Adam Brooks glanced at him and said indifferently, “You want me to help your sweetheart win the beauty contest? It’s not impossible…”

Ethan Foster was overjoyed: “Thank you…”

“Hold on!” Adam Brooks interrupted him. “Let’s talk business. To be honest, this magazine isn’t cheap, you see? Twenty-six yuan per copy! On the ballots, there’s a gap of over thirty thousand votes between first and fifth place—that’s over thirty thousand magazines. And you have to add the difference for this last month, so at least forty thousand magazines are needed just to even the score. To ensure your sweetheart wins with a convincing and overwhelming lead, you’ll need at least a ten-thousand-vote advantage—that’s fifty thousand votes. So, adding it all up…”

Adam Brooks pulled out his trusty calculator and tapped away: “That’s 1.3 million! Where would I get that kind of money?”

“Besides, it’s already the last month. The magazine comes out once a week, and if you want your sweetheart to win without it looking suspicious, the votes have to be spread evenly over these four weeks. That means I’ll have to make frequent trips to the mortal world. Do you know how risky that is?”

Ethan Foster raised his hands in surrender: “Alright, alright, Old Reed, stop calling her my sweetheart. There’s nothing between us—I just want to help her out. Just tell me, how many immortal jades do you want?”

Adam Brooks expressionlessly held up five fingers: “For your sake, Young Foster, I’m willing to take the risk. I won’t even charge for my own labor. Just give me five million standard immortal jades.”

“What!” Ethan Foster shouted. “And that’s your so-called favor for me?”

Adam Brooks looked at him with a sympathetic expression: “Young Foster, it seems you really don’t know the cost of living in the mortal world. 1.3 million could buy a Lamborghini sports car…”

Ethan Foster thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, “Forget it, I don’t have that much money right now.”

……

Three days later.

“Old Brooks, please help me! These past two days, I replayed that game with the character she played, and I like her more and more…”

Adam Brooks sighed, “Young Foster, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but you can’t expect me to lose money, right?”

Ethan Foster thought for a moment and said, “I don’t have that much on hand. I’ll pay you two million standard immortal jades for now, and the rest I’ll pay in installments!” This new term was actually something he’d learned from Adam Brooks.

Adam Brooks nodded: “No problem. You pay me one million standard immortal jades per month, and pay it off in three months. Is that alright?”

Ethan Foster gritted his teeth: “Deal!”

……

Adam Brooks returned to his own Fushan cave residence, chiseled off a small piece from the mirror stone stele at his door, and tucked it into his pocket before heading down to the mortal world.

In the mortal world, at a well-known jewelry store, Adam Brooks was dressed in a fashionable Gucci coat and sunglasses, sitting in the VIP room. An elderly man with reading glasses was holding a magnifying glass, carefully examining the piece of mirror stone.

At least in this, Adam Brooks hadn’t deceived Ethan Foster: he really didn’t have that much money. To scrape together 1.3 million, he had to “part with something precious” and sell a few things.

Mirror stone was everywhere in the immortal realm—if pig farming were allowed there, the pigsties would probably be built from mirror stone. But in the mortal world, this was a rare treasure!

The old man examined it for a long time, frowned and thought, then picked it up again, frowned and thought some more, still unable to make up his mind. He glanced at Adam Brooks, trying to guess his background.

Dressed head to toe in designer brands, all expensive. He looked like a prodigal son who had stolen a family treasure to sell. The old man was cautious and handed the stone back to Adam Brooks with both hands, smiling: “Hehe, I’m terribly sorry, sir. My old eyes aren’t what they used to be—I really can’t tell what kind of gem this is. Could you give us some time to invite a few experts for an appraisal?”

Adam Brooks said, “Alright, I’ll come back in three days.”

“How about we book you a room at the Garden Hotel so you can wait for three days?”

Adam Brooks shook his head: “I don’t have time.”

As soon as he put away the mirror stone and walked out, the old man tapped on the wooden board beside him. In the next room, a capable-looking middle-aged man came out. The old man gave him a look, and the middle-aged man nodded, quietly following Adam Brooks.

The old man grabbed the phone on the table and dialed a number, his beard trembling with excitement: “Boss, that’s right, it’s chalcedony, chalcedony! Our Changfa Company is finally going to have chalcedony too… Alright, I’ll head over right away.”

The old man left the store and got into a black Buick sedan at the door. The car took him out of the city and into a villa on a hillside in the suburbs.

“Old Bennett, are you sure you saw it clearly?” asked a chubby, fair-skinned middle-aged man in a pale pink shirt. Old Bennett nodded, still a bit excited: “Absolutely. I’ve secretly observed the chalcedony pieces at Deshengji and Ruifuxiang several times—there’s no mistake.”

The middle-aged man, holding a dark brown cigar between his fingers, took a few deep puffs and nodded: “Old Bennett, I trust your eyes. I’ll have someone investigate that kid’s background right away. We must get that chalcedony, but let’s make sure we don’t get into any trouble over it.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking, so I didn’t immediately offer to buy it, but used a delaying tactic instead…”