Everyone looked at the two with a hint of sympathy in their eyes.
Leng Yunyang sipped his tea with a leisurely smile, seemingly unbothered by his earlier actions.
"Brother, you really..." Leng Xuexi shook her head.
In the adjacent private room, Luuo Yunqi watched the scene unfold with lingering fear.
"Mom, do you think we’ll end up being messed with by Young Master Leng later too?"
She was truly terrified of that man.
Lady Luuo curled her lips. "He wouldn’t dare."
That man was clever enough to know who he could afford to provoke and who he couldn’t.
Luuo Yunqi finally let out a sigh of relief.
It just so happened that the next auction item was the Nine Dragon Cloud Sea Bottle she had been eagerly anticipating.
"Nine Dragon Cloud Sea Bottle, starting bid at seven million."
Lady Luuo glanced around the room; only two people raised their paddles.
At twelve million, Lady Luuo decisively signaled Luuo Yunqi to raise her paddle.
At this point, the bidding should have reached its conclusion.
Leng Xuexi clicked her tongue. "Why aren’t you raising your paddle? Weren’t you just throwing money around for fun? Or is it that you only target Qin Xiangge?"
Leng Yunyang curled his lips. "Do you know who the woman with the surname Luuo plans to give this vase to?"
Without thinking, Leng Xuexi asked, "Who?"
"A gentleman never covets what others hold dear, but instead admires beauty and virtue."
Leng Yunyang said it with such self-righteous aplomb that it made Leng Xuexi feel nauseated.
When you were bidding against Qin Xiangge earlier, you certainly didn’t act .
"In plain terms, isn’t it just bullying the weak and fearing the strong?" Leng Xuexi rolled her eyes.
"Wrong, that’s called knowing when to bow to circumstances."
"Fifteen million, sold. Congratulations to our bidder number 3."
Lady Luuo was thoroughly delighted as she smiled with satisfaction.
Qin Xiangge’s face twisted in anger. "Leng Yunyang is deliberately making things difficult for me."
Out of so many people, he hadn’t competed with any of them, yet he chose to compete with me.
I’ve become nothing more than a laughingstock at this auction house.
Mrs. Qin’s face wasn’t much better either, though she had not completely lost her composure.
"When did you ever offend him?"
Qin Xiangge felt even more aggrieved. "I’ve barely exchanged words with him at all."
"Forget it, just take this as suffering in silence. Stay away from him in the future."
After another two rounds, the auction finally reached today’s last item, the centerpiece of the event.
Leng Yunyang sat up straight, his playful and dismissive demeanor fading away. His almond-shaped eyes, brimming with laughter, were now firmly fixed on the sandalwood box being carried up cautiously by the etiquette assistant downstairs.
Leng Xuexi glanced at her brother’s expression and immediately sensed that this was a treasure. Her curiosity was piqued.
"Today’s final auction item, Qing Country’s Winged Jade Token."
"Starting bid, fifty million."
The entire room collectively gasped.
The opening bid was outrageously high.
Luuo Yunqi stretched her neck to take a closer look. On the big screen, the details of the item were displayed.
It was a piece of lamb-fat white jade carved into a token. On it was a relief of a pair of mandarin ducks, with an inscribed poem: "May we find one heart, and together to white-haired old age remain inseparable."
The craftsmanship was exquisite, and the pair of winged birds vivid and lifelike.
The back of the token was covered entirely in Sanskrit, impossible to decipher.
"This jade token looks fairly ordinary. Why is the starting bid so high?"
Luuo Yunqi asked curiously.
Lady Luuo pondered for a moment. "This jade token has over a thousand years of history. It carries a hauntingly beautiful love story and has always been a symbol of pure, steadfast devotion. Legend has it that if one drops their own blood onto the token and gifts it to their beloved, the pair will be bound by fate for three lifetimes. That’s why it’s also called the Three-Life Stone."
"It’s said that the token’s original owner was a princess from Qing Country. She gifted the token to her lover, and the two lived in harmonious matrimony. Tragically, her husband later fell in battle, leaving the princess to weep day and night until she eventually died for love. The token was buried alongside her, hence the famous tale of the Princess’s Soul Burial."
The auctioneer recounted the moving love story, and the entire room fell into an eerie silence.
"A hundred years later, Qing Country was destroyed. A group of grave robbers uncovered the princess’s tomb, bringing the jade token back to light. It later fell into the hands of a poor scholar, who used the token to profess his love to the famous Oiran Miaoniang. Though the scholar was impoverished, he was ambitious, and Miaoniang funded his trip to the capital to sit for the imperial exams. The scholar did not disappoint, ranking first as the top scorer. The Grand Secretary, seeking a son-in-law, offered him a promising path to fortune. However, the scholar respectfully declined, remaining deeply devoted to Miaoniang. Sadly, this earned the Grand Secretary’s ire, leading to the scholar being framed and imprisoned. In a desperate bid to save her lover, Miaoniang exhausted her wealth, but she was no match for the Grand Secretary’s power. The scholar was executed publicly. Overcome with rage and sorrow, Miaoniang knocked on the drum of appeals outside the palace gates, demanding justice. Though the injustice was eventually overturned, Miaoniang, disillusioned by the cruelty of the world, threw herself against a ceremonial column and died for love. Miaoniang’s passionate appeal has since inspired countless operatic adaptations, which I’m sure everyone is familiar with."
Of course, the crowd was familiar with the tale. It was an iconic love story.