147: Chapter 147 Appraisal, One-Stop Legal Service

Looking at the Young Lady's confident expression, only two words appeared in Chen Sheng's mind—it's settled.

With a wave of his hand, he said grandly, "Wrap it up for me."

However, grandiosity aside, when the Young Lady was happily packing the necklace, Chen Sheng hurriedly took out his phone and called Old Yu.

"Old Yu, urgent help needed. Transfer 30,000 over. I'll pay you back by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest."

Relying on their relationship, Old Yu didn't ask what Chen Sheng was borrowing money for and transferred the 30,000 to Chen Sheng on the spot.

This saved Chen Sheng from the awkward situation of not having money to pay.

After the Young Lady finished packing the necklace, Chen Sheng paid by scanning the code, got the receipt, invoice, and other purchase vouchers, and left Zhou Dongdong Jewelry Store immediately.

After leaving Zhou Dongdong Jewelry Store, Chen Sheng searched online for a professional jewelry appraisal center in Shu City. He first called to confirm that the center could issue a professional appraisal certificate and that the certificate had legal effect, before driving to the appraisal center.

The point about having legal effect was very important.

Some appraisal centers are just fronts, where as long as you pay, you can get whatever kind of appraisal certificate you want. Such certificates are everywhere on platforms like Taobao and Pinduoduo.

Of course, such appraisal certificates do not have legal effect, meaning they cannot be presented as legal evidence.

Arriving at the appraisal center.

As soon as he entered, a Staff Member enthusiastically asked, "Sir, how can I help you?"

Chen Sheng took out the Caiyun Necklace and placed it on the table, saying, "The feel of this necklace when I touched it didn't seem right. Could you please help me appraise the material of this necklace?"

"Certainly, sir. A normal appraisal takes 1-3 working days to provide results. If you need it urgently, we can provide an expedited service. For an additional 1,000 yuan rush fee, we will provide the results within two hours."

Chen Sheng did not make a decision immediately but continued to ask, "May I ask how much the appraisal fee is?"

"For an appraisal of necklace material like this, we generally charge a fee of 1,500 yuan."

Hearing the 1,500 yuan appraisal fee, Chen Sheng couldn't help but wince slightly. People always say the jewelry industry is deep, but he hadn't expected the supporting industries to be just as deep.

The market price for appraisal fees for other items is at most two or three hundred, but when it comes to jewelry, it immediately jumps to four figures.

Of course, there are even more expensive ones.

For example, antiques.

For a single appraisal, not to mention thousands, there are even tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

Chen Sheng thought for a moment and said, "Let's go with the expedited service!"

After all, there were subsequent matters to deal with, and he didn't want to wait an extra day or two just to save that thousand yuan.

After paying, Chen Sheng sat on a chair in the jewelry appraisal center's lobby for nearly two hours, finally waiting for the appraisal results.

Opening the appraisal results, the material column, as expected, had the large words "Sand Gold" written on it.

"Haha! Perfect."

Chen Sheng asked the Staff Member for a file folder to put the appraisal results in. After checking the time and confirming that there was still plenty of time to get to Dafeng District, he used his phone to search online for a nearby law firm and went straight there.

Arriving at the law firm, the Young Lady at the front desk used the same standard opening line, "Hello, sir. What business do you need to consult about?"

"I need a lawyer. It doesn't need to be someone too specialized, just someone who can help me coordinate the compensation matter."

With a clear goal, the Young Lady at the front desk led Chen Sheng to the meeting area and soon brought over a young lawyer who had just become permanent staff.

"Hello, sir. My surname is Wang. I will be taking over your case from here on."

"Hello, Lawyer Wang. My surname is Chen."

After the two exchanged greetings, Chen Sheng explained his purpose, "I need to trouble you, Lawyer Wang, to negotiate compensation with Zhou Dongdong Jewelry Store."

That's right! The reason Chen Sheng came to the law firm was to have a lawyer step in and negotiate the compensation issue with the jewelry store.

He made this decision based on two considerations.

First, as a national chain brand, even though Chen Sheng had solid evidence in his hands, there has been a saying since ancient times that big stores bully their customers.

For example, denying the facts.

Or stalling for time.

Chen Sheng didn't want to experience either of those, so he decided to leave professional matters to professionals.

He would have the lawyer demand compensation on his behalf.

Just ask yourself if they'd be afraid of a set of logically rigorous laws and regulations, and that's that.

Second, the Caiyun Necklace was a pre-sale item about to be officially released. If a big scandal like counterfeiting broke out before it was even pre-sold, and if it were reported, there's no telling how much loss Zhou Dongdong Jewelry Store would suffer. He couldn't guarantee that if he went himself, the jewelry store wouldn't see that he was just an individual and use some underhanded tactics to suppress the matter.

Therefore, spending money to hire a lawyer to negotiate the compensation was also a form of self-protection.

On the spot, after reviewing all the documents, Lawyer Wang very happily accepted the commission.

For Chen Sheng, negotiating compensation might be a troublesome matter, but for him, wasn't this something he could handle with his eyes closed... No, it should be said that this was just handing him a performance achievement.

He printed out the power of attorney on the spot.

Chen Sheng also readily signed his name on the power of attorney, and after paying the money, he happily left the law firm.

Can't help it! Just now, Lawyer Wang practically patted his chest to guarantee that this matter would be settled within three days at most.

This meant that within three days, after deducting appraisal, lawyer, and other expenses, he could pocket at least 80,000+.

Over 80,000 in three days; with income like this, what more could he ask for?

Leaving the law firm, Chen Sheng called An Xiaonuan to tell her he wouldn't be back for dinner. After hanging up, Chen Sheng set his navigation directly to Poly Champagne International in Dafeng District.

Driving to Poly Champagne International, he circled the residential complex once and finally found the sports lottery shop mentioned in the Intelligence System at the East 2 Gate.

Chen Sheng found a parking spot nearby and parked the car. After getting out, he called Old Yu again, "Old Yu, urgent help needed. Transfer another 20,000 to me. I'll pay you back by tomorrow at the latest."

This time, Old Yu wasn't so readily agreeable.

"WTF! Old Chen, what the hell are you doing? 30,000, 20,000... you haven't been scammed, have you?"

"You're the one who's been scammed. I have an urgent need for this. Don't worry, I'll pay you back tomorrow."

"It's not about whether you pay me back or not. Forget it, as long as you haven't been scammed, it's fine. But let's be clear, this is the last time. I don't have any more."

"Understood."

"Alright, that's it then. I'm fishing right now. My green bubble has hit the limit today, so send me your bank card number, and I'll transfer it directly to your bank card."

"O-fucking-K."

Hanging up the phone, Chen Sheng sent his frequently used bank card number to Old Yu.

Not long after, his phone chimed with a text message notification of the deposit.

Confirming the funds had arrived, Chen Sheng opened the car door and walked toward the sports lottery shop.

Walking into the lottery shop, the boss, Liu Quan, immediately greeted him enthusiastically, "Hello, what would you like to buy today?"

Chen Sheng first looked around the shop. Because it was near closing time, there were a few older ladies sitting outside chatting. Inside the shop, besides him and the boss, there was only one person scratching lottery tickets.

Seeing this, Chen Sheng waved his hand at the boss, "I'll just look around first."

"Alright! Take your time, just call me if you need anything."

Chen Sheng first feigned interest, studying the Seven-Star Lottery analysis chart on the wall for a while, then watched the person scratching lottery tickets for a bit. Not until the person scratching the tickets left the lottery shop cursing did Chen Sheng lean closer to the lottery shop boss and ask, "Are you Boss Liu Quan?"

Liu Quan looked Chen Sheng over carefully before nodding, "I am. May I ask who you are?"

Confirming he hadn't found the wrong person, Chen Sheng lowered his voice a little more and asked, "I heard you're running the mark six lottery here?"

Hearing the three words "mark six lottery," Liu Quan's body instantly stiffened. With a wary expression, he stared straight at Chen Sheng and asked, "What mark six lottery? Who did you hear that from?"

However, when Liu Quan said this, he also deliberately lowered his voice.

"Don't be nervous, Boss Liu. It's like this: isn't the draw today? I was originally planning to buy from my friend, but they said they weren't doing it for the time being and told me to come find you."

"Are you talking about Old Tang?"

Liu Quan was a big bookie, and under the big bookie were small bookies. Small bookies were not as stable as the big ones, and their risk resistance wasn't as strong as the big bookies. From time to time, someone would accumulate a mountain of debt while collecting special number bets and just run away.

The "Old Tang" in Liu Quan's mouth was one of the small bookies he had developed under him, and among the small bookies under him, Old Tang was the only one who had run away during this period.

Therefore, upon hearing keywords like "not doing it anymore" and "referred him here," he immediately associated it with Old Tang.

...