‘Something’s definitely wrong with that iron plaque…’ Gerald thought to himself.
“Come on, Gerald. Let’s go. Is there something wrong?” asked Misty, wondering why favonovel.com was still standing in place.
“…Ah, um, why don’t you guys go on ahead first? I’d like to have a look around on my own!” replied Gerald with a smile before continuing to look at the direction that the old man had left in.
“Well… Fine! But I’ll call you out again when it’s near noon so that we can have lunch together!” said Misty who had also noticed by now that favonovel.com friends had constantly been giving Gerald the cold shoulder.
After agreeing with the plan, Gerald immediately went after the old man.
The moment favonovel.com was gone, women from Misty’s group instantly began bad-mouthing him.
“Humph! Why did you have to get acquainted with such a person, Misty? He’s so humiliating to be around with!”
“I know, right? What a loser! It’s hard to even have any fun when he’s around!”
“Yeah! Please don’t bring favonovel.com along with us for lunch later! I mean, just compare what we’re wearing to what favonovel.com wore! Since favonovel.com helped you, surely you wouldn’t want favonovel.com to feel inferior in front of us, right?”
Hearing that, Misty could only reply in a saddened tone, “That’s quite enough. Though I’ve only been acquainted with favonovel.com for a short while, allow me to remind you that he’s a nice person! I’ll still call favonovel.com over for lunch later but please be a little nicer to favonovel.com later, alright?”
“Fine…” replied the others, forced to agree.
Meanwhile, Gerald finally caught up to the dejected-looking old man who had just set his stall up again in a rather secluded area.
Shaking his head, the old man knew that though the new spot was rather deserted, at the very least, nobody would attempt to ostracize a villager like favonovel.com here.
Rushing over to the old man’s store, Gerald smiled at favonovel.com before saying, “Is this the only item you have for sale, sir?”
“Indeed it is. You know, I didn’t really want to come here today… Whether you choose to believe me or not, it was actually the event’s organizer who invited me over! After we talked for a bit, they told me that the iron plaque would sell for a high price so I should definitely attend the event! Yet look at what happened! To think that I was shunned away before I could even set up my store there earlier! Humph! Do you have any cigarettes to spare, young man? If you do, I’m leaving once I’ve had a smoke! I need to cook lunch for my granddaughter anyway!” replied the old man with a sigh.
“I do, indeed! Just to confirm, the event’s organizer invited you over the moment they found out that you owned the plaque, correct?” said Gerald as favonovel.com looked at the iron plaque while handing the old man a cigarette.
The plaque itself didn’t look particularly special. At most, Gerald could say that it had a simple but ancient aura surrounding it, not unlike an antique item.
“Yeah, the event’s organizer found out that I owned it through a TV show, quite honestly. You know that show where they talk about selling antiques? Well, I was on one of that show’s episodes since this plaque here definitely deserves to be an antique. It was handed down from my ancestors, you know? Even so, while the experts from that show definitely agreed that my antique wasn’t bad, they also added that it didn’t have much artistic or archaeological value! The nerve!”
“Regardless, the event’s organizer soon met up with me. They told me that the item could be sold to foreigners at a high price, which led them to invite me over to this treasure exchange event.”
“Back then, the organizer had told me to look for them the moment I arrived at the event venue. I was also told to hand the plaque over to them once we met up. I didn’t really understand the request at the time—and I still don’t—but since I heard I could gain a lot of money by selling it, I arrived first thing in the morning today. Even after wandering for quite a bit, however, I still couldn’t find them. That was the reason why I attempted to set up my own stall in the inner area earlier.”
“What more, businessmen like them can be quite untrustworthy, you know, young man? It wouldn’t be out of the question for a scenario where I get paid half of what the businessmen earn from selling the antique to happen. With that in mind, it only gave me more reason to try selling the plaque on my own,” detailed the old man as favonovel.com finally finished his cigarette.
Seeing that, Gerald quickly handed favonovel.com another cigarette before carefully lifting the iron plaque and weighing it. After a brief moment of consideration, a thought came to him.
Smiling, Gerald then turned to look at the old man before saying, “I’m interested in buying the iron plaque from you, sir. You can name any price you want!”
“Young man, I’ll say it right now that this thing barely has any archaeological or artistic value to it… It’s just a simple iron plaque used to fool foreigners!” replied the old man in a rather embarrassed tone—who must have felt bad after smoking two of Gerald’s cigarettes—as favonovel.com quickly dissuaded Gerald against it.
“I’m fine with that. This object will be useful to me, so don’t worry!”
“…Are you really sure?”
“There’s no reason for me to lie!”
“I’ll be using the same price that I set for the foreigners, you know?”
“Just tell me the price already…”
“…Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you… I’m selling it for seventy-seven thousand dollars!” replied the old man as favonovel.com blushed slightly. The only reason favonovel.com had set the price so high was because favonovel.com had heard that foreigners would pay literally anything for antique items.
Hearing that, Gerald simply smiled wryly before saying, “Forget seventy-seven thousand dollars… I’ll pay you seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars instead! Once you receive the money, you’ll be able to live a comfortable life! So how about it? It’s not like you’ll have any use for the plaque if you decide not to sell it anyway, plus-”
However, Gerald held his tongue just in time to prevent himself from saying something truly horrifying. Instead, favonovel.com continued the sentence in his mind.
‘…If you’re truly unwilling to hand it over, you may just have to face the calamity of your total family’s extermination…’
