Be Careful, Scum Dad! Mommy Is Back!
Chapter 327 Fake

Chapter 327: Chapter 327 Fake

Lu Xining just happened to look up and met Ji Muye’s dark and unfathomable gaze.

She shifted her gaze away, not looking into the man’s eyes.

At her side, Shang Lvxing caught sight of the slowly darkening shade in the man’s eyes, and the corners of his mouth lifted almost imperceptibly for a moment before quickly settling back down.

Seeing Lu Xining’s hand lightly resting on Shang Lvxing’s arm, Ji Muye’s eyes immediately darkened.

The banquet was in Phoenix County, next to Fuxian, a two-hour drive from Fuxian.

The place was famous because it was the hometown of Huang Shaosheng, a world-class jewelry design master, and also where he chose to live after retiring in his later years.

It was said that this jewelry design master was very temperamental.

No matter how much money you offered or how fine the materials were.

If he didn’t like you as a person, he wouldn’t agree to design even if you held a knife to his throat.

Although he was difficult to communicate with due to his temper, there were still countless people around the world who wanted him to design jewelry for them.

The finer the material, the more it could shine with even brighter brilliance in his hands.

The person Lu Xining came to meet tonight was Huang Shaosheng.

The bracelet she wore on her wrist was one of his past works, said to be the most perfect piece of his career.

The extremely simple yet the utmost elegant dress she wore was made by Huang Shaosheng’s wife.

The combination of the two immediately drew Huang Shaosheng’s attention as Lu Xining entered the banquet hall.

"Miss, Elder Huang invites you upstairs for a gathering."

An elderly man with a butler’s appearance smiled warmly at her and indicated his identity.

Lu Xining exchanged a glance with Shang Lvxing.

The man’s deep black eyes close at hand swept through with profound meaning, and he nodded lightly, "Go ahead, I’ll wait here for you to come down. Call me if anything happens."

Not far away, Ji Muye, after watching Lu Xining ascend the stairs, gave someone in the crowd a look.

That person soon left silently, and then went upstairs from another place.

The butler knocked on the door and, after obtaining approval from inside, opened the door and respectfully said while bowing his head, "Miss, please come inside, Elder Huang is waiting for you."

An almost imperceptible sandalwood scent wafted out from within the room.

After Lu Xining entered, the door was quietly closed by the butler from the outside.

In the quiet room, an elderly man with white hair sat before a tea table, his voice resonant, "Child, come sit over here."

Beneath the dim lighting, the scent of tea filled the air.

Sitting quietly in front of the man, Lu Xining did not speak first; the two of them were like in a contest of patience, a silent stillness spreading between them.

"Have some tea," Huang Shaosheng took the initiative.

He poured her a cup of tea with a light flavor.

The moment Lu Xining grasped the teacup, the bracelet on her slender wrist shone translucent under the light, immediately captured by the man’s sight.

However, he was not in a hurry to inquire about the origin of the bracelet but instead refilled her cup after she had finished the tea in it.

It was as if he had called her up just to have tea.

In the battle of patience, Lu Xining had never lost; as long as he poured, she continued to drink.

The adjacent scent of sandalwood and the fragrance from the tea cup mingled together, slowly releasing a relaxing aura that softened one’s entire being involuntarily.

The eyes of the man before her, weathered through the passage of time, seemed to see through the ages to a familiar figure of the past.

"You bear a strong resemblance to your grandfather."

"Especially these eyes, they resemble your grandfather’s more than your mother’s."

Lu Xining had only seen her grandfather, Chu Zhan in his youth in a family portrait her mother gave her, looking several times more handsome than Ji Muye, Shang Lvxing, and the others.

There’s a wildness about her that they don’t possess.

She listened quietly to Huang Shaosheng’s reminiscent sighs about the past, making no judgments about the things she didn’t understand.

But she could glean from the person opposite her his longing for his friend who passed away prematurely.

Huang Shaosheng picked up the teacup in front of him and took a gentle sip, the aroma of tea immediately spreading a pleasant taste between his lips and teeth.

He started speaking faintly, "You came over today to ask if this bracelet was designed by me, didn’t you?"

Lu Xining nodded lightly.

"I did design a bracelet for your grandfather, but it’s not the one on your wrist."

"That bracelet was a birthday gift your grandfather gave to your grandmother, and it was buried with her along with her burial attire after she passed away."

Does that mean the bracelet on her wrist now is a fake?

Huang Shaosheng’s gaze was like a deep pool, seemingly able to see through what she was thinking when it fell on her.

"It’s not fake."

"The material is good, and the design is a replica based on the bracelet I designed for your grandfather."

"If I didn’t know that the bracelet had already been buried, I might have thought that the one on your wrist was indeed the one I designed for your grandfather."

It always felt like there was more to Huang Shaosheng’s words.

There were emotions in his eyes that Lu Xining couldn’t understand; she reviewed everything she’d heard since entering the door.

Suddenly, a thought struck her like a bolt of lightning.

Imitating his slow manner of speaking, Lu Xining asked, "Elder Huang, I want to know if there was any leftover material from the piece you were given by my grandfather at the time?"

Huang Shaosheng replied, "Correct, half of the material was left."

Such fine material, he could not bear to waste even a bit of it, and he considered the minimal loss right from the initial design phase.

From drawing the design, selecting the material, cutting it, to the final product, Huang Shaosheng spent a whole year crafting that one and only perfect bracelet.

It was the work he was most satisfied with in his life.

When he learned that it was to be buried alongside Chu Zhan’s wife, there was a tinge of regret in his heart, for such a perfect masterpiece was to be concealed forever.

Lu Xining asked again, "The design of the bracelet you created, did you also give it to my grandfather?"

Huang Shaosheng, who had not yet grasped the implication of her words, immediately saw the light in his eyes upon hearing Lu Xining’s follow-up question.

Raising an eyebrow, he said, "Are you suspecting that the bracelet on your wrist is a counterfeit that your grandfather had made by someone else based on my design?"

Earlier, when Huang Shaosheng mentioned that the bracelet had been buried with her grandmother’s burial attire, Lu Xining already had her suspicions.

According to what Lu Xining understood about her grandfather from her mother, even if he later needed a unique key to access all his wealth, he would definitely not take a burial object from his wife’s grave.

But this bracelet happens to be identical to the one Huang Shaosheng designed for her grandfather.

There could only be two possibilities for its existence.

One is that Huang Shaosheng’s design was stolen, and someone crafted a counterfeit in an attempt to replicate the perfection of the bracelet.

The other possibility is...

The material is the same, the design is the same, both of these were in her grandfather’s possession.

Therefore, the likelihood that he later hired a skilled artisan to fashion himself another key was not improbable.

After all, this bracelet had extraordinary significance to him.

All of a sudden!

A sound of something heavy landing came from outside the window.

Lu Xining and Huang Shaosheng exchanged a glance and immediately went to the window to check the situation.