LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 217: Starting with an Aircraft Carrier
"Not planning to spend money? What does that mean?" They all felt there was more to Zhang Menglong's words, but none could fathom his true intentions.
The starting bid for every item at this auction was 0 yuan, an anomaly in the auction world! Even the biggest auction houses sometimes faced unsold lots. If that were to happen here, it would essentially be getting something for nothing, a loss that could be measured in hundreds of millions of euros.
But they were confident enough to make such a rule because they had never had an unsold item to date. The allure of the auction items was nearly fatal for these tycoons; no one would simply watch as these goods sold for base prices.
Another interesting rule was that each bid increment had to be at least 5 million in the local currency of the auction location, meaning that every bid increase at tomorrow's auction would need to be 5 million euros! To anyone, that was not a small figure.
Under such circumstances, for Zhang Menglong to think about getting those items for a low price was pure fanciful thinking.
"Hehe, young people, they never play by the rules!" Zhang Menglong chuckled slyly, leaving behind an ambiguous statement before departing.
After being teased by Kristen and Emma, a wicked fire was spreading in Zhang Menglong. And with the initial taste of sexual pleasure, he couldn't wait to return and "explore" the pinnacle of life with Lu Yiyao.
"Mr. Zhang, wait, let's talk more about business," Ma Yun actually wanted to discuss Zhang Menglong's commercial empire plans the most, but he hadn't had the chance to interject earlier. Now that Zhang Menglong was leaving, Ma Yun suddenly grew anxious.
"Don't bother me!" Zhang Menglong roared back at him, "I'm busy!"
"This…" Ma Yun watched Zhang Menglong's retreating figure with a mixture of laughter and tears, "How can he switch faces faster than a monkey?"
Although their earlier conversation wasn't so pleasant, they had enjoyed the latter part of the discussion. So why had Zhang Menglong suddenly changed his attitude?
"Perhaps that's just how young people are!" Li Hong said with a bitter smile, "All right, he is a Huaxia man after all, and he's in Jiangnan City; you'll always have the opportunity to meet him. Why fuss over a day or two? Let's quickly figure out what to do after Zhang Menglong advocated against the 996 work policy!"
"If I had known that talking with him today would cause so much trouble, I wouldn't have sought him out for a chat!" Ma Hua realized that nothing good ever happened whenever he crossed paths with Zhang Menglong.
The first time, he was nearly knocked out by a bid of 500 billion US dollars; the second time, Tengxun Music, which he had painstakingly managed for over a decade, was directly acquired by Zhang Menglong; and this time was unlikely to end well either. He expected his public image would soon become that of a heartless capitalist, in stark contrast to Zhang Menglong's shining image.
"It's all your fault!" With no one else to blame, Ma Hua glared fiercely at Ma Yun, "We were doing just fine with overtime work, without such strong opposition, until you came up with that 'virtue reward' theory!"
"How… How is this my fault?" Ma Yun could only offer a wry smile, as if their Alibaba Group was the only one enforcing 996. He had just been trying to improve the company's image; who knew it wouldn't work out as planned? He felt helpless too.
...
After a passionate night, Zhang Menglong and Lu Yiyao didn't wake up until lunchtime the next day. Lu Yiyao's legs were still sore, causing her to glare fiercely at Zhang Menglong, "You have no sense of tenderness toward women at all!"
"Hehehe," Zhang Menglong shamelessly chuckled, "Get ready, we'll eat lunch and then it's the auction at 2 pm. If you fancy anything, just let me know. I'll even get you the stars from the sky if you want!"
"Bah! The mouth of a man deceives the ghost of a woman!" Lu Yiyao retorted, "Don't think I didn't notice. You had the scent of other women on you yesterday, and not just one at that; I haven't even interrogated you properly yet!"
Suddenly, Zhang Menglong's face was full of embarrassment, "I didn't want it, you know. Those women one after another threw themselves at me. Luckily, I remained faithful and kept my purity. Is it my fault for being rich and handsome?"
"You and your bragging!" Lu Yiyao playfully smacked Zhang Menglong with a laugh.
After enjoying a delightful lunch, everyone gradually made their way to the auction venue, a showroom on the first floor of the hotel. Originally used for the hotel's business events, it had been transformed by the Rothschild family into an imposing auction hall.
The auction hall was divided into two levels, with a general area below and a VIP area above.
Even though labelled as general, the luxurious seating and state-of-the-art equipment hardly seemed "general." Perhaps in the eyes of the Rothschild family, this level of opulence was their idea of standard.
As for the VIP area on the second floor, it consisted of private rooms. One could see everything outside from within these rooms, yet from the outside, the interior was completely obscured. There were only 15 of these VIP rooms, spread out in a fan shape, each with an optimal view. And without a doubt, Zhang Menglong was the master of the central VIP room.
"Holy shit! This ain't a seat at an auction, it's a damn luxury suite!" Wang Ling exclaimed, clearly intoxicated by the room, which spanned over 200 square meters. Almost 100 square meters of it was occupied by a suspended viewing room for the auction, and it also included a bedroom for resting, kitchen, bathroom, and was fully serviced by five young and beautiful Eastern European girls.
Through the one-way glass, Zhang Menglong spotted Ma Hua and others looking around, probably searching for him. However, they were unable to find Zhang Menglong after scouring the whole venue and eventually turned their gaze towards the VIP rooms on the second level.
"Wonder if he's in that VIP Room No. 0..." Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire
...
Soon, as the two o'clock chime rang out, the whole room went quiet. Accompanied by a burst of elegant symphony, a blonde beauty stepped onto the auction stage.
"Holy fuck! Emma Watson! They actually got her to be the auctioneer? That's a bit of a cheat move!" Wang Ling's face was practically pressed against the glass.
Seeing Zhang Menglong's indifferent face, Wang Ling asked, "How come you're not surprised at all?"
"Oh, well," Zhang Menglong said expressionlessly, "you might not believe it, but last night, she almost pinned me down in bed!"
"You beast!" Seeing Zhang Menglong's smug expression, Wang Ling cursed weakly.
Emma, too, was looking around the auction stage for Zhang Menglong. Last night was really weird; she hadn't drunk much, so how did she get drunk? And unexpectedly, Zhang Menglong didn't seem to have taken advantage of her inebriation to do anything, which made her question her own allure.
"Welcome to the decennial World Ultimate Auction Event; I am today's auctioneer, Emma Watson!" Unable to find Zhang Menglong after a long search, Emma still commenced her professional duties. This time her pay reached a whopping ten million Euros—a not so common opportunity.
"Wow!" A thunderous applause ensued, most of which was in admiration of the beautiful woman.
After some formal greetings, the first item of the auction appeared on the giant LCD screen in front of everyone.
"Today, we have a total of 102 exceptionally rare auction items. So, let's unveil the first item of the auction!"
"102 items? Even more than last year, looks like today will be quite the bloody affair!" Wang Ling exclaimed with unmatched excitement.
The question marks gradually faded from the screen, revealing a schematic of the first item up for auction.
"What the fuck!" Zhang Menglong couldn't help but curse as he saw the first item. He had been hoping to buy an aircraft carrier to use as a yacht, and as if in response to his heartfelt desire, the first auction item was indeed an aircraft carrier!
"Starting off with an aircraft carrier, this motherf..." Zhang Menglong clicked his tongue in amazement; this auction was bound to be incredibly interesting!