Su Qingran sighed, “That’s exactly what I’m worried about. Did you see that guy in the black hat just now? He’s Zhang Lei’s driver’s.”

Zhai Wei was shocked, “You mean Master Zhang, the one who carves pixiu statues?”

Su Qingran nodded, “Last time, that driver drove Master Zhang to visit our master. I happened to be there and saw him.”

She had a great memory. When she saw the man earlier, he looked familiar, and she instantly remembered seeing him three years ago.

“This complicates things,” Zhai Wei said. “Master Zhang and his apprentice purposely didn’t show up, but sent the driver instead. They’ve probably already seen the jade and are determined to get it.”

Su Qingran thought for a moment and sent a message to her dad: “Dad, can you support your eldest daughter a bit? cough cough” She added a playful, cute emoji.

After sending the message, she waited for the call.

In less than a minute, her phone buzzed with a bank transfer notification—

[XX Bank] Your debit card ending in 8848 has received a transfer of 30,000,000 yuan from Su Zhen. Balance: 43,000,000 yuan.

Su Qingran’s eyes lit up with excitement. She was about to shower her dad with compliments when her friend Ning Qingqing sent a message: “Ranran, there’s something I thought about all night, and I decided to tell you. Yesterday, I went to a gathering with friends at Qingyang, and I passed by a private room where I saw Jiang Chenlin and Xu Yin talking—just the two of them.”

Su Qingran was stunned by the message.

Xu Yin—her nemesis for as long as she could remember.

When had their feud started? It had to have been at least ten years.

Back then, when the Su family business expanded, they moved out of their old neighborhood and bought a small villa near the Jiang family.

Because of her father’s success, Su Qingran met many children of his business partners.

That’s when she met Xu Yin. They were around the same age and even played together for a while. But then one day, during a pretend game, Xu Yin wanted Jiang Chenlin to be on her team, but he chose Su Qingran instead. It ended in a fallout.

They were just kids then, so it should have been forgotten quickly.

But then, something happened.

Xu Yin’s favorite ragdoll cat, after meeting Su Qingran, became particularly fond of her and even snuck into Su Qingran’s home.

Xu Yin searched for the cat for hours but couldn’t find it. At that time, Su Qingtang wasn’t doing well and needed constant care from Su Qingran, so she didn’t have time to return the cat.

When Xu Yin eventually came over, she accused Su Qingran of stealing her cat, and the two had a huge fight, becoming lifelong enemies.

Over the years, even though their families occasionally crossed paths in business or at gatherings, they didn’t even exchange the usual pleasantries.

Jiang Chenlin was well aware of this. Plus, Xu Yin’s spoiled personality didn’t leave a good impression on him.

Su Qingran figured that Jiang and Xu being in the same room together must be a misunderstanding, but she appreciated Ning Qingqing for telling her.

She replied, “I’ll ask Chenlin about it later, maybe he went in to argue with her.”

Ning Qingqing quickly responded, “That’s possible! Hopefully, he didn’t beat her up and get you stuck with a huge compensation bill.”

They exchanged a few more jokes before Su Qingran hurriedly called her dad.

Her “boss dad” told her he was in a meeting and that the transfer was just for her to “have some fun” and to let him know if she needed more.

Su Qingran laughed, quickly putting the earlier issue aside, and focused on strategizing for the sealed bid prices.

After grabbing a meal nearby, Su Qingran placed a few successful bids on stones in the open auction. She then submitted her sealed bids into the collection box.

The bid deadline was 5 p.m., with results to be calculated by 5:30 p.m., and the final results announced around 7 p.m.

The LED screen, recently installed for the event, displayed the items starting from Lot 001, with the sealed bids listed from highest to lowest—a clear display.

Su Qingran had submitted bids for three items:

• For the ink flower jade, her bid was 16,100,999 yuan.
• For a piece of sugar-white jade from Qiemu County, her bid was 8,001,009 yuan.
• And for the Loulan three-color jade she desperately wanted, she bid 21,000,999 yuan.

Saying she wasn’t nervous would be a lie. This jade-carving competition, held every three years, was her first serious submission since apprenticing over ten years ago.

If she could win an award, it would be the first time she made a name for herself in the jade-carving world. Her reputation, and her prices, would skyrocket exponentially.