Chapter 601
"Ladies and gentlemen, this green chalcedony bracelet is the most natural green chalcedony, the reserve price is ten thousand dollars, each time the bid is increased by two thousand dollars, now begins."
This green chalcedony bracelet didn't interest Li Linfei so he didn't bother to bid on it, and eventually this natural green chalcedony bracelet went to a wealthy man for $50,000.
Then came the rest of the auction, which was very boring, although the host moderated the atmosphere, but none of the items were of interest to Li Linfei and he was falling asleep.
When the auction finally reached its midpoint, Li Linfei was woken up by the system.
System task: as a Chinese how can you not be responsible for the loss of national treasures, the next item to be auctioned, is a national treasure buy shining night white figure.
Mission accomplished: 5,000 Gods and Heroes points.
Mission failure: You can sleep for the rest of your life.
"System, what is this Shining Night White Figure, I don't really understand it." Li Linfei asked.
"This system tells you to help you catch up on your knowledge, the Shining Night White Painting is a Chinese painting on paper created by the Tang Dynasty painter Han Gan."
"And this painting is done with ink line drawings, depicting the image of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong's favourite mount, Zhaoyi Bai, which is tied to a wooden stake, its mane flying up, its nostrils open wide, its eyes turning to look, and its head hissing; its four cries are prancing, as if it wants to break free from its restraint. The painting not only depicts the fat, muscular form of the horse, but also its untamed and majestic appearance. The brushwork is concise, the lines are slender and strong, and the rendering is not too much, but the sense of volume and texture is quite strong."
When the system said so, Li Linfei understood a little, and he probably knew the background of the creation of this painting.
In the Tang Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the relationship between the Central Plains and the western countries was getting closer and closer, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty had married Princess Yihe to the King of Ningyuan in the western region of Taiwan.
The two horses were so beloved by Emperor Xuanzong that he named them Yuhua buckskin and Zhaoyi Bai.
The two horses were named Jade Buckskin and Shining Night White, which not only accompanied Emperor Xuanzong on his travels during the glory days of the Tang Dynasty, but also during the An Shi Rebellion when he was in the worst of his life, and were especially loved by him.
When Han Gan entered the palace, there was a painter named Chen Ma who was good at painting horses, so Emperor Xuanzong ordered Han Gan to copy Chen's work, but Han Gan refused to do so.
The Emperor was surprised when Han Gan said, "I have my own teacher, the horses that are now in the imperial stables, they are all my teachers."
Hearing this, Emperor Xuanzong was so amazed that he asked him to go to the imperial stables to sketch and paint famous horses, including Shuyi Bai.
The horse was a favourite of the emperor, having followed the Tang Emperor in his conquests and battles and having won numerous victories.
When Han Gan painted this horse, he went all out to show the horse's imposing presence.
The entire body of this untamed horse exudes endless power and dynamism. But at the same time, from the other side, the horse seems to be running through the vast expanse of air.
The reader is left with the impression that this horse is not a mundane horse, but a horse of divine aura. The image places the horse's head to the right of the whole picture, showing the horse's rounded and godlike eyes, hissing and whistling demeanour, high pouting buttocks and exaggerated expansion of its nostrils.
It was only during the war of resistance that the Japanese occupied Beijing and the invaders coveted the rich collection of cultural relics in the ancient capital and plundered it extensively. The tense situation made Pu Wei feel more and more that his collection of paintings and calligraphy was no longer safe, and with the money still urgently needed, he began to sell his paintings and calligraphy.
The news was soon known by the British collector David, who immediately commissioned the Shanghai antique dealer Ye Shu Chong to go to Beijing on his behalf to buy the painting of the night.
After a few twists and turns, Pu Wei finally transferred this work to Ye Shu Chong, and then after a few twists and turns, it went to the United States.
This painting is a national treasure in China, but Americans do not appreciate it.
The host said, "This is a painting, a rare one, with a reserve price of US$100 million and an increase of five million each time."
The Americans also have people who like to treasure cultural relics, and also several big businessmen coincidentally started to grab it.
From $100 million to $500 million, someone finally couldn't hold out and gave up, just as the rich man was getting complacent.
Li Linfei suddenly raised his bid, one billion dollars.
He was a collector, but he wouldn't spend a billion dollars on a painting he didn't know, he preferred jewellery and gold to paintings.
In the end, Li Linfei took the national treasure for a billion dollars and Fried, who was next to him, asked, "Boss, what are you doing with this painting, although it looks old and I can't see anything on it except a white horse?"
Li Linfei smiled at him and said, "Fried, you wouldn't understand."
After saying this, he then looked at the auction table, this time the auction was for a jewel, I should say an eastern pearl to be precise, emitting a white shimmering light, this couldn't be that eastern pearl, could it?
Chapter 602
"System, what is this, could it be that eastern pearl." Li Linfei asked.
"Yes host, you've finally become enlightened, this is that Eastern Pearl."
Hearing the system's reply, Li Linfei was excited, this Eastern Pearl Li Linfei had only seen his shape on the internet before, so it seemed like the trip was worth it.
Only to hear the host say, "Ladies and gentlemen, this Eastern Pearl is owned by a woman's mouth in ancient China, a woman named Cixi, I'm sure you all know that."
"This Eastern Pearl is one of the most valuable items among all the lots in the auction house today."
During the late Qing Dynasty, although Tongzhi and Guangxu were the nominal emperors, the supreme power of the Qing Empire was in the hands of Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled during a period when China faced serious internal and external problems, with rising and falling peasant uprisings on the inside and foreign powers on the outside.
However, in these circumstances, Empress Dowager Cixi was too greedy for pleasure to be enterprising, ignoring national issues for her own selfish reasons, as evidenced by her misappropriation of naval funds for her 60th birthday during the Sino-Japanese War.
The day after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, Cixi ended her life in bed.
According to her wishes, all the exotic treasures she had scavenged, including all her wealth, were to be buried with her, and as the saying goes, money is a thing of the body, but Cixi was unwilling to let go of these possessions even in death, nor was she willing to take them out to save the country and the people. According to statistics, each of the treasures buried with Cixi was worth a great deal of money, with a market value of 200 million taels of silver, more than three years of Qing government revenue at the time.
Of course, Cixi's miserliness eventually brought her trouble, and in the second decade after Cixi's burial, the Xinhai Revolution suddenly broke out, and the Qing Empire instantly collapsed, forcing the Xuan Tong Emperor to abdicate and China to enter the Republican era. Soon afterwards, however, the warlords began to fight each other for power, and the common people were in dire straits.
In 1928, Sun Tianying took a fancy to the Cixi Mausoleum, and in order to raise funds for the military, he actually blocked off the Qing Dongling Mausoleum and began excavating it in the name of military manoeuvres.
According to records, the Cixi Mausoleum's underground palace was so gloriously overbearing that it surpassed the chambers of all the emperors and empresses of the Qing Empire, and the burial jewels in Cixi's coffin were the most precious. As we all know, the night pearl in the Empress Dowager's mouth was a priceless treasure, worth more than 10 million taels of silver at the time, or about 800 million yuan when converted to RMB.
According to the recollections of Sun Tianying even in later years, there was a night pearl in Cixi's mouth, separated in two pieces, and together it was a round pearl, very transparent. When I opened the coffin, I found that the old Buddha looked as if she was asleep and her face was fine.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure I don't need to say much about the value of this Eastern Pearl, the starting bid is five hundred million dollars, with each increase of twenty million dollars, now begins."
"Five hundred and forty million dollars."
"Five hundred and sixty million dollars."
"Five hundred and eighty million."
"Six hundred million."
......
The price soared and soon, the asking price for this Eastern Pearl rose to six hundred and eighty million dollars.
At this point, Li Linfei couldn't sit still and raised his sign and began to call for bids, "Seven hundred million!"
Immediately afterwards, someone else took over Li Linfei's price.
"Seven hundred and forty million."
"Seven hundred and sixty million."
Li Linfei raised his card again and called out his bid, "Eight hundred million."
"Eight hundred and forty million."
"Eight hundred and sixty million."
Everyone knew the value of this Eastern Pearl, and these bidders more or less knew the historical origin of this Eastern Pearl.
Li Linfei was about to raise his card again, but Fried pulled him back and said to him, "Boss, is it worth it for such an Eastern pearl?"
"Fried, you're not a Chinese you don't understand the reasoning behind this." Li Linfei said.
"But, boss, it's just a bead pulled out of your mouth, you ......."
"Alright, you stop, my mind is made up." Li Linfei said.
Seeing that Li Linfei was determined to have this bead, Freed was not persuaded.
The price of this Eastern pearl was now bid up to exactly nine hundred million.
I only heard the host say, "Nine hundred million once, nine hundred million twice, nine hundred million ......." Before he could finish, Li Linfei shouted, "One billion."
When the auctioneer heard the higher price, his eyes lit up and he immediately shouted aloud, "One billion, are there any higher prices for the friends here, this is the best Eastern Pearl in the world, nourishing face and beauty, the significance of the item are undoubtedly huge, I can guarantee that it is unlikely that such an item will be available again in recent years, those who want it have to hurry."
"One billion two hundred million!"
"One billion forty million."
Li Linfei took a look, there were quite a lot of people who knew what they were doing, so it seemed that a big move had to be made.
"Two billion." Li Linfei shouted.
When he shouted this, everyone was stunned, two billion, maybe these Yanks were collectors, but they wouldn't fight for the old money for this bead that had been picked out of their mouths.
So after hearing Li Linfei's bid, most people looked at the young Chinese man and wondered why he was so desperate to buy this Eastern pearl.
In the end Li Linfei took the eastern pearl for twenty US dollars, and one more of China's national treasures went back.
Chapter 603
After getting his hands on the Eastern Pearl, Li Linfei was satisfied and the auction continued, with Freed also buying several good items, all worth several hundred million dollars.
As the auction reached a late stage, there was nothing more for Li Linfei to buy and he just sat quietly.
That's when the system's voice came through.
Entertainment Development Mission: Lin Min Entertainment Company, which belongs to the Future Technology Group, is the weakest of the host's industries, and now the bosses of all the major film and television companies are present, so please ask the host to secretly acquire any of the influential entertainment companies in the United States.
Mission duration: five days
Mission completed: Design drawings for a large series of undersea tunnels.
Mission failure: obliterate.
The system gave this a task, Li Linfei is very bummed, the system is true, Lin Min Entertainment is the worst piece of future technology, in addition to shooting a 5D movie "Spirit Fox Legend" a big fire, now did not feel what script ah.
Besides, "Quibbler" is still in preparation and is expected to be released within two years, so the film entertainment aspect is in desperate need of development.
"Fried, are all the entertainment bosses almost here today?" Li Linfei asked.
"Yes, boss." Fried replied.
"Who do you know best." Lilinfei asked.
Fried thought for a moment and said, "Boss, to say that I know him best, I know the current owner of News Corporation, Douglas, very well."
"Alright then, make an appointment after the auction." Lilinfei said.
"Why, boss." Freed asked.
"What's the point of asking so much, I'll tell you later." Lilinfei said.
"Okay, boss." Fried said.
The auction ended after an hour or so, and Lirinfei and Fried returned to the hotel.
Fried told Lilinfei that it was too late today and that Douglas would come back tomorrow at nine in the morning.
Li Linfei was not in a big hurry, five days, there was still plenty of time.
......
The next day at eight o'clock, it was off to the private room Fried had booked last night. Upon arrival, Li Linfei and he were led directly by the waiter into a lavishly decorated private room.
"Boss, let's wait for a moment." Freed said to Li Linfei.
Then, he poured a glass of expensive red wine, which had already been sobered up, for Li Linfei.
"Go one?" Fried raised his glass of wine.
Linfei Li looked at him, nodded his head and took a sip from the glass.
Afterwards, Fried ate his snack and looked at his phone, while Li Linfei closed his eyes and took a nap.
In a flash, the time came to nine o'clock.
The door of the private room, too, was pushed open at this time.
"Boss, someone's here!" Fried pushed Li Linfei, who opened his eyes.
At the door of the room, an American man in his forties or fifties stepped in.
"Fried, long time no see!" The man greeted Fred warmly when he saw him.
"Long time no see, Dawrig!" The two exchanged some pleasantries.
Fried looked at Li Linfei and introduced him, "Dawlieg, this is my new boss!"
"New boss, Future Technology?" Dawlieg looked at Li Linfei in an amused manner.
"That's right!"
"Hello, Li Linfei!" Li Linfei stood up and shook hands with Douglas with a smile.
According to Freed, this guy was the current president and first shareholder of News Corporation.
"Hello Mr. Li, my name is Douglas."
The person who could make Fried call him boss, who was Fried, the world famous car company boss, the person who made Fried call him boss, must not be mediocre, even if he looked young, Dawlieg would not underestimate him.
After settling down, Douglas said, "Fried, I thought at first that you had bought the company as a fake, but now that I see it, I didn't expect it."
"But Fried, from what I know about you, you're not a man who would do business at a loss, and I think Mr. Lee's charisma is far greater than the skinny on what those Wall Street capitalists see."
Now the sales of Future Technology's Super Star electronic watches were booming, but the accounts were not disclosed, which gave many people from the outside world, a lot of negative speculation.
Li Linfei smiled at this and did not say anything.
Fried, on the other hand, said excitedly, "You're kind of right, following the boss, ah, I earn more, I think this is the most important choice I've ever made in my life."
"That's a big deal?" Douglas said in amazement.
"Is it, you'll see later, come on, cheers!"
After some aimless chatting and the food being served, Douglas asked Loveridge, "You said earlier that you had something for me, what was it exactly?"
Freed looked at Lilinfei, who nodded to signal him to speak.
"Oh, it's like this. Our company is preparing to develop the film and television industry vigorously recently, so, we want to make a takeover of your News Group, I wonder ......" Fried spoke, and Douliege's face changed, and he hastily waved his hand to stop him.
"Fried, you're kidding, right?" Dawrig said.