Chapter 259

Una's eyes widened at the staff member's words. A wave of unease washed over her, making her legs feel weak.

“Impossible! I clearly put my bid into that box!”

She immediately questioned, “Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake? Maybe you lost our bid and are now blaming us for not submitting it properly.”

She had personally written and placed the bid. She knew she had put it in the box. But the staff was well-prepared for such an accusation.

“This wasn’t our mistake,” the staff member replied calmly. “I’ve already saved a copy for yourself—everyone here can be a witness.” He referenced the surveillance footage. “If you don’t believe me, take a look.”

With that, he pulled up the footage on his phone and cast it onto the large display screen in the hall. Since they were not at fault, they needed to clear their name publicly. Everyone turned their attention to the screen.

The video showed Una casually slipping her bid into the box without checking if it went all the way in. She turned away and left with the others, unaware that a small corner of the paper was still sticking out. Moments later, a passerby brushed against the box, their sleeve accidentally pulling the bid out. The paper drifted to the ground unnoticed. People walked past, unknowingly stepping on it again and again. Eventually, a cleaning worker swept it up, mistaking it for trash.

After watching the footage, the crowd collectively thought, “What are the odds of something like this happening? Just a little carelessness, and things took such an unfortunate turn.” If this had happened any other time, another bidder would have pushed her bid inside while submitting their own. But this time, bad luck followed one incident after another. It got pulled out, stepped on, and thrown away as garbage. Still, at the root of it all, Una had been careless. If she had made sure to push the bid in properly or checked it before leaving, this wouldn't have happened.

Una's face turned pale as she processed what she had just seen. “Why is this happening?” She had felt the backlash before—felt her luck draining away bit by bit. But she never imagined it would affect her this severely.

Desperate to salvage the situation, she turned to the staff member. “Your cleaner threw away my bid. You need to take responsibility and find it.”

The staff sighed. “It was thrown into the trash—how are we supposed to find it now? If you want, you can just write a new one and submit it again.” Although the deadline had technically passed, they were willing to make an exception given the unusual circumstances. Una’s own carelessness was the main cause, but since their cleaning staff didn’t check before throwing it away, they were willing to share some responsibility. So they gave Una a second chance to submit a bid.

Hearing this lenient offer, Una almost coughed up blood. ‘If I could just rewrite it, would I even be standing here arguing?’

With a stiff face, she said, “That’s a complete waste of time. If I have to rewrite everything, I’d need to go back and review the raw stones again—who has the time for that? I need my original bid. Or at least find it so I can copy it over. Even if it’s dirty, the writing should still be legible.” The sealed bid was written in carbon ink, so it shouldn’t have smudged too badly.

12.15 мм

Chapter 259

Uta was insistent on using her original bid. Left with no choice, the staff sent someone to find the cleaning worker and check if they could retrieve the discarded bid. Fortunately, the day’s trash had not yet been taken out. After digging through one of the trash bins, the worker finally found Una’s bid. However, when they pulled it out, it was completely filthy and covered in grease stains.

The crowd watching the spectacle couldn’t help but sigh. “What kind of rotten luck is this?” Many people had bought takeout meals that afternoon, and the bid had ended up mixed in with discarded food containers.

Una lunged forward, disregarding the dirt, and grabbed the bid with trembling hands. She carefully wiped it down with a tissue. Some of the writing had smudged, but most of it was still readable. The prices next to the stone numbers were intact, along with a few symbols that only she could understand. But every single row of numbers had been affected.

This year’s public auction was the biggest in recent years, with an unprecedented number of raw stones. The sealed bid auction alone had 3,000 pieces, meaning each stone was labeled with a five-digit number. And every single number on Una’s bid had at least one or two digits smudged beyond recognition.

Some onlookers peered at the bid and gasped. “This is insane. Every number is messed up! That’s some serious bad luck.” Someone in the crowd whispered behind her back, “She probably burned through all her luck already. Before, she dominated every auction, grabbing all the top-tier emeralds. Now? Karma, maybe?”

Another person muttered, “Wouldn’t be surprising. Every time she participated in an auction, she wiped out all the best stones—leaving nothing for anyone else. Now it’s her turn to feel what that’s like.”

“Yeah, and she was always so arrogant about it. If anyone complained, she’d just insult them for being useless losers.”

“Well, let’s see how she gets out of this one. If she’s as amazing as she claims, she can just recheck the stones and fill in the missing numbers, right?”

“That’s true. Sure, it’s unlucky, but it shouldn’t stop her from winning all the best stones like usual.”

Phoebe heard the murmur in the crowd and smirked. She hadn’t tampered with the bid herself—the backlash took care of everything. She understood one thing very well—backlash was not to be underestimated. Una had used Claire’s luck to cheat, stealing other people’s opportunities over the past few years. And she hadn’t done it just once or twice—the sheer number of times she had taken others’ chances was staggering. She had been ruthless, never leaving even scraps for others. If she had earned her success honestly, it would be a different story. But she cheated, and in doing so, accumulated a heavy karmic burden. The backlash was hitting her where it hurt the most. The more she valued something, the harder the backlash took it away. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be such an uncanny coincidence—every single number on her bid had been affected, forcing her to start over. A poetic “magic defeats magic” moment.

In the end, Una’s rise and fall were both because of luck. The staff sighed, also feeling helpless. This bid was beyond saving.

Handing Una a fresh bid form, the staff member said, “You’ll need to double-check the numbers and fill out a new bid.” Una did not want to accept it at all. But under the circumstances, she had no choice. With a stiff expression, she forced out, “Fine.” Then, without hesitation, she handed the blank bid form to a stone gambler behind her—hoping to pass off the work just like before.

But Phoebe immediately spoke up. “The original bid is useless now, Miss Woodward, you’re not planning to let your company’s stone gamblers handle this one too, are you?” She smiled and added, “If that’s the case, does that mean the bold statements you made this morning…can still be honored?”

Phoebe wasn’t going to let Una get away with it. She wanted Una to personally fail—right in front of everyone. That way, Una’s reputation in the gambling world would collapse even further. And as Una lost more, the person behind her wouldn’t be doing any better either.