她曾經擁有一只美麗的翡翠戒指,很久以前她曾帶著它去見他。當她不經意地伸出手來,那一點藍綠色的光澤點綴著象牙色的纖纖玉手,讓他怦然心動。美好的愛情就此拉開帷幕……
十多年后的一天,偶然間她遇到了一位寶石專家,專家說她的翡翠是假的,她不信,他用非常權威的儀器測給她看:瞧,它只是一塊非常普通的綠石頭而已。
她懊喪極了,幸好還有發票,便去交涉,去珠寶行,去工商局,去消費者協會,一趟又一趟。最后,她勝了,珠寶行換給她一只金戒指。
說也怪,帶著金戒指的手,她左看右看都覺得不好看,覺的它突然就像老婦的手了,她突然非常非常的想念她的翠戒―那塊綠石頭。
她到珠寶行,要買回綠石頭。女店主說:綠石頭本來是扔在某個柜角里的,一個小女孩看了喜歡,她母親花幾元錢就將它買下了。小女孩手太小,戴著太松,出了門手一擺就滾落到下水道里去了,是這樣,我親眼看見的。
悻悻地轉身,到門口還盯著那下水道使勁看了看,此時她想,她是寧愿拿手上的金戒指換回那塊綠石頭的。
The Lost Green Stone
Once she had a beautiful ring with an emerald fitted in it. Many years ago, wearing it, she went to meet her boy friend. When she casually stretched out her hand, the green-bluish emerald glistened, setting off the slender beauty of her ivory hand. It was her hand that enchanted him and then a truly sweet love story began...
Ten years passed. One day she happened to know a leading authority on jewelry appraisal. He told her the emerald fitted in the ring was a fake. She did not believe. Then the appraiser tested it with the most advanced instrument he had. It was authenticated as nothing but an ordinary green stone.
She felt upset. Fortunately she still kept the invoice, a piece of evidence that proved she had been deceived. With the invoice she went to the jeweler to demand a replacement but replacement of the jeweled ring took her a lot of time. Again and again she went to make presentations to the Administrative Bureau for Industry and Commerce and she went to appeal to the Consumer's Association for help. Finally the problem was settled through repeated negotiation. She replaced the jeweled ring with a gold ring.
But strange to say, wearing the gold ring on her finger, she suddenly found her hand ugly. She looked at it right and left, feeling it was as unattractive as an old woman's hand. All of a sudden, she longed for the jeweled ring, the one with a green stone fitted in it.
She came to the jeweler hoping to regain the green stone ring. The female shopkeeper said, “ It had been casually displayed at the corner in one of the show cases. One day a little girl liked the ring at sight of it and her mother bought it for her with a few dollars. The merry girl put it on and went out of the store, swinging her arms. As the ring was too big to be worn tightly on her small finger, it dropped onto the ground and rolled into the gutter. I saw what happened with my own eyes.”
Sulkily she turned round and went off. She gazed at the gutter for a while as if unwilling to leave when she passed the doorway. At that moment she thought she would rather replace the gold ring with that green stone ring.