As everyone’s eyes focused on Sarina, her expression shifted, and she felt deeply humiliated. Ever since she had gained the ability to detect gemstones within raw stones, she had always been the center of attention, celebrated wherever she went. She couldn’t let anyone know that her powers had vanished, so she directed her frustration at the gemstone experts.With a stern face, she snapped, "What kind of stones did you pick? Useless, the lot of you! How could every single one be a bust? I thought I’d give you an opportunity to prove yourselves, but you’ve only disappointed me."Her words left the gemstone experts from Fox Gemworks embarrassed and furious. As professional experts, they felt deeply insulted by her accusation. It was clear to them that Sarina, now the target of mockery, was deflecting the blame onto them. Although they were seething inside, they knew better than to argue with her.They had done their best under the circumstances. With only half an hour to review so m
Sarina lifted her chin, trying to maintain her composure. "That’s right, the sealed bids were placed by me, so there won’t be any mistakes this time. For those of you wanting to watch, you’ll see the results when they’re announced tomorrow."Internally, she sighed in relief. Fortunately, she had already submitted the bids. If not, she would have been utterly lost. She had scouted the sealed bid stones in advance, and she knew that they contained far more high-grade and premium gemstones than the open bid stones. In particular, there were several large stones that, if she won them with her bids, could increase in value tenfold—perhaps even a hundredfold—once opened.Her confidence surged as she thought about tomorrow. She could already imagine the stunned looks on everyone’s faces when the stones were revealed. Once those high-quality gemstones were uncovered, she would have the perfect opportunity to personally humiliate Howard and Lindsay.Lindsay smiled and said, "Well, I guess
Hearing the staff member's explanation, Sarina's eyes widened, and her legs felt weak with panic. "That’s impossible! I’m certain I put the bid slip in the box," she protested, her voice shaking. "Are you saying your staff made a mistake and lost our bid, and now you’re blaming us?"She was confident she had dropped the bid into the box, and she wasn’t ready to accept such a careless mistake. The staff, however, were prepared for this."This isn’t a mistake on our part," the staff member responded calmly. "I’ve already saved the footage of your bid submission. If you don’t believe me, you can watch it yourself, and everyone here can bear witness."With that, he connected his phone to the display screen in the hall and played the footage for everyone to see. The organizers wanted to clear their name in front of all the attendees.The crowd turned their attention to the screen. In the video, Sarina was seen writing the bid slip and then carelessly attempting to drop it into the box.
Sarina carefully wiped the bid slip with a tissue, trying to clean off the grime. Some of the writing had smudged, but much of it was still legible—especially the bid prices and symbols that only she could decipher. Unfortunately, the problem lay with the numbers. Each line of the bid slip had an issue with the crucial identification numbers.This auction, being one of the largest in recent years, featured thousands of raw stones. The sealed bid section alone had tens of thousands of stones, meaning the identification numbers were five digits long. On Sarina’s bid slip, almost every number had a missing or obscured digit due to the dirt and oil stains. For example, "352?9" had the second-to-last digit completely illegible, covered by grime.Some people in the crowd, always eager for a bit of drama, peeked at the slip and commented, "Wow, that’s some seriously bad luck. Every important number is messed up.""Her luck really ran out today, didn’t it?""I bet she’s used up all the g
Sarina was fuming, wishing she could strangle Lindsay at that moment. This woman was definitely doing it on purpose, always bringing up the most sensitive topics.Sarina narrowed her eyes at Lindsay. "I'm in this state because of you, aren't I?"Lindsay raised an eyebrow. "Your bad luck has nothing to do with me.""You're really good at dodging responsibility.""When the bids failed, you blamed your company's gem appraiser for being useless. And now, because of your own carelessness with the bids, you're still trying to pin it on me."She mocked further, "Why don’t you go ahead and claim I took your bids, trampled them, and tossed them into the trash?"Elric, standing by, chuckled and added, "If there weren't security footage, she might actually blame you for that."Lindsay immediately took a few steps back. "Then I’d better stay far away from Miss Fox."Sarina was speechless and thought, “This little bitch is so infuriating.”If Lindsay hadn't meddled today, Sarina wouldn't believe th
Sarina couldn’t help but suspect that Lindsay had deliberately set her up.“You know exactly what's going on here," she said, giving Lindsay a meaningful look. "If I can't find my sister, I’ll report it to the police.”Lindsay raised an eyebrow. “Then go ahead, call the cops. Why are you looking at me?"If Sarina managed to find Selena using the police, Lindsay would just have Selena explain the situation herself. Selena could make it clear that she left of her own accord and nothing bad happened. After all, Selena, as an adult, didn’t need to report her every move to Sarina.Besides, Selena had probably witnessed everything by now. When Lindsay said she'd livestream for Selena, she didn't actually hold the phone herself. Instead, she had Elric's assistant set up the video call through Mia's phone. She made sure it was a one-way deal - Selena could watch but wouldn't show up on camera.Lindsay had made sure Sarina wouldn’t catch any of these small details, keeping her unaware of the
After Sarina submitted her new bid sheet, she took the dirtied one and headed back to the two sections to re-examine the raw materials. Once again, she placed her hand on the stones but felt nothing. She couldn’t let that show, though, so she gritted her teeth and pretended to inspect each stone carefully.She couldn’t remember which stone had gemstones inside, so she relied purely on instinct, filling in the missing numbers based on which stones seemed to catch her eye. “Even if I don’t get them all right,” she thought, “I should at least land a few.”It took her over an hour of hesitation to finish the new bid sheet, which she then handed to the staff. The staff member placed it in an envelope right in front of her, sealing it away.With the excitement over, the crowd began to disperse.Just then, Steven returned, drenched in sweat. When Sarina noticed Selena wasn’t with him, she couldn’t hold back her question. “Where is she?”Steven shook his head. “We couldn’t find her. There’s
Elric played along, bidding on over a hundred stones and winning only twenty. In comparison, Ryan's luck wasn’t great; despite bidding on over a hundred stones as well, he only secured eight.Long Jewelry bid on nearly five thousand stones and won over a thousand, but the biggest winner by far was Fox Gemworks, which bid on three thousand stones and secured more than two thousand of them. Naturally, Fox Gemworks also had the biggest bill to foot, dropping over a cool billion.Next came the stone-cutting phase.The event had arranged for several stone cutters to assist, and more than a dozen were allocated to help Fox Gemworks. Sarina’s reputation preceded her—after all, she had successfully bid on over two thousand stones, once again creating a bidding legend. This drew a large crowd of onlookers eager to witness her stone-cutting process, especially those who had heard of Sarina but had never seen her in action.However, what happened next shocked everyone.One by one, the raw sto
In the vibrant district of the historic town, the streets were lined with vintage boutiques and various artisan stalls. Lindsay's group visited the town’s administration office and rented a temporary booth.Alex and Justin eagerly borrowed a table and chairs, setting up the booth. Following Lindsay's instructions, they also bought a piece of white fabric and worked together to create a simple sign. The production team provided markers and other supplies.Lindsay glanced over at Benedict and said, "Benedict, I’ll let you handle writing the banner."She was eager to observe his writing and the energy he gave off while doing it.Benedict sighed inwardly—this girl was constantly trying to test him. After a moment’s thought, he nodded. "Alright, I’ll write it."He grabbed a marker, uncapped it, and wrote in bold letters across the white fabric: “Fortune Telling, Divination, and Tarot Readings.”Lindsay watched him closely, noticing the fluidity of his movements as he wrote, his posture exud
Justin added, "My mom’s been trying to get me to help Olivia and distance myself from Lindsay. She’s also said plenty of nasty things about Lindsay. This time, not only did I ignore her, but I even pushed back. It probably pissed her off, and now she’s taking it out on Lindsay."Alex, clearly upset, said, "You should talk to her and tell her to stop fixating on Lindsay. Lindsay hasn’t done anything to provoke her. It’s ridiculous."He was frustrated that Justin’s mom had been stirring up trouble, making Grace even more difficult to deal with.Justin nodded. "Alright, after the show is over, I’ll have a talk with her."He also felt his mom was acting out of line. Back when he liked Lindsay, her disapproval at least made sense. But now that Lindsay had kicked him to the curb, his mom’s continued obsession was baffling.Although they were speaking softly, Lindsay and Benedict, walking ahead, heard every word.Lindsay found the situation with Abby baffling as well. A woman who fawned over
After Lindsay left, the other guests quickly followed, leaving only Alex standing there awkwardly. He spoke briefly to the production staff, and they soon shifted the cameras away from that area. Alex then walked over to Grace, saying, "Mom, since Lindsay won’t lend it, let’s just drop it."Grace shot him a cold glare, her expression dark. "How can you be so heartless? The one lying in bed is your fourth brother. Are you hanging around Lindsay all the time just to learn how to be cold and ruthless?"Unable to contain her frustration toward Lindsay, Grace directed it at Alex instead.Alex sighed in exasperation. "Even if we need help, it has to be something she’s willing to do! We’ve wronged Lindsay enough as it is, so why do you keep trying to guilt-trip her? Brandon’s situation isn’t Lindsay’s fault. Why don’t you go find Olivia? She’s the one who caused all this, maybe she can fix it. After all, whoever’s behind her is no easy target."Right now, all Alex felt toward Lindsay was gui
Grace held back her anger and said, "It'll only take a few minutes. I have something important to discuss with you."Lindsay sat back down in her seat. "Fine, go ahead."The livestream was on, and Lindsay was fully aware of it—she was doing this on purpose.Grace was about to speak when her assistant whispered something in her ear. Her expression changed, and she subtly shifted her body to turn away from the camera.Then she looked at Lindsay. "Can we talk outside?"In her rush to find Lindsay, she had almost forgotten that this was a live-streamed variety show. She didn’t want to be on camera, much less discuss such personal matters in front of an audience.Lindsay, however, refused. "If it's important, say it here. If not, then don’t say anything."Grace’s expression darkened. "It’s because it’s important that we need to talk privately."She emphasized, "It’s not appropriate in front of the camera."Lindsay just smiled. "Unless it's something shady, what’s wrong with saying it on cam
Lindsay thought about it for a while and figured that if Grace was coming to find her, it was probably for Brandon. The only thing she could want would be the artifact in her possession.Alex saw her reply and couldn’t help but smile wryly. His sister was indeed sharp and saw right through it.He sent a voice message, repeating what the head of the Divination Association had told them. "Mom just wants to borrow the artifact from you to suppress Brandon’s condition."Lindsay replied, "Tell her not to waste her energy."Seeing that message, Alex knew right away that she wouldn’t lend it out. It didn’t surprise him—his sister could be ruthless when she wanted to be."We can’t convince her otherwise, not even Dad can stop her... sigh," Alex added. When their mom’s temper flared, she wouldn’t listen to anyone.Lindsay didn’t seem to care. "Then let her come. I’m not going to do her any favors."Alex recalled the conversation between their parents at the hospital and decided to warn her, "M
Recently, Grace had been spending more time with Abby, often meeting up for outings. Over time, Richard noticed that Grace's anger towards their biological daughter had deepened. Abby had always disliked Lindsay and showed more favoritism towards Olivia. She must have been stirring up trouble and egging Grace on whenever they met. With time, Grace was bound to be influenced.Grace, clearly annoyed, said, "You even want to control who I make friends with? Aren't you going too far? What's wrong with me getting along with Mrs. Ford and spending more time with her?"Richard felt cornered. "I just think there's something off about her. Her intentions in getting close to you don't seem good. That's why I'm trying to give you a heads-up."Grace didn't believe him at all. "I think you're overthinking it. We’ve always had a decent relationship. We’re just closer now, that’s all.""What do you men know about women’s matters? Don't interfere." She now had plenty to talk about with Abby. Jenny wa
Richard glanced at Grace with clear disapproval. “This whole mess was caused by Olivia and Brandon. What does any of it have to do with Lindsay?”He could tell that recent events, and the embarrassment caused by their sons, had left his wife feeling bitter. It seemed she had begun to project that frustration onto Lindsay, despite the situation having little to do with her.Grace crossed her arms defensively. “If it wasn’t for her ongoing fight with Olivia, Brandon wouldn’t have gotten involved. He’s her brother. Doesn’t she owe him some consideration now that he’s in this condition?”Richard frowned. “What exactly are you trying to say?”Valarie, who had been quietly listening, finally spoke up, her displeasure clear. “I see it differently. It’s Olivia and your son who started the trouble, and all Lindsay did was defend herself. Are you really looking to embarrass yourselves even more?”Grace shifted uncomfortably, feeling the sting of her mother-in-law’s words. “I’m just thinking abou
Given the Harper family's persistence, there was no way the Divination Association could avoid a thorough investigation. Seeing that Randolph wouldn’t back down, the official left, courteously escorted out by Randolph, who, for the moment, had ceased his protests.Valarie carefully placed the multicolored stone inside a small protective pouch before securing it around Brandon's neck. Though he felt a slight relief after putting it on, the bad luck continued. As the official had warned, his misfortune was too severe for one artifact to fully contain.Randolph tried every connection he had, attempting to borrow a second artifact, but came up empty-handed. Time slipped by, and evening approached before they could find any further solutions.By the time Richard and Grace arrived at the hospital, they were met with the weary faces of their parents. Feeling guilty for everything his father had gone through, Richard bowed his head. "Dad, Mom, I'm so sorry you had to go through this today."
Hearing their words, the hope that had briefly flickered in Brandon’s eyes quickly faded, leaving him more devastated than before. "Grandfather, I know I was wrong," he muttered, finally realizing the truth. His foster sister had been nothing but trouble—far from trustworthy, she had been a constant source of harm. Meanwhile, his real sister, though harsh and distant, had proven to be far more reliable. Regret gnawed at him deeply.Randolph sighed, his voice heavy with disappointment. “Knowing you’re wrong doesn’t change anything. It’s too late now.”Turning back to the two mystics, Randolph asked, “If you can’t break the curse directly, could you at least help suppress his misfortune? Maybe with a protective charm or some kind of mystical object?”Despite his frustration with his grandson’s foolishness, he couldn’t just leave him to suffer.Both mystics exchanged uneasy glances. “We don’t have the ability to suppress his bad luck with charms.”“For something like that, you’d need t