[Comprehensive Anglo-American] Gem Merchant

New York City, Brooklyn.

A shop with a small storefront, with "Edelfelt Jewelry" written on the painted signboard.The only clerk sat at the front desk one after another, playing with his mobile phone. While fighting in and out of the mobile game, he raised his eyelids and carefully listened to the movement in the inner hall of the store.

The blond store manager said early in the morning that this jewelry store, which looked like it was about to close its doors, would welcome two regular customers today.

Having customers means a special situation. After all, "no one cares" should be the normal state of this store.

The clerk was clacking and pressing the screen, obviously caught in a bitter battle, but the store manager was noncommittal about it, leading the two customers in black and white attire to talk on their own, pouring two cups of coffee in the inner hall .

"Mr. Crowley, Mr. Aziraphale, long time no see."

"Alphonse, may your craft be as good as your ancestors'."

The man named Crowley pushed his black sunglasses: "Say hello to your master for me."

"Still the same, two rubies, one for me and Crowley."

Aziraphale's attitude was much milder: "The same goes for what is added to the gem."

To be honest, such a conversation sounds easy to overthink, like some illegal drug transaction... The clerk had monitors in his ears, thinking while pretending to be concentrating on playing games.He has been working in this gem shop for two years, and he has been in peace with the reclusive shop manager.

Two guests left with gems in their pockets, leaving behind a suitcase full of gold bars.Human currency changes too fast, and they can't keep money in the bank for hundreds of years. Fortunately, the general equivalent of gold has been working well so far, allowing them to buy valuables such as gems. It is not time to come up with the paper money of the last century.

"So why open the store in New York, wouldn't it be better to just stay in Finland or England?"

Before leaving, one of the regular customers, Crowley, complained: "The history of the United States is only 200 years old. When I came here before..."

—Here is still a wilderness with only Indians.

The eyes under the sunglasses were stretched into thin strips, and Crowley looked up and down the only clerk in a substantial way: "Oh, Alphonse, I didn't expect you to invite a pair of extra eyes here."

The clerk suddenly became nervous: "First, sir..."

The young man named Alphonse was obviously used to such scenes, he patted the clerk on the shoulder lightly as a sign of comfort, and looked back at the demon named Crowley without fear: "Thank you very much for coming, Kay Wen just joined the job not long ago, and you scared him."

At the end, the young man added meaningfully: "After all, it would be much more convenient for someone to run errands for many things. I know about this matter."

"alright."

Crowley readily decided not to care about it: "See you next time."

"—Welcome to visit next time."

With a click, the door of the shop decorated with glass wind chimes closed again.Crowley's roar came from outside the door, he yelled at the decorative plants hanging at the door of the shop: "You spider plants! Don't think that if I don't come here once in a few years, I will grow crooked! Next time I see you people who are not energetic. If you look like that, you will die!"

The plants at the door shivered for a long time, and the clerk who felt that he had escaped a catastrophe nervously took off the monitor and looked at his titular boss: "Mr. Alphonse..."

"The gold, help me convert it into US dollars and deposit it in that bank account. Your S.H.I.E.L.D. has its own aftermath department, right?"

The lake-blue eyes blinked gently: "I can't go to the pawn shop every now and then, that's too eye-catching."

"Ah, oh... yes."

The clerk nodded as if awakening from a dream, and left in a hurry with a suitcase full of gold.

Whether it's as a cashier and money changer at Edfield's jewelry store or as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., he's still a rookie.Alphonse Edelfelt's danger rating is very low, he is friendly and polite most of the time, so a newcomer like him is often assigned to "stay here for a long time" to monitor the target every move.

Just like this deal today.

The agent sighed with lingering fear, fortunately, Mr. Alphonse has never been malicious to S.H.I.E.L.D., and a real alchemist living in the 21st century is not a character to be trifled with.Generally speaking, the monitored objects include mutants who suddenly awakened with supernatural abilities, stray wizards who are not under the control of the Magic Association, and various dangerous people. In contrast, Mr. Alphonse even gave him a prescription. A small salary as a store cashier.

No matter how thin a mosquito's legs are, it's still meat. The detectives who receive salaries from SHIELD and jewelry stores think this job is very good. It would be even better if they don't get frightened every once in a while.

He can understand Mr. Alphonse's friends being vigilant and malicious towards him. After all, no one wants to have a pair of probing eyes around him. It's okay, the guests explained, I know and agree.

Just like today, magnanimity tolerated this little overstepping of his own.

The agent took a deep breath, today's mission report finally added new content from the same "no abnormality".

The gold was delivered to S.H.I.E.L.D., and after a professional metal inspection, it was confirmed that it was ordinary gold, which did not contain curses or other special ingredients, nor did it contain radioactive substances.After signing a series of process documents, Agent Kevin exchanged the gold into US dollars of equivalent value at a price slightly higher than the current international gold price, and remitted the money to Mr. Alphonse's account.

——In the account, a small string of zeros accumulated after the first digit.

Although there is a huge gap compared with a well-known wealthy businessman like Tony Stark, the money is enough for Mr. Store Manager to live a decent life in New York City—Kevin thought to himself, at least change the store Better signs, buy more pavements, and renovate the decoration. The lighting here is not like those jewelry stores in the center of New York, which can make gemstones shine the most charming under the lights.

Even though he has never opened a store, he still knows a little bit. It is indeed a bit too petty for a jewelry store to look like this.

"What's the use of that."

The first time I heard about the other party's thoughts, Alphonse couldn't help laughing: "I'm a jewelry craftsman, not a Cartier diamond dealer, and the customers who can come to my place don't really care what the store looks like. "

As long as it can be used, based on a very simple point of view, he placed all the valuable gems in the glass counter, and he refused to even put an extra piece of flannel cloth.

"Those are the waste products of failed alchemy. If you can sell them for a price, you can sell them. It doesn't matter if you can't. Anyway, there will always be people who are taken advantage of."

The clerk nodded, and instead of avoiding his little boss, spread out his laptop on the table to write a mission report.

——So his bored store manager even moved a stool to sit beside him and stretched his neck to watch, while watching, he fiddled with two blue gemstones back and forth in the palm of his hand like some Asian old men turning walnuts. Judging from the poor experience of the past two years, it should be two pieces of blue cone stone.

God, gem-grade blue cone stone is worth thousands of dollars per carat, and two such large transparent gemstones can be made at this price...

"Don't look at this as it's not for sale."

The store manager curled his mouth: "This is one of my bottom stocks."

So the young agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. cautiously withdrew his gaze, and added a few more words to the "Mr. Alphonse file" in his mind.The latter didn't mind too much, and pointed at the screen with his finger: "Oh, you can't write like this, um, it costs a total of two rubies... The purchase method is gold cash, and the function of the gem is unknown. One of the customers seems to be able to talk to you Plant dialogue... is not a suspicion, he can really talk."

what? !

The detective's eyes widened, but the store manager thought about it for a while and remembered something: "Forget it, just write it like this, they will definitely understand when you hand it over to the higher level, your confidentiality level is too low to see so Highly classified documents."

……Oh fine.

The agent thought gloomily, why do you know S.H.I.E.L.D. better than I do.

The author has something to say: please give me more advice on new stories.