If you ask who is the hottest name in the Jade Industry right now, it has to be Lin Tian. Even some outsiders know his stories, tales of supreme red fei cui, tricolor jadeite, colossal fei cui, and royal purple glass-like jadeite—all objects of envy and jealousy.
"Lin Tian, you’re Lin Tian?" The drunken man’s eyes bulged, and people thought he was surprised, but then he scrambled up and yelled, "It’s you, you hit me last time. I’ve finally found you, and now I’m going to beat you to death."
Playing drunk with such commitment, Lin Tian couldn’t help but admire him, noting that he could win an Oscar were he an actor. By this time, Xiao Manxue walked over with a laptop in hand, still unaware of Mrs. Xiao’s near-miss just moments before.
"Miss, wait a moment, let me help him sober up!" Lin Tian reached out, grabbed the drunk, and hauled him to the door. The drunk, "Second Brother," struggled and cursed non-stop.
Lin Tian didn’t bother with words and punched him in the abdomen—not too lightly, not too strongly. The drunk "Second Brother" felt a churning in his stomach and couldn’t help but retch, vomiting loudly. Although he was pretending to be drunk, he had drunk plenty, and what came out smelled heavily of alcohol and stench.
Anyone who has been sick from drinking knows, once you start vomiting, it doesn’t stop until your stomach is in knots. That’s how it was for the drunk "Second Brother," vomiting incessantly like the breached waters of the Yellow River. Even those in the hall could smell the vile odor, prompting the ones with weaker stomachs to retch in turn.
"Why are you hitting my second brother?" They were only acting, after all, and when "Third Young Master" saw the drunk being punched, he panicked immediately.
Lin Tian glanced at him and said with a smile, "I’m helping him to sober up; do you need my assistance as well?"
"I..." He gazed at the foul mess on the ground, his face turning an ugly shade of purple, remembering he’d ingested the same stuff.
"What’s wrong? You don’t seem sober yet!" Lin Tian gripped him and delivered another punch. This time, clear liquid came up, along with tears and snot.
He vomited until he went weak at the knees, collapsing on the ground, gasping weakly, "No more, don’t... I can’t take it, I’m not drunk, not drunk..."
Although he spoke softly, everyone heard him. They were all angry. Pretending to be crazy and stupid when sober, wasting everyone’s time—the act was taken as an insult. Nobody pitied him now; they despised him even more.
Lin Tian achieved exactly what he wanted—to expose his charade and turn him into everyone’s adversary.
"This is too much, disrupting an important family meeting by feigning drunkenness—it’s insufferable!"
"Exactly, it’s fortunate the sister-in-law stripped him of his powers, or there’s no telling what state the jewelry business would be in in his hands!"
"I think we should look into it."
"Right, let’s all hear what sister-in-law has to say."
The crowd in the hall looked at him with disdain. Their performance of misery had escalated to this point, something neither had expected, leaving them secretly fuming at Lin Tian. They didn’t dare to show it, for fear of how this demon might further torment them.
"Second Young Master, Third Young Master, I’ll give you another chance. Confess all your wrongdoings on your own, and I might still leave you a way out. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being heartless and merciless!" Mrs. Xiao sat upright, her voice cold and stern.
"Sister-in-law, what are you talking about, admitting to what mistake? We don’t have a clue!" The two spoke with the same tone, feigning complete ignorance.
"It seems you won’t shed a tear until you see the coffin!" Mrs. Xiao picked up her cell phone, dialed a number, and without speaking, let it ring a few times before hanging up.
"Second brother" and "Third brother" exchanged a look of alarm, both having an ominous premonition. For a moment, the hall was very quiet, everyone waiting to see what Mrs. Xiao would do.
It wasn’t but two minutes before several people walked in through the front door, and Lin Tian recognized one of them, Elder Han, but he had never seen the other four.
"You... weren’t you supposed to be abroad?" Before Mrs. Xiao could say a word, "Second brother" asked in shock. He realized too late that his expression was a giveaway and hastily tried to shift to an air of nonchalance.
But was Mrs. Xiao so easily fooled? Clearly not. She let out a cold laugh and said, "Everyone seated here knows they went abroad, but why are you scared now that they have returned? Second brother, what else do you have to say?"
He glared with a stubborn look, yelling loudly, "What am I afraid of, am I scared? Whether they come back or not is none of my business, hmph!"
"Second Young Master, Third Young Master, Young Madam already know, you might as well admit it. Ah, I, Old Wei, have wronged the Young Madam and the Xiao Family who nurtured us. We have been ungrateful!" The man who claimed to be Old Wei said with a face full of guilt, attempting to persuade the two men.
Old Wei? Could it be the Xiao Family’s Gambling Stone Master? Lin Tian took a good look at the four men, somewhat astonished. Mrs. Xiao had quite the tactics, to be able to bring people back from overseas and have them confess their wrongdoings obediently.
"Don’t call me Second Young Master. What do you mean by telling me to admit something? This is absurd! If you did something wrong, that’s on you, don’t drag us into it." The ’drunk’ Second brother loudly denied, yet his voice betrayed a lack of conviction.
"Second Young Master, you can’t say that. Originally, you approached us, saying that if the batch of fake jade passed, you would give us one percent of the Xiao Group’s shares once the deal was successful." Old Wei looked at him, a look of betrayal evident.
His words dropped like a bombshell in the hall, leaving the Xiao family members dumbfounded. One percent of the group’s shares held a value counted in the billions, and excluding Mrs. Xiao and her daughter, no one present owned any shares; they merely held positions within the group.
And if Old Wei was promised one percent of the shares upon success, wouldn’t the two brothers receive even more? What were they planning? To seize the group’s assets?
"You... you’re slandering me! When did I ever say that to you? Do you have proof? If not, then shut up. Sister-in-law, they are economic fraudsters, call the police on them! Have them jailed, let them serve time!" Second brother was now hopping mad, vehemently accusing Old Wei and the other Gambling Stone Masters of defamation while trying to distance himself entirely.
Lin Tian was also puzzled. Indeed, without concrete proof, mere words from the Gambling Stone Masters wouldn’t suffice. Mrs. Xiao couldn’t be making such an elementary mistake, could she? Calling a family meeting without solid evidence, she could end up being bitten back.
"Heh heh..." Old Wei chuckled, though what he was feeling was unclear. Suddenly, he stopped smiling and said indifferently, "You want evidence? I’ll give it to you!"
He took out his phone, connected it to a laptop on the table with a data cable, copied a video file, and then clicked to play it.
The screen initially showed a shaking image, but then the camera shifted, and once more on the screen appeared two people sitting on a sofa. These were none other than the ’drunk’ "Second brother" and "Third brother" putting on their pitiful act!
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