Chapter Two: A False Diamond and Real Debt

She studied Lin Yan not as a savior but as an unaudited liability. “You have ten minutes.” Lin Yan projected the public auction image beside the insurance photograph. “Light can soften the inclusion, but it cannot move the thirteenth girdle facet. Here it shifts left by eight-tenths of a millimeter. Unless diamonds grow, these are different stones.” The gemologist frowned. “Anyone copying the cut should not make that mistake.” “It isn't a mistake. They ran out of time. The substitute only has to survive tonight's cameras, not a laboratory. After the sale, the buyer discovers the fraud, insurance refuses payment, and the banks trigger cross-default. The target isn't the diamond. It's control of Chenghai.”