Chapter 527 — Deliberate Sabotage

There was no need to sour relations over something so trivial, a mere worldly possession one could take or leave.

"These people are seriously rich!" Feng Xiaoxiao's tongue clicked as she listened to the closing bids that routinely ran into the tens of millions. "Give me just a tiny piece of that, and I could buy myself a Ferrari!"

"And how much did you swindle out of Wu Chengtian yesterday?" Wei Zhao put in, rather amused.

"Heh heh... well, who told him to provoke me?" Feng Xiaoxiao said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "Swindling him a little is nothing! He's lucky I didn't teach him a proper lesson! Say—Wei Zhao, what are you doing at the auction too? You and them..."

Feng Xiaoxiao had not given it much thought before, but recalling how Fatty Lai had called Wei Zhao "boss" a moment ago, her eyes went wide with astonishment. "You're that fatty's boss?"

Several dark lines materialized on Wei Zhao's forehead, and he was left momentarily speechless. He had overlooked the fact that Feng Xiaoxiao was right there beside him and had forgotten to warn Fatty Lai to mind his tongue—and now Feng Xiaoxiao had caught a whiff of it.

"That fatty is the president of a pharmaceutical company. He saw how skilled I am and wanted to be my lackey," Wei Zhao explained, in a way that was not quite a lie and not quite the truth.

"Oh, I see... That fatty looks pretty loaded?" Feng Xiaoxiao squinted over at Fatty Lai. "Hey, fatty—I'm your boss's woman. Aren't you going to give me a little welcome gift?"

"Ga?" Fatty Lai's eyes bulged, and he looked at Wei Zhao with a face full of questions.

"Pay her no mind. She's not right in the head," Wei Zhao said, waving a hand to signal that Fatty Lai should ignore Feng Xiaoxiao.

Fatty Lai gave a dry laugh and turned away, though inwardly he was puzzling it over: did this girl actually have something going with the boss or not?

"Is that really all there is to it? He seems to obey you awfully well. That pharmaceutical company—you don't have a stake in it too, do you?" Feng Xiaoxiao was no fool, and she certainly did not buy Wei Zhao's story. Just being highly skilled in martial arts was enough to make that fatty so obedient? That did not seem very likely, did it?

Wei Zhao ignored her and turned his gaze to the auction stage, for the next lot was the thousand-year snow lotus—though his real target was the box the snow lotus was kept in.

"Hmph! Fine, keep your secrets!" Seeing that Wei Zhao was ignoring her again, Feng Xiaoxiao grew a little piqued. Just how poorly did he think of her? In what way was she any less than Tang Zhi?

"The next lot is a thousand-year snow lotus!" The auctioneer slowly set an exquisite wooden box down upon the auction block and said in a measured voice, "I'm sure everyone knows what a thousand-year snow lotus is good for, so I won't waste time introducing it! You are all also well aware that snow lotuses are hard to come by these days—not to mention thousand-year ones, even hundred-year ones! This thousand-year snow lotus was discovered inside a cave and is of great antiquity; when it was found, it was already stored in this very box. It has been appraised by experts, and the snow lotus is at least a thousand years old..."

The auctioneer rattled on, recounting the whole history of the thousand-year snow lotus. In truth, all of this was noted in the auction catalogue; the auctioneer was merely repeating it in his own words.

"The reserve price for the thousand-year snow lotus is five million. Bidding begins now!" With that, the auctioneer waited for the bids to come in.

The thousand-year snow lotus did, for a moment, bring about a lull—because although most people had heard of such a thing, they had no idea how to use it. They were not in the pharmaceutical line; spending five million to take it home would, in all likelihood, be money down the drain.

So most of them simply watched and waited. But at that moment, someone made a bid.

"Six million!" Kang Guifeng rose and raised the paddle in his hand, naming a price that was not especially high—because in his estimation, there would not be many bidders for this thousand-year snow lotus, perhaps none at all.

Fatty Lai was watching too, and just as he was about to make his move, he saw Kang Guifeng raise his paddle and was momentarily taken aback. But then he reflected that the Kang family ran a pharmaceutical company as well, so it made sense for them to buy the thousand-year snow lotus. It was only unclear whether they were dead set on getting it.

"Eight million." Fatty Lai raised his paddle as well.

Yet Fatty Lai had been the center of attention at yesterday's auction, and the moment he raised his paddle today, it drew everyone's watching eyes—not because Fatty Lai was spending eight million on a thousand-year snow lotus, but because of the standoff between him and Kang Guifeng.

Yesterday, Fatty Lai and Kang Guifeng had competed over the life-extending detox pill; today they were at it again. Yet even with Fatty Lai and Kang Guifeng locked in competition, no one else chimed in.

For one thing, neither of these two was someone to trifle with—Fatty Lai especially, with Guan Xuewen standing behind him. Who would want to offend Guan Xuewen? To stir up trouble at a time like this would be to ask for a world of pain, wouldn't it?

Second, once they bought the thousand-year snow lotus, it would be of no use to them whatsoever, so no one would bid on it.

"Ten million!" Kang Guifeng's face darkened. He had not expected that fatso Lai to jump in and cut across his path! Originally he had thought he could take the thousand-year snow lotus for six million, but now he had no choice but to bid as high as ten million!

"Fifteen million!" Before Kang Guifeng's words had even died away, fatso Lai blandly named a new price.

"Damn it!" Kang Guifeng's face turned the color of pig's liver. He cursed under his breath and looked at Divine Doctor Kang. "Father, this fatso Lai is obviously here to make trouble on purpose! Yesterday he cheated our Kang family once already, and today I reckon he's got the same idea in mind!"

Nor was Kang Guifeng wrong to think so. Fellow tradesmen were foes — an unchanging truth through the ages — and it was only natural that fatso Lai would want to set himself against the Kang family.

"We must have this thousand-year snow lotus, no matter the cost! Whether he is making trouble or not, we cannot give it up." Divine Doctor Kang's expression was likewise somewhat sour, but for the Kang family to ascend smoothly to the rank of a great clan, this thousand-year snow lotus had to be obtained! Otherwise everything was finished.

"Twenty million!" Kang Guifeng named a rather high price, hoping to frighten fatso Lai off.

"Twenty-five million!" But fatso Lai was not the least bit afraid, and directly named a higher price.

"Thirty million!" Kang Guifeng said at once.

"Fifty million!" fatso Lai said, cool as could be.

Kang Guifeng was about to explode with rage. There were only two of them bidding — what did it mean to jack the price up by twenty million in one go like that? Did he have more money than he knew what to do with, or was he trying to scare people off?

"Fifty-five million!" Kang Guifeng glanced at his father, and only after seeing him nod did he continue bidding.

"Eighty million." Fatso Lai remembered Wei Zhao's bottom line, so he did not care to drag things out with Kang Guifeng anymore and simply called a high price outright. If you can accept that, then keep going!