Chương 221: Our Story

* * *

After Joshua Bronson introduced himself and hinted to everyone that he had a special guest artist that helped him with the gallery, the bidding quickly started after a performance from a rising young singer.

As the audience got fired up, Laotian monotonously watched the event as it goes, and even though he hates to admit but he does appreciate talent. There was no doubt Joshua Bronson was a talented painter. His art was beautiful and conveyed different emotions. Each canvas represents something depending on the person looking and comprehending the art. Laotian wasn't an art enthusiast but he could at least draw something out of the arts presented on stage, although not enough for him to raise his number to bid for it.

Laotian was slowly turning impatient but he had nothing else better to do than pay attention as he regretted coming so early. He thought he had come at the right time, alas now he realized he was punctual.

Extending his patience a little bit more, finally, the said highlight of the event was soon to be presented.

"The last piece of paintings tonight was painted by a new artist discovered by Mr. Joshua Bronson himself. He had years of experience in arts but this will be the first time he has let anyone see his art," The auctioneer started with a smile. And as Laotian listened, a soft smile flashed on his lips. Indeed, Daniel didn't show his art to anyone because he was too shy, all this time he was the Omega's only audience and his number one fan. This simple fact was something intimate for Laotian and if he was to decide he wanted to stay like that forever but he knew Daniel had dreams, and he would stop at nothing to make his beloved dreams come true.

Even if he had to share something that he finds intimate to the world, as long as it could draw the brightest and sweetest smiles on Daniel's lips, Laotian was prepared to tolerate anything.

"The painter wanted to hide his identity thus we only knew him in his initials D and M. Only Mr. Bronson himself knew his real identity," The auctioneer said again before a 3 meters wide and 1 meter tall backdrop was placed in front of the stage.

"This painting is not like everyone had seen before, it tells a story of two souls. A sad beginning and a happy ending, finding happiness in each other's arms. It was a lovely story that any art enthusiast or collectors would want," The auctioneer continued to say. He said more seasoned words until finally calling Joshua Bronson to the stage again to have the honor to reveal the art to the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you tonight's highlights. The painting is titled by its artist as, Our Story," The auctioneer said at last and on cue, Joshua Bronson pulled the white cloth that was covering the painting that was hanging on the backdrop.

The moment the painting was revealed to the crowd, everyone went ohs and ahs. The art enthusiasts especially gasped in astonishment, even though it was well said that the mysterious painter was a newbie, they could feel the emotions put into the art. There were three paintings on the stage next to each other. Each canvas has a theme in it if you look at it individually but to put it together, there was obviously a story behind it. It is a story so touching that some of the passionate ones were brought into tears.

Meanwhile, at the same time, the moment Laotian laid his eyes on the paintings, his heart quickly skipped a beat. He felt so overwhelmed that his eyes felt warm. Despite not a single tear stream down, Laotian's heart was pounding vigorously. Among anyone in the area, he was the one who knew full well what was the story behind the paintings because it was their story. The story of their love.

The first and the last painting presented Daniel and him alone in this dark and cruel world. The first painting that obviously represented Daniel has all but dark shades blended into a beautiful art of a human figure sitting on something withering. The shapes weren't distinct so if you don't look closely you would notice that there was a human figure on the art. The dark shade almost formed a withered flower, giving off the message that the delicate figure in the painting had lived in suffering.

Similarly, on the third canvas that represented Laotian's, the colors were nothing but neutral. It wasn't too dark but wasn't colorful as well. If one was to describe it, the painting itself felt blunt, boring, and tasteless but just like the canvas that represented Daniel, the human figure on the canvas was as if standing on the whitening flower.

The colors and the flower whitening symbolizes the life they've lived before they met each other and found happiness. The dark shade on the first canvas showed that Daniel didn't live a happy life, although there were shades of reds and blues representing that there were times that he was happy, overall, the dark theme exhibited that he had suffered. There was a point in his life that he felt unloved and lonely, he was unwanted, he was humiliated, and betrayed so many times. His happy childhood life didn't make up for the short amount of time he suffered at the hands of his biological parents.

Likewise, on the third canvas, the dull and neutral color represented Laotian's dull and boring life he had lived so far. His daily routine of work and home for more than 10 years was almost tiring, although he found joy in securing projects, in the long, it has all become mundane but he couldn't stop. Before he met Daniel, he thought that nothing in this world could make him feel fulfilled but he was wrong.

The first day he woke up with Daniel on his bed, his heart skipped a beat. It's as if something on the Omega drew him in. It was a feeling he had never felt before that's why he couldn't forget about him. He couldn't forget the sweet and delicate scent that engulfed his body that day, the scent that he was supposed to hate turned into something that he craved. Even when a week had passed he could still remember how his scent had made him go wild, he could still remember vividly the feeling of his tender skin, how his sweet and soft voice against his ears, the feeling of his weak and exhausted limps wrapped around his heated body.

Just thinking about it brought fire into his cold heart. He tried to forget, he tried to go back to the life he had used to but then he met him again. Daniel didn't seem to remember him but he wasn't the same, the moment their eyes met, his memories of that night flashed in his mind. He hated that he was the only one that could remember, he hated that he was the only one that was affected. He wanted to grab Daniel and ask him why they had spent the most passionate night together but the Omega didn't remember. Alas, he managed to keep his cool and let Daniel go but one thing remained in his mind.

He wanted to know more of the Omega that had left him craving for something he had never had before.

"20,000 dollars!" One person from the crowd yelled, raising his number, waking Laotian from his thoughts. The crowd one by one throwing in numbers reaching up to a hundred thousand. His eyes still on the painting until later his lips smiled looking at the middle canvas. Although he had already arranged someone to bid for the art, in the end, he really couldn't let anyone covet anything from Daniel, especially a painting that the Omega poured his heart into even if it was just pretending.

"10 Million," Laotian breathed. His dominant voice emanated, turning the whole room into silence. "10 million for each painting," He said again, looking at the auctioneer who jumped in surprise hearing the number. Of course, it was not unusual for a painting to sell that much. Sometimes even paintings reach 50 million or a hundred but that's for known artists because there are really crazy collectors that would spend millions for a single painting.

But, the artist behind the painting he is auctioning was from a complete newbie. There was no doubt that the painting was breathtaking, its style and theme, the strokes and techniques, color combination, and how the whole art reflected different kinds of emotion and story were well presented but 10 million off the bat? For a newbie artist that wasn't even willing to reveal himself/herself, that was unheard of.

"3-30 Million in total from the m-man holding number 05, d-does anyone want to go higher?" The auctioneer stuttered. He looked at the other bidders and all was silent.

"Going once, going twice...

"40 Million..." Suddenly, Joshua Bronson on the stage said looking at Mo Laotian down below with a teasing smile. He knew for a fact that his wealth was no match compared to the man but he found amusement in seeing his jealous face.

"40 Million from Mr. Bronson," Joshua was still smiling looking at Mo Laotian's menacing expression when the auctioneer interrupted. This time he wasn't surprised anymore, instead, he was more excited hearing huge numbers.

"20 Million each," Laotian growled, standing up from his seat. His deep and dominant voice rang, that Omegas from the crowd trembled in fear as they held their breaths. Even Betas and Alphas in the area gulped uncomfortably hearing so much authority from Mo Laotian's voice. Even though the Alpha's word wasn't really directed to them, everyone was on the edge of their seats. The only person who was not affected by such authority was Joshua Bronson who instead laughed, clapping his hands in amusement.

"I truly can't compete with you, you can have the paintings," Joshua said, the smile on his lips remained before he urged the auctioneer to close the bid. He was honestly willing to pay Daniel's paintings for 40 Million, he could go even higher but he knew that Mo Laotian was going to get even higher than his offer if it meant getting his wife's paintings.

"6-60 Million from the man in number 05. Going once, going twice...sold! To the man in number 05!" The auctioneer yelled, everyone was still silent until the pressure coming from Mo Laotian finally dissipated that everyone was able to have a breath. Laotian as well, it was unbecoming of him suddenly acting so unprofessional but knowing that Joshua Bronson dared to compete with him annoyed him as no one had before. He could see that the younger Alpha was just teasing him but he still couldn't hold himself down.

Relieved that he was able to win Daniel's painting, Laotian finally sat on his chair again. The event quickly progressed and before he knew it the auction finished with the host calling all the winners to sign some papers and choose whether to ship their item or will they take it with them immediately.

"Congratulations, that was quite a show," Joshua Bronson said as Laotian was about to leave. Laotian was planning to ignore Joshua Bronson but he halted when his eyes caught someone that was next to the younger Alpha. His eyes slightly went wide briefly before it went sharp. Of course, Joshua noticed it so he glanced at his companion.

"This is my older brother's wife, Jordan Bronson. He told me he wanted to meet you no matter what," Joshua introduced, causing Jordan to smile sweetly, extending his delicate hand to handshake Laotian.

"I never thought I would meet Mr. Mo Laotian tonight, I was very lucky," Jordan chanted sweetly with a smile, his hands were still hanging, waiting for Laotian to shake his. Meanwhile, looking at the Omega, Laotian tightened his fingers into a fist especially when he noticed the Omega's expression shifted when he didn't shake his hand.

"Joshua, can you give Mr. Mo and me some time alone? I have something I needed to talk about with him," Jordan said, facing Joshua who quickly frowned, knowing that Jordan didn't have a very good reputation.

"Oi oi, don't cause trouble here. My brother will kill me," Joshua whispered, holding on to the Omega's arm, however, when he saw how dead serious the Omega was, Joshua sighed in the end and nodded.

"Okay, make sure you don't cause trouble," Joshua said at last and later looked at Laotian and excused himself. The moment his back disappeared behind the door, Jordan stared at Laotian for a couple of seconds and when the room was completely void with people after they were quickly escorted out of the hall, the two finally moved to take their seats facing across each other.