There were only 20 seconds left.
On one hand, Xie Xuan's bid had already reached 80 million per painting.
"Haiqiao!" Xu Duo tried to persuade her. "One painting at 8,000 yuan, two paintings cost 160 million yuan. Are you sure you have enough money in your account to cover this much?"
Lu Haiqiao was very insistent. "Yes!"
"But…"
"I must buy the paintings. No need to say anything else."
The final ten seconds.
Seeing the current price on the page remained at 80 million, Zhou Nuo was confident: "Brother Xuan, it seems like they should be out of money over there, we've got these two paintings locked."
Xie Xuan leaned against the cold tile wall, not saying a word.
He did not dare to let down his guard until the very end.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven…" Zhou Nuo counted down as he refreshed the webpage and gloated.
It was clear that today's opponent was a formidable figure, just unlucky to have encountered this person.
Xie Xuan was the sole heir appointed by Old Master Xie since birth.
At the age of 13, he was admitted to B City Top Middle School with the highest score, scoring full marks in all subjects.
Later, he found the school uniform there unsightly and refused to attend, even declining the Old Master Xie's offer to customize the uniform style. After much deliberation, he chose B City No.3 Middle School which had ordinary teachers.
The reason was that he found their school uniform more pleasing to the eye.
However, during his high school years, he attended school in personal clothing, and that new school uniform remained in the storeroom on the second floor of Xie's residence to this day.
Assuming that his antics would only happen once, he repeated the same behavior three years later during the higher education intake.
The difficult top scorer of the national college entrance examination did not even look at the admission notice of B University, a top university. He tore it up and said that he wanted to repeat his studies.
He considered it inauspicious that there wasn't number '8' in his total score on the college entrance examination.
However, despite his outrageous behavior, no one in the Xie family opposed him.
Even Xie Xuan's parents only said nonchalantly, "As long as our son is happy."
After all, this Young Master Xie was the youngest grandson of the Old Master. He was highly favored and could do whatever he wanted. No one could stop him.
But this time, the fearless Young Master Xie had made a mistake.
Why did he have to play with a paper airplane made from the 'Spring River' painting that the Old Master had painstakingly obtained?
The Old Master was so angry that he kicked him out of the house. If he didn't compensate the Old Master for an identical painting, he shouldn't regard him as Grandpa.
That was why Young Master Xie, who had never been interested in paintings and antiques, attached great importance to this auction.
An identical 'Spring River' painting was impossible to obtain because the original artist, Gao Xuan, couldn't be found despite all the efforts and resources Xie Xuan had invested. So he thought that if he could buy the other two paintings in the same series — 'Flower Moon" and 'Night' — it might help soothe the Old Master's anger.
The countdown timer on the screen indicated the end of the auction.
Zhou Nuo leisurely refreshed the webpage and saw a huge 'Deal' appeared on it. He smiled in satisfaction.
However, when he saw the final bid, he froze.
"Xuan, Brother Xuan…"
"Hm?" Xie Xuan replied lazily.
Zhou Nuo gulped and his voice trembled nervously. "No, no, We didn't get it."
"What?" Xie Xuan stood up straight in surprise.
Zhou Nuo repeated, "The final transaction price was 8,100 yuan. We failed."
"F*ck!" Xie Xuan clenched his fist and punched the tile wall.
…
After a storm, sunlight penetrated through the thick clouds.
Lu Haiqiao stared at the auction page that had ended, remaining silent for a long time.