Iris squeezed Jin Liwei's hand under the table. Her husband's expression might be frosty but she could sense that he was close to exploding. At the same time, she could also feel the heavy and sticky gaze of Emilio Miguel on her. Her impression of the beautiful angelic man quickly collapsed.
The man knew that she was married and that her husband was right beside her, and yet he was looking at her with such eyes. With his angelic features, Emilio Miguel's gaze couldn't be said to be lecherous but even someone like her could sense the sexual undertones in the way he looked at her.
No wonder her husband was acting like a fuming, territorial lion towards a daring trespasser.
She glanced at René Alejandro. Although he maintained a pleasant smiling expression, his grey eyes were cold. She could also sense that he was tense around Emilio Miguel.
Why?
Was it because René Alejandro was unhappy at Emilio Miguel's rude behaviour towards her?
Or maybe there was another, deeper reason? Perhaps he wasn't nearly as close to the beautiful angelic man as he initially presented them to be.
Despite her displeasure at Emilio Miguel's lack of respect towards her and her husband, her curiosity about René Alejandro had now extended to include the extremely beautiful man as well.
Her instincts were telling her that the two Spaniards had something more than meets the eye.
René Alejandro was interesting while Emilio Miguel was…mysterious.
Emilio Miguel's angelic beauty should not be a reflection of his inner character. As to what kind of character he had, well, Iris still didn't know, but based on how he was acting right now, she wasn't pleased at all and neither was her husband.
While all of this tense undercurrents were happening at their table, the auction was already well on its way. Successful bids prompted enthusiastic applause and cheers.
The items presented so far were nothing unique but still fetched decent bids because of the nature of the auction. 100% of all the proceeds would go to Iris of Hope's charitable projects.
Since most of the guests tonight were members of high society, they regarded fundraising auctions like this as a way to show off their wealth in a positive manner to increase their reputation. It didn't matter if the item they were bidding for was useless. The most important thing was that their names would be certified as successful charitable bidders in the auction.
Next up for bidding was Iris Long's item.
"Ladies and gentleman, I present to you an original signed manuscript of one of the musical pieces that critically acclaimed musician Iris Long composed for the now legendary film, 'Strong Yet Broken'! If you all will remember, Iris Long won a Soleil d'Or for Best Soundtrack at the highly prestigious Sommet International Film Festival in France. She made history and brought great pride for our nation, so as you can all imagine, this original manuscript is extremely valuable! I'm telling you, if only I can afford it, I'll snatch it right away myself but sadly, I'm not as rich as all of you here."
The audience responded with laughter at the emcee's self-deprecating joke. However, his enthusiastic introduction of the item was effective. Although most of the guests weren't Black Stars, they still knew the benefits of successfully bidding for Iris Long's item.
They might not agree that it was a valuable collectible but that wasn't why they wanted to bid for it. What they wanted was to obtain the Jin couple's good impression of them, particularly that of CEO Jin Liwei. If they could make him happy by supporting his wife's work, then they would do it in a heartbeat! Nothing was more valuable than gaining such a valuable connection as CEO Jin.
"The bidding starts at 50,000!"
Iris' brows rose. She was expecting for the starting price to be around 10,000 because this particular musical piece wasn't one of the most prominent in the film. She was neither underestimating nor overestimating herself with this price. For her, it was fair.
She believed in her musical talents, but compared to her mentors, Enrique Valdez and Maestro Ludovico De Luca who had long and proven track records under their belts, she was only at the beginning journey of her career.
Unlike her mentors whose original manuscripts could fetch tens of millions of dollars each in auctions, she was already quite pleased with 50,000 RMB as the starting price for hers especially since it was only a minor composition for her.
It seemed that the auction's appraisers weren't the only ones who thought rather highly of her little manuscript. The price kept on rising as more and more people bid for it.
"110,000!"
"200,000!"
"260,000!"
"1 million!"
Gasps all around.
Iris snapped her head at her husband in disbelief. "What are you doing?"
Jin Liwei lowered his paddle. "I'm bidding."
"I can see that. But why?"
"I want to keep my wife's work in my possession."
She blinked her eyes. "No need to do this. I still have a lot of manuscripts in our home. Let other people bid for it. It's for charity, anyway."
"No, I want it."
She could sense his stubbornness. Sighing, she didn't bother arguing with him in front of other people. Let him do what he wanted. The money would go to a good cause anyway, and most importantly, the man would be happy.
"1.1 million!"
Jin Liwei frowned as he looked at Emilio Miguel lowering his paddle.
"1.5 million!" (Jin Liwei)
"1.6 million!" (Emilio Miguel)
"2 million!" (Jin Liwei)
At the moment, the other bidders had already withdrawn from the bidding war. It was unfortunate that they couldn't use this opportunity to get closer to CEO Jin but they didn't want to displease him even more by fighting it out against him. They could only watch in amazement as someone actually had the guts to go against CEO Jin.
It turned out that it was the extremely beautiful foreigner. They didn't know if he was stupid or just too bold for his own good.
Didn't he know that Jin Liwei was the reigning king of the country's business world? Was it worth it to go against an elite like CEO Jin?
