“One hundred twenty thousand gold taels and one hundred silver taels…” announced the attendant with much difficulty while trembling as he was being glared at by the fifth princess. If the private room next door bid one hundred and twenty thousand gold taels, then according to the fifth princess’ instructions, he was just to add on a hundred silver taels to the sum.
The moment the attendant shouted out the bid, the crowd below went into an uproar. Was this even such a way to bid?! However, this also did not go against the rules of the auction. Raising the bid minimally could indeed be done just like this. Gao Wentian raised his head to look at the private room above where the bid had been announced from. He naturally knew who was sitting inside. However, he had never thought that Ling Chuxi would have appeared here in the capital. His intuition told him that raising the bid using this method was definitely thought of by Ling Chuxi. Before his eyes, the vision of Ling Chuxi’s bright eyes appeared from his memories and the corners of his lips inevitably curled up into a smile. Fearfully, the matters that followed after this would not be so simple. Because, the person who was bidding against Ling Chuxi and the rest was by no means a simple character.
Indeed, the moment Ling Chuxi and the rest raised their bid, the occupant of the private room next door bid again, directly raising the bid to one hundred and fifty thousand gold taels.
“Really, such an idiot with money. Who is it?” hissed Ling Chuxi. She was extremely unhappy. Someone was actually raising the price of this herb so ruthlessly as this. “Does this person even know how to refine the Thousand Pearl Orchid? They shouldn’t be so wasteful!”
“Continue to bid the same way!” barked the fifth princess at the attendant who had a constipated look on his face by now.
The attendant could only raise his voice to continue announcing a bid that topped the previous one by only a hundred silver taels. Without pause, the private room next door immediately raised the bid to one hundred and sixty gold taels. Every time the fifth princess urged their attendant to raise their bid, the private room next door immediately raised theirs again.
E Shulan who was in the room next door heard the commotion and frowned. She had originally wished to win over Ling Chuxi over by helping her, but seeing how things were going, there was no way she could bring enough money to help Ling Chuxi win the bid on the item she wanted. After thinking about it, E Shulan stood up and walked over to the other private room next to Ling Chuxi’s where the opposing bids were coming from. She wanted to use her status to suppress the person. She wanted to advise the other party to give up on the item. However, when E Shulan walked into the private room and saw the person occupying it, she merely greeted the person before quietly retreating. The other party was not someone who would consider her reputation nor let her order them about.
As the other party continued to raise the price of the Thousand Pearl Orchid bid by bid, Ling Chuxi was practically about to explode. This was daylight robbery! Although it was not her money that was being robbed as such, witnessing the other party continuing to bid like this was distasteful, it was not the way to go about this.
When the other party finally raised the bid to two hundred thousand gold taels, Ling Chuxi was on the verge of wanting to kill someone. At this time, Gao Wentian raised his hand to stop both parties from continuing to bid. This left the crowd feeling surprised. This was something that was unprecedented. The people below were still engrossed in watching the bidding war, but now it had suddenly been halted.
“I’d like to address both parties interested in this item. I believe neither of you have forgotten what I said earlier regarding its price?” A standard, typical businessman smile was plastered on Gao Wentian’s face. “Previously, I said that there were additional conditions attached to the sale of this item. The conditions are as such—When the bid for the Thousand Pearl Orchid reaches two hundred thousand gold taels between two opposing bidders, then both parties are to please write down what they need the Thousand Pearl Orchid for. I will pass along the notes containing your answers to the owner of the Thousand Pearl Orchid and let the owner decide who the Thousand Pearl Orchid will be sold to.”
Once Gao Wentian finished speaking, the whole hall went into an uproar. But when the initial surprise died down, the rest of the attendees felt that it was an acceptable condition. After all, auctions are like this, are they not? Sometimes odd things would happen, odd requests would be made and even odder people would make themselves known.
Ling Chuxi was stunned for a moment. What exactly did the owner of the Thousand Pearl Orchid want to achieve? Very quickly, an attendant from the Gao Clan’s Chamber of Commerce delivered ink, paper and a brush to their private room. Ling Chuxi pondered for a moment before picking up the brush and writing down a few lines upon the paper. After blowing it dry, she folded it up and passed it along to the attendant. The attendant then carefully accepted it and brought it downstairs.