Chapter 257
Stanley clutched his stinging cheek, staring at Una in disbelief. She had scalded him before when she was in a bad mood, but this was the first time she had actually hit him. His face darkened as he said coldly, “Are you out of your mind?”
Una looked him straight in the eye and retorted, “You ruined the open bidding. Don’t you deserve to be slapped? Yes, it was all this useless fool’s fault.” If he hadn’t touched her hand, she wouldn’t have dropped the water bottle onto her notebook. Although her ability had temporarily disappeared, she had at least been able to muddle through the previous rounds. But now, with the open bidding, she was completely lost. She couldn’t afford to take the blame for this failure—so she had to push it onto Stanley.
Stanley let out a cold, angry grunt. “I barely brushed against you, and now it’s all my fault? Instead of blaming me, why don’t you hurry up and write the numbers? We still have time to place our bids.” The slap had made him resent Una even more. But for now, he had to endure it. After all, he still depended on her abilities. When Una was no longer useful, he would make sure to return the favor—tenfold.
Una, however, sneered. “You’ve completely ruined my mood. My head hurts, my whole body hurts—I can’t even concentrate enough to look at the raw jade stones anymore.” She looked as if she had completely given up. “So, there’s nothing I can do.”
Stanley was so furious he almost wanted to strangle her. But he had no choice but to keep coaxing her. “Una, it was my fault. Don’t be mad. Just take another look at the stone numbers—if we don’t act now, we’ll run out of time.”
Una wanted to, but she couldn’t see anything now. More importantly, she couldn’t let Stanley or the others from the Woodward Group know the truth. So she ignored him, maintaining her act of sulking and refusing to cooperate. No matter how much Stanley tried to placate her, she wouldn’t budge.
Frustrated, Stanley ordered the stone gamblers he had brought to go check the numbers on the remaining stones, write down the ones they were most confident in, and hurry back for the bidding. Seeing this, Una breathed a sigh of relief.
Half an hour later, the group returned to the auction hall. The stone gamblers had hastily jotted down a few numbers. At this point, they could only rely on luck. Stanley wasn’t the only one furious with Una’s refusal to cooperate—the rest of the team was equally displeased. But because of her unparalleled talent in stone gambling, she was the company’s golden goose; for now, they had no choice but to endure it.
As they sat down, Una immediately noticed Claire’s empty seat. She frowned. “Where’s Claire?”
Stanley shook his head. “No idea. I don’t think she left with us earlier.”
Una’s expression changed. “Why weren’t you watching her!”
Outside, when she had discovered that her ability to sense the jade inside the stones had vanished, she hadn’t panicked too much. She had assumed that, even if she had suffered backlash, as long as Claire was around, she could have that person extract more of Claire’s luck to restore her powers. But now that Claire was missing, true panic set in.
Stanley noticed Una’s strange behavior. “Maybe she just went to the restroom! The auction is more important right now,”
Una, however, grabbed his arm and said urgently, “No. Finding Claire is more important.” She leaned in and whispered into his ear, “If you want the Woodward Group to grow bigger and stronger, you must find Claire. Take some men and look for her now. If she’s not in the restroom or nearby, check the surveillance footage. Bring her back—no matter what.”
Stanley was baffled, but seeing Una’s almost manic desperation, he had no choice but to agree. “Alright, I’ll go find her. You take care of the bidding.” He didn’t understand why Una was so obsessed with Claire. But he had a theory—Una never gambled on stones without bringing Claire along. Was it possible that Una’s bizarre behavior, her refusal to cooperate earlier, and her sudden change in attitude were all because she had lost her ability to gamble? Because Claire had vanished! The thought made him nervous. Without another word, he got up and led a team to search for Claire.
Back in the auction, Una was too anxious to focus. She let the stone gamblers handle the bidding, but they all refused, insisting that she make the calls. She had no choice but to follow the numbers they had written down and place bids accordingly.
Meanwhile, Phoebe instructed Emmett to deliberately drive up the prices whenever Una placed a bid. Given Una’s current mental state, she would undoubtedly try to outbid him, just to prove a point. Sure enough, every time Emmett raised the bid, Una immediately countered. She was determined to keep him from winning, as if she had to have the stones at any cost. But once the price exceeded the actual value of the stone, Emmett would back down. By the time Una regained her senses, she had already overpaid for six stones—spending far more than they were worth.
Realizing she had been played, she clenched her teeth in fury, hating Emmett and Phoebe to the core. But she could only pray that her luck was still intact—that the stones she won would yield emeralds. Even though a terrible premonition crept into her heart, she refused to believe that she had lost her ability.
The auction concluded, but Stanley had not yet returned. Una and the Woodward Group team went to the back to process their stones. As was their tradition, they had a professional stone cutter open the stones for them—publicly. After all, every time they uncovered a high-quality emerald, it served as free advertising for the Woodward Group.
Emmett, following Phoebe’s suggestion, chose a different stone cutter nearby. Phoebe did the same, instructing her cutter to work on the stones she and Maddox had won. Noticing Una’s dark expression, Phoebe smiled and said, “Miss Woodward made a bold claim earlier—that she would dominate this auction and take all the high-quality emeralds.” Her gaze swept over the Woodward Group’s stones before she added, “So I assume these are all emerald-rich?” She was deliberately setting Una up for an even harder fall—the higher the climb, the more painful the drop.
Una had no confidence, but she refused to back down. She sneered, “Do I need you to state the obvious?” She could only pray that her previous luck would still influence the stone-cutting process and that the Woodward Group’s stone gamblers had chosen well.
Phoebe chuckled. “Alright, then. We’ll all wait and see. Let’s find out how many top-tier emeralds the Woodward Group, under Miss Woodward’s leadership, has secured. You go first.”
Chapter 257
Una felt like she was being pushed onto a stage with no escape. If she had known, she would have gone looking for Claire herself. Now, she had no choice but to face it. She braced herself and ordered the stone cutter to start.
Emmett and the others watched, waiting for the Woodward Group to reveal their first stone before proceeding with theirs. A crowd had gathered—eager to witness the results. Normally, Una would welcome such an audience. But now, she wanted nothing more than for them to disappear. Of course, she couldn’t say that. She could only endure it.
The first stone was cut open—and the crowd gasped. Many people gasped in shock, exclaiming, “It collapsed? All of it! Wasn’t Una supposed to be a top expert, rarely making mistakes? This is just the first stone—don’t rush to conclusions.”
Seeing the results, Una’s anxiety only deepened. Hearing the murmurs around her, she had an overwhelming urge to flee the scene immediately. But she couldn’t. The executives of the Woodward Group frowned and signaled for the stone-cutting to continue. Emmett and Phoebe also instructed the stone cutter to proceed. Even Maddox, eager to join the excitement, had his stone cut as well.
The second stone—another one from the Woodward Group—collapsed again, yielding nothing. Meanwhile, the Vaughan Group uncovered a piece of jadeite in bean quality. Though the quality was average, it was large enough to turn a profit. Phoebe’s stone was even more impressive, revealing a fist-sized glass-quality jadeite, a massive gain. Even Maddox’s yielded a piece of purple jadeite.
One by one, the Woodward Group’s raw stones were cut open. But by the time the last one was finished, not a single piece of emerald had been found—every single stone was a total loss. In other words, the 10 million dollars the Woodward Group had spent at auction had completely gone down the drain.
In stark contrast, the Vaughan Group had uncovered multiple pieces of emerald. Others, too, had varying degrees of success. Phoebe’s haul was particularly impressive. Against such a backdrop, the Woodward Group’s total failure stood out even more. The members of the Woodward Group stared at Una in disbelief. The spectators, too, turned their eyes toward her.