Chapter 76.3
Editor: Jodi
Time flew by, and soon it was the day before the secret bidding was revealed.
At 10 PM that evening, the first batch of bids, nearly 20,000 rough stones numbered A101 to B10000, would be sealed.
So from the afternoon onwards, the secret bidding area was bustling, with many people running around to save time, adjusting their bids frantically as they used the electronic books on their light brains.
Almost every number on the secret bidding boxes showed significant fluctuations, especially the first 500 rough stones, making it so that it was rare to see bid numbers below the number ‘100’. Everyone was in a frenzy!
Everyone kept scanning codes, pressing numbers on the bidding devices, generating electronic bid slips, then rushing to the next spot.
And whenever someone adjusted a bid, competitors wouldn’t be able to sit still, which led to more and more people changing their prices, causing many to lose everything in a moment of impulsiveness.
At this moment, the bid amounts seemed like just strings of numbers, with no feeling when cast!
Some even used their bodies to block the codes on the secret bidding boxes to prevent others from bidding higher than them, however they were immediately pulled away by nearby soldiers.
“Damn it, I’m finished, I’m finished. I pressed an extra zero, holy shit! Ah—!”
A middle-aged man slapped himself, fell to the ground, then pounded the floor as he cried.
He’d had high hopes for this rough stone, but now he could only forfeit the bid.
Which meant that all his other secret bids would be invalidated, and he would be blacklisted by the event organizers, never allowed to participate in the Emporium again!
The sight of the middle-aged man crying bitterly was like a bolt of lightning, awakening the crowd, making it so that from then on, every bidder checked their numbers multiple times carefully before daring to press the confirm button.
Little fatty Jin Mao, following Bai Jing’s advice, checked the bid box periodically. Several times he almost adjusted the bid, however his father stopped him just in time.
However in the end, the two of them still raised their bid by 2 million.
Besides this, Father Jin placed over fifty other bids, mostly on rough stones with cracks or fog layers, hoping to snag some bargains. They expected to win about five or six bids if lucky.
As Bai Jing walked by, he saw a wealthy merchant staring intensely at the numbers on a bid box. The man placed three bids within two minutes, hesitated, and was about to place a fourth.
Bai Jing glanced at him helplessly, shook his head, then sighed inside.
No matter how many times they adjusted the bid prices, no one would feel truly at ease.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
However despite Bai Jing’s clarity of the situation, he was also equally unsettled. Or rather, it should be said that no one could remain unaffected in this tense atmosphere.
He checked the rough stones he was interested in one by one carefully.
However he skipped A02 for now, as it wouldn’t be opened until the last day, what’s more its price was already set, and so didn’t need any adjustments.
Next was A3680, a yellow jadeite of the ice variety: the number of bids for it had increased by seven to eight bids, however his bid was already high enough, so there was no need to raise it.
Then A3200, a blue water jadeite of the ice variety: its bid count had increased by over ten. His original price likely wouldn’t win, however it wasn’t worth adjusting, as the profit margin was too low.
….
As he approached A4100, Bai Jing deliberately slowed his steps.
Then seeing the number on the bid box from a few meters away, his breath caught. The bid count had risen from ‘9’ to ’14’.
Five more people had placed bids in recent days!
‘Should I raise my bid?’
‘Yes, its better if I raise it. The previous price was too low.’
This thought popped into his mind, then anxiety surged within him.
Actually, if one looked around, they would see that this rough stone had the fewest added bids, so this was a clear case of ‘being too concerned caused confusion’.
Bai Jing appeared relaxed about the other rough stones because he didn’t particularly care if he won those bids or not.
Even if he didn’t win, he could compensate with other rough stones, so it wasn’t crucial.
However he absolutely had to win this one, otherwise it would leave a huge regret!
Should he raise the bid or not? And if he did, by how much?!
The teenager frowned slightly, his teal colored eyes showing hesitation: if the bid was too high, the seller might block it…
He wanted to ask Gu Yuanzhao, however the latter was in the middle of an important investigation and couldn’t be disturbed.
Maybe he should add 2 million starcoins to raise it from 4.99 million to 6.99 million. That shouldn’t be too high.
However just as Bai Jing was about to return and place a new bid, his sharp senses caught a conversation between two men not far away.
A: “Hey, you’re bidding on rough stones with black fog? There’s clearly no good material in those.”
B: “What do you know? Look around you, people are going crazy. Rough stones with slightly better performance have seventy or eighty bids, sometimes more. Do you think I stand a chance with those?”
A: “That’s also true. I’ll follow your lead and place a bid. 2.3 million should be enough, right?”
B: “Almost. That’s what I bid too. Any higher isn’t worth it.”
Hearing these words, Bai Jing stopped abruptly, then his mind, which had been affected by his surroundings, cleared immediately.
He had already made an assumption earlier and concluded: 5 million was definitely enough, and conservatively, 3.5 million starcoins could secure it.
He took one last look at the bid box for A4100 then walked away.
Phew, in order not to affect his mindset, he had decided to go back to absorb the energy from the black jadeite. He had been too busy lately to find time.
His mental power extended its glistening white branches, then wrapped around his wrist, expressing joy. Yay, it could have tasty energy again!
That disgusting thing from a while ago had made it stronger, but yuck, it tasted awful! Bah!
**
The next morning, Bai Jing and Gu Yuanzhao arrived at the auction hall together.
Bai Jing noticed the deep fatigue in the man’s eyes, causing him to feel a twinge of heartache.
“Don’t worry, everything will go smoothly.”
Gu Yuanzhao ruffled the teenager’s hair with his large hand gently, then as everyone became engrossed in the opening of the secret bids, he slipped out of the auction hall through the back quietly.
No one knew he had only just returned half an hour ago.
The secret bidding area displayed 200 rough stones per group, with each group shown for 90 seconds before rotating to the next. Then every 2000 rough stones accumulated would be displayed together again for one minute.
The auctioneer: “Now displaying the first group, A101-A300. Time: 90 seconds. Please look at the big screen.”
Then when the numbers and winning bids were announced, cries and shouts erupted from the crowd below.
“My god, the prices are so high!”
“45.8 million and I still didn’t win?!”
“Fuck, missed it by just 500,000!”
“Hahaha, I won!”
“A new record, this Sotho Star Planet’s Emporium has set a new record again—”
Bai Jing glanced up, and saw that the prices were even higher than he had imagined.
Secret bid A101, winning price 57.5 million, winning bid number 115, congratulations.
Secret bid A102, winning price 56.66 million, winning bid number 208, congratulations.
Secret bid A103, winning price 60.1 million, winning bid number 059, congratulations.
…
The winning bid numbers represented the numbers on the bidding devices, and as the Gu Conglomerate was the Empire’s top financial powerhouse, the head of the five great aristocratic families, its number was just below the royal family’s three elusive members, so Bai Jing’s winning bid number was 005.
As the opening bid numbers continued to rise, Bai Jing’s anxiety also began to grow.
Thanks for the chapter!