Chapter 409: She Got Hit

Chapter 409: Chapter 409: She Got Hit

Trellis was, at the end of the day, just a small county town. But because it attracted jade enthusiasts from all over to gamble on stones, and most of these gamblers were wealthy, the town boasted a few well-decorated teahouses.

Alistair Forrest chose the most expensive and luxurious one and walked right in, immediately requesting an elegant private room.

’This room is perfect for a romantic rendezvous,’ he thought. ’The only problem is that annoying Nathaniel Nathan tagging along with Vera Xavier.’

After the three of them sat down, Vera Xavier was the first to speak, making her position clear. "Mr. Forrest, I think you have the wrong idea about me. I really don’t know the first thing about gambling on stones. The jade I got from my bet with Susan Caldwell yesterday was pure luck. That’s why I really can’t be the Forrest Group’s jade consultant. Please, give me an account number so I can return the ten million to you."

Alistair Forrest said with a playful grin, "Oh, come on, we’re all friends here. No need to be so formal. If you don’t want to be our company’s jade consultant, we can just be friends! You can think of that ten million as a fee for making a new friend!"

’This guy is the textbook definition of a spendthrift heir,’ Vera thought, ’throwing money around just because he has it. A ten-million-dollar fee to make friends?’ She was utterly speechless.

’The most important thing was, he didn’t seem to have any malicious intent. None of the tactics she’d used to deal with people in the past felt appropriate for him.’

’And people like him were the hardest to handle...’

Just then, a loud argument erupted outside their private room. The noise was so intense that it completely drowned out Alistair Forrest’s voice when he tried to speak.

Alistair Forrest, growing annoyed, threw open the door, ready to find the owner and give him a piece of his mind. But when he saw what was happening, he was amused. It was just a few local thugs arguing with Susan Caldwell and her companions.

Hearing Susan Caldwell’s voice, Vera Xavier also stepped out to watch the commotion.

The Susan Caldwell before her had none of the noble grace she’d possessed when they first met. To put it another way, she looked utterly wretched. Her hair was a mess, with one lock falling to half-cover her face. It looked like someone had clawed at her, leaving a bloody scratch across her cheek.

A button had been torn from her clothes during the scuffle, and her snow-white shoes were marred by several footprints. Her eyes were bloodshot, filled with an undisguised ferocity.

’Looking at Susan Caldwell now, Vera felt like she was seeing a thinner version of Rona Langdon. It was in their nature as mother and daughter. In a place like this, where fists mattered more than brains, Susan’s polished upbringing vanished, and she instantly became her mother’s spitting image.’

’She must have been truly blind in her past life,’ Vera thought, ’to have never made the connection between them.’

’Then again, she couldn’t really be blamed. The Susan Caldwell of her past life had never been in such a wretched state. From start to finish, she had always been an impossibly proud swan, always putting on airs.’

’Susan Caldwell felt like she was having the worst luck of her life on this trip. First, she’d lost at stone gambling to Vera Xavier, and now a group of thugs had tracked her down with a few local hicks in tow.’

’She recognized the hicks. They were the ones involved when Skylar Crowe got into a conflict with a street vendor in the town square. She’d figured that being so far from Veridia, with the formidable Leo Wright by her side, she could scare them half to death just by revealing who she was.’

’But she had seriously underestimated just how shameless those hicks were. They had tracked her down to the hospital first thing in the morning, claiming the vendor Leo Wright had kicked was now severely injured. They said he needed a huge sum of money for medical treatment and demanded she pay for it.’