Chapter 102: Chapter 102: Leaving Early

The Jade Jewelry Exhibition has been held for many sessions, but only this session has seen such a bunch of quirky characters.

Each person brought a heap of stones, and cutting stones is not much harder than cutting cakes.

People don’t care whether the stones they hold have increased or decreased in value; they just want one thing, and that’s to have fun!

Qiao Yi and her group were having a blast, but the onlookers were all dumbfounded.

Where did these foolish, rich suckers come from? A perfectly good exhibition is now turning into a playful mess.

Fortunately, these people only played for one morning and didn’t cause too much commotion for these kids.

You can tell how thick-skinned Qiao Yi is just by looking at what she’s doing now.

She’s boasting to Feng Siyu and a few others with the stone that Mr. Tao gave her, making the others feel like robbing her in public.

Mr. Tao and Lu Yanchuan were just watching from the side, Mr. Tao cheerfully commented on each stone, whether they were good or bad.

If it were someone else playing with stones so recklessly in front of Mr. Tao, without any serious attitude, Mr. Tao would have definitely lost his temper and driven them away by now.

But facing Qiao Yi and her group, Mr. Tao was unusually good-tempered.

“Mr. Tao really likes Young Madam. The young master should bring Young Madam to accompany Mr. Tao more often.”

Mr. Tao, assisted by Qiao Yi and Feng Siyu, went to judge whose stone was better. Uncle Peng initially wanted to stop them but was stopped by a look from Mr. Tao. Realizing later, Uncle Peng then smiled.

“Yiyi and the teacher in her youth were very similar.”

Both lived passionately and freely.

On the way back to the hotel, Lu Yanchuan was distracted.

Qiao Yi spoke to him several times, but Lu Yanchuan responded superficially each time.

“What’s wrong? Why do you seem so preoccupied?”

Back in the room, Qiao Yi finally couldn’t hold back and asked.

“Hmm? It’s nothing.”

Lu Yanchuan frowned slightly and silently pushed Qiao Yi into the bathroom.

Unable to understand what was going on with the man, Qiao Yi pouted and pushed him out of her mind, starting to organize her own spoils from the wins.

This exhibition was the best in terms of scale and duration among the several held in the country, lasting three days, with Qiao Yi soaking herself in the exhibition.

Her goal was not the jade jewelry at the exhibition, but Mr. Tao.

Perhaps because he hadn’t been out for a long time, Mr. Tao was also infected by the enthusiasm of Qiao Yi’s young group and picked a suitable piece from Qiao Yi’s collection to personally make a small artifact to play with.

Keep in mind, Mr. Tao works only once a year, and although he occasionally practices aside from the clearly priced work he sells, getting a piece crafted by Mr. Tao certainly spikes its value instantly.

Qiao Yi wasn’t aware of these rumors, so the next day after coming back from the exhibition, her phone kept ringing with calls offering high prices to buy the piece made by Mr. Tao.

“Master Tao, you really got me into trouble…”

Qiao Yi held her phone, looking pitifully as she sat next to Mr. Tao.

Mr. Tao had a thick piece of leather spread on his lap, wore reading glasses, and was holding the first stone that Qiao Yi had carved.

“What do you mean by that?”

While Mr. Tao talked with Qiao Yi, his other hand continued working, and tiny jade shavings sprinkled from his fingertips onto the leather on his lap.

Qiao Yi held her still buzzing phone up to Mr. Tao, pointing at the incoming call alert, almost ready to cry.

“It’s been two days, these people somehow heard that you were going to start jade carving, and even more inexplicably, that you were going to use the jade I procured. Now they’ve all swarmed to call me…”

Faced with these densely packed calls, Qiao Yi initially answered a couple, but later on, seeing these unfamiliar incoming calls, she didn’t even look and just ignored them.

But this couldn’t go on!

It was severely affecting her normal life!

“Why don’t you just turn on call blocking?”

“Master Tao, you don’t understand…”

Qiao Yi was utterly helpless. How could she explain to Mr. Tao that although activating call blocking was fine, it would also block other important unfamiliar numbers, causing even bigger problems!

Mr. Tao quite enjoyed seeing Qiao Yi like this, he lightly huffed, clearly showing his absolute indifference.

“Sort out these trivial matters yourself; if you can’t handle these little things, how will you take over the entire Qiao Family in the future?”

Qiao Yi’s facial expression tightened, her eyes wary and solemn as she looked at Mr. Tao.

Why would he say that…

“Relax, I have no interest in the affairs of the Qiao Family. But keep a good eye on your sister, she is not a good girl.”

Mr. Tao blew on the jade carving in his hand, very pleased, he nodded in satisfaction, then took off his glasses and handed them to Uncle Peng, and straightened up to look at Qiao Yi.

“Don’t be so tense, I was acquainted with your grandfather, but he passed away too soon, otherwise, your family wouldn’t be in such chaos now.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Qiao Yi was somewhat unsure of Mr. Tao’s intent.

“You’re a good kid, and now that you’re married to Xiao Chuan, just live a good life with Yanchuan. As a woman, don’t wear yourself out.”

Mr. Tao’s eyes held sympathy and some emotions Qiao Yi couldn’t quite understand, yet he indeed bore no ill will.

His words left everyone but Qiao Yi confused.

“You’re overthinking it, even though I married Lu Yanchuan, I am still a member of the Qiao Family; I can’t just ignore the Qiao Family regardless, and as for being tired, who can go through life easily without hardships?”

Qiao Yi smiled, shrugged her shoulders, and just like that, her earlier alertness vanished, and she and Mr. Tao shifted the topic with mutual understanding.

After leaving Mr. Tao’s place, Qiao Yi was somewhat distracted.

“Let’s go back to the Capital City in a couple of days; I have things to do when I return.”

Back at the hotel, she greeted Lu Yanchuan and began booking their return flights.

Feng Siyu, due to a schedule, was reluctantly taken away by Gu Ting the previous afternoon, and before leaving, she did not forget to ask Qiao Yi to bring back those two boxes of stones.

The rest seemed not to have had enough fun yet; except for Han Zizhen whose company was busy and had to leave, the others had no intention of departing.

Han Wenle looked reluctant; now that her brother was leaving too, among these remaining few people, Han Wenle was not very familiar with them. If Qiao Yi were to leave as well, that would leave her feeling quite lonely!

“Weren’t we supposed to play until the end of the exhibition and sale? Why the hurry to leave?”