Chapter 87: The Trouble over the First Auction Item

The elegant female auctioneer took the stage and announced, “This work of art, titled Beauty Town, has a starting bid of two thousand. Let the bidding begin!”

For more than ninety-nine percent of the people attending this auction, two thousand was an almost laughably small sum.

Yet such a modest opening price was not without reason. The piece was indeed imaginative and finely made, but its creator was, after all, only an obscure young artist of humble means.

The auctioneer had already made it plain that the work was created by a young man who loved art, not by some master of the field. Such things could not be concealed for long.

If an ordinary young man had made it, and the auction house, in the name of profit, deliberately lied and claimed it was the masterpiece of a famous artist, then when the truth came out, the one to suffer would still be the auction house itself.

Today, since someone had come forward with a gift of sorts, the auction house might as well borrow another’s flower to offer to Buddha, so to speak, and present itself as noble as well. As for whether its nobility was genuine, that was a matter for each person’s judgment.

With his keen eye, Zhang Pu could tell at a glance that Beauty Town was indeed quite well made. But for things of this sort, which possessed no practical value, he usually looked on them with indifference, at most offering silent support to the young artist.

If this auction truly contained many treasures, then for the sake of his future cultivation alone, he felt he would have to spend a great deal of money today. Spare money could not be wasted, for he was not yet truly wealthy.

Although everyone had offered the artwork ample spiritual encouragement earlier, the people who had come to this auction in search of profit were, after all, pragmatists. Praise was one thing, but if you asked them to spend money on something merely decorative, how many would truly be willing to part with their wallets?

To be honest, this artwork had meaning only at this auction in Wulong Town, in the Golden Wood region. If it were taken to auctions elsewhere, what would it amount to? Even here, though the maker had put real care into it, once taken home, what value could it have besides display? Wealthy households already possessed decorative pieces far more beautiful than this.

Thus, after the bidding opened, very few people raised the price.

Naturally, Zhang Pu and Liu Yingde and the others would not say a word to bid higher.

Zhang Pu himself would not buy such a piece. What he truly wanted was the real Wulong and Golden Wood!

Only three or five people had bid before the artwork still had not reached ten thousand; it had only climbed to eight thousand, apparently the price attained by a girl in purple.

It was probably a fan of the young artist, someone with money at home who had simply decided to buy it for him.

At eight thousand, the bidding seemed about to stop, for after a moment no one else spoke.

Then, all at once, Zhang Pu noticed some commotion a short distance behind where he sat. Without meaning to, he and Liu Yingde turned their heads and saw that an elderly man, who looked something like an overseas Chinese and had arrived late, was just taking his seat in the place his family had reserved for him.

At the same time, his family was quickly telling him about the first item currently being auctioned.

Few had expected that the old overseas Chinese’s eyes would suddenly light with excitement.

“Hurry, this artwork is mine for sure. I’m taking it abroad with me. What a meaningful piece this is!”

His voice was so loud that Zhang Pu could hear it perfectly clearly.

In fact, the first item had already been nearing a final hammer blow, but someone from somewhere raised the price again. Then the girl in purple bid once more to press it down, and at last the artwork climbed to ten thousand.

Though it was only a small incident, it seemed to have bought the old overseas Chinese time to join in the bidding. Otherwise, the auction house would never have waited for him to settle into his seat. If the auctioneer had asked three times and no one raised the bid again, the piece would have belonged to the girl in purple.

When the artwork reached ten thousand and the girl in purple finally drove down that last bid, no one else in the hall made a sound.

The girl in purple had thought the artwork was already in her pocket, and just as a smile was beginning to bloom on her face, suddenly—another bid rang out from a corner!

“Twelve thousand!”

At that voice, the smile that had just begun to rise on the girl in purple’s face stiffened at once. She did not actually know who had called the bid, but no matter who it was, anyone who came to wrest from her what she was determined to have would only stir her fighting spirit!

Zhang Pu heard the voice coming from behind him—from where the late-arriving old overseas Chinese had sat down. But the voice had not been the old man’s own; it had come from a family member or one of his attendants. As soon as he arrived, he seemed to have fallen in love at first sight with the Beauty Town artwork and immediately told the person beside him to buy it. So just as the girl in purple was about to secure it, his attendant hurriedly raised the bid.

When someone else bid again, the girl in purple was shocked for a moment, though not greatly surprised. She had heard of fiercer bidding wars than this. Only, the pleasure she had first felt at seeing so few people interested in the piece seemed to be fading little by little.

For after that, with each bid she made, the people in that corner would counter again. Moreover, as if by some domino effect, people in other corners who had originally been perfectly silent and had not planned to bid would occasionally add a bid or two, pushing the price higher and higher.

What had begun as a cold, unremarkable item had unexpectedly taken such a dramatic turn at the brink of the final hammer blow. To the female auctioneer, this was naturally a cause for great delight. She hurried to think how she might further fan the flames, for the higher the bidders drove the price, the larger her commission would be. Who did not love money?

Still, the other corners only joined in occasionally. The real forces driving the price upward were concentrated in just two places. In the end, only those two persisted to the last: one was naturally the girl in purple, and the other was the old overseas Chinese.

Even Zhang Pu began to think it was turning into a farce. As for the girl in purple, she naturally cast her gaze toward the old overseas Chinese as well. She wanted to see who was deliberately opposing her, and when she saw that corner led by a white-haired old overseas Chinese, her delicate brows could not help but draw together.

But the old overseas Chinese showed not the slightest intention of yielding.

“Caihua, perhaps there is no need to keep competing. It has already reached fifty thousand, and we still have other things to bid on! Besides, this…”

The girl in purple had a companion beside her, and at this point that companion tried to persuade her, as if afraid she had fallen into someone else’s trap. But the girl in purple immediately cut her off.

“Don’t say it’s only fifty thousand. Even if it reaches five hundred thousand, I still won’t give up!”