There we were at the police station, "Hammer" and Alice sitting right across from me.

"Hammer" still had this smug look, even whipped out his phone to post some photos on Instagram, taunting me.

Alice looked pretty smug too, thinking she dodged paying me 3,000 dollars because of that live stream, maybe even picked up some new followers.

A police office walked in, notepad in hand, and asked "Hammer," "Why'd you smash his store?"

"Sir, I was just cleaning up the community. That shop's a scam. You guys should be thanking me," Hammer boasted.

It was only then, through the police questioning, that I found out "Hammer's" real name was Batter Lane.

I couldn't help but wonder if his parents had any clue he'd end up smashing other people's stuff when they named him.

The cop then turned to Batter. "You say his shop is a scam. Got any proof?"

"Absolutely," Batter replied, winking at Alice. "Alice, relax. Just tell the officer what you heard that day."

Alice glanced at the officer, then at me, and slowly started, "The day Warren's friend was at the store, I overheard his friend ask how much a piece of uncut jade was. Warren told him since it's you, just 200 dollars."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Alice, it's my stuff. I can sell it to a friend for whatever I want, right?"

Batter jumped in. "Sir, did you hear that? He's still making excuses. Just lock him up and shut his shop down."

The officer looked troubled. "Are you sure you weren't jacking up the prices for others?"

I looked him in the eye. "Completely sure."

Turning back to Alice, the officer asked, "Other than what you overheard, do you have any other evidence?"

Thinking he was helping, Batter chimed in, "Sir, what proof does Warren have that his story is true? Plus, all the jade is broken now."

I raised an eyebrow and said word by word, "I have the purchase records."

I laid out all the invoices right in front of the officer.

Batter started backpedaling, "Those invoices could be fake. How do we know they're legit?"

I stared at Batter coldly and said, "I'm open to any authorized verification."

At that, Batter and Alice visibly panicked, at a loss for words.

The officer declared, "Given the large sums involved, we need to wait for the results from the verification agency before taking further action."

He then warned Batter and Alice, "Don't leave town until we get those results."

Realizing there was no point in arguing further, the officer let us go, instructing us to wait for further instructions.

As we left the police station, Batter didn't seem the least bit sorry for smashing the wrong store.

Instead, he immediately went live again.

I ignored him and grabbed a cab back to my store.

Seeing the scattered pieces of jade all over, I decided to keep the news from my dad for now.

He had just gone on a rare trip with my mom. Knowing him, he'd be on the first flight back if he heard my shop was trashed.

I hired a cleaning crew and quickly estimated the losses.

Then I checked out a popular video-sharing platform.

Three of the top searches were about me, "Streamer exposes Dragon Jewelry as fake, destroys shop on live," "Cruel boss exploits worker," and "The outrageous profits of the jade industry."

Social media sure knew how to stir things up.

If I weren't the person involved, these headlines alone would've made my blood boil.

The top comments under the videos seemed to echo my thoughts.

The most liked comment was: [As morality declines, scam shops flourish. It's time to crack down and restore fairness.]

I had to admit, the commenter knew how to phrase things. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the profile.

"What the hell? Is that my dad?" I exclaimed.

After years of managing various antiques and artifacts for him, I was overwhelmed.

And here he was, having bought so much jade that I could barely keep up.

"But, Dad, take a good look. You're criticizing your own son's store. And it's your own jade that got smashed," I thought.

It wasn't Hammer's stunt that upset me. It was my own family's baffling actions.

I immediately called my dad, somewhat reproachful. "Hey, Dad, how could you throw accusations around online without knowing the whole story?"

Dad was clueless on the other end. "Warren, what are you talking about? Your mom and I were on a flight all day. How could I be online?"

"What? Did I get it wrong?" I wondered.

After apologizing to my dad, I scrutinized the account more closely.