AMTBYIGA Chapter 52
by Volare“What is this…”
“How could something of this quality be put up here?”
“Could it be that a staff member accidentally brought out something they bought themselves?”
The sounds of discussion surged like a tide through the audience seats. Gu Nian’s lips were pressed tightly together as he stared at the jade bracelet on the stage, his teeth making a grating sound.
Lin Sui didn’t understand what was going on, but he could see how much Gu Nian cared about the bracelet.
“Gu Nian,” he said, “do you like that?”
Lin Sui quickly recalled the balance in his bank account and then earnestly continued, “If you like it, I can buy it for you.”
Gu Nian turned back, forcing a smile on his face for Lin Sui, and touched Lin Sui’s head, shaking his head very slightly.
“No need, I’m just a little surprised.” His eyes were dark and impenetrable, and he muttered in a way that was hard to understand, “I didn’t expect Gu Zhi to be so obsessed to this point. That’s…”
But the rest of his words disappeared behind Gu Nian’s tightly closed lips. Lin Sui didn’t ask any further, but he put down his snacks, sat up straight, and slipped his fingers into his pocket, rubbing the smooth surface of the bank card, feeling a little more at ease.
Gu Nian seemed to really want that bracelet.
He had saved a lot of money recently, and he hoped the starting price would be low so that maybe he could buy it.
The auction quickly began. Most people weren’t interested in such an out-of-place jade bracelet in this setting, but Gu Zhong, sitting in another private room, was very interested.
He didn’t look at the auctioneer but stood at the door, slowly and deliberately straightening his suit. Then he pushed the door open and walked smugly toward the room next to his.
“Starting price – 500,000 yuan.”
The auctioneer paused, almost suspecting that he had read the script wrong.
The audience seats erupted in another wave of commotion.
“500,000? Is the organizer crazy?”
“This is worth at most 100,000. Is there something unique about it?”
“Hiss, now that you mention it, I suddenly feel like this bracelet looks a little familiar.”
In the private room on the second floor, Lin Sui’s heart was also struck hard. He subconsciously glanced at Gu Nian.
500,000.
His current savings were nowhere near that number.
Lin Sui suddenly clenched his hand, the bank card digging into his palm and making it ache. He said in disappointment, “I’m sorry, I can’t afford this.”
Gu Nian had already understood Gu Zhong’s little tricks, and his mood had calmed down instead. He reached out and pinched Lin Sui’s cheek, revealing a genuine smile. “What are you thinking? I never said I wanted it.”
“But you looked at it for so long…”
“I just thought it looked a little familiar,” Gu Nian said. “Do you remember the bracelet my grandfather gave me that I brought back last time? I suddenly realized this one looks a little like that one, so I took a few more glances.”
Lin Sui was half-convinced but couldn’t do anything about it. He picked up the small plate and stuffed all of his favorite snacks into Gu Nian’s arms.
“Eat more. The snacks here are so delicious.” Lin Sui clumsily coaxed Gu Nian, “When I earn more money in the future, I’ll buy you even prettier jade bracelets, a whole string of them!”
Gu Nian was amused, pinched Lin Sui’s slender arm, and raised his eyebrows teasingly. “With those little arms of yours, you’ll be exhausted if you wear a whole string of them.”
Lin Sui pouted as if displeased, but he didn’t reject Gu Nian’s closeness, and a large weight in his heart lifted.
The two were huddling together, whispering to each other, when suddenly, the door of the private room was opened.
Lin Sui subconsciously shielded Gu Nian behind him. When he saw who it was, his eyebrows furrowed together, not hiding his disgust. “Gu Zhong, what are you doing here?”
“That’s a very hurtful attitude,” Gu Zhong said with a gloating smile. “After all, I’m here to help you. If no one bids on that bracelet, it’ll be withdrawn from the auction. Gu Nian, you wouldn’t want the old man’s favorite thing to end up like that, would you?”
Lin Sui was confused by what he was hearing but keen.
Gu Nian’s grandfather, favorite thing.
Gu Nian cared about Gu Grandpa the most. The jade bracelet just now, was it actually Gu Grandpa’s keepsake?
Gu Zhi had actually allowed his illegitimate son to take Gu Grandpa’s things out for auction, and even deliberately let it be withdrawn to humiliate him.
Were these two really father and son, or were they enemies?
Lin Sui’s heart suddenly suffocated, and a subtle, dense ache spread from his chest to his whole body.
He turned his head and, as expected, saw the dark look in Gu Nian’s eyes. Lin Sui held Gu Nian’s hand. It was ice-cold.
Gu Zhong laughed heartily. “Gu Nian, I didn’t expect you to have this day. This feeling of being controlled by others isn’t good, is it?”
“But you know, I’m not a bad person. I don’t mind throwing out a check to help a pitiful worm.” Gu Zhong said, “As long as you kneel down and beg me now, and have your wife accompany me for a day, I’ll help you buy the old man’s keepsake. How about that?”
As he spoke, he sized up Lin Sui’s body with a sticky, disgusting gaze. Lin Sui felt a chill and almost threw the cup he had on hand at that disgusting face.
In fact, he really wanted to do that. But someone was faster than him.
Gu Nian turned his wheelchair and was in front of Gu Zhong in the blink of an eye. At the same time, he raised his arm, and the tea in the teapot poured out, soaking Gu Zhong’s entire upper body. The expensive fabric wrinkled and stuck to his body, making him look disheveled.
“Gu Zhong, I remember telling you,” Gu Nian threw the teapot aside casually, the teapot hitting the ground with a crisp “clang”. His deep eyes stared at Gu Zhong’s twisted face, and his voice was cold. “There are some things you can say, and some things you can’t say. It seems you still haven’t remembered.”
Gu Zhong was stunned for a moment, then broke out in a furious scolding, tearing apart the respectability that his fancy clothes had been faking. “Gu Nian, you ungrateful bastard who doesn’t even want his own father, you dare to splash water on me? It seems you don’t have much affection for that old geezer either. Anyway, you can only crawl at my feet now, and you’re not even willing to kowtow to me. You heartless bastard, you dare to splash me…”
His eyes were bloodshot as he picked up the teapot from the ground, raised his arm high, and was about to smash it down. Lin Sui, who had also been stunned by the side, instantly snapped back to his senses. Without hesitation, he went up and forcefully kicked Gu Zhong to the side, then nervously felt Gu Nian’s hand.
“Are you okay? Your hand is all red.”
Gu Nian’s hand was indeed red, but it was because he had been so angry that he had pinched it himself. Gu Nian lowered his eyes slightly, still expressionless, but his tone was a little more tired. “Yeah.”
Gu Zhong, who had fallen against the door and was groaning in pain: ?
Huh?
What the hell do you mean, “yeah”?
Gu Zhong was so angered by this single word that he lost his mind. He pounced like a beast, wanting to hit him. Lin Sui quickly grabbed the dining knife from the table and held it horizontally in front of him. Gu Zhong, who had been rolling up his sleeves as if he were unstoppable, abruptly stopped, his mouth full of dirty words, but he didn’t dare to step forward again.
“Gu Nian, just wait and see the old man’s things being treated like garbage. His good grandson, but now he’s not even willing to spend 500,000. Do you think he’ll regret being so good to you?”
After saying this, Gu Zhong slammed the door and left.
The private room was eerily quiet for a moment.
“Gu Nian,” Lin Sui hesitated for a long time, not knowing what to say to comfort him.
“It’s okay,” Gu Nian said as if nothing had happened, and instead took Lin Sui’s wrist in his hand, gently stroking it a few times. “Don’t take Gu Zhong’s words to heart. Grandpa only wants me to live well. With you here, I’m very happy.”
Lin Sui nodded, but he felt very bad in his heart.
He thought that if he worked harder, wouldn’t Gu Nian have to be so passive now? At least he could help him buy Grandpa’s keepsake.
Lin Sui seemed to be trapped in some kind of dead end, his mind filled with the moments he had secretly slacked off in the past. The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt, and gradually, his vision blurred, and something dripped down with a “plop plop” sound.
“Why are you such a crybaby?” Gu Nian pulled Lin Sui into his arms, helplessly and tenderly wiping away his tears.
Lin Sui wiped his face hard, not wanting Gu Nian to see his face, and said in a muffled voice with a nasal tone, “I’m sorry, I, I can’t buy Gu Grandpa’s things for you. You must really want it, it’s all because I’m not working hard enough, if I worked harder…”
“Lin Sui.” Gu Nian suddenly became stern, and Lin Sui’s spine stiffened in fright, almost afraid to hear what he would say.
But Gu Nian became forceful, pressed close to Lin Sui’s ear, and said very seriously, word by word, “You have never done anything wrong. You have done your best. This whole thing is Gu Zhong’s deliberate attempt to make things difficult for me. Even if we really had 500,000, he would deliberately raise the price on us. So, the one who should really say sorry is me.”
He grabbed Lin Sui’s chin, forcing him to look into his eyes. “Lin Sui, I’m sorry. I’m dragging you down, making you a target for Gu Zhong.”
“Don’t say that,” Lin Sui said anxiously. “I volunteered to be with you. It’s all because Gu Zhong is uncivilized and came out to bite people. How could it be your fault?”
“That’s right, so Lin Sui, this isn’t your fault either,” Gu Nian said in a softer tone, gently smoothing Lin Sui’s tear-streaked forehead. “Don’t be sad because of him.”
Lin Sui thought about it carefully and felt that it made sense. He embarrassedly wiped away the tear stains with a tissue, struggling to get off Gu Nian’s lap.
Just at this moment, a turning point suddenly appeared for the jade bracelet, which was about to enter the process of being withdrawn from the auction.
“One million.”
A lazy male voice came from a certain private room.
Everyone was stunned, including Gu Nian. He searched for the room from which the bid had come, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.
The bracelet left by Grandpa was just an ordinary jade bracelet, the quality of the jade was very mediocre, otherwise Gu Zhong wouldn’t have used this method to humiliate him. Besides Gu Nian himself, who would spend so much money to buy it?
But—a glint flashed in Gu Nian’s eyes—this was a good opportunity.
Gu Nian took out his mobile phone and sent a short instruction to Jiang Sheng’s people in another private room.
A few seconds later, another different male voice came from a private room near the center.
“One and a half million.”
An increase of one and a half times in one go!
Such a large bid was very rare, so that many people who had originally dismissed the jade bracelet began to waver, suspecting that they were short-sighted and couldn’t see the mystery in it.
Under this psychology, a few people successively raised their bids, but almost every time after a bid was made, the lazy male voice that had appeared for the first time would closely follow, and then Jiang Sheng’s voice would appear. After repeating this several times, the auction price had reached a terrifying five million!
This time, the audience seats were silent again, but the reason was completely different from before.
Five million. This was already a price that needed careful consideration.