Rebirth: A Cinderella's Counterattack

Chapter 440: Chapter 420: Auction

After parking the car, Qin Nuan naturally took Luo Yanran’s arm. Luo Qianqian checked out the height difference, pouted, and hugged onto Qin Wen’s smaller arm. Why was she thirteen and not fifteen? Couldn’t she be ten centimeters taller?

Qin Wen didn’t mind, his gaze persistently on his sister and Luo Yanran’s entwined arms, silently sighing about how outgoing girls are. He looked at Luo Qianqian with a touch more tenderness in his eyes.

Luo Qianqian didn’t pay much attention to it either, she was seriously looking ahead while also taking the opportunity to glance around with her peripheral vision.

Their seats weren’t together with Luo Yanran and Qin Nuan’s. Looking at the dark gold invitation in Qin Wen’s hand, Luo Qianqian’s eyes widened in surprise. The invitation seemed quite valuable no matter how one looked at it.

Moreover, when Luo Yanran and Qin Nuan had entered, they hadn’t taken any invitation, but Luo Qianqian wisely didn’t voice her curiosity.

The staff led Qin Wen and Luo Qianqian to a private room upstairs. Then, handing back the invitation to Qin Wen, they bowed and left.

Noticing Luo Qianqian’s puzzled look, Qin Wen said indifferently, ”I’m here for work, I accepted a task, this was given to me by the client.”

Only then did Luo Qianqian show an expression of realization.

The private room had a sofa, a coffee table, and a display screen. It faced the main hall through one-way glass, and Luo Qianqian’s eyes widened in amazement. Did it look high-end?

As soon as Qin Wen entered the room, he pressed a button on the wall, and shortly after, a scantily clad woman knocked and entered. She respectfully bowed and asked what their needs were.

Qin Wen ordered some juice, drinks and fruit snacks, telling Luo Qianqian to eat at the side. Then he started flipping through the auction catalog exclusive to the VIP room.

Knowing that Qin Wen was working, Luo Qianqian didn’t disturb him and quietly sat aside, watching as people gradually filled the hall below. Suddenly, the display screen in the room lit up, bringing the stage scene into full view.

Luo Qianqian calmly moved next to Qin Wen, skillfully maintaining a position that didn’t block his view while still being able to see, adopting a strange, ingratiating puppy dog pose as she knelt at the side.

Qin Wen, with no choice, laid the catalog in front of Luo Qianqian and asked, ”Do you see anything you like?” He felt that Luo Qianqian was more like a little sister, Qin Nuan had already grown up, making him feel less and less like an older brother.

Luo Qianqian shook her head, her eyes sweeping over all the jewelry and even real estate. How could she afford them?

”Do you think Nuannuan would like anything?” Qin Wen looked at the mostly similar pieces of jewelry, completely unable to discern what was special about them.

Luo Qianqian looked at the emerald green and the jade, shaking her head. How could she know what she liked, let alone what Qin Nuan liked? But if it was Qin Nuan, with her impulsive disposition, she probably wouldn’t like these dignified items that couldn’t just be casually worn, right?

”This is my task this time; I absolutely can’t see what’s so good about it.” Qin Wen pointed at a necklace with a red pendant as he spoke.

The pendant was red and oval-shaped, and the necklace was made of white gold. Its name was ’Eternal Love’.

This page only had this one item. It was the highlight of the auction, at the very back.

There was also a little love story written along with it. Luo Qianqian nodded, without comment. The high asking price was probably due mostly to this story, wasn’t it? ”The client must be a man, and a rich middle-aged bald uncle at that.”

Luo Qianqian was convinced as she looked at Qin Wen.

Qin Wen, stifling a laugh, picked up a slice of orange. After finishing it and suppressing the urge to smile, he finally spoke, ”How did you know?”

”First, you need to be rich to buy this, as it’s very valuable. Unless you are from an extremely wealthy second or third generation, who would buy such a thing to please their other half? Secondly, if a woman buys it for herself, there’s no need to get something with such a reputation behind it. Finally, rich people are fat,” Luo Qianqian said, blinking her eyes as she delivered her judgement.

Qin Wen covered her mouth, nodding, ”The buyer was indeed male, and not young, that’s true. He might not exactly be fat, but he does have a high hairline.” She confirmed Luo Qianqian’s deductions and pointed out the differences. As Qin Wen turned to look at the screen, the auction had already started.

Luo Qianqian had an ’I knew it’ expression on her face, but what Qin Wen didn’t say was that the item was a wedding anniversary gift Second Uncle was planning to buy for Second Aunt.

Luo Qianqian was sipping juice and eating fruit when her gaze fixated on an item on the screen, which felt strangely familiar. Even after the item was sold, Luo Qianqian still maintained a dazed, daydreaming demeanor.

Qin Wen didn’t notice that something was off with Luo Qianqian, her attention always on the booklet. The items up front were just warm-up donations from the auction house shareholders, nothing of value; the real auction hadn’t even started yet.

But Luo Qianqian suddenly sprang into action, grabbing him, ”Can we find the buyer who just got that item?”

She remembered why the item looked so familiar, it was the decoration hanging on the wall in the videos she and her brother exchanged.

”What’s wrong?” Qin Wen was puzzled by Luo Qianqian’s sudden excitement.

”I want to know where that item came from,” stated Luo Qianqian, pointing at the screen, which had long since moved on from that item.

”The item just now? The ones right now are all from the people behind this auction house, nothing valuable.” Qin Wen frowned, ”Besides, whoever is behind this auction has always been unknown, so you have no chance of finding that out.”

Luo Qianqian slouched back into her seat; she couldn’t be sure that the item was indeed the same one from the past, but they looked so similar she preferred to err on the side of caution.

However, with Qin Wen saying that, there was no doubt she couldn’t find out anything. The auction had reportedly been running for five years, and no one had managed to uncover its secrets in all that time, which suggested the powerful influence of the people behind it.

Yet, Luo Qianqian suddenly shivered, struck by a thought—did this mean that the person behind the scenes had always been close to her? Just as her brother had said, even if he wasn’t around, he would know what was happening to her.

With this on her mind, how could Luo Qianqian pay attention to the auction? Until it ended, she maintained the posture of holding her cup and drinking her beverage.

After Qin Wen had bid on ’Eternal Love’ and returned to the private room, he found Luo Qianqian still lost in thought. He sighed, called out twice, and only after Luo Qianqian came back to her senses did he lead the group downstairs. Little did they know, waiting downstairs were not only Qin Nuan and Luo Yanran but also Xu Xiaoxiao, whom they had seen earlier that afternoon.

Xu Xiaoxiao presented the auction voucher; the auction house arranged for items to be delivered via a special vehicle along with an expert trusted by both parties to the provided address, where the buyer could verify and collect the item. The auction guaranteed authenticity with a ten-fold compensation for any counterfeit and also ensured safe and tamper-proof delivery. If the voucher did not match the delivery address, the payment would be refunded the same way, with no possibility of changing the payment method.

”This is what I bought. Although it’s not very expensive, it wins on being exquisite,” Xu Xiaoxiao proclaimed.

Only then did Luo Qianqian fully snap back to reality, blinking her eyes; she had forgotten, she hadn’t bid on anything herself.

Qin Wen smiled, produced the item he had just bid on, and stuffed the voucher into Luo Qianqian’s hand. Only then did Luo Qianqian remember what Qin Wen was supposed to bid on, the grand finale item. She waved the voucher with pomp, ”Nothing else, it’s just expensive. Good stuff is always worth the money.”

The voucher was not for ’Eternal Love’ but for a different necklace with a century of history, made of platinum, sapphires, and diamonds, making it quite valuable. Yet Luo Qianqian didn’t notice, while Xu Xiaoxiao, looking at the number on the voucher, huffed in disdain and walked away.

Luo Qianqian stuffed the voucher back into Qin Wen’s hands: ”Hehe, try to compete with me, I’m someone who went out to work,” she boasted.

Qin Wen smiled. The item he acquired was meant to be a wedding gift for Qin Nuan, which he had chosen after much deliberation. It was this very item that had drained his savings over the years.