Chapter 527 — Deliberately Cheating Someone

Things one could take or leave were not worth souring a relationship over.

"These people really are rich!" Feng Xiaoxiao clicked her tongue at the closing prices, which ran into the tens of millions. "Give me just a tiny slice of that and I could buy myself a Ferrari!"

"Didn't you cheat Wu Chengtian out of plenty yesterday?" Wei Zhao put in, rather amused.

"Heh heh... who told him to provoke me?" Feng Xiaoxiao said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "And I didn't even take that much from him! He's lucky I didn't teach him a real lesson! Oh — right, Wei Zhao, what are you doing at an auction too? You and them..."

Feng Xiaoxiao had not thought much of it before, but recalling that Fatty Lai had actually called Wei Zhao boss, she widened her eyes in astonishment. "You're that fatty's boss?"

Several black lines appeared on Wei Zhao's forehead. He was speechless — he had overlooked the fact that Feng Xiaoxiao was right there beside him and had not warned Fatty Lai to watch his mouth, and now she had caught the scent.

"That fatty is the president of a pharmaceutical company. He saw how skilled I am and wanted to be my underling," Wei Zhao explained, in a way that was neither quite true nor quite false.

"Oh, I see... That fatty looks like he's got a lot of money?" Feng Xiaoxiao squinted at Fatty Lai. "Hey, fatty, I'm your sister-in-law. Aren't you going to give me a little gift to mark our first meeting?"

"Gah?" Fatty Lai's eyes went wide, and he looked at Wei Zhao, his face full of questions.

"Ignore her, she's not right in the head," Wei Zhao waved a hand, signaling that Fatty Lai need not pay Feng Xiaoxiao any mind.

Fatty Lai gave a dry laugh and turned away, though inwardly he was puzzled: did this girl have something going with the boss or not?

"Is that all? He seems to obey you awfully well. That pharmaceutical company — you don't have a share in it too, do you?" Feng Xiaoxiao was no fool; naturally she did not believe Wei Zhao's story. Just being good at martial arts could make that fatty so obedient? That hardly seemed likely.

Wei Zhao ignored her and turned his gaze to the auction stage, because the next lot was the thousand-year snow lotus — though Wei Zhao's real target was the box the snow lotus was kept in.

"Tch! Fine, don't tell me!" Seeing that Wei Zhao was ignoring her again, Feng Xiaoxiao felt stung and annoyed. Just how worthless was she in his eyes? In what way was Tang Yun better than her?

"The next lot is a thousand-year snow lotus!" The auctioneer slowly set a delicate wooden box down on the auction block and said, unhurried: "I'm sure everyone knows what a thousand-year snow lotus is good for, so I won't waste time introducing it! You all know as well that snow lotuses are hard to come by these days — even a hundred-year one, let alone a thousand-year one! This thousand-year snow lotus was discovered in a cave. It is of great age, and when it was found it was already stored in this very box. Experts have appraised it, and the snow lotus is at least a thousand years old..."

The auctioneer rattled on, recounting the whole history of the thousand-year snow lotus. In fact, all of this was noted in the auction catalog; the auctioneer was merely repeating it in his own words.

"The starting price for the thousand-year snow lotus is five million. Bidding begins now!" With that, the auctioneer waited for the bids to come.

The thousand-year snow lotus did, for a moment, bring about a lull, because although most people had heard of it, they had no idea how to use it. None of them studied medicine; spending five million to take it home would probably be of no use at all.

So most people were watching and waiting. But at that moment, someone called out a bid.

"Six million!" Kang Guifeng stood and raised the paddle in his hand, naming a price that was not particularly high. In his view, there would not be many bidders for this thousand-year snow lotus — perhaps none at all.

Fatty Lai was watching too, and was just about to make his move when he saw Kang Guifeng raise his paddle. He was momentarily startled! But then he recalled that the Kang family also ran a pharmaceutical company, so buying this thousand-year snow lotus was only natural. He simply did not know whether they were determined to have it at any cost.

"Eight million." Fatty Lai raised his paddle as well.

But Fatty Lai had been the focus of yesterday's auction, and the moment he raised his paddle today, everyone turned to watch. Not because Fatty Lai was spending eight million on a thousand-year snow lotus, but because of the confrontation between him and Kang Guifeng.

Yesterday, Fatty Lai had competed with Kang Guifeng over the Life-Extending Detox Pill, and today they were at it again. Yet even though Fatty Lai and Kang Guifeng were rivals, no one else joined in.

For one thing, neither of these two was someone to trifle with — Fatty Lai especially, with Guan Xuemin standing behind him. Who would want to offend Guan Xuemin? To stir up trouble now would be asking for a beating.

For another, even if they bought the thousand-year snow lotus, it would be of no use to them, so no one else would bid.

"Ten million!" Kang Guifeng's expression turned grim. He had not expected Fatty Lai to jump in and stick his oar in! He had thought he could take the thousand-year snow lotus for six million, but now he was forced to bid as high as ten million.

"Fifteen million!" Before Kang Guifeng's words had even faded, Fatty Lai blandly named a new price.

"Damn it!" Kang Guifeng's face turned the color of liver. He cursed under his breath and looked at Divine Doctor Kang. "Father, that Fatty Lai is obviously here to make trouble on purpose! He cheated our Kang family once yesterday, and I'd say he's got the same idea today!"

One could hardly blame Kang Guifeng for thinking so. Two of a trade never agree — an unchanging rule since ancient times — and it was only natural that Fatty Lai would want to oppose the Kang family.

"We must have this thousand-year snow lotus, whatever it takes! Whether he is making trouble or not, we cannot give it up." Divine Doctor Kang's expression was none too pleasant either, but for the Kang family to be promoted smoothly to the rank of a house, they had to get this thousand-year snow lotus. Otherwise everything would be lost.

"Twenty million!" Kang Guifeng named a rather high price, hoping to frighten Fatty Lai off.

"Twenty-five million!" But Fatty Lai was not the least bit afraid, and simply named a higher price.

"Thirty million!" Kang Guifeng said at once.

"Fifty million!" Fatty Lai said, cool as could be.

Kang Guifeng was about to explode with rage. There were only two of them bidding — what did he mean by jacking the price up by twenty million in one go? Did he have more money than he knew what to do with, or was he trying to frighten someone?

"Fifty-five million!" Kang Guifeng glanced at his father, and only after seeing him nod did he continue bidding.

"Eighty million." Fatty Lai remembered Wei Zhao's bottom line, so he had no wish to drag things out with Kang Guifeng. He simply bid high: if you can accept it, then keep going!

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