Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Qin Ran reached out to accept it. “Thank you.”


  Glancing at the plastic bag in Qin Ran’s hand expressionlessly, Cheng Mu knew that it was the grass again.

  He had reminded Cheng Wenru just now.

  Cheng Wenru knew that Qin Ran’s deskmate grew flowers and wasn’t very curious. She didn’t ask much out of politeness and sent the Lin family off to their van before leaving.

  Instead of returning to her apartment, she went to the Ting Lan Apartment with Cheng Juan and Qin Ran.

  Qin Ran didn’t practice the violin and went to Cheng Juan’s study to look for a few books.

  Cheng Wenru was talking to Cheng Juan about the company and the Cheng family.

  “The competition is too great. I don’t know what antics the Yunguang Consortium is up to this time.” Cheng Wenru sat down with a teacup in her hand and narrowed her eyes.

  She didn’t shy away from Qin Ran and just spoke straightforwardly.

  Turning on the computer and logging in, Cheng Juan read the email Cheng Shui sent and replied distractedly, “The EA series of programs and robots.”


  “You have news?” Cheng Wenru crossed her legs and stared intently at him.

  Although they were siblings, she didn’t know what Cheng Juan was actually up to. It seemed like he always knew all the news and was acquainted with the big bosses in Asia.

  Cheng Juan lazily clicked on the next document and glanced at Qin Ran calmly. Her movements had slowed a little. He chuckled. “No, it’s just a guess.”


  Cheng Wenru knew that Cheng Juan rarely made jokes. Thus, his words were almost invariably true. She held her cup and fell deep in thought.

  Beside the bookshelf, Qin Ran simply gave up and took a step back, holding a book in one hand and putting her other hand in her pocket. “I’ll go practice the violin first.”


  Before Cheng Juan could say anything, Cheng Wenru stood up immediately and accompanied her to the violin room. “You’re practicing the violin so late? You must have enough rest and not tire yourself out.

  “Oh, there’ll be an auction three days later at 8 pm.” Cheng Wenru smiled gently at Qin Ran. “Lots of novelties can be discovered there. Do you want to come along with me?”


  Qin Ran held her book with the other hand and accepted her invitation. “Sure.”


  Sitting on the chair and listening to their conversation, Cheng Juan was speechless.

  Within a few minutes, Cheng Wenru turned back for her bag and said calmly to Cheng Juan, “I’m going back to the company.”


  She was like a completely different person.

  **

  Downstairs.

  Secretary Li was sitting on the sofa with a teacup in his hand while talking to Cheng Jin.

  They stood up when Cheng Wenru came downstairs. “Miss.”


  Cheng Jin had only greeted her out of politeness. Both Cheng Wenru and Secretary Li were accustomed to their attitudes now and weren’t surprised.

  “When did you come back?” Cheng Wenru paused and glanced at Cheng Jin.

  She was a little curious about his attitude towards Qin Ran.

  He smiled. “Two minutes ago.”


  “Miss, I just told Mr. Cheng Jin about the Young Master and Miss Ouyang.” Secretary Li bent down and put down the teacup. “They met this afternoon. I guess he has already placed an order for 129.”


  “It’s useless.” Cheng Jin shook his head solemnly. “The auction house’s system is secretive and tight. Even the auction house doesn’t know who the seller of the Daylily is. If you want to find out, you’ll have to get a senior member of the 129 Club.”


  But it wasn’t that easy to invite them.

  129 was too mysterious in Beijing. Even a few hackers in the laboratory had failed to hack into their defense system. Ouyang Wei was only an ordinary member of 129, so it was too difficult to find senior personnel.

  Glancing at Cheng Jin, Cheng Wenru smiled and noted down that he seemed familiar with the auction house’s internal system. He even knew what level of 129 members was needed.

  “Morning Bird and Slag Dragon have been very active recently and have taken lots of orders, but their main activity area is abroad, so they might not be able to find the Daylily’s seller.” That was why he had said that Cheng Raohan approaching Ouyang Wei was useless. “Of course, if Ouyang Wei can invite the Lone Wolf, I have nothing else to say.”


  Cheng Wenru listened to him.

  She couldn’t help but massage her temples.

  “Then, that’s troublesome……” She squinted. Old Master Cheng would have to hold on despite the pain this month.

  The auction houses were basically anonymously bought and sold. There would definitely be competition over the single bottle of the Daylily this month.

  They were still talking when Cheng Mu came upstairs from the staircase by the Bonsai, moving a potted plant over very quietly.

  “Miss.” He politely greeted Cheng Wenru, then brought the watering can over. He picked up the tools and carefully placed the potted plant by the floor-to-ceiling window.

  Cheng Jin had become used to it these two days and turned his head away, not wanting to look at it more.

  But Cheng Wenru and Secretary Li stared at Cheng Mu.

  She raised an eyebrow, then retracted her gaze and excused herself to Cheng Jin. She turned around and was about to leave when a lightbulb flashed in her mind.

  She paused violently.

  “Miss?” Secretary Li and Cheng Jin stared at her.

  Cheng Wenru’s grip tightened on her bag.

  She walked over to Cheng Mu directly and pointed at the pot of flowers he was taking care of. “Cheng Mu, where did you get this potted plant from?”


  Cheng Mu’s hand shook and he almost sprayed too much water.

  “Miss, this is Miss Qin’s flower.” He paused for a while before asking, “Is there any problem?”


  Silent, Cheng Wenru took out her phone and quickly opened a photo for comparison.

  Of course, there were no two identical potted plants.

  But the leaves and flower patterns of the potted plant in the photo were exactly the same as the one Cheng Mu was taking care of.

  Cheng Wenru remembered very clearly that the potted plant was a new product and had only started trial last month. A total of two pots had been auctioned. One was in the Cheng family’s house, and the other was in the research institute……

  So why did Cheng Mu have a pot here?

  Without speaking, she remembered that the potted plants had numbers at the back, so she flipped it over, but there was no specific code.

  “Cheng Mu, can you tear off a leaf for me?” She glanced at him.

  The leaves of this potted plant were the size of a coin, five-pointed and star-shaped, with fluorescent blue spots among the green leaves. It was very special, but even without a code, Cheng Wenru didn’t think it was fake.

  Cheng Wenru glanced at her. “I’ll have to ask her first.”


  He sent a message to Lin Siran, asking if he could tear off a leaf and give it away.

  Lin Siran seemed busy and only answered “Ok” perfunctorily.

  Cheng Mu reached out to pull off a piece for Cheng Wenru.

  She took the leaf and went back to the Cheng family’s old villa. Knocking on the door of the overnight research institute, she handed them two different leaves for identification. One of them was the leaf obtained from Cheng Mu.

  “The results will come out in three days,” the researcher finally replied after thinking about it.

  Cheng Wenru let out a sigh. “Sorry to trouble you.”


  **

  Three days later.

  The largest monthly auction in the Beijing Underground Auction House opened.

  In the evening, Cheng Wenru wore a red dress and came to Ting Lan to pick Qin Ran up. Without bringing Cheng Juan along, the two of them were accompanied by Secretary Li.

  The underground auction house was on the third floor of the black street casino.

  It opened at 8 pm.

  Inside was a dazzling sight. The corridor was very spacious, and they took an elevator to the third floor. Bodyguards stood on both sides of the gate. Cheng Wenru took out a black card from her pocket and handed it to them.

  Within two minutes, a doorman wearing black clothes respectfully led Qin Ran and the others into a room.

  The room was suspended around the auction house, with a one-way glass in front so that they could see the auction table and the people sitting below clearly.

  “Ran Ran, just press this if you fancy anything.” Cheng Wenru pointed to the red button in the middle of the table. She motioned for Qin Ran to come over and sit down. “Third Bro will pay.”


  Sitting down next to her, Qin Ran put her phone on the table and looked at the first auction item brought out by the auctioneer.

  It was a piece of jade.

  Cheng Wenru had come for the Daylily today, but she would still look out for something suitable for Qin Ran.

  Propping her chin on her hand, Qin Ran felt rather curious about the auction house at first.

  But her interest faded when she felt like it was no different from the auction house in Continent M. Crossing her legs, she took out her phone and started playing games.

  Cheng Wenru didn’t bother her and just looked at the auctioned items while taking pictures of the beautiful ornaments or antiques.

  After a while, her main purpose today arrived: the Daylily.

  A glass bottle appeared on the auction house’s big screen.

  Secretary Li reminded her. “Miss.”


  She nodded.

  The Daylily’s starting price was still 2 million, which wasn’t considered too expensive. At first, people from the stands below made scattered bids.

  No one from the rooms upstairs made a bid.

  When the price increased to 5 million, the rooms upstairs started bidding.

  Once it reached 5 million and exceeded the price of the Daylily’s previous auction, fewer and fewer people increased the price. But there was no shortage of rich people in Beijing.

  “There’s suddenly only one bottle of the Daylily.” Secretary Li lowered his voice. “No one knows what the situation is. If there’s no bottle next month……”


  Obviously, this was what all those bidding for the Daylily were worried about.

  There were usually ten bottles of the Daylily a month, but it suddenly became one bottle this month. The old customers were basically thinking that something had happened to the Daylily itself, and this might be the last bottle. Hence, they would pay any price to obtain it.

  Even at 8 million, the competition was still fierce.