Rebirth of the Heavenly Empress - Chapter 242
Chapter 242: I’ll Cover the Costs
Besides people from the Dugu Family, there were also others around. However, undoubtedly, there were more people from the Dugu Family and the Yu Family.
News of Dugu Heng acknowledging a daughter back had already vaguely spread in the circle.
Initially, everyone had sent people to gather more information, fearing that that insane Dugu Heng’s daughter would be another sick person. The Dugu Family already had Dugu Heng and Dugu Ji-An—to have another one wouldn’t be a good thing for the situation in the International Association.
It wasn’t easy to obtain information about the Dugu Family.
However, although they didn’t obtain any information, from the fact that the Dugu Family didn’t hold a banquet, they could tell the views about the Missy that returned to the Dugu Family.
Especially now that they saw her actually sleeping in Principal Dien’s class, everyone instinctively retracted their and focused intently on Principal Dien’s words.
Each word of Principal Dien’s lecture was really a gem.
If it weren’t to give the Dugu Family and the Yu Family face this time, he wouldn’t have such a lesson publicly.
He stood by the table and looked sideways slightly at everyone present who sat with their families. With a glance, only the young girl sitting by the window was the most outstanding.
She supported her hand with her hand slightly, her eyes were slightly closed, and her long lashes casted a layer of light shadow on her fair face.
Obviously, sitting beside her was the most outstanding Dugu Ji-An, yet she was more majestic.
Principal Dien adjusted the glasses on his nose bridge and retracted his gaze mildly—however, a glow flashed past his eyes very quickly.
The afternoon passed very quickly. Principal Dien knocked on the table and smiled amicably. “I wish all of you good luck and all the best in the resource competition.”
At the same time, Su Huiqing also woke up suddenly.
She casually massaged her slightly achy wrist.
In contrast to the people around who were either deep in thoughts or excited about their enlightenment, Su Huiqing had a mild expression instead. In addition, her lips were still slightly curled up with her usual wicked aura, and she seemed extremely lazy.
“Miss Dugu, that’s the Eldest Young Missy that came back to your family suddenly?” Someone patted on Dugu Xing’s shoulder with a handsome smile.
Dugu Xing turned around, saw that it was Yu Shiyue from the Yu Family, and couldn’t help but smile. “Yup. She studies performing arts and acts quite well—her new movie will be showing from 17th October.”
“Performing arts?” Yu Shiyue retracted his gaze, not intending to chat Su Huiqing up. “She does look pretty.”
This time, Dugu Xing didn’t reply. Everyone around only looked at each other—indeed, she was good-looking, but that was all.
In the International Association, especially within a family that focused on capabilities, Su Huiqing was no different from ordinary folk.
As long as they had brains, no one would choose to chat with Su Huiqing.
If they had the time, they would rather mingle with Dugu Xing.
After all, she was a genius within this generation of the Dugu Family.
Although more people would like to chat with Dugu Ji-An, he was too superior. Although he seemed peaceful, all of his movements were distancing, which made it hard for people to approach him.
Thus, the others all chose to bank on Dugu Xing.
Suddenly, there were many people surrounding Dugu Xing and this made Su Huiqing’s surroundings seem extremely quiet in contrast.
Hearing their conversation, Dugu Ji-An suddenly recovered from his deep thoughts. He turned sideways and saw Su Huiqing who seemed to also have felt his gaze as she stuck her hand in her pocket, raised her brow, and smiled at him.
She already had a gorgeous face—this smile made her seem so beautiful she stirred his soul.
Dugu Ji-An smiled. In his heart, he didn’t agree with the judgment of those people from the Dugu Family. If she was just an ordinary person, upon returning to a place like the Dugu Family… how could she be so calm?
However, he didn’t think too much about it.
“To the auction house.” Dugu Ji-An retracted his gaze and strode towards the exit first.
The car stopped by the entrance of the school—the entire Monster University was already empty.
From afar, a number of students could be seen looking excitedly at this direction.
There were only three cars but quite a number of people.
Su Huiqing pulled the door of the passenger seat and got on—she found the back seat too noisy.
This action of hers made the rest of the people stop in their tracks uncontrollably. Everyone knew that the passenger seat had always been taken by Dugu Ji-An.
However, Dugu Ji-An didn’t quite mind it. He sat on the back seat directly. However, he looked at her with an additional tinge of inquisitiveness.
The driver felt slightly stuck. He looked at Dugu Ji-An from the rear view mirror who nodded his head at him nonchalantly. Only then did he heave a sigh of relief and was about to step on the pedal.
Instead, he turned around to those clear eyes of Su Huiqing looking at him as well. The shadows casted by her eyelashes made her look slightly mysterious.
The driver’s heart skipped a beat.
The entire Dugu Family, including the most casual helpers, had undergone training and he was no exception.
However, today, he actually felt the chills from this untrained, ordinary person’s gaze?
With an uncertain mind, he drove to the only auction house in the International Association. He watched as that sluggish figure walked towards the auction house.
The driver couldn’t help but wipe off nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
Today’s auction was a premium one that involved participants who were renowned characters in the International Association. Once Dugu Ji-An and the rest arrived, the people from the auction house immediately recognized the Dugu Family’s clothes and instantly brought them to the special room on level 2.
The room contained the second eldest elder who had arrived long ago—naturally, the Dudu Family couldn’t just let these few juniors control the situation.
Outside the door of the room, Su Huiqing’s footsteps stopped slightly.
She looked up at a purple-tint gold orchid carved beside the door of the adjacent room, and was slightly distracted.
“This is the Yu Family’s room—you probably don’t know it. Of course, usually, only a few ordinary people could know people from the Yu Family.” Seeing her reaction, Dugu Xing thought that she was stunned by the extravagant auction house and couldn’t help but speak, “The auction today is totally inaccessible to ordinary people. You’re very lucky.”
Su Huiqing retracted her gaze and glanced mildly at Dugu Xing without speaking.
Her gaze swept past her as she walked in without fear, as well as envy or jealousy.
She sat and leaned on the chair, looking very calm.
Su Huiqing didn’t have time to bother with her. Instead, she whipped out her phone from her pocket and placed one hand on the table as her other hand pressed away on the screen to send Uncle Chen a message. “Reached?”
Uncle Chen replied very quickly.
Su Huiqing lowered her eyes and pressed on the phone with her slender and fair fingers. “That’s good.”
As she sent her message.
At level 1 of the auction hall.
The lights roared!
Everyone’s gazes looked instinctively at the auction hall.
Mainly at the items up for auction.
Leading up to the competition, every family worked hard to realize their descendants’ potential within a short time. Auctions were categorized as premium, standard, and saver—a premium auction happened only once in a few years.
Because of this, people from the few big families were largely present, wanting to prepare before the competition.
The items auctioned were sequenced from ordinary to valuable items. In the beginning, the competition wasn’t stiff as everyone was waiting for the items at the back—the more valuable the item, the more exciting it was.
“I’ve just been informed that this premium action will be turned into an epic auction!” The host said excitedly. He turned back and watched as the item auction raised slowly—it was 10 bottles of blue potion. “This is the third final item—10 bottles of premium potions with 90% purity, not sold individually, starting at… 5,000 smart coins!”
Once that was said, the busy auction hall suddenly quietened down.
An epic auction had only happened once in almost a hundred years.
Even the initially calm Dugu Ji-An couldn’t help but straighten his spine as he looked intently at those 10 bottles of blue potions.
Premium potions were already extremely rare—there were only a few premium potion makers in the entire International Association and the probability of them completing a standard potion was usually 30-50%. As for premium potions, they probably fell to a sad 5-10%.
Such probabilities, with the rarity of the herbs, meant that even the extremely wealthy Ye Family couldn’t produce many premium potions every year.
Now, there were actually 10 bottles present!
And they were of 90% purity!
This was very rarely seen in auctions and was still the third final item, meaning that there were even better items after this… no wonder it was an epic auction!
“10,000 smart coins!” An elderly person in a gray shirt on level 1 said.
Premium potions were already beyond the ordinary currency, and smart coins… were beyond the ordinary currencies. They were only exchanged within the big families and were rarely used.
After that old person spoke, the others kept piling onto it.
In moments, it was raised to 70,000 smart coins.
At this time, nobody from level 2 had spoken yet.
The host was composed—the big families on level 2 were the leaders.
For ordinary families, 70,000 smart coins were already the limit and they could only look at that 10 bottles of premium potions with jealousy.
“100,000 smart coins.” After the commotion below stopped, a person in one of the rooms on level 2 spoke leisurely.
They weren’t those small families and added by the tens of thousands.
Dugu Ji-An waited for a while. After a few rounds, he smiled and spoke mildly. “200,000.”
After this, the whole level 2 was almost silent. Everyone knew that that voice was from the Dugu Family’s special room. No one could afford to offend the superpower family.
The host probably knew why as well.
He patted on his sleeve and was about to speak.
Suddenly, another voice that was even milder than Dugu Ji-An’s came through. The voice was very cold and solemnly, “250.”
Who dared to compete with the Dugu Family?
Everyone raised their heads. When they saw the room that the voice came from, their pupils constricted involuntarily and they didn’t even dare to look upwards.
“Who dares to compete with us for something that our Dugu Family likes?” Within the room, a young man from the Dugu Family couldn’t help but frown.
Dugu Xing also said, “Young Master An, should we send someone…”
“There’s no need to compete anymore.” Dugu Ji-An’s eyes narrowed before he shook his head slightly. He naturally could tell where that voice came from. “He’s from the Yu Family.”
Hearing this, Dugu Xing’s heart stopped a beat and she didn’t dare to speak further.
The Yu Family had always kept a low profile.
The International Battlefield and the Unknown Island had always been known as the two main powers of the International Association.
However, the Yu Family had always stayed out of the International Association’s matters. Very few families knew that it had been almost a year since Yu Shijin, the holder of the purple-tinted orchid badge, appeared out of nowhere and changed the entire model of the International Association…
To be in the position of the number 1 of the International Association was a piece of cake for Yu Shijin. It merely depended on whether he wished to do it.
He was also the only person in the entire International Association that Dugu Heng warned the Dugu Family not to touch—the rest of the Dugu Family didn’t know why did Dugu Heng say that, but they wouldn’t question Dugu Heng’s decision.
Nobody spoke further.
However, Su Huiqing looked up—that side view looked cold somehow. She threw her phone on the table with a thud before leaning on the back of the chair, and said very slowly, “300.”
Naturally, she could tell that it was Yu Shijin’s voice. According to her estimation, 10 bottles of potions were worth at least 280,000 smart coins—it was unreasonable to sell them at 250,000 smart coins.
“Do you know who spoke?” Dugu Xing and the rest didn’t look too good. “Also, can you afford 300,000 smart coins?”
If they were to clash with the Yu Family because of this, the price to pay wasn’t merely 300,000 smart coins.
Su Huiqing casually brushed her hair as she spoke in an extremely pampered manner with arrogant eyes, “My father can afford it.”
The second elder hated the way Su Huiqing spoke about Dugu Heng all the time and felt that Su Huiqing acted extremely badly, especially how someone just told him about her sleeping in Principal Dien’s class.
He really looked down on this extremely weak descendant of the Dugu Family, especially how she held the position of the Eldest Young Missy of the Dugu Family and didn’t even hold a candle to Dugu Xing. “I’ll definitely report this matter to the head of the family when I go back.”
Su Huiqing raised her brows and smiled even more radiantly. “Up to you.”
Next door.
There weren’t many people from the Yu Family—just Yu Shijin and a few elders.
Once Su Huiqing spoke, the few elders frowned. “Young Master, she’s from the Dugu Family.”
Yu Shijin narrowed his eyes slightly. Nobody saw that when Su Huiqing spoke, his fingers that were tapping the table paused momentarily. He looked up calmly at the 10 bottles of potion being auctioned.
“500.” After half a second, when everyone thought he wouldn’t speak anymore, he slowly announced a price that far exceeded the value of these 10 bottles of potions.
“Young Master, this has already exceeded the value of the potions. Moreover, there are still others coming up…” An elder of the Yu Family spoke hurriedly.
500,000 smart coins was also not a small sum for the Yu Family.
Yu Shijin only reached out and tapped on the table. The entire room felt tense.
It seemed like he didn’t know the changes he had brought about as he looked sideways slightly with a gorgeous and classy poise. “Chief detective.”
The chief detective who was standing behind him immediately whipped out a purple-tinted gold card from his pocket.
Only then did Yu Shijin retract his gaze as he spoke calmly, “I’ll personally cover the costs.”