Chapter 765: Chapter 762: The Heirloom
On the other hand, the social elites of the Northern Desert were also somewhat puzzled about the man sitting opposite Huang Qisheng. What kind of background did he possess?!
To make the future heir of the Northern Border’s Huang Family treat him with such courtesy and lower his stance to such a degree was certainly not just because Huang Qisheng was eager to recruit talents!
In recent years, Huang Qisheng rarely made public appearances. Although the majority of people of status were aware of such a heir in the Huang Family, few had ever interacted with him.
Now, these elite from the Northern Desert, observing from a distance, had never even spoken a word to him, making it difficult to judge his style of behavior.
"This ten billion in cash is a small token of our respect. Consider it a gesture of friendship from the Huang Family!" said Huang Qisheng with a wide smile. His smile, however, was not ingratiating, only genuine sincerity was written on his face.
To be honest, such an attitude was enough to astonish most people from the Northern Border who, upon learning his identity, began to privately discuss Huang Qisheng, having already recognized him.
However, the next moment, something even more shocking and horrifying happened.
Xiao Tian, having listened to Huang Qisheng’s words, didn’t even glance at the pile of money beneath his feet. With a mocking expression, he said, "Ten billion?! Ha, I want five hundred billion, and you give me ten billion—that’s what you call sincerity?"
The moment these words were uttered, it was as if multiple powder kegs exploded simultaneously inside and outside the hotel, and the crowd watching suddenly began to stir.
"This, this must be a movie shoot, right?"
"That’s what I think too. Otherwise, who could come up with five hundred billion?"
"I’ve been telling you it’s fake, it’s fake, but you wouldn’t believe me. What do you say now?!"
Most of the people outside the hotel held this opinion. Only a few, not seeing any cameras or the necessary people from a film crew, began to cast doubts.
But still, nobody genuinely believed it was real. After all, that’s five hundred billion, not just a simple five hundred bucks.
Only the local Northern Desert’s social elite or those on business trips who recognized Huang Qisheng’s low-profile heir status vaguely felt that it wasn’t that simple.
"Who is so bold as to dare to blatantly extort the Huang Family?!"
"I don’t think so. At most, that person is just making exorbitant demands. No matter how wealthy the Huang Family is, they couldn’t treat five hundred billion like spare change."
"The key is the person opposite—someone who can command Huang Qisheng’s respect must not be ordinary. I’ll have to see if I can make his acquaintance later."
A group of millionaires sitting in a nearby booth watched Huang Qisheng’s reaction while making casual conversation.
"Go and get us a pot of tea!" said a portly man to a nearby bodyguard.
"Eh?!" Someone immediately chimed in: "Looks like Old Yang here has struck it rich! Are you going to spend ten billion to treat us to a pot?"
After thinking for a moment, the man referred to as Old Yang quickly added, "Remember to ask the price first. Don’t go over a hundred thousand."
With that, laughter erupted around them.
In fact, even at the top tea houses, just for tea, it would never be expected to go this high a price. But just in case, if this hotel really were that exploitative, given the Huang Family’s standing in the Northern Border, anyone would have to swallow their pride and comply.
Just then, someone reminded, "Quiet down, Huang Qisheng is about to speak."
Everyone quickly fell silent, looking towards Huang Qisheng.
After a short silence, Huang Qisheng smiled again and said, "The crowd is getting larger." He glanced at the throngs of people packed outside the glass window.
Xiao Tian responded with a smile: "Isn’t this exactly the result you wanted?"
From the moment Huang Qisheng asked him to join the conversation, Xiao Tian understood his intention, which is why he purposely spoke so everyone outside the hotel could hear.
"Don’t you want everyone to know? Then let’s make this matter as big as possible!"
And Xiao Tian’s response did not surprise Huang Qisheng. If the other party had refused to meet because of fear of public scrutiny, that would truly have caught him off guard.
Now, all he could hope for was that the Zhong Family could intervene to curb things a bit.
With just a few brief exchanges, Huang Qisheng roughly grasped Xiao Tian’s personality and devised targeted strategies.
In simple terms, this was a tough opponent, and ordinary methods were unlikely to work.
After some thought, Huang Qisheng decided to be direct and candidly sighed, "I think you should understand that the five hundred billion you speak of is simply not feasible, so let’s negotiate other terms."
Xiao Tian immediately replied, "Sure! Didn’t I already tell you from the start? If you can’t come up with five hundred billion, you can offer an equivalent exchange."
Huang Qisheng’s eyelids uncontrollably twitched twice. Before coming here, he had clearly calculated that speaking in terms of a single item, the Huang Family could not produce an object worth five hundred billion.
In fact, aside from inter-country deals involving oil and territory, no family in the world could produce such a valuable item.
Of course, if you want to be intentionally obtuse, the Huang could devalue their face so low as to claim a mere pin is worth five hundred billion—it’s a different matter whether anyone would pay that price.
But for the time being, this kind of almost rogue tactic was evidently not feasible, not to mention the other party had many hostages in hand, plus their background wouldn’t allow for such tricks.
Feeling waves of headache, Huang Qisheng suppressed his fury and said, "The five hundred billion you speak of, not just the Huang Family, none of the families in Huaxia could come up with it. Who determines its value?!"
Seeing Huang Qisheng take the bait, Xiao Tian chuckled slightly and pointed to himself, "Of course, it’s up to me!"
After speaking, Xiao Tian conjured, like a magic trick, a photograph onto the table between them: "From my viewpoint, this thing is worth five hundred billion. If you don’t have the cash, you can trade it instead."
As he spoke, Xiao Tian carefully observed every reaction Huang Qisheng made, including changes in his eyes and slight movements, deducing from these details whether the Huang Family indeed had the other half of the pendant.
Huang Qisheng, intrigued, reached out for the photograph on the table; he was genuinely curious about what it could be that the Huang Family had and that was worth five hundred billion.
However, upon seeing that deeply familiar pendant, Huang Qisheng could no longer maintain his composure. The originally turbulent heart now surged with mighty waves.
"Bang!"
Huang Qisheng slapped the table with one hand, startling everyone around, and then he furiously shouted, "This is a family heirloom of the Huang Family. This is even more ridiculous than the five hundred million you mentioned before."
Xiao Tian faced the table-slamming Huang Qisheng calmly and said leisurely, "Since none of it works, then there’s nothing to negotiate, is there?"
