Chapter 89 Sato
While Du Ruo was admiring the garden, many people came in one after another, including several people she knew in her previous life, all of whom were big shots with strong backgrounds. Of course, she had never met these big shots in this life.
Sitting at the table diagonally opposite Du Ruo were several foreigners, one of whom she was also very familiar with: he was her old enemy, Mr. Sato from Country R.
When it comes to her feud with Mr. Sato, it all started with a samurai sword.
During a special period, a general from Country R lost the national treasure-level samurai sword "Thor" when he was defeated in the war. Over the years, many collectors from Country R have been looking for this sword.
This "Thor" appeared at a private auction. Ling Yun and Du Ruo went to watch the excitement. Ling Yun didn't like Sato's face and winked at Du Ruo. The two of them cooperated perfectly and finally the knife fell into Ling Yun's hands.
Ling Yun held the knife in his hand with a nonchalant and somewhat disgusted look, which completely angered Mr. Sato. He not only hated Ling Yun, but also felt resentful towards Du Ruo.
Later, they met several times at auctions, and Mr. Sato never forgot to set traps for them every time, and even threatened Ling Yun and Du Ruo to hand over the knife again and again.
Every time he caused trouble for Ling Yun and Du Ruo, Ling Yun would bring up the matter of the knife, even deliberately saying that he couldn't even chop wood with the knife.
Mr. Sato was so angry that he almost fainted. He kept finding trouble for Ling Yun and Du Ruo without any hesitation.
Noticing Du Ruo's gaze, Mr. Sato turned around and looked at her. Even though they had never met in this life, perhaps they were just born with a conflicting aura. Mr. Sato frowned unconsciously and looked at Du Ruo with displeasure.
Du Ruo really felt a little wronged. This was the trouble caused by Ling Yun. She was just helping a friend at the time, but in the end, Mr. Sato hated her so much that he gritted his teeth. He was picking on the weak ones.
At this moment, the slide projector on the small lecture platform lit up, the white curtain was lowered, and a staff member came over to draw the curtains, and the room suddenly became dark.
Today's slides require the preparation of cellophane in advance, on which one can use a thicker pen to simply draw a pattern or write words. The initial preparation is very complicated, and the cellophane is thin and soft, making it difficult to write or draw on, and difficult to hold.
The only advantage is that it can be enlarged by using a slide projector onto a white screen so that more people can see the text and pictures.
The staff kept manually adjusting the angle and direction, and kept blowing on the microphone to test the sound.
After a long while, the host's voice finally rang out from the microphone: "Dear guests, welcome to Yiyuan. In the following time, I wish every friend can return home with great success and all their wishes come true.
The first collectible we have prepared for you is a knife with Kuilong pattern from the Shang Dynasty.
This knife dates from approximately 1600 BC to 1046 BC.
The knife has a straight back with a convex blade, exquisite Kuilong patterns on both sides of the blade, and hollow patterns on the back of the blade. This blade is very carefully carved and looks light and agile as a whole.
The starting price for this knife is 100,000, and the bid will increase by 10,000 each time. "
Du Ruo was secretly shocked. It was not cheap right from the start.
People started bidding one after another. The auctioneer's voice sounded again: "This knife has exquisite patterns and is very collectible. It is a fine bronze knife from the Shang Dynasty..."
Du Ruo did not raise the price, she glanced at Mr. Sato.
Sato just offered a symbolic price twice and then kept silent.
Instead, a French guest sitting at the same table with him was very interested and raised the price several times.
But to be honest, for such an ancient artifact, if possible, Du Ruo does not want to see it fall into the hands of foreigners. She would rather see the collector be a Chinese.
What makes people happy is that this Shang Dynasty Kuilong pattern knife was finally acquired by a gentleman whom Du Ruo was familiar with in his previous life.
There was a flash of disappointment in the eyes of the French guest. He liked bronze tools very much, especially this kind of weapons.
But everyone has a reserve price. If it is not something they particularly love, they will not increase the price without any hesitation.
Besides, the auction has just started and we don’t know what will happen next, so it’s natural not to raise the price crazily so early.
Du Ruo had no particular interest in any of the items that came up. There were some good items, but the prices were also very high. Du Ruo thought that her foundation was still weak, so she would not easily participate in the bidding.
Until another item was put up for auction: "This is a plum vase with a blue glaze from the H City Cultural Relics Store. The workmanship is very unique and distinctive. It is a rare masterpiece of late Qing Dynasty works. The starting price is 100,000 yuan, and the price will be increased by 10,000 yuan each time."
The auctioneer's loud words fell to the ground, and the scene fell into silence. There was only a blurry image on the slide, and it was a hand-painted pattern. This was a work from the late Qing Dynasty, and many people were not very interested.
Du Ruo's heart was pounding. Looking at the pattern, she remembered that this plum vase was not from the late Qing Dynasty. It was a Yuan Dynasty blue-glazed plum vase with cloud dragon pattern. There are only three such plum vases in the world now, and one of them is even collected in the F Country Museum.
She had heard about this incident before. This was a collection of a private collector, and was sold to an antique shop in H City by mistake. At that time, the store staff had little knowledge of Yuan Dynasty porcelain and directly concluded that it was a work of the late Qing Dynasty, and no one was interested in it.
Later, it appeared in an auction house, and a collector was puzzled. He had seen similar collections in a museum in Country F. That was a Yuan Dynasty porcelain. How could it be so similar to this late Qing Dynasty work? Could it be a fake?
Out of curiosity, the collector bought it at a very low price, only to find out later that it was a Yuan Dynasty blue-glazed plum vase with cloud dragon pattern. This collection was released in 2020 and sold for 340 million yuan.
Seeing that no one was bidding, the auctioneer said: "This collection is indeed a rare work from the late Qing Dynasty. It is a fine piece and has great collection value."
Seeing that the crowd was still not interested, he sighed inwardly. At this moment, he heard a woman's voice: "One hundred thousand."
The auctioneer breathed a sigh of relief, but before she could say anything, another voice rang out: "One hundred and ten thousand."
Du Ruo looked at Mr. Sato and gritted her teeth. What the hell is wrong with this bastard? She raised the price again: "120,000."
Mr. Sato's voice rang out again: "130,000."
Du Ruo steadied her breathing. It seemed that she and Mr. Sato had a grudge from a previous life. Whether that incident happened or not, it could not be resolved.
Du Ruo's voice rang out again: "140,000."
Mr. Sato slowly added another ten thousand.