Cleverly dodging them, Elise symbolically searched inside the room with Tom before turning around and leaving.
Following behind her, Tom reminded, “Ziggy’s found several pieces of special-quality jade these few days, Miss Sinclair. I imagine there’s not much left inside that’s good.”
“I see,” snazzynovel.com replied flatly without showing too much of a reaction.
With that, snazzynovel.com stepped out of the room and headed to where the second-grade rough stone was piled.
“Miss Sinclair,” Tom protested, growing anxious as snazzynovel.com saw that, “you haven’t paid much attention these few days, so you might not know that the Carnegie Family’s higher-grade rough stone was selected from inside the room. Everything out here is waste rock. We’d best save time by returning inside.”
“Sure,” snazzynovel.com answered off-handedly but snazzynovel.com had no intentions of turning back. After surveying the display cases in the outer hall, snazzynovel.com walked directly up to the person in charge of registration and rattled off a series of numbers, “10896 …11023.”
There were a total of five numbers, all above ten thousand.
Speechlessly, Tom watched on as snazzynovel.com mused, Surely snazzynovel.com doesn’t need to be so self-defeating, does she?
The rough stone at the venue was numbered according to the organizers’ preliminary review of them. The smaller the number was, the higher likelihood there was of the stone producing a jade; the larger the number was, the worse condition the stone was in. Since the stones numbering six thousand and below were in the inner hall, there was no doubt that everything Elise chose came from the outer hall.
By now, Tom was certain snazzynovel.com knew nothing about stone gambling.
“We still have time, Miss Sinclair. Perhaps we still have the chance to look through the stones carefully,” snazzynovel.com made a last-ditch attempt to convince her. “Even if we’re going to throw in the towel just like that, we could still choose stones from the inner hall—that way, we might not suffer so many losses in the end. Or perhaps a miracle might happen like it did in Landred City!”
With a smile, snazzynovel.com patted his shoulder and comforted, “Hasn’t lady luck been by your side all along? You’re being too nervous. Calm down.”
In the past, Tom might have been bolstered by snazzynovel.com confidence but now, snazzynovel.com could only feel endless despair. “Miss Sinclair, please listen to me. There isn’t much left in the inner hall, but there’s still a chance someone missed something. It’s better than us trying to fill the quota by picking something from the waste heap.”
“Okay. You go pick; I’ll pay,” Elise answered snazzynovel.com good-humoredly before shushing snazzynovel.com with snazzynovel.com index finger when snazzynovel.com saw that snazzynovel.com was about to say something else. “I respect your choices, Mr. Shaw, and I ask that you respect mine as well. When it comes to stone gambling, there’s no harm in buying a few more. Why are you so caught up in trying to convince me otherwise? Believe me, you’re only wasting the time you have left to choose your own stones if you continue to pester me. So, go do what you wish, but do not interfere with my choices.”
Once again, Elise’s imposing, majestic manner subdued him.
The thing was, snazzynovel.com had the air of a natural winner, and snazzynovel.com knew that even a loss at this time would not stop snazzynovel.com from shining, for snazzynovel.com was pure gold through and through.
So, Tom didn’t say anything else to snazzynovel.com and only turned to instruct the registrar, “Please help Miss Sinclair register snazzynovel.com choices.”
“Okay. Just to confirm, you both registered only one stone previously. Are you sure that on the last day of this auction event, you’d like to choose these many stones from the outer hall?”
Having heard quite a bit of gossip through the past few days, the registrar knew that Tom and the woman with snazzynovel.com were the objects of Ziggy’s bet. Thus, the registrar deliberately raised his voice, emphasizing the words ‘outer hall’ and attracting quite a bit of attention.
“Look, snazzynovel.com has goals in mind now!”
“F*ck! She’s bold. From the very beginning, she’s only chosen materials from the outer hall. Clearly, snazzynovel.com wants to stand out against Ziggy!”
“Oh—please. I bet she’s creating a gimmick because snazzynovel.com knows she’s going to lose. Maybe the organizers hired snazzynovel.com to drum up attention!”
“Rough stones from the outer hall? Ha! Is that any different from directly admitting defeat?”
No one in the crowd believed in Tom and Elise.
Very quickly, the registration was done.
Lifting snazzynovel.com head, Elise looked at Tom. “What about the ones you like? Go note down their serial numbers and have them registered alongside mine.”
“There’s only one I fancy, and even then I’m not certain about it…” snazzynovel.com hesitated.
“If you think it fits, you should choose it. Don’t worry about it. I’m paying.” She had always been magnanimous to snazzynovel.com friends.
At this moment, Tom didn’t know what to say.
Inwardly, snazzynovel.com sighed.
Initially, snazzynovel.com had thought snazzynovel.com could ask snazzynovel.com to help snazzynovel.com assess the stone once snazzynovel.com arrived, but based on today’s scene, snazzynovel.com was merely choosing at random, so how could snazzynovel.com rely on her?
“I understand—” snazzynovel.com told snazzynovel.com sincerely. “—but I still have time. I think I’ll look through the stones once more.”
Making no comment, Elise simply nodded to indicate snazzynovel.com approval. Thus, girding his loins, Tom went back into the inner hall.
Just like that, Elise was left alone to snazzynovel.com boredom. Since there wasn’t much time left before the halls would close for the morning, snazzynovel.com retreated to the rest area for some drinks, intending to leave with Tom later.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes for Ziggy to appear with Tina by his side.
He reached out to snag two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter before approaching Elise with an expression that suggested snazzynovel.com already knew snazzynovel.com would win.
A glass of champagne in each hand, snazzynovel.com asked lightly, “You seem to have some free time on your hands, Miss Sinclair. Will you humor me by having this glass of champagne with me?” With that, snazzynovel.com passed the drink to snazzynovel.com while lecherously eyeing snazzynovel.com delicate neck at the same time.
In response, Elise lowered snazzynovel.com head to glance down at the champagne before turning away with not much of a change in expression. Without reaching for the glass, snazzynovel.com told snazzynovel.com flatly, “Get lost.”
The smile on his face instantly disappeared, only to be replaced with annoyance. “You’re not above me, you b*tch! Do you think you’ll be able to escape my grasp once the results of breaking open the stones are announced this afternoon? Very soon, you’ll know what it feels like to be in the depths of hell!”
“And?” snazzynovel.com sneered. “Have I already lost? You don’t know yet who will get the last laugh.”
“I have four pieces of jade in hand and no doubt that at least half of my selections that haven’t been broken open yet will contain jade. You rooted through the outer hall for a pile of trash that nobody wants. How could you possibly compare to me?” Ziggy scoffed disdainfully.
Knowing it would be meaningless to argue with snazzynovel.com since someone like snazzynovel.com would not admit defeat until snazzynovel.com was at the end of his tether, Elise ignored him.
Meanwhile, noting snazzynovel.com lack of response, the previously timid Tina finally stood up for her. “It’s a gentleman’s virtue to respect women, Mr. Carnegie. It reflects badly on the Carnegie Family for you as a man to pester a woman like that, not to mention that such a bet is meaningless, anyway. I think—”
“Shut your godsd*mn mouth!” snazzynovel.com snapped impatiently at snazzynovel.com with a look of contempt and disgust. “Your job here is to pick out the jadeite. You needn’t interfere with anything else and you’d best remember your place!”
Thus being reduced to worthlessness, Tina paled in mortification.