Chapter 193: The Tenth Pink Diamond

"I..." This was the first word Lv Ying had uttered, and also the last one she had spoken in the last ten minutes. For the time since, she had been pacing back and forth at home, rummaging through boxes and cabinets in search of the rhinestone that had fallen off her fingernail.

"Are you sure you left it at home?" Qi Fei asked, not without suspicion. Ever since the mix-up with the loose powder box at the airport, Qi Fei had gained some insight into just how scatterbrained this Miss Lv was.

Lv Ying scratched her bleached, wavy hair from time to time, muttering, "That kind of manicure is just pretty to look at, but it's very inconvenient in daily life, so I took them all off after only two days... Ah, I remember just tossing them over by the coffee table at the time..."

Clearly, she couldn't remember at all.

Qi Fei nudged Zhong Kui beside him with his arm, looking slightly smug: "Didn't I say we had to invite you along? She's most likely not going to remember these trivial matters."

"Small matter," Zhong Kui said as she moved two steps closer to Lv Ying. Her fingertips lightly brushed over the transparent storage box on the edge of the coffee table that was stained with sequins. She picked up a tiny scrap of residual glue and held it up to the sunlight. The bit of colorful light refracted by the glue cast right onto her cheek, like a diamond-shaped mole.

Zhong Kui's vermilion lips parted slightly: "Coco Mademoiselle perfume. You were in a good mood that day, so you chose this scent."

"How did you know?" Lv Ying, who had been rummaging through the sofa cushions, paused, her chaotic search coming to a halt.

Zhong Kui didn't answer. She simply strolled over to the vanity, her fingertips casually gliding over a row of perfume bottles as she continued to describe, "What were you doing the day you took off your manicure? Sitting here, putting on a beautiful face of makeup?"

Lv Ying followed her lead, recalling, "Um, that day I was getting ready to go out to meet my best friend for afternoon tea. I slept in, and I was running out of time. I was in a rush to put on makeup, and makeup takes time. My friend kept sending messages to urge me, which made me so anxious..."

Zhong Kui picked up the eyelash curler from the vanity and clicked it "snap, snap" in her hand.

Lv Ying's dilated pupils reflected the eyelash curler, and her memory opened up like a pried-open clam: "The more anxious I got that day, the messier things became. The rhinestones on my nails kept getting stuck whenever I used the eyelash curler. That wasn't even the worst of it; they even snagged my hair. My temper flared up. I got so angry that I didn't even care about being late for afternoon tea anymore. I picked them all off and threw them into this..."

Lv Ying pointed to the side of the vanity, then suddenly rushed toward the kitchen, muttering, "I had a paper takeout bag for milk tea here. I just tossed it here!"

"Incredible," Qi Fei whispered beside Zhong Kui.

Zhong Kui pursed her lips: "It's nothing, just the triggering of contextual memory. Memory retrieval efficiency is highest when the encoding and retrieval contexts match. The scents and sounds from that time helped her remember."

"I tidied up a little two days ago, I shouldn't have taken out the trash yet..." Lv Ying's trembling fingers fumbled through the sorted trash bin in the kitchen. She fished out a paper bag from a pile of garbage and, not caring about the filth, dumped it onto the floor. Only a few heart-stirring "clink-clank" sounds were heard as the pink rhinestones, coated in the sour, pungent residue of milk tea, landed on the white kitchen tiles.

"It's here, it's here, it's here!" Lv Ying was incredibly excited. "You said one of these is a real diamond? Worth millions?"

Qi Fei didn't have time to answer her question. He stepped forward to inspect them. As he counted them one by one, his excited expression quickly darkened: "Nine?"

"It wouldn't be such a coincidence, would it? That the real one is the tenth one?" Zhong Kui's voice drifted over leisurely.

Qi Fei turned on the flashlight on his phone and shone it on them one by one, then said with disappointment: "Real diamonds have distinct fire. These are all fake."

Then, as if unwilling to give up, he dumped everything out of the trash bin, but no matter how he searched, that tenth pink diamond was nowhere to be found.

The police officers collecting evidence soon arrived at Lv Ying's gaudily decorated home.

The sun gradually slanted to the west. Everyone had searched every corner of the room, but the tenth pink diamond seemed to have evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace.

He had been squatting and searching for a long time to no avail, and had to stand up to confirm with Lv Ying again: "Are you sure you took off all the rhinestones that day?"

Lv Ying mumbled: "I was in a rush that day. I took them off haphazardly, how would I specifically remember... It's common for decorations on a manicure to fall off."

"So, is there a possibility that when you were taking these rhinestones off, the one on your right ring finger had already fallen off?"

"Ah, I can't say for sure!"

"I saw that the video of you getting your rhinestone manicure was uploaded on March 25th. Based on the time you returned to the country, it was filmed that same day, right?"

"Ah, yes, that was planned from the start. Along with the box I was using, I gathered ten loose powder boxes. I promised my fans I'd do an episode."

"What did you do after you finished your nails that day?"

"I didn't go out at all the whole day. I still had to edit the video after filming it. Look closely at the time I uploaded it. It was uploaded right at 11:30 PM. I was exhausted after finishing all that, so I took off my makeup and went straight to bed."

"What did you do the next day?"

"I didn't do much. Uh, I went to the zoo. There was a fan event for Xiao Hei on March 26th, right? I made an appointment with my girlfriends to go see Xiao Hei. Come to think of it! There were so many people there, could it be that I lost it there? If so, that's it. How could I ever find it in a place like that..."

Lv Ying was rambling, but Qi Fei's head gave a "buzz." It seemed Chen Hao knew the diamond was lost at the Nancheng Zoo, and he was very certain of it.

But how did he know? If he had been following Lv Ying, he should have snatched the diamond right then and there.

He looked at the heavily made-up Lv Ying before him and suddenly had an idea: "Did you film a video when you went to the zoo that day?"

"Oh, I was going to see the big star Xiao Hei, of course I filmed it."

"Why can't I see it on your channel?"

"I livestreamed that day. I wasn't dressed up properly and was afraid of anti-fans taking screenshots, so I didn't post the replay online. But I saved it myself, thinking I could use it for editing videos later."

"Let me see!" Upon hearing this, Qi Fei felt the dimming clue brighten up again.

In the livestream replay, Lv Ying stepped into the Bird Pavilion holding a selfie stick. Her rhinestone-encrusted manicure flashed dazzlingly in the sunlight, casting sparkling spots of light on her face.

The camera swept over the fluttering myna bird, Xiao Hei, and the comments section immediately exploded—

The words "Dream Collaboration!" scrolled by rapidly.

"Sisters, I worked so hard to win the chance for a close-up encounter with Xiao Hei. Let me take you all to hear Xiao Hei talk on-site," Lv Ying said to the camera, incredibly excited.

Lv Ying's nails flashed with tiny starlight, and the comments were scrolling "Ying Bao's nails are so beautiful they make me cry." Xiao Hei, on its perch, suddenly tilted its head and froze, its dark, round eyes reflecting the brilliant spots of light. ===== CHAPTER 194 =====