Chapter 125 (1/2)

Chapter 125: The Third Prince's Manor

Jun Huang didn't expect Nan Xun to give her an answer so readily. The next day, she told Ji Bo to wait on the south street. She and Nan Xun would stay in a tea house nearby, watching from one of the booths on the second floor.

The minister did show up. Behind him were a group of servants. He walked the street like a fox flaunting its master's power. The bystanders avoided him like the plague. Clearly the minister had been terrorizing the locals.

Ji Bo spotted the minister immediately. With a smile, he ran onto the street and knocked into the minister. Nan Xun and Jun Huang could tell from their vantage point that he had done it on purpose. Both Ji Bo and the minister staggered back after the collision.

Before the minister could curse Ji Bo out, a piece of blood jade fell out of Ji Bo's clothes and tumbled to the minister's feet.

With a panicked expression, Ji Bo ran to pick up the jade, but the minister beat him to it, turning the jade over in his hand appreciatively.

The jade was indeed a rare treasure. Its appearance had a translucent quality to it. Crimson red crawled along the jade as if there was blood pulsing under the surface. The name blood jade couldn't have been more fitting.

Among the officials who weren't rich enough to afford such jade, the minister happened to be the one who understood jade the most. As Ji Bo and Jun Huang expected, the minister's eyes were glued to the jade the moment he laid eyes on it. He wanted to make it his.

”This is the only thing supporting my family and myself, sir!” Ji Bo said when the minister was about to leave. ”You can't just take it away!” He ran up to stop the minister from leaving.

The minister's expression changed faster than one could turn a book page. He threw Ji Bo a cold glance and said, ”This is my jade. You tried to steal it from me when you knocked into me. And now you dare to claim that it belongs to you? Ha, do you have a dead wish?”

Ji Bo's lips tightened at the minister's blatant lies. There were more and more onlookers on the street, but they were simply enjoying the drama. None of them said anything to help Ji Bo.

The minister kept spouting curses at Ji Bo to mask his guilt. Ji Bo looked at him with hurt in his eyes like a kicked puppy.

His expression changed when he saw the third prince coming this way from afar. A disdainful laugh accompanied his sudden turn of att.i.tude. He looked into the minister's eyes. ”I wonder if you will get your tongue twisted with all the lies you've been telling.”

”How dare you!” the minister exclaimed. ”This is my jade! How dare a petty thief like you talk to me like that?”

Ji Bo maintained his smile. ”If the good sir claims that this jade is yours, this gentleman has a few questions: where is the jade from, and what are its special qualities?”

The minister didn't know what to say. In panic, he yelled at Ji Bo with his hands over his hip, ”What about you? Can you tell me about the jade?”

”The jade was from the South Sea. It was unlike any regular jade. Throughout its formation, the essence of sun and moon has concentrated into this mineral. At first glance the red veins seems to be the color of the blood, but it's actually more similar to the color of cinnabar. Blood jade such as this is rare enough. One that is as flawless and perfectly round as this one? There is no other in the world.”

Ji Bo told only the truth. The minister's palms began to sweat. It was likely that the jade would slip out of his hand any second.

Ji Bo's words were actually said for the benefit of the third prince. He wanted the third prince to realize that the jade in the minister's hand was something you didn't see every day. That was his plan to provoke a confrontation, to push the third prince to the center stage.

The minister's focus was on the blood jade. He hadn't noticed that the third prince had showed up and was looking at the blood jade as well.

The minister lost his calm completely. ”That – that doesn't mean this is yours! Who knows if you're telling the truth?”

Ji Bo huffed. ”Oh, what a joke! I just told you where this jade was from. Now I can also tell you that there is a piece of amber at the center of the blood jade. Within the amber is a flower. This piece of jade has become such a unique beauty without any human intervention!”

The minister stared intently at the jade. There was indeed a piece of amber inside. The flower had maintained its original form, as lifelike as a living plant. He was completely entranced by the jade's beauty.

Even the third prince's self-control had slipped. He took the opportunity to take the jade from the minister.

The minister barely stopped the barrage of curses from falling out of his mouth. Even a fool like him knew that he must not offend a royal prince. He shut his mouth, unsure how he should get the jade back.

”Please seek justice for this peasant, Your Highness.” Ji Bo knelt down before the third prince, who frowned at him with inquisitive eyes.

”How have you been wronged?”