As Zhou Qiao'er spoke, she was the first to unwrap the packaging and take out the Nine-Tailed Fox teapot ornament.
Li Mao stepped forward, carefully taking the ornament with both hands and presenting it to Li Yifeng.
Li Yifeng inspected the teapot ornament once, twice, three times...
His eyes grew wider and wider.
Even Ye Chen, who had just calmed down, glanced over. With just one look, Ye Chen couldn't help but gasp in shock: "This... how is this possible!? This is made from the same material as the He Shi Bi!"
Li Yifeng discreetly glanced at the Li family members behind him before holding the Nine-Tailed Fox teapot ornament aloft. "Miss Zhou, this is a priceless treasure worth at least ten billion. Are you really gifting this to our Li family?"
Li Yifeng's words caused all the Li family members to widen their eyes in disbelief.
This small, toy-like teapot ornament... worth ten billion!?
This was a massive gesture, an absolutely lavish one!
Li Yifeng's gaze towards Zhou Qiao'er and Tang Ao softened immediately.
These two youngsters, they knew how to be respectful!
With this Nine-Tailed Fox ornament that Zhou Qiao'er had gifted, no one in the Li family could criticize what had transpired today!
The eight billion worth of teapots and tea pets that Ye Chen had just smashed no longer posed any threat to Li Yifeng or the Li family.
A complete waste!
Ye Chen, who had just started to feel somewhat relieved, became immensely frustrated once again!
Looking at the shattered pieces on the ground, Ye Chen felt his heart bleeding.
Eight billion!
That was eight billion yuan!
If it had all been withdrawn from the bank in cash, it could have filled a small lake!
And his eight billion had made no impact whatsoever, completely wasted, and he couldn't even demand compensation from anyone!
Now, he was relegated to being nothing more than a background character!
"Tang Ao, fortune changes hands, and soon we will..."
Just as Ye Chen was about to leave, Zhou Qiao'er interrupted him and continued speaking, "Oh, this isn't for your Li family. This teapot ornament is a birthday gift we specially prepared for Tang Ao's old classmate, Li Shiyun, who is celebrating her twenty-fourth birthday today."
Li Yifeng and the rest of the Li family showed visible disappointment.
Everyone in the Li family knew that Li Shiyun and the family had differing philosophies. If not for her birthday today, she hadn't visited the Li family in three years!
The Li family's philosophy was to live a reclusive life, focused on martial arts training without meddling in worldly affairs, seeking only mastery of martial skills.
Li Shiyun, on the other hand, believed that martial arts were meant to protect the weak and uphold justice. Training for the sake of training was meaningless in her eyes.
"Of course, as it's our first time visiting, we wouldn't just bring a gift for an old friend. This pair of tea pets is for you," Zhou Qiao'er continued, pulling out the Pearl Jade White Tiger and the Pearl Jade White Lion from the packaging.
Ye Chen's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He couldn't comprehend how Tang Ao and Zhou Qiao'er had gotten their hands on such priceless treasures!
These were items only mentioned in historical records!
Was this the world of the wealthy?
Was this the joy of being rich?
Ye Chen now felt more and more like a clown. He wished he could find a hole to crawl into!
Today, in this confrontation with Tang Ao, Ye Chen had suffered a complete defeat!
The three tea pets Zhou Qiao'er had presented were each worth over ten billion yuan, and each one was a rare, priceless treasure!
Especially the pair of Lion and Tiger ornaments. Individually, their value was slightly lower than that of the Nine-Tailed Fox, but as a pair...
At an auction, the pair of tea pets would fetch at least twenty-five billion yuan!
Realizing these gifts were for him, Li Yifeng took a closer look and quickly stopped Li Mao, who had been about to present the gift to him.
The importance of these Lion and Tiger tea pets might not be apparent to others, but as the head of the Li family, Li Yifeng immediately recognized their immense value!
Li Mao had trained in martial arts from a young age and was rather rough with his hands... What if he damaged them?
These were a personal gift to him!
Without hesitation, Li Yifeng shoved the Nine-Tailed Fox tea pet into Li Mao's hands, stepped forward, and personally accepted the Pearl Jade White Lion and White Tiger from Zhou Qiao'er, his delight growing with every glance.
"Good, good, excellent!"
As a martial artist, Li Yifeng regretted not being more well-read. In his excitement, he couldn't find suitable words and ended up repeating "good" three times, each time louder and more enthusiastic than the last.
Seeing the situation now sealed, Tang Ao glanced at Ye Chen, who was looking dejected and about to leave in disgrace. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
[Sigh, how did things end up like this?]
[I don't understand. Where exactly did the plan go wrong? How did the perfect moment for showing off get derailed so suddenly?]
[If Ye Chen finds out that all these items were picked up from the antique street for just over ten thousand yuan, he might faint from sheer anger! These should've been the rare finds that he discovered!]
Tang Ao's thoughts caused Zhou Qiao'er's eyes to light up.
If they could infuriate Ye Chen to death today...
Then wouldn't all future troubles be solved?
"Uncle Li, these gifts were all carefully selected by me, with Tang Ao's help, from the antique street. There are two more tea pets and a teapot we brought as gifts for the Li family elder. Altogether, we spent less than a thousand yuan on them, so please don't be too polite. Just accept them."
In order to further irritate Ye Chen, Zhou Qiao'er deliberately reduced the price from over ten thousand to under a thousand yuan.
As Zhou Qiao'er's words fell, everyone in the Li family turned to look at Tang Ao.
Even Li Yifeng, the head of the Li family, rubbed his eyes and began to reassess Tang Ao.
These priceless treasures worth tens of billions were actually picked out by Tang Ao from the antique street!
As a native of Longquan, even though the Li family had been in seclusion for many years, they knew very well how treacherous the waters of the antique street were. As the head of the family, Li Yifeng was well aware of this!
Each year, stories circulated about people striking it rich from lucky finds, much like winning the lottery, but most of these tales were staged performances to attract more business!
Yet here were real treasures, and Tang Ao and Zhou Qiao'er had found them for a ridiculously low price!
When Ye Chen heard this, his muscles tensed up, and every cell in his body began trembling uncontrollably.
The antique street!
A little over a thousand yuan!
If only Ye Chen had arrived an hour earlier...
If only Ye Chen hadn't been wrongfully detained at the police station that morning...
Suddenly, a terrifying thought crept into Ye Chen's mind.
Could it be...
That all of this had been part of Tang Ao's plan from the start?
The five thugs had been sent by Tang Ao to knock on his door!
And it was right after Ye Chen had taken those thugs in as his underlings that Li Shiyun had shown up with a large group of police officers to drag him to the station, delaying him by two hours and allowing Tang Ao to swoop in and snatch all the valuable items from the antique street, leaving him humiliated in front of the Li family!
The more Ye Chen thought about it, the more convinced he became that this had all been part of Tang Ao's grand scheme!
Such deep calculations!
At that moment, Ye Chen was filled with terror.
This man must not be allowed to live!!!
[Damn it! Zhou Qiao'er, when did you start lying without a second thought? I wasn't involved in this at all! Don't drag me into your nonsense!]
[You're the one who insisted on buying those things! I was against it the whole time!]
Seeing the rage burning in Ye Chen's eyes, Tang Ao couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.