Chapter 553 - A Sky-high Price Hair
Chapter 553 A Sky-high Price Hair
Presided over by Ye Qing, the financial summit officially began.
But Qin Haodong didn’t care about the contents of the financial summit. These were the things that Lin Momo needed to pay attention to. He sipped the red wine and occasionally talked with Zhou Xinzhu.
More than an hour later, Ye Qing spoke on the stage, “Let’s go to the last part of today’s reception. The charity auction.”
Qin Haodong had seen a lot of auctions, but he didn’t expect this here. He asked Zhou Xinzhu, “Why is there an auction in today’s reception?”
“Yes, didn’t you know in advance?” said Zhou Xinzhu, “Charity auction is an agenda of today’s reception. All the members who attend the meeting know and have prepared for the auction beforehand. All the money collected in the auction will be donated to out-of-school children in poor areas of China.”
Qin Haodong replied, “Well, President Ye didn’t tell us.”
He thought that Ye Qing must have forgotten to mention it last night.
Lin Momo anxiously said, “What should we do? If we can’t take out an auction item when it’s our turn, it will be very embarrassing.”
“Don’t worry for now. Let’s wait and see,” Qin Haodong said.
He wasn’t worried about the auction. If he had no other choice, he would just take out an elixir from the storage ring to auction. He believed that as long as he took out the elixir, Maldini Jr. would buy it without hesitation.
The auction officially started. While tasting the red wine, everyone turned their eyes to the stage for the auction.
Although this was only a common charity auction for the upper class, Haodong Group prepared with high standards. On the stage was the chief auctioneer from a famous auction house.
Next to him was a very beautiful emcee. The two worked together to preside over the auction.
“Today’s first auction item, provided by Mr. Sun Qian. It’s a pipe that Mr. Sun’s grandfather once used.”
After the emcee announced it, a guiding lady immediately passed a tray to the auctioneer. The auctioneer picked up the pipe and said, “This is not an ordinary pipe. It is made of sepiolite and produced in the valley of Italy. Now this kind of technology has been basically lost.
“What’s more, it’s something that Mr. Sun once used. The memorial significance is greater than the value of the pipe itself… ”
After some introductions, the bidding officially started. There wasn’t much difference from the traditional bidding. The starting price was only one yuan.
Generally speaking, there were two meanings to this kind of a charity auction between the rich. First, the rich showed off their contributions to charity, so their auction items were always of a high value.
The second was the mutual support among the rich. The higher the bidding was, the more glorious it would be. On the contrary, if a person took out a lot to auction but no one made a bid, even if he were to spend money to buy it back, his face would be lost.
The Sun family was the top family in Shanghai and had an extensive social network in recent years. So, when Sun Qian’s pipe was taken out, someone immediately made a bid.
“100,000… ”
“120,000… ”
“150,000… ”
After several bids, the pipe was finally sold for 200,000 yuan.
The winning bid exceeded the value of the pipe, which made Sun Qian feel very honored. He stood up and bowed to thank the people.
“200,000 yuan. Congratulations to Mr. Sun. You have given your love to the children in the poor areas.”
After a few polite remarks from the emcee, the auction continued.
After that more than a dozen of auction items were sold in succession, with a maximum price of three million yuan.
In order to show the welfare nature of this auction, there was no fixed order for each item. The emcee randomly selected the number from the invitation letters. The members who were selected would take out their auction item.
Next came Zheng Hongliang’s turn. He gave a jade bracelet that he had already prepared to the guiding lady.
When the auctioneer got the jade bracelet, his expression changed slightly as he asked, “Mr. Zheng, if I am right, is this a jade bracelet made of lanolin?”
“That’s right,” replied Zheng Hongliang, with a smug look on his face. “This is a lanolin jade bracelet that I bought when I went to Dongjiang province a few years ago. It has been appraised as a superior lanolin jade bracelet.”
The auctioneer said, “Mr. Zheng is a real philanthropist, giving up a treasure for the sake of charity. I appreciate your contributions to the children. Let’s start the bidding.”
All the people present were rich people with tens of billions of yuan in assets. They could see the value of this jade bracelet. The market price would be more than one million yuan.
So when the bid started, the first bidder directly called out a price of one million yuan, and then bidding continued one after another.
“1.1 million… ”
“1.5 million… ”
“2 million… ”
It could be seen that Zheng Hongliang’s influence in the circle was still great. Finally, the jade bracelet was sold for five million yuan, becoming the most expensive item so far.
“Thank you everyone for your support.”
Zheng Hongliang stood up and made a bow. He was full of contentment. The price, on one hand, showed that he was very generous, on the other hand, it also proved that he had a high position in this circle. People were willing to support him.
The auction continued. Maybe God wanted to joke around because the next one was Qin Haodong.
Zheng Hongliang looked in his direction, chuckling to himself. “Boy, it’s your misfortune to be behind me. I wonder what you can come up with. If your item is too shoddy, you will be overshadowed by me.”
Although the purpose of the auction was to contribute love to the charity, if the price difference between two items was too large, it would be embarrassing or even downright humiliating.
Hearing the number on Qin Haodong’s invitation letter be read by the emcee, Lin Momo became a bit nervous. She whispered, “Haodong, what should we do?”
If they had prepared in advance, they could simply take out a piece of jewelry for auction from Lin’s Jewelry collection. However, they had not received any information, hence they had prepared nothing.
“Don’t worry, I have a way.”
Qin Haodong patted Lin Momo’s hand to comfort her. At this time, the guiding lady came up to him with a tray and waited for the auction item.
He was going to take out a Physique-Improving Pill for the auction, but at that time, Ye Qing came over and said to all the people present, “Everyone, the purpose of our auction today is for charity. I think the price of your auction item is not important. The key is to see how much love you can give out.
“If the auction item itself is highly priced, the original intention of the auction will be lost.”
When she finished, Zheng Hongliang’s proud expression disappeared. Amongst the items, the most expensive one was his jade bracelet. Her words amounted to a direct insult of him.
Ye Qing didn’t even look at him, and continued, “So, I want to make a little specialization in Mr. Qin’s lot. I don’t need him to take out any auction item. He just needs to show one of the simplest of things, which can better reflect everyone’s love for charity.”
Everyone at the reception was immediately intrigued. They all wanted to know what was the simple thing Ye Qing was talking about, including Qin Haodong. They were all confused. What was Ye Qing doing?
Under the curious gazes of all people, Ye Qing reached out her slender fingers and pulled out a strand of hair from Qin Haodong’s head, and put it onto the tray beside her.
“Well, Mr. Qin’s hair is the next auction item.”
With that, Ye Qing asked the guiding lady to pass the tray to the auctioneer.
“Er… ”
Qin Haodong almost choked on his saliva. She auctioned off his hair. What did this woman mean?
The guests at the scene were also agitated. They didn’t understand why Ye Qing let Qin Haodong auction a strand of hair.
How much was a strand of hair worth? If the price was too low, wouldn’t it be disgraceful? Would it be more humiliating if no one made a bid?
Zheng Hongliang’s mouth flashed with a cold smile. His item sold for five million yuan. How much could Qin Haodong’s hair be worth? 30 or 50 yuan? Who wanted a strand of hair? It would be a humiliation.
The one who had the most complicated emotion was the auctioneer. Looking at the black and shiny strand of hair on the tray, he felt like breaking down.
He has been an expert and the top auctioneer of the auction house for almost half of his life. There were countless things auctioned by him, but he had never sold a piece of hair.
How could he introduce it? Was he going to say that the owner of this hair was in good health without lacking of phosphorus and calcium?
He simply did not make an introduction and directly called out the bottom price, one yuan, of the auction.
“Dear friends and guests, it’s time to test your kindness. Please make your bids for this special lot… ”
The whole area was silent. Everybody felt lost.
At this time, a facetious voice said, “I bid two yuan.”
Everyone immediately looked in the direction of the voice, and it was Sun Qian who was making the bid.
He detested Qin Haodong, but because of Sun Shengtian’s family rules, he didn’t dare to take the initiative to provoke him. But he was free to make any bid. He called out two yuan to humiliate Qin Haodong, and no one could find fault with him.
Zheng Hongliang immediately responded and cried, “I offer three yuan.”
He was quite pleased with that, “Aren’t you awesome? Don’t you have Ye Qing behind you? I can still bid as I want.”
But just after he made the bid, someone called out, “100,000 yuan.”
All the people were shocked. Who offered 100,000 yuan to buy a strand of hair?.
Everyone looked towards the direction of the sound, and the one who was raising the number plate was Kim Jihyun of the Kim family from Koryo.
Qin Haodong smiled. “This little girl was really showing her support.”
When everyone was still dumbfounded, a crystal clear voice sounded out, “One million!”
This time, Yagyuu Yukime was raising the plate. Qin Haodong was both, her master and her man. She would not see her master lose face, so she directly increased the price by ten times.
“My god. One million for a strand of hair… ”
“She increased the price by ten times. The Yagyuu family is really wealthy!”
“One million yuan for hair. The thing on this guy’s head is no longer hair, it’s gold.”
The auctioneer also felt like spitting blood. It was unreasonable to buy hair with a million yuan, but because of his duty, he still had to continue with the auction.
“Miss Yagyuu has offered one million yuan. No more bids? One million first, one million second…”
Just when he was ready to take up the hammer and end this absurd auction, someone shouted, “I bid ten million!”