Sitting in the wheelchair was a white-haired old woman wearing a grape green knitted dress. Around her neck was a string of Hunyuan pearls as big as a fingertip. The pearl earrings and necklace on her ears should be from the same series. She had a silver watch on her wrist.
She is elegant and intellectual, and looks like a wise and kind old lady.
Only the cheap-looking silver ring on her hand somewhat ruined the elegance.
There were two women following beside her. The one on the left was older and was wearing a shiny blue Suzhou embroidered cheongsam, which looked dignified and elegant.
On the right was a young girl who looked a bit like her, wearing a pink dress, full of youth and energy. But she looked a little familiar, as if I had seen her somewhere before.
The middle-aged man went forward to greet the old lady and invited her to the center. Several relatives who were around came forward to wish her a happy birthday.
An Ruo also introduced the hosts of the banquet to Zhang Wenyu.
"This is Mr. Ji, Ji Quan. The one next to him in the cheongsam is his wife. Her maiden name is Qi, and she's not from here. The one pushing the wheelchair is his son, Ji Feng, who just graduated from high school this year. The little girl squatting next to Mrs. Ji is her daughter, Ji Nian. She's studying abroad and is a bit of a celebrity. I heard she filmed a movie during winter break that was released a few days ago and it's getting pretty good reviews."
Zhang Wenyu nodded as he listened, trying hard to match each person's face with the information.
"The old lady only has Mr. Ji as her child?"
Zhang Wenyu was a little curious when she saw that after Mr. Ji's family finished celebrating the birthday, some close guests came forward to offer their congratulations, but there were no other relatives.
It is said that families in that era had many children, and An Ruo and Zhang Wenyu's parents basically had brothers and sisters. Unexpectedly, Mr. Ji was actually an only child.
"Keep your voice down."
An Ruo turned around and looked around, and saw that everyone around them had gathered around Ji's house, so she pulled Zhang Wenyu to the corner of the hall.
"It's a long story. The Ji family isn't actually from here. Back then, after Grandpa Ji and Grandma Ji had a daughter, they never had any more children. Grandpa Ji found someone else to give birth to a son, and that woman brought the son back home. Grandma Ji wanted to divorce but found out she was pregnant. Both families' elders wouldn't let her divorce. Later, when Mr. Ji was two or three years old, his sister died in an accident. It seemed to be related to Grandpa Ji. Heartbroken, Grandma Ji brought Mr. Ji to S City."
"Mr. Ji has been helping Old Madam Ji with work and earning money since he was a child. As an adult, he brought his friends together to start a business, and finally founded the Ji Group, gaining a foothold in S City. When Old Master Ji and his illegitimate son heard that Mr. Ji had made a fortune, they came to him and asked for a share of the family business. The matter caused a lot of uproar at the time, and these inside stories were also leaked at that time."
Zhang Wenyu was stunned. She had never expected to hear such gossip from a casual question. Curious about the follow-up, she quickly asked.
"So what happened next? What happened?"
"I don't know much about what happened afterwards, but one day, Old Master Ji and his illegitimate son suddenly left and never came back."
An Ruo also looked confused.
"I'm not sure what happened at the time. I was still young, and I only heard it from the adults."
Zhang Wenyu felt very anxious. She had been gossiped about twice today and didn't know the end. Who could understand the frustration of only being able to hear half of the gossip?
"Why are you two hiding here?"
Zhang Wenyu and An Ruo, who were gossiping about the host family, were startled by the sudden noise. Chen Shaojia walked over from behind a pillar and looked at them with scrutiny.
"Why do you look so guilty? Tell me! What bad things have you done?"
Of course, it was impossible to tell Chen Shaojia this. Zhang Wenyu stepped forward and took Chen Shaojia's arm.
"Sister Jiajia, why are you here? Have you finished paying your respects to Madam Ji? An Ruo and I haven't gone yet. How about we go together?"
"Stop changing the subject."
Chen Shaojia came here specifically because he hadn't seen these two people coming to celebrate his birthday. As soon as he arrived, he saw them hiding in the corner whispering, and they looked guilty when they saw him. He was really curious about what they were talking about before.
An Ruo realized that she couldn't get away with it, so she quickly thought of another excuse.
"We were discussing Ji Nian. We heard she's a big star, so we chatted for a while out of curiosity. We were afraid that Mr. Ji would hear us talking about his daughter at his house, so we found a corner. Sister Jiajia, please don't tell anyone."
"You two are really good. Go celebrate the birthday first. The younger generations have already gone. Don't be late."
I don’t know whether Chen Shaojia believed it or not. He just said a few words to them and urged them to go and celebrate Old Madam Ji’s birthday.
It was okay not to ask any further questions. Zhang Wenyu and An Ruo breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the crowd.
The old lady of the Ji family was indeed as amiable as she looked. Although it was the first time they met, she still held Zhang Wenyu's hand and spoke to her affectionately.
Zhang Wenyu and An Ruo left and went to find Chen Shaojia who was standing nearby.
"Are you going to the auction in two days? I heard there are a lot of good things on offer."
Chen Shaojia asked after seeing Zhang Wenyu and An Ruo coming over.
"Let's go. Aunt Ding told me before that An Ruo and I are planning to go and take a look. Sister Jia Jia, are you going?"
Zhang Wenyu had been very interested in this auction after hearing about it from Ding Qingluan, and had already agreed with Ding Qingluan and An Ruo to go together.
Seeing that An Ruo and Zhang Wenyu were both planning to go to the auction, Chen Shaojia leaned over.
"I heard there are a lot of good things at this auction. There are also rumors that there will be several cultural relics lost overseas. We are discussing whether to buy them together when the time comes."
Huh? This is the first time I've heard of this.
An Ruo was already interested in history, so she immediately asked.
"Is the information reliable? How many artifacts will there be? What are they?"
Her anxiety made her ask a series of questions.
"Don't worry. We can't confirm the authenticity of the news yet. We are just speculating and making some preparations just in case it is true. Even if there are cultural relics, they are probably not particularly precious, and they will not really allow national treasures to have a chance to return home."
As Chen Shaojia spoke, his expression darkened.
It is not the first time that these cultural relics have appeared at the auction. Foreign capitalists know that domestic businessmen are willing to spend money on cultural relics, so they always deliberately use this as a gimmick, announcing that Chinese cultural relics will appear, in order to attract wealthy Chinese people to participate in the auction. The businessmen know that this is their conspiracy but have no choice but to follow it, because if the cultural relics really appear and they don’t go, they will miss the opportunity to return the lost cultural relics to the country.
When cultural relics appear, auction houses and some foreign businessmen will deliberately raise the prices in order to prevent patriotic businessmen from successfully recovering the cultural relics.
This was the first time Zhang Wenyu had heard of these things, and he was instantly furious. He immediately decided that if any of the cultural relics appeared at the auction, he would buy them all.
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