Too Many Oscar-Winning Actors in Daily Life

Hearing the broken-gong-like shouting, Lin Mo raised an eyebrow and led Tong Dong over on his own initiative.

The recycling station was piled high with mountains of scrap appliances and cardboard. The air was filled with a strange smell of mixed rust and dust.

A middle-aged man in a white tank top sat with his legs crossed in an old rattan chair. He held a phone in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, staring at the two approaching them.

"Boss, do you buy antique jade pendants?" Lin Mo asked straight to the point.

The middle-aged man's half-drooping eyelids suddenly opened, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes, before he immediately returned to his lazy demeanor. The hand holding the phone pointed to a sign nearby: "We buy everything, but it depends on the goods. We don't take just any trash."

Beside him hung a sign that read "Buying Scrap."

It was a contradictory statement, yet not entirely so, full of dark humor.

Lin Mo nodded, unbothered by his dismissive attitude.

"Since you do, did a man surnamed Tong from the chess and card room area come over and sell a jade pendant a while ago?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the middle-aged man's eyes changed instantly. He looked Lin Mo up and down as if guarding against a thief, and then glanced at Tong Dong, who was so nervous he did not know where to put his hands.

Hearing this, the middle-aged man warily swept his gaze over Lin Mo and Tong Dong.

He waved his hand abruptly, impatiently shooing them away. "No, no! Kids, don't cause trouble here. Go play somewhere else and don't get in the way of my business."

In their line of work, receiving items of unknown origin was a common occurrence. What they feared most was people coming to their door looking for things; nine times out of ten, it meant trouble.

Lin Mo, however, acted as if he had not heard. Instead of retreating, he stepped forward, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at him leisurely.

"We are here to buy back that jade pendant."

"I told you, I don't have it!"

The boss raised his voice a few notches. "Tong or Ma, whatever. People come and go here every day, who can remember? Hurry up and leave!"

Lin Mo ignored him, his gaze leisurely drifting toward a corner of the inner room piled with miscellaneous items.

In reality, Lin Mo had already used his divine sense to locate the jade pendant.

The other party's stubborn denial was well within his expectations.

"Boss, don't be nervous."

Lin Mo's tone was flat, yet it possessed an undeniable piercing quality. "That jade pendant is the only memento left by his deceased mother. It was stolen and sold for alcohol by his worthless drunkard of a father. He just wants to redeem it to keep as a memorial. We will buy it, so you won't take a loss."

These words carried a massive amount of information.

The middle-aged man's expression froze. His eyes darted around in their sockets a few times as he re-examined Tong Dong, who had been silent all along.

The young man was wearing a school uniform and looked entirely anxious; he certainly did not look like someone here to pick a fight.

Thinking back, there was indeed a drunken man who came to sell a jade pendant last month, and he had even haggled for a long time just to get an extra one or two hundred bucks.

Looking closely, the facial features of the two did bear some resemblance.

The middle-aged man muttered in his heart, but his businessman's instinct caught the scent of profit.

"Ahem."

He cleared his throat and sat up a bit straighter. "That may be so, but I have to look for it first. There are too many things here, I might not be able to find it."

Saying that, he slowly stood up and shuffled in his slippers toward the back room.

It wasn't until the boss's figure disappeared into the doorway that Tong Dong finally let out a long breath he had been holding in, his shoulders slumping.

He looked at Lin Mo, his face full of admiration and frustration.

"Lin Mo, it's a good thing you are here. If I had come by myself, I definitely would have been sent packing with just a few words."

"Don't say that."

Lin Mo patted his shoulder and smiled easily. "Since you trust me, I have to help you resolve this matter, otherwise I'd lose face."

This joke helped relax Tong Dong's tense nerves quite a bit.

But he still looked at Lin Mo with utmost solemnity, saying word by word, "Thank you, Lin Mo."

He had etched this favor into his heart.

However, at this moment, Lin Mo's divine sense had already followed the middle-aged man into the back room.

The lighting in the back room was dim, and the air was filled with a choking smell of old wood mixed with cheap tobacco.

The man rushed over in a few quick steps to an old man sitting on a stool, puffing away on a water pipe.

"Dad! Dad!"

The water in the pipe bubbled loudly, startled by his shouting. The old man raised his eyelids, slowly exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, and a trace of impatience showed in his cloudy eyes.

"Are you calling back a soul? So reckless, the sky isn't falling."

"No, Dad, that piece of mutton-fat jade we took in last month, is it still here?" The man lowered his voice, rubbing his hands together with an eager look on his face.

"Why do you ask?" The old man took another puff, squinting his eyes in enjoyment. "Haven't sold it yet. That's a good item, proper Hetian jade. Don't even think about letting it go for less than eight or ten thousand."

Hearing this, the man's eyes instantly lit up, his face breaking into a calculating smile.

"Dad, there are two youngsters outside saying they came to redeem that jade. From what they said, it's a relic from their deceased mother."

Hearing this, the old man paused his hand movements and glanced at his son.

"A relic? Then just send them away. We open our doors to do business, not to run a charity."

"Hey, you can't say that!"

The man leaned in closer. "The kid has a filial heart, and we should help people fulfill their good intentions, right? So I wanted to ask you, could we... make a fake one for him?"

The old man completely understood now. He put down his pipe, sat up straight, and stared intently at his son with his cloudy eyes.

"Have you fallen into a money hole? You want to scam a kid's money?"

"What do you mean scam, Dad! Is this a scam?"

The man stiffened his neck, looking perfectly justified. "That real jade is genuine merchandise. It'd be a huge loss to give it to him! If I get him a fake, he spends money, gets the item, and fulfills his wish. That's the best of both worlds!"

To put it bluntly, he just wanted to earn money twice on the same item.

"Dad, it's not like you don't know how expensive your grandson's tutoring classes are. If we don't make a bit more, what will the kid do in the future?"

The old man stared at him for a long while before finally just shaking his head and picking up his water pipe again, tacitly agreeing.

Seeing his father stay silent, the man took it as tacit approval. Wearing a triumphant smile, he turned and walked out empty-handed.

When he appeared before Lin Mo and Tong Dong again, the greed on his face had vanished without a trace, replaced by a look of deep sorrow and regret.

He let out a heavy sigh, looking at Tong Dong with eyes full of sympathy.

"Young student, I'm really sorry. I just went to the warehouse and checked carefully, but that piece of jade was already sold two days ago."

"Sold... sold?" Tong Dong looked a bit dejected. As expected, was he still unable to get it back?

The boss quickly stepped forward and supported his arm, putting on a full act:

"Hey, don't worry! I didn't know it was your mother's relic at the time, so I sold it as an ordinary item.

Tell you what, if you really want it, I'll risk my old face and go get it back for you! It's just... you might have to make up the price difference the other party asks for. After all, I can't do business at a loss, right?"

He spread his hands, his expression as helpless as humanly possible.