Again, this chapter is specially dedicated to @MlleAdler ❤️❤️
Thank you @MlleAdler for your support! (●’◡’●)ﾉ♥
Shen Ran beat his chest and coughed for a long time, then buried his face in the pile of dessert with a guilty conscience.
What happened last night was so embarrassing, and the image couldn’t help but popped into his mind.
Have to say that the hardware configuration1Raw 硬件配置(yìngjiàn pèizhì); Hardware Configuration. I guess, from the previous chapter, this might pointed to ML’s **?! (///Σ///) I don’t know why Author dada using this words tho, is this word play?! (◎-◎；) of the male protagonist of the novel was a bit too good of a quality. He can felt the proud capital2 Raw 傲人的本钱(Ào rén de běnqián); proud capital. I assume this refers to ML’s ** again?! :(⁄ ⁄ᵒ̶̶̷́⁄⚰⁄ᵒ̶̶̷̀⁄ ⁄): even through the frosted glass wall.
Min Xingchuan had an expression ‘I knew it’, fortunately he didn’t focus on him for long, so he turned his eyes back to Luo Yufei.
The two started chatting as soon as they entered the door. Luo Yufei had a kind smile on his face and asked, “How is your grandfather recently?”
Min Xingchuan replied, “Thanks to your blessing, his body is quite strong.”
Luo Yufei smiled: “He probably doesn’t want this blessing of mine.”
Min Xingchuan didn’t say anything. Old Luo and his grandfather had been old friends for many years, and the two of them could be considered as foes and pals3 Raw 损友(Sǔn yǒu); bad friend/ foes. 拍档(pāidàng); partner/pals.
In front of outsiders, one was more serious and proper than the others, and when they get together, they always liked to make a fool of themselves.
There were several special reporters on the auction floor. Generally, such activities will not let tabloid reporters write random reports, and will only be sent out after strict review.
Shen Ran grabbed a handful of melon seeds and started to eat, just like a melon eater.
The event were flickering with light, there were many handsome guys and beauties, and there were also a lot of big shots and rich women.
All the famous people in H City were invited by Luo Yufei.
The old man had no children and daughters all his life, all his enthusiasm was used for charity, and it was said that he adopted several orphans.
But looking at the route they came to, Shen Ran shivered a little.
These two were not coming towards him, were they?
Shen Ran pretended not to see them, got up and was about to leave, but was stopped by Min Xingchuan.
“Shen Ran, where are you going?”
The low and pleasant voice made Shen Ran’s ears a little itchy.
Shen Ran paused and began to resist in his heart. Didn’t you said that I should stay away from you in public?
He turned his head slightly, his eyes instantly changed to a look of infatuation and joy, and replied, “Brother Chuan? I… want to go to the lavatory.”
Min Xingchuan didn’t say anything, just said to Luo Yufei: “Old Luo, this is Shen Ran.”
Luo Yufei pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, took two steps towards Shen Ran, and looked at him for a moment, he said, “Oh, similar, really looks so similar. It’s good, I’m quite happy to know that you and Shen Ran are married. Although… but it’s a marriage, you still have to manage it by yourself. In my heart, I still hope you guys can be happy.”
There was no expression on Min Xingchuan’s face, but Luo Yufei continued to say to Shen Ran, “Okay, go to the toilet ba!”
Shen Ran didn’t know what to say, but he politely saluted the old man Luo, turned and ran away.
At this moment, he didn’t know where Ruan Letian had ran to. Shen Ran walked around and couldn’t find him, so he really went to the bathroom.
There were still half an hour before the auction, and several celebrities were being interviewed outside.
Shen Ran took a look when he came in. One of them was in a wheelchair. It was said to be the congenitally disabled eldest brother of the Qin family.
He looks handsome and talked decently, but unfortunately he was born with a disability.
Moreover, not a good thing.
These first-rate rich and powerful families in H City were all a Shura fields.
Shen Ran didn’t want to get involved with them, just wanted to stay away from the Shura Field, live the rest of his life well, and protect his eldest brother and father, that was enough.
After all, these two immediate family members were really good to him. He inherited the memory of the original owner, and naturally inherited the family affection of the original owner.
In his heart, although Min Xingchuan was important, he still couldn’t match his father and eldest brother.
He drank a lot of juice just now, ran to have a release, and when he was washing his hands, a young man wearing sunglasses was also washing his hands.
Shen Ran didn’t think much about it, but just as he was about to leave after washing, the other party opened his mouth and said, “You look like you have something in mind! Is this your first time participate in the auction? Is there something you fancy?”
Shen Ran turned his head, the other party just happened to take off his sunglasses, and when he saw the man’s face clearly, his heart thumped.
His blood solidified in an instant, and deep in his memory, the shudder when the original owner Shen Ran died in a miscarriage came from his tailbone.
Shen Ran’s face was calm, he didn’t say anything, just nodded to him, and returned to the banquet hall without even looking at him directly.
It wasn’t until he ran into the banquet hall that Shen Ran relaxed a little, and then there was a sound of symphony on the stage.
Immediately afterwards his shoulder was caught from behind, Shen Ran turned around suddenly, and Ruan Letian, who had swam around for a while, came back.
Ruan Letian took him by the shoulders and said, “I met a gold-medal singer and composer, and I can ask him for a song on the next album! Hey, Xiao Ranzi, why do you look like that?”
Shen Ran took a deep breath and said, “It’s okay, I was just taken aback by you.”
Immediately, he calmed down, and his brain was running fast.
The person just now was none other than Qiao Qiyun, who caused Shen Ran to had a miscarriage and died on the street in his previous life.
He didn’t read the book carefully, or the book didn’t go into details about how Shen Ran and Qiao Qiyun met for the first time.
Could it be that they met at this auction?
He has read a lot of time-travel novels, and he think that the protagonists in the books were very cool, and one was more strong than another one.
Either rip apart the villain, or had an overwhelming advantage over everyone else, or climbing to the top.
But Shen Ran was terrified. Before he was confident that he can pressed the opponent to death, he must not let the opponent see his trump card.
So he could only lie dormant first.
The host takes the stage and the auction begins.
The beautiful hostess introduced a piece of porcelain on the big screen and said: “This is an enamel colored snuff bottle from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It can be seen that it is small and exquisite, and its shape is very unique. It combines jade, enamel and calligraphy art, it can be said that they complement each other beautifully…”
Shen Ran looked at the snuff bottle with little interest.
Ruan Letian, who was next to him, said, “The first auction items are all about tossing a stone to find out what’s ahead4Raw 投石问路(idiom); to test the waters, and they can’t sold for much money. It’s either a defective item or a high imitation item, and the reserve price is generally not high.”
Sure enough, the bottom price of this snuff bottle was only 200,000.
There were not many people raising the price, very few raised their placards, and no one will bid more than one million.
Ruan Letian introduced to Shen Ran: “If raise the price again, it will only losing money, but one million is worth the price.”
Shen Ran didn’t understand, just nodded frequently.
Just when he thought that the snuff bottle would be sold at an auction price of one million, in the middle of the front row, Min Xingchuan next to Luo Yufei raised a placard.
He said lightly: “One and a half million.”
There was a noisy discussion from the audience, and the host on the stage confirmed it three times, and then the final decision was made.
Min Xingchuan’s assistant came to the stage to go through the formalities for the bidding, and Luo Yufei, who was next to him, nodded at him with gratitude in his eyes.
1.5 million for a defective product, Min Xingchuan was not stupid, of course he knows that it was not worth the price.
He was opening a good show for Luo Yufei, and he was also giving an example to those who bid at the back.
Old Luo was very strong in H City regardless of his connections and qualifications. Even if he buys a brick of 1.5 million, it was worth it.
And Min Xingchuan no longer needed Old Luo’s support now, he was just grateful for his help in his early years.
Ruan Letian on the side whispered in Shen Ran’s ear: “Your husband is awesome! But for him, this amount of money is not even a pocket money. I heard that he recently spent 10 billion to win the urban village in H city’s remodeling project? Tsk, no wonder you’ve been obsessed with him for so many years.”
Shen Ran was speechless and said, “Don’t say that, I’m no longer obsessed with him.”
Ruan Letian smiled: “Okay, not obsessed anymore. Did you see, the eyes of the female stars in the back are about to stick to him.”
Shen Ran looked around, and sure enough, a flock of orioles and swallows5Raw 莺莺燕燕(yīng yīng yàn yàn); Orioles and swallows are a metaphor for spring phenology, and they also refer to numerous concubines or prostitutes. cast their admiring glances at Min Xingchuan.
Min Xingchuan didn’t say much, Luo Yufei signaled to start the next auction.
The latter few were not worth seeing, a few were bought off, and none of them exceeded one million.
Everyone know that the main event comes later.
Luo Yufei threw the bombshell of Xizhi’s signature, and everyone came here today to broaden their horizons.
Although Shen Ran did not understand antique calligraphy and painting, but he still heard about the real work of Xizhi.
It was said that a 41-character “Ping An Post” by Wang Xizhi can auction off a high price of several hundred million, and it was only a fragment of the “Ping An Post”, not a complete copybook.
He didn’t think that these people here would be willing to spend hundreds of millions to buy an authentic work of Xizhi.
Sure enough, when the copybook was brought up, it was indeed not the authentic work of Xizhi.
It was a vertical scroll of Wang Duo’s “Zhan Jin Tie” written in cursive script by Wang Xizhi.6Okay, in case you are confused(because I was very confused here that I had read this paragraph for N times *cry laugh*), I guess it means the script is Wang Xizhi’s and was copied by Wang Duo(correct me if I’m wrong). Um…I think it might similar to someone cover a song from somebody’s song? Like Sam Tsui?? I hope you guys didn’t get even more confused with my explanation T.T For reference, here’s the raw context 而是一幅王铎草书临王羲之《瞻近帖》的立轴.
However, this vertical scroll was indeed worthy of the king of the whole auction.
Not to mention Wang Duo’s reputation, the collection value of this vertical scroll alone will not be less than three million.
The host said: “Everyone knows that Wang Duo was a very famous painter and calligrapher in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. His authentic works are of great collection value, not to mention this is a copy of the work of Wang Xizhi, a master of Chinese calligraphy. We have been looking forward to the vertical scroll for a long time, so let’s not talk much and start bidding.”
The reserve price of this vertical scroll was 2 million, and soon several people raised their hands, and it reached 3 million.
Ruan Letian, who was next to him, also raised his hand a few times. When he saw it increase to three million, he gritted his teeth and said, “Three and a half million!”
Although he has money in his hands, but 3.5 million to buy a calligraphy and painting was indeed a luxury.
But when he thought that Shen Jue liked calligraphy and painting, he felt that the three and a half million was nothing.
There was a lot of chattering around, Ruan Letian thought he was determined to win, but a Cheng Yaojin came out next to him7Raw context is 旁边却杀出个程咬金(Pángbiān què shā chū gè chéng yǎo jīn), when I search it meaning on others website, What I found actually a 半路杀出个程咬金; lit. Cheng Yaojin ambushes the enemy (saying), fig. sb shows up unexpectedly and disrupts the plan, sb whose presence is regarded as irksome.: “3.6 million.”
Ruan Letian was speechless and continued to raise his placard: “3.8 million!”
The other party continued to increase the price, and his tone was flat: “Four million.”
Ruan Letian didn’t dare to add any more, he didn’t have that much cash on hand.
Can participated in the auction, but no credit, this was the rule in H City.
The host on the stage began to count down. Shen Ran took Ruan Letian’s sign and said, “4.5 million.”
The person who was bidding with Ruan Letian seemed to be still unwilling to give up and said, “4.6 million.”
Shen Ran: “Five million.”
The audience exploded, and the other party finally did not increase the price.
The host knocked down the auction hammer, Shen Ran patted Ruan Letian on the shoulder, and said, “Go! Dad bought it for you.”
In an auction, everyone was talking about who’s young master was so generous, and spend five million in one shot.
Shen Ran was extremely excited, and the first time he spent money, he spent an astronomical amount.
He gave the card to Ruan Letian and asked him to go to the backstage to pick up the auction items. The feeling of spending money was like riding a roller coaster, which was quite exciting.
But he heard someone next to him coming over: “Little Young Master Shen Ran? When spending money is really extraordinary.”
Shen Ran looked back at the other party, not Qiao Qiyun, but the auction opponent just now.
The other party smiled at him, stretched out his hand, and introduced himself: “Let’s get acquainted, my name is Cheng Yu, I just came back from country F.”
~~~
Author has something to say:
Shen Ran: Not good, I messed with someone who shouldn’t be messed with…
I thought my laptop broken again!!!
I only left for half an hour to eat after finished edited this chapter, when I came back, my laptop was in a sleep state and can’t be ON anymore!! (◯Δ◯∥)
I have no choice to restart it and prepare myself for the worst, I thought all my translation would be gone! Orz
Fortunately all the page still can be restore or I have to translate from the beginning again! Thank goodness!!! (´∀｀；)
