Chapter 604: Try Someone Else

The more Lin Yi thought, the more her heart sank, and her chest felt so tight she couldn't catch her breath.

Her neck felt as stiff as if it had rusted, yet she forced herself to turn it bit by bit.

As their eyes met, a flicker of struggle flashed in Feng Laien's eyes, but Lin Yi shook her head without the slightest hesitation.

She knew what Feng Laien wanted to say: Yuanhui was merely a courtesy name, not a given name, so it did not count as a significant defect.

We didn't know, we aren't professionals, and it wasn't an intentional concealment, so it doesn't amount to subjective fraud.

Or perhaps: the auction item was not delivered, no established fact was created, the sale was not completed, and no actual property loss was incurred.

But it isn't up to you to decide; just because you say there was no concealment doesn't mean the Judge will believe it.

It comes back to the same point: if you didn't intentionally conceal anything, why didn't you display the five sheets with the missing strokes?

The materials laid out on the table, including the photos, the catalog, the "Disclaimer," the "Supplementary Agreement," and even the "Collection Letter," are each ironclad evidence.

The only thing that could be argued is the "incomplete delivery" and "unrealized sale," but even if the court doesn't rule for "triple damages for fakes," the fines will certainly not be small.

Because the auction price of this item is too high and the impact is too great, a punitive penalty must be imposed.

Otherwise, if any auction house could just do this, the art collection and art auction industry in Shen Guo would absolutely stink like dog shit—

Seeing Lin Yi refuse so firmly, Feng Laien knew that there was no turning the situation around.

His eyes were red as he stared fixedly at Lang Qingxiang and Jin Yuzhen.

Three months ago, Bonhams had already confirmed the auction date, set the venue, and begun preparing the preliminary promotional work when these two suddenly showed up with the manuscripts.

Feng Laien knew very well the weight of "Zhu Xi's Authentic Handwriting" in the Chinese collectibles market, and he also knew what level of influence Bonhams could reach if such a treasure anchored the inaugural auction.

Excitement aside, Feng Laien was not careless; he requested a machine inspection.

Lang Qingxiang agreed, and the items did indeed show a slight issue: four sheets were from the early Southern Song Dynasty, and five were from the late Southern Song Dynasty.

In fact, with just a little care, one could see the color difference between the two types of paper with the naked eye.

But Feng Laien didn't think there was any problem, and the law even clearly stipulates: yellowing or graying of paper in Calligraphy and Painting or ancient books due to natural aging or improper storage does not constitute a major defect and does not need to be disclosed separately.

To this end, he specifically instructed the publicity department: only display the slightly older four sheets in the catalog, and before the auction preview, be sure to adjust the lighting angle to prevent bidders from discovering the color difference as much as possible.

But at this time, Lang Qingxiang put forward a request: first, no advance publicity.

Second, the auction house must cooperate with them to try to facilitate a transaction with a specific bidder.

To compensate for the auction house's losses, after entering the preview period, Lang Qingxiang would buy off well-known art investment institutions to build momentum for the manuscripts.

Such situations are rare, especially the point about not having advance publicity. Because the higher the heat, the higher the transaction price.

But it is only rare, not unheard of: for example, Wash Goods, or even money laundering.

Feng Laien did not refuse: because the commission would not be a penny less.

And as long as the transaction is confirmed, even if the publicity is done afterward, it can still achieve the intended effect and influence.

Then, everything went very smoothly.

Until Zhang Zongxian withdrew his commission, and Zhou Zhilin and Li Chengkai reneged on their bids.

The decision to sue was discussed beforehand, and the law firm was also chosen jointly by both parties; whether it was Feng Laien or Lang Qingxiang, they firmly believed that this lawsuit would not be lost.

As long as the lawsuit is won, the commission the auction house should earn will not be a penny less. If Zhou Zhilin and Li Chengkai have no money to pay, Lang Qingxiang will compensate Bonhams.

And as long as the lawsuit is won, the publicity effect and influence the auction house wants will not be any less, and the influence might even be greater.

Lang Qingxiang also has nothing to lose: the manuscripts are still there, and they can be auctioned again next time.

On the contrary, because Zhang Zongxian withdrew his commission first and then reneged on the bid, this manuscript will become famous.

This time it was 160 million; next time it will be at least 260 million.

But unfortunately, the dream woke up a bit too early: who would have thought that the manuscripts would have such a huge defect?

Feng Laien really wanted to slap himself twice: when he saw the machine inspection results at the time, he thought it was foolproof; why didn't he do a comprehensive and systematic academic verification?

He wanted even more to ask Lang Qingxiang: aren't you a descendant of the imperial family, didn't you say the treasures in your home are more than everything I've ever auctioned?

Such an obvious loophole, how the hell did you not know?

Lang Qingxiang opened his mouth, not knowing how to argue.

If he had known that this thing had such an obvious problem, how could he have sent it to an auction?

Even the person who gave him the things and told him to send them to the auction didn't know.

Because there are hundreds more such manuscripts, and what they want to earn is not 160 million, but tens or hundreds of billions.

Yet, it got messed up the first time?

So, who the hell would lift a rock only to drop it on their own feet?

He let out a long breath and looked at Jin Yuzhen.

Jin Yuzhen didn't speak, just glanced at Lin Sicheng; Lang Qingxiang understood in a second: the one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it.

He thought for a long while: "General Manager Lin, can we talk?"

Lin Sicheng was straightforward: "Does General Manager Lang want me to withdraw the case and then drop the lawsuit?"

"Yes!" Lang Qingxiang's eyes lit up, "General Manager Lin, you name a number!"

"General Manager Lang, prepare to respond to the lawsuit!" Lin Sicheng shook his head, "I'll give you a piece of advice: before you are subjected to mandatory measures, call the embassy as soon as possible—"

Lang Qingxiang froze, as if he couldn't believe it.

"General Manager Lin, do you know how much money this is?"

"This has nothing to do with money."

Lang Qingxiang narrowed his eyes: "Do I have a grudge against you?"

This time, Lin Sicheng did not hesitate: "Yes!"

And not just him, but a full 1.2 billion—

Lin Sicheng dared to guarantee: as long as he had a breath left, whether it was the thirty volumes lost from the Forbidden City back then, or however many these people found elsewhere trying to pass off fish eyes as pearls, they were all just toilet paper.

Still hundreds of billions; I'll make it hard for you to auction even a few thousand—

"General Manager Lang, the Qing Dynasty has been dead for a long time!" Lin Sicheng smiled slightly, "Go wash up and go to sleep!"

The Assistant pulled the curtains and turned on the slide projector.

Seated neatly in two rows below were: Liang Shiya, Guo Yongxin, Chen Jiashan, He Jian, and the two newly hired Experts.

The slides began to play: "Bank Deposit Voucher," "Notice of Large Fund Arrival," "Special Fund Usage Commitment," "Payment Disbursement Plan"—

They were all textual documents, seven or eight in total. Each one contained numbers representing the amount: $, 15

000000.

Every zero seemed like a Needle, piercing into everyone's eyes.

After a long silence, Liang Shiya took the remote control and opened the "Fund Notification Letter." It clearly stated the source of the funds: ten million came from Zhang Zongxian, which was the agency fee for the "Manuscript Entrustment Revocation Agreement."

In addition to the agreed-upon sixty million, Zhang Zongxian paid an extra ten percent service fee and covered the twenty percent tax.

This meant that for this ten million USD, Lin Sicheng would not need to pay any more taxes.

The remaining five million was the compensation paid by Bonhams: Lin Sicheng agreed to an out-of-court settlement, but required Bonhams to issue a statement in the newspaper and to testify when Lin Sicheng sued Lang Qingxiang and Jin Yuzhen.

Likewise, Bonhams paid an extra ten percent service fee and voluntarily paid the taxes.

Regarding this point, Liang Shiya had no objections, and she did not find it strange that these two parties had set up other pretexts to help Lin Sicheng round up the total:

Lin Sicheng had saved them several hundred million; this bit of money was completely negligible.

Including the fact that Bonhams voluntarily settled and paid five million dollars in compensation, Liang Shiya was even less surprised: if Lin Sicheng had insisted on suing, Bonhams would only have been fined more, potentially reaching hundreds of millions.

By then, Bonhams would have lost even more face, and the impact would have been even worse.

Settling voluntarily now not only meant paying less in compensation, but it would even give the collecting world and consumers a good impression of "daring to admit mistakes" and "correcting them once known."

What Liang Shiya did not understand was Lin Sicheng's approach: if his goal was money, he should have insisted on suing the auction house, not the consignor.

Because the consignor had no obligation of "knowing or should have known about the disclosure," the charge of fraudulent sales could not be pinned on him; even if the lawsuit was lost, he would not need to pay Lin Sicheng a single cent.

At most, it would just mean his manuscript could not be auctioned off.

Unable to figure it out for a moment, Liang Shiya did not dwell on it and pressed the pause button.

"CoCo, MaRy, report to the Executive Committee!"

The two looked at each other: it seemed that reporting was the only option now.

They were indeed here to hold him back and cause trouble, but the prerequisite for making trouble was that it must be reasonable.

Even if it was just maintaining a facade of reasonableness, you had to have a tenable reason and a plausible excuse, not just unreasonable bickering.

But honestly, they really could not find any non-compliant reasons or excuses for the fifteen million Lin Sicheng had earned this time.

Seeing the two frowning, Liang Shiya feigned relaxation: "Don't worry, the entry capital is twenty million; he is still short at least five million. Converted to RMB, that's over thirty million. And there is less than ten days left—"

"Even if Lin Sicheng can do it, this is just the beginning; the hard part is all behind—"

Hearing this, the two felt a sense of relief in their hearts.

The twenty million in entry capital was just a multiple-choice question for those standing behind Lin Sicheng supporting him: you can support him, but you must do it in a way that I cannot trace.

It was just that before they could even choose, Lin Sicheng had already solved three-quarters of it. The remaining quarter was not difficult for the people behind Lin Sicheng.

But this was only the first threshold; what followed were not thresholds, but mountains.

Capital, manpower, technology—every contributing factor for every authorization was an insurmountable mountain. How many are there for nineteen technologies?

Lin Sicheng was quite strong, even frighteningly smart, but these difficulties could not be overcome by individual ability and will alone.

Guo Yongxin flipped through the newly submitted "Financial Plan": "The day after tomorrow, which is next Tuesday, Lin Sicheng has invited Zhang Zongxian and some collecting institutions in Beijing to hold a small collection salon."

This was not surprising; Lin Sicheng had planned long ago to sell a portion of his collection to raise funds.

Liang Shiya asked without hesitation: "How many items are in the collection?"

"He didn't write it down, but he fully guarantees they are all his private collection!" Guo Yongxin recalled, "According to his previous tax payment records, the transaction amount is around two million RMB."

They say antiques are priceless, but no matter how priceless, one must follow the basic law: even if you multiply it by five, it's only ten million.

That is still twenty-four million RMB short of five million dollars.

Of course, they believed Lin Sicheng could definitely solve it; Liang Shiya just wanted to see: this time, what kind of tricks Lin Sicheng could pull off again.

To be honest: it would be a lie to say she didn't admire him.

If it were before, if anyone dared to say they could earn one hundred million in a week without a single cent of cost, Liang Shiya would definitely have laughed her teeth off.

Are you earning Zimbabwean dollars?

But now, Lin Sicheng had given her a solid lesson: how to use one's brain to make money.

Thinking of this, Liang Shiya smacked her lips and made a "tsk" sound: "You tell me, with this ability, why doesn't Lin Sicheng do something else?"

Why waste time and energy going down this dead end?

Liang Shiya felt that the probability of Lin Sicheng successfully researching these authorized technologies was infinitely close to zero.

Not referring to all nineteen, but to any single one of them.

Guo Yongxin joked: "What if? Just like this time, he earned one hundred million for no reason—"

Liang Shiya shook her head without hesitation: it's possible to have a 'what if' once, but it's impossible to have a 'what if' every time.

This isn't earning money; there are too many accidental factors. There are no shortcuts in technical research.

What's more, the licensor has set up countless obstacles?

"Let him pass this hurdle in front of him first!" Liang Shiya laughed, "Behind the twenty million, there is five hundred million?"

The unit is dollars!

And that is only the initial investment for the first technology.

If you want to say this is a difficulty set by the United Association, that wouldn't be wrong. But if you look at it from another angle: this might just be a multiple-choice question posed by the licensor to save time and energy for both sides.

In scientific research projects, the capital issue is the most intuitive and easiest problem to solve; if you can't even pass this hurdle, the rest is not worth discussing at all.

Liang Shiya gestured for the Assistant to turn off the slides: "What time is his salon next Tuesday?"

"Nine-thirty in the morning, at the Beijing Hotel International Conference Center!"

"Remember to remind me when the time comes!" After giving this instruction to the Assistant, Liang Shiya looked at He Jian, "Master He, I will have to trouble you then!"

He Jian stood up: "Director Liang, I will do my best!"

Liang Shiya paused for a moment, but did not say anything.

If it were before, even if He Jian wouldn't pat his chest to guarantee anything or say words like "foolproof," he at least would have said: "Director Liang, rest assured!"

Now, even if he were lent three times the courage, he wouldn't dare.

Because Lin Sicheng's performance in the Zhu Zi Manuscript did not just make Liang Shiya, who was his opponent, admire him more; it also caused an Expert like He Jian to lose his basic self-confidence.

With the heart but not the strength, one can only do one's best.

If it truly could not be stopped, this was not something she could resolve with her personal ability alone.

If the headquarters felt she was incompetent, they could completely replace her and send someone else to try—