A Warm Marriage After Rebirth

"S-Seraphina! D-Did I hear that right? Fifty thousand?" Summer was so shocked she was tongue-tied. She had never seen so much money in her life!

Seraphina Sterling nodded.

"Seraphina! You only spent three hundred dollars on this stone, right? How much did you just make?" Mindy Linton felt like she couldn’t wrap her head around it. ’Is making money this easy nowadays?’ In the blink of an eye, Seraphina had earned over forty thousand dollars!

"Young lady, I’ll buy this piece of melon-green jade. Fifty thousand dollars! What do you say?" The moment the jade was cut, a dealer was already trying to buy it.

"Fifty thousand dollars is a lot, young lady! This gentleman isn’t lowballing you in the slightest, you should just sell it! It’s not like you have any other use for it, anyway!" a bystander chimed in, siding with the buyer.

Seraphina Sterling hefted the melon-green jade in her hand, her expression as placid as ever, as if she weren’t the one who had just struck it rich.

"This melon-green jade isn’t a particularly rare or valuable type. Under normal circumstances, fifty thousand dollars would be a fair price. However, this is a stone exhibition, and there are plenty of dealers here who need jade. I remember reading in a textbook that competition drives up prices!" Seraphina’s smile was warm, but the words delivered in her gentle voice made the crowd realize she was not to be underestimated.

The dealer who had made the offer wanted to curse. ’She’s just a high school student! Why the hell are they teaching them the rules of market competition?’ The melon-green jade he thought he could get for fifty thousand dollars was now clearly out of his reach.

"Seraphina is right! With competition, we can’t go by the usual market price! This is a business acquaintance of your uncle, Mr. Hanson from Sanford. Let’s sell this jade to him! Fifty-five thousand! That’s five thousand more than the last offer!" Zeke Jennings spoke as if the decision was his to make, reaching for the melon-green jade in Seraphina’s hand.

With a nimble turn, Seraphina Sterling dodged Zeke Jennings’s hand. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Seraphina Sterling! How dare you treat an elder like that? My father is your uncle! He’s just looking out for you because you’re family, introducing you to a reliable buyer! And you have the nerve to be so ungrateful!" So, after failing to embarrass Seraphina, Sylvia Jennings had gone to get reinforcements.

Having learned their lesson from before, the crowd now just watched quietly, waiting to see what would happen next without making any comments.

Seraphina turned to look at Sylvia Jennings, who clearly hadn’t learned her lesson. "You’d better shut your mouth right now. I’m in a very bad mood. If you were smart, you would have known not to provoke me again after seeing what happened to Willow Hale." Her soft voice was laced with such malice that it scared Sylvia into silence.

Quite satisfied with Sylvia’s reaction, Seraphina turned to face Zeke Jennings and the so-called Mr. Hanson. "You may be my uncle, but that doesn’t mean you can make my decisions for me." She had no intention whatsoever of accepting his "suggestion."

"Seraphina Sterling! Is that any way to speak to an elder? I’m just worried you’ll get cheated! I try to help, and this is the thanks I get!" Zeke Jennings flew into a rage out of humiliation. Feeling he had lost face in front of Mr. Hanson and his fellow townspeople, his attitude grew even nastier.

"Good intentions? Uncle, are you sure this Mr. Hanson can pay immediately?" Seraphina eyed the so-called Mr. Hanson; he was merely the manager of a small shop in Sanford. Fifty-five thousand dollars was no small sum to her.

"Mr. Hanson is a bit tight on cash at the moment. All his capital is tied up in inventory. As soon as he moves his current stock, he’ll give you the money right away!"

In reality, Zeke Jennings had his own little scheme. He had already plotted with Mr. Hanson: he would help him acquire the melon-green jade from Seraphina on credit, with no written IOU. That way, they could simply deny the debt later and never pay. Of course, Mr. Hanson had promised to pay Zeke twenty thousand dollars for his trouble.

"Then I’m afraid that won’t work. I’m in urgent need of cash, so I prefer to be paid on delivery," Seraphina said with a slight smile, her tone strictly business.

"I’ll pay sixty thousand. I’m taking this melon-green jade!"

Suddenly, an arrogant, domineering voice cut through the crowd. Seraphina’s expression stiffened. ’The Hale Family of Aethelgard!’