"If the girl is married, why would she urge her to go home every day and make it sound as if she was some promiscuous daughter who only went to play and didn't return home?" Someone in the crowd asked.
"What do you know? Why do you think a step-mother would say something so damaging in public?" Another one whispered.
Even though it was called a whisper, these people's voices weren't low at all.
Almost everyone could hear them.
Xia Xinya's mother was gnashing her teeth as she listened.
'What happened to this stupid girl? Didn't she always try to hide her marriage with Mo Shian? No matter what I said before, she just smiled and promised to change. What went wrong?' she wondered secretly.
However, she couldn't let the kind and loving image she had created for so many years crumble here.
She would have to make that girl restore her reputation.
She turned around to continue playing the loving mother only to find the space next to her empty.
Xia Weiwei had left the queue at some point and was nowhere to be seen.
Where was she?
But who could answer her?
Xia Weiwei was already sitting in a private room inside the auction house.
She didn't want to stay closer to that woman for another minute, otherwise, she might be tempted to commit murder.
All she wanted now was to get that rock and go home.
Even though she and Mo Shian had cleared the air, she was well aware of how she had been before and knew that with his tendency to overthink things, it wasn't so easy to dispel his doubts and convince of her love for him.
She had to keep working hard to show him with her actions that she cares.
That was also the reason she opted to make the gift herself instead of having it customized in a shop or buying something from a limited edition line.
She knew that even if she picked a rock at the side of the road and gave it to Mo Shian, he would treasure it, but she couldn't be so careless.
Since he put his heart and soul into their relationship, she would do the same.
His commitment could be shown in small details, like how she asked for the invitation to the auction and while a direct electronic copy would have sufficed, he took the time to procure a handwritten copy and had his personal assistant personally deliver it to her.
She was sure that if he hadn't been in a position where he couldn't get away, he would have delivered it home himself.
As she was thinking about this, the auction had already started.
In fact, the auction wasn't that big and the people attending came from small or medium-sized families.
It was a surprise to see someone from a family like theirs there, which also made her think of why Xia Xinya's mother was there.
Was she trying to build connections or was there another reason she showed up at such an auction?
However, she didn't keep thinking about it because she heard the auctioneer introduce the rock she wanted.
Just like in her previous life, he said that it was a unique stone a fisherman had found on the sea bed and because of its unique luster, they thought it was precious and valuable.
Thus, the bidding started at half a million.
It was some time before someone raised their paddle to bid, then more people raised their bids.
However, it was obvious that no one thought highly of the stone as those bidding raised it by only thousands or at most, tens of thousands.
Just as everyone was giving up, someone in a private room on the first floor raised the bid to one million.
People didn't need to speak when bidding and raising the paddle or pressing the button in the private room would suffice.
Xia Weiwei realized that the person who bought the rock in her previous life must be in that room.
She waited for a while and seeing that no one was raising the bid, she pressed the button in her room.
She had increased the bid by two hundred thousand.
Even though everyone thought that the rock was worthless and even the person paying a million for it just wanted it for collection, she knew its value.
So, adding something for the owner was only natural.
No one else bid against her, so Xia Weiwei got the rock for a million and two hundred thousand.
Once she secured what she came for, she left the auction before it ended.
This was to avoid the crowd and also get home early to start making the gift.
To her surprise, just as she walked into the parking lot, she saw a familiar car parked in the VIP area.
She stopped in her tracks thinking whether she was seeing things or everything was real when the door of the driver's side opened and Joel stepped out.
Now she was sure that it wasn't her eyes playing tricks on her. Her husband was in that car.
Without thinking too much, she jogged over to the car and swiftly opened the back door without too much burden.
She was met with Mo Shian's shining eyes as soon as she stepped into the car.
"What are you doing here?" She asked in surprise.
Mo Shian contemplated lying and saying that he was passing by, but then remembered what Xia Weiwei had said before while they were having dinner.
'Honesty was important.'
So, he decided to be honest.
"I came to pick you up." He said with a sigh.
To his surprise, his wife beamed like a Christmas tree and suggested going out for dinner to celebrate.
"What are we celebrating?" Mo Shian asked in surprise.
It wasn't any of their birthdays, it wasn't an anniversary. So, what were they celebrating?
He wondered to himself. Did he forget an important date?
"Let's celebrate appearing in public for the second time together. Or is it the third?" Xia Weiwei suddenly said.
Was that something worth celebrating?