Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Hans frowned as he found himself an opponent. Sean was definitely great with the ladies. He had the looks, he was willing to spend, and he was good at sweet talk. Porter realized the difference between the two and was disheartened. “I chose the wrong opponent, right?” Hans reassured him, saying, “It doesn't matter. I have an advice for you. Believe me, the most precious gifts are all about finding the right one and not about how expensive it is. But whoever this kid is, he is really rich!” Li Du frowned as well. He looked closely at the jewelry in Sean's hand and felt that something was not quite right. Up until now, his mine in Lightning Ridge occasionally produced black opals. All of them had to go through him before being sent to Harry Winston Inc. Therefore, he was very familiar with opals. Like with diamonds, he could tell at first glance. The gems in Sean’s hand were very beautiful, but the colors were too bright for the natural beauty of an opal. The true nature of an opal was more refined than kitsch. His gems were beautiful but the colors were rather dull. These, on the other hand, were like the fake ones he’d seen before. This made him think of what Sean had said earlier. He said, “This jewelry is so beautiful, man. How much did you pay for it?” “It’s not convenient for me to tell you that,” Sean gave him a look. A young man next to them said, “The internal price cannot be made public, dude. You’ve asked a silly question.” Li Du smiled. “Maybe, but I think it is necessary to ask this question because this guy here may have been cheated.” “Cheated?” someone next to him echoed. “What do you mean?” Li Du released the little bug to turn the time back to when this set of jewelry was made. He saw the entire process of manufacturing the necklace and earrings. He also saw the transaction process. These were fakes! The opals were not even spliced from real gems but were artificial to begin with. Hence, the chatoyance of the opals was so disappointing.
Li Du pointed at the opals angrily. “You bought fakes. This set was not produced by Harry Winston Inc.” The youngsters were stunned when they heard this. Sean looked at him in shock. “What did you say? Nonsense, what are you talking about? This is the Love of Ink I bought through my relatives. Of course they are authentic!” Li Du shook his head. “No, they are definitely fake.” Sean became a little angry and glared at him. “Hah, you are so certain! As if you have seen any Love of Ink series jewelry. Come on, you tell me, how is this a fake?” Without waiting for Li Du to say another word, he went to the table and picked up a magazine in English with the bold title ‘LUXURIES’. This was the world’s top luxury magazine. Sean flipped the pages and pointed to a picture. “Look, all of you! ‘LUXURIES’ has an introduction to the Love of Ink series. Look here, here’s the set I bought.” There was a beautiful photograph on the fine copperplate paper, along with information about this set of jewelry. The necklace and earrings Sean had taken out were right there. Li Du took the magazine and studied it. The first page of the magazine featured a high- resolution photo of Cole Winston. In the photo, he was smiling as he sat on a desk chair with an office background behind him. Once he saw this photo, he had a simple way to prove the origin of the jewelry. He looked at Sean with an unamused smile and said, “You know all about the authenticity of this jewelry, don’t you? I mean, you don’t want to make things too ugly, right?” Li Du had already given Sean an opportunity to say he was cheated. In fact, he was not. From the time when the little bug reversed the time, Li Du knew the truth. Sean had gone to a small workshop and bought this jewelry set. The first reason why Li Du wanted to expose him was that Sean was not quite polite and actually insulted Chinese porcelain earlier. The second reason was that Li Du believed one should never, ever deceive others with his belongings. If this incident was exposed, it could have caused Harry Winston, Inc. to be at fault. In addition, Sean had obviously entered into a rivalry with Porter, who was also pursuing Ariana.
As far as he knew, Porter was genuinely interested in Ariana, whereas Sean was a playboy who used fake jewelry to deceive girls. He was definitely a love swindler. No matter how he looked into this matter, he could not remain indifferent. Although Sean was nervous, he still said with apparent confidence, “What are you talking about? Don't cause trouble. Who are you? Who brought you here?” Seeing that he did not dare to own the truth, Li Du saw no reason to help Sean out of this embarrassing situation. He took out his cell phone and called Cole. As he was on the phone, he held the magazine up, showing the man in the picture to the public, “This is Cole Winston, president of the Harry Winston, Inc., as you can obviously see.” Cole answered the phone. “Hello, Li, what’s the matter?” “Nothing much. Can I bother you for a few minutes?” “Not a problem.” “Cool, let’s change to a video call.” Li Du switched the mode. At once, Cole Winston’s face appeared on the screen with the same office background. Li Du showed his phone screen to everyone. “I assume I don't have to introduce this gentleman. This is Mr. Cole Winston.” Cole’s face, appearance and the office background on the phone screen were almost identical to the magazine picture. Nobody could doubt the truth. Cole looked blank as he did not understand why Li Du video-called him and showed him to a bunch of young people. However, he recovered quickly. He smiled, greeted the young people and gave a brief introduction about himself. Actually seeing the president of a large company with a market value of more than one billion dollars appear on the phone screen shook the young people. Sean was shocked and stunned for a moment, too. Li Du took the jewels out of his hand and showed them to Cole. He asked, “Do you recognize this set of jewelry?” The Love of Ink series was the highlight of Harry Winston, Inc. this year. Cole looked at it attentively. Harry Winston, Inc. worked hard towards a turn-around with the aid of this set of jewelry.
He was shocked when he saw the jewelry. “What is going on? How come do you have these? This set of jewelry should be in the showcase in Paris, and it has not been sold yet.” Hearing this, Sean was evidently embarrassed and the young people knew what was going on. Li Du said, “Yes, they should still be in the showcase, but I saw them in Miami. Some people say that his relatives have taken this from the group, so as a shareholder in Harry Winston, Inc., I want to ask you what is going on.” As he spoke, he turned his head to Sean. Sean realized that the situation was bad, and made to sneak away as fast as he could. “Well, I am having a bad stomach ache. I have to go to the bathroom first. We’ll talk later…”
