Chapter 22: Silence, deafening silence… Immediately went “Oh ho” in his heart…
The secret weapon was indeed a secret weapon; its lethality was equally powerful whether used early or late.
Of course, it could also be that Le Can’s statement was too fierce; the surrounding air seemed to stagnate, and even the sound of breathing seemed inaudible.
Le Can quickly turned to look at the rude person behind him, not wanting to investigate Xi Yun’s expression at all.
As long as the reaction is fast enough,
Embarrassment can’t catch up to him!
One person spoke, but three people stood behind Le Can.
Standing side-by-side in the lead were a young man and woman dressed fashionably, followed by a middle-aged man in a suit, about forty years old.
The former two were almost empty-handed, save for the standard strong light flashlights for stone gambling. The latter was pulling a small cart, which already contained two pieces of raw stone.
Clearly, the ones dominating the trio were the two young people.
Earlier, the inexplicable sarcasm came from a youthful male voice. It was easy to recognize, but Le Can didn’t even spare him a glance. Instead, he looked straight at the only piece of exposed material in the small cart.
An irregular, football-sized Ice Species Blue Water jadeite that made one forget vulgarity upon seeing it.
It looked exactly like the sky after rain—a pale and fresh blue, tinged with very little gray, yet still beautiful and clear.
Only then could Le Can deeply understand why jadeite pursues high “species and water” (quality and translucency).
The better the species and water, the more lustrous and lively the jadeite is, making people rejoice even in its uncarved state.
And such an extraordinary piece of jadeite naturally wouldn’t be nameless in the original novel.
The plot he was thinking about had chased him down!
But the object of the deliberate provocation changed from Xi Yun to… him?!
As an innocent bystander implicated (in his own opinion), Le Can felt a bit like laughing and crying at the same time.
With extremely complex emotions, the stone-holding youth finally raised his head, sparing a moment to glance at the two young people whose faces were turning green.
Good, he completely couldn’t remember if these were characters that appeared in the original plot.
The middle-aged uncle was likely an involuntary worker; among the three, only he smiled apologetically at Le Can. But even that smile looked like his life was bitter.
Having once been a worker himself, Le Can sympathetically prepared to smile back. After all, weirdo Party A’s and bosses were truly never lacking in any industry.
However, just as the corners of his mouth raised a slight arc, two shocked voices rang out in succession:
“What did you just call Xi Yun?!”
The lady, who had originally folded her arms just to watch, looked as if her jaw had dropped.
She repeatedly looked at Xi Yun, who stood like a pine or cypress, and then at the youth holding the stone, who was fresh and handsome. It was unbelievable, yet for a moment, she couldn’t pick out any faults.
But thinking that one of the parties was Xi Yun, Du Ran shook her brain as if it were waterlogged. Xi Yun, how was that possible?!
“Where did this cockroach and bedbug come from? You dare to call Xi Yun, call, call, call…”
“Call him Hubby.”
Le Can faintly supplemented the address the other man was stuttering and afraid to say.
Good, they were all people who knew Xi Yun.
He didn’t know what the double-standard man—who was harsh to him but shy toward the male lead—imagined after hearing “Hubby.” That delicate face vacillated between shy timidity and gnashing teeth.
Le Can immediately went “Oh ho” in his heart.
Someone was coveting his husband to his face; should he get a little angry?
But thinking that the coveted object was the original novel’s male lead, Le Can felt there was nothing wrong with it. The protagonist having high charm—isn’t that a consensus among everyone, past and present, domestic and foreign?
Unable to decide on the appropriate reaction for a moment, Le Can cast his gaze toward Xi Yun.
The youth with peach-blossom eyes tilted his head slightly to look over, obediently holding a jadeite raw stone that had rounded edges but was square overall.
He looked exactly like a cat sitting squarely, nose twitching gently, eyes questioning:
Poop scooper,
Do you have another cat outside?
Although Xi Yun couldn’t associate him with such a soft little creature like a cat, he still keenly perceived the doubt and inquiry in Le Can’s eyes.
He quickly scanned the side of the youth’s lustrous, jade-like face, his gaze landing directly on the two other young people who had suddenly stood up straight.
After two glances, Xi Yun withdrew his gaze indifferently.
Then, he walked to Le Can’s side, reached out to take the winter-melon-like raw stone from his hand, and placed it in the cart beside him.
“If you like it, you can buy it.”
“En.”
“I don’t know them.”
Le Can froze for two seconds before realizing that Xi Yun’s three concise sentences were answering all his questions, starting from whether the raw stone could be bought.
A smile suddenly bloomed on the youth’s face as he pounced, “Really really?!”
Le Can’s focus was on whether the “Winter Melon Candy” stone could really be bought, while Xi Yun thought Le Can was repeatedly confirming that he really didn’t know the two people in front of them.
Trying to avoid letting his gaze land on the body sticking close to him, Xi Yun nodded: “I’ll be looking quite intently in a while; the cart might have to be handed over to you to watch.”
Le Can leaped to grab the cart’s handle, touching the surface of the “Winter Melon Candy” admiringly,
“No problem, no problem, leave it to me!”
Aside, the two people whose focus was skewed toward Xi Yun’s “En” sound, and who had actively claimed their identity as “screwballs”: “…”
Even more tragically, before they could recover from the blow of the previous second, the “sweet interaction” between Le Can and Xi Yun in the next second shattered the last bit of persistence in Du Ran and Gu Xinxue’s hearts.
The two men before their eyes.
Were actually real! Husbands!!!
At this moment, the silence was deafening…
However, Le Can had absolutely no time or mood to care about two strangers whose faces were twisted as if mentally polluted.
With Xi Yun’s affirmation, he immediately took out his phone and scanned the QR code on the stone’s surface.
It has to be said, modern technology is just great!
After a “beep,” a simple black-and-white page clearly listed the dimensions, weight, and price of this raw stone.
“Really can’t bargain?”
Seeing the price, the youth lowered his head in thought for a moment, poking the man beside him with his shoulder.
Thinking back to the stone gambling videos Le Can searched for, eight out of ten were about bargaining. For example, a jadeite raw stone quoted at over five hundred thousand was finally taken for fifty thousand.
A tenfold price difference—while Le Can didn’t deny traces of scripted content in those videos, it was enough to glimpse sideways how deep the water was in the stone gambling industry.
Also, not bargaining when buying things made him feel like he was losing out! Before coming, Le Can rubbed his hands together, having long prepared to bargain fiercely.
Although he was a pure rookie in the stone gambling industry, in terms of bargaining, Le Can was absolutely confident he ranked first among this group of people!
But what did he see?
Below the price column, the four characters “Bargaining Declined” were clearly marked.
Bolded, red, arrogantly unlike the attitude a normal seller would have.
Hearing this, Xi Yun turned his body. Halfway through the turn, the person whose silver-gray double pupils flashed with a hint of silver light suddenly paused his movement.
Just that moment seemed like thunder landing and exploding into a patch of silver light in front of Xi Yun.
After hearing Le Can’s inner muttering of [So expensive, so expensive, so expensive], Xi Yun took the situation of the entire patch of jadeite raw stones in front of him into his eyes.
A slight stinging pain, accompanied by the spread of silver light, attacked his eyes like needle pricks.
Xi Yun slowly furrowed his brows, and amidst the patches of deep and light black, gray, and green, he finally caught a touch of the color he wanted.
Confirming the characteristics of the raw stone’s shell, Xi Yun closed his eyes silently, but the words he spoke were so calm that people couldn’t detect a single abnormality.
“Aunt Tan is a regular customer of the seller here. Before introducing us, she specifically mentioned the seller’s taboos.”
Although they say the customer is god, when facing some powerful sellers, this position of god might have to be reversed.
Le Can nodded and gave an “En.”
He understood that for a seller who could produce a batch of stable old-pit materials domestically, it was normal to have some personality.
Xi Yun paused for a moment, “So on the way here, Xie Jun didn’t tell you this?”
Le Can recalled the situation in the morning and along the way, falling strangely silent for a moment.
He thought, probably, possibly, maybe, Sister Jun had long forgotten the matter of telling him the seller’s taboos.
Xi Yun obviously also realized that at certain times, Xie Jun’s unreliability rivaled the Husky-like personality of Yuan Cheng.
“The seller here has been immersed in the stone gambling industry for decades and has his own unique insights into the performance of raw stones.”
Confident, or perhaps arrogant.
Le Can lifted his eyelids, silently translating Xi Yun’s euphemism into a more direct expression in his heart.
“Generally, the jadeite raw stones brought out from his hands won’t deviate much, seven or eight times out of ten.”
Le Can nodded in understanding. Seven or eight out of ten—in the stone gambling industry where there’s a saying “Even immortals find it hard to judge an inch of jade”—being arrogant could only be called being modest.
“So, buying raw stones here, the only taboo the buyer needs to follow is: No bargaining.”
Bargaining wouldn’t involve financial interests in the seller’s eyes. After all, with the seller’s current status and vision, money was like fleeting clouds.
Material enjoyment could no longer stir any waves; there was more spiritual pursuit. This kind of jadeite raw stone trading with a gambling nature happened to meet the requirements.
So in the seller’s view, bargaining wasn’t equivalent to financial loss, but equivalent to doubt. Doubting his judgment, doubting his level, doubting his ability…
Le Can looked thoughtful: “Questioning and being questioned are major taboos for those in high positions.”
Xi Yun was somewhat surprised by the intelligence of the person beside him. He gave a soft “En,” agreeing with Le Can’s summary.
“Buy and accept the outcome, make a move and don’t regret it. Although the seller makes the rules before selling, once the transaction is reached, he won’t intervene or care about anything afterwards.”
“Whether the buyer wins or loses, loses money or profits, questions him or respects him—it’s all included.”
Le Can raised the tail of his eye slightly, his interest deep: “The boss here is an interesting person.”
It was just that confirming there was no chance to bargain lessened a lot of his fun.
With a look of regret, the youth pressed the purchase option button. Before long, a staff member with a work badge hanging around their neck arrived at their side.
After scanning the code again to confirm the staff member’s identity, Le Can took out his bank card and began the whole set of swiping and entering the password.
After another “beep,” while a whole one hundred and seventy thousand vanished from the card, the POS machine smoothly spat out a transfer payment receipt.
The dust settled.
The “Winter Melon Candy” was now his!
Le Can pursed his lips and smiled, putting away the receipt. After doing all this, he suddenly realized the Xi Yun beside him seemed to haven’t made a sound for a while?
“Xi Yun?”
The man with cold, handsome brows furrowed his forehead, those strange double pupils tightly closed. Even hearing Le Can’s call, he only moved his brow center, unable to open his mouth to answer.
Le Can looked at the tiny beads of sweat oozing from Xi Yun’s forehead, then glanced at the stones all over the floor, sighing silently in his heart.
Great, the wheelchair in the trunk probably needs to be brought out early.
The youth raised both hands to cup the man’s cheeks, applying slight force to press him onto his own shoulder. He looked up at the ceiling, asking knowingly: “Headache?”
“Serves you right! Who asked you to stay up late every night.”
Nonsense. The one staying up late every night was him, not Xi Yun.
With bursts of stinging pain in his eyes and buzzing in his ears, Xi Yun actually couldn’t hear clearly what Le Can was saying. The youth’s clear voice seemed separated by a film of water, difficult to reach his world.
But…
[Is there anything I can help with?]
The gentle inner voice crossed all obstacles, reaching directly into Xi Yun’s heart. He subconsciously gave an “En.”
Originally, no one was on the same channel, yet they ingeniously reached a certain harmony.
Le Can and Xi Yun both disregarded it, interacting and communicating openly. To outsiders, the two embracing people were not only intimate, forming their own small world, but also confirmed they slept in the same bed every day!
To this, Xi Ziyu, who finally rushed up, gritted his teeth, “Shameless!”
Beside him, Gu Xinxue, red-eyed and unwilling, trembling with anger, pointed abruptly at Le Can: “You, you, you, I want to bet against you!”
Then Xie Jun, arriving late, poked her head out and happened to meet Du Ran’s gaze. The two women pointed at each other in unison: “Why are you here?!”
Only Yuan Cheng buried his head and squeezed through the crowd blocking him, holding up the object in his hand high, “Brother Yun, Brother-in-law, the wheelchair is here!”
Unfortunately taking in everyone’s chain of reactions, Le Can: “.”
He slowly looked back. Not surprisingly, he caught a large batch of curious and gossipy little eyes.
The youth’s eyes gradually lost their divine light.
Finally, he slowly and firmly raised his hand, covering Xi Yun’s eyes and his own…
Author’s Note:
Past Le Can: Plugging one’s ears while stealing a bell is such a funny idiom!
Current Le Can: Covers his own and Xi Yun’s eyes.
Question: Why does Big Can cover Big Yun’s eyes when they are already closed?
Answer: You guess if Big Can remembers that fact?
Me: Son, don’t look, it’s bad reviews! [Like]
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