My family tree hollow connects to the modern era : Chapter 20

To Bai Zhizhi, things that were not worth much were completely different to others. Although the manager was an ordinary person, because Wangting Club often had various cultivators coming and going, he had some experience. Just based on the ability to produce a fruit out of thin air, he could determine that the person before him definitely had a storage device.

Nowadays there were not many people who possessed treasures like storage devices. At most you could count them on one hand. Any one of them was someone that even the club owner would show some respect to.

Not to mention the spiritual energy of this spirit fruit was visible to the naked eye, so abundant and full, its value was simply immeasurable.

People who could enter the club were not ordinary folk. Their eyesight was even sharper than his. Realizing the entrance was not the place to talk, the manager hurriedly said respectfully, “Please come inside, both of you. This spirit fruit is beyond what I have the authority to decide. Please wait a moment while I go get the general manager.”

Lin Xiaoyang hurriedly said, “Wait! We are not selling!”

Saying this he was about to pull Bai Zhizhi away. Losing a spirit fruit for He’er was not worth it.

The manager hurriedly tried to keep them. Bai Zhizhi stopped Lin Xiaoyang. “Now that we can get in, you change your mind again. Why are you humans so fickle?”

Then he looked at the manager and shook the spirit fruit in his hand. “Can I apply for a card?”

The manager smiled and replied, “Naturally you can. Why do not you both come in first? Whether it is applying for a card or auctioning, we can discuss it slowly.”

Lin Xiaoyang said, “No, Zhizhi, listen to me. This spirit fruit is much more valuable than He’er. You just arrived and do not yet understand the value of this thing. Let us go back first. Brother Jiang is on his way back. Let us go home first.”

Before he finished speaking, a tall man in a uniform quickly walked over. He glanced at the spirit fruit in Bai Zhizhi’s hand and said with a full smile, “Are you two looking to auction? I am the front hall manager here. I am in charge of all reception matters. My humble surname is Yang. The private room is already prepared. This way please, both of you.”

Bai Zhizhi tossed the spirit fruit into Lin Xiaoyang’s hand and said to the front hall manager, “Lead the way.”

The manager who had just received Bai Zhizhi breathed a big sigh of relief when he saw the person in charge arrive. The distinguished guest was temporarily kept. Whether the business could be concluded was not important, as long as no trouble happened on his watch.

Lin Xiaoyang made a crying face, neither able to leave nor willing to follow. Did this little fox spirit even know the hardships of human life? He was too wasteful.

Leaving was impossible. Not to mention that he was now holding the spirit fruit, and the club might not let him leave. If he did not bring the little fox back together, Brother Jiang would probably tear him apart alive.

Since it was already like this, Lin Xiaoyang had no choice but to follow. At the same time he sent Brother Jiang a message telling him to come back quickly. If he did not come back soon, the spirit fruit would be lost.

Before they even reached the private room, passing a stairway, Bai Zhizhi looked up along the stairs. “What is happening up there?”

He smelled He’er’s scent. The distance should not be far, but there were many people upstairs, so the scents were a bit mixed.

Manager Yang said, “An auction is being held upstairs.”

Bai Zhizhi asked, “Can we go take a look?”

He placed the spirit fruit that Lin Xiaoyang was holding into Manager Yang’s hand. “Did you not still need to appraise it? Perfect timing, take it to appraise while we go upstairs to look at the auction.”

Manager Yang was not a cultivator, but as the front hall manager of Wangting Club, he had seen quite a few good things. Once this spirit fruit came into his hands, the rich fruit fragrance and spiritual energy hit him head on. It made his body feel lighter, sweeping away the exhaustion of work and leaving him feeling completely refreshed.

Their club also sold spirit fruits, but in terms of spiritual energy level, there was simply no comparison. If this spirit fruit were auctioned, it would definitely be snatched up like crazy.

Such good things were hard to come by. Now that the item was in his hands, he was not afraid of these two causing any trouble. He nodded readily. “You two do not have membership here. If you want to bid on something, it might be a bit inconvenient. Let me find someone to accompany you. The attendant will carefully explain the auction rules to you. How does that sound?”

Bai Zhizhi nodded. “Fine, let us do that.”

Manager Yang casually called over an attendant nearby and carefully explained the situation of these two guests. He needed to quickly take the spirit fruit to seal it up, otherwise it would be too wasteful if the spiritual energy dispersed. After explaining, he carefully instructed again, “Treat them well. Later bring them to Conference Room Number Seven. Contact me immediately if anything comes up.”

While he was giving instructions, Lin Xiaoyang pulled Bai Zhizhi and whispered, “What are we going to the auction for? Do you have money to buy anything?”

Bai Zhizhi said with an open face, “No money.”

Lin Xiaoyang said, “If you have no money, what are you doing at the auction making a fuss?”

Bai Zhizhi said, “Who said I was going to the auction to make a fuss? Did we not come to find He’er?”

Lin Xiaoyang let out an ah sound. “He is up there?”

Bai Zhizhi nodded. “Yes.”

What was wrong with this human? Fickle and forgetful again.

Right now Lin Xiaoyang’s whole mind was occupied with whether the spirit fruit could be retrieved, so how could he spare any thought to deal with He’er?

Bai Zhizhi finished speaking and then said, “Besides, I have no money, but Jiang Lin should have money, right? You always say he has capital and is loaded. He said I could ask him for anything I want.”

Lin Xiaoyang let out another ah sound. The capital he spoke of was not this kind of capital. And loaded, when did he ever say Brother Jiang was loaded?

Lin Xiaoyang had followed Jiang Lin to Wangting Club once before, but it was to the restaurant. He had never been to the auction floor. Led by the attendant toward the auction private room, he looked around with all kinds of curiosity.

Lin Xiaoyang said, “So this is what it looks like inside.”

Bai Zhizhi said, “You have not been here either?”

Lin Xiaoyang whispered, “With total assets of less than four digits in my card, I have only been here in my dreams.”

Bai Zhizhi said, “Did you not just earn money from the Zhou family?”

Lin Xiaoyang sighed, “I used it all to buy spirit talismans and pills.”

The rest was given out as red envelopes to the whole courtyard, so he really had less than four digits left in his pocket.

Once inside the private room, facing them was a huge floor to ceiling glass window. Through the glass they could see the auction stage below. Lin Xiaoyang then realized they were on a half floor, and below was an open auction floor. He could see many people holding up bidding paddles.

Bai Zhizhi also noticed the difference between the two sides, so he looked at the attendant and asked, “Why did you not take us down below? Are we only allowed to watch from here?”

The attendant hurriedly said, “This is a half floor private room. You can also compete for items from the room. Because the auction has already started, entering midway would disturb others. Usually these VIP rooms are reserved for special guests. Today is a special circumstance, so we can only bring you two up here.”

Lin Xiaoyang asked, “Special guests?”

The attendant said, “Our venue often has rare treasures. Distinguished guests who are able to acquire such treasures have prominent status. For the safety of these guests, we naturally provide a more secure and private environment.”

Bai Zhizhi understood. Down below, people had no cover over what they bought, plain for all to see. As for up here, others only knew the room number, but did not know who was inside the room. Even if they bought powerful treasures, they did not need to fear attracting envy.

Comparing it like this, the cultivation world was still better. Put on a concealment artifact and nobody recognized anybody. Where was the need for such trouble separating upstairs and downstairs?

The attendant took out the menu from the room. “Would you two like to see what you need?”

Lin Xiaoyang took it and closed it without looking. He had come with Brother Jiang before and knew the prices here. A pot of the cheapest tea cost eighteen thousand.

He had less than a thousand in his pocket, and the little fox did not even have a bank account. Better not look, since he could not afford it even if he looked.

Lin Xiaoyang tried to push the menu back as if he had not seen it, but Bai Zhizhi leaned over. “What is on it?”

Lin Xiaoyang said, “Nothing at all, just ordinary things. If you want to eat anything, go back and let Uncle Gao make it for you.”

Bai Zhizhi let it go after hearing him say this. He was not particularly focused on food either.

Lin Xiaoyang handed the menu back to the attendant and asked Bai Zhizhi as if nothing had happened, “Where is He’er?”

Bai Zhizhi pointed at a round table relatively close to the auction stage below. “Over there, he is holding paddle number three.”

At this moment the stage was auctioning a set of collector level jewelry. He’er raised his paddle a few times, but it was clearly just casual participation. After following a few times he stopped, obviously those things were not his target.

Lin Xiaoyang watched for a while and sighed. “Maybe he is just here to play. Changing his face might be more convenient when walking around outside. We overthought it.”

Foreign ability users had plenty of people trying to curry favor with them. Especially those who could enter Wangting Club, they all had status and backgrounds. They more or less knew about cultivator matters. Changing faces could indeed save a lot of trouble.

Bai Zhizhi did not think so. At Luoxia Village, he had beaten He’er black and blue, and he had lost several teeth. In this situation, if there were not something special going on, he did not believe He’er would still be in the mood to come out and play.

But he did not tell Lin Xiaoyang what he was thinking. He just pointed at the auction stage curiously. “Did not you say ordinary things are not accepted? What is special about these things?”

Lin Xiaoyang said, “Gold and silver are easy to obtain. Antiques and jewelry are hard to come by, so of course they are not ordinary things.”

Bai Zhizhi still did not understand. Gold and silver were dug out from rocks. Sparkling diamonds were also dug out from rocks. And what antiques, what was so strange about things from a few hundred years ago? He had smashed who knows how many tea cups his father had used for thousands of years.

If you had to say what was somewhat special among these things, it was probably pearls. After all, in Qingqiu, pearls were still slightly harder to come by than rocks. But these pearls had no spiritual energy at all, and each one was so small they were almost invisible.

Treating these things as treasures, yet saying the golden leaves he refined himself were ordinary. Hmph, humans with no taste.

Lin Xiaoyang asked the attendant beside him, “What other things are coming up later? What is the finale today?”

The attendant took out a booklet and said, “Later there is still a set of golden silk nanmu ornaments, a peony screen embroidered with golden spirit silk thread, a Maiden Gazing at the Moon painting, and one liang of mist crystal tea.”

They arrived in the middle, so quite a few items had already been sold earlier. There were not many left, and this auction was almost ending.

But hearing about the mist crystal tea, Lin Xiaoyang’s eyes still lit up. He clicked his tongue lightly and said to Bai Zhizhi, “I think his target is probably the mist crystal tea. This tea is extremely hard to come by. It can only be grown with spirit soil. It produces once every ten years, and each yield is only about a hundred jin. So even one liang is hard to get. You could say it is something money cannot buy.”

For it to appear at an auction like this, it was probably from the owner’s personal collection, just to show off the club’s strength. After all, if they did not occasionally bring out things that could not be found outside, how would Wangting Club’s reputation be so loud in the circles?

Bai Zhizhi said, “Does buying tea need to be so secretive?”

Lin Xiaoyang flipped through the booklet. “Besides the tea, there is nothing else worth bidding on later.”

Just as he spoke, a new item was brought up, and they saw He’er starting to raise his paddle again.

They had originally thought He’er’s target was the mist crystal tea, and he would casually participate in the earlier items just like before. But unexpectedly this time He’er seemed to be following closely, constantly bidding and raising prices.

Confirming that He’er was not just playing around this time and really wanted it, Lin Xiaoyang hurriedly opened the HD screen in the room to check. “This is the Maiden Gazing at the Moon painting?”

Bai Zhizhi also looked. He did not know if it was because of looking through this strange screen, but it always looked foggy and not clear at all.

And the bidding on the floor had somehow entered into heated competition. The starting price was one hundred thousand, and now it had already reached three million. Competing with He’er was a guest at table twelve. Unfamiliar, Lin Xiaoyang did not know him.

At first there were other interested people following the bids. Soon they realized those two tables clearly were determined to win, so they stopped participating. But the competition was still fierce.

In no time the price had broken ten million. Many people on the floor were whispering, probably somewhat puzzled. This was an ordinary maiden painting, although it counted as an antique and was well preserved, the painter was not a historically renowned master. The price should top out at one or two million.

Bai Zhizhi and Lin Xiaoyang did not leave either. They sat in the room planning to see who the painting would end up with. But Lin Xiaoyang still asked the attendant beside him, “This counts as an antique, right? If it is bought by a foreigner and taken abroad, does that count as trafficking cultural relics?”

The attendant just smiled and explained, “All auction items are reported and filed. All procedures are complete. Taxes are paid promptly. Whoever comes is a customer. These are not state collections. Private collectors have legitimate sources, and selling and trading is legal and compliant.”

Lin Xiaoyang took a photo of the painting and sent it to Brother Jiang. He’er competing for this painting at such a high price, who knew what was special about it.

He thought breaking ten million should be about it. He did not expect the bidding to continue. At first it was increasing by one hundred thousand, then later it became increasing by millions.

The painting with a starting price of one hundred thousand had now reached thirty million, almost about to break forty million.

Bai Zhizhi saw that many people below were very surprised at this price, and was also somewhat curious. “Is forty million a lot?”

Lin Xiaoyang said, “A lot. A huge amount. An ordinary person working hard their whole life, even saving money without eating or drinking, could not save up to ten million.”

The price soon broke fifty million, sixty million, and was closing in on seventy million.

The table competing with He’er was clearly slowing down in bidding, seeming unable to afford such a high price. But He’er was still calm. The moment someone raised a paddle, he followed the next second. It seemed no matter how much the other party offered, he would bid one million higher and take it.

Finally the price reached eighty million. Table twelve reluctantly gave up. The Maiden Gazing at the Moon painting was ultimately taken by He’er.

Lin Xiaoyang hissed softly. “What is special about this painting? A foreigner, can he even understand our ancestors’ ink wash paintings?”

Bai Zhizhi was also curious. What was special about this painting? It was actually worth more than the golden leaves he refined.

After thinking, Bai Zhizhi quietly sent out a thread of divine consciousness and attached it to He’er’s body. He wanted to see carefully what was special about this painting.