At the start, I tricked the school beauty, and ended up with twins?

"Before we introduce the first item for auction, I need to remind everyone as usual!"

"This 'Ancient Porcelain Journey' auction adopts a fun auction model of half real and half fake. There are twenty-one artifacts participating in the auction, of which eleven are authentic and ten are replicas! You should have already understood this before coming here."

"The starting price for all items is half the market price. Authenticity is your own responsibility. Profit and loss are also your responsibilities! I hope everyone can keep their eyes sharp and find great bargains!"

The auctioneer Xie Qingyin, with a professional smile on her face, used a microphone, and her voice filled the entire venue.

Sitting below, Lin Xinyue listened intently to the auctioneer's introduction and tugged at Gu Yu's sleeve to ask:

"Yu, does half real, half fake mean they also auction off the fakes as if they were real?"

Gu Yu was flipping through the competitor's handbook given to him by Mr. Chen Tian, and suddenly, when Lin Xinyue asked him, he turned the handbook to the first page.

Then he pointed to a line in the auction rules for Lin Xinyue to see:

"7. This auction guarantees 50% authenticity, and participants must sign a no-liability contract in advance."

"Oh my! If someone spends millions to buy a fake, wouldn't that kill them?"

Lin Xinyue read every word and exclaimed softly while covering her mouth with one hand.

Gu Yu shrugged his shoulders and turned to look at the people behind him, each of whom had an indifferent expression on their face.

Apparently, they didn't care about the odds at all.

This was simply another form of gambling!

Only the rich could afford such extravagance!

Before this, he had no idea about the existence of such genuine and faux auctions. It really was poverty that limited his imagination!

"Eh? That person looks familiar. Xinyue, look at that person on the right in the back. Is that Ma Tengyun?"

Just as Gu Yu was about to turn around, he suddenly noticed a familiar face sitting in the corner on the right side of about the fifth row.

Lin Xinyue followed Gu Yu's words and indeed saw Ma Tengyun.

Ma Tengyun also noticed Gu Yu and Lin Xinyue in the first row and stretched out his left hand towards them, giving them a thumbs up.

Gu Yu saw his lips moving, seemingly saying, "Awesome!"

Then Ma Tengyun took out his phone and pointed at it.

Gu Yu turned around, opened up his phone, and sure enough, Ma Tengyun had sent him a message.

Ma Tengyun: "Yu, you're awesome! What's your relationship with Chen Tian? Are you here to snag deals today too?"

Gu Yu thought for a moment, replied, "Um, friends? I'm here to help Mr. Chen inspect items, he asked me to help him authenticate them!"

Ma Tegyun: "Damn! Yu, I didn't know you had that skill. I'll keep an eye out later! It's starting, it's starting!"

Before Gu Yu could reply to Ma Tengyun's message, the presenter had already started explaining the first item on stage.

The auctioneer Xie Qingyin went straight to the point:

"The first item I bring to you today is—Tang Sancai Horse Statue!"

Xie Qingyin lifted the red cloth, revealing a tri-colored glazed horse statue with a small head and long neck, robust and spirited, with bright eyes and a raised hoof.

Soft lighting shone on the Tang Sancai Horse Statue, making the colors vibrant and reflecting its exquisite and lifelike appearance.

"As everyone here probably knows, Tang Sancai is a type of low-temperature glazed ceramic popular during the Tang Dynasty, primarily featuring yellow, green, and white, and is revered as a gem of Eastern art!"

"Because of Tang Sancai's uniqueness, whenever a genuine Tang Sancai appears at any public auction, it inevitably leads to high-priced bidding."

"To ensure good luck for today's event, as the first item, this Tang Sancai Horse Statue comes guaranteed as authentic and also starts at half the price! The starting bid is one million yuan! Each bid increment must be no less than one hundred thousand yuan!"

As auctioneer Xie Qingyin announced the starting bid, those who knew the value of the Tang Sancai Horse Statue eagerly began to bid.

"Number 16, 1.5 million!"

"Number 21, 1.8 million!"

"Number 7, 2 million!"

"..."

More than half of the bidders shouted out their bids.

Even Mr. Chen Tian joined in.

"Number 1, 2.49 million!"

Seeing Mr. Chen raising his bid in the first row, Xie Qingyin's face brightened, as this meant that the biggest capital in the room had joined the competition for the prized item!

With Mr. Chen bidding, the final transaction price for this Tang Sancai Horse Statue wouldn't be low!

"..."

"Number 32, 2.9 million!"

The bidding continued, and the price quickly tripled on the basis of the starting bid, without any sign of stopping.

Since the organizers guaranteed this Tang Sancai Horse Statue was genuine, and according to usual practice, this perfectly preserved statue would fetch at least five million yuan!

More so since even Mr. Chen had placed a bid.

Anything that caught Mr. Chen's interest couldn't be subpar!

The scene was like a Whack-A-Mole game, where as soon as one bidder's panel went down, another one was raised.

At this moment, money seemed like just a number.

Each raise in the bid was an amount that ordinary people could hardly earn in one, two, five, or even ten years!

"Number 01, 4 million!"

When the price reached three and a half million, Mr. Chen raised his bid again by five hundred thousand without even blinking.

This time, the auction scene finally fell silent for a few seconds.

"Number 01, 4 million once!"

Xie Qingyin raised the auction hammer in her hand and gave it a hard strike.

The crowd began to stir again, and before the second strike could land, bids were already being called out.

"4.1 million!"

"Number 32, 4.1 million!"

Seeing the last row raising their bid, Xie Qingyin on the stage sighed with relief.

Four million was already quite high, but it hadn't reached the estimated target yet.

If Mr. Chen Tian really bought it, it would be a steal!

The bidding continued, but this time Chen Tian did not raise his paddle anymore.

Instead, he turned his head to ask Gu Yu,

"What do you think about this horse statue?"

Gu Yu paused from flipping through the competition catalog, then looked up at the dazzling Tang Sancai Horse Statue on stage.

After ten seconds, he realized that his "Golden Eyes" had not activated at all.

He saw that for identifying antiques of this caliber, Entry-level Golden Eyes were no longer sufficient.

He hesitated not at all in upgrading his Golden Eyes.

[Beep! 4500 Check-in Points deducted! Golden Eyes (Entry-level) upgraded to Golden Eyes (Proficient)!]

The moment Gu Yu felt a moment of dizziness, a flood of information surged into his mind.

Origins, craftsmanship, identification methods, and value assessment – complete information on everything!

With just a thought, he could instantly recall the corresponding content.

"This Tang Sancai Horse Statue is indeed genuine. I personally value it at around 6.5 million yuan. Going beyond that would be overpriced."

Gu Yu shifted his gaze from the horse statue and then said with a smile to Old Mr. Chen.

After hearing Gu Yu's words, Old Mr. Chen nodded thoughtfully.

The price had now been raised to 5.6 million, and the momentum was slow, mostly increasing in minimum increments of a hundred thousand. Based on this pace, it seemed it would soon be sold with the final gavel.

It should be close to the 6.5 million estimated by Gu Yu. Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

After giving it some thought, he raised his paddle for the third time and bid,

"6 million!"

Xie Qingyin's eyes sparkled onstage.

"Bidder number 1! 6 million!"

The venue fell into silence again; after passing the five million mark, there were less than ten people still calling out bids.

This time, Chen Tian's increase of four hundred thousand directly shattered the psychological expectations of several people.

Someone angrily threw their paddle onto a vacant table beside them, clearly giving up on competing for this horse statue.

After all, they needed to save money for the subsequent auctions!

"Old Chen, do you want this horse? Doesn't your family already own a Tang Sancai camel worth over ten million? Why don't you let me have this horse? You know, I work in real estate, and I particularly trust the value of objects like horses," Dai Kang, who had not bid earlier, suddenly asked Chen Tian with a chuckle.

At this moment, Xie Qingyin's gavel had already hit the second time, and the deal was about to be sealed.

Chen Tian nodded indifferently.

Dai Kang grinned, then suddenly raised his paddle with number 2: "6.1 million!"

Xie Qingyin paused her auction hammer that was about to hit the block.

"Bidder number 2! 6.1 million!"

The whole venue was silent; no one else continued to bid.

Anyone with a bit of sense knew that this was a prearranged agreement Between Chen Tian and Dai Kang.

If they continued to bid, they would not only fail to outbid these two tycoons but might even offend them!

What a scenario, this was all about knowing the ropes!

"..."

"Bang! Sold for 6.1 million! Let us congratulate the buyer from seat number 2!"

Xie Qingyin's face beamed with a smile. Though this price was still a little below the estimated price, it was still within a reasonable range.

A successful start, worth celebrating!

The audience erupted in applause, with five minutes until the next item was presented onstage.

Other than Lin Xinyue, no one noticed that Gu Yu was taking a ballpoint pen out of his pocket and scribbling in the competition catalog.

Lin Xinyue curiously watched him, "What are you doing?"

"Ah? Just marking the authenticity and price of the items coming up, to help when it's time to bid!"

Gu Yu casually replied as if it were a matter of course.

Old Mr. Chen happened to overhear this and his eyes nearly bulged out!

"What? You can tell fakes from this catalog alone?"

Gu Yu nodded as if it were obvious, "Yeah! Aren't these all high-definition real shots? There's not much difference from seeing them in person."

With that, Gu Yu handed over the catalog he had marked to Chen Tian.

Chen Tian quickly took it.

Aside from the first Tang Sancai Horse Statue, the remaining twenty competition items had all been clearly marked by Gu Yu.

He was extremely detailed.

Where the model was wrong, where the color was inaccurate, even which part's lines were incorrect were all circled!

He also wrote down the highest estimated price next to each item, and didn't spare even the fake replicas!

Chen Tian counted: in total, twenty items left, Gu Yu had really marked ten as genuine and ten as fake!

"Good lad! If this is true, you've really spotted a steal!"

Old Chen gave Gu Yu a thumbs up, full of admiration.

Old Dai Kang suddenly leaned in, "Old Chen, what's that? Let me see?"

Chen Tian pushed him away and clutched the catalog close to his chest like a child hoarding a toy.

"Nope!!!"

Dai Kang rolled his eyes in annoyance and slapped his own catalog onto the table.

"Pff, as if I don't have one of my own!"