Perhaps it was because this price was too surprising that after Jiang Yu’s words fell, it was as if someone had pressed the pause button, and no one spoke for a long time.
Jiang Yu was obviously very satisfied with the reaction in the conference room. He looked at Jiang Tingyuan and Ye Zhou with a hint of provocation in his eyes.
Sitting next to him, Cheng Ran’s face had already turned pale when Jiang Yu shouted out two million. His hands were clenched tightly together with his neatly trimmed fingernails sunk deeply into his palms.
They brought a total of three million with them and were throwing in two-thirds of it directly. The auction was not even halfway through yet. In previous years, the better the work, the later in the auction it would be sold, but they only had one million left – what could they do with that?
Cheng Ran could only silently hope in his heart as he covered his face with his hand, hoping that Jiang Tingyuan’s idiot lover would continue to bid.
Cheng Ran had already made up his mind that if Ye Zhou bid again, he would definitely stop Jiang Yu from bidding against him.
Thinking of this, when Cheng Ran looked at Ye Zhou again, his eyes unconsciously carried some expectation and a trace of imperceptible pleading.
At this moment, as if he sensed something, Ye Zhou suddenly turned his head, and his gaze collided head-on with Cheng Ran’s.
Seeing the expression on his face that was neither a smile nor a frown, Cheng Ran’s heart suddenly thumped, and he vaguely felt an uneasy premonition.
Sure enough.
Ye Zhou grinned at him and slowly put the bidding paddle in his hand away.
Cheng Ran immediately understood that they had been…played.
At this moment, he was clearly aware that he and Jiang Yu had been played by Jiang Tingyuan’s idiot lover. With just this one trick, it had cost them two million.
In addition to the money lost on the surface, there were also countless fine works in the second half of the auction. Every excellent piece meant an opportunity, but they didn’t have much money left to seize those opportunities.
“Two million going once!”
At this point, the auctioneer had already started repeating Jiang Yu’s bid. They were already riding a tiger that would be hard to get off. As long as no one bid before the auctioneer shouted the third time, they would have to pay two million to buy this completely unknown work.
“Two million going twice!”
No, actually it was not completely impossible…
The auctions were often paid and signed contracts after all auction items were finished bidding, which meant that if they did not pay, they would only need to pay a default penalty instead of the full two million.
Although the default penalty was expensive, it was still much more cost-effective than losing two million.
However, although this could stop the loss in time, the news of the auction failure would inevitably be uncontrollable, and the loss of face would be ugly. Would Jiang Yu…agree?
“Two million going thrice. Congratulations to this gentleman for successfully acquiring the film and television adaptation rights of ‘Rewind.”
The auctioneer waved his auction hammer with a smile, hitting decisively to conclude the transaction.
Seeing the smile on Jiang Yu’s face, Cheng Ran’s heart turned cold. He knew clearly that with Jiang Yu’s proud personality, he would definitely not agree to break the contract.
So this two million could only be used to beat the water, with no room left for compromise.
Whether Cheng Ran and Jiang Yu were happy or not, Ye Zhou was quite happy at this point. He even wanted to personally come forward and congratulate the two.
But considering the risk of being beaten, Ye Zhou gave up after all. After all, he could be shameless, but he had to consider the face of a big boss.
After successfully tricking the protagonist couple, Ye Zhou proudly showed off to Boss Jiang: “Jiang-ge, two million, aren’t I great!”
Jiang Tingyuan raised his eyebrows thoughtfully, “Did you trick them for my sake?”
Ye Zhou nodded.
Of course, wasn’t it for the sake of pleasing the big boss? How else would he be so childish as to make such a play with the protagonist?
Of course, it would be a lie to say there was no selfishness at all.
Because Ye Zhou knew clearly that the protagonist couple didn’t have much money left in their hands. After being tricked by him like this, it would definitely affect the rest of the auction for them.
That way, if they came across novels that he coveted, even if the protagonist wanted to compete with him, he would have to weigh whether he had enough money left.
It was simply perfect to kill two birds with one stone. Ye Zhou couldn’t help but arrogantly praise himself in his heart.
Immersed in joy, Ye Zhou clearly didn’t notice that the look Boss Jiang gave him had gained a hint of interest at some point.
For a person to have such a big change overnight, it really was…too interesting.
Jiang Tingyuan stared at Ye Zhou for a few seconds, then reached out and rubbed the top of his head lightly, a faint smile on his thin lips, “Thank you.”
While Ye Zhou was still immersed in the joy of successfully helping the boss abuse scum, he did not yet know that Boss Jiang controlled the economic lifeline of the entire Jiang family.
What this meant was that all of the Jiang family’s funds, including his father’s annual dividends, needed Jiang Tingyuan’s approval before they could be smoothly transferred into Jiang Changsong’s account.
This meant that how much money Jiang Changsong gave to Jiang Yu and those illegitimate children and lovers depended on Jiang Tingyuan’s mood and how much money he was willing to give him.
So sometimes, you really couldn’t blame Jiang Changsong for being stingy. After all, as a playboy, the amount of money he could get his hands on was quite limited.
In his youth, he had to look at his father’s face for money. Now that he was finally middle-aged and thought he had finally struggled to get ahead, he didn’t expect that the old man simply ignored his unsatisfactory son.
So now, in his old age, he still had to look at his eldest son’s face for money.
And he couldn’t say it to outsiders because…this matter really was too shameful.
So sometimes when you think about it, it was quite unjust for the protagonist Jiang Yu to always say his dad was stingy.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to give money, it was that he really couldn’t take it out!
Jiang Tingyuan withdrew his gaze and slowly turned around to look at the position Jiang Yu was in the back row.
The illegitimate son had casually thrown out two million at the auction. It seemed Jiang Changsong had been having pretty good days lately. How about…no year-end dividend this year.
Jiang Yu, who thought he had won out over Jiang Tingyuan in competition, still did not realize at this time the tragic reality that he would not be able to squeeze a penny more out of his stingy dad in the next year.
As Ye Zhou expected, the protagonist gong Jiang Yu and the protagonist shou Cheng Ran were extremely well-behaved during the rest of the auction.
It would not be an exaggeration to say they were as quiet as chickens.
On the other hand, Ye Zhou frequently raised his paddle and bought three works in a row.
Although these three works were not as interesting to him as “Rewind”, the quality was very good. One of them was even the work that became wildly popular after being adapted into a movie in the original novel.
As the saying goes, what is lost in the east corner is gained under the mulberry tree1This can be interpreted to mean that something lost in one place may unexpectedly be found in another, symbolized by the east corner and under the mulberry trees. The mulberry tree, or 桑榆 (sāng yú), is used metaphorically to represent a place of shelter and comfort. This phrase is often used to convey the idea that something lost or missed may ultimately turn out for the best or that there may be unexpected benefits or positive outcomes despite initial setbacks. .
Since the auction was held once a year with a large number of works, the organizers divided the auction into morning and afternoon sessions, with a seafood buffet provided at noon.
Jiang Tingyuan was obviously not interested in the buffet here. He didn’t eat much, but Ye Zhou, who hadn’t eaten breakfast this morning, was happily piling food on his plate.
It is worth mentioning that when Ye Zhou was picking out seafood, he felt someone standing next to him. When he looked up, it was none other than the protagonist Jiang Yu.
Ye Zhou did not want to pay attention to him since Jiang Yu was the protagonist while he himself was just a pitiful little cannon fodder. If they interacted, he knew with his brain turned off that he couldn’t expect anything good.
He wanted to leave, but Jiang Yu obviously did not want to let him go.
Under helpless circumstances, Ye Zhou asked, “Sir, do you need anything?”
Things were fine when he didn’t speak, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Jiang Yu’s expression suddenly worsened.
Looking at the candid Ye Zhou in front of him, Jiang Yu’s voice even carried a few gritted teeth.
“Ye Zhou, do you think I don’t know your little thoughts?” Jiang Yu took a deep breath and sneered coldly, “Do you think you can attract my attention with such a clumsy method?”
Ye Zhou: …?
Seeing that he didn’t speak, Jiang Yu’s cold sneer deepened: “Or perhaps, if you think you can sleep soundly by relying on Jiang Tingyuan, I advise you to sober up.”
“If you take him to be some good person, then I look forward to what happens to you.”
After he finished speaking, Jiang Yu put away the disdain and ridicule in his eyes, turned around, and left without looking back.
Ye Zhou was a little speechless at the protagonist’s honey-like self-confidence. After simply analyzing the information content of Jiang Yu’s words just now, Ye Zhou discovered that from the protagonist’s perspective, it seemed that the original owner had liked Jiang Yu before and had been rejected?
But according to the timeline of the novel “The Overbearing President’s Contract Lover”, the original owner and Jiang Yu at this point should only have mutually known of each other’s existence without any interactions, right?
It seemed like something was not quite right, but Ye Zhou couldn’t figure out for the moment where exactly the problem was.
Could it be because he had transmigrated into the book himself, resulting in a butterfly effect?
Ye Zhou was unable to get an accurate answer to this question until the second half of the auction began. He simply put it aside for the time being to focus on studying the works that were about to be auctioned off in the second half.
Things were different from the original novel because Ye Zhou tricked Jiang Yu in the morning auction, forcing him to spend two million to buy the adaptation rights of “Rewind”,
Jiang Yu’s limited funds directly led to the protagonist’s lover, Cheng Ran, being extremely cautious in the subsequent auctions. While caution was not a bad thing in itself, Cheng Ran’s excessive caution caused him to miss many money-making opportunities from works that he had earned in the original novel.
Especially when the competitor was Ye Zhou, as long as Ye Zhou raised his paddle, Cheng Ran was afraid that Jiang Yu would be provoked by the desire to win again and did not dare to bid at all with his hands tied.
As a result, those works that should have been taken by Cheng Ran were now almost all won by the rich and imposing Ye Zhou.
Ye Zhou happily counted the works he had won. Although many of them were insignificant now, he clearly knew that they would all make a big splash in the film and television industry before long and make a lot of money.
Just thinking about it put Ye Zhou in a very good mood.
Time flew by quickly, and the auction gradually began to wrap up. As the finale pieces began to appear, those big bosses from film and television companies finally began to take action.
According to the practice of previous years, the highest transaction prices for film and TV copyrights each year almost always occur from this time.
Compared with the bidding of tens or hundreds of millions by the big bosses, the previous bidding could only be regarded as child’s play.
However, Ye Zhou was not timid at all in his heart, and he even rubbed his hands in great anticipation.
After all, his boss would go bankrupt sooner or later, and saving money now was equivalent to saving it for the protagonist couple. Ye Zhou was not that dumb to do this noble deed – even if he was just cannon fodder, he would be cannon fodder with lofty ideals!
Determined to work hard to spend all the money before Boss Jiang went bankrupt!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please consider supporting the author directly.
You can also follow me on Ko-fi to get the latest updates on my translation progress and new projects. I appreciate your love and feedback.
