Chapter 5

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

A family storm was about to occur, and everyone in the family—including Song Yuanzhi—viewed this norm as an entertainment show. They waited to see Song Ye get beaten up and watch her as she cried and went to wash the dishes.

Lu Lan raised the broom in her hands high up. Her gaze was cruel, and she heartlessly moved towards Song Ye. However, in mid-air, her wrist was stopped by a cold hand.

The surrounding air stopped, and the atmosphere became weirdly quiet. Everyone in the Song family opened their eyes wide and could not believe Song Ye in front of their eyes.

She actually retaliated.

“I’m not weak and easily bullied; I just value you as my family. If you think we aren’t family, you don’t need to chase me out. I can go out by myself,” Song Ye said it calmly without any raise in her voice. However, her words made everyone’s heart panic.

Lu Lan’s face changed, and the anger rising up on her chest was halted by Song Ye’s calm and close-to-cold gaze. Until the door closed with a bang, Song Yuanzhi stood up and hollered, “She really thinks that she’s big. If you dare, don’t come back. If you die, just die outside.”

The houses far away could also hear his curses.

Song Ye, who had walked in between, broke into a cold smile.

It was not because Song Yuanzhi was high up in the air that he was not violent towards her; on the contrary, he was the first person who could not tolerate Song Ye’s existence. All these years, he did not even blink as he saw Lu Lan being harsh on her. Now, this punching bag was disobedient, and he almost burst out.

However, after so many years, she had no more hopes for these familial ties. Now, to her, the Song family was no different from strangers.

The first thing she had to solve was filling her stomach and her pocket.

The town was desolated and behind times; not to mention a wool market, it did not even have a high-class accessory shop. In her memory, there was only a jewelry shop near the secondary school in the city.

The town was a few miles away from the secondary school so, normally, all the students would take public transport to school. However, Lu Lan was harsh towards her and let her walk to school in the name of exercising; when in reality, she just wanted to save money.

Currently, Song Ye was penniless so she could only count on her two bare feet to walk. After walking for three hours on an empty stomach and arriving in the city, her face was pale. She was merely counting on her willpower to carry on and not faint.

When she found the jewelry shop in her memory, she found out that the shop was closed. It was already close to evening, and the shop was closed earlier.

As Song Ye watched the hues of the sky, she did not have the strength to continue walking so she huddled at the stairs to rest. She held the gemstone and sighed gently. This road of revival was not that easy to walk.

When she was feeling emotional, a black car suddenly drove over and stopped right in front of Song Ye. The car window rolled down, revealing a man’s square face. “Little girl, what are you doing in front of my shop?”

Song Ye was stunned. She raised her head and saw the man’s warm face. Then, she immediately stood up and walked to the car, placing the gemstone in her palm and said gently, “I want to sell this jade gemstone. My family is poor, and we’re only left with this gemstone.”

A girl bringing out a gemstone to sell alone was very suspicious so Song Ye found a reason. Together with her pale face, she did give off the vibes of being too poor and having nowhere to go.

That man did not take much notice of her, but when he saw the gemstone that she was holding, his eyes lit up. He took the initiative to open the door and went down to talk to Song Ye. “Little girl, did your family ask you to sell this?”

“Mm, my Dad and Mom told me to bring this over. They said that if I cut out the thing inside, it can be sold.” Song Ye acted as if she did not know anything and answered him as she protected the stone with much fear.

Without much thinking, the man opened the shop and called Song Ye to enter. “My name is Zhao Zhen. If you don’t mind, you can call me Uncle. This thing is very valuable. Hold on it tightly. I’ll prepare the equipment to take out the thing inside.”

“Hello, Uncle Zhao; I’m Song Ye.” Song Ye also reported her name and sat on a chair to wait. In the meantime, Zhao Zhen poured tea and brought snacks for her.

“If you’re hungry, eat this first. Opening the gem requires some effort so you have to wait for a while.” Zhao Zhen did not despise Song Ye because of her torn clothes, and his caring moves made Song Ye have a good first impression of this man.

Of course, the eventual result would have to depend on the contents of the stone.

Zhao Zhen was wearing a suit and was sitting in front of the gem opener, operating it personally. Carefully, he opened the black sand exterior of the gem. It took twenty minutes to open the window of the gemstone as big as the palm; one could just tell how much effort and meticulous the process was.

Zhao Zhen’s jewelry shop was not famous in Cloud City, and the less famous it was, the harder it was to find good resources. Besides, he did not have much money and his shop was small; the shop could only maintain itself based on word-of-mouth. He had tried countless times to change to another industry, but every time he looked at these beautiful gems, he could not help but have the desire to explore them. Just like now, he was extra meticulous to the black sand gem that was not of good material.

However, in the next instant, when he saw the shade of green on the inside; he was surprised beyond words.

“Uncle Zhao, what’s the matter?” Song Ye sat not far away and asked him while pretending to be curious.

After some time, Zhao Zhen then opened his eyes wide and broke into a smile. He eagerly said, “It’s green! Green! Also, its head looks pretty good!” He did not care if Song Ye understood what he said. Right after Zhao Zhen said that, he hurriedly used his handkerchief and dipped it in water before carefully using it to open the window until a complete jade was in front of him. The glistening jade was too beautiful for someone to turn their eyes away.

Even if Song Ye was an outsider, she could tell how valuable the item was.

She sat aside and did not say anything until Zhao Zhen was done inspecting and calmed back down. Then, he took the initiative to talk to her. “Xiao Ye, did your family say how much they wanted to sell this thing for?”

Song Ye shook her head. “My parents didn’t say anything. They just needed some money to get on with life. I don’t really know much about this so Uncle Zhao should state the price.” When she said this, she was acting innocent. No matter how much she did not know about such things, Song Ye was not stupid enough to let the other party state the price. She only did this to test the other party.

Zhao Zhen was stunned for a moment. He held the item and broke out into a smile. “This jade is a type of Grade A glass jade so it is extremely valuable. However, the surface was a bit small, and Uncle Zhao’s shop is small too; I can’t produce so much money. I’ll give you three hundred thousand dollars for this. How does it sound?” When he said this, Zhao Zhen was very guilty as a jade of this type would cost at least seven or eight hundred thousand, but he did not have that much money with him.

When Song Ye saw his dodgy eyes, she knew that he was guilty. Based on his personality that she observed, she could go along with it. After she thought about this, she stood up and walked to Zhao Zhen. “Okay. Three hundred thousand, but I still want a part of the shares in the jewelry shop.”