"Hasn't the move already been made?"
Old Master Ouyang chuckled, pointing at the person who had just made a bid. It suddenly dawned on Song Yun that the old master had never intended to enter the fray himself; he had already found a proxy.
"At what price do you plan to get involved?"
"No rush."
Song Yun stood up and looked down through the floor-to-ceiling window. The bid downstairs had reached 890 million, but this was merely the beginning.
As more forces joined in, the price of the horse head was pushed to an astronomical 1.1 billion by a phone bid from offsite!
"1.1 billion, this is already beyond our budget."
Long Dan said indifferently while leaning on the chair.
He was watching Yamano's expression closely, and it was apparent that the old man was resolved to do whatever it took to bring the horse head back to his country.
Perhaps the horse head played a crucial role in some matter, so Yamano no longer spoke about the budget, merely continuing to raise his bidding sign with a grim face.
It wasn't just Cherry Blossom Country; Kimchi Country was doing the same. Every time they bid, their teeth would grind so loudly you could hear them, yet they continued to drive the price up.
"1.3 billion!"
Old Master Ouyang hadn't expected that under the relentless bidding of various powers, the price of the horse head would become so outrageously inflated.
It baffled him. "We want the horse head because it originally belongs to us!"
"You little cherry blossoms and kimchis, why are you clamping down on it like it's your ancestor, refusing to let go!"
"Song Yun, I was expecting 1.5 billion. Anything more than that, and I'll have to rely on you."
Old Master Ouyang closed his eyes and sighed. This unforeseen situation was proving too much for an old man who had just started recovering from a serious illness.
"Old Master, it's already 1.7 billion."
Song Yun clicked his tongue in wonder, "I don't know who made that call just now, but they are really willing to splurge."
"Want to know? Should I ask Zhao Lu to check? He would still give us that bit of face."
Old Master Ouyang spoke slowly, "Actually, in my opinion, as long as the item stays on this land, it doesn't matter who owns it, but we must prevent the horse head from being lost again!"
"Hmm, I'll go find Zhao Lu. If the person on the other end of the call is one of our own, I won't bother competing. After all, driving up the price will only line the pockets of the foreigners in the end."
"No need, I'll have him come up," Old Master Ouyang said and then pressed the service bell at the side. Under normal circumstances, service staff would immediately knock on the door asking what assistance the valued guests required.
But this time was different. Knowing that Old Master Ouyang was inside the booth, Zhao Lu rushed to the entrance of the booth. After taking a deep breath to steady himself, he knocked gently on the door.
"Come in."
Upon receiving permission, Zhao Lu carefully opened the door, entering with a smile, "Old Master, what do you need me to do?"
"Who was the person that just called?"
Old Master Ouyang asked as he rubbed his temples, "Or rather, are they one of our own?"
As Zhao Lu was on his way here, he considered many reasons why the old master might have called him over.
But he never expected the old master's interest would focus on the identity of the caller. Discover hidden tales at Freewebnovel
"Not..."
Zhao Lu couldn't disclose too much. He licked his somewhat chapped lips and said, "The identity on that side is quite high-ranking. It's a very big family. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect them to be interested in the horse head as well. If it weren't for the professionals verifying the funds, I would have thought that call was just to tease me."
"A family?"
Old Master Ouyang furrowed his brow. There were too many families abroad; he could not instantly know which one was entering the fray.
Seeing the troubled expression on Zhao Lu's face, Old Master Ouyang understood that their identity must be very high-ranking, possibly influential enough to disturb the economic balance of some regions.
"Which country is it from?"
Song Yun asked curiously.
"Pretty Country..."
Zhao Lu fell silent for a moment before saying, "I really can't continue with the rest of the information..."
"Yeah, thank you for the trouble."
Song Yun crossed his arms and stretched lazily, smiling as he said, "As long as we know we haven't struck our own forces, that's enough."
After finishing, he picked up the exclusive bid keeper of the private box and entered a line of numbers.
While the various forces in the venue were still entangled in ceaseless strife, Wu Rou's earpiece relayed the latest bid.
She swallowed and looked up at the second-floor private box with awe.
The floor-to-ceiling windows actually employed a membrane technology that allowed visibility from the inside out, but absolutely prevented any view from the outside in.
But this did nothing to conceal the fervor in Wu Rou's heart at that moment!
"The latest bid, our honored guest in the private box has offered twenty-four billion!"
No sooner had these words been spoken than they poured a bucket of cold water over the enthusiasm of everyone in the venue!
The atmosphere instantly became somewhat quiet; Yamano, the elder, widened his eyes and looked toward the private box, his face involuntarily twitching slightly.
Twenty-four billion!
Just for a horse's head!
That was, to some extent, rather extravagant!
For a moment, Yamano, the elder, didn't know which words to use to express his current feelings.
But if he were to summarize it with the simplest of sentences, it would be: Has this guy gone freaking crazy? Does his family own a money printer???
The representative from the beautiful country saw the latest bid and helplessly shook his head in surrender.
They were capitalists with a professional Estimator, here for profit-making. Once the price became outrageous, they too had to bow out, for losing money was not their business.
"Twenty-four billion... Twenty-four billion and thirty million!"
The representative from the kimchi country bellowed, veins popping on his forehead.
My, oh my!
Unexpectedly, the other side still dared to raise the bid, unafraid of everyone backing out and leaving the horse's head in their hands!
Moreover, for Hua Country, this was a piece of history, but for your kimchi country, it's merely an ordinary antique, right?
And it's not even an antique from that long ago!
Why are you so fixated on it!
"The latest price from the private box, twenty-six billion!"
Wu Rou, pressing on her earpiece, heard the backstage staff announce the bid and excitedly shouted, "Twenty-six billion! Is there a higher price than this?"
"Sibasibasiba!"
The kimchi country's representative slammed his bidding sign onto the ground in anger, having begun to curse in his native language.
However, no one at the venue paid any attention to his clown-like antics as they were already somewhat numb from the twenty-six billion price tag.
Twenty-six billion!
Maybe some of the people present combined didn't even have assets worth twenty-six billion!
Who exactly was in that private box!
The liquidity they possessed was simply terrifying!
"Twenty-seven billion!"
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Yamano, the elder, took out a small pill bottle from his pocket, swallowed a few heart-saving pills, then raised his bidding sign and yelled.
"Yamano, have you lost your mind???"
Long Dan was by now shocked beyond words, unable to maintain a respectful tone, and he grabbed Yamano, the elder's shoulder, shouting, "There's still a siheyuan up for auction later! You can't divert funds from that project to cover the horse's head project!"