We're building a super chaebol in Hong Kong

Time quickly came to 8:00 PM.

At this moment, a somewhat elderly Chinese auctioneer from the Hong Kong Royal International Art Auction House walked onto the auction stage.

"At the invitation of Governor [Chris] Patten, our Hong Kong Royal International Art Auction House is responsible for this charity auction. Here, on behalf of the disaster area, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone for taking the time out of their busy schedules to come to the venue. Now, let the auction begin!" A gavel struck the auction table, signifying the official start of the auction.

"Boss, what do you want to bid on?" Zhong Chuhong asked softly after looking through the list of auction items that Su Cheng handed over.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you when the time comes," Su Cheng said with a smile.

The first item was a traditional ink painting personally drawn by a teacher from the art museum, with a starting price of 1,000 Hong Kong dollars.

One item after another was auctioned off by the tycoons at the venue.

If it were a normal auction, such items would be lucky to be auctioned off for ten thousand or several thousand.

However, in this auction, everyone was not here for the items themselves, but for charity.

When encountering business rivals, even for the sake of secretly competing, the transaction price of an ordinary calligraphy and painting could be raised to millions.

Most of those present were multi-millionaires, so a hundred or several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was naturally not a concern.

Soon, more than forty donated items were auctioned off one by one.

Finally, it was time for the auction of the last ten consigned items.

The first item was a highly anticipated item. According to the description on the list, this was an emerald necklace composed of eight emerald cabochons and 188 diamonds with a total weight of 38.88 carats. The starting price was the highest of all the auction items, reaching 500,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Two etiquette ladies carried a sealed glass box, walking through several aisles, until everyone had clearly seen its true face before the auction began.

"The eight emerald cabochons are all glass-type emeralds, with delicate and lustrous texture, bright and gorgeous color, lush green, even and round, without any impurities. Light penetrates the bottom of the stone, the fluorescence is agile, crystal clear, and it is a rare treasure among emeralds that is hard to find in a century," Xiao Ai commented in Su Cheng's mind.

"Do you want it? Should I bid for it for you?" Su Cheng turned around and said to Zhong Chuhong with a smile.

"It's too expensive, I don't want it," Zhong Chuhong shook her head and said.

Su Cheng smiled and didn't say much.

Soon, the auction began.

"500,000."

"600,000."

"800,000."

Soon, the auction price exceeded one million.

After all, the market value of this necklace outside is also worth two to three million. If it is another thirty or forty years, even a price of tens of millions or hundreds of millions would not be surprising. Everyone is a tycoon of this level, so naturally they know the goods.

"2.3 million, is there anyone higher?" The auctioneer repeatedly asked.

"3 million!" At this time, Su Cheng directly took the bidding paddle from Zhong Chuhong's hand and called out the price himself.

"3 million, Mr. Su is bidding 3 million, is there anyone else who wants to increase the price? This is a rare necklace made of top-quality glass-type emeralds, which is very rare on the market," the auctioneer continued to encourage everyone.

However, perhaps because everyone was giving Su Cheng face, and also because the price was too high, no one continued to compete with Su Cheng in the end.

Zhong Chuhong, who was on the side, was extremely conflicted.

She didn't know if Su Cheng bought this necklace to give to her.

If it was a gift for her, she felt that she should stop him, because she felt that she was not worthy of such an expensive necklace.

But what if the boss bought it not to give to her? If this is the case, wouldn't she anger the boss if she stopped him from bidding?

Therefore, in the end, she remained silent.

After a long time, seeing that no one was still bidding, the auctioneer could only continue to say: "3 million once, 3 million twice, sold, congratulations to Mr. Su for successfully bidding."

Three million Hong Kong dollars is not a big deal for Su Cheng.

Next, one item after another was auctioned off.

The auction price of the later items was not as high as that of the emerald necklace.

The highest one was a pair of vibrant green jade bracelets, which were eventually bought by a foreigner for 2.2 million Hong Kong dollars.

Finally, during the third-to-last auction item, it was the dog-head bronze statue's turn.

The dog-head bronze statue, which was moved out and placed on the auction stage, was now facing everyone.

The starting price of the dog-head bronze statue was not high, only 10,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, after hearing the auctioneer's introduction that this was just a sprinkler head from a fountain pool in the Old Summer Palace, not many people paid attention to it.

"Xiao Ai, is this dog-head bronze statue real?" Although it has been identified by the auction house, this should be genuine, but Su Cheng still asked Xiao Ai to identify it multiple times to be on the safe side.

Otherwise, buying a fake dog-head bronze statue would only be embarrassing for himself.

Of course, in this era, the twelve zodiac animal head bronze statues are not well-known, and people don't know much about them, so there is no need to imitate them.

"Master, this dog-head bronze statue, after my identification, is genuine, master can rest assured to bid," Xiao Ai quickly fed back the information to Su Cheng.

Getting Xiao Ai's approval, Su Cheng was relieved.

"20,000."

"30,000."

"40,000."

……

The dog-head bronze statue was not as popular as imagined. Before Su Cheng bid, only two people were bidding, a foreigner and a Chinese.

Su Cheng didn't know either of them. It seemed that in the tycoon world, they were the kind of tycoons who were not well-known.

Moreover, their bids were all increased by ten thousand.

Perhaps the owner behind the scenes wanted to auction it in Hong Kong in the hope that someone from Hong Kong would pay a high price for it.

However, what he didn't expect was that not many people were interested in the dog-head bronze statue at all.

"Bid 100,000," Su Cheng said directly to Zhong Chuhong.

So, Zhong Chuhong raised the bidding paddle and bid 100,000.

Su Cheng can be regarded as a very famous celebrity at the scene. After he bid, the original Chinese bidder no longer bid, perhaps because he did not want to offend the famous Hutchison Whampoa Taipan for a cultural relic.

And that foreigner hesitated for a moment, but still continued to bid.

"110,000!"

"Bid 150,000," Su Cheng said to Zhong Chuhong.

Zhong Chuhong quickly did as he said.

"160,000!"

"Bid 200,000," Su Cheng continued.

"Number 12 bids 200,000!" Zhong Chuhong continued to do so.

At this time, the foreigner finally stopped raising the paddle.

The imagined dragging did not appear. This bidding was more smooth than Su Cheng imagined. So, Su Cheng bought the dog-head bronze statue for a price of 200,000 Hong Kong dollars.

This price, for the owner behind the scenes, is actually very satisfactory.

If it were auctioned in Europe, it would be lucky to sell for a few thousand pounds.

In fact, a few years later in 1985, a beautiful antique dealer from the United States accidentally discovered the bronze statue of the Horse Head of the Old Summer Palace in a private residence in California. Together with it were the bronze statues of the Ox Head and the Tiger Head. The antique dealer bought these three bronze heads at a low price of $1,500 each.

It can be seen from this that the twelve zodiac animal heads were not well-known to the public in this era.