Chapter 3

The contempt on Michelle and Collins's faces instantly froze, transforming into bewilderment.

They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"You're calling the police?" Collins let out an exaggerated sneer. He rushed over and knocked my phone from my hand.

With a crack, the phone hit the ground, the screen shattering instantly.

"A broken clay figure, a Class One cultural relic? Do you have delusions or something?"

"Do you think a poor loser like you could even touch a Class One cultural relic?"

Not only did he show no remorse, but as if to expose my "pretentious act," he did something even more insane.

He turned and rushed to a nearby display case where we had just set up a set of ancient Chinese glazed cups.

The display case's security system hadn't been fully activated yet. The glass cover was only loosely placed.

Before I could react, Collins yanked open the glass cover and swept his arm across.

Crash—

Crisp shattering sounds rang out one after another, more frequent and piercing than the sound of the maid breaking earlier.

That set of glazed cups, shimmering under the lights and thin as cicada wings, instantly turned into a pile of crystalline powder on the ground.

"I'm not just breaking that one. I'm smashing all of these! What are you going to do about it?"

He pointed at the fragments on the ground and shouted at me, "You bought these on Amazon for 10 bucks, right?"

He pulled out his wallet, extracted a hundred-dollar bill, and casually threw it on the ground.

"This should be enough to buy your whole cart of junk. Keep the change."

These were precious cultural relics, and he was insulting them with a mere hundred dollars?!

All the blood in my body rushed to my brain. I felt dizzy with rage.

These exhibits were precious and irreplaceable, yet he was destroying them so wantonly!

Michelle just stood to the side, arms folded across her chest, watching coldly.

Not only did she show no intention of stopping him, she seemed to be enjoying an amusing farce.

Her eyes were full of contempt, as if she had seen through all my tricks.

"Howard, have you made enough of a scene?"

"I know you still want to get back together with me. After all, someone with my family background—if you lose this chance, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

She paused, as if bestowing a great favor upon me.

"How about this—apologize to Collins right now. Say you shouldn't have used such underhanded tactics to scare him. Then we'll forget about today, and I can reconsider letting you fulfill our engagement."

This was the woman I had loved for five whole years. Arrogant, ignorant, and stupid.

Collins immediately took her arm, saying in a boastful tone, "Michelle, you're being too good to him! After what he did to you, you're still willing to give him a chance?"

Then he turned to me, his eyes overflowing with contempt and smugness.

"Howard, did you hear that? Michelle is soft-hearted and still has feelings for you. Shouldn't you kneel down right now and thank her?"

I spat on his shoe.

"Everything you destroyed here today, every single piece, is a genuine cultural relic!"

"Not something you can insult with your money. I've already called the police."

"They're on their way. You won't get away with this today!"

Michelle looked at me with disgust, frowning. "You just want money, don't you?"

"Stop making up these lies. Three years later and you're still just as money-grubbing."

She pulled out a black card from her wallet and casually threw it at my feet.

"There's a million dollars in here." Her voice was full of impatience and condescension. "That should be enough to buy this whole room of junk, right?"

"Take the money and stop this act. My patience has limits."

A million dollars? To buy this whole room of junk?

I stared at that black card lying on the remains of thousand-year-old cultural relics, dripping with irony.

Every word they spoke was like a red-hot branding iron, searing into my heart.

This wasn't ordinary property damage. This wasn't a dispute that could be measured in money.

This was a blatant trampling of human civilization! A ruthless insult to the professional faith I had upheld for years!

I slowly, slowly raised my head. My gaze swept past the mess on the ground and shot straight toward Michelle's self-satisfied face.

I looked at the arrogance in her eyes, and in that moment, the string called reason in my heart finally snapped completely.

I suddenly stood up. Under Michelle and Collins's shocked gazes, I raised my hand and, using all my strength, slapped her hard across the face!

"Smack—!"