Chapter 1470: Strange Competitors

The Youhu villa had only been listed for two days, without even enough time for pre-heating, yet it had earned a full house tonight.

One could only say that the item He Lingchuan brought out was a bit solid.

Everyone's curiosity had been piqued; they wanted to see who would be the first to move into royal territory.

Chibao tonight was as lively as a vegetable market, and the auction began amidst the hustle and bustle.

Just as Fan Shuang expected, the other items in this small auction had no weight; they were either sold in a few strokes or failed to sell. There were so many onlookers, but very few raised their paddles.

But He Lingchuan raised his paddle several times, buying a shop, as well as a dozen pieces of jewelry and a few small magic artifacts sold in a bundle.

This shop was submitted for auction by Tonglin Ji ten days ago, and its location was good, just diagonally across from the back street of Tonglin Ji. At that time, He Lingchuan, this big spender, hadn't come to send business yet. Seeing that they couldn't pay the wages for the next month and had no silver for business turnover, Gu Lin sold the shop property to raise some money.

He Lingchuan also bought his first private shop in Tianshui City.

As for the jewelry and magic artifacts, they were all from "Qian Donglai," a famous casting house whose status in Tianshui City was like that of Songyang Prefecture to the Yuan Capital (formerly), especially skilled in array artifacts and talismans. The quality of these items was solid, but the price was obviously on the high side. It was unknown how much the original owner had spent to buy them, and after failing to sell several times, the price had only dropped by ten percent.

He Lingchuan held the magic artifact in his hand and looked at it twice, his heart moved slightly. It was said that the Yao army had two strengths: one was warhorses, and the other was array artifacts; this was worth studying.

As the auction progressed, some people couldn't wait any longer and turned to leave—they were just here to watch the excitement, and if there was no excitement, they would leave.

Chibao also knew that everyone's patience was limited, and finally, half an hour after the start, they brought out the grand finale item of the night—

The first villa on the lake at Youhu Villa! It's here, it's finally here; everyone perked up.

The person on stage was also Chibao's ace auctioneer, who first hung up an exquisite map to show everyone the specific location of Youhu Villa, and then blew the information everyone already knew out of proportion, the core of which was nothing more than this sentence: "Enjoy the royal garden, face the imperial scenery of the lakeside!"

He Lingchuan felt that the blowing was quite good.

Many people in Tianshui City had been to Youhu and knew it was royal territory, so they didn't feel his introduction was exaggerated.

"Living here, you can look across the water at the Youhu Small Abode! It's just a few zhang away, just a few zhang!" The auctioneer threw out this key point, which Yangshan had repeatedly explained in advance: "Starting bid at five hundred taels!"

The scene was silent.

This auction was facilitated by Yuwen Xu, who had been watching the excitement with his arms crossed, but upon hearing the auctioneer's words, he suddenly lowered his hands, showing a thoughtful expression.

He knew that words like "look across the water at the Youhu Small Abode" couldn't have been proposed by the auctioneer himself.

Emphasizing it was full of deep meaning.

"Five hundred taels!"

The auctioneer shouted again.

The onlookers at the scene looked at each other, but not one raised a paddle.

The main event was here; everyone knew it was impossible to sell at the reserve price, so they weren't in a hurry to bid.

"What's going on?" Fan Shuang muttered, even more anxious than He Lingchuan. "No one is bidding?"

Yuwen Xu was still thinking, raising his hand to press down, not knowing whether to tell him to be patient or not to make a sound. Many people at the scene were like him, showing thoughtful expressions.

The auctioneer shouted for the second time.

According to Chibao's rules, it would be withdrawn if shouted five times.

Fan Shuang couldn't sit still: "I'll throw a brick to attract jade."

Then he raised the wooden paddle in his hand: "Me."

No matter what, he had to show some support for Brother He! He still had five hundred taels.

The auctioneer immediately said: "Five hundred taels, someone has bid!"

"Five hundred taels, first time..."

If no one else bid, it would be taken by Fan Shuang.

His five hundred taels feint was effective, and people below started to bid.

Six hundred.

Jumping directly to one thousand.

Then one thousand three, one thousand seven, two thousand... two thousand five!

Yuwen Xu nodded secretly; he had originally expected two thousand silver taels to be the ceiling, but it seemed he had underestimated the enthusiasm of the Tianshui City nobility.

No commoner would bid for this house; everyone was here to watch the officials and nobles show off their skills.

In the blink of an eye, it was four thousand taels.

From here on up, the number of bidders began to decrease, and the speed of bidding slowed down.

When it reached five thousand taels, only seven people were competing in the auction.

Seven thousand taels, four people.

Eight thousand taels, three people.

The whole hall was trapped in a buzzing discussion; the onlookers were very surprised: for a little "enjoyment," is it really worth spending a huge sum of eight thousand taels? No matter how good the Youhu scenery is, no matter how special the meaning is, it's just a villa in the suburbs. With this money, one could buy a pretty good house with a large courtyard in Tianshui City.

When the bid reached ten thousand taels, two people remained.

For this level of competition, Yuwen Xu, who had originally been eager to try, gave up, and Fan Shuang subconsciously clenched his fists.

He Lingchuan sipped his warm tea, calm and composed.

Submitting the first villa for auction was just to gain an advertising effect. Ten thousand taels wasn't low; no matter how much this house finally sold for, his goal had been achieved.

The price slowly climbed to fifteen thousand. Just then, someone in the front row of the hall suddenly spoke: "Twenty thousand."

The scene exploded; someone had broken in!

And adding five thousand taels at once, showing great wealth.

This person had a thin, gaunt face and arched eyebrows, looking unhappy at any time. He wasn't far from Yuwen Xu, so Yuwen Xu could only lower his voice and say to He Lingchuan: "That's the second son of the Qing Prince's Mansion, Zhang Miao."

Fan Shuang wondered: "Do the princes' families also participate in auctions?"

The reason the Youhu villa was eye-catching was that the royal family had never allowed others to build houses in Youhu, and only He Lingchuan could open a gap in this rule.

Those who wanted to buy the villa, needless to say, were all officials or wealthy merchants, who originally had no qualifications to live in Youhu.

Why was the second son of the Qing Prince's Mansion joining in the fun at this time? He Lingchuan said: "Impressive."

Precisely because the Qing Prince's Mansion didn't need to take action, its joining the competition made everyone mutter, feeling that they had missed some hidden story.

Was this a contestant deliberately arranged by the Yao King?

He Lingchuan's heart moved, and he asked Yuwen Xu: "Has the Qing Prince's Mansion had any trouble recently?"

He remembered General Chongwu saying that the Qing Prince's Mansion's team had been stolen from in Zhuo'an, but they left in a hurry without getting the things back.

Yuwen Xu whispered in his ear: "I heard a version, not guaranteed, just listen casually. It seems the Qingyang Supervisor collected some evidence against the Qing Prince's Mansion some time ago, and even the Sovereign knew about it, but this matter was not made public in the end." ===== CHAPTER 1471 =====