Sophia pushed open the door and got out of the car, waving as she approached.
"Senior sister!"
Sophia called out from a distance.
Amelia looked up and saw a girl standing in the light, wearing loose pants, a fitted short-sleeve shirt, with her hair tied in a high ponytail, full of youthful energy, waving at her.
She waved back.
"Teacher, that's my junior sister."
By now, they had walked closer.
"Junior sister, you drove here alone so late at night? You're really brave."
Sophia smiled, "It's not that late yet."
Amelia shook her head helplessly.
"So you are Sophia, I've heard about you many times from Wenjing."
The old lady was not very old but had silver hair and looked very gentle.
Amelia quickly introduced them to each other.
"Let's walk and talk," Professor Zhou said.
On the way, the senior and junior sisters talked a lot about what had happened in the past two years.
Soon they arrived at the hotel.
At this time, Sophia advised, "The house is all cleaned up, you can move in right away."
"We still have to eat dinner first. After dinner, it will be nine o'clock. Walking at night is too dangerous. It's my fault for not telling you. You should stay at the hotel with us tonight."
After Amelia's strong persuasion, Sophia agreed.
They got a room, put down their luggage, and the three of them found a street food stall nearby, ordering some stir-fried dishes and started eating.
"Sophia, besides the photos you sent me, did you take pictures of the other items?" Amelia asked.
On the phone, Sophia had said she had several dozen pieces.
Hearing this, Sophia suddenly remembered, "Oh, the things are actually in my car."
When Sophia said this, the teacher and student both became restless.
"How can you leave them in the car? What if they get damaged?"
Professor Zhou immediately became nervous and stopped eating.
"Let's go, Amelia, pack some food to go. We'll return to the hotel now."
They hurried back to the hotel.
Sophia didn't mind at all; their reaction showed that the box of gold and silver jewelry was very valuable.
They were rich!
The food stall was only five minutes away from the hotel.
At the hotel parking lot, they quickly took out the yellow pearwood box.
"The turquoise necklace you sent me a photo of — each bead can sell for two or three hundred thousand," Amelia said, almost in tears, tightly holding Sophia's arm, "Rich lady, please take care of yourself!"
Sophia smiled widely.
Back in the hotel room, ignoring everything else, they turned on all the lights.
Professor Zhou and Amelia kept a safe distance from the box, waiting for Sophia to open it.
Looking at the yellow pearwood box with jewelry piled inside, their eyes were full of admiration.
On top was the turquoise necklace, with twelve beads.
Sophia picked it up and handed it to Professor Zhou, "Teacher Zhou, if it's really this valuable, do you have any resources to help me sell it?"
Professor Zhou looked up at Sophia immediately. "Are you planning to sell these bead bracelets?"
Sophia paused for a moment, then nodded firmly. "Yes, maybe keep one or two that I like, but sell the rest."
Professor Zhou agreed readily. "I'll buy them!"
Then Professor Zhou started examining the bead bracelets and explained their value to Sophia.
"Take this turquoise bracelet, for example. Turquoise is an ancient and delicate stone. Usually, it's hard to find stones with such even color like these, so your bracelet is more valuable. If I buy by each bead, I'll pay you 300,000 per bead. There are twelve beads, so 3.6 million in total. How about that?"
Sophia had seen turquoise before. Her foster mother had a necklace with a single turquoise bead, but its color wasn't as nice as this bracelet.
Sophia hesitated for a moment, then nodded without any doubt.
Professor Zhou didn't rush to pay immediately. She remembered Sophia said she wanted to sell all the jewelry in the box.
Amelia watched eagerly but had no way to buy since her pocket wasn't as deep as the professor's. She could only watch.
Fifty-three items were laid out one by one on a white bedsheet, dazzling and shining.
Sophia kept a piece of agarwood hairpin, the cheapest item, because she wanted to sell the rest to get more money but liked the scent of the hairpin—it helped her calm down.
"Agarwood does have that calming effect," Professor Zhou agreed.
Sophia also kept a jade bracelet. Everything else was sold to Professor Zhou.
In total, Sophia made over 140 million.
Even though Sophia had seen the wealth of her foster parents, actually having over 100 million in her own account shocked her.
Amelia wasn't much better off. She'd heard that professors with long experience in this field were very wealthy but hadn't expected such easy spending of more than 100 million with just a wave of the hand.
Professor Zhou didn't have that much cash on hand, so she transferred 6 million to Sophia first, and the rest was paid by a check.
All three were very excited.
After finishing these matters, they started eating dinner and late-night snacks.
Amelia packed several dishes and some barbecue to go.
After dinner, Sophia booked a room next door.
The room prepared at home wasn't used at all, and Sophia stayed outside overnight as well.
The next morning, Sophia worried about the piglets at home and planned to return early.
"Have breakfast with me and stay at my home for a few nights," Sophia invited the two.
Professor Zhou politely declined, "We have other business on this trip, so we won't bother you."
Amelia nodded, "The teacher and I need to attend a meeting at the provincial office. If we have time after, we'll visit you again!"
"Are you taking the high-speed train?" Sophia asked. "If so, I can take you to the station after breakfast."
But the two had already called a car.
So after breakfast, the two left immediately without delay.
Sophia muttered to herself, "Nothing is easy."
Then she thought of the 6 million already in her account and felt instantly relieved.
She didn't rush home but went straight to the wholesale market for a big shopping spree.
She bought the usual sacrificial pigs, whole sheep, and fruits.
Sophia ordered 100 sacrificial pigs and 100 whole sheep. Each pig cost 3,500, each sheep 1,500, spending a total of 500,000.
Because this was a sudden large order, the shop couldn't supply all at once and asked for three days to deliver.
Sophia agreed and paid 30% upfront, 150,000.
Besides pigs and sheep, fruits were also common for sacrifices.
Sophia went to the nearby farmers' market for them.