"So what's wrong with Appraiser Lin's spirit stones? Do explain." Dong He asked the staff. A quick idea came to the staff as he replied, "Appraiser Lin happened to come when the spirit stones were out of stock the last two times, so I asked him to come back another time."
"Oh, you see, Appraiser Lin... we have a lot of work to do at the logistics department, so a shortage in supply is common," Dong He said while grinning from ear to ear.
Lin Jin didn't bother pestering them any longer, so he spoke straightforwardly, "I saw quite a few who claimed their spirit stones today, there's no way you guys ran out of stock again, right?"
"Of course not, if we ran out of stock all the time, then I would be held responsible as a manager! My my, Appraiser Lin, aren't you just giving me a hard time today! Hahaha!" Dong He said while laughing awkwardly loud while a glimmer flashed in his eyes.
He cursed to himself. Lin Jin was so cunning today, manipulating Dong He's words so he made a fool out of himself. Dong He had almost fallen for it.
"Come now, go and check the inventory list, and give Appraiser Lin the spirit stones he needs!" Dong He ordered as he gave his subordinate a look.
His subordinate understood and a while later, he returned with a tray. There were ten spirit stones on the tray, each bearing a different size as they glistened under the light.
Dong He glanced at it and nodded in satisfaction.
He might have promised to give Lin Jin the spirit stones, but he was embarrassed by Lin Jin making a big scene out of this. How could he not teach Lin Jin a lesson?
Not to mention, Jia Qian was still watching.
The spirit stones displayed might seem to be high in both quantity and quality, the truth was that all of them were defective. Some might have a huge flaw, or have a severe loss of spiritual energy. Meaning that the intermediate-grade stones were actually low-grade stones, and low-grade stones were basically useless stones.
To tell apart the quality would be difficult just by judging from the mere appearance of the spirit stones as they were intentionally well-tampered with. If a beast appraiser had not done extensive research on this aspect, they would have a hard time telling the difference.
'Lin Jin, did you think you could just make a scene and leave with what you want? Dream on, I'll give you a bunch of defective stones, and the moment you walk out this door, you won't be able to come back and exchange them for better ones.'
By that time, even if Lin Jin were to try and make a scene, Dong He could just say that Lin Jin was just trying to scam them into changing subpar products for better ones. When this was passed on for the chief to deal with, Lin Jin would be the one who's in deep trouble.
'Trying me? You're too weak!' Dong He thought to himself in triumph.
Lin Jin had already started examining the spirit stones as Dong He secretly observed his expression. From Dong He's perspective, these spirit stones looked like the real deal, so there was no way he could tell.
Lin Jin picked up one of them as a subtle glint shone from his eyes.
"Appraiser Lin, you have what you need. Do leave soon, so you don't interrupt our work here." Dong He said, worrying that Lin Jin would see through them.
Lin Jin stared with doubt at the dull red stone in his hand.
Despite not having a clue on the methods of spirit stone appraisal, he had his trusty museum's assistance. After touching the spirit stones, he almost exclaimed in excitement from the hint the museum had given him.
The outer layer of this stone was coated with a layer of defected spiritual energy stone, but in the inner core of the stone, it was actually a Fire Spirit Crystal.
The Fire Spirit Crystal was one of the five elemental spirit stones, and they were painfully rare. More importantly, it was a fire element stone, which happened to suit Xiao Huo.
This small piece of crystal was worth a hundred times more than a normal spirit stone.
While Lin Jin was euphoric, he was baffled as well. Since when was this Fatty Dong so kind?
After giving it some thought, he touched the other low-grade spirit stones and finally understood.
'Defective products'.
It might look like a defective stone, but in reality, it was just an ordinary stone with a thin layer of spirit stone on the outer layer. A normal person wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Lin Jin immediately understood what was going on just by giving it a quick thought.
The fatty wasn't doing this out of thoughtfulness, he was setting Lin Jin up to mess with him.
That Fire Spirit Crystal that was coated in spirit stone wasn't part of Dong He's plan. All Dong He planned was to mess with him, and use Lin Jin's lack of stone appraisal knowledge to his advantage.
Even if he were to expose Dong He right now, he wouldn't admit it. Even if Dong He was completely exposed, he would shift the blame to someone else, saying that he had no idea.
But there was one thing that Lin Jin was quite certain of, Fatty Dong had no idea that among a bunch of defective products, there was an ultra-rare, Fire Spirit Crystal. After all, this crystal with an incomparable quality belonged to him now.
In a split second, Lin Jin came up with a plan.
"You have my thanks, Manager Dong!" Lin Jin accepted the tray as Dong He replied with a cold smile, "You can see yourself out."
However, right after he finished his sentence, a shocking moment took place.
Lin Jin took an iron hammer from the side, dumped the spirit stones onto the ground and smashed them one by one.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Three spirit stones were immediately smashed into dust. Dong He almost jumped out of his skin as he saw this and yelled, "Lin Jin, what are you doing?!"
Lin Jin kept smashing the stones as he said, "Since you gave it to me, it's mine, I can deal with it however I want, and no one can stop me. These spirit stones do look rather odd, it seems like the spirit stone layer is only on the outside. From the inside, no matter how you look at them, they just seem like... normal stones."
"Appraiser Lin, please stop now!" The face of the staff that brought the spirit stones paled. He did not expect Lin Jin to smash the spirit stones in front of the crowd.
It might be difficult to determine if a spirit stone were real or fake, but when crumbled into pieces, it was almost certain to tell. The thing was that, even if they were able to tell this way, the spirit stone's spiritual energy would dissipate after it was smashed.
Unless someone was as sure as death, no one would use a method like this.
No one there expected Lin Jin to smash the stones for the public to see. The staff grew goosebumps while he shuddered in fear. He knew that if Lin Jin exposed this, Dong He would use him as his scapegoat and he'd be in big trouble.
"Lin Jin, we can talk this through, stop now!" Dong He was losing his patience. This was in no way, a glorious exposure. He was trying to give Lin Jin a taste of his own medicine, so that Lin Jin wouldn't be able to come back and cause trouble again, but he would never have imagined Lin Jin to be this assertive.
But the real question is, how was Lin Jin so sure that these spirit stones were fake?
Lin Jin did not listen to them at all as he kept on smashing the stones. The people in the lobby stared in shock while some of them could tell that something huge was going to happen today.
The association's logistic department had actually allocated fake and flawed spirit stones. This was no small matter. If it was not dealt with, Dong He could be fired as the manager.
Every vein in Dong He's body had the urge to start a fight, but he knew he couldn't. However, he quickly improvised. After seeing that it was beyond difficult to deal with this, he immediately bent down and pretended to take a look.
"What is up with these spirit stones? Why are there defective ones among them? Appraiser Lin, you made the right move!" After saying this, Dong He immediately shot up and yelled, "Ask the ones in charge of appraising spirit stones and the warehouse manager for today to come out, right now!"
The logistic department burst into a frenzy.
Lin Jin had only the last spirit stone left, which was the one with the fire spirit crystal. He hesitated for a moment before going full force on the stone with the hammer.
This time, a crack was heard and a pillar of fire erupted. At the same time, pure fire spiritual energy started to spread out and alarmed everyone in the lobby.
The fire spirit crystal rolled out and smoothly onto Lin Jin's hand.
"The fire spirit crystal!"
Someone with sharp eyes saw and yelled out.
You couldn't blame the person for such a reaction because the fire spirit crystal was supreme compared to spirit stones. Belonging to the five elemental spirit stone category, it was only natural for it to be classified as a super rare fire elemental spirit crystal.
All eyes in the room were pinned onto the crystal, drooling with both shock and greed.
The rarity of this thing wasn't even worth exchanging for a few high-grade spirit stones.
Jia Qian, who was still watching, was stunned as well. Her pupils dilated in disbelief. Dong He on the other hand, trembled as he found himself walking towards Lin Jin with his hand stretched out. Lin Jin quickly retracted his palm into a fist.
"Manager Dong, what are you doing?" Lin Jin had a sly smile.
Dong He snapped out of it and excitedly spoke, "Lin Jin, that is the fire spirit crystal, you can't take that away."
Lin Jin proudly shook his head and said, "According to the rules, the spirit stones are mine. So whatever that was in them, belongs to me, including the fire spirit crystal."
Dong He's mouth hung open but no words came out.
What Lin Jin said was right. Rules were rules, but he just couldn't take it. That was a fire spirit crystal!
"Alright, that should be enough, it's time for me to leave." Lin Jin knew his job was done here. Everything, from the smashing of the stones to expose the logistic department's fraud, to exposing the fire crystal stone—it was all within his plan.
Even without the fake spirit stone incident, Fatty Dong would surely have a few tough days ahead.
Exposing the fire spirit crystal was probably enough for Dong He to regret his actions down to his core.
At least some of his frustration was released.