His younger brother was bitten on the hand by a venomous snake, the swelling resembling a bear's paw. He was hospitalized, and the doctor performed a surgery under general anesthesia.

Can anyone guess the cost?........................ Qin Xiaoyue suddenly let go of her hand and laughed, "It's the action director, Wang Zhuo!

How about that, didn't expect it!" "Him?!" Old Man Qin looked at Wang Zhuo's score on the screen in surprise and asked, "Are you sure there isn't a mistake? Didn't you say his grades were quite poor?" "It can't be wrong.

I checked the candidate list; he’s the only boy named Wang Zhuo in this year's college entrance exams, and he’s from their school too. No mistake there," Qin Xiaoyue said with certainty.

"I guess those people who were doxxing him got it wrong. His scores must actually be top-tier, and he just had an exceptional performance this time." As sharp as Qin Xiaoyue was, she couldn't fathom that Wang Zhuo’s score was entirely plagiarized, and it was even higher than the score of the student whose paper he copied.

Old Man Qin nodded thoughtfully, "That makes sense. He's the second-place finisher; even if he cheated, no one would find the source." "This guy is truly a bizarre specimen." Qin Xiaoyue opened a search engine, typing in Wang Zhuo, action director, and QQ number.

The search failed. Old Man Qin stood up.

"I'll have Xiao *Ping contact their school and ask for this kid's contact information." Qin Xiaoyue looked up, puzzled. "What are you planning to do?" "Invite him to dinner," Old Man Qin chuckled.

"Can an old man not make new friends?" ... For two consecutive days, Wang Zhuo’s phone was constantly bombarded.

Inquiries flooded in, and Wang Zhuo helplessly realized that his newly changed number could not stop the gossiping fervor of his friends and relatives. During this period, he visited the hospital where his aunt thought she was dreaming upon hearing his score; he also went to Shengxin Pawn Shop, where Ding Ren was so delighted by his 666 score that he became quite incoherent.

Dean Deng Caixia called, offering congratulations with a mix of laughter and tears, followed by a warning that he should probably disappear for a while and absolutely avoid any media interviews. Guan Yingying specifically made an international call to inquire about the score, genuinely shocked by it, and readily promised Wang Zhuo a kiss as a reward upon his return to the country.

Time flew by until the school reporting day. Just as Wang Zhuo was tidying up and preparing to leave, he received a call from his homeroom teacher, Zheng Zhixiu.

"Wang Zhuo, you probably shouldn't come to school today?" "Huh? Why not?" "There are several leaders from the Education Bureau at the school, led by Liu Guoyang’s uncle.

Do you understand?" "Uh... alright then, thank you, Teacher Zheng." After hanging up, Wang Zhuo scratched his head with a bitter smile.

Now was truly not the time to be in the spotlight. Without a solid backing, he was facing an Education Bureau Director; if they really wanted to stir up trouble over his score, he'd have no way to fight it!

Helplessly, he called Gan Lin to explain the situation. Gan Lin was quite understanding and told him to wait until the school events concluded and they could meet off-campus.

Since it was still early, Wang Zhuo simply reopened his computer and logged into a jade appreciation forum called "I Love Jade," planning to browse posts to pass the time. As soon as he entered the familiar section, a bright red pinned title caught his attention.

"Legendary Jade Surfaces Today, Mysterious Owner Rejects Sky-High Offer!" The post had been made two days prior. Wang Zhuo clicked on it and found it was a news brief without any pictures, generally stating that a button pendant made of Imperial Green Dragon Stone Jade had appeared in an antique shop in Shanghai, displayed as non-saleable.

Someone had instantly offered thirty million, but the owner refused! What kind of button pendant could be worth thirty million?

This news brief immediately caused an uproar on the forum, with the vast majority of jade enthusiasts expressing skepticism until the original poster uploaded a scanned image from the City Evening News, finally dispelling accusations of being a fraud. The post was then pinned by the moderator, and the title was dyed red.

The focus of discussion shifted from the authenticity of the post to the jade itself: What did this button look like? How big was it?

What was its provenance? Was the thirty-million offer real or just hype?

Wang Zhuo’s first instinct was that this jade was the piece he had sold, but he wasn't entirely certain, because the piece he sold was spherically ovoid; cutting it into a button would be a terrible waste, and surely no one would do that?! Wang Zhuo then began ‘climbing the building’—browsing the replies in chronological order.

The jade enthusiasts offered wildly diverse opinions. Many were left on tenterhooks by the button, but a larger number remained calm, thinking it was just a piece of paid promotion by a junior reporter who didn't understand basic jade knowledge.

As he read, someone suddenly posted a link to another forum in the replies, saying that a moderator on that forum happened to work on the same street as the antique shop and had just visited the shop, obtaining the latest firsthand information and posting it there! Wang Zhuo was immediately drawn away by the link to the other forum.

The poster on that thread truly lived up to expectations, returning with photographs and using exaggerated words like "risking my life," "secretly shot," "spy photo," and "leaked," before setting the image attachment to be viewable only after replying. "I'll smash your face in!" Having just re-watched Rock On!

(Crazy Stone), Wang Zhuo couldn't help but utter the classic line of the thief Mike, opening the forum's registration page and haphazardly creating an ID. Fortunately, this site didn't have a waiting period for new members' first posts.

Wang Zhuo’s ID could reply immediately upon creation. He typed a random string of numbers, submitted his reply, and finally saw the true appearance of that piece of jade.

It was a button about the size of a one-yuan coin, the green so soul-stirring it was intoxicating. Unfortunately, due to the secret photography, the image was somewhat blurry; one could only make out the perfect green but not discern any other details.

Furthermore, because the original poster had set it to be visible only upon reply, the subsequent comments were a string of meaningless spam, showing no insightful observations or critiques. Yet, precisely because of this, the new theme of the forum became entirely focused on discussing this piece of jade, filling the entire board, dominating the scene unmatched.

"This is called legendary jade? Then the seventeen or eighteen buttons in my display case are of epic grade!" "Please, folks, even if you're hyping it up, be somewhat credible.

That button's green looks like a pile of crap!" "Uncle Bao’s Fifth Lecture on Jade: My View on Thirty-Million High-Grade Jade." "If you can't afford jade, stop shouting. Thirty million is nothing; I’ve seen more expensive ones.

Click here to see the picture!" This title had the highest click-through rate and the most replies. Wang Zhuo couldn't resist clicking into it.

Inside, the poster had uploaded a photo of the winning bid piece from the 2010 Myanmar Public Auction—this piece of violet-colored jade was already famous far and wide. Upon seeing this photo, the jade friends reading the post burst into a chorus of boos.

Wang Zhuo also recognized this piece of jade; it was too famous. Its winning bid price averaged about 33 million RMB per kilogram, totaling nearly 200 million.

At that particular Autumn Public Auction in Myanmar, twelve rough stones had winning bids exceeding 100 million, making it the highest number in the history of the public auctions. Qi Fei was present at the scene then and had personally witnessed the madness of that auction.

Closing the thread from that boring troublemaker, Wang Zhuo continued browsing. Suddenly, a lament from a jade shop owner caught his attention.

"Crazy, everyone’s gone crazy. Since that Imperial Green Dragon Stone appeared a while ago and got the media hyped up, customer traffic has doubled compared to before.

Even the junk on our street stalls has seen price increases." The following commenters largely agreed. "My boss told the salespeople to replace all the price tags on the jade.

The lowest increase was twenty percent; Dragon Stone went up by a factor of two, and Imperial Green by a factor of three!" "My wife immediately replaced the tag on the ice-grade Imperial Green ring face we have at home with a 'Non-Saleable' label. It gets asked about seven or eight times a day." "I bought a batch of imitation Imperial Green, and they sold out like hotcakes, yielding a two-hundred-percent profit.

My husband is currently counting the money." "Looking to buy Imperial Green candied beads; price is negotiable, even bean-grade will do; anything better, and I can’t afford it." "My boss just sold out his stock and can’t get more back even if he offers a higher price now. Sadnessing..." Sadnessing?

Wang Zhuo paused, then realized it was the present continuous tense of 'sad'… Watching the boiling discussions on the forum, a surge of fervor seemed to ignite within Wang Zhuo's chest. The market was on fire; why shouldn't he strike while the iron was hot and cut a few more stones to make a huge profit?