Invincible Young Master in the City
Chapter 469 - 469 465 Almost Spat Blood in Frustration

469: Chapter 465: Almost Spat Blood in Frustration 469: Chapter 465: Almost Spat Blood in Frustration Hu Jing had been watching Ye Fan’s interaction with Dongfang Yunqi, feeling deeply affected and thinking about a lot.

Even after Ye Fan and Dongfang Yunqi had sat down, she remained in a daze.

“Hu Jing, why are you still standing?

Have a seat,” Ye Fan called out.

With an “Ah,” Hu Jing came back to her senses and sat back down in her seat.

At that moment, Ye Fan introduced her to Dongfang Yunqi, who had been looking over, “This is my colleague, Hu Jing, she used to be my boss.”

“Hello, Miss Hu,” Dongfang Yunqi said with a smile to Hu Jing, extending her delicate hand.

Hu Jing shook Dongfang Yunqi’s hand, squeezing out a smile, “Hello, Miss Dongfang.”

After the handshake and introductions, it was clear Dongfang Yunqi had no further intention of getting to know or chat with her.

Both women withdrew their hands and sat up straight.

Ye Fan turned to Hu Jing and asked, “Did you see anything you liked?”

Following the manner in which Jin Yongning and others, instigated by An Qiye, had come to provoke him earlier, he knew that once the auction began, they would surely drive up the prices of whatever he bid on.

Although he was determined to obtain the 1906 Browning handgun, he wasn’t foolish enough to be taken for a financial ride.

So, during the entire auction, he would inevitably employ some strategies.

Asking Hu Jing if she liked anything was his way of potentially bidding for one or two items on her behalf.

Of course, he wouldn’t explicitly tell this to Hu Jing.

“There’s nothing,” Hu Jing shook her head.

To her, the auction was entirely a game for the wealthy.

Although she had gone to Yonghui Club with Ye Fan a while ago, where Ye Fan had casually given her three million out of the fifty million he won, she had no intention of squandering this money.

Hu Jing asked back, “How about you?”

“I’m planning to bid on that Browning handgun,” Ye Fan said calmly, “anything else will depend on the circumstance.”

“Oh,” Hu Jing responded.

She, too, had seen the Browning handgun in the auction list earlier, with a starting bid of two million.

She estimated that the final price would definitely not be less than thirty million.

Besides, items like this firearm, given its special collection status compared to jewelry, antiques, and paintings, had less resale value and its appreciation potential wasn’t significant—it would only be purchased by those with a particular fondness for guns or those with more money than they knew what to do with.

Therefore, although Hu Jing’s response was calm, in her heart she felt increasingly that her life was not on the same level as Ye Fan’s.

Earlier, she had almost focused all her attention on jade, antiques, and paintings—the things that ordinary people cared about.

Without word from Hu Jing, Dongfang Yun began chatting with Ye Fan.

An Qiye, sitting at a distance, saw Dongfang Yunqi actually sitting next to Ye Fan and accompanying him at the auction.

His handsome face, which had maintained a bland smile, suddenly twisted, and a surge of hostility arose.

How many times had he attended auctions at the Yun Qi Clubhouse?

How many items he had purchased, he couldn’t even remember.

However, Dongfang Yunqi had never sat beside him on any occasion.

How could he maintain his composure?

He considered himself to be first-rate in Hua Hai in terms of status, intellect, capabilities, appearance, demeanor, and conversation—many times stronger than the suddenly-emerged Ye Fan, yet Dongfang Yunqi’s attitude toward him and Ye Fan was the complete opposite.

“Cheap!” An Qiye cursed inwardly, forcefully turning his head back and trying to return his face to calm, but his left hand placed under the chair clenched tightly into a fist.

As for Jin Yongning, Meng Zhanpeng, and the others sitting next to him, they were nearly fuming with rage.

Their antics were almost playing right into Ye Fan’s hands.

After all, under normal circumstances, Dongfang Yunqi rarely accompanied ordinary guests to auctions.

The auction started, and just as Ye Fan had expected, whenever he placed a bid, An Qiye’s group would endlessly raise it, resulting in An Qiye’s gang eventually purchasing the items.

Ye Fan was in no rush.

He bid on every auction item, An Qiye and his people kept raising the price, and of course, Ye Fan deliberately drove the bids up really high to wear them out.

As a result, the entire auction turned into a bidding war between Ye Fan and An Qiye’s crew, with everyone else becoming mere spectators.

After seventeen or eighteen auction items had been sold, the final prices were all more than double or triple the starting prices.

There was even a painting—not an antique but just one by a somewhat famous artist from Hua Hai—starting at thirty thousand, which eventually sold for three hundred thousand.

Of course, the payers were An Qiye and his people.

However, Ye Fan also had his blunders, winning a South Sea pearl necklace and an Ice Jade Buddha for a total of one million two hundred thousand, which was over five hundred thousand above their actual value.

For him, three hundred thousand was naturally trivial.

The 1906 Browning pistol, with a starting price of two million, was scheduled as the third last item.

But when it came time to officially auction off the Browning pistol, An Qiye and his crew’s arrogance had evidently deflated quite a bit.

Their plan to not let Ye Fan win a single item was clearly a failure.

“Three million!”

After the auctioneer introduced the Browning pistol, the bidding began and Ye Fan was the first to bid, lifting the price by half in one go.

Yet, to everyone present, this was not surprising or abrupt since Ye Fan had been the first bidder on almost all the auction items before, and always called out a very high price.

“Qi Ye, what should we do?

This worthless pistol has such a high starting price and it doesn’t have any value; it will be hard to resell later,” Jin Yongning quickly asked An Qiye.

“Let him play the fool this time for this worthless pistol; we won’t compete for it.

The key is the last two items; we must end on a win against him,” An Qiye pondered and responded.

The last two items had higher starting bid prices than the Browning pistol but had a certain appreciation potential and were easier to resell.

Even though it was a contest of wills with Ye Fan, after going through the whole auction, they had become much more composed.

Jin Yongning and the others nodded in agreement.

As for others, they had always been waiting for An Qiye’s group and Ye Fan to raise bids and had not followed with offers of their own, to avoid losing face and getting caught in the crossfire.

“…

Three million, for the third time!”

“Sold!”

The auctioneer shouted loudly, slightly regretting that An Qiye and his people stopped competing with Ye Fan.

A few other people who heard the final deal at three million were frustrated as well.

They also desired the 1906 Browning pistol, mentally pricing it around five million.

The 1906 Browning pistol was a pioneer among pistols and held significant commemorative and collectible value for certain enthusiasts, especially as such a piece could not be found in China.

After winning the Browning pistol, Ye Fan laughed out loud, “I said earlier that there was one auction item I was determined to get, and this 1906 Browning pistol is just that, the ancestor of all pistols.”

“To be honest, my threshold price for this gun was around ten million.

Haha, I didn’t expect to get it for three million,” Ye Fan continued loudly, “I am really grateful to you all, hahaha…”

An Qiye and his people were momentarily so furious they were smoking from all orifices.

But Ye Fan didn’t stop pouring salt on their wounds and went on, “Overall, I ended up saving two or three million from this auction.

Hehe, for the last two items, well, I won’t be participating.”

An Qiye and his crew were driven to madness, on the brink of spitting blood; essentially, they had eaten up almost all the auction items at prices far above market value, all, it turned out, to benefit Ye Fan’s last-minute windfall savings of two or three million on the Browning pistol!