The president of the Heavenly Strange Auction was also in charge of ten more influential companies. He was a mysterious man. Everyone knew he was a martial artist, but few had met him in person.
The auction was just a little hobby of his. He loved to collect antiques and treasures. He would admire those things for days and then sell them out. That was why the auction was held every year.
At first, besides his business partners, there were few people that were interested in the action. However, those natural precious materials and rare antiques in the first year’s auction made the auction famous throughout the world.
In the second year, more rich people attended the auction. As time went by, nowadays, many financial groups sent experts to the Heavenly Strange Auction.
More attendees brought more security issues.
There were also two incidents in the Heavenly Strange Auction. Once a rich man from North America spent 500 million on a big tripod, but as soon as he walked one mile away from the auction center, the tripod was robbed by assassinators from “the Killing Star Mercenary”. Those people retreated in a planned route. Just when the rich man was so worried, the tripod was brought back along with pictures of those assassinators’ bodies littering everywhere in the wild.
There were also once when an Earth-Stage Master robbed a local rich man of the natural precious materials he bid for. The master took them away but it didn’t take long before he sent them back with his forehead sweating.
These were two stories that had been known by many people. There were many other things that ordinary people had no access to. Many of them happened outside Shang Jing City. The Heavenly Strange Auction had a rule that they would protect the buyer’s safety in Shang Jing, which indicated how proud and powerful they were.
The auction house was on the 23rd floor of the Heavenly Strange Auction Building. As the door of the elevator opened, a large round hall was exposed to the participants.
On both sides of the hall, there were several sofas and tea tables. On the wall standing across the hall, there was a grand gate behind which there was a big auction hall. The auction hall was also in a round shape. The central part was lower and was for the ordinary guests. On both sides of the hall, there were higher platforms for VIPs. There were 15 private chambers in total. In front of the hall, there was a wide stage with a big screen on it. The host of the auction had a spot on the stage and a computer to control the screen. On the left side of the stage was the trading area. More than ten people were sitting on a row of chairs.
There were already lots of people in the auction hall at this moment. These people were very quiet, and even when they were talking to each other, they whispered.
Most participants were still standing outside the hall in huddles, chatting with each other. Some of them were young and some were old. Zhang Yuan and Zhang Chen were now chatting with two other people.
“Brother Chen, this is the first time you’ve ever participated in this auction,” Zhang Yuan said, and his eyes were wandering on those pretty girls in colorful costumes. Then he continued, “It’s my first time to see so many people joining the event today. I could see the intense competition coming. It’s Second Master’s birthday today and I want to bid for an antique. Given this situation, I’m afraid I don’t have enough money with me, but Brother Chen, I think you stand a high chance to make a bid for a nice antique.”
He was implying that he wanted Zhang Chen to back him up.
His pocket money was limited, and he still wanted to save some for daily use.
However, Zhang Chen didn’t seem to have realized it. He looked as calm as usual and replied, “It is your love and respect that matter. The gift itself isn’t that important.”
“You’re right,” Zhang Yuan scratched his head and replied with a smile.
Inside, he thought to himself that he would wait to see if Zhang Chen would bid for a cheap gift.
Among those young people, Zhang Chen was the most distinguished one. On the other side of the hall, there were two elder men, but they didn’t share the same topic with those young men. Moreover, it was impossible for Zhang Yuan to ask them for money.
“There aren’t as many beautiful women here as last year. I remember two years ago, all the women here dressed themselves up and they looked stunning,” Zhang Yuan said and scanned all women in the hall.
Zhang Chen shook his head.
Zhang Yuan was a typical playboy. Even Zhang Han made his own name known for being one of the four most talented young masters, although Zhang Han later got himself in trouble because of his arrogance. The sense of propriety always mattered most.
After Zhang Chen returned to Zhang Clan, he didn’t see many outstanding young men among the youths. There were several of them that were talented, but all of them were too naive.
“I’ll go over there and say hello to Mr. Huang.” Zhang Chen said and left immediately when he saw someone on the other side of the hall.
Zhang Yuan and the other two were left behind.
“That’s no fun,” Zhang Yuan looked at the other two people and muttered. “They have enough chances to chat with each other at ordinary times, why do they have to do it right here and right now?”
“The point is that their conversations are meaningless. I’ll be fine with it if they’ve reached a few agreements, but nothing has been achieved so far.”
“Hey! Mr. Liu Feng is here!” A short man noticed the other two as soon as he saw Liu Feng. “He would bring his brothers with him wherever he went.”
“That guy is rich,” Zhang Yuan snorted and said. “He booked a private chamber, and he surely has to bring his brothers here to enrich their experience.”
“The two girls around him are quite hot,” said the yellow-haired man, who couldn’t move his eyes away from them.
While they were watching, Liu Feng walked to the elders of Liu Clan with his brothers and the two beautiful women. The proud man appeared to be very polite to the elders.
After that, he walked to the other side of the hall and chatted with a few friends.
“Damn, I’ll bring two beautiful women with me next time,” Zhang Yuan curled his lips and said as he looked at Liu Feng from the corner of his eye. Then he paused for a second and said, “Lin Jie’s here.”
“Is that Qiao Fei next to him?” the shorter guy asked. “He’s the most influential young master in Shang Jing City.”
“Not just Qiao Fei,” the yellow-haired man looked serious and introduced in a low voice. “See the man leading all of them now? That’s Qiao Zhan. He’s Qiao Fei’s brother, a living legend.”
“Haha, if it weren’t for him, how could Qiao Fei become the ‘most talented young master’?” Zhang Yuan sneered in a low voice.
Qiao Zhan was standing there with Qiao Fei and Lin Jie standing next to him, followed by other five people. Their team caught the eyes of many people in the hall. Zhang Yuan was smiling outwards but felt envious inwards.
Many people greeted Qiao Zhan warmly while they passed by him in the hall.
“Qiao Zhan is here.”
“Brother Zhan.”
“Mr. Qiao…”
They called him in many ways, but no one dared to call him “Qiao” or “Zhan” because they were not qualified. No one could call a Wu Dao Grand Master only by his first name or given name. Moreover, Qiao Zhan had Emperor Qing behind his back, which made him more formidable.
Besides Zhang Yuan, Zhang Chen also looked weird this time. There was an imperceptible sneer on his face.
He was surprised to see that Lin Jie had made such a quick move. It turned out that Lin Jie had some hidden talents.
Zhang Chen wanted to cozy up to Qiao Zhan, but he didn’t know exactly what he could do. Lin Jie’s plan was much easier to carry out with Qiao Fei’s help. That was part of the resource he had been accumulating for all these years.
“He’s really a formidable opponent.”
Zhang Chen sighed deep inside. The social circle in Shang Jing was like a chess game, and it was a little late for him to join it now.
“But isn’t that funnier?”
Zhang Chen looked at Lin Jie calmly, and he was surprised to find that Lin Jie was looking at him, too. They looked into each other’s eyes for a short moment and then moved their eyes away.
On Qiao Zhan’s way to the auction hall, he never greeted anyone except those who greeted him first. They strode into the auction hall under everybody’s gaze.
In fact, those who were chatting and laughing outside were not of high social position or status. The real bigwigs were already sitting inside the private chambers in the auction hall.
After Qiao Zhan and the others left, the voices in the auction house became loud again.
Liu Feng and Zhang Chen could be Qiao Fei’s match, but the gap between them and Qiao Zhan was too huge.
Everybody thought that Qiao Zhan could be the last and the most important guest today because it was already 1:50 p.m. and there were only ten minutes before the auction began.
They wanted to spend another five minutes chatting before they went into the auction hall.
Two minutes later, another group of people walked out of the elevator.
The leading one was a middle-aged man in a black suit. He looked very cautious. He turned his body slightly and checked the one behind him. Obviously, he was showing the way to the people coming next.
There were five people behind him. A young man with short hair and a calm, cold face. He was wearing white sneakers, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a black windbreaker. He looked like a young entrepreneur with a vigorous girl by his side.
Behind him, another man was wearing a grim face. He might be a bodyguard. There was another man standing next to him that was smiling and scanning everybody in the hall. The last one was a burly middle-aged man.
Many people lost their interest as soon as they saw their faces…
They didn’t know any of those people.
However, there were a few people who fixed their eyes on them for two more seconds, and suddenly they seemed so interested.
“Eh? They look like the two kids kicked out by Zhang Clan.”
Zhang Han and Zhang Li?
Having heard the whispers of the people around him, Zhang Chen hesitated for a while and looked at the two.
Many people approached the group of people to take a closer look, so Zhan Chen could only saw those people’s backs when he was trying to figure it out. He was wondering if it was really Zhang Han.
Zhang Yuan, who was standing at the door, opening his eyes wide.
“Damn it!”
He couldn’t move his eyes away from Zhao Feng because he recognized this was the guy beating him last time.
How dare he come back to Shang Jing City?
“Wait, why are Zhang Han and Zhang Li here?”
Just when the group of people was about to enter the gate of the auction hall, Zhang Yuan caught up with them.
“Zhang Han?”
Zhang Yuan called out as he walked over.
The group of people stopped to look at him.
Zhang Yuan recognized Zhang Han as soon as he saw the familiar face.
He checked Zhang Han from head to toe and said, “You look great. Are you back in Shang Jing to celebrate Second Master’s birthday?”
“It’s a pity that you aren’t able to pass the gate of Zhang Clan.”
That was what was in Zhang Yuan’s mind, which he didn’t speak out.
“Anything wrong?” Zhang Li frowned and asked coldly.
“Nothing. I just want to say hello.”
Zhang Yuan gave a smile and looked at Zhao Feng.
Then he said arrogantly, “But I also want to remind you that you’d better stay away from him, because he has a grudge with me, as…”
Before he could finish his words…
Zhang Han moved his eyes away from him and continued to step forward. Zhao Feng glanced at him coldly and followed Zhang Han closely.
Instructor Liu glared at him fiercely and uttered only one word, “Idiot.”
