Lin Qingwan hated losing, especially in business.She also trusted Ye Fei.
At first, Lin Qingwan was distrustful and generally embarra.s.sed about his presence, but after what happened with Liu Manman, she began to appreciate him a lot more.
Now Lin Qingwan was defiantly staring at Xu Tongda.
"In that case, Miss Lin, we might as well bet on it!"
Xu Tongda was very cunning. He quickly came up with a way to discredit her.
"Bet?"
Lin Qingwan was intrigued. She was a woman who liked to gamble. In her opinion, her business was also a kind of gamble, in which she bet her own a.s.sets.
"Yes," Xu Tongda grinned. "Since Miss Lin says my stones are artificial, defective goods, and insists there is a clear difference in the type of stone, then please choose a stone. If we see green, I will give you the stone free of charge. If there is no green… then please buy the stone for double the price, as compensation for damaging the reputation of The King"s Court."
Lin Qingwan scoffed, "Mr. Xu, do you think I was born yesterday? I just said your stones were defective goods. Why would I bet against you?"
Xu Tongda looked down his nose at her. "Miss Lin, rumor has it that you"re a clever woman. I think this is not true. Don"t you understand this gamble? If you"re afraid to make the bet, then apologize and take your uncouth boyfriend elsewhere. As an elder, I don"t want to quarrel with you either."
Behind Xu Tongda, two beefy security guards sn.i.g.g.e.red.
Lin Qingwan had just about had it with him, but she also understood what he meant.
Ye Fei never said that every single stone was a fake - some of them could be high quality jade.
If no one ever won a jade, then no one would buy any more stones from Xu Tongda"s shop.
Therefore, among the inferior stones, there had to be a small number of quality stones. If the gamblers failed to pick any good ones, then Xu Tongda would have his people pretend to buy one of them, so that the gamblers wouldn"t lose hope.
Lin Qingwan leaned in toward Ye Fei and whispered, "Hey, what are the odds here?"
"More than eighty percent," he replied.
Lin Qingwan grew bolder. "Mr. Xu, you think this gamble is interesting? I think you"re cheap. I want to pick several stones, how about it?"
Xu Tongda"s haughty smile froze in his face. He proposed to gamble on a stone because he thought Lin Qingwan had almost no chance to pick a winner. If she got to pick more than one, her chances of winning at his expense would be multiplied several times over!
But now that he"d called her out, refusing her proposal would make him look like a buffoon.
Moreover, Xu Tongda still didn"t believe Lin Qingwan could pick a real jade.
As such, he grit his teeth and said with the most magnanimous tone he could muster, "Well, why not? We"ll do as you say. You may choose any stones you like, as long as you can afford paying double their price."
"I have the money, Mr. Xu. You don"t have to worry about that. I could buy your whole store if I felt like it," Lin Qingwan said coldly.
"Wonderful. Come on, let us see how much money your father has."
Xu Tongda stepped aside and motioned to the stacks of rocks.
Lin Qingwan remained in place, and turned her eyes to Ye Fei.
Ye Fei wordlessly jumped over the wooden fence and began rummaging through the stones.
Seeing Ye Fei examining the stones without even using a flashlight, a few people in the crowd began shaking their heads and snickering under their breath. Clearly, Ye Fei was a layman, who had no clue what he was doing!
Qin Xiaogang pulled his sister aside and whispered, "Look at him, he"s an imbecile! He"s going to waste all of Lin Qingwan"s money."
Qin Xiaomeng ignored him, her eyes steadfastly locked on Ye Fei.
Ye Fei really didn"t know anything about jade stones. He wouldn"t know a real jade from a fake.
If he went to a real gambling market, he would probably lose all his money. He may have had incredibly sharp eyesight, but he didn"t know the first thing about prospecting for precious stones.
However, The King"s Court wasn"t a normal gambling market.
Here, the inferior stones were artificially modified to look better.
All he had to do was pick a the stones that stood out from the rest, the ones that were untampered with. In other words, this was less like a gamble to him, and more like a game of Spot the Differences.
In mere moments, Ye Fei identified three good stones. One was the size of a fist, the other two the size of pomegranates.
Seeing him point those three out, Xu Tongda began to panic.
Even he himself wouldn"t be have been able to pick out the fake from the real stones. They had been enhanced by master forgers, or he wouldn"t have risked displaying them for sale.
Unexpectedly, Ye Fei saw through the forgery almost immediately.
Who the h.e.l.l was this guy?