Ethan reached out and stopped both of them."Enough. Both of you stop. I don't need a hundred-million-dollar phone. I don't need a ten-million-dollar phone. I have two perfectly functional phones right here. I will use these."Samantha and Gu Qingcheng looked at each other briefly with the specific mutual displeasure of two people who disagree about everything except, apparently, the irritating reasonableness of the person they are both competing over.They both made a cold sound and said nothing further.Xiaoli had been watching all of this, the three-hundred-and-fifty-eight-thousand-dollar phone given like a lunch purchase, the three-and-a-half-million-dollar custom phone offered as a casual substitute for a gift intended for someone else, the hundred-million-dollar order placed as a competitive response to ten million and had arrived at the specific emotional destination of someone who came to step on something and found out the something was elevated considerably above her positio

Gu Qingcheng's agreement landed like a pressure valve releasing.Ethan let out a quiet breath."Phone's sorted," he said, keeping his voice low. "Let's go before this becomes a larger audience.""Agreed," said Samantha."Agreed," said Gu Qingcheng.Both women took his arms simultaneously, Samantha on the left, Gu Qingcheng on the right, with the synchronized ease of people who have not planned anything together and have arrived at the same action anyway. Then both of them looked across at Charlotte with the specific expression of people who have just secured a position and are acknowledging the competitor who is not in it.Ethan looked at Charlotte with the helpless expression of someone who does not know what to do with his face in the current arrangement.Charlotte looked at the three of them, Ethan in the middle, one woman on each arm, looking at her and produced a smile that was genuinely pleasant and also communicated that she had assessed the situation fully and was not concerne

Qin Guowei produced the specific smile of someone who has decided that skepticism is not just appropriate but is the correct display for the moment."Young man, you have real talent," he said, with the tone of someone complimenting a performance they find transparent. "You buy a batch of raw stones for a hundred million and tell us they're worth a billion. Do you think my grandfather and I are the kind of people who can be told anything?""You don't believe me," Ethan said. It was not quite a question."I'd be a fool to believe you."Ethan looked at Qin Dongliang."Old Master, you don't believe me either?"Qin Dongliang shook his head with the frank reasonableness of someone who has operated in an industry for sixty years and understands its realities."Young man, I cannot find a basis to believe what you're telling me.""All right," Ethan said. "Then I won't sell these stones in one transaction."He took the check Charlotte had given him, the three-hundred-million-dollar check and he

Charlotte was watching his face."Well?" she said, with the sweet self-assurance of someone who knows what they've sent and is enjoying the response. "Are my private photos beautiful?""They" Ethan managed the word. "Yes."He had known Charlotte Quinn as the composed, precise, professionally immaculate Vice President of Quinn Industries. The photograph she had just set as his wallpaper was not the photograph of that person or rather, it was, and the combination of knowing both versions simultaneously was producing effects on his circulation that required management."Then keep me company today," she said, leaning slightly toward him. The specific warmth of her presence and the warmth in her voice were, together, producing a persuasive argument."I can't," he said. "I need to be with my mother. She's not doing well today."Charlotte's expression shifted into genuine concern."What happened to Auntie?"He told her the full sequence, Ouyang Hui arriving, the seven hundred thousand dollar

"It is a glass," the waiter said, with the satisfaction of someone who has a position and is enjoying it, "but it's a glass from the Taotie Grand Restaurant. That's not a street stall glass. One thousand dollars, minimum.""One thousand dollars?" Clara said. "For a glass?""For our glass. In our establishment. You break it, you pay." He looked at her with the specific contempt that people in certain positions reserve for people they have assessed as vulnerable. "Two options, lady. Pay the thousand, or stay here and clean toilets until you've worked it off."The corridor had produced an audience. The raised voices and the broken glass had drawn the attention of passing diners, and the cluster of watchers grew quickly to a few dozen people, people who frequented the Taotie Grand Restaurant, or who knew the Qian family's standing in the development zone, or who simply had the appetite for a scene.The crowd had organized itself, in the way crowds organize themselves in these situations,