Rise of the Wasteland Chapter 153 - The Jade and the Beauty

Chapter 153        The Jade and the Beauty

Zhou Qingfeng was depressed and returned to his room. He lay on the bed for an hour, but he could not sleep. Even though he did not sleep for the whole night, he did not feel tired at all.

While lying on the bed, Zhou Qingfeng vaguely remembered that he still had a few pieces of jewelry stolen from Fang Ruhu. He then went to find his teacher who owned the pawnshop. He could only drive the Benz pickup with the U.S. car plate at night, so just he called a taxi and went to the secondhand market.

“Sir, I have some things that I need your help to get rid of.” Zhou Qingfeng acted like a thief as he came closer the Mr. Ma. He lowered his tone and said, “But these things are not very clean.”

Mr. Ma glared at Zhou Qingfeng and put his hand out. “Let me have a look first.”

A few low-value jewelry pieces, with a mysterious Jade of Guan Yin. Mr. Ma was not interested in those jewelry as they were only worth around a few thousand yuan. Instead, he kept looking at and playing around with the Jade of Guan Yin.

“Where’d you get this?” Mr. Ma looked said after half an hour, his face serious.

“I stole it.” Zhou Qingfeng did not want to lie to his teacher.

“You stole it?” Mr. Ma immediately grabbed the feather duster beside him and smacked it on Zhou Qingfeng’s head. “You little b*stard. How dare you bring the stuff you stole to me? You’re trying to get it clean, aren’t you? I’ve been a teacher for my entire life and I’m an honest one. You’re going to get me involved, aren’t you?”

Zhou Qingfeng just stood there and let Mr. Ma hit him with the feather duster since it was not that painful anyway. He knew that Mr. Ma would agree anyway even as Mr. Ma hit him with the feather duster. Otherwise, Mr. Ma would just chase him away without saying anything.

Mr. Ma was tired after a dozen of smashes. He put the Jade back into the box and pushed it toward Zhou Qingfeng. He said, “Take it away, I’ll pretend that I never saw it. You better don’t steal again. Otherwise, you will be caught. It’s just a matter of time.”

“I stole it from Fang Ruhu.” Zhou Qingfeng exposed a little information, “You can’t find this kind of stuff in a usual household. It isn’t even considered stealing if it’s from the b*stard Fang Ruhu.”

Expectedly, Mr. Ma smacked him with the feather duster again. When Mr. Ma was tired and breathless once more, Zhou Qingfeng begged, “Sir, how about you tell me who would accept this? I won’t get you into trouble.”

Mr. Ma heaved a long sigh and said, “I’m already in trouble. I earned twenty-five thousand yuan from the two diamonds I sold the other day. They’re already sold in the other big city. Their prices will be increased dramatically once the certificates of authenticity were approved. There are people who keep asking me for more diamonds because I sold them cheap.”

Ah… it doesn’t sound too bad!

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t provide a stable supply of diamonds.” Zhou Qingfeng thought selling diamonds was a good idea. There were tons of diamonds in Wasteland, so he could get as much as he wanted from there. Unfortunately, he could not predict the reward of the mysterious transmigration. Before, he was allowed a gram of resources, but this time he was told to bring a vehicle. Nobody would be able to predict what he would be allowed next.

Again, Mr. Ma opened the box, looked at the Jade, then said, “Did you really get it from Fang Ruhu?”

“That’s right.”

“Did you leave any marks?”

“I was wearing gloves, foot covers, and a cap. There shouldn’t be anything left on the scene.”

“Tiger Fang is a b*stard, and so is his brother.” The sixty-year-old Mr. Ma was also mad at Fang Ruhu. He said with a cold face, “This Jade was superbly carved. It must be a masterpiece from the late Qing Dynasty or the early Republic of China. It was made by the authentic Mutton Fat Jade.

“Its worth is at least five hundred thousand yuan for this small piece, and there’s no market price. It’s because the jade mines have been exhausted, so it’s extremely difficult to get such high-quality jade again. You leave it here, I’ll look for a chance to sell it. I expect around two hundred thousand yuan from it. You’ll get seventy percent and I’ll get thirty. I don’t want to take so much out from you.”

“Sir….” Zhou Qingfeng wondered why the stubborn old man changed his mind all of a sudden

Mr. Ma sighed again. “Your senior overseas got into a trouble, and he has been urging me to help him. I’m so old and poor, where do I get the money? I can only accept your offer, even though I know it’s not clean.”

Zhou Qingfeng was aware Mr. Ma’s two sons were overseas. It must be a serious issue if even the sixty-year-old Mr. Ma needed to sacrifice his dignity and honesty.

Zhou Qingfeng walked out of the pawnshop. He left the Jade of Guan Yin but the kept the few pieces of jewelry with him. According to Mr. Ma, the ones with him were worthless; they would amount to at most three thousand yuan. He could simply find a goldsmith by the roadside, melt it, then sell it. However, he could not be bothered to do so.

He called a taxi and went back to his apartment. Again, Aunty Zhang called. She asked about his thoughts regarding the two women she described earlier, and whether she should call them out for a dinner with him.

Aunty Zhang was indeed a very realistic person. Her insistence on helping Zhou Qingfeng was probably because of the ten thousand yuan given to her by Zhou Qingfeng. She could not wait to introduce some ladies to Zhou Qingfeng.

It was the afternoon, and Zhou Qingfeng thought that it was still early, so he accepted Aunty Zhang’s offer. They were going to meet at a high-class coffee shop in the city center. By the time he arrived, he saw another two ladies sitting with Aunty Zhang and another boy who looked around two years old.

Zhou Qingfeng was astonished!

Aunty, are you serious?! It’s okay if you’re going to introduce two ladies. But you brought the two at the same time. How am I going to deal with them? You’re kidding me!

The two women sat demurely with Aunty Zhang. As they saw Zhou Qingfeng, they were even more awkward. They did not expect that Aunty Zhang would gather two of them at the same time and introduce a man to both of them.

“This is Xu Rong. She works at the city archives. She’s twenty-five years old, around the same age as you, and this is Xu Rong’s boy. He doesn’t have an actual name yet. We call him Little Bao. He’s a good boy.

“This is Feng Wan, working in the city newspaper. She’s thirty-two years old and has been divorced for a few years. She’s a little older than you. That said, there are tons of men after her; she just doesn’t like any of them.”

Aunty Zhang was very talkative and garrulous. Zhou Qingfeng instantly received all the information about the two women from Aunty Zhang. Both Xu Rong and Feng Wan were awkward. Their faces were flushed, and they have no idea on what to do. Faced with this situation, Zhou Qingfeng got himself up and took the initiative to shake their hands. “I’m Zhou Qingfeng, unemployed.”

Both women did not seem to care about his ‘unemployed’ status. They shook hands with him. Zhou Qingfeng remembered the few jewelry pieces he brought with him and he simply gave those to them. All three ladies, including Aunty Zhang, received a bracelet. Aunty Zhang got a gold one, and the other two ladies received a silver bracelet each.

Even though they were not very expensive, the boxes looked rather delicate. They were very suitable for gifts. Zhou Qingfeng laughed and said, “I just carry gifts with me all the time in case there are pretty ladies I could flatter. Finally, they came in handy.”

Everyone laughed at his self-deprecating joke. However, the laughter was not enough to make them relax.

Aunty Zhang got the gold bracelet and promptly found an excuse to leave. Zhou Qingfeng was left to face the two ladies. He said, “I’m sorry, I have no idea why Aunty Zhang did this to us. But, I’m so happy to see two pretty ladies at the same time! If you guys want to laugh at me, just laugh! I actually want to laugh.”

As Zhou Qingfeng finished, both of them started to burst out into giggles. The awkwardness in the air eased up, and the atmosphere became a lot more harmonious.

Chapter end