Leaving the exam room, Ian found the whole campus nearly deserted, but a crowd of parents had gathered at the school gate, waiting for their children.
As soon as they saw Ian Song, a few parents came over. A middle-aged man spoke up:
"Hey there, are you a test-taker? How come you’re out so early?"
"Haha, I handed in my paper early!" Ian replied with a smile.
"Were the questions hard this time?"
"Super easy. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have finished so fast." Ian answered breezily.
Seeing more and more parents gathering, Ian quickly found an excuse to slip away.
But just as he walked a few steps, he heard some harsh voices behind him:
"Coming out so soon? Bet he handed in a blank sheet!"
"Yeah, and he’s bragging about how easy it was. Total nonsense. Kids these days just keep getting more unreliable!"
The shop would be finished in half a month, but his jade was still only raw material; he couldn’t just sell uncarved jade, so he needed to hire craftsmen to carve it into finished pieces.
After thinking it over, he decided to let Nathan Nangong handle finding the craftsmen.
Sure enough, the Nangong Family really was the local overlord of Riverstone.
Within half an hour of calling Nathan Nangong, Ian got a call back: Nathan had found ten skilled jade carvers for him.
Wanting to strike while the iron was hot, Ian decided to meet the craftsmen and finalize things.
Once he knew Ian wanted to meet the craftsmen, Nathan Nangong immediately arranged a place for him.
Twenty minutes later.
Ian drove to a high-end teahouse, where he met the ten jade carvers in a large private room.
Handling the arrangements for Ian was a Nangong Family steward named Norman Situ.
Having received instructions from Nathan Nangong, he treated Ian with great respect; as soon as Ian entered, he quickly stood up to greet him.