"Forty-five million!"
"Forty-five million five hundred thousand!"
"Forty-six million five hundred thousand"
Inside the Subi Auction House, all eyes were on a group sitting on the most left and most right sides of the second row—a man and two women.
The man and woman on the left side seemed to be lovers, intimately clinging to each other without avoidance in public. The single woman on the right side was dressed unusually, her face wrapped with a large rose-patterned scarf on a black background, with only her eyes visible outside of the scarf, hidden behind a pair of large sunglasses.
At the Subi Auction House’s annual jewelry auction, what was being auctioned at the moment was the "treasure of the auction"—a necklace with yellow diamonds among broken ones. This necklace had received a lot of publicity from the organizers when it arrived in Mo City a month ago.
This necklace named "Yellow Love" is not only the largest fancy yellow diamond known today but also one of the legacy works of the late master jeweler Mussen. That’s why, from the moment the yellow diamond necklace was unveiled, it aroused fierce competition among the more than two hundred buyers present.
The first round of intense bidding finally paused when the price rose to twenty million. When the price climbed to thirty million, the buyers’ enthusiasm for bidding was suppressed by the astonishing price, leaving only three people bidding. Just when everyone thought the necklace would be acquired by the well-known Fei Family consortium in Mo City, the man and the single woman began to bid.
The price continued to climb, causing the necks of the onlookers to begin to ache. Buyer A asked, "Even the Fei Family has given up, who are those two groups of people?"
Buyer B gestured towards the man and woman on the left, "Don’t you recognize those two? Isn’t that woman the Bai Sisi who’s been hot this year?"
"Bai Sisi!" Buyer A turned to look to the left, the media had dubbed this year as "The Year of Bai Sisi." This little-known starlet from a year ago had become a sensation nationwide and even in the Continent of Y, after her role in "Assault Meteor," racking up awards at various domestic award ceremonies, and then successively winning the "International Palm Leaf Award," as well as being named one of the "Top 100 Most Beautiful People in the World."
Buyer A then pointed to the people sitting in the last row of the auction room, "See? Either they are Bai Sisi’s bodyguards or well-connected media reporters."
"It’s said that Bai Sisi has backers," Buyer B glanced over to the left again, "Isn’t the man sitting next to her the one recently rumored to be involved with her, Hang..."
"Fifty-five million," the rose buds on the single woman’s scarf quivered, as if bursting with anger. Her voice held an unidentifiable obstinance.
The bidding from the man on the left finally ceased. Bai Sisi and the man next to her whispered into each other’s ears, her delicate hands slipping into his sleeve, tickling the palm of his hand and drawing a deep chuckle from him.
"Fifty-five million for the first time," the auctioneer with white gloves wiped the sweat from his palms, cautiously glanced at the single woman, and muttered to himself, "What on earth are you doing here, madam."
The single woman stubbornly held up her oval bidding paddle; to those around her, it had the tragic sense of a hero’s determination.
The man on the left stood up, crossed the crowd, and walked towards the right, his face, formerly gentle with love, now full of impatience.
The rose silk scarf twisted together, and the single woman steadied her face with her free hand, sporting a large red diamond ring on her ring finger. The paddle was thrown violently to the ground—not the single woman’s, but the one in the man’s hand.
"Have you had enough, Su Ziceng?"
The woman’s scarf was pulled off, the rose black scarf falling to the ground, its bright red petals crushed under the man’s feet.
"Fifty-five million," the auctioneer looked at the somewhat chaotic scene, seeking help by glancing over to a corner of the auction house, where a female staff member in uniform, who had been an observer all this time, nodded indicating him to continue, "Second time."
The focus of the auction, the auctioneer, was utterly ignored, his voice lacking the usual excitement before a final bid, and instead was somewhat trembling.
The journalists seated in the last row stealthily took out cameras hidden on their persons. At this moment, even the attention of the auction house security seemed to have been drawn away.
"Hang Yishao, are you saying that only you are allowed to spend a fortune on a crappy necklace for a little starlet, and I’m not allowed to buy one for myself?" Without the lavish black rose scarf, the unnecessarily prominent face was exposed under the bright spotlights.