Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Hard to Come By

The owner lost his composure. Taking advantage of Vera Xavier’s inexperience, he said, “Young lady, I’ll give you one hundred. How about you sell this stone back to me? Look, you just bought it for fifteen, and now I’m offering one hundred. You’ll make a profit of eighty-five, and I won’t even charge you the fee for cutting it.”

Vera was inwardly amused. ’This owner really takes me for a fool.’ She gave a cool smile. “No. I like the color of this stone. I wouldn’t sell it even if you offered me ten thousand!”

The owner’s eyes darted around. If this stone was entirely Full House Red, it would be worth at least two hundred thousand. He was taking advantage of Vera’s youth and inexperience, about to coax her into selling the stone for a pittance, when Mr. Sterling walked in from outside. “Frank, have the stones I ordered last time arrived?”

The moment the owner saw who it was, he quickly said, “They’ve arrived.”

Mr. Sterling didn’t notice Vera when he came in, but she had already taken the initiative to greet him. “Hello, Mr. Sterling.”

Mr. Sterling was quite surprised to see Vera. “Vera, what are you doing here?”

“My grandfather’s birthday is the day after tomorrow. I wanted to get him a gift, so I just bought a random stone to have it cut, hoping to see if it could be made into a seal.” An idea had immediately formed in Vera’s mind upon seeing Mr. Sterling.

’Mr. Sterling is a master carver. If she could ask him to carve this Chicken Blood Stone into a seal, it would be the perfect birthday gift for Master Nathan.’

The shop owner was speechless. ’Young lady, that’s not what you said a moment ago!’

Mr. Sterling smiled faintly. “Oh? Where’s the stone you bought? May I have a look?”

Vera quickly pointed to the stone with the cut in it. “It’s this one.”

Mr. Sterling followed her finger and saw the stone. His eyes immediately lit up. “Oh? This material looks like Full House Red. Bring it over and let me take a closer look!”

The owner didn’t dare play any tricks in front of Mr. Sterling and had no choice but to hand the stone over. After examining it carefully, Mr. Sterling said with great excitement, “It really is Full House Red!”

“What’s Full House Red?” Vera asked.

Mr. Sterling explained, “Full House Red is a prized variety of Chicken Blood Stone. It’s worth a fortune and is nearly impossible to find!”

He asked the owner for a high-intensity flashlight and inspected the stone closely before saying, “The color of this Chicken Blood Stone is vibrant. It’s a classic Changhua Red. Though it’s not large, it’s quite valuable.”

Vera glanced at the owner, who had a sheepish look on his face and didn’t dare to speak.

Mr. Sterling said to the owner, “Go ahead and cut the rest of this stone out so we can see.”

After a moment, he added, “Actually, this stone is small. It’s better not to cut it; we might damage the core stone. Since it’s not big anyway, just grind it down!”

The owner was already on edge. When Mr. Sterling told him to grind the stone, he went immediately. He knew that since Vera knew Mr. Sterling, he wouldn’t be able to swindle her out of the stone today. He was sick with regret.

He’d run the shop for several years without ever cutting any valuable material, yet today, Vera had uncovered a piece of Full House Red Chicken Blood Stone.

He could tell that Vera was indeed an amateur. But since she also knew Mr. Sterling, he could only wonder which wealthy family in the city she belonged to.

Sick with regret as he was, the owner didn’t dare to try anything funny. He carefully ground away the outer layer of the stone. Because the stone itself was quite small, the process wasn’t too strenuous, and it was completely revealed in about an hour.

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