From Runaway Bride to Global Queen

Chapter 77: Chapter 77 Wild Ginseng

Qiao Yi was frightened, terribly frightened!

What on earth was Lu Yanchuan doing?! How could he dare to pull her hand into his clothes! Has he no shame?

Qiao Yi’s face turned red with a glance at the one-way mirror in front of her, and once again reddened when she looked up at the two surveillance cameras above her head.

She wanted to withdraw her hand, but the firm and resilient sensation beneath it made her reluctant to do so, and the strength around her wrist provided her with enough reason to keep taking advantage.

Qiao Yi controlled her saliva and expression, sternly rejecting Lu Yanchuan’s attempt to seduce her!

“You…”

“Are you satisfied?”

“Cough cough cough!”

Qiao Yi choked on her saliva, was that something Lu Yanchuan could say! She inexplicably felt like she was being teased; what should she do?

Fortunately, the voice of the beautiful auctioneer below saved Qiao Yi from the awkward situation, and in a panic, Qiao Yi turned her head away, no longer looking at Lu Yanchuan, who seemed like a male goblin.

“Welcome to the Tian City Yongxing Auction. I am your host for today, Xing Yue!”

Thunderous applause erupted from below once again, and as Qiao Yi saw the even shorter skirt of Xing Yue on the stage, she could even hear some people’s internal howling.

“Let’s not beat around the bush, now please welcome our first auction item!”

A tray covered with a red cloth was brought out, and when the cloth was lifted, there lay a milky-white jade pendant on it.

“This is a sheep fat jade pendant from the Ming Dynasty, with carvings verified to be from the hands of a master… The starting bid for this sheep fat jade pendant is 30,000 yuan, with each increment not less than 1,000 yuan!”

Qiao Yi was uninterested in these jewels and jades, flipping through the auction catalog provided in the box, only to find that the first several items were all jewelry and the like.

Flipping further, she noticed the auction had a variety of miscellaneous items. Apart from the most common antiques and jewelry, there were also artworks.

The more Qiao Yi looked, the more bored she got; none of these items interested her, and she suddenly regretted attending this auction.

“Look further back, there’s an estate auction you might consider.”

Just as Qiao Yi was about to put the catalog down, Lu Yanchuan’s comment prompted her to flip forward two more pages, finally coming across a consigned estate.

“Taikou Villa in Tian City? Isn’t that a resort? Why is it up for auction?”

Qiao Yi carefully read the description and confirmed that it was indeed the Taikou Villa she knew, not another one with the same name.

“I recall the business of this resort being quite good, why would the owner suddenly give up and sell it?”

Qiao Yi wasn’t against Lu Yanchuan’s idea of bidding for the villa, just curious.

“This villa belongs to my mentor.”

“It’s Old Madam Gong’s property? Why is it up for auction?”

Lu Yanchuan did not answer, indicating that the answer to this question wasn’t so wonderful.

Thinking about the Gong Family people she had learned about over the past few days, and considering that restless Gong Ting, it would be apparent that the Gong Family had a hand in putting this villa up for auction.

The auctions below continued one after another, with the preceding items being small objects going for thirty to fifty thousand each, and more than a dozen were sold in a short time.

There was no movement from box number one throughout, and Qiao Yi had seen Xing Yue on stage looking in this direction many times, but neither she nor Lu Yanchuan had any interest in the items previously auctioned.

“`

“The next lot is exceedingly rare, a wild century-old ginseng. After appraisal, this ginseng is over one hundred and eighty years old!”

“`

As soon as Xing Yue finished speaking, the venue suddenly burst into a sensation.

In this era, Wild Ginseng is already uncommon, let alone one that is one hundred and eighty years old or even older; its value as a collectible far exceeds its medicinal worth!

“The starting bid for the century-old ginseng is one million! Each bid must increase by no less than ten thousand!”

Xing Yue hadn’t even finished speaking when the venue exploded into a frenzy.

“Two million!”

“Three million!”

“Three million five hundred thousand!”

The starting bid of one million was already quite high, but the bidders below didn’t care about this at all. Within just a few minutes, the price had already been driven up to seven million.

After the 5th private box on the second floor called out the sky-high price of seven million five hundred thousand, the crowd gradually quieted down.

The occupant of private box number five is the vice-chairman of the China Medical Association, passionate about medicine and naturally excited upon seeing such a rare ginseng.

“Aren’t you bidding?”

Qiao Yi nudged Lu Yanchuan’s arm and rolled her eyes in exasperation upon seeing him without any reaction.

“This ginseng was consigned by me.”

Qiao Yi turned to Lu Yanchuan in surprise. With such an item in hand, why would he not keep it but rather sell it?

“We have one at home that’s over two hundred years old, I’ll show it to you when we get back.”

At this, Qiao Yi had nothing to say. His family’s business and wealth were so vast that they didn’t even care about a small ginseng!

Qiao Yi sighed and turned back to watch the auction. After the person in private box number five made their bid, box number three began to compete.

Increasing the bid by ten thousand each time, in no time the price of the ginseng surged past eight million and headed straight towards nine million.

The vice-chairman in private box number five was clearly running out of steam. Though a lifetime of practicing medicine had given him some savings, he obviously couldn’t throw his entire fortune at a single piece of ginseng!

After private box number three called out a bid of eight million five hundred thousand, private box number five ceased to counter-bid.

Xing Yue stood on the stage, smiling like a blooming flower. According to the auction house’s commission rate, the auction house would take a fee of twenty percent of the final price as a handling charge, and she, as the auctioneer, would get five percent commission!

With one fell swoop of the hammer, she would earn a commission of over four hundred thousand!

With no further bids, the Wild Ginseng was finally taken by the person in private box number three for a price of eight million five hundred thousand.

Qiao Yi knew the person in private box number three was from the Gong Family. Lu Yanchuan showed no signs of concern about the ginseng ending up in the hands of the Gong Family, but Qiao Yi felt that he seemed to be brewing up some major move, looking at his calm face.

After two more lots were auctioned off, it was finally time for the auction of Taikou Villa that Lu Yanchuan had been interested in.

“I believe everyone is familiar with Taikou Villa, so I won’t go into details. The opening bid for the villa is one million two hundred thousand, with each bid needing to increase by at least twenty thousand!”

The heat from the Wild Ginseng auction had not yet subsided, and the people in the venue were not so interested in Taikou Villa. There were only a few bids, each just the basic increment.

Xing Yue watched the lackluster crowd below, trying her best to heat up the atmosphere again, but ultimately, it was in vain – the bidding stopped at one million three hundred thousand with no further increases.

Although the lack of further bids was somewhat disappointing for Xing Yue, she still responsibly began the countdown.

“One million three hundred thousand for the first time!”