Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 1921: Chapter 1824: Worthless Like Chicken Ribs

Now that they had secured the right of first refusal, everyone’s attention naturally shifted to those two finale Beast Heads.

Everyone knew this was only the first step; this underground auction was open to the whole world.

You had to understand, the items on the Philadelphia Black Market basically all came from the casinos in Las Vegas, and once something had been appraised by the casino’s Appraisers, there were rarely any misjudgments.

After all, these were the objects used to exchange gamblers’ chips; if they weren’t sure about an item, those Appraisers wouldn’t even accept it.

So the items on the Philadelphia Black Market were ninety‑nine percent guaranteed authentic.

Precisely because of this, the Philadelphia Black Market drew people like moths to a flame; even oil princes from the Middle East would travel all this way just to bid.

On top of that, the twelve zodiac animal heads were world‑famous; they weren’t only loved by Huaxia people. So once these two pieces appeared at the auction, Huo Sining could already imagine just how insane the scene would be.

”I figure this auction is going to be an unprecedented bloodbath. All sorts of big shots are going to show up. Even if we have the right of first refusal, we’ll still have to pay dearly in the end if we want to take this pair of Beast Heads back.”

Huo Sining let out a sigh and said.

Hearing this, Su Qingqing was stunned at first, then suddenly understood. ”Ningning, you mean there’ll be a lot of collectors fighting over these two Beast Heads, and the final sale price will be many times higher than market value?”

Huo Sining didn’t speak. Beside her, Gu Xu let out a cold laugh. ”Even if there aren’t that many people fighting, with the Rothschild Family’s style, there’s no way they’ll sit on their hands. This time Semiya took a huge loss at my wife’s hands, lost nearly a hundred million US dollars not to mention so many fine antiques. There is no way that Clayflo is just going to swallow that in silence; he’ll definitely try to get his face back in the upcoming auction.”

Yue Shuwen frowned tightly. ”You mean he’ll plant shills to jack up the price of the Beast Heads, force Ningning to spit out all the money she won in the last two days?”

Li Jun’s heart also sank. He shook his head. ”I’m afraid it won’t just be a matter of spitting it out. We might end up paying back several times, even more than ten times that amount.”

Yue Shuwen shot to her feet. ”More than ten times? That’s vicious! Anyone with eyes can see what’s going on; Clayflo wouldn’t go that far, would he?”

But Gu Xu agreed with Li Jun. ”Why not? It’s all right there in the open. We want those items, and if Clayflo doesn’t make money off us, he’d be a fool. Besides, he can always say if we think the price is too high, we don’t have to buy. But would we not buy? We can’t. He’s obviously betting on that, has been waiting here all along. This so‑called right of first refusal is basically a chicken rib—can’t do without it, but once you have it, it’s a hot potato in your hand.”

As soon as Su Qingqing heard this, her face went ashen, humiliated and stifled. ”So we can only let him slaughter us? Then what was the point of scheming so hard to get this right of first refusal?”

Huo Sining shook her head and smiled. ”It’s not completely useless. At least it gives us a safety net. After the bidding ends, we’ll have three days to figure out how to raise the money. That gives us more time and more options to maneuver, to make sure we can actually secure those two Beast Heads in the end.”

Su Qingqing was not very convinced. ”But if we have to pay more than ten times the market price for these two items, are we really going to bring them back at any cost? If we do that, aren’t we walking right into Clayflo’s trap?”

Huo Sining looked at Su Qingqing. ”So what if we are? Reuniting the twelve zodiac animal heads has always been our country’s wish; it carries the hopes of all our people. Now two of them have finally surfaced again—are we supposed to just give up? Don’t just ask me. Ask my master, ask Old Man Qin Lianshan, ask Director Huang, or ask your own master. See if they’re willing to give up this rare opportunity and let these two Beast Heads fall into other people’s, other countries’ hands.”

Collectors in Huaxia Country were the most helpless, most stifled collectors in the world, because antique lovers everywhere might own authentic Huaxia Country treasures, yet for domestic collectors in Huaxia Country, every single masterpiece was hard‑won, often out of reach.

On the rare occasion they came across something good, it was usually at a foreign auction. To bring one or two pieces back, they had to pour out mountains of hard‑earned money—and those pieces were exactly the items that had been looted from Huaxia Country in the first place.

So people said that to be a collector in Huaxia Country, you had to have an extraordinarily strong heart and superhuman tolerance, or else you’d die of rage sooner or later.

Maybe this kind of feeling could only be truly understood when you were standing on foreign soil. It was especially strong for Huo Sining now, standing in the Philadelphia Black Market Building, seeing with her own eyes those exquisite cultural relics laid out in the glass display cases.

These items ought to have been resting safely in the collection rooms of Huaxia Country, but for various obscure reasons they had drifted overseas. These antiques and artifacts wandering abroad were like scattered fragments of Huaxia people’s souls; if those souls weren’t all brought home, how could the flesh‑and‑blood body of the entire Huaxia Nation ever be made whole?

The Western Han Dynasty Feathers Death Golden Cup, Shen Zhou’s ”Landscape Calligraphy”, the Qing Dynasty Kangxi Blue and White Jade Spring Pot...

Right now these pieces were brazenly displayed in the glass cases of the towering Philadelphia Black Market, and Huo Sining could already imagine that after this auction, they would quickly sink back into silence, ending up in the hands of some collector from who‑knows‑what country. For the next ten, dozens, even hundreds of years, they would be locked away in private homes, never appearing before the public again, perhaps forgotten altogether.

The thought alone made Huo Sining feel unbearably heavy.

In her hands now were the two agreements: the right of first refusal for the items in those glass cases that Semiya had promised her, and the right of first refusal for the finale lots that Clayflo had promised her. But every piece she had her eye on would be expensive. Buying them all back would not be easy. With her current financial strength, even buying a single Beast Head would be a stretch.

After learning that the final prices of those two Beast Heads might be more than ten times the market value, Su Qingqing had been frowning nonstop. After struggling with it for a while, she said gloomily:

”Ningning, are we really going to compromise? Just thinking about letting Clayflo take such a huge advantage, handing him so much money for nothing, makes me furious!”