Fu Ying smiled faintly, picked up the necklace, and scratched the diamond on the face of the small jade Buddha.
The saleswoman was startled again and said, "Miss, this... can't be scratched, it'll be a problem if it gets damaged!"
Fu Ying smiled and said, "Look, everything's fine, we're perfectly alright!"
The saleswoman took the necklace back and examined it. Sure enough, there was no damage whatsoever. She also looked at the small jade Buddha, which had no scratches either.
Fu Ying added, "Miss, this necklace of yours isn't made of diamonds!"
The saleswoman's face immediately changed, and she glared at her, saying, "Miss, you can't just say things like that! How can you say it's not a diamond?"
“Look!” Fu Ying pointed at the small jade Buddha and said, “Diamonds have a hardness of 10, while this jade has a hardness of 9. You people in this line of work should know that diamonds are the hardest thing on Earth, right? I scratched it, and this jade Buddha didn’t even get a scratch, so it’s definitely not a diamond!”
The saleswoman paused, feeling a bit uneasy herself. What Fu Ying said seemed reasonable, but they dared not try it. Moreover, the manager always said that all the items in their store were guaranteed to be of high quality.
Zhou Xuan had been standing to the side watching. He knew nothing about diamonds and jade, so he didn't say anything. But when he heard Fu Ying say that, he had an idea and said, "Let me see!"
Taking the necklace from the saleswoman, Zhou Xuan's left hand had already made a mental decision. With a swirling of icy energy, he had the answer in his mind. He chuckled and said, "This is zircon!"
Fu Ying tilted her head and looked at him curiously, "How did you know it was zircon?"
She had also suspected it wasn't a diamond, so she tried it with a jade Buddha. Anyway, the jade Buddha wasn't of good quality and wasn't worth much money, and it was a gift, so it didn't matter. But when she tried it, she actually found out. But in her memory, Zhou Xuan was just a country boy with great diving skills. How could he be so familiar with diamonds?
Zhou Xuan smiled but remained silent. He could tell the difference between truth and falsehood and was just trying to prevent them from being fooled. He couldn't explain it in detail, so it seemed he needed to buy some professional books to brush up on his knowledge.
The saleswoman paused for a moment, then looked at her colleagues, and several of them came over.
Seeing that Zhou Xuan didn't say anything, Fu Ying stopped asking and smiled at the saleswomen.
Another saleswoman, who seemed more shrewd and articulate, bit her lip and asked, "Sir, how can you say this is zircon? Of course, we also sell zircon products at our counter, but the prices are much higher!"
Fu Ying smiled and said, "That's easy. Zircon has a hardness of 8, and jade has a hardness of 9. It can't scratch jade, but it can scratch glass, which has a hardness of 6 to 7.5." As she spoke, she took the necklace and scratched the corner of the glass on the counter with a diamond. With a sizzle, a scratch appeared on the corner.
The saleswomen were stunned. The customer had already figured it out, so what else was there to say? They really couldn't understand why a product of this grade would contain zircon.
Just as the two were at a loss for words, the man in his thirties in a suit behind the counter quickly came over to take a look, and said with a smile, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, we made a mistake in our store. This is a cubic zirconia necklace. We probably put it in the wrong place when we were arranging the goods this morning. I'm sorry, please look at something else!"
Zhou Xuan didn't think much of it; it was possible the stones were misplaced. But Wang Jue thought to himself: He almost bought it. If he hadn't recognized it, would he have spent tens of thousands of yuan on a zircon and then just said it was misplaced?
Fu Ying understood that this was clearly the manager's doing. Brands like Boucheron should be of the highest quality, but since the authorities are far away, the manager must have been using the company's brand to sell his own counterfeit products and make some extra money.
Fu Ying didn't intend to expose him. This is common in many stores. No store can guarantee 100% accuracy. So, to avoid being fooled, you need a professional eye. It's impossible for an ordinary customer not to suffer some losses.
The saleswomen quickly directed Fu Ying to look at their store's newest and most expensive items, thinking, "Let me show you the things that are least likely to be fake."
Fu Ying smiled and pointed to one of the items, saying, "Let me take a look at this one."
Zhou Xuan looked over and saw a beautiful silver chain with a heart-shaped pendant and a round diamond in the center that sparkled like ice under the light.
The saleswoman was quite confident about the item, introducing it as follows: "This is a brand new arrival, made with South African diamonds, a platinum jade belt chain, a master design, and purely handmade. The price is 288,000!"
Fu Ying carefully examined the diamond, nodded, and said, "The diamond's color, clarity, and cut are all top-notch. The only drawback is..."
Is there still something lacking? The saleswomen immediately became nervous again.
Fu Ying smiled and said, "The only downside is that the diamond is a little small!"
"Oh!" The saleswomen breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhou Xuan scratched his head. Seeing him like this, Fu Ying handed him the necklace and said with a smile, "Take a look too. Your eyesight was pretty good just now. What do you think of this one?"
Zhou Xuan carefully took the necklace. It was worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, something he probably wouldn't have been willing to buy in his entire life. He couldn't bear to break it!
After circulating the icy energy through the necklace again, Zhou Xuan frowned, feeling something was off.
Fu Ying was taken aback. Did he really still think there was something wrong with the necklace? But she had already confirmed that it was indeed a high-quality diamond!
Zhou Xuan remained silent, so Fu Ying couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"
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Volume 1, Chapter 33: Defective Diamonds (Seeking Votes)
Thanks to the strong support of all my fellow readers, I've basically secured second place, and the gap with first place has narrowed to an extremely small margin. Let's all keep pushing and crush the number one spot! Hehe, I'll definitely be adding an extra chapter tonight! (I'll work even harder!)
Zhou Xuan found it strange that the base of the diamond on the necklace was the opposite of its dazzling surface; the base of the diamond was invisible to the naked eye because it was encased in a metal setting.
The surface of this diamond is extremely white. According to Zhou Xuan's measurements, the color is D and the clarity is FL, which should be a top-grade diamond. However, the shape is poor. The part exposed on the surface is flawless, but the part inside is chipped, indicating that it is a broken gemstone.
When Fu Ying asked, Zhou Xuan didn't know how to answer. If he did, how would he explain his reasoning?
It seems he lacks professional knowledge. He really needs to put in a lot of effort to read more books on antiques, jade, and jewelry to brush up on his general knowledge.
Seeing his thoughtful expression, Fu Ying couldn't help but ask again, "What do you think of this necklace?"
“This… the necklace is indeed PT900 platinum.” Zhou Xuan pondered, trying to use plausible language to answer, “It’s just that the diamond is a bit strange. I feel that the bezel setting is a bit too big, isn’t it? If the bezel setting were a little smaller, the diamond would appear larger, and don’t larger diamonds seem more valuable?”
Zhou Xuan paused for a moment, then added, "Judging from this illogical situation, is it possible that some flaw is being deliberately concealed? Perhaps this diamond is just a defective product with a chipped edge!"
Upon hearing Zhou Xuan's words, the salespeople scoffed and looked at him with disdain. If it weren't for the zircon incident at the beginning, they probably would have been even more hostile towards him.
Fu Ying was taken aback. She was an expert in this field. If it were an ordinary person, they would be fooled by the fact that a high-quality zircon was being passed off as a diamond, but it wouldn't fool her.
The platinum and diamond necklace in her hand was almost perfect. The diamonds were indeed a little small, but the design was very trendy. To be honest, she liked it very much. However, Zhou Xuan's words aroused her vigilance.
There are six main types of diamond settings: bezel setting, channel setting, pave setting, prong setting, channel setting, and hidden setting. Among these, prong setting, bezel setting, and hidden setting are more traditional techniques. Channel setting and pave setting are often used for cluster diamond jewelry or as embellishments on luxurious pieces. Channel setting, on the other hand, represents a current trend in jewelry design, where designers bring it to life with endless variations, making it a popular new favorite.
Fu Ying examined the necklace more closely. It was a trendy new product, and in theory, it should have been set with a bezel setting to match the style. However, it was actually set with a traditional bezel setting, which seemed a bit unreasonable. In addition, the bezel setting of the diamonds was a bit too large, which made it quite suspicious.