This was a thought that everyone knew in their hearts.
“Five hundred thousand? Alright, the price has reached five hundred thousand dollars. Is there a higher price than this?” The old gemologist glanced around the room before he continued, “Five hundred thousand going once… five hundred thousand going twice… five hundred thousand three times… alright, deal!”
“Idiot…” Tang Xiaoxiao furrowed her eyebrow as she could not help but mutter silently, “What a pig brain to spend five hundred thousand dollars to buy a broken watch.”
A helpless and somewhat bitter smile appeared on Cheng Mu’s face. “Xiaoxiao, she isn’t buying this watch, what she wants is Wei Yanmo’s attention. Although you don’t care about Wei Yanmo, there is a long, long queue of elite young misses and socialites that want to marry him.”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Tang Xiaoxiao smiled at Cheng Mu, “You’re rather well-versed with the matters of the elite families.”
Cheng Mu’s expression looked a little distant. “When I was twelve, before my father’s company had gone bankrupt, my father often brought me to attend such charity banquets…”
“Alright, next is our second auction piece. It is an outfit donated by the well-known movie star, Miss Ning Ruoxuan. This is an outfit Miss Ning had worn in the movie, ‘Skysea’. All of the movie fans that love Miss Ning Ruoxuan, do take note! The starting price of this outfit is thirty thousand dollars.”
Compared to the small commotion that arose with the first auction piece, this outfit was clearly less popular. The main difference was that the identity of the person who donated the item was different. One was an elite family’s young master while the other was a movie star, a mere celebrity from the movie industry, so it was natural that no one would purposely try to curry her favor. It was also normal that no one gave her any face.
However, it was fortunate that Ning Ruoxuan had prepared beforehand. She walked behind a man with a huge stomach and was sitting at the last row of chairs and cried out coyly, “Boss Du…”
The old man with the huge stomach understood her intention. He reached a hand out and pinched Ning Ruoxuan’s butt, before he chuckled out loud and finally raised his tag. “Fifty thousand dollars.”
Very quickly, Ning Ruoxuan’s good friend in the industry, Du Qisheng, raised his tag as well. He called out loudly, “Eighty thousand dollars.”
Ning Ruoxuan hurriedly simpered, “Boss Du…”
“A hundred thousand dollars!” Boss Du sniggered lecherously as he looked up and down at Ning Ruoxuan’s voluminous figure, paying no care for this bit of money.
As the two continued to exchange prices, Boss Du called out “a hundred and twenty thousand” before Du Qisheng finally fell silent and this outfit was bought by this Boss Du at a price of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. And as for whatever transaction they had privately, no one knew.
The items the celebrities donated were mostly invaluable items such as their set outfits. Those who were willing to fork out money to buy these items were mostly bosses they were familiar with or their best friends.
With China’s conservative thinking, a celebrity was an entertainer. The so-called three religions and nine systems of philosophy included these so-called “entertainers”. Which was why to most of the elite families, movie stars and singers were mostly just their playthings and could not be brought to the spotlight. Even in today’s society and environment where countless little girls and boys idolized the celebrities like crazy, this sort of judgment remained deeply rooted in the thoughts of the elite towards the entertainment industry and could not be changed. That was why these elite families couldn’t bring themselves to buy the items these celebrities had donated.
Tang Xiaoxiao stared at Ning Ruoxuan’s actions and she shook her head helplessly. Without her guidance, Ning Ruoxuan had already fallen to such a state… She should hate her, but seeing the state Ning Ruoxuan was in, as well as her actions, she suddenly felt that the latter was extremely pitiful and sad.
Ning Ruoxuan had truly fallen, hadn’t she?
The doors to the banquet door opened once more. Everyone’s attention was fixed on the stage in front of them, yet no one noticed that two people, one tall and one short, had secretly entered the room. They were both dressed casually in a low-key manner. When they entered the room, they walked towards a dark corner to hide, as if they were afraid of being seen.
“Why are we hiding?” The cute little boy, Mu Li, had his eyebrows tightly furrowed with displeasure written all over his expression. “Tang Jingchen, you’re an elite family’s young master, aren’t you? It’s fine if you don’t wear a proper formal outfit when you attend a banquet, yet you’re even acting so secretly!”
Helplessness exuded from Tang Jingchen’s gentle eyes. “Mu Li… we only came to find Xiaoxiao, not to be recognized by those groups of young misses and female celebrities. Xiaoxiao never attended such banquets, so it’s normal that no one knows about her. But I’ve attended these often when I’m in the country. Think about it first, to be surrounded by that group of women…”
The little cute boy pouted, “Alright, that makes sense then.”
“Once the banquet is about to end, we’ll go look for Xiaoxiao.” Tang Jingchen massaged his slightly aching temples, “I really can’t stand the special training from those teachers anymore.”
The cute little boy nodded coolly, a rare sight to see. “I agree.”
The old gemologist on stage suddenly grew agitated as his voice raised unconsciously, “The next item is one that Old Mr Wei has personally donated. Everyone, please open your eyes wide and be ready to raise your call tags!”
It was clear that the old gemologist was exceptionally excited at the mention of this item.
Very soon, when two servers carried the item on stage carefully, the entire room sucked in cold breaths from shock in unison. The item that Old Master Wei had donated was actually a natural red coral tree that was more than a meter tall!
Under the bright lights, the red coral that was as bright as blood exuded a glow and color similar to blood. It was as if it had stolen everyone’s breaths, sapping them away into its fiery depths…
“Wow! What a rare find!” someone called out in amazement.
Suddenly, a beautiful middle-aged woman sitting on the other side of the first row laughed out loud in wanton arrogance. Using a volume that everyone could hear, she smiled and glanced at Cao Shuting, who was sitting not too far away, and said, “Mrs Tang, the Tang family is extremely wealthy, so I’m sure you won’t return with empty hands, right? This item is a collection item that Old Master Wei has personally brought out. I’m sure Mrs Tang will definitely get this item, right?”
The beautiful middle-aged woman’s hidden words were clear. ‘Since the Tang family is so rich, as Mrs Tang, you must buy this red coral. If you can’t buy it… haha, your Tang family won’t need any face anymore!’
This overt challenge and overbearingness turned the room’s atmosphere into a tense one. It was as if the entire air had solidified. The arrogance and taunting was clear on the beautiful middle-aged woman’s face. The scent of gunpowder and ominous tension filled the banquet hall and everyone could not help but hold onto their breaths as they glanced towards that “Mrs Tang” with curious, yet anticipating eyes.
Tang Jingchen, who was standing in the dark, furrowed his eyebrows for the first time, as he said softly, “Mu Li, things are a little tricky.”
“What’s wrong?” It was rare to see Tang Jingchen so suppressed and anxious.
Tang Jingchen inhaled a deep breath of cold air as his eyebrows remained tightly furrowed. “I’m afraid Auntie Cao has no right to make the decision. Not only her, even if I stepped out now, I wouldn’t have the right to say anything either. Because the other’s surname is Tang as well! Right now, I’m afraid only Xiaoxiao has the right to step out. The Liyang Tang family has the same ancestors as the Capital’s Tang family. If we have to talk about it, Cao Shuting, Tang Rou and I are merely outsiders of the Tang family. How would we have the right to go straight against the Capital’s Tang family?”