CH 23.3

“Bang–” The sound of the teacup hitting the ground startled Min Qingshi and his legs went weak, almost causing him to be unable to stand up straight.

Old Man Min’s face was blue and for the first time he looked seriously at this grandson of his.

Previously, because he was mindful of the fact that Min Shang was the current head of the family and that he wasn’t in the position to interfere much, he had turned a blind eye.

But now, when he thought of the young man called Bai Jing, his heart couldn’t help but ache.

He had known lots of people for the first half of his life and had relied on his intuition to save the Min family from a life-and-death situation several times and to develop the family to where it was today.

That young man wasn’t arrogant, was intelligent, and had a heart and attitude unlike that of ordinary people.

And he had already discovered, through special means that he was the legendary teenager who had tied in first place with Du Xingyu in this gambling apprentice exams!

Although there was very little information about Bai Jing on Starnet, Old Man Min was able to find out a few things with his network of contacts. Including, of course the stupid things his grandson had done!

No wonder Bai Jing didn’t say yes to his offer.

If he had known about all the stupid things his grandson had done, how would he have had the face to ask him to be their Exclusive Stone Gambler?

“Your father didn’t discipline you properly before and raised you to be such a stupid and poisonous piece of shit.”

Old Man Min’s face was cold as he spoke without mercy, “If he can’t even teach his son well, how can he manage the whole family well?”

He looked to the butler, “Go, call everyone in the family to the hall. I want to re-elect the head of the family.”

Old Man Min made this decision not only because of Bai Jing but most importantly because this incident served as a wake-up call to him.

If the Min family was allowed to continue like this, how many talents like Bai Jing would be missed?

He had heard rumors of the Min family suppressing some commoner Stone Gamblers before but unfortunately, with Min Shang standing in the way, no one dared to bring this matter to his attention and the latter didn’t care.

This time, he had thoroughly investigated Min Shang’s actions over the past ten years from beginning to end, only to find that things were much more serious than he thought.

If he allowed things to go on like this, sooner or later the evidence of the wrongdoings of their Min family would fall into someone’s hands and the Min family would no longer have its former glory.

When Min Qingshi heard that the head of the family was going to be changed, his body shook and he fell heavily to the ground, a terrified expression on his face.

It was over, it was all over –

He had cost his father his position as the head of the family. This time he was afraid his father would kill him!

And he himself had lost his status as heir to the family to be relegated to a marginal role from now on.

Unable to accept this reality, Min Qingshi’s eyes suddenly went dark and he fainted, losing consciousness.

The Min Group’s family history had records that:

In 835 AH, the position of the head of the Min Group family changed hands.

The new head of the Min Group, Min Qi, took an iron grip on the Min family and cleaned up the internal and external atmosphere, saving the then disreputable Min family from a crisis and laying the foundations for its rise to the top of Proxima Star’s prominent families.

—

Little did Bai Jing know that his unintentional act would have a butterfly effect on the rise and fall of a family.

Now he, together with An Ge, were returning from the Gambling Street in Jin Mao’s hover car.

Jin Mao adjusted the hover car to autopilot mode and the fluid body hurtled through the air along a set course without losing any of its speed.

And then he sat in the back chatting with the two men happily, the journey filled with laughter.

The trip to the Gambling Street had been a rewarding one for all three.

Although Jin Mao made only 20,000 starcoins, the least of the three, he was from a wealthy family and so didn’t care much about the amount of starcoins.

Instead, the thrill of betting on a rise fascinated him. What’s more, this was the first money he had ever made on his own!

Not to mention the fact that he had gained a point for it.

He had previously thought that 5 points would be hard to come by, yet he had accumulated 1 point on the first day. It didn’t seem as hard as he had thought!

All in all, Jin Mao, who was grinning from ear to ear was already planning his next visit to the Gambling Street.

As for An Ge, he had been in a trance mixed with excitement ever since he sold the pink violet jadeite.

The eyes of the normally self-effacing and introverted man had been lit up ever since after seeing the string of zeros in his account.

This was the first time he had seen so many starcoins. With this amount of money, he wouldn’t have to keep worrying about the Shen family’s attitude and whether he had the funds to gamble on rough stones.

These starcoins had given him an infinite amount of confidence; becoming a Stone Gambler was no longer an unattainable dream.

He looked at Bai Jing who was beside him with yearning in his eyes. He would soon become a full-fledged Stone Gambler just like his idol!

Of the three, Bai Jing had gotten the most reward.

The hibiscus jadeite that was produced from the scrap had fetched a whopping 4 million and with the 400,000 starcoins for the full green jadeite of the bean seed variety, the total today was 4.4 million starcoins.

And his cost for the raw rough stone was only thirty-four thousand starcoins, which showed that he had made a huge profit!

Bai Jing opened his light brain account and the balance shown on it was: 6.08 million.

Almost without hesitation, his pale fingertips flew across the light screen, transferring five million starcoins into Gu Yuanzhao’s light brain account, leaving a balance of thirty-three million owed for the treatment of his genetic decay.

After this was done, there was still one million and eighty thousand starcoins left in the account, which could be used as funds for the next stage of gambling on rough stones.

A ‘di’ sounded and Gu Yuanzhao, who was in a meeting with the heads of the various planets made a quick gesture for the meeting to be paused and clicked on his light brain as quickly as he could.

He had set a special alert tone for Bai Jing so as not to miss his messages.

At this moment, the corners of Gu Yuanzhao’s lips curled up gently, the eyes that were harsh towards his subordinates just now becoming softer, wondering what message Bai Jing had sent him.

[Your account has received 5 million starcoins from [Bai Jing]. Please check your receipt.]

Seeing this message, Gu Yuanzhao was silent for a few seconds.

He wanted to tell the teenager that he didn’t need to be so eager but was afraid of hurting his pride, so how should he reply?

The people in charge on the other end of the video conference call wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads when they saw Young Master Gu’s frown, apprehensive.

Young Master Gu had been staring at his light brain for a minute with a stony expression. Could it be that something had happened to the Gu Conglomerate?!

No, it shouldn’t be. They hadn’t heard of anything major happening recently.

Gu Yuanzhao’s deep dark eyes stared at the message on his light brain for a long time then he smiled helplessly and replied with a ‘received’ message.

After thinking about it, he added: Take care of your health.

But the moment the message was about to be sent out, his finger paused and then he deleted the ‘Take care of your health’ part.

That seemed too stiff and uh, not very sincere?

Three minutes later, the meeting resumed and the other people in charge had to buck up to continue their reports.

When the meeting was over, they huddled together to discuss among themselves: what was so important that the always calm and collected Young Master Gu frowned and paused the video conference call?

Unfortunately, they couldn’t find an answer to this question and so had to leave it as an unsolved mystery.

When Bai Jing saw the [received] message pop up on the screen of his light brain three minutes later, he scanned it and then withdrew his gaze.

Jin Mao, after expressing his insights from their trip to the Gambling Street lifted a brow and looked at An Ge with a resentful expression, “An Ge, stop looking at your light brain. Were you even listening to me?”

An Ge smiled apologetically. His attention was still on the 900,000 starcoins he had received, the sense of unreality having not dissipated even until now.

Jin Mao of course wasn’t really angry. Instead he looked at An Ge teasingly, “Okay now it’s your turn, tell us how you feel.”

Nodding, An Ge smiled, “Ok.”

Jin Mao was keenly aware that An Ge was now much more cheerful than before and although he was still a bit shy, he could clearly feel that his inferiority complex was gradually fading away and blossoming into his original light.

An Ge thought for a moment before saying, “This is my first time gambling on rough stones and I think that experience is one aspect of gambling, but what is more important is the mindset–“

He was a little embarrassed after telling his experience, but there was still a question in his mind.

“Actually, as I was choosing the last rough stone–

When I chose the last rough stone, the one that produced the pink violet jadeite, I had a feeling in my heart that there was jadeite in it. Did you have this feeling?”

Jin Mao scratched his head: “No.”

Bai Jing mused, “Yes.”

He had also had something close to an intuition when he saw the scrap with no evidence for supporting it other than the feeling that there should be jadeite in it.

Only, this intuition …