Superstar's Development Diary
Chapter 492 - 493: Questioning

Chapter 492: Chapter 493: Questioning

In fact, after other top-tier celebrities started bidding, Deng Zhaoyan stopped calling out prices. Her original intention was to outbid He Jinxia, not to surpass the other stars.

However, due to her excessively arrogant suppression of He Jinxia earlier on, it had led to a significant change in the situation at the auction.

He Jinxia, still muddling through, would raise her sign every time a new auction item was presented, growing bolder with each attempt. Initially, she dared only to bid within a hundred thousand, but later, she raised her limit to within five hundred thousand.

She had noticed that items originally worth only thirty or forty thousand, once bid on by other top-tier celebrities, would see their prices soar to over a million. Just moments ago, the venue had witnessed the first-ever item to fetch two million in its history.

As the prices of the auction items climbed higher and higher, He Jinxia enjoyed herself immensely, feeling that she played a major role in inflating the prices of the lower-value auction items.

Indeed, she was too good of a person—Harper’s Bazaar needn’t thank her~

After the auction continued for a while, the directors’ fears finally materialized.

When the thirtieth auction item was presented, it was a Golden Enamel Nine Peach Small Incense Burner, an antique. In ancient times, without hand warmers, people held such incense burners to keep warm.

The enamel’s bright colors made this small burner look nothing like an antique at all. Despite being a century old, it was still vivid and striking.

Not to mention those little cloud-shaped holes on the burner, a rare craftsmanship for ancient times. Thus, even if it wasn’t very old, Harper’s Bazaar had set an initial bid of a million for it.

The earlier items, with more commemorative than practical value, held little in the way of collectible worth, but starting with this small burner, the collectible value exceeded its practical value. As time went by, these collectibles would become increasingly precious.

According to previous norms, starting from the thirtieth auction item, there would be a significant jump in price, and the final bid would keep getting higher.

But today was an exception.

The price of this small burner went from one million to two million, but then no star called out a bid!

Super A-listers and superstars didn’t place bids because their moment was yet to come—it was supposed to be a stage for the A-list stars.

However, many A-list stars had already paid many times over the value for the earlier low-priced items. Having already reached their donation goals, they were thus confronted with this situation—

Stars uninterested in this auction item didn’t even want to call out a bid.

The host deliberately slowed down his voice and even added a few extra words, "Two million for the first time, two million for the second time, is there any higher bid? Two million—the third—time! Sold!!"

The host picked up the gavel and gave a decisive knock.

While waiting for the next auction item to be brought to the stage, the host scanned the stars below him; each was glamorous and looked spirited.

Yet for some reason, he had a bad premonition, as if the good luck from earlier had run out, and that things were not going to go smoothly hereafter.

The auction continued, and as three consecutive items failed to make a splash, the host began to feel anxious. Taking advantage of the intermission, he stepped aside to report to the person in charge from Harper’s Bazaar.

This time, the charity dinner was attended by the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar China Region, along with two deputy editors and the editor’s assistant.

The charity dinner, every year, was a major event for Harper’s Bazaar. The decision to hold it, selecting the venue, and the decoration all required considerable attention, and the editor-in-chief dared not neglect it.

At this moment, hearing the bidding for the items behind was not going smoothly, the female editor-in-chief frowned and her stern face gained a few more wrinkles as she said, "Why aren’t those A-list celebrities continuing to bid, according to what you said, their bids don’t even go beyond four rounds?"

The host nodded hastily, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, he was very nervous and afraid that he might mess things up!

The editor-in-chief said sternly, "Could it be there is a problem with the auction itself or the items being auctioned that’s making those A-list celebrities unwilling to continue bidding?"

The host took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat and shook his head, "That’s not right, if there were a problem with the items, they wouldn’t have been bidding so enthusiastically before."

One of the deputy editors sensed something and asked sharply, "They were very enthusiastic with their bids before?"

The host: "Yes, the bidding would go up to dozens of rounds before, even up to several tens of rounds."

Deputy editor: "That’s not right. The items auctioned before were of relatively low value, so why would those A-list celebrities join in the bidding?"

The editor-in-chief raised her eyebrows decisively and said, "There was something wrong with the bidding before. Investigate for me, find out which celebrity is causing trouble!"

The staff stationed in the castle began to operate, reporting everything they had seen, and very quickly, Harper’s Bazaar had compiled a list of celebrities participating in each of the auctions.

The name "Deng Zhaoyan" appeared very frequently in front of the editor-in-chief.

It was Deng Zhaoyan among the A-list celebrities who started bidding first, followed by Geng Ni, and then other A-list stars.

The battle among the top stars had arrived much earlier than she had anticipated, and the editor-in-chief’s face grew serious, a shadow lurking between her brows.

She had dealt with both Deng Zhaoyan and Geng Ni before, had an average private relationship with them, and had heard about the grudges between them. They could make a fuss all they wanted outside, but they should never do it during a charity gala like this!

The editor-in-chief immediately made a call to Geng Ni. She didn’t call Deng Zhaoyan because she couldn’t see through her behavior tonight.

Every celebrity could bring a phone to the gala, and during the break, some went to the restroom, while others gathered on the left side to eat and relax.

Geng Ni also went to the left side to eat something and paid special attention to He Jinxia, who was not far away nibbling on biscuits and sipping red wine.

Suddenly, her phone rang. Geng Ni saw the caller ID, her lips curling into a smile that deepened.

"Hello, good evening."

The editor-in-chief cut to the chase, "What’s going on between you and Deng Zhaoyan? Why are you intentionally disrupting the order of celebrity bids?"

Geng Ni said very innocently, "Editor-in-chief, I haven’t done anything, I’m just trying to protect myself!"

The editor-in-chief’s voice was cold, "Protect yourself from what?"

Geng Ni: "Deng Zhaoyan was the first to break the rules, constantly bidding on low-priced items and not giving other stars a chance. I was afraid she would monopolize all the low-priced items and even the items that only A-list celebrities could afford. I wouldn’t get any items at all, so I hurriedly placed a bid for one of the low-priced items."

"If you’ve investigated, you should know that after I got that low-priced item, I didn’t bid at all afterward. If I was really confronting Deng Zhaoyan, I wouldn’t let her purchase auction items smoothly without placing a single bid."