Chapter 479 Priceless Members.h.i.+p Card
Sun Ming was confused, not knowing why they would lose 23 million yuan as the profitable party in a business that could have made three million yuan for them.
He couldn’t help wondering if it would have been better for him to choose one of those “sending money” contracts in the beginning.
“Did I make the wrong choice?”
Hesitating for a while, Sun Ming didn’t say anything more, because he felt that Mr. Zhang didn’t attach much importance to money.
So he contacted his friends in North America again and decided on the business. They spent money without hesitation, and the other side was correspondingly decisive, promising to send the finished product to them within five days.
Zhang Han and Zi Yan sat in the office for a few minutes and then went back to the restaurant.
After discussing the details with the Hollywood special effects team in his office, Sun Ming signed an electronic contract with the company to which the team belonged.
Then Sun Ming could not sit down anymore.
After a few sips of tea, he sighed and went downstairs.
On the second floor, he saw Zhao Feng.
“Well, Zhao Feng,” Sun Ming said h.e.l.lo from afar.
Zhao Feng had just arranged several tasks for his subordinates. When he heard Sun Ming’s voice, he turned and walked toward him, smiling. “What happened, Uncle Sun?”
“Well… Our first business there is going to lose money,” Sun Ming rubbed his hands and said in a guilty tone.
“Why do we lose money? Is it the public service advertis.e.m.e.nt of my master and madam?” Zhao Feng asked.
“Yes.” Sun Ming sighed and said, “The other side only paid three million yuan, but Mr. Zhang hated the special effects we made, so he found the top special effects team in Hollywood and made the advertis.e.m.e.nt according to the highest specification, so we will lose more than 23 million yuan, which means that I’ll fail in my first business venture as president. Do you think it’s because of the intention contract I chose? I think it would have been better to choose a contract that seems to be giving us money.”
“Well.” Zhao Feng shook his head and smiled. “Uncle Sun, are you worrying about this small business?”
“Small business?” Sun Ming was stunned.
“You haven’t been working with my master long enough. Let me tell you that.” Zhang Feng thought about it and said, “The company now has nearly five billion in working capital. We bought two luxury private planes and two helicopters, which cost 1.6 billion.”
“1.6 billion?” Sun Ming’s eyelids quivered slightly.
In his opinion, this was not a small number, which even exceeded the market value of many companies. And it was pure liquidity that could be used to do a lot of things.
“As long as it’s about money, it’s not a problem. If my master is short of money, he can easily earn a lot through making and selling some elixir. Moreover, tomorrow there will be an auction of my master’s restaurant members.h.i.+p card. I conservatively estimate that its price will be more than 200 million. Therefore, Uncle Sun, you should mainly consider it from the perspective of the madam, and I think your choice this time was very good. It was not a waste of time and the master was able to partic.i.p.ate in it. Isn’t that good?” Zhao Feng said with a smile.
He didn’t know how much his teacher’s mother had paid for Zhang Han’s performance.
“Which kind of medicinal pellet?” Zhao Feng’s words instantly awakened Sun Ming.
It was Mr. Zhang’s medicinal pellet that had cured Sun Ming’s incurable disease. If such kind of medicinal pellet could be sold, the price would certainly exceed imagination. Therefore, Sun Ming didn’t need to worry about the money.
“But… we can’t always lose money, or I will become a joke as the president.”
Sun Ming still felt uncomfortable. After chatting with Zhao Feng for a few minutes, he went back to his office and decided to be more cautious and thoughtful about future projects.
Maybe this was the difference between people. Sun Ming could be an excellent accountant, not a heroic leader like Liu Qingfeng.
Today was Friday, and Saint Kindergarten’s cla.s.ses would be finished at noon.
When Zhang Han and Zi Yan went to pick up Mengmeng, Mengmeng invited w.a.n.g Yihan to visit Mount New Moon in the afternoon. So Su Yu and w.a.n.g Yihan went to the restaurant for lunch at noon then went to Mount New Moon together in the afternoon.
During this period, Su Yu once again expressed her envy of Zi Yan. She said that Zi Yan was very happy since Zhang Han could cook, do something romantic, take care of the child, and even build a Xanadu for Zi Yan. What an all-round husband he was! Zi Yan was pleased to hear that, feeling as though she had tasted honey.
The next day…
The Wanqing Auction Company, which was owned by the Lin Group and located in the Western District, started its large auction in autumn.
The Wanqing Auction Company held two large-scale auctions every year, namely, the Spring Auction and the Autumn Auction, one on May 1st and the other on November 1st.
The scale of the Wanqing Auction Company was relatively large. It was located at No. 173 Hanfeng Road, Western District, on the ninth floor of the Lin Group.
Although Lin Xue’s father was not particularly important, he also had some influence because many rich people liked collecting antiques, and he had connections with them.
“PaPa, what is an auction?”
The family of three was on their way to the auction. Zi Yan and Mengmeng were both well-dressed, and they helped Zhang Han to match his clothes, making him look relaxed and cool in his pants and casual clothes.
This time they didn’t drive the panda car. The invitation letter of the auction was sent to Zhao Feng, so they all got in Zhao Feng’s Land Rover.
In the back seat, Mengmeng in Zhang Han’s arms asked about it curiously when she learned that they were going to an auction.
“Auctions are not things. They are places where other people’s things are sold, and the buyers bid for them. Whoever offers the highest price will finally get the treasure,” Zhang Han explained with a smile.
“Hmm.” Mengmeng responded, blinking her bright eyes. Then she looked up at Zhang Han and asked, “Is there an ice cream auction there?”
Zhang Han couldn’t help laughing.
“Mengmeng, we had ice cream yesterday.” Zi Yan reminded her.
“But I feel a little hot,” said Mengmeng, pouting.
“Haha, Feng, there’s a shopping mall in front. Stop the car,” Zhang Han said with a smile.
“Great. PaPa is the best man. Mwah, mwah, mwah.”
Mengmeng was happy, so Zi Yan didn’t say anything, but instead rolled her eyes at Zhang Han. “Hmph, you never refuse her.”
“MaMa is the best, too.” Mengmeng was clever and she approached Zi Yan and kissed her.
So Zhao Feng stopped at the roadside of the shopping mall and got out to buy two boxes of ice cream, one for Mengmeng, one for Zi Yan and Zhang Han.
When the ice cream was eaten up, the car arrived at the Lin Group.
The parking lot downstairs was full of luxury cars.
Many well-dressed people were walking into the office building in groups.
After Zhao Feng parked the car, they went through the gate, got on the elevator, and arrived on the ninth floor. In front of the auction site, there was a desk with two men sitting at it.
“h.e.l.lo, please show me your invitation,” said one of them enthusiastically.
“Here you are.” Zhao Feng took out the invitation and handed it to him.
After seeing the invitation, the young man took out a seat number from the drawer and became more enthusiastic. “Welcome, this is your seat number.”
“Thank you.” Zhao Feng nodded and looked at the number. It was 066-070.
It seemed that their seats should be in the middle of the third and fourth rows.
They entered the auction hall and fount it brilliant. All the curtains around were closed, and several stacked chandeliers above the hall were s.h.i.+ning. In the upper part of the center of the hall, there was also a main light, like blooming flowers, sending out soft light.
Nearly 300 people were sitting in the hall, chatting with each other. Although their voices were not loud, they were still noisy because of their large number. It was obvious that the people who came here today were all rich or influential. Among them were young girls and young men who were nearly 20 years old, and middle-aged and old people who were 50 or 60 years old. But none of them had come here with their children like Zhang Han did.
“We should be in the third row.” Zhao Feng checked the number and took the lead to find their seats.
Zhang Han and Zi Yan walked side by side, with Mengmeng in the middle holding their hands.
Seeing the arrival of Zhang Han, many people moved.
“Mr. Zhang, Miss Zi, I didn’t expect you to come also.” Luo Shan came over with a middle-aged man, smiling. When he got near, he saw Mengmeng and said, “Mengmeng, do you remember me?”
“Yes, you are… I forgot.” Mengmeng remembered meeting Luo Shan, but forgot his ident.i.ty.
“Haha.” Luo Shan smiled, looked at Zhang Han and said, “Mr. Zhang, this is Luo Chengwen, patriarch of the Luo family. We are here just for the members.h.i.+p card, but we didn’t expect there to be many compet.i.tors today.”
“Oh?” Zhang Han smiled and looked at Luo Shan and said, “President Luo, if you want a members.h.i.+p card, why not ask me for one?”
It sounded like Luo Shan was Zhang Han’s good friend.
However, Luo Shan froze and then shook his hand, smiling. “Only by getting the members.h.i.+p card through auction can we show more respect to Mr. Zhang.”
Luo Shan knew that if he had really asked for a members.h.i.+p card, it would be offset by his helping Mengmeng go to kindergarten!
This was not cost-effective, and Patriarch Luo wouldn’t let him do so.
“I’ve heard a lot about Mr. Zhang, and you are as handsome as the legend says.” Luo Chengwen greeted Zhang Han and then smiled. “We won’t disturb, Mr. Zhang. I will try my best to buy the members.h.i.+p card and visit you after that.”
“Okay.” Zhang Han nodded and walked forward.
At this time, many members of the other big families were looking at Luo Chengwen and Luo Shan enviously.
They did not go to greet Zhang Han because they did not know Zhang Han’s temper and could not act rashly.
Martial artists at the stage of Grand Master Peak were the most powerful in the martial arts world nowadays. Now that there were few Divine Realms for martial artists to cultivate themselves in, and the worldlet didn’t appear either, the Grand Masters like Zhang Han were in power.
Many Grand Masters were as moody and difficult to get along with as the emperor. What’s more, Mr. Zhang had a nickname, which was Fierce Zhang.
Even the Li family was destroyed by him!
Dong Tianpeng, who was sitting in the back row, looked at Zhang Han all the time and sighed silently. He had never expected Zhang Han to be such a giant, and had almost offended him in the beginning, which made him so frightened now.
Under everyone’s gaze, Zhang Han and his companies arrived at their seats.
The seats here were arranged like in a cinema. Zhang Han’s and Zi Yan’s seats were connected, and a sign for auction was placed on the armrest of the seats. After sitting down, Zhang Han placed Mengmeng on his lap and waited for the auction to begin.
On the stage in front, there was a large screen on the left side. Two men in charge of projection were sitting at a long table on the stage playing with computers. There was a high platform in the center, which was the auctioneer’s position, with a small hammer on it.
Soon, a 30-year-old mixed-race woman wearing an OL suit came to the auction stage. She was the ace auctioneer of the Wanqing Auction Company, and the price of every item she sold was several times higher than others.
“Why did she come up in the beginning?”
Many people were curious. The ace auctioneer appeared at the beginning of the auction, which meant that they were going to auction all the time in an hour and a half. The task was a little heavy.
“h.e.l.lo, everyone. I’m Aili, auctioneer of the Wanqing Auction Company. Welcome, guests. As for the contents of this auction, you should have seen them in the exhibition a week ago. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen them, for I’ll introduce them in detail for you one by one. Now, the autumn auction of the Wanqing Auction Company officially starts. Please show the first item.”
The first one was a milky-white piece of porcelain with a long neck. It was about 50 centimeters tall and was very beautiful.
“This is Dancing Phoenix Vase, which was carved by Master Qingshan for half a year. It was the last peak work of Master Qingshan…” The auctioneer began to introduce the detailed information of the jade vase loudly.
Although the auction was a modern handicraft, the sculptor was very famous, so it had collection value. Auction houses couldn’t auction very valuable antiques all the time, so they usually put in auctions of some handicrafts. These handicrafts might not be very valuable, but they were all beautiful in appearance. The purpose was to warm up and entertain everyone.
Zi Yan’s eyes lit up when she saw the vase. She leaned over and whispered, “It looks pretty. Shall we buy it and take it back as a vase?”
“Okay.” Zhang Han nodded.
While they were chatting, the auctioneer said in a louder voice, “The Dancing Phoenix Vase is obviously of some value. The starting price is 1.6 million yuan, and the price increase shall not be less than 50,000 yuan each time. The auction starts!”
As soon as the auctioneer finished speaking, everyone heard a tender voice. “We, we’re going to bid.”
“Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+”
Everyone turned to look in the direction of the voice.
Even the auctioneer did so. She looked at Mengmeng with a smile and said, “This lovely girl has offered 1.6 million. 1.6 million going once, 1.6 million going twice.”
Looking at the quiet crowd, the auctioneer was stunned.
“What’s going on?
“n.o.body is bidding?”
She hastily added, “Master Qingshan is so famous that there are no porcelains made by him that sold for less than two million yuan. Is there any higher price? 1.6 million for the third time… Sold! Congratulations to guest No. 66, who bought this Dancing Phoenix Vase at the starting price.”
In fact, the auctioneer was astonished.
The last time she sold a collection at the starting price was three years ago.
But it was not her fault. Most of the martial artists at Zhang Han’s stage would partic.i.p.ate in the special auction for the martial artist circle, and they seldom appeared in such a normal auction.
There were some who had intended to bid for the vase, but they all gave up as soon as Mengmeng began to bid. Several people in the back seat who didn’t want to give up were stopped by their companions. “You don’t see who’s bidding? It’s just a vase. Don’t bring trouble to yourself!”
So the vase was bought at the starting price.
Even Zi Yan was surprised. She whispered, “Is it true that as long as we bid, no one will compete with us?”
“Well… it seems so.” Zhang Han smiled helplessly.
He felt that sometimes, once a person became famous, he would have less fun.
“That’s not fun. Next, if we don’t see something we particularly like, we won’t bid,” Zi Yan thought and said.
At this time, Mengmeng raised her head and held out two fingers. “PaPa, MaMa, can we bid two more times?”
Obviously, she wanted to play the new game again.
“Okay, let’s bid three more times,” Zhang Han smiled and said.
“Hahaha, I can raise the placard three more times.” Mengmeng was so happy.
Next, auction items with different starting prices appeared one by one. After several rounds, the atmosphere at the market became active.
After an hour, Mengmeng raised the placard to bid for three kinds of jade articles and bought them at the starting price, which in total cost Zhang Han less than six million yuan.
At the auction, there were some antiques that Zhang Han took from the bottom of the sea, which were all sold for a good price.
When it was 11:10 a.m…
The auctioneer stopped suddenly, drank half a bottle of water, and took a deep breath. Seeing her expression, the people partic.i.p.ating in the auction immediately calmed down, realizing that what they wanted was about to appear.
Sure enough…
A staff member with a tray came onto the stage. A black card was placed on the tray. At the same time, a close-up of the card was displayed on the screen, and everyone could see the name on it: Mengmeng’s Recreational Restaurant!
“The next auction is a special one. It’s a members.h.i.+p card from Mengmeng’s Recreational Restaurant, and everyone knows the restaurant and the value of this card, right? I heard that many people want to buy it. Today, you have a chance.”
“Er?” Mengmeng was stunned.
“Isn’t it our restaurant?”
“Now, the members.h.i.+p card of Mengmeng’s Recreational Restaurant starts at the price of 10 million yuan, with each increase being no less than 500,000 yuan!” said the auctioneer excitedly.
She was hesitating actually. All the information of this card came from Dong Lin, and she didn’t know whether it was true or not. She was worrying that the auction might fail.
However, hearing her words, a lot of people sat up straight.
“No. 384 at the back bids 10.5 million! Is there a higher price?”
The man bid quickly.
But Luo Chengwen didn’t want them to have warm-up entertainment. He raised a placard presenting a much higher price directly.
“Ahem…” The auctioneer widened her eyes, almost choked by her saliva. She hurriedly controlled her voice and said, “No. 043 has offered 200 million yuan, and…”
But before she finished speaking…
The placards were raised one after another.
There were a lot of really influential people here who didn’t care about the price. What’s more, Zhang Han was sitting in the hall. If they managed to buy this card, they could get Zhang Han’s favor invisibly. No one wanted to miss this members.h.i.+p card, which represented opportunity. Now they were actually comparing the financial resources of each family.
“No. 006 bids 250 million…”
“No. 001 bids 260 million…”
“No. 103 bids 310 million!”
“No. 064 bids 500 million!”
“Mr. 016 offers 800 million? Is there any higher price, 800 million going once…”
“My gosh, are they serious?”
The auctioneer couldn’t believe her eyes. She felt frightened and was trembling with excitement.
She didn’t expect that the auction, which Chairman Lin had attached great importance to, should be sold at such a high price.
At this time, Luo Shan took a look at the side.
That man was cruel enough to pay 800 million yuan for the card.
Even Luo Chengwen hesitated, for he didn’t know what the highest price the other side could offer was.
When the auctioneer called out a second time…
He raised the placard.
“Mr. 064 offers 820 million!”
“No. 016 bids 900 million!”
“No. 083 bids 950 million!”
“Dammit!”
Luo Chengwen gnashed his teeth. He didn’t expect these guys to be so cruel!
“Patriarch, shall we try a much higher price? Or the auction will never end,” Luo Shan whispered.
“Okay.” Luo Chengwen made up his mind and again raised the placard.
“1.5 billion, Mr. 064 has offered 1.5 billion! Is there any price increase? Does anyone want to increase the price?” The auctioneer’s face was red, her heart was beating violently, and she looked excited.
“1.5 billion going once, 1.5 billion going twice, 1.5 billion going three times!”
With the hammer falling, the auctioneer announced, “Sold!”