Chapter Eight - Jade Hunting

Lara rushed out of her car and saw a bleeding young man unconscious before her car, she gulped and slowly walked closer to him and felt his pulse. She was relieved to see that he was still alive, she took out her phone and called an ambulance.

When they arrived at the hospital, the man was rushed into the ER, and sometime later, the doctor came out.

"The patient suffered some superficial wounds and a collision with his head, he seems to be ok but further scans need to be taken to ensure all is well"

Lara was relieved to hear that the young man was ok and was about to respond to the doctor when her father's assistant, whom she hadn't seen, arrived and spoke from behind her.

"Thank you, Doc"

"Miss, you should go home I'll take it from here"

The assistant spoke when she made eye contact with him.

"Thank you" she whispered to him and went back home.

When she reached home, she was still shaken from the accident earlier, and seeing the man bleeding brought back unwanted memories. She recalled how bloodied Lucas had looked when he saved her from that truck in her past life. After that moment, he never opened his eyes again.

Lara walked into the house in a lifeless manner still shivering. Carlos, who was planning to scold her for not paying much attention on the road and almost killed someone saw her and immediately forgot about his anger and rushed to hold his daughter in his arms.

Feeling herself in someone's arms, Lara looked up to see her dad she immediately burst into tears. Carlos slowly led her to the couch and just let her cry without saying anything.

Lara cried her heart out; what started as tears for Lucas' death ended up as tears for all her loved ones and all her grievances deep down.

She thought that being reborn and seeing all her family alive and well would put her heart at ease and make her forget the grievances of the past life, but she didn't know that everything was hidden within her heart and all she needed was a catalyst to burst everything out.

"Lulu, it's okay! The man is alive and well." Carlos said after she had quieted down.

Lara came back from her memories and paucities herself with the thought that everyone was ok, and she was right in her father's arms, crying her heart out.

"I'm sorry, It's just….. I almost killed a man" Lara finally spoke out got out of Carlos arms and stood up.

"I need to freshen up, I'm a mess"

She grabbed a tissue and wiped her face. Seeing the black on the tissue, she knew that her face was a mess with mascara lines.

She picked him on the cheeks and headed to her bedroom

" I'm going go back to the office"

Carlos shouted behind her and she waved without turning to look at him.

When she entered her room and looked at the mirror she saw what an absolute mess she was. She would have used waterproof mascara, but for some reason, she was allergic to those types. The last time she had used one, her eyes were swollen shut, and she had to miss classes for two weeks. She freshened up and decided to just catch a movie or something when a maid informed her that her father had left her bank cards and given them to her.

She grabbed all her cards and looked at them with delight, she was so happy that she kissed them. She might have thought that the amount in her cards was nothing, but at this point, that was the only money she had.

She immediately drove off and was soon at the location she had received earlier. When she arrived she noticed that it was filled with rich second gens and one or two professional jewelers.

"Time to get me some money"

She carefully walked towards an empty stall and asked the attendant there for the prices.

"A hundred for these," the attendant said and pointed to very dark, ugly ones.

"500 and 1,000 for these and these," he continued, pointing to the other two bunches.

The stones were packed together in separate parts; no doubt, the ones with more probability of having jade in them were piled together and had higher prices.

She stood still and thought back to what choices the reborn characters had made in her novels and then decided to make that same choice.

She looked at the table again and saw a stone single out of the piles and was immediately excited.

" I want that one." She pointed to the stone, and the attendant was taken aback.

"Miss, this is a defective one and was about to be thrown out"

The attendant said.

"Doesn't matter, I want it," she continued insistently.

" yes, miss". The attendant said and motioned for someone to come and open the stone.

The man looked at the jade in his hands and back at the attendant, who just shrugged; he sneered within that it was just another second generation trying to show off their 'prowess'.

He let go of his thought and carefully cut the stone. After all, he was getting paid.

The stone was cut to reveal nothing inside and Lara pursed her lips.

She turned back to the table and purchased another the same thing happened.

15 stones and Le10,000 later, and she still had no jade. At this point, she was starting to get frustrated, and the shop attendant and driller's faces were odd-looking, trying their best not to laugh out at the young lady's bad luck.

She still refused to give up and decided to purchase one more; this time, when the stone was first cut, she saw a glimpse of green, and she became excited; the shop attendant sat up straight, and the driller became more focused.

The driller put down the drill and used another instrument; this time, he took extra care to slowly scrap off the stone surrounding the green.

Soon, people started to gather, and expectant eyes were cast on the stone.

Lara held her breath, and 15 minutes later, the driller's expression changed, and everyone simultaneously looked at Lara.