Chapter 1515: The skyrocketing price

Nearly three hundred officials came to support the unveiling ceremony today. With ten people per table, that was over twenty large tables; the "Immortal Guest Arrival" was perfectly filled upstairs and downstairs.

In the past, only the Yao King's Longevity Banquet would see such a gathering. Usually, how could minor officials like Fan Shuang have the qualifications to drink with the scions of noble families? Even at Immortal Guest Arrival, high-ranking officials sat with high-ranking officials, minor officials with minor officials, and noble families with noble families, never interfering with one another.

To cope with today's scene, the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce had long since invited famous chefs from the major restaurants of Tianshui City, along with kitchen staff and attendants totaling over 1,700 people, to manage this grand banquet for three hundred.

The banquet tables were, of course, filled with mountain and sea delicacies. Most of the "sea delicacies" were specialties of the Yangshan Archipelago, such as abalone larger than a fist, and yellow croaker fish maw that was soft, fragrant, and trembling when stewed... ensuring the guests were satisfied.

During the banquet, there was also a lucky draw, divided into crystal, gold, and silver tiers, all of significant value; in fact, they were all treasures salvaged from Yangshan waters. Those with poorer luck received a "Rain and Dew" prize, which was a gift bag of Yangshan Archipelago specialties for everyone, beautifully packaged and rich in content.

He Lingchuan wanted every guest to return fully loaded, with a tangible sense of gain.

The expenses for this unveiling ceremony were not small, but he didn't care at all.

Because every cent spent on marketing would eventually be earned back from the nobles of Tianshui City.

The wool eventually comes from the sheep.

Sure enough, from the next day on, the popularity of Youhu Villa inside and outside the royal court rose again, and soon spread from the palace to the common people.

Even though it had nothing to do with the average person, the more they talked, the happier they became. How comfortable and luxurious Youhu Villa was, how charming the scenery on the opposite shore of the lake was—they could describe it all with vivid detail, making it sound as if it were built by the palace itself.

"Oh my, do you know how imposing that gate tower is? Even the palace city doesn't have such a wide gate!"

"Can you just say things like that?"

"Why not? The construction of Youhu Villa involved the Office of Works, and they even sent palace craftsmen. No matter how it was built, wasn't it permitted by the royal court?"

Those with ulterior motives would even link it to the turmoil at the Yao King's Longevity Ceremony, vividly describing a grand drama of power struggle.

"You know who lives opposite Youhu Villa, right? You know why His Majesty insisted on building a house at Youhu Lake, right?" When saying this, they would wink and nudge.

"I know, the Regent lives there. But His Majesty is also building a house at Youhu Lake; what does that have to do with the Regent?"

"Think, think carefully, use your bird-egg-sized brain to think carefully!"

"No, why would His Majesty go against the Regent? That person was sent by Beijia!" This person was anxious, "If Beijia gets unhappy, will we suffer a disaster?"

"What a character, look at how scared you are. Even if Beijia is the hegemon of the world, they are a hundred thousand miles away; what can they do to you or me, eh?"

In the palace and among the people, controversy and unease were floating everywhere.

Amidst this clamor, the second phase of refined residences at Youhu Villa began selling at the Red Fortress.

Unlike the rushed launch of the first phase, this second phase had made full use of public opinion for promotion before sales began.

Youhu's final edition, a beautiful residence for the ages.

Yes, the gimmick this time was that Youhu Villa would only be built in two phases in total, so once these forty-plus refined residences were sold, they would be the final edition.

Since it's the final edition, it has collection value and room for appreciation.

Although this money is currently quite comfortable to earn, He Lingchuan does not intend to stay in the Yao Nation for too long; he still needs to know when to quit while he is ahead.

On the day of the sale, the Red Fortress was packed, and the businesses in the surrounding shops flourished as a result.

At the Red Fortress auction, He Lingchuan changed the order of sales, starting from the back row of residences, then the middle row, and finally the first row by the lake.

Time was limited; only eight units were auctioned each day, with one day off in between, and all would be sold within twelve days.

In addition to maintaining popularity, it also gave potential buyers ample time to think and... raise money.

The participants felt very novel about the so-called "dark auction." There was no need for multiple rounds of bidding; a single bid decided the winner, which saved a lot of time.

Participants submitted their bid slips, the auctioneer collected them, read the numbers one by one, and the highest bidder won.

The first residence in the last row was sold off cleanly like this for 31,000 taels, bought by the Mangzhou Prefect.

There was some restlessness at the scene; everyone had not expected that the residence in the last row would actually fetch a price chasing that of the first phase's lakeside residences!

This was the power of the dark auction.

He Lingchuan invited the officials to attend the villa unveiling ceremony precisely to achieve this effect.

Then came the second and third units; the prices actually fell back a bit compared to the first.

Clearly, everyone thought the price of the first unit was a bit inflated.

He Lingchuan stood behind the curtain with his arms crossed, watching. Dong Rui asked him: "Hey, why did it go down?"

"No matter." He Lingchuan didn't take it to heart, "Just wait and see."

By the sixth unit, the price began to climb again, finally closing at 31,200 taels.

The seventh unit reached 35,000.

The last unit auctioned today, the eighth residence in the last row, finally sold for 41,700 taels!

This price jump of 6,000 taels made the crowd gasp "Wow" when the auctioneer announced it.

It was absurd; the last row of the second phase was actually more expensive than the lakeside residences of the first phase!

He Lingchuan explained to Dong Rui: "The last row of residences is marketed for its cost-effectiveness. When the auction just started, there were still eight units, so everyone's mindset was stable and they wanted to wait and see; when only the last one was left, thinking that the prices behind would only get higher, the buyers got anxious."

Anxious meant they had to pay more.

Yuwen Xu, who came to support, really wanted to laugh out loud, but hindered by people on both sides, he didn't dare lose his composure and had to cover his mouth and cough hard.

A bargain, the first-phase lakeside residence he snatched from He Lingchuan was truly a bargain.

Although the Yuwen family wasn't short of money, seeing the residence he bought skyrocket in value in just a few days still filled him with pride.

He had shown loyalty to His Majesty and could collect for appreciation—killing two birds with one stone! After this night passed, some were happy and some were sad.

The next day happened to be the Yao Court's grand morning assembly, and the officials attending were all discussing this matter. Among the officials who bought residences, two were assigned good tasks by the Yao King; the Mangzhou Prefect, implicated by the death of Xue Zongwu, was originally going to be severely punished, and officials predicted he would be thrown to the western frontier, but the Yao King demoted him to Zhuo'an instead.

Although Zhuo'an wasn't as prosperous as Mangzhou, the second-largest city, it was near the capital and its economy and trade were not bad. As long as this prefect managed carefully and tried hard to perform, perhaps there would still be a chance for promotion.

This big stick was raised high but fell lightly; it was unclear whether it was the effect of showing loyalty or if the Yao King had intended to do so all along.

Anyway, the officials all thought the Prefect's 41,700 taels were spent too worthily.

Didn't this cause and effect correspond? Spending a little money to avert a major disaster.

With several such living positive (or negative) examples, the second auction held at the Red Fortress the next night was even more unprecedented.

What was auctioned that night was the second-to-last row of residences at Youhu Villa.

The dark auction price for the first unit actually made many people secretly say "as expected": 49,000 taels! Now, capable bidders gradually discovered two key points: first, there were only thirty-eight residences left at Youhu Villa, and each one sold was one less.

Second, the later it got, the more expensive the price would be! The more people discovered these two points, the earlier the house-snatching war began.

That night, the price of the last residence in the second-to-last row climbed to 83,000 taels amidst fierce competition! When the auctioneer shouted it out, it immediately caused a sensation at the scene.

The bidder was the Lao Mansion.

Fan Shuang whispered to He Lingchuan: "The Lao Mansion is an old noble family in Tianshui City, originally declined, but fifteen years ago they married their youngest daughter to Qi Shu'an, and have been rich ever since."

"Rich ever since?"

"Qi Shu'an is a distant nephew of Qi Yunsheng. He is not an official in the court, but a successful big businessman. He handles many businesses, the most profitable one being—"

"Lending."

He Lingchuan said "Oh": "Usury?"

"Yes." Usury has never been a glorious business; those who can do this must have a background, "Qi Shu'an relied on his relationship with Qi Yunsheng and General Xue, so his business flourished and no one dared to provoke him. However, these two recently met with disaster."

He Lingchuan nodded.

The two big trees Qi Shu'an relied on had both fallen. If he still wanted to thrive in Tianshui City, he had to embrace a new thigh.

It just so happened that the Yao King was extending his leg, so Qi Shu'an had to embrace it tightly through the Lao Mansion, right? This 83,000 taels was the price of his loyalty.

Heh, even usurers came smelling the wind.

Just then, He Lingchuan suddenly heard someone nearby say in a rough voice: "What kind of world is this, even usurers are qualified to buy Youhu residences?"

The voice sounded two parts familiar. He turned his head to look; the one who said this was Bai Tan, and there were two officials sitting beside him.

The two officials were timid and submissive, clearly below him in rank.

However, the rules tonight were such that the highest bidder won. Bai Tan spat on the ground: "Rotten people who don't have a son!"

He knew very well the purpose of Qi Shu'an buying the residence.

But this was too ugly to curse, and in public. Someone in the front row turned to look at Bai Tan, with a gloomy expression, but didn't dare to speak. He Lingchuan guessed that it was either someone from the Lao Mansion or someone from Qi Shu'an's side.

He then asked Fan Shuang: "Does General Bai have a grudge against Qi Shu'an and the Lao Mansion?"

"Uh..." Fan Shuang looked hesitant.

He Lingchuan understood at a glance: "It seems so. Alright, I know."

Fan Shuang felt bad, but still whispered in his ear: "Actually, General Bai is on bad terms with General Xue. Brother He, you also know that when General Xue was alive, he was rather..."

Overbearing, savage, and arrogant.

"When it involved the Xue family, the Bai family, and military affairs, the Ministry of Justice had some cases that couldn't be investigated."

He Lingchuan nodded.

"General Bai is a descendant of a founding famous general, a proper old-fashioned meritorious noble family, and he himself has military exploits, so he doesn't fear General Xue's momentum. Therefore, the two of them have always been at odds."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1516 =====