The pawn shop owner looked at Wen Qingchen’s shifty eyes. He seemed a bit clever but didn’t look like someone who was involved in petty theft.
He sighed and said with a wry smile, “Young man, these three gemstones don’t belong to you, do they?”
Wen Qingchen was about to refute, but the pawn shop owner waved his hand and said, “Let me explain first. Looking at your simple clothes, you must come from a poor family. Do you know there’s a custom in the grand cities outside Tang City?”
Wen Qingchen sensed something was off. “What custom?”
The pawn shop owner smiled and said, “People out there have a saying called ‘waist full of wealth.’ The more precious and rare the adornments around one’s waist, the more noble and elegant they are considered to be. But nowadays, people know that it’s better not to flaunt their wealth, so this ‘waist full of wealth’ has been ‘wrapped’ in their personal clothing.”
Wen Qingchen asked, “So…”
The pawn shop owner continued with a grin, “These are someone else’s personal belongings—underwear.”
Wen Qingchen: “……………………”
Seeing that she was stunned into silence, the pawn shop owner couldn’t help but laugh and tease, “Young man, would you like to sniff them again? Didn’t you say they smelled nice?”
Wen Qingchen: “……………………”
Damn you! What the hell!
These are actually underwear?!
Wen Qingchen was utterly dismayed.
She had just claimed that these were a three-generation family heirloom!!
How ridiculous to claim underwear was a family heirloom!
No wonder the pawn shop owner had such a strange expression when she said that; and she even went to sniff them!
The pawn shop owner said with a chuckle, “From the size of these garments, they must belong to a very tall man. You look too weak and impoverished to be able to wear such fine personal clothing, so I guess these must belong to someone else.”
The pawn shop owner was mostly joking and didn’t actually suspect where she had stolen them from.
But the more he laughed, the more Wen Qingchen felt her face burning—after all, it was a man’s underwear!
Wen Qingchen gritted her teeth and almost threw the underwear at the pawn shop owner’s face. “How is this even close to underwear? It’s so long!!”
The pawn shop owner stopped smiling, his expression growing serious. “The fabric is quite rare, and the style is a custom from outside the city. This garment must belong to someone from elsewhere. It is indeed a type of personal clothing.”
So this young man really didn’t know what it was.
It made sense—many impoverished children had never seen such things.
Wen Qingchen’s face turned red with anger.
“Enough of this! Are you going to buy it or not?!”
The pawn shop owner agreed to buy it. “The fabric and the gemstones are both very valuable, so I can only give you a down payment now. I will need to have it appraised before I can offer a full price. Young man, even though you found these, they’re too valuable. While the appraisal is happening, you should go back to where you found them. The owner might come looking for them, and it’s better to return them if they do.”
Wen Qingchen remained expressionless. Go back to that place?
If someone did find them, what kind of look would they give her?
She would just be a pervert who only picks up other people’s underwear!
Wen Qingchen nodded in response, leaving one pair for appraisal and quickly leaving.
After making such a huge blunder, Wen Qingchen now felt awkward with the remaining two pairs of underwear she had.
Sitting by the pond, she took out the remaining two pairs, pried the gemstones off, and then wadded up the underwear and tossed them into the pond.
Looking at the two gemstones in her hand, she couldn’t help but twitch her lips. “What a joke… ‘waist full of wealth.’”
But thinking about the size of those underwear… Wen Qingchen clicked her tongue. They were actually quite big.
