"How about it, Old Gu? Now you know why I paid such a high price to poach Liu Zimo from Sotheby's?"
In the chairman's office on the top floor of the Dihao Auction House, two men stood in front of a massive electronic screen.
The screen displayed the auction scene at Dihao Auction House.
The man speaking was in his fifties, dressed in a custom-made high-end suit. On his left hand, which he pointed at the screen, was a top-tier luxury watch worth tens of millions.
The other man in front of the screen was slightly older than him, but his attire was very ordinary. The only distinguishing feature was a string of Dzi beads on his wrist.
"He is indeed talented. But because of him, we've also fallen out with Sotheby's ahead of time."
The man wearing the Dzi beads watched Liu Zimo on the screen speak eloquently, his every word prompting the crowd at the auction to bid higher. He nodded slightly, clearly satisfied.
These two men were the major shareholders of Dihao Auction House. The one in the custom suit was Qian Yongliang, from Zhejiang.
Zhejiang, with its advantageous coastal and riverine geography, has been a hub for businessmen since ancient times.
Qian Yongliang was among the cream of the crop. Born into an ordinary family, his father was a manual laborer and his mother a restaurant supervisor.
Their salaries were modest, and with Qian Yongliang having five siblings, their childhood was difficult, often marked by irregular meals.
By the time he reached middle school, Qian Yongliang had to drop out due to his inability to pay tuition fees.
His family then found him a master to learn masonry.
However, Qian Yongliang had no interest in this profession. After a month, he secretly ran away.
From then on, Qian Yongliang started taking on odd jobs.
Because he was resourceful, smart, and quick-witted, after a few years, he caught the eye of a merchant owner and became his assistant.
Following this, Qian Yongliang's life began to ascend.
Until now, Qian Yongliang is worth billions and is a complete winner in life.
The other man was a local from the capital, named Gu Zhengdao.
Gu Zhengdao's father was a real estate magnate in the capital, with immense wealth.
However, Gu Zhengdao's mother passed away early, and his father found him a stepmother.
This stepmother was very formidable and gave birth to another son.
Gu Zhengdao was well aware that he would not inherit the family fortune, so he directly confronted his father, took a sum of money, and started his own business.
After watching for a while, Qian Yongliang and Gu Zhengdao turned and walked back to sit on the sofas in the office.
"Old Gu, do you think Sotheby's would just stand by and let us grow if we didn't poach their talent? They've already made a lot of subtle moves before, I just didn't bother telling you. And Christie's is no easy opponent either."
After sitting down, Qian Yongliang trimmed two cigars with a cigar cutter, lit them, and offered one to Gu Zhengdao.
Qian Yongliang and Gu Zhengdao held equal shares in Dihao Auction House.
One handled the legitimate side, the other the darker aspects.
Although Gu Zhengdao couldn't inherit his father's business, he had accumulated a formidable network of contacts and relationships over the years in the capital, so Dihao Auction House was initially built on his foundations.
As for Qian Yongliang, he had navigated the social world for years, encountering all sorts of people from various walks of life, so he handled the day-to-day affairs of Dihao Auction House.
The two had partnered for several years, running Dihao Auction House with great success.
However, in the past two years, as they truly began to make a name for themselves in the capital, the other two established auction houses also started to move against them.
After all, if Dihao Auction House prospered, it would cut into their profits.
Gu Zhengdao took a couple of puffs of his cigar, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Alright. Since they're resorting to underhanded tactics regardless of their standing, we don't need to be polite. At the appropriate time, we should retaliate."
"I've been waiting for you to say that. I've already made preparations."
Although they held equal shares and status in the auction house, Qian Yongliang knew very well that in a place like the capital, one had to think carefully before acting.
But with Gu Zhengdao's words now, he felt uninhibited in his actions.
The two then chatted a bit more about auction house matters. Gu Zhengdao mentioned he had another engagement and left first.
...
"Twenty million!"
"Brother 505 has bid twenty million. Are there any higher bids!"
Frankly, even Liu Zimo hadn't expected a mere so-called medicinal ingredient to fetch such a sky-high price of twenty million.
What he had said earlier was purely intended to stimulate the bidders to raise the price a little.
But who knew the price would keep climbing to a level that astonished him.
At this moment, Qi Yuntian below looked at his father.
Qi Lianshan, seeing his son look at him, directly opened his palm.
Upon seeing his father's gesture, Qi Yuntian immediately understood.
"Fifty million!"
Qi Yuntian raised his bidding paddle and loudly announced the price.
The reason for the initial low bid wasn't that Qi Yuntian and his father were unwilling to spend money for the elder's medicine. They simply wanted to maintain their usual low profile and acquire the Yin Ning Grass at a relatively low price, without attracting anyone's attention.
But now, with the auctioneer's actions, more and more people had joined the bidding.
A few individuals were swayed by Liu Zimo's words about its rarity, as wealthy people enjoyed owning limited edition items.
But more people were using this opportunity to gain a little recognition, and ideally, to network with influential people.
However, no one present expected that just a few minutes later, someone would announce an astronomical figure of fifty million.
"Holy hell! Did I hear that right? Fifty million?"
"Is this guy's money flowing like water? Spending fifty million on this thing?"
"Hiss, awesome, too awesome. Although I've attended countless auctions and am a regular at Sotheby's and Christie's, seeing a leek priced at fifty million today, I don't know if this guy has too much money or has lost his mind."
"Someone who can spend fifty million on an item can't be a fool. I'm starting to wonder, could this thing really be a treasure?"
For a moment, because of Qi Yuntian's bid of fifty million, the auction hall erupted in discussion again.
"Fifty million! VIP 701 bids fifty million!"
Even Liu Zimo, with his experience of countless grand occasions and strong composure, was somewhat astonished.
This was truly encountering a "tycoon." He had driven up a starting price of one million to a staggering fifty million. This was simply incredible.
For a moment, Liu Zimo couldn't help but scrutinize Qi Yuntian, who had just bid, from the stage.
After all, though people said money wasn't everything, without money, absolutely nothing could be done.