Chapter 493 — An Upset at the Auction: Fatty Lai and Miracle Doctor Kang's Family Lock Horns!

Who was Miracle Doctor Kang? He was a magnate of the medical world to begin with. If even he was bidding a high price for a pill, could it possibly be any ordinary pill?

All of them were somewhat regretful that they had not entered the bidding when the first pill was brought out, letting Liu Tianyi walk off with an enormous bargain. The price had already soared to four hundred million, and perhaps that would not even be the final price!

Sure enough, at a signal from Miracle Doctor Kang, Kang Guifeng raised his bidding paddle once more: "Four hundred ten million!"

This time he did not dare raise the bid by too much. The Kang family's liquid capital now amounted to only about five hundred million; if he bid too high, there would be no working capital left, and the family business would surely suffer for it.

Yet after Kang Guifeng named his price, Fatty Lai's side fell silent. Those who did not know better assumed that Fatty Lai had run out of money too, and was hesitating or had already given up.

But Fatty Lai only looked at Wei Zhao with a smile. "Boss, I reckon the Kang family is about at its limit. If I raise once more, they'll surely follow, but beyond that, it's hard to say."

"Mm, that's about enough." Wei Zhao smiled. Fatty Lai really was a nasty piece of work, but Wei Zhao had never had any fondness for Miracle Doctor Kang's family, so naturally he would not stop Fatty Lai from toying with them.

"Four hundred ten million, going once... four hundred ten million, going twice..." The auctioneer paused there and looked toward Fatty Lai, wanting to see whether he would raise the bid again.

Miracle Doctor Kang was furious, smoke practically rising from every orifice. What game was this auctioneer playing? If he did not dare move to the third call and bring down the hammer, why look at Fatty Lai? Was that not encouraging the man to defy him?

But the auctioneer's encouragement did indeed take effect. Fatty Lai gritted his teeth, abruptly rose to his feet, and raised his paddle: "Four hundred twenty million!"

Miracle Doctor Kang's heart went cold. Damn that auctioneer to hell—was he not a little too vicious? But this was the Yu family's auction house; even if he had complaints, Miracle Doctor Kang could not voice them. He could only swallow his anger and signal Kang Guifeng to continue.

For this time Miracle Doctor Kang had decided to stake his "treasure" on this Life-Extending Detox Pill. From the way things looked now, there were probably only these three such pills in existence; if he missed them, they would be gone forever. So Miracle Doctor Kang had no choice but to grit his teeth and press on.

"Four hundred thirty million!" Kang Guifeng raised the paddle in his hand.

"Four hundred thirty million, going once... four hundred thirty million, going twice... four hundred thirty million, going three times... sold!" Though the auctioneer would have liked Fatty Lai to keep bidding, unfortunately this time Fatty Lai backed down. Clearly he was out of money and had decided to give up, sitting there meekly without stirring.

At this moment none was happier than Liu Tianyi; his heart was fairly bursting with delight. Earlier he had thought two hundred eighty million for a single Life-Extending Detox Pill was steep, but now he felt he had picked up a bargain of cosmic proportions. By the last pill, Fatty Lai had failed to secure it even at four hundred twenty million, and Miracle Doctor Kang's family had taken it for four hundred thirty million.

In truth, he was wrong. He thought himself the happiest man present, but that was not so. The happiest man was Fatty Lai! He had played every single person in the hall.

These three pills had brought the company nearly a billion yuan in profit! This was a crucial stage in the company's growth, and with a billion yuan in capital, a great many things could be done. Fatty Lai had indeed wanted to win one earlier, but since Wei Zhao had already promised him one, from then on he had bid purely in the spirit of stirring up trouble.

"Boss, I never imagined our funds would swell so much all at once!" Fatty Lai chuckled.

Wei Zhao had not expected three ordinary Marrow-Cleansing Bone-Transforming Pills to fetch so much either. As for this stuff, when he was a child, Old Man Wei had fed him jar after jar of them like candy...

"Heh... you won't be shortchanged!" Wei Zhao was also full of admiration for Fatty Lai's business acumen. Without Fatty Lai's troublemaking today, these three Life-Extending Detox Pills would probably never have fetched such a price.

"Thank you, Boss!" Fatty Lai nodded, beaming.

But just as the auctioneer was about to present the next lot, someone in the guest seats spoke up!

"Good things ought to be brought out for everyone to share! Little Yu Haitian, ask the seller whether there are any more of those Life-Extending Detox Pills. We hadn't even had a chance to join the bidding before the things were gone—that's hardly fair!" The one who spoke now was Wu Gonggao, head of the Iron Hand Wu family.

His name had been chosen with considerable erudition: Wu Gonggao, which naturally meant "high in martial merit." It was a bit of self-flattery, yet he was wholly deserving of it. He was one of the few Mystic-rank experts remaining in the secular world! And he alone dared speak to the Yu family in such a tone.

The Iron Hand Wu family was an ancient clan. On the surface it appeared about as great as the Liu family to which Liu Tianyi belonged, but for a clan a century old, which one did not hold a few cards up its sleeve? Even if only the martial skill of its head, Wu Gonggao, were brought out, it would shake the entire hall. Even the Yu family regarded it with a measure of fear.

It could be said that so long as Wu Gonggao held the seat of power in the Iron Hand Wu family, no one dared look down on the Wus.

Wu Gonggao had rushed over after receiving a phone call from his grandson, Wu Chengtian. Though he too was in Yanjing and had come to attend the Yu family's auction, a patriarch like him seldom attended the auctions of the first and second days. For the first two sessions he would send the younger members of the clan; only for the final session would he appear in person.

But when Wu Gonggao heard that a kind of Life-Extending Detox Pill had been bid up to two hundred eighty million, and that the Yu family had entered the fray as well, he could not sit still. He hurried to the auction hall and arrived just in time for the auctioneer's final hammer fall.

And Wu Chengtian, after one glance at the catalogue's description of the Life-Extending Detox Pill, immediately felt that it was wonderfully akin to the long-lost Marrow-Cleansing Bone-Transforming Pill of the martial world. His interest was instantly roused, and, unwilling to let the matter rest, he interrupted the auction!

If it had merely been an ordinary scion of some clan or a wealthy merchant asking, Yu Haitian would naturally have had no end of excuses to turn him down. But the one asking was Wu Gonggao, head of the Iron Hand Wu family and a Mystic-rank expert, so he did not dare brush him off. His gaze went to the second uncle at his side.

"Ask Mr. Lai Changyi's opinion," the middle-aged man said after a moment's hesitation, his tone indifferent. "If there are more, bringing out a few more won't hurt. We won't take a commission."

"Yes!" Yu Haitian nodded, gestured to the auctioneer to pause the presentation of the next lot, and quickly telephoned Lai Changyi.

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