The atmosphere heated up after a while,
Observing a group of rchants lavishing praise on Pan Ling, Sui Yi grew curious. Next to him, Gong Jiu and Flower Demon also took seats by his side, legs crossed. Gong Jiu humd, "Flower Demon, I didn’t know why you disliked this woman so much before, even had a confrontation with her in the past, but now I see there really are ’white lotuses’ that even flies love."
Flies are naturally attracted to stench and gather around trash. Gong Jiu’s words were undeniably venomous.
Flower Demon lazily glanced at the triumphant Pan Ling not far away, "The last ti I saw her was at the Pingzhou Public Plate last year. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have known she was such a character."
"Go into more detail," Gong Jiu pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds and a bag, readying himself.
"This woman was there with her elder. You know about the Pan Family, right? One of the jade gambling aristocratic families in Yunnan. The Pan Family’s ancestor was the Gambling King during the Republic of China era, but he had a bad reputation. The Pan Family has declined over the years and suddenly brought two girls to Yunnan, which attracted so attention at the ti.
One girl wasn’t very noticeable, I heard she was a foster daughter.
The other was the daughter of this generation’s Pan Family head. Because she was pretty and spoke eloquently about gambling stones, she was quite admired. That was also the ti she cut open several pieces of jade, including one of glass type valued over forty million. Instantly, she was hailed as a jade gambling elf, commonly known as Gambling Spirit. Later on, she was formidable too, continuously cutting so jade, though none was too spectacular, but she definitely dazzled, thus gaining a brilliant reputation."
"And then? You dislike her just because of this?"
"Bullshit!" Flower Demon also began nibbling on sunflower seeds, scoffing, "Didn’t I just ntion that Pan Family had a foster daughter?"
"Yes,"
"That glass-type jade was bought by that Pan Family foster daughter with all her money, but the next day the glass-type suddenly beca sothing Pan Ling had ’casually’ seen and bought sowhere... You know how I felt?"
"Ah!" Gong Jiu was astonished, while Sui Yi raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know that piece was bought by the Pan family foster daughter? Did you see it? Are you sure it’s the sa piece?" Gong Jiu asked in a rush.
"Nonsense, it was sold from my own hands! How could I not know?"
Gong Jiu fell silent; Sui Yi propped his chin with one hand, squinting, deep in thought: "You wouldn’t easily sell raw materials you’ve bought, were they gambled-out, worthless stones?"
"You guessed it... Exactly, I was surprised back then, who would buy such obviously useless fragnts? That girl insisted on buying it, still saying she trusted her own judgnt. I found her quite naive, and she even started analyzing it for . I took quite a liking to her, didn’t plan to snatch it from her, so I let her buy it... In fact, I initially wanted her to cut the jade directly. If jade ca out, I wanted to buy it right away, but she said she wanted to take it ho to show her family first, then cut it herself. She also had the skill to bet on the exact raw materials—later—you understand—"
Clearly, the foster daughter sought to stand out and gain acceptance from her family by staking everything.
Since she had those intentions, she wouldn’t have secretly given the raw materials to Pan Ling; it must have been...
Gong Jiu chuckled.
The foster daughter indeed wasn’t as good as the biological daughter.
The Pan Family’s move was quite venomous.
"Originally, I wouldn’t have said anything, what family doesn’t have so dirty secrets? Over the years, we’ve all gotten used to it. I never imagined that a few days after the public trading ended, that missing girl was found murdered, said to have stolen things and run away from ho, killed by thugs from society... You wouldn’t believe the photographs that the newspapers produced." Flower Demon, although a ruthless operator herself and would kill without batting an eye, would never use such a thod to bully soone like that.
In other words, she disdained using it.
Most won wouldn’t use it.
The Pan Family did.
They used it against the foster daughter.
Could it be unrelated to Pan Ling?
Flower Demon’s expression was scornful, "And the technique was very skilled. I had people check, but there was no trace left behind, the thugs weren’t caught, everything just disappeared... I stopped bothering after that."
As for the matter without evidence, she wasn’t bothered enough to argue with the Pan Family, to avoid dirtying herself, not being a brainless saint.
So, it dragged on until today.
"Though you said you stopped bothering, didn’t a news report say at the ti when she was being widely praised and celebrated, you clearly called her a bitch?"
"I intended to say it in French, worried she wouldn’t understand... I hear she’s very poor in her studies, just like you,"
Obviously, she had been intent on crushing the opponent; otherwise, she wouldn’t have investigated to this extent.
Sui Yi leaned back in his chair, glancing at Flower Demon who was bickering with Gong Jiu, and softly said, "If a flower has blood, then it’s either the fruit or the wilt, all depends on how ti handles it"
In this world, there are no perpetual blooming flowers; white lotuses are no exception.
If it’s the fruit, then it’s karma; if it’s the wilt, then it’s reincarnation.
No one can escape it.
Upon hearing this, Flower Demon pondered for a mont and then laughed.
"Then let’s wait and see."
--------
At this mont, unbeknownst to Pan Ling, whom the trio had already agreed was a ’flower,’ she was surrounded by a group of people, but she kept standing by one person’s side.
Anyone could see that Gambling Spirit was greatly fond of Mr. Xiao, at least she felt better standing by his side than by others—
—including Mr. Zou.
Zou Xueqin, as always, was refined and elegant, speaking appropriately. He and Pan Ling actually had the most to talk about. Pan Ling didn’t show favoritism and was equally affable, appearing to onlookers as one cold and one hot handso man flanking this white lotus, smugly dominating the many rich and powerful—
As they talked, their attention eventually fell on the surrounding raw jades, especially on the largest piece in front of them. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to visit qidian to cast a recomndation vote, a monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian to read.)
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