Sophia woke up in the morning and realized she had forgotten to turn off the water tap. The water had been running all night, but surprisingly, it had not overflowed from the pig trough.
There were no wet spots on the floor either. Sophia felt a little upset as she turned off the tap, thinking about how much her water bill might be this month after running all night.
But then she remembered the ten or so pieces of gold and silver jewelry that came out of the pig trough yesterday. That thought made her forget all her frustration.
Today she planned to sell those things and get some money. That would help her feel more at ease.
She happily drove off in her old second-hand car.
Today's plan was not only to exchange the items for money. She had moved to this place just over half a month ago. The house she lived in was only just good enough to stay in. Now that she had suddenly received this unexpected fortune, of course she wanted to spend a bit of it.
When she got to the city, she went to three pawnshops that were recommended by online users. She had searched late last night and found some with good reviews.
Sophia wasn't very familiar with this city. Since S City was only a small second or third tier city, she was worried that the people here might not recognize how valuable her jewelry was.
If only she were in Y City. That was the capital of the province. It ranked in the top three in national GDP and was a well-known older city.
She also had more connections there.
But then she shook her head. She couldn't go all the way back to Y City just for a few items.
She laughed at herself. Maybe one day when she became super rich, she would go back and let those people see what success really looked like. But for now, she wouldn't go back and embarrass herself.
She quickly stopped thinking about it.
Her small old Volkswagen car stopped in front of a store that looked old-fashioned and solid.
Inside was a man around his late thirties or early forties. The shop wasn't big. Along the wall were glass display cases holding antique vases, mixed in with some designer handbags.
The items inside seemed a little messy.
She wasn't sure if this shop could be trusted.
Sophia thought to herself, if the price was good enough, she would just sell the items here.
She asked, "Do you buy gold, silver, or jade jewelry?"
She stopped looking around and turned her eyes to the man behind the counter.
The man looked at her without much interest. "I have to see what condition they're in."
He didn't seem to expect much from her. Even though the girl in front of him had a nice appearance, in a small place like S City, valuable jewelry was rare.
Sophia had packed each of the ten or so gold and jade pieces separately and put them in a box.
She took the first item out of the box. It was a jade pendant.
The jade looked very clean and had no flaws. The man took it and immediately felt how smooth and warm it was.
These days, many jade items were fake, but this one felt very real even before he looked closely. He was already about eighty to ninety percent sure it was genuine.
"How much do you want for this pendant?" he asked.
Usually the person who gives a price first is at a disadvantage, but Sophia wasn't worried.
She had grown up around gold and jewelry.
"This pendant should be worth at least thirty thousand," she said.
The man smiled a little. "You do know what you're talking about."
Since he didn't argue with her, Sophia took out two or three more pieces. One was a jade ring, another was a gold hairpin, and the third was a jade plaque.
When he saw these, the man finally looked surprised.
"Where did you get these from?" he asked.
Compared to the first pendant which had a simple design, the next three were more detailed. The jade ring had small and careful carvings. The gold hairpin was very fine, and it had a red ruby set into it.
Sophia raised her eyebrows and asked, "Don't worry, boss. These things definitely didn't come from anything bad. But if you want them to come through official ways, then they wouldn't be this cheap, right?"
The boss hesitated a little. The jade pieces felt really nice, and the price Sophia gave was a bit low.
Also, the designs looked old. If someone checked and said they were antiques, they could be worth a lot more.
If he could handle the risk, he would still make money.
In the end, the boss made up his mind and took all four pieces.
He sent Sophia one hundred and fifty thousand yuan.
Even though Sophia had guessed how much the jewelry could be worth, she was still a little shocked when she saw the money really show up in her bank account.
She sold the rest of the pieces to two other shops. One shop saw that she was young and tried to push the price down to just a few thousand yuan per piece.
Sophia caught on quickly and said a few things to shut them down. They finally paid a fair price.
If she wasn't too lazy to look for another pawnshop, she would have walked away.
After everything, she got nearly two hundred and fifty thousand yuan. She searched online for the nearest furniture market and decided to change everything she could in her house. Her bed, closet, and dining table were all replaced with new ones.
She asked the seller to deliver them to her home.
Then she drove her old car to the wholesale food market.
She bought one thousand pounds of sweet potatoes and one thousand pounds of potatoes. She bought everything from the same seller. Since she bought so much, the seller agreed to deliver the goods.
Sophia didn't go home right away. She walked around the market. She remembered that in the beginning, when she put food and water into the pig trough, it didn't react at all.
But later, when two little pigs were thrown in by accident, it gave her a bunch of jewelry. Maybe the trough liked to eat meat.
It sounded creepy, but what if it was true.
She decided to try it out. She bought half a pig. Then she bought a few hundred pounds of rice and flour.
If the trough didn't want them, she could still eat them or feed them to the little pigs.
Sophia packed her car full. Just when she was about to leave, she saw a tofu shop near the wholesale market.
She thought for a second and got out to ask the owner if he had leftover soybean dregs. Pigs like to eat that.
Even though she had just made a small fortune, her main plan was still pig farming. That was her specialty.
But the owner said the soybean dregs for the next few days were already booked. He asked her to leave her phone number.
Sophia was happy to give him her number and drove home.
After she unloaded the bags of rice, flour, food, and meat, she heard a truck stopping outside her gate.
She heard the truck and was about to go out through the kitchen. But just as she was about to step outside, she quickly pulled her foot back and stepped back inside.
Right there, next to the wall, in the dusty and unnoticed pig trough, there was a wooden box the size of a small suitcase.
The box was open, and inside were all kinds of shiny jewelry.
Sophia froze for a few seconds. She couldn't think clearly.
The sound of the truck horn outside brought her back to her senses.
But her head was still foggy.
She slowly understood that she should first take the box out of the pig trough and hide it.
She moved fast and picked up the box. She looked around the room and decided to hide it in the corner behind the rice and flour bags. She pulled two bags over to cover it.
She was out of breath from the work.
The truck horn sounded again. Sophia didn't stop to rest. She quickly closed the kitchen door and went outside.