Chapter 730: The Heirs Might (1/2)

Long Tianba felt his heart race, but he had never had that much money on him. The only he could do was shamelessly beg the manager of the gambling stone house to use his Long Family’s identity jade token as a deposit and get a IOU slip for 15 million taels. By doing that, he finally managed to buy that ore from the half gamble area.

The results were obvious. Although the sliver that had been sliced off showed a bright green jadeite, the rest of the ore only had a little bit of gemstone and the rest was just granite. The ten million he had previously made had completely disappeared and now he had a 15 million debt to pay. Long Tianba immediately felt cold sweat pour down his body and his legs trembled before he fell to the ground. There was no way for him to get back up.

This was worse than the time he had screwed up at Celestial World and only owed a few thousand taels. Then, his father was still able to wipe his bum for him. 15 million taels, on the other hand, was likely how much his whole family made in an entire year. Even though he was only an idle young master at home, he at least had this much knowledge!

He suspected that the gambling stone hall had set a trap for him. However, no one at the hall forced him to buy this ore. If he wasn’t too greedy and decided to leave after making ten million, then how could something like this happen later?

This wasn’t something he could hide and hope it went away. Long Tianba somehow managed to get back to the guest house. When he saw his father, he knelt immediately in front of him and sobbed out the story.

Once Long Yikui understood the situation, he kicked his son hard and then kicked him a few more times. He sat down heavily on his chair, holding his chest while breathing heavily before finally retrieving a calming pill from his chest pocket and taking it down with a cup of tea. Then, he threw his teacup to the ground in a pique of fury. Shattered porcelain bits flew through the air and one of them even cut Long Tianba’s face.

“Father, beat me heavily to relieve your anger ah! It’s all this son’s fault for losing my head and not staying in control!” Long Tianba hugged onto his father’s legs and cried like a child. He was truly frightened this time and relentlessly promised that he would be good in the future and not cause any trouble for the family.

At this time, Long Yikui had pretty much had a good idea of what had happened. There was someone in the shadows who had set a trap for this unfilial son of his ah! Perhaps there were other people who had lay down family fortunes in the course of one night at the gambling stone hall. However, even the most proficient stone identifiers wouldn’t be as lucky as his son to get jadeite with every stone he chose. His son wasn’t someone who had a heart of steel. Thus, he had naturally been blinded by the prospects of incredible wealth and fallen into this perfect trap that someone else had set.

He thought back to the day when he brought his son along to Celestial World’s office to apologize to the heir of Imperial Prince Xu. At that time, he was wondering why the heir would let them off so easily. After all this time, the crux of the matter had finally appeared. However, if they were able to appease the heir by spending 15 million taels, that might actually be a worthwhile investment.

The only thing he didn’t understand was how the trap had been set so well. Was there actually a hidden expert at Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate who was able to clearly tell which stones had jadeite or not? The last ore that his son had bought was especially astounding. There was a sliver of bright green jadeite in the giant stone, so the odds had to be high. NIne out of ten people would have bet that the raw ore would have a jackpot waiting inside. If that expert had made an error of judgement, wouldn’t that have let this stupid son of his out of the trap?

Inside Imperial Prince Xu’s residence, the heir, Zhu Yunxuan, was currently pouring a cup of tea for the little divine stone. He smiled, “Older Brother Yuan, this was all thanks to your help. I know you don’t drink wine, so let me use some tea to thank you instead.”

Zhu Yunxuan was very curious about this Yuan Zi’s true identity. The youth was able to identify with a hundred percent accuracy which ores had jadeite and how much they’d be worth. Furthermore, he was even able to tell that an ore held some top-notch green jadeite, could it be...that he had x-ray vision? However, his lady mother had once solemnly warned him to not investigate the secrets that orbited around Yuan Zi. Thus, no matter how curious he was, he could only restrain himself.

The little divine merely took a small sip of tea before placing the cup down. He gave his master’s eldest son the side eye before huffing, “Call me Uncle Yuan! In fact, when you were in your mother’s belly and a tiny sprout, I, your Uncle Yuan, had saved yours and your mother’s life. If it weren’t for the fact that I showed up in the nick of time, you and your mother would both be long dead ah!”

Zhu Yunxuan felt his lips twitch, “You always use that fact to make me quiet. If you’re not tired of saying that, I’m tired of hearing it! Alright ah, since you don’t want to talk about this, we won’t talk about it any longer. However, you look to be around my age. Isn’t calling you ‘uncle’ making you seem too old?”

“I’m of the older generation ah! Little Xuanxuan ah, children should act like your children. Stop acting like your father all the time with that stiff look on your face!” The little divine stone reached out a hand to ruffle Zhu Yunxuan’s hair but the youth avoided his grasp.

“I’m already thirteen years old and no longer a child! At around the same age, my lord father got the heavy responsibility of traveling with the imperial ships to find high-yielding crops for the Great Ming Dynasty and came back gloriously!” Zhu Yunxuan rolled his eyes at the little divine stone. He only revealed his more childish side in front of trusted people.

The little divine stone shook its head, “Your father was fifteen years old when he traveled to the west and came back when he was seventeen years old. If you want to compare yourself to him, wait a few more years and grow up first!”

“Your Highness, Her Highness asks that if you’re not too busy to go see her.” Princess Consort Xu’s first-ranked personal maidservant, Chuntao, came into the study after obtaining permission and smiled at the prince.

Zhu Yunxuan replied, “Alright, go back to my lady mother. I’ll head over right now.”

Seeing that Chuntao had gone a good distance, he spoke to the little divine stone, “Older Brother Yuan, what do you think my lady mother wants me for? Did you tell her everything?”