Reborn As Super Heiress

Yan Xuesong and Chen Qiankun rushed ahead, pushing aside the waiter and seized the best spot, surrounding the pot of Orchid Grass for detailed study.

Hu Yongyuan was squeezed to the outer circle, just glaring helplessly, feeling somewhat annoyed and powerless, as his gaze shifted to Jiang Chao, his eyes glinting:

”Jiang Chao, is this flower yours?”

Huo Sining saw Hu Yongyuan’s expression and immediately knew what he was up to.

Huo Sining remembered the fate of the Petal Lotus Orchid vividly; she didn’t want this Xishu Daoguang to end up with Hu Yongyuan, and quickly spoke up:

”Mr. Hu, Jiang Senior has already agreed to let me handle this flower. I’m planning to let my friend help out, let this flower be nurtured first. If we can hasten the blooming, in January I’ll take it to Yun Province for the International Orchid Exhibition.”

Hu Yongyuan’s smile stiffened upon hearing Huo Sining’s words.

Though Huo Sining didn’t spell it out directly, the meaning was clear, he had no chance with this flower, and he was suddenly a bit disheartened.

Chen Qiankun showed no mercy either, after closely examining the flower pot, confirming Huo Sining’s words to be true, couldn’t help but laugh with palms together:

”Indeed, it is a first-generation Xishu Daoguang without a doubt. This is a treasure! Xiao Hu, even though you came back from studying in the US and have good materials for research, but when it comes to actual orchid nurturing skills, you are still far behind.”

”Not going far back, just within the few years we know each other, have you kept count of how many orchids you have killed? Buying ordinary Orchid Grass is fine for tuition, but this first-generation Xishu Daoguang, you better not ruin it, give it a chance to live.”

Hu Yongyuan’s face turned dark, his lips twitched, seemingly wanting to retort, yet had no strong arguments to present.

Even Yan Xuesong chimed in: ”Right, with your skills, you can only play with common stuff like Petal Lotus Orchid, giving you a top-class one would be a waste, you can’t take care of it. Plus, with your salary, you couldn’t afford a single leaf of this thing, do you know how much it’s worth?”

Having lived abroad for many years, Hu Yongyuan had a somewhat foreign stance, truly unfamiliar with the domestic Orchid Grass market. Seeing Yan Xuesong mentioning the price earnestly, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy, asking:

”What’s its value? Up to fifty thousand?”

To him, even if it’s valuable, it’s just a plant, how much can it really be worth? Fifty thousand was his upper limit, beyond that felt unjustified.

But Yan Xuesong directly refuted:

”Nonsense, fifty thousand, are you kidding? This is Xishu Daoguang, first-generation initial gene, an uncontaminated original specimen, do you know what this means? This thing was rare even a hundred years ago, now not a trace for years, being into research, don’t tell me you can’t grasp what this signifies, right?”

Hu Yongyuan paused, already aware he seemed to have made a basic mistake.

This orchid is indeed a plant, but for researchers like them, it’s a priceless specimen, and for orchid traders, such a parent plant is a lucrative golden egg, meaning both orchid traders and those in botanical research would rush for it, selling for a high price wouldn’t be a problem.

Chen Qiankun nodded too, saying gruffly: ”In the 90s in Xiangjiang, there was a first-generation Xishu Daoguang that won the gold medal in the orchid exhibition, sold for four hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars to a Dongyang guy, that’s the 90s, now it’s almost twenty years later, do you think that’s still possible?”

Hu Yongyuan truly wasn’t familiar with orchids, but could tell this flower had a high value, no wonder as soon as the flower was brought in, Chen Qiankun and Yan Xuesong eagerly surrounded it, eyes glowing like seeing their sweetheart.

Fortunately, Hu Yongyuan was broad-minded, having paid a lot of tuition due to repeated failures in nurturing orchids, he befriended the two professors Yan Xuesong and Chen Qiankun, despite often being teased by them, he wasn’t angered, but rather more resilient.

So when the two professors collectively lambasted him, he instead laughed, not feeling embarrassed or angry for not getting this Xishu Daoguang.

Seeing this, Huo Sining chimed in:

”Earlier, I told Jiang Senior I would buy her flower for three million, but upon reconsideration, I felt this undervalued the flower. So I plan to take this flower to the orchid exhibition to try my luck, and should it meet the right buyer, it could fetch an even higher price.”

Yan Xuesong and Chen Qiankun exchanged glances, whispered something, then their eyes met Jiang Chao and Huo Sining’s, showing some hesitation.

Noting their expressions, Huo Sining guessed they had something to say, so directly asked:

”Professor Yan, we’re all friends here, if you have something to say, just say it without concern.”

Yan Xuesong hesitated, then smiled: ”Since you’ve said so, I won’t beat around the bush. I and Old Chen recently applied for a new project, initially we came today to see if you wanted to join the research group, yet unexpectedly encountered this pleasant surprise.”

”This orchid is indeed a first-generation Xishu Daoguang, and an excellent research sample, coinciding with our new project, so Professor Chen and I simply want to buy back this Xishu Daoguang.”

”But as you know, researchers aren’t rich, Professor Chen and I have limited funds, five million is our maximum available fund. If you help Jiang find a buyer at the exhibition willing to pay more, let’s not discuss too much, but if not, please keep it for us, we’ll buy it for five million!”

Huo Sining originally thought the professors wanted to discuss something important, turns out they wanted to invite her to join a new project, she immediately laughed:

”Professors, what are you saying? If you’re short of funds for the project, do you really need to scrape together? Just come to me, not only would I join your team, I’d even sponsor your new project entirely, it’s not impossible. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”