“Boss, this guy says the jadeite boulder you’re selling is fake—that this big window stone doesn’t contain any jade at all.” Mary Crimson deliberately stirred the pot.
The shop owner, who had been busy inside, stormed out at once, eyes glaring. “Who dares say my stones are fake? If you don’t know gambling stones, get lost. You’re not welcome here!”
“This kid’s a rookie, plain and simple. This window stone has at least a ninety-percent chance of cutting jade, and he dares claim it won’t yield a single piece? What a joke.”
“Didn’t you hear that woman say he’s just a live-in son-in-law? How could a man living off his wife have the money to gamble on stones? Since he can’t afford it, of course he’ll say there’s no jade inside.”
The jeering voices of the crowd made Lillian Winters’s head po
