Du Zhaohui hadn’t basked in joy for more than three seconds when Xia Xiaolan, perhaps thinking one bucket of cold water wasn’t enough for a thorough bath, poured another one on him:

“… Elder Young Master Du, if I help you, could you help me with a small favor?”

Hah? It was a quid pro quo after all – he’d gotten excited for nothing!

Wait, Xia Xiaolan asking him for help was such a rare occurrence. Du Zhaohui vaguely remembered being rejected by her many times. If he were to reject her this once, that would be quite something.

His fantasy was nice, but his mouth acted without consulting his brain, already agreeing:

“Sure, what help do you need? I’m listening!”

Xia Xiaolan told him about the vase Jim had found. “I’ll fax you the photo. Could you help me find out who bought such a vase at auction in America last year? I’m not trying to do anything particular, just want to confirm what the vase looks like.”

During times of turmoil, many Chinese antiques and cultural relics were scattered across the world.

Times had changed, and now many foreign collectors were putting these artifacts up for auction. For Chinese antiques, they would invite wealthy individuals from places like Hong Kong to auction sites, exploiting wealthy Chinese people’s desire to buy back lost relics, selling these looted or smuggled artifacts back to Chinese tycoons at high prices!

In 1986, this trend was probably just beginning.

In twenty or thirty years, after mainland China’s reform and opening up led to rapid economic development and more mainland tycoons emerged, such auctions targeting Chinese wealthy buyers increased significantly, with prices of cultural relics and antiques sold through these auctions being greatly inflated!

Was the Hong Kong buyer Jim found related to this situation?

Asking who bought a vase shouldn’t be difficult.

It wasn’t some national treasure – if someone bought it, they bought it. Why keep it secret?

Du Zhaohui knew Hong Kong’s wealthy people best. Like his old man who started from fishing port trading, other rich people weren’t necessarily highly cultured either. Now that they had money, they wanted to appear refined, buying calligraphy, and appreciating antiques – suddenly transforming from greedy black-hearted merchants into cultured businessmen?

After spending big money on a useless vase, they wouldn’t be able to resist showing it off. Du Zhaohui was confident:

“Alright, leave this to me. Xia Xiaolan, I heard you used the design for me to—”

“Good, I’ll fax you the vase photo, watch for it. I have things to do here, got to go!”

Beep beep beep.

The phone just hung up.

That damn woman Xia Xiaolan, using him and tossing him aside!

Du Zhaohui had heard from Mao Kangshan that Xia Xiaolan won the design competition championship and wanted to say some congratulatory words but didn’t get the chance to speak.

He angrily pounded the fax machine on the desk.

Whoever receives this fax is a dog!

Whirr whirr whirr.

The fax machine started working, slowly spitting out a paper. Du Zhaohui resisted several times but still stood there waiting for the paper to come out completely.

“Ah Hua, Ah Hua you bastard, get in here!”

Ah Hua thought someone was trying to assassinate the young master and rushed in, only to see Du Zhaohui standing with his hands behind his back, nodding at the fax with his chin:

“Take this fax and put it on my desk!”

Then he walked away with his hands behind his back.

Ah Hua couldn’t figure it out.

Wasn’t this something he could have easily taken himself? Was the young master dissatisfied with him lately and deliberately making things difficult?

Ah Hua picked up the light fax paper and respectfully delivered it to Du Zhaohui’s desk.

Du Zhaohui looked at the dark, unclear vase image while rationalizing to himself:

“Well, at least I wasn’t the one who received it.”

Strange, what did Xia Xiaolan want with some old vase?

That bastard Du Zhaoqi used to be very keen on attending auctions, and Tang Yuanyue had also taken Xia Xiaolan to auctions. They went to private auctions – in recent years, a “Master Qiu” had emerged in Hong Kong, specifically catering to wealthy Hong Kong buyers’ tastes. This person was said to have considerable influence.

Bah, he was just an antique dealer, what influence?

His business wasn’t much cleaner than the Du family’s smuggling operation, yet he packaged himself as an antiques expert.

Du Zhaohui cursed internally but knew he’d have to contact this “Master Qiu” to inquire about this matter.

Unfortunately, he had no previous dealings with him.

“Does that bastard Tang Yuanyue know him? Should call him to ask.”

Du Zhaohui muttered to himself.

Of course, he wouldn’t tell Tang Yuanyue this was for Xia Xiaolan – he wasn’t that stupid.

Compared to Du Zhaohui’s recent glory in Pengcheng, Tang Yuanyue was in a worse state. He hadn’t anticipated that women weren’t to be trifled with – after breaking off his engagement with He Zhitong, she had first humiliated him in the newspapers. The Tang family had to give up some benefits to the He family to apologize for Tang Yuanyue’s behavior.

The losses were minor – he had wanted to break off the engagement to properly pursue Xia Xiaolan.

Now he had failed on both fronts. He Zhitong agreed to break the engagement, but Xia Xiaolan strongly disliked Tang Yuanyue’s behavior and ran off to study in America, completely ignoring him.

When Tang Yuanyue took over Du Zhaohui’s villa, he had wanted to watch him suffer.

At the time, Hong Kong tabloids painted a miserable picture of Du Zhaohui, saying the elder young master was being chased by debt collectors in Macau, which was why he hurriedly sold his house and cars.

No one expected that Du Zhaohui’s sale of his villa and luxury cars was actually for a big move in Pengcheng!

Now Du Zhaohui’s electronics plaza project was flourishing, leaving Tang Yuanyue dumbfounded.

Du Zhaohui had such brains?

More likely someone had replaced his brain!

Tang Yuanyue felt Du Zhaohui was acting strange and wanted to figure out why. Du Zhaohui had been busy and hadn’t invited him out for a long time, until today!

He thought Du Zhaohui wanted to buy back the villa, but instead was asked if he knew “Master Qiu” – he had something to consult with Master Qiu about.

Tang Yuanyue laughed in frustration:

“What could you possibly consult with Master Qiu about? He deals in antiques, not smuggled electronics.”

Du Zhaohui jumped up: “You can eat carelessly, but you can’t speak carelessly! I don’t smuggle electronics – I’m a legitimate Hong Kong businessman investing in the mainland!”

What did Liu Tianquan’s smuggling have to do with him? That bastard wasn’t even his real uncle!

“Then tell me, why are you looking for Master Qiu?”

Du Zhaohui’s eyes rolled, “Everyone knows about my inheritance fight with my second brother. Brother Tang, despite our quarrels, we have a long friendship. What good would it do you if my second brother became Chengrong’s chairman? I’m different – we can help each other.”

Tang Yuanyue coldly interrupted, “Help each other? You secretly set up the electronics plaza without telling me? Stop beating around the bush – what do you want?”

Du Zhaohui blinked, “My old man’s birthday is coming up. I want to find Master Qiu to get an antique as a gift.”

Why so complicated?

If he wanted to buy an antique as a gift, he could attend some auctions and slowly choose – he’d eventually find something suitable.

No need to meet Master Qiu.

Tang Yuanyue felt Du Zhaohui was suspicious, and hiding something.

“Zhaohui, it’s not that I won’t help, but even I’ve only met Master Qiu once. He keeps people at arm’s length – you won’t easily get to meet him. For buying antiques, just spending money is enough, right? No need to meet the seller?”