Chapter 242

Before the auction on page three began, the music from the phonograph suddenly stopped. The waiters came to the various round tables and said that it was curtain time-as if they were at the opera.

Whatever the reason, everyone was invited out.

Coming from the poorly lit dining room into the brightly lit hallway, Miss Wishy-Washy had the sense of having just come back from the movies.

“Oh dear.” She pulled out a small lace folding fan from her handbag and whirled it twice to cover her yawning mouth, “What time is it?”

She lifted her wrist and looked at the time from the watch Ms. Su bought for her, “I can’t believe it’s already eleven o’clock.”

They probably arrived here at seven thirty, started eating at eight, finished eating around ten, and it was already eleven o’clock after photographing two pages.

She re-flip the auction list, a total of ten pages.

“This is to get to three or four o’clock ah.” Zhu Er Miss asked Mr. Su, “Can you have them serve two cups of coffee later?”

Mr. Su walked along the corridor with Miss Zhu on his arm. The house used for the auction was quite large, in his experience, this should be the secondary building, probably the left wing of the main building, because the staircase was to the right.

The secondary building wasn’t very high, only four floors. The floor they were on was the highest – which meant that if someone wanted to steal a shot it wouldn’t be very convenient, he’d need to run down four floors and meet a security team on at least three.

Everyone here was definitely carrying a gun.

Mr. Su, of course, also carried a gun. Driver Chen, who drove them here, also carried a gun, but Chen was outside watching the car and didn’t come in, so there should be other weapons in the car.

It wasn’t that he was going to make trouble here today, he had Yan Yan with him.

It was just in case.

If someone wants to make trouble, they have a chance of getting out in one piece.

But the likelihood of something going wrong with this auction was extremely small.

Because this auction didn’t touch the nerves of any party. Even the most arrogant Japanese didn’t come, which meant that HSBC didn’t want anything to go wrong before they safely evacuated the city – they must have eliminated all the security risks.

The wide corridor circled around the entire top floor of the building, even next to the floor-to-ceiling windows could be pushed open, and you could walk out onto the balcony for a turn.

It seemed that they weren’t being watched, and there weren’t many waiters around, and they didn’t look like they were tasked with spying on the guests, they looked like ordinary waiters.

It was as if the two had been sitting for a long time on their way to the opera and had just come out to take a walk, holding idleness surprisingly.

After turning around, Second Miss Zhu mentally counted the people she had just encountered in the corridor and whispered to Su Chunjun, “The number of guests seems to be incorrect.”

The hall was so big just now, she had mentally calculated how many tables there were in this hall based on the distance to the next table, and then extrapolated the number of guests based on the number of tables.

Basic student skills. There was no way to stop seeing math problems.

But the guests she had just met in the corridor were less than a third of the number just now.

Su Chunjun put his arm around her and whispered, “There are some guests who were led out by the waiter from the stairs over there as soon as they came out.”

The corridor was circular, but not positively circular, it also had many decorations and windows as barriers, there were two staircases, both in the middle of the corridor, but back to back, when a guest went down, even the people on the opposite side couldn’t see whether he went down or turned around.

The guest who left of course had no access to the next auction.

The two of them were not led out by the waiter, and were obviously able to participate in the next one.

Su Chunjun was afraid that Yan Yan would be nervous, and even told her jokes.

“I’ve heard that the stairs were built this way so that the king could go and meet his mistress without the queen knowing. The opera house and other places use this kind of staircase also for the convenience of the gentlemen.” This was an anecdote he had heard while studying abroad, and he did not know whether it was true or not.

Miss Zhu Er, who had the utmost trust in this kind of wild history, immediately believed it, her eyes shining brightly, “Really? I heard that every king in foreign countries has a mistress.”

Su Chunjun did not forget to show his loyalty, “Yes, foreign men are not as steadfast as me, I have you, I will never look at another woman again.”

Zhu Er Miss took her fan and lightly patted his shoulder, “Hmph, don’t think I’ll believe you just because you say some sweet words. I’m not that easy to fool.” While saying this, she laughed, her eyes looking at him and blinking, making this threat with a murderous aura sound sweeter than sweet words.

Mr. Su didn’t feel threatened at all, and as if he was intoxicated, he continued to say nice things, “How can they be as good as you? All of them are stupid, they can only compare jewelry, they have no brains.”

Zhu Er Miss didn’t follow the cards, her face sank, and she said angrily, “Are women the only stupid people you’ve seen? I don’t believe it.”

Mr. Su immediately changed his words and said seriously, “I’ve seen many more men than women, and I may not be able to see one woman even if I see a hundred men. What I just said are all men stupid.”

The two just fought while walking around until the waiter came over and softly informed them that they could go in and continue.

When they walked in again, it was still the same dark hole, the spacing between the tables had gotten so large that she was beginning to not even be able to tell if the next table was sitting with a man or a woman.

The candles on the table were changed.

Zhu Er Miss reached out for the waiter, she snapped her fingers and the waiter came over immediately.

“May I ask what your orders are?” The waiter asked softly.

Ms. Zhu Er: “Do you have coffee?”

Waiter: “Yes, may I ask what kind of coffee you need?”

Zhu Er Miss started to order, “I’d like a mocha, with more chocolate.” Then she turns her head to ask Mr. Su what he wants.

Mr. Su: “Just plain coffee.”

The waiter quickly brought it up, and the aroma of coffee wafted out.

In the darkness, I could see people at the other tables turning their heads to find out where the coffee aroma was coming from.

What was brought up was more than just coffee, of course, but also a three-tiered tower of pastries, plain milk and squares of sugar.

Although she had just eaten quite a bit, the habit of a cookie after a meal was something that Miss Zhu Er hadn’t yet broken, it was just that she hadn’t been able to eat cookies at Little Red House for a long time. It’s not that Mr. Su doesn’t buy them for her anymore, but even the Westerner’s cake store is closed.

Zhu Er Miss quickly picked up her old hobby, first picking an almond cookie from the many cake cookies, and after taking a bite, she took another one to Mr. Su.

She bit into the cookie and said, “It’s quite delicious.”

It was sprinkled with crunchy roasted almond slices, and the milky flavor of the almonds radiated out, making it a rare delicacy.

And so, following the scent of coffee, the crunching of the cookie bites went out a long way, especially noticeable in the silent, darkened hall.

Mr. John, on the second floor, put down his binoculars, sat down in his chair, and said to his secretary, “Tell them to bring me something to eat.”

The secretary went to order the waiter and came back muttering to Mr. John, “These two young men are really newborns.”

Soon the waiter not only brought the food, but also learned the conversation the pair of young men had just had in the hallway. Although their voices were small, they could probably still hear some of it.

After listening to the waiter’s report, Mr. John said, “Boring young people.” He shook his head, picked up a piece of brownie, and took a big bite.

The auction on page three was the same as always, with the waiter pushing the delivery cart over.

When the delivery cart came to Ms. Zhu Er, she put down her food with interest, wiped her hands with a napkin, and took a piece of paper handed over by the waiter.

Taking it over, it was good, it was in German.

Her German only stayed at the stage of “hello, good morning”, and she hadn’t memorized any new words for a long time.

Su Chunjun gave up after one look, he could only recognize German, but he couldn’t even say “hello, good morning”.

Live to learn, learn to grow old.

Especially when he saw Ms. Zhu struggling to read with her barren vocabulary, his male pride wouldn’t allow him to fall behind.

Turning back to German, he could still put up a fight if only he could squeeze a little more sleep out of it.

Second Miss Zhu, relying on the fact that no one knew how much she knew anyway, insisted on reading the sheet from beginning to end before returning it to the waiter.

Then neither of them wrote the price on the auction sheet – it was marked at 8000.

The reserve price was 8,000 dollars, and one raise was 1,000 dollars.

After the waiter left, Mr. Su did not take the initiative to ask what was written on that piece of paper, considering Miss Zhu Er’s self-esteem.

He was well aware of his former student’s level.

–She could never recognize the full text.

–Should have just pretended that she would.

But Miss Zhu Er had thrown away her face after becoming an unmarried couple with Mr. Su, and she felt no shame at all, taking the initiative to say to Mr. Su after the waiter had left, “I don’t know what’s written on that piece of paper.”

Su Chunjun nodded with a comforting smile.

Second Miss Zhu: “But there are a lot of values in it, several of them, so I’m guessing it’s some sort of machinery. A large one.”

Su Chunjun raised an eyebrow in surprise and began to think in his mind what kind of machinery it was.

The second food cart came by quickly as well, still containing a piece of paper.

Thank goodness, this time it was an English instruction manual.

This time both of them could read it, it was a spinning machine.

Su Chunjun also guessed out that the one just now and this one, the auction was probably a whole production line, or a machine from a factory that had stopped working.

Zhu Yuyan instantly figured it out.

The situation outside was so bad that it was no longer possible for the factory to maintain normal production.

If it was auctioned off, it should be the factory that mortgaged the most valuable machines in the factory to the bank, right? After they stopped production, the bank pulled the factory’s machines according to the contract?

Two months ago, she had thought of sending Shi Qiao’er and the girls to work as female laborers, but it turned out that the factory had stopped working now.

Because the factory is not just an American factory, in fact, most of the textile mills in the city are actually run by nationals. Not only here, Jiangnan there, the first to use machines instead of manual labor, is the Chinese businessmen. They had long ago discovered the huge profits in it.

She used to think that maybe the most enlightened people in this world should be the merchants. They were always the first to accept new technology and new ideas, and as long as there was money to be made and more money to be made, they could not hesitate to discard the old technology in favor of the new.

The skirts and shirts sold in department stores always said they were American cotton. But the truth is that the cotton may indeed be shipped from the United States, but it is spun into thread in Chinese factories, woven into cloth, turned into skirts, and finally sent to department stores.

The brands advertised in pictorials and newspapers were also almost all domestically produced. Everything from flower water to matches is made in China with foreign technology.

Soda, which has only become popular in the summer of the last two years, is also American technology, and I’ve heard that even the glass bottles that contain the soda are made with American machinery.

Technological innovation has brought about the breaking down of technical barriers. Jiangnan’s silk is very famous, before the master design, skilled embroiderer elaborate production for several months to weave a horse. But with the new technology of the United States, as long as the money, you can buy a new machine, after the start of the machine, what fresh weaving patterns, what new fabrics, can be woven.

Chinese merchants used the new American machines and technology to make a lot of money.

The former Zhu family, now the Jin Gongguan, had dozens of hundreds of factories, with all the new foreign technology and new machines.

However, commercial activities, in the final analysis, can only take root in a peaceful land.

I wish the family’s demise, in fact, with the Qing Dynasty is related to the demise of the Qing Dynasty. The Zhu family relied on the Qing dynasty’s big officials fell Zhu family is finished, the Qing dynasty’s big officials fell because the Qing dynasty is finished.

Master Jin used to rely on the British to do business, rely on the Japanese to do business, and earned more than a few gold mountains. But when the land where he was located began to be in turmoil, he was also finished, and he was the first to be finished.

If businessmen can’t see through this, they really deserve to die.

In times of peace and prosperity, more money can generate power.

In the last days of chaos, more money is a death wish.

Zhu Yuyan looked at the machine being auctioned, can not help but think, the original owner of these machines …… is afraid that now is not as valuable as these machines, but also not as safe as these machines, at least the bank will be good to these machines to find a new place to place.

But who still cares about the original owner of the factory that has been closed, now what is the end of it?