'In the future, I'm going to marry the most distinguished man in Beijing City and grind Gu Shengsheng under my heel.'
'I'll make her see—so what if she's the biological daughter? Without any skills, she's still just a worthless wretch.'
'Someone like Gu Shengsheng is destined to be poor and miserable her whole life.'
'She doesn't even have two cents to rub together right now. When the time comes for her to marry into the Lu Family, she'll have no family to back her up, no money of her own, and absolutely no one to protect her.'
'She can just wait to be kicked to the curb!'
In any case, Gu Rongrong found it all very amusing—stealing someone's parents, receiving all their love, and watching their real daughter live like a stray dog. How fun!
'When the time comes, I have to go to Beijing City and get a good look at what kind of life, worse than that of a pig or dog, Gu Shengsheng is living.'
The more she thought about it, the more delighted she felt.
Then, putting on her usual innocent and worldly-unaware expression, she ran over and linked arms with her mom and dad.
She then chatted happily with them.
* * *
Gu Shengsheng, for her part, returned to the Four Street Market and started her livestream.
"Good morning, treasure hunters."
Before Gu Shengsheng could say anything else, a horde of unknown "fans" appeared out of nowhere and began flooding the chat, some even flinging insults.
"Just give it up, streamer. You're definitely going to fail at everything today."
"Some expert already analyzed you. You only know how to appraise jadeite and other jades. You don't know a single thing about anything else."
"Everyone's saying there's something fishy about your appraisals. You're just using some trick; you can't actually do anything else. We've all seen the edited clips of you."
"Anyway, streamer, you should just quit while you're ahead and not humiliate yourself."
Listening to these grating words, Gu Shengsheng stated calmly, "The only way to know if it's a mule or a horse is to take it for a walk."
"I, Gu Shengsheng, have never claimed to be an expert in everything. There are plenty of specialists out there, and there's always someone better. I'm just an obscure little streamer. But since everyone doubts me so much, I have no choice but to show you what I can really do."
"You can see for yourselves whether I, Gu Shengsheng, am worth your attention."
As she said this, the opinions in the chat remained sharply polarized.
Everyone was talking past each other; the comments were a chaotic mess.
Finally, it looked like a Heizi from some group chat started spamming:
"If you're so incredible, streamer, why don't you sprout wings and fly?"
The comment, both in its literal meaning and its subtext, was dripping with sarcasm aimed at her.
No one on earth can appraise everything, but these keyboard warriors were intentionally making things difficult for Gu Shengsheng!
So what if they were being deliberately difficult? To them, might makes right.
In any case, none of them cared what happened to Gu Shengsheng.
She walked into the market and scanned her surroundings, saying, "If you don't have anything you want me to appraise, I'll just go find something at random."
Just then, a sharp-eyed viewer spotted the old farmer from one of Gu Shengsheng's videos.
"Streamer, look! Look at that sack in front of that old man—the blackish thingamajig inside it."
"Do you know what that is?"
Gu Shengsheng saw the large, dark mass and was taken aback herself.
Perhaps sensing that she really didn't know, the viewers in the chat grew even more clamorous. "Streamer, hurry up and go look!"
"We want you to appraise this! And we want to know what it's made of, what it is, and how much it's worth."
"Have the people commenting above lost their minds?! Who sent you to deliberately troll the streamer? You people are sick, making the chat so toxic these last few days!"
"This is so damn annoying. If we weren't all behind our screens, I'd really love to punch one of them."
Gu Shengsheng raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you want me to appraise this?"
"Yeah. Streamer, weren't you just talking a big game? If you pull this off, we'll admit you're legit."
The moment she saw Qin Shou standing next to the old farmer, Gu Shengsheng knew exactly which dumbass was targeting her.
Qin Shou said smugly, "I asked every expert in Rui City about this thing today. Even my grandfather doesn't know what kind of stone it is. So, Gu Shengsheng, do you?"
"If you don't know, then get the hell out of the appraisal business. You've gotten your hands on so many valuable things these past few days. Just what sugar daddy did you latch onto?!"
"You women never want to put in any effort. As long as you have a man backing you, you can do whatever you want without a care in the world, right?"
As he spoke, Qin Shou mimed gagging.
Gu Shengsheng was furious now. She was a decent young woman; on what grounds should she be constantly slandered by such a short, ugly man?
So she hauled off and slapped him.
The slap left Qin Shou stunned. Before he had time to react, Gu Shengsheng's fist smashed into him.
"My apologies. I studied judo."
After she spoke, Qin Shou was beaten senseless. He had no chance to retaliate and ended up kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy, before Gu Shengsheng finally let him go.
In just a short while, his face was bruised and swollen.
He pointed at Gu Shengsheng, his whole body trembling. He was furious enough to die, but he didn't dare say anything.
His own weakness was on full display, leaving him with no leg to stand on.
He tried to look menacing and declared, "Gu Shengsheng! Don't think I'll submit to you just because you know how to fight and can beat me up!"
"Submit or don't. Who cares what you do?"
Gu Shengsheng was speechless.
"Are you just trying to get my attention like this?" Qin Shou continued to yell at her.
A wave of goosebumps washed over Gu Shengsheng. "..."
"Qin Shou, did your brain grow a hemorrhoid or something? All swollen and painful."
'Now she was regretting that she'd hit him too lightly. For a person like him, no amount of beating would ever be enough.'
Then Qin Shou continued, "This blackish stone... no one in Rui City can identify it. Why don't you give it a look?"
"If you're really capable, you shouldn't just show your livestream viewers; you need to show me, an audience member, too. After all, you were the one who accepted the challenge yesterday, weren't you!"
'So he was the psycho leading the charge,' Gu Shengsheng thought.
'She knew there was something wrong with Qin Shou, and that he loved to change the rules on a whim.'
So she said bluntly, "I'll only appraise three items. If I identify all three, you scram. And don't ever appear in front of me again. If you see me, you cover your face and walk away."
Just looking at Qin Shou now made her skin crawl.
"Fine. Start by appraising this black stone, then. And don't try to tell me it's a jadeite rough stone. We're all professionals here."
Gu Shengsheng's lips curled into a smirk.
She said, "This is a meteorite."
'If it were some other strange and peculiar object, she might have needed a closer look. But this meteorite...'
'She had seen it in a parallel universe. Back when she was a geology Ph.D. student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this was a lab specimen. If she calculated the dates, this very object was probably purchased by the Chinese Academy of Sciences this year to become a subject of research.'
The old farmer holding the meteorite asked, puzzled, "What's a meteorite? It doesn't sound like a treasure!"
Without even picking it up, Gu Shengsheng said calmly, "You're right, it's not considered a gemstone or jade."
"This meteorite fell from an altitude of roughly 80 to 90 kilometers. This little piece here weighs around four and a half jin. It's not very large. Usually, specimens with a diameter over a meter or so are worth a bit more."