Chapter 211: I’m Such a Little Genius
Victor Donovan was so heartbroken over losing the treasure that he nearly had a heart attack on the spot, almost collapsing and becoming a laughingstock once again.
After his initial panic, Timothy Donovan clearly came to the same realization, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.
This was probably the closest he had ever come to striking it rich in his life. He recalled what Mr. Lynch had just mentioned—that a small Blessing, Fortune, Longevity, Joy ornament had recently sold for one hundred million at an auction abroad.
The piece now on the tray was visibly larger and of better quality. If it were made into a finished product, couldn’t it sell for two hundred million, or even three hundred million?
Turning a two-million-dollar investment into three hundred million...
The mere thought made Timothy Donovan feel like his heart was bleeding.
Mr. Donovan, however, breathed a sigh of relief. If Timothy Donovan had actually won the auction for this treasure, it would have undoubtedly been detrimental to his own position.
But that didn’t stop him from being green with envy over Arabella Donovan’s incredible luck.
However, Arabella Donovan, the object of everyone’s envy, jealousy, and spite, was staring intently at the raw stone on the tray, her expression grave and thoughtful.
’So it wasn’t my imagination. This stone really does have a light.’
A light? Brandon Jennings and Caspian Rhodes were taken aback and subconsciously looked down at it.
Under the lights, the four-colored jadeite did possess a soul-stirring beauty. Even unsculpted, it easily captured one’s attention.
But as for any kind of light, they had to admit their eyes weren’t sharp enough to see it.
The light Arabella Donovan spoke of was actually a network of flowing veins inside the jade.
Since coming down from the mountain, she had handled plenty of jade and jewelry, and had even bought a pile of it herself not long ago, but she had never seen veins like these.
It was novel, yet it felt strangely familiar. Thinking back carefully, she remembered. When she first met her master all those years ago, she seemed to have seen this same kind of flowing radiance on the jade pendant he wore at his waist.
It was precisely for this reason that her master—who consistently avoided worldly affairs and especially detested trouble—had chosen to personally intervene. He waded into the muddy waters of her "family," tangling with her nominal maternal grandparents at the time, Holly Wagner’s parents, for a long while.
He spent a great deal of time, energy, and money before he was finally able to sever her ties with that family completely and take her up the mountain.
’Hmm, I remember Master saying back then that the reason you could see that flowing light in the pendant was because it contained something called... called spiritual marrow.’
Spiritual marrow?! Wasn’t that something you only found in fantasy novels?
That was Brandon Jennings’s first reaction. But on second thought, he could hear his little cousin’s thoughts and had even personally witnessed her exorcise an evil entity from his brother.
With that in mind, the sudden appearance of "spiritual marrow," something he thought he’d only ever read about in fantasy novels, didn’t seem so hard to accept, did it?
Caspian Rhodes was thinking along the same lines. As one of the first to be privy to her secret, he’d already witnessed his share of absurdities. This was just one more to add to the list.
Rather than its plausibility, he was more interested in what this so-called spiritual marrow actually did. It sounded like... a good thing?
As it turned out, this spiritual marrow was indeed a rare and valuable treasure, formed from the jade’s absorption of nature’s spiritual energy.
While it wouldn’t cause the stone to gain sentience and become a spirit, it could subtly nourish the wearer’s Eight Extraordinary Meridians, dispelling illness, warding off disasters, and prolonging life. It was the most suitable gift one could give to the elders of a family.
Hearing this, Caspian Rhodes’s heart stirred. He couldn’t help but covet the raw stone. Both of his grandparents were still alive, and they were getting on in years.
If he could just get Arabella Donovan to agree to sell him a couple of jewelry pieces made from the stone—even just two small Peaceful Coins—it would be an immense blessing for the two elders.
However, when he thought about Arabella Donovan’s rather enormous family, he suspected that this hope wouldn’t be so easily realized.
At that moment, Arabella Donovan was still unaware that her precious raw stone was already being coveted. After confirming what was inside it, she turned to look at Ms. Kerr, who was standing not far behind her and was also quite interested in the Blessing, Fortune, Longevity, Joy Original Stone.
"Miss Kerr, your company is one of the nation’s leading jewelry brands. You have your own design department in-house, so you should know how to cut and polish this stone into real jewelry, right?"
The moment Ms. Kerr heard this, she guessed Arabella’s intentions. Her eyes lit up as she said excitedly, "Of course! As long as you need us, Miss Donovan, everyone in our company will be at your service."
Arabella needed their company’s help to process the raw stone into finished jewelry, and their company could likewise use this opportunity to turn the rare Blessing, Fortune, Longevity, Joy Original Stone into one of their signature pieces, taking their industry reputation to the next level. It was a completely win-win situation!
"Then please take a look for me. What would be best to make from this material?"
"Although this piece is only about the size of a palm, it’s very thick. And what’s rare is that the color distribution throughout the entire piece is quite harmonious. The jade is also very translucent, with few impurities. Even though the material is so thick, you can see straight to the bottom when you look down from the top. The quality and transparency are excellent."
Ms. Kerr stroked her chin and mused, "To preserve the integrity of the material as much as possible, I’d suggest making it into a larger desktop ornament. We could engrave auspicious patterns on it, which would be a perfect match for its inherent symbolism."
Arabella wasn’t quite satisfied with this suggestion. A mere ornament, placed at home—while there were benefits to daily contact, those benefits ultimately couldn’t compare to wearing it on your person.
"How long would it take to make an ornament?"
"Well..." Ms. Kerr realized the problem as well and said awkwardly, "Carving an ornament is a delicate and technical job. To properly carve a raw stone this large would likely take several months, or even longer."
"That’s too long. Can we make something else? I want to create something they can easily wear."
Ms. Kerr paused for a moment, staring at the raw stone for a while longer before nodding. "In that case, given the stone’s thickness, you could try making two bangles, Miss Donovan. Then, using the material cored from the center of the bangles, you could make two hanging pendants from one core, or one larger, round jade pendant from the other. We could carve them with designs of auspicious beasts like dragons, phoenixes, or qilins."
Arabella’s eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, let’s do that! How long would all that take?"
"Well... the bangles are easy. If we work on them day and night, we can have them polished in about a week. The pendants are a bit more troublesome; the fastest would be two to three months."
Arabella thought about the date of Dennis Donovan’s wedding and sighed. "In that case, please make the bangles for me first. I want to see the finished products in one week. We don’t need to rush the rest. From the material left over from the bangle cores, use one piece to make two hanging pendants, and the other to make a jade pendant carved with a qilin."
’This way, I can give Grand-uncle Dennis and Preston the bangles as a wedding gift. Then later, I can give Grand-uncle Dennis the qilin pendant as a New Year’s gift. Oh my god, I’m such a genius!’
Brandon Jennings and Caspian Rhodes: PFFT—