The entrance to the auction venue.
A verification officer in a crisp uniform held out his hand. “Please present your invitation and VIP card.”
In a calm voice, Shen Qingli said, “Shen Qingli, Mr. Pei’s wife.”
The verification officer frowned. His scrutinizing gaze traveled from Shen Qingli’s face down to the hem of her dress. “The Pei couple completed their registration and entered the venue three minutes ago.”
Shen Qingli knitted her brows. “Call Pei Wendu.”
The corners of the verification officer’s mouth lifted slightly. His sidelong glance at Shen Qingli was laced with mockery. “Mr. Pei and Mrs. Pei are together. Wouldn’t I just be making trouble for Mr. Pei by calling him?”
The verification officer had seen plenty of this sort of thing in their circle.
In private, husbands accompanied their mistresses.
When it came to proper occasions, husbands accompanied their wives.
If even mistresses were as ignorant of their place as this one, then the good days ought to be coming to an end.
Shen Qingli had just taken out her phone when—
“Sister-in-law!”
The bright voice was familiar.
Shen Qingli raised her eyes.
Sure enough.
She saw Pei Nanyin running toward her.
Pei Nanyin affectionately took hold of her arm. “Sister-in-law, you’re here! Why haven’t you gone in yet?”
Shen Qingli glanced at the verification officer.
Pei Nanyin frowned unhappily and looked at him. “You’re the one who wouldn’t let my sister-in-law in?”
The verification officer opened his mouth to argue.
Pei Nanyin cut him off at once. “Enough. You don’t need to say anything. Go collect this month’s wages. You don’t need to come back after today.”
The verification officer’s face went pale. His pleading gaze fell on Shen Qingli. “Mrs. Pei, please…”
Shen Qingli withdrew her gaze.
Everyone had to pay the price for their own words and actions.
She followed Pei Nanyin into the hall.
Pei Nanyin was suddenly called away by an urgent phone call. “Sister-in-law, the backstage staff need me for something. Go to VIP Room Three by yourself and sit with my brother.”
With that, Pei Nanyin hurried away.
Shen Qingli watched her back disappear around the corner before preparing to walk toward the rear of the auction hall.
“Brother Wendu, isn’t that Sister? Didn’t you say she wasn’t coming?”
The voice came from above. Shen Qingli recognized it as Song Mingyan’s.
She paid it no attention.
Yet Song Mingyan called out to her anyway. “Sister Lili, Brother Wendu and I are here. Come up and join us.”
As if unintentionally, Shen Qingli raised her head.
She saw Song Mingyan leaning over the balcony, watching her with a smile that was not quite a smile.
It was as though she were showing off.
A moment later.
Pei Wendu’s figure appeared as well. His gaze swept over Shen Qingli’s small, fair ear and saw that she was not wearing her hearing aid.
He smiled faintly and signed:
【Lili, come up.】
Shen Qingli expressionlessly withdrew her gaze.
Just looking at the two of them made her sick.
Being in the same enclosed space with them made her feel dirty all over.
Shen Qingli paid them no further attention and went straight to the back to find a seat.
She took out her hearing aid.
Lifting her hair, she put it on.
The silver-gray frame fit snugly against her ear, and a faint electrical hum buzzed inside it.
Pei Wendu’s brows drew together slightly.
Song Mingyan watched Pei Wendu, who had remained distracted ever since returning.
She was irritated inside.
Leaning against Pei Wendu’s chest, she said coquettishly, “Brother, it’s all my fault.”
Pei Wendu gathered his thoughts.
He raised his eyes slightly.
A pampering smile settled between his brows. “What is it this time?”
Song Mingyan lightly bit her moist, tender lip. “It’s because I’m here that Sister refused to come up! I should still leave. I don’t want to disturb you two.”
The moment she finished speaking—
Pei Wendu indulgently rubbed her earlobe. “It has nothing to do with you. She’s simply narrow-minded. As for you, you’re so obedient. Later, bid on whatever you like.”
An imperceptible curve appeared at the corners of Song Mingyan’s lips.
Five minutes later.
The auction began.
Calligraphy and paintings, porcelain, jewelry…
As the numbers continued to rise, each item was granted a new value amid the rise and fall of the auctioneer’s hammer.
Finally.
After Shen Qingli had waited with desperate anticipation—
A ceremonial attendant pushed a small cart covered in red velvet onto the stage.
The velvet cloth was lifted.
It was the jade necklace.
Shen Qingli straightened up.
The auctioneer’s voice was warm and clear. “…Tonight’s twenty-eighth lot is a jade necklace from the late Ming Dynasty. It has sustained some wear, with visible signs of use and two shallow scratches on the inner side. The starting price is twenty thousand yuan, with each bid increasing by no less than two thousand yuan.”
Shen Qingli raised her bidding paddle. “Twenty-two thousand.”
Song Mingyan had originally had no interest whatsoever in that broken necklace, but then she heard Shen Qingli’s voice.
She quickly ran to the windowsill.
Looking down, she saw someone bid, “Thirty thousand.”
Song Mingyan watched Shen Qingli raise her paddle once more. “Forty thousand.”
Song Mingyan curved her lips upward.
She leaned against the windowsill, her gaze fixed intently on Shen Qingli.
How could she possibly let Shen Qingli have her way?
When the auctioneer raised and lowered the hammer, announcing, “Forty thousand, once. Forty thousand, twice. Forty thousand…”
Song Mingyan’s delicate voice stopped the final strike from falling.
“One hundred thousand.”
Shen Qingli abruptly turned her head.
Just in time.
Her gaze met Song Mingyan’s.
Their eyes collided in midair, and beneath the calm surface, invisible sparks exploded.
Song Mingyan smiled at her.
It was intensely provocative.
She intended to snatch it from Shen Qingli’s hands.
Even though she did not like that old, shabby necklace in the slightest—a worn-out piece that could not be displayed with any pride.
Shen Qingli tightened her grip on the paddle and raised it. “One hundred and ten thousand.”
Song Mingyan did not hesitate. “Two hundred thousand.”
Shen Qingli: “Two hundred and ten thousand.”
Song Mingyan: “Three hundred thousand.”
Shen Qingli: “Three hundred and ten thousand.”
After calling out the price, Shen Qingli instinctively glanced toward the VIP room.
She happened to meet Pei Wendu’s eyes.
Pei Wendu looked at Shen Qingli from across the room. She was sitting alone at the very back, solitary and forlorn, and he felt that she looked somewhat pitiful.
But she had brought it upon herself.
He had called for Shen Qingli.
She was the one who had continued throwing a tantrum.
A man’s patience was limited.
Song Mingyan suddenly pressed herself against him.
Her soft body clung tightly to Pei Wendu’s back. “Brother, I want this necklace tonight. Why does Sister insist on competing with me? Is she still angry with me?”
Shen Qingli’s cold indifference and Song Mingyan’s display of weakness and coquettishness formed a stark contrast.
Pei Wendu patted Song Mingyan’s hands, which were folded over his lower abdomen. “I’ll bid for it for you.”
Just as Shen Qingli thought Song Mingyan had given up bidding—
The auctioneer’s excited voice trembled as he announced, “The gentleman in VIP Room Three has lit the sky lantern for his female companion!”
Shen Qingli smiled.
Pei Wendu.
You really are something!
The final patch of ruins in Shen Qingli’s world was finally blown apart completely.
The sound was deafening.
Ashes, like countless embroidery needles, stabbed into her heart all at once.
This jade necklace had been Grandma’s only dowry. Back then, Grandma had hardened her heart and pawned it in order to pay for Pei Wendu’s treatment when he contracted pneumonia.
And now—
Pei Wendu had not only failed to recognize the necklace that had once saved his life, he was also trying to take away what she loved for the sake of his new favorite.
How could Shen Qingli be willing to let the necklace she had searched for so many years pass her by just like this?
Her heart felt as though it had been stuffed with water-soaked cotton.
It swelled until it hurt.
Just when everyone thought that the jade necklace would be effortlessly won by the occupant of VIP Room Three—
A change occurred.
VIP Room One had lit the sky lantern as well!
This was the first time in the history of the Jingbei auction market that two VIPs had lit the sky lantern for the same item.
The entire venue erupted in an uproar.
No one could understand why this perfectly ordinary, flawed piece of folk jade had inexplicably caught the eyes of two major figures in succession.
Shen Qingli had never encountered such a situation before and did not know who would ultimately receive the jade necklace.
But she would rather the necklace be collected by a complete stranger.
She would never want Pei Wendu to win it and let the deliberately calculating Song Mingyan lay her hands on it.
The young man in the seat beside her whispered with his female companion, “I heard that if two or more people light the sky lantern for an auction item, their assets have to be verified. Whoever has greater assets gets it.”
When she heard this—
The hope that had just risen in Shen Qingli’s heart shattered once more.
The Pei family.
They had vast wealth and a powerful enterprise.
Whose assets could possibly surpass the Pei family’s?
Unless it was the top-tier Cheng family. But how could a damaged, old necklace possibly catch the eye of anyone from the Cheng family?
Shen Qingli sat limply where she was, no longer holding out any hope.
The staff hurried off to verify the bidders’ assets.
The people around her whispered among themselves. “I know the person in VIP Room Three is Mr. Pei of the Pei family. Does anyone know who’s in VIP Room One?”
Everyone shook their heads.
The staff finished verifying the assets.
The auctioneer picked up the hammer and tapped it against the edge. Having already received the news, he announced clearly, “Thank you all for participating. I hereby announce that tonight’s twenty-eighth lot belongs to the gentleman in VIP Room One.”
Shen Qingli froze.
She could hardly believe her ears.
She stood up.
Then she headed upstairs.
She wanted to try and persuade the winner to part with it—to sell the necklace to her.
Shen Qingli had not yet reached VIP Room One when—
The private-room door opened.
Two bodyguards in black suits, wearing earpieces and sunglasses, led the way, one on either side.
Immediately afterward—
A pair of black leather shoes with thin soles appeared in Shen Qingli’s line of sight.
Shen Qingli raised her eyes.
The man who walked out behind the bodyguards wore a perfectly pressed black suit. One of the bodyguards draped a black cashmere coat over him.
There was little expression on his cold, stern face. His jawline was sharp, as though carved from ice, and his thin lips were pressed into a cold, hard line. Even the corners of his eyes held an aloofness as cold as ice.
Bright light fell across his high, straight nose, casting a faint shadow that concealed the indifference surging in his eyes.
He did not walk quickly, yet he carried an invisible air of oppression. The arrogance and nobility of someone long accustomed to being in a position of power seemed to seep from his very bones and blood.
But when Shen Qingli saw that face, she stood rooted to the spot in shock.
It was him!