Chapter 241
Mr. John made his entrance, but no one saw where he was, only heard voices.
A man with a heavy accent said from the front, “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have a pleasant evening here.”
There was then a restrained and polite applause from the stage, unlike the loud and hard clapping that was required at leadership meetings. Miss Zhu Er followed everyone else’s lead, clapping softly with both hands a few times.
Had it not been said that this was an auction, it would have been quite like the host coming out to thank his guests after a dinner party.
While Mr. John was speaking, the music of the gramophone stopped. When the music started again, Miss Zhu understood that Mr. John had finished speaking.
He had really spoken just one sentence.
It was really short and to the point.
After the music started again, the waiters started to serve the food from table to table again.
Ms. Zhu saw three waiters pushing a serving trolley slowly, stopping at each table, lifting the lid for the guests to see, and if the guests shook their heads or waved their hands, they put the lid back on and moved on to the next table.
Finally came to their table, Ms. Zhu two heart still want to ice cream are finished, but also on what? Cake?
The three waiters arrived at the table, first nodded to Su Chunjun and Zhu Er Miss, and then gently opened the lid.
Inside was not a dish or dessert.
On the silver plate was a box, which was open and seemed to contain a green bowl.
An auction item?
Zhu Er Miss immediately picked up the auction list and looked at it, seeing that only one item was written on the first page first, and the starting price was one hundred dollars.
US dollars.
Before she came, Ms. Zhu had explained to her some of the small rules agreed upon at auctions, such as the first lot, usually a small item with a cheap opening price, used to boost the atmosphere, if you just go to the auction to take a stroll, like a charity auction, with the purpose of spending money, then shooting the first one usually won’t be at a disadvantage.
–Ms. Zhu was tricked into attending the charity auction, and she didn’t get to shoot the cheap stuff in the front, and spent a lot of money on the back, and regretted it very much.
Ms. Zhu Er’s target was the grain at the back and was not interested in this bowl.
She looked at Mr. Su.
Mr. Su smiled and nodded to the waiter.
The waiter then took the box out from inside, cupped it with both hands and put it on the table in front of the two men, then took out the bowl from inside, and in the light of the candlelight, carefully spun it around for the two men to see, then put it back into the box, and stood up straight and didn’t move.
Su Chunjun reached out and took the bowl out only after the waiter had stepped back, people had two hands, he took it out with one.
“Oh, and there’s a lid.” He said with a smile, taking out the lid along with the inside.
It was a lidded bowl.
The bowl was turquoise in color and looked especially good in the candlelight.
He placed the bowl in front of Zhu Er Miss, apparently signaling for her to take a look as well.
Zhu Er Miss had never really seen such a beautiful green bowl – it didn’t feel like glass. Glazed?
She picked it up and put it in her hand and was shocked.
It seemed to be a jade bowl.
“Jade?” She asks Su Chunjun in a low voice.
Su Chunjun smiled and nodded, also whispering to her, “It’s Cui jade, it’s not worth much.”
Miss Zhu didn’t know what Cui jade was, and thought it was worthless when she heard him say it wasn’t. She did think the green bowl was quite pretty, the green color was very even and clean, with no impurities, and the shape was also very simple, with no carving, it was just an ordinary covered bowl.
But even if it looked good, she wouldn’t buy it.
The purpose of her visit was not antiques, but food.
So Second Miss Zhu put it down after looking at it.
Su Chunjun took out a fountain pen from his pocket and wrote a number on the auction sheet.
Zhu Er Miss looked sideways and saw that it read “300”.
Combined with the price, it meant that he had offered 300 dollars for the bowl.
Ms. Zhu didn’t say anything. She came here to buy food, and Mr. Su was on a business trip, so he couldn’t have come here to buy food. She would just be a good vase and smile.
The waiter collected the auction sheet and put the bowl back in the box before moving on to the next table.
They circled around and then disappeared out the back without coming back. Only the waiter came over a short while later to deliver their auction slips back, when the second lot came through the front again in the food cart.
Zhu Er Miss this time carefully re-read the auction list, the first two pages are just write a box, no labeling weight or other things, behind the price are also three digits, from the third page onwards the price is only on the four-digit number, it can be seen that the first two pages are all small things.
When each lot arrived at their table, Su Chunjun asked the waiter to take it out and look at it. He was like a young master who came to spill his money, with too much money to spend, wanting to look at everything and buy everything.
The first lot was delivered to their table. Apparently, young master Su’s bid of 300 dollars succeeded in winning this jade bowl.
After the bowl was delivered, Second Miss Zhu smiled and asked the waiter for a plate of chocolates. The chocolates were Ferrero-like, wrapped in gold foil, and Miss Zhu couldn’t help but savor the long-lost flavor even after she was full. Then she piled up the jade bowl with the chocolates delivered.
With practical action to prove to people, 300 dollars to buy back the antique jade bowl, is a special point of the candy box.
Su Chunjun was really happy, there was a special kind of tacit understanding surging through his heart.
This was a heart-to-heart.
Yan Yan was so compatible with him at all times and in all places.
They were true soul mates.
How lucky it should be to meet her in the midst of a sea of people.
Mr. John was at the second floor window monitoring the auction down here. He held up his binoculars and focused on the table of Su Chunjun and Miss Zhu Er.
At first glance, the impression was that this was a very young man and woman.
Although there were quite a few young people in this world nowadays who could make considerable accomplishments, he did not think that he would run into a pair right here in this kind of place.
At this age, they were usually young people who were still hiding under the umbrella of their families and wouldn’t be able to do anything yet.
He asked the secretary, “Do you know what family they are from?”
Although the secretary was Chinese, he didn’t know all the powerful people in China ah. He could only shake his head awkwardly, “I’m sorry sir, I don’t really know them, and Su and Zhu, they are both quite big family names in my country.”
Mr. John sighed, “Yes, yes, you Chinese have too many surnames.”
Mr. John had come to China ten years ago with the intention of doing something great.
He had wanted to memorize the surnames of all the aristocrats and prestigious families in China, and then go door-to-door to sell their banking products as well as services.
–But he was quickly defeated.
China is too big, China’s history is too long, China has too many emperors, and China has too many nobles.
It’s nothing like England.
The nobility of a piece of land in England rarely changed, and unless the king took back their lands and titles, or they lost them themselves, the succession of nobles was seldom broken. And it’s easy to tell the history of the family’s beginnings from the family name.
China, of course, had noble surnames, and Mr. John first recognized the surname of the Chinese emperor: Aisin Gioro.
–But there are many, many Aisin Gioro’s! Countless!
Mr. John remembers going to Peking to visit Mr. Aisin Gioro, and there were all kinds of Aisin Gioro, and a man who looked like a beggar stood in front of him in a tattered cotton jacket and said, “My ancestors are proper Aisin Gioro clan! A descendant of Prince Duan! I am the sixteenth generation grandson of Prince Duan.”
Mr. John understood at once that this was the descendant of a king who had fallen from grace. In short, a pauper.
He threw the pauper out.
Following this he discovered that there were not only princes with the surname Aisin Gioro in Peking, but many others. He was once introduced by a Chinese to the Empress’s father, who was said to be a Mongol prince.
Mr. John left Peking for the wider world. He soon met other powerful people. Once a merchant surnamed Liu told him when he came that he was a descendant of Liu Bang, the Gaozu of Han.
The Chinese teacher he hired told him that the Tang emperor’s last name was Li, the Song emperor’s last name was Zhao, the Ming emperor’s last name was Zhu, and the Han emperor’s last name was Liu, all of which were big surnames in China, and that there were a lot of people with those surnames.
John asked, “Are all these people descendants of the emperors?”
Chinese teacher (a poor showman who receives money to give lectures, with a mixture of arrogance and poverty): “Pretty much, some are, some aren’t.”
Mr. John: “I’m looking for the descendants who inherited the emperor’s legacy and land, where are they?”
Chinese teacher: “…… I guess they’re all gone.”
They must have all been cut off.
John didn’t know if this Chinese teacher he was looking for wasn’t speaking clearly, or if China was just too big for them to really have so many historical nobles. In the end, he had to give up on these lists of potential clients.
Mr. John sighed, “Even if I’ve been in China for ten years, I still don’t know you guys.”
However, he could see that the two youths in front of him were indeed both from wealthy backgrounds. It wasn’t that all those who could spend money were rich, but those who spent money to the point where there was no more money in their eyes were definitely rich.
Just in this period of time, that pair of young men and women had already auctioned off three or four things, they were really just here to play.
“Just sell them whatever they want. Just pay enough.” Mr. John said, “There’s nothing I can’t sell them here.”
The really valuable stuff had been put away long ago, so what was here was just some ordinary stuff.
Miss Zhu Er played with a Russian colored egg.
As soon as this colored egg appeared just now, Miss Zhu said “Oh my god” in Russian.
But as soon as it reached her hand, she knew it was just a replica. It wasn’t that it wasn’t exquisite, but it was a music box inside, made to look like a piano, with the name of the product written on it: Steinway & Sons.
So it was definitely not a Russian Easter egg, but an artifact made by Steinway.
When it was strung, it could play one bar of the Ode to Joy.
Miss Zhu Er strung it twice and realized that it could also change songs, and after two strings, it began to play Destiny.
It was probably her favorite piece of the lot so far.
It was listed at 150 dollars.
Young Master Su was very earthy when he spilled the money, not caring at all that it was a modern artifact or an American item, I guess I could just go to a department store in America and buy one right now.
He was still generous enough to write down the figure of 500 dollars.
Rightfully so, he immediately snapped up the music box egg.
After the waiters left the table of wrongdoers, Su Chunjun approached Second Miss and asked softly, “Do you like it?”
Second Miss Zhu nodded seriously, “Like it.”
It had been a long time since she had played with such a delicate toy.
“What’s next?” Zhu Er Miss rose with a sense of frugality, looking at the table of strange contraptions, she said to Su Chunjun, “Let’s not shoot the next one.”
Su Chunjun nodded, “If you say so.”
The next lot arrived, an old molded sheepskin box.
Second Miss Zhu opened the clasp and was surprised to find a set of syringes inside! There were four injection needles of different sizes and two glass syringes, also of different capacities. It was also double-layered, and when opened underneath, it turned out to be four medicines.
This was a real surprise.
Su Chunjun immediately came over to look at it, but he didn’t recognize it.
On the contrary, it was Miss Zhu Er, who had to memorize the names of many medicines because she had been studying health care seriously in the school health room, who recognized it.
The words on the medicine were in German.
……
But she hadn’t memorized the name of the medicine either, so she had no idea what it was.
It was in powder form, so it was unlikely to fail.
All she could be sure of was that it wasn’t an anesthetic, penicillin (penicillin), or any of the other drugs that were common and oddly absent from the school’s school hospital.
Whatever medicine this was, she thought it was pretty useful.
Zhu Er Miss changed her mind quickly and said without blushing at all, “Take a picture of this, I’ll go back and check what kind of medicine this is.” Besides, the syringe and needle are also very useful ah, double-layered it, it’s very convenient.
Mr. Su cheerfully took out his pen, “Good.”