"Yo, isn't this Miss Yi? Yi Chuxue, I didn't expect to see you here, I was certain that you wouldn't be in the mood to come to this auction. What about those two brothers of yours, are they still lying sick in bed? Tsk tsk, how pitiful, two perfectly fine talents were turned into wastes just like that. Your two older brothers are now complete wastes, through and through, in the future perhaps they'll be even worse than Yi Fan." Qi Shaoru said.
Yi Chuxue frowned and said, "It's none of your business."
Qi Shaoru was dissatisfied and said, "It's none of my business, how is it none of my business? Our Qi Family and your Yi Family have been friends for many generations, so of course I have to care a little about your brothers' accidents."
Yi Chuxue glared at Qi Shaoru fiercely and said, "Get out of the way."
"Miss Yi, your temper is getting worse as time goes on!" Qi Shaoru reached out and grabbed the invitation that Yi Chuxue was holding, saying, "I really can't believe it! You've already fallen to such a low point, yet you were still able to get an invitation to the auction, you didn't steal it, did you?"
"Qi Shaoru, you shut up for me." Yi Chuxue said, feeling irritated.
"Oh, so it turns out it's just an ordinary invitation, that makes sense." Qi Shaoru said disdainfully.
The invitations sent out by the auction house included special VIP invitations and ordinary ones too. In the past, Yi Chuxue could receive VIP invitations, but not anymore. The ordinary invitation that Yi Chuxue had was bought by her using gold coins.
Qi Shaoru looked at Yi Chuxue and said, "Miss Yi, all the guests in the ordinary seating area are either those big and rough mercenaries or those washed-up nobles, they all have really poor character qualities. If you don't mind, you could come join us in the Qi Family's booth! Our viewing booth, although it's not too big, there's definitely enough room for Miss Yi to sit with us."
Yi Chuxue snatched back the invitation from Qi Shaoru's hand, her face turning bright red from humiliation, and she said, "You don't need to worry about it."
Zhuang Hao looked at Qi Shaorong with bright eyes and wrinkled his brows, asking, "What are you looking at?"
Qi Shaorong smiled and said, "Yi Chuxue and Qi Shaoru are downstairs, they seem to be quarreling with each other."
Zhuang Hao rolled his eyes and said, "What's so great about watching that?"
"What's not great about it, a fight between girls is the most interesting." Qi Shaorong said excitedly.
Zhuang Hao shook his head and said, "I don't think so."
Qi Shaorong glanced at Zhuang Hao and said a little disdainfully, "You're really boring! Speaking of which, those two down there are your friends, right, don't you want to try to help them mediate their dispute!"
Zhuang Hao's face sank and he said gloomily, "Don't talk nonsense, those two have nothing to do with me."
"If those two girls hear your words, I'm afraid they'll be sad." Qi Shaorong said.
Chen Yuan drank a cup of tea and couldn't help feeling a little restless. Chen Yuan scratched his head and regretted accepting Qi Shaorong's invite to sit with them in Zhuang Hao's booth.
"Huh, that girl is also here." Qi Shaorong said, a little surprised.
"Who's that girl?" Zhuang Hao asked.
"Mu Xuelan."
Zhuang Hao didn't expect this and said, "Mu Xuelan, since when were you interested in her?"
Qi Shaorong thought to himself: That's Yi Fan's ex-wife! Of course he should be concerned about the ex-wife of his right-hand man, "She's one of the three beauties of the Imperial Capital, I'm usually very interested in beauties."
"That woman is very unscrupulous, she married Yi Fan but she still fooled around with the Second Prince, she's not some good thing. It's better if you don't provoke her." Zhuang Hao warned him seriously.
Qi Shaorong: "…" Zhuang Hao this fellow, what kind of person did he think Qi Shaorong was?
"Don't you have very powerful eyes, and you can tell whether a person is bad or not? Look at this Mu Xuelan, so you think she's a bad person?" Qi Shaorong asked.
Zhuang Hao snorted softly, not looking away.
"That person is pure and noble, you shouldn't slander people like that, or you'll receive your retribution." Qi Shaorong said righteously.
Zhuang Hao: "…"
Qi Shaorong touched his chin. Yi Fan had said that Mu Xuelan was a very proud and arrogant person, and that she was pure and innocent.
"Huh, how interesting." Qi Shaorong's mouth curved up into a bright smile.
Zhuang Hao looked at Qi Shaorong and said, "What's interesting?"
Zhuang Hao looked towards the ordinary seating area downstairs, and saw that Mu Xuelan and Yi Chuxue's seats were actually right beside each other.
"Ah! Now it's gotten even more interesting." Qi Shaorong looked at the person sitting behind Yi Chuxue and Mu Xuelan, and sighed.
Yi Fan's seat was actually behind those two, but Yi Fan was currently disguised as Qian Mian, so neither his ex-wife nor his little sister recognized Yi Fan.
"That's Qian Mian down there! Do you want to call him to come up here?" Zhuang Hao asked.
Qi Shaorong shook his head and said, "No, just let him stay there."
A maidservant walked in and said, "Greetings, Young Master Zhuang, I am Xiaoyun, a maidservant of the auction house, I'd like to ask if there is anything you need?"
"Yes, there is!" Qi Shaorong said.
Xiaoyun looked at Qi Shaorong and said respectfully, "What requests do you have?"
Qi Shaorong pointed to the fruit platter that had been eaten empty and said, "Is this fruit platter free of charge?"
Xiaoyun nodded and said, "Yes!"
"Can it be refilled?"
"Yes, it can." Xiaoyun said.
"Then I'd like to request for another one hundred of these please." Qi Shaorong said.
Xiaoyun's eyes widened and she said with some astonishment, "One hundred."
"Yes!" Qi Shaorong said.
Xiaoyun: "…"
Qi Shaorong looked at Xiaoyun and said, "Is there a problem?"
"There's no problem."
Qi Shaorong let the light unicorn out and said resentfully, "You pig, you've eaten so much of my resources that I'm almost broke now, you know?"
"Now hurry up and eat, these things don't cost any money." Qi Shaorong said to the light unicorn.
Chen Yuan looked at Qi Shaorong and couldn't help saying, "Young Master Qi, didn't you win a lot of money from that previous competition? How do you not have enough money to raise the unicorn?"
"That little amount of gold is nothing! It's not even enough to fill the gaps in my teeth [1], if I can find a way to save money, then why wouldn't I!" Qi Shaorong said disdainfully.
Chen Yuan saw Qi Shaorong's way of saving money, and found it to be extremely ridiculous.
Yi Chuxue and Mu Xuelan looked at each other in disgust. Yi Chuxue would always act high and mighty in front of Mu Xuelan in the past, but now that the Yi Family has encountered misfortune, Yi Chuxue couldn't be as arrogant as she used to.
"Sister Chuxue, how are your two brothers doing?" Mu Xuelan asked.
Yi Chuxue had just received a blow to her pride from Qi Shaoru, and it put her in a bad mood. In the face of Mu Xuelan's inquiry, she blew up immediately, "Our family's matters have nothing to do with you. You and Yi Fan that waste are already divorced, so you can't be considered a part of the Yi Family anymore. How pitiful! The Second Prince doesn't want you, and even my waste of a Third Brother looks down on you too."
Mu Xuelan looked at Yi Chuxue, and there was a flash of anger in her eyes, "Sister Chuxue's temper is really getting worse! I just saw the Fourth Young Master Qi going with Zhuang Hao into the Zhuang Family's private booth. The relationship between the Fourth Young Master Qi and Young Master Zhuang Hao seems to be very good! "
"Poor Sister Chuxue, that time you had gone to such lengths to cancel the engagement, but in the end it was all in vain and you became the bad guy. Qi Shaorong and Zhuang Hao belong together, so they still ended up getting together, speaking of which, the Fourth Young Master Qi is a remarkable talent, he and Young Master Zhuang Hao are really a match made in heaven. Sister Chuxue, don't you agree?"
Yi Chuxue looked at Mu Xuelan and said, "You shut up! "
Ever since Mu Xuelan married Yi Fan, she had been humiliated by Yi Chuxue many times, and this time she finally couldn't hold it back anymore, "Sister Chuxue, Zhuang Hao only pitied you because you're a woman, Chen Yuan was given a beating by him, but were spared because of pure luck!"
"You loose woman [2], the Second Prince didn't want you, so you got involved with that waste, and now that waste doesn't even want you anymore." Yi Chuxue cursed.
Mu Xuelan smiled coldly and said, "Miss Yi, your two brothers are currently lying in bed sick, yet you're still in the mood to participate in the auction, you sure are carefree!"
Yi Fan was sitting behind those two. He closed his eyes and just let them continue to bicker with each other.
"The auction has started." Chen Yuan said.
Qi Shaorong held his chin and was in high spirits as he said, "Finally, it's about time."
"Thank you to all our honoured guests for attending. For this time's auction, our auction house has prepared many precious goods, and I believe it will definitely be able to satisfy everyone here. I won't ramble on any longer, so without further ado, let us present to you the first good that's up for auction, the crystal nucleus of a level nine ice-crystal python." A female auctioneer of the auction house walked out.
"The crystal nuclei of the level nine ice-crystal python can be used to make ice-type magic staffs, as for how powerful the staffs are, I believe it goes without saying."
Qi Shaorong couldn't help but frown, and said, "Looking at this, it seems you were telling the truth. This auction house really is impressive."
The crystal nucleus was at the ninth level, while Tianlan's Principal was also at the ninth level. With the Principal's strength, if he were to be matched up against the ice-crystal python, the final outcome would be hard to predict, yet this auction house was actually able to get the crystal nucleus of a level nine monster beast to auction off.
Qi Shaorong narrowed his eyes, glanced at Zhuang Hao, and said, "Zhuang Hao, look at this auctioneer, what's her cultivation level?"
"Level 8." Zhuang Hao said.
Qi Shaorong held his chin and couldn't help sighing at the fact that the Imperial Capital really was full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons [3].
The starting price of the level nine crystal nucleus was 1 million, and very quickly it had already reached 6 million.
"There sure are a lot of rich people!" Qi Shaorong said.
"A lot of foreign forces also attended this time, so the competition is naturally very fierce. There are also several level nine masters below." Chen Yuan said.
Qi Shaorong narrowed his eyes. In this country the Emperor's authority was the highest, but there were also many big clans and families, with a lot of power and territory, and immense wealth.
The level nine crystal nucleus was finally won by a level nine mage for a price of 8.2 million gold coins.
Qi Shaorong frowned and thought to himself: He still has to make more money!
In the ordinary seating area, Yi Chuxue and Mu Xuelan had already stopped arguing a while ago.
Previously, in order to compete for the level nine crystal nucleus, there was a fierce bidding battle between several powerful figures. Listening to the heated bid, Yi Chuxue couldn't help feeling a little diffident. This time, Yi Chuxue was attending the auction in secret, and in order to raise some funds, Yi Chuxue had sold off a large portion of the precious jewelry that she had collected over the years, but even so, Yi Chuxue currently only had around 60,000 gold coins in hand.
The second item of the auction house was a fire-glass stone that came from the deep sea. It was rumoured to have once been owned by the royal family of the sea clan, but it was stolen by some traitors among the sea clan. The fire-glass stone contained a strong source of the fire element, and it's of great benefit to fire-based martial artists and mages.
The competition over the fire-glass stone wasn't as fierce as the one for the level nine crystal nucleus, but it was still sold at a price of 2 million.
Footnotes:
Not even enough to fill the gaps in my teeth: Very sparse and extremely little (usually used negatively).
Loose woman: The original words are literally "worn shoes". Also means promiscuous or sl*t.
Crouching tigers and hidden dragons: Talented individuals in hiding, or concealed talent.