cry now, young lady! Just consider it money spent on a valuable lesson!"