Chapter 175 Collision Fraud
However, they searched around but did not find any trace of Chloe.
"You must have seen it wrong, right?" Sarah stared at Ethan with a hint of bitterness in her tone. In her eyes, Ethan must have been obsessed with Chloe to have such a misconception!
"Perhaps, maybe I was mistaken!" Ethan shook his head with a wry smile.
Just then, there was suddenly a commotion in the distance, and the crowd clearly gathered in one area.
"What's happening over there? Let's go check it out!" Sarah seemed eager to divert Ethan's attention, so she quickly pulled him along with excitement.
The gathering crowd was in front of a row of jewelry and designer clothing stores, where a man and a woman were arguing, clearly in conflict.
There were also broken porcelain bottles scattered on the ground.
"I'm warning you, if you don't compensate me today, don't even think about leaving. This is a valuable antique vase that I just bought for 1.2 million dollars from the Wanbao Gallery. It's over 600 years old!"
The angry voice of the man in the center of the crowd could be heard clearly even from a distance of ten meters.
"I didn't bump into you at all, you tripped in front of me on your own. You're clearly trying to scam me! If you continue to harass me, I'll call the police!"
The girl's voice followed, sounding both wronged and angry. It was clear that she was young, probably around twenty years old.
Hearing the argument between the two, the onlookers immediately understood what had happened.
"This is terrible, these scammers like to target young girls like her! Poor little girl. She is probably going to lose money!"
"Can't she report it to the police?”
"What do you know? These scammers are already prepared for your tricks. The broken porcelain they give you is definitely authentic, they purchase low-quality items that have aged, or they piece together fragments of ancient porcelain that they found somewhere, and they can even provide you with some kind of appraisal certificate. And this happens to be a blind spot for surveillance cameras, they claim that you bumped into them, and there's no way for you to escape or investigate!"
"This kind of thing happens a lot, but they just deceive some naive kids to make some money. 1.2 million, how dare they!"
Hearing the discussions of the surrounding people, the young man in the crowd became even more arrogant. The look in his eyes towards the girl carried a hint of provocation as if saying that he had the upper hand in this situation.
It was evident that this guy had done this sort of thing multiple times.
"Who would have thought that something you only see in the news would happen right in front of us today? That poor girl must have really bad luck," Sarah commented.
At that moment, Sarah was playing the role of a bystander and felt sympathy for the girl being extorted. Unfortunately, the girl had her back turned towards them, so they couldn't see her face clearly.
However, after Ethan caught a glimpse of the girl's figure, he suddenly trembled and hurriedly pulled Sarah a few steps away, circling around to the side. Only then did he get a clear look at the girl's face.
In that instant, Ethan was stunned.
He finally confirmed that he hadn't been mistaken. The girl in front of him looked like Chloe, both in appearance and aura.
"Isn’t it Maria?" Sarah's face was also filled with shock as she recognized the girl.
As Chloe's best friend, Sarah had occasionally crossed paths with Maria when she was in Houston. They had even gone shopping together back then!
"Maria?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.
"She's Chloe's cousin, her uncle's daughter! I can't believe she got involved in such a scam!" Sarah hastily explained Maria's identity.
Ethan immediately understood. If they were cousins, it made sense for them to look alike.
"Pay up quickly, or you won't be able to go anywhere today. Reporting to the police won't help you!" the thug threatened Maria.
"Fine, you want money, right? Just wait, I'll make a call right now!" Clearly, Maria was angered by this scoundrel and pulled out her phone, intending to call someone from the Miller family and use their influence to resolve the situation.
"Girl, you better not be thinking of calling for help. If you want to pay up, don't play any tricks. Hand over all the money you have on you, I only want what's on you!" The thug quickly stepped forward, grabbing Maria's wrist, and holding the hand with the phone. He spoke with a relentless and mocking tone.
Clearly, the thug was also worried that Maria might call for assistance and didn't want any unnecessary trouble.
"They were just trying to extort money from girls like Maria, in varying amounts, with the emphasis on safety and a clean getaway.
This approach was similar to staging a fake accident but much safer.
"What are you doing? Let me go... let go of me... if you don't release me, I'll call for help!" Maria didn't expect the young man with the crew cut to actually lay hands on her and immediately struggled fiercely to break free.
"Call for help? The odds are in my favor, it's no use calling anyone. Today, you will compensate me for this money! You are lucky. I don't want to stoop to your level. Just give me all your money and we can forget about everything!" The young man with the crew cut said it with a righteous tone as if he had great magnanimity.
"Let her go, otherwise, I promise you won't be able to hold anything with your hand again!" Just then, a cold voice sounded in the young man with the crew cut's ear.
Surprised, the young man with the crew cut turned his head and saw Ethan staring at him expressionlessly. "Holy shit, today must be my unlucky day; I actually encountered someone who's not afraid of death. Boy, it's not your turn to play the hero, you've watched too many movies, haven't you?"
"Sarah!" Maria immediately spotted Sarah next to Ethan and her expression lit up with delight.
"Maria, why are you out here alone? Why didn't you bring anyone with you?" Sarah asked with concern.
"I didn't expect to run into something like this!" Maria couldn't help but feel embarrassed and helpless.
When the young man with the crew cut realized that Maria was acquainted with Ethan and his companions, he released her hand. Without any sign of panic, he smirked at Ethan and remarked, "Oh, so you guys are a team? That's just great. The three of you can each contribute to the 1.2 million, perhaps you might actually manage to come up with it!
"Sure, call your people out. Let's see if you can come up with 1.2 million together," Ethan said calmly, narrowing his eyes.
“You think I won't call for backup? Brothers, come out!" The young man with the crew cut became enraged. With a bellow, five hefty men, each standing tall, emerged from the crowd and encircled Ethan and his companions from various angles.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
