CHAPTER 45: CHAPTER 45: ONE MILLION!

Under the watchful eyes of Quan Ling and Qian Shuangyu, Elder De glanced at the two and finally laughed. He said to Qian Lin, "This piece of yours should be an underglaze blue-and-white porcelain from Liling, Hunan, if I’m not mistaken. The age is decent; it appears to be from the Ming era. As for its value, what should it be?"

Qian Lin’s face went through a myriad of changes,

While Qian Shuangyu and several others were all taken aback. What did Elder De mean by asking that?

"Ha! Old Qian, looks like you’re bleeding money this time!" Elder Lin slapped his thigh and laughed!

Elder Tang laughed too. He was playing with the lid of his teacup, making a clear, ringing sound as if he were calculating something, and said in a strange tone, "Underglaze blue-and-white porcelain from Liling, Hunan, from the Ming era, huh? I seem to recall, seven years ago in Chengdu, one was traded for about two million, right?"

"With the increase in prices over these seven years... it’s got to be at least three million!"

"Three million ah~~ that’s not a small sum~~ but, Old Qian, you have a strong capital, no fear, no fear!"

Elder Tang and Elder Lin, a pair of irrepressible old men, seemed to have a sort of tacit understanding, emanating a playfully cheap aura that made everyone, including Yu Quan, laugh.

Of course, it was natural to laugh when it wasn’t their own money on the line!

Some were laughing, naturally, others were not.

Qian Lin’s face couldn’t have been uglier, and Boss Quan from next door was also feeling downcast. He was on good terms with Qian Lin and had come with the intention of supporting each other, especially since Sui Yi had made him lose face earlier, which irked him even more.

Meanwhile, Qian Shuangyu was stunned. How could this be? Her father was the one who had made the most mistakes! Then, who was the person who had gotten the most right?

It was Sui Yi!!!

Impossible!

"How could this be!" The sharp voice of Qian Shuangyu came out, prompting even Tang Hanyan to give her a faint glance.

Indifferent, dismissive.

As if looking at trifles!

Luckily, Qian Lin thought it best not to lose more face and quickly pulled back Qian Shuangyu on the verge of exploding, preventing her from saying something that would embarrass everyone present.

Of course, Elder De was the most important person not to offend!

Elder De had a good temper and didn’t take it personally, simply smiling and saying, "You had all already informed me about the authenticity of these items before... The answer is naturally as follows... one true, six false. Sui Yi, you did well. Although it might not be professional, your careful, intelligent, sensitive approach, and ability to induce further insights, is quite commendable."

Two commendations, clearly showing Elder De’s high regard for Sui Yi!

Of course, it wasn’t professional! That Sui Yi had never been exposed to this field at all!

Old Man Tang rolled his eyes internally but showed great joy externally and said with a smile, "Sui Yi, you usually need to study, so there isn’t much time for learning this, but when I teach her, she is always very attentive... I’m very happy that she could put it into practice today..."

His beard was practically curling from joy. How could he not be happy?

But the others couldn’t stand to see him so smug. Elder Lin humphed a few times and turned to Sui Yi, "I don’t believe a word this old man says. Sui Yi, tell us honestly, where did you learn all this from?... Let’s not talk about the rest, but your foundation in blue-and-white porcelain must not be something you knew before!"

He paused, then continued, "I remember more than a year ago, I happened to see you, this girl, moving Old Man Tang’s top-quality Ge Kiln celadon to the table for flower arrangements... and you even used chrysanthemums!"

Just a chance encounter had made quite an impression on him about this girl~~

He even wondered later on why Old Man Tang had brought this girl into his shop. Was he planning to fend off disasters with his wealth every day?

Pfft!!!

Ge Kiln celadon? Flower arrangement? Chrysanthemums?

Many people in the room burst out laughing!

Tang Hanyan turned her head to look at her daughter and asked, "Your classmate?"

"Yes..." Yhan Qingwu hadn’t thought she could keep this from her mother.

"Quite interesting..."

Yhan Qingwu smiled too; she had not expected the usually mature and composed Sui Yi to have such a naive and humorous side.

"Sui Yi, tell us, what were you thinking at the time?" Elder Lin seized the opportunity to press her, seeing Old Man Tang’s gloomy face.

Although Sui Yi knew they would laugh at her, she didn’t find it funny, so she decided to explain in all sincerity, "There was a vase and there were flowers, so naturally, you arrange them..."

She had even intended to find water for it, but not seeing any, she gave up the idea.

"...."

Seeing Sui Yi’s bland and serene expression, the laughter of those around her faded, yet their hearts felt even more amused. This girl was truly naively cute!

The winner was Sui Yi, but he represented Elder De, not Elder Tang. With this turn of events, was the matter to be handled by Sui Yi?

It was simply ridiculous!

Boss Quan and the others all looked towards Elder De.

Elder De seemed to have been prepared, picking up the third piece of paper, he said, "This one, only one error, it’s Elder Han’s. Do any of you have objections?"

Well, now there was no way to proceed!

And Sui Yi, along with Zhou Ran and several others, were also stunned.

It turned out that when these people previously claimed which items they thought were fakes, they had all been hinting vaguely, just like Elder Tang, who everyone thought only considered the clay pot a fake, but in fact, his submission indicated that he thought most of the other items were fakes as well!

Moreover, observing the reactions of these people earlier, it seemed that their results weren’t entirely incorrect; at least cunning veterans in this line of business like Elder Tang and Elder Lin had gotten at least four correct!

Sui Yi was quite certain of this.

Old foxes, oh old foxes!

A group of old foxes!

With no objections from anyone, the matter was settled. Elder Han was fit for the great responsibility, and it seemed the dust had settled...

"Hey, there’s still the money!" Elder Tang called out, and everyone turned to look at Qian Lin.

Qian Shuangyu also widened her eyes.

Three million, it seemed half of that was to be given, or else the underglaze blue porcelain went to Sui Yi.

Thinking about it, of course, the former would be chosen!

But... one and a half million! Zhou Ran’s breathing grew heavy; for a moment, she looked at Sui Yi in a daze. Yet, the expression on her face remained calm.

Not even a twitch of her eyebrows.

One and a half million!

Ah A had already walked behind Elder Lin and asked in a low voice, "Are you really giving it?"

Even though he had seen many treasures in Elder Lin’s possession, after all, they belonged to someone else. One and a half million was a fortune to him.

However, it seemed to be well within reach for that girl!

Elder Lin chuckled, "What do you think?"

－－－－－－－－

Since it was already agreed upon in front of so many people, Qian Lin really couldn’t renege, although one and a half million was still too much...

He had considerable assets, but the money didn’t just blow in with the wind. Sui Yi wasn’t one of their group, just a young lass. Giving her an unwarranted windfall of one and a half million was like cutting his flesh and drinking his blood!

Reluctance was an understatement!

A dark light flickered in his eyes, and his gaze towards Sui Yi also turned quite cold.

In the end, it seemed as if Elder De perceived everything, decisively settling the matter, "Considering the appreciation of currency over seven years, three million is indeed not too much. However, considering Boss Qian’s recent cash flow isn’t all that smooth, let’s change it to two million instead. Half of that would be one million. How about that?"

Elder Tang also knew not to push too hard, because what if in desperation, he flat out refused! So he said with a smile, "That’s fine by me!"

Elder Han, who had a good impression of Sui Yi, agreed as well, and Elder Lin, needless to say, applauded directly and encouraged ~~~

As for the others... Yu Quan swept his gaze around, ignored Qian Lin’s look, turned to Sui Yi, and with a grin said, "I think that makes a lot of sense."

Boss Wang was in agreement with Yu Quan, naturally echoing the sentiment.

Boss Quan shook his head and sighed. Old Qian, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but it’s about the rules and the trend. Didn’t you see Elder De has already made a decision? They even gave you a way out, decreasing it by five hundred thousand. That means... one million still has to be paid!

With six votes in favor, the color drained from Qian Lin’s face. He had no choice but to issue a check on the spot, and when passing it to Sui Yi, his tone was a bit cold, "Young lady, you have a promising future. I hope you continue to be this lucky in the future..."

The subtext, roughly, was, don’t let me run into you again!

Sui Yi drew the check, glanced at it, and a smile formed in her heart. Her face also revealed a faint smile, "I suppose, there won’t be such an opportunity in the future."

After all, you probably won’t be participating anymore, right?