Chapter 197: This Is Money!

At this time, setting up an auction house was extraordinarily difficult, and the situation at Jiade Auction House was quite awkward. A company that didn't even dare handle antiques could hardly be considered a legitimate auction house.

Not to mention antiques, even in the Chinese Constitution, auction laws were not yet well-established, so Chen Dongsheng was completely confused about his future path.

Chen Dongsheng had been dreaming of holding a successful auction, but he never expected that an impromptu visit would lead to such good fortune. His group was in high spirits.

Li Xian's idea was to hold a large black pottery auction at Jiade Auction House. But after some thought, he felt this was not appropriate. Although black pottery was a refined item, it wasn't as appealing as antiques or paintings in terms of attracting interest.

After much deliberation, he came up with a new plan while arranging lunch for Chen Dongsheng and his group. The idea was to take out some of the antique furniture from his residence and hold a traditional Chinese home furnishings auction exhibition.

Hearing this idea, Chen Dongsheng was delighted. "Mr. Li, you're willing to part with these antique furnishings?"

Li Xian smirked internally, thinking, "What are you even considering? These items may seem valuable now, but their real worth will come later. I'm not even thinking of selling them for the time being, let alone in the near future."

Seeing Li Xian's negative response, Chen Dongsheng felt disappointed and slightly worried. "That's going to be difficult. When we studied Sotheby's, we saw similar antique furniture fetching tens of thousands in Hong Kong. While using this to increase appeal is feasible, what if someone decides to buy them? How will we handle that?"

Li Xian smiled slightly. "Mr. Chen, don't worry. I'll have someone on-site during the auction to handle any issues."

Chen Dongsheng slapped his forehead. This was such a basic operation that even amateurs could think of, and yet they hadn't done it before.

With the first business opportunity in place, Chen Dongsheng left after arranging for the transportation of the black pottery and furniture. He was very grateful for Li Xian's support of Jiade and promised that regardless of the auction outcome, he would not charge any commission.

Although Li Xian was short on cash, he wasn't so desperate that he would nickel and dime everything. Moreover, he genuinely wanted to build a relationship with this future influential figure.

Despite Jiade's current struggles, Li Xian was well aware of Chen Dongsheng's capabilities. The resources behind these officials and scholars who went into business in 1992 were unimaginable.

For example, Jiade Auction House alone wouldn't have attracted over twenty million in investment without significant connections.

Li Xian planned to build good relations and see where it led.

At the same time, Chen Dongsheng, curious about Li Xian, who was a decade younger and seemed quite affluent, learned that Li Xian was worth millions despite his young age. The two hit it off well during their conversation.

After Chen Dongsheng left, he immediately sent a transportation company to move the furniture and selected forty-odd pieces of black pottery among the recent batch for transport.

Perhaps due to urgency, Chen Dongsheng quickly called Li Xian and invited him to attend Jiade's first auction in Beijing.

Li Xian, however, was pressed for time and handed off the task of attending the auction to Yan Shilin, who had just returned from Hong Kong.

---

June 15th, Beijing, Great Wall Hotel.

After much preparation, Jiade's first auction finally took place. The auction featured two main categories: modern ceramics and furniture.

The number of bidders was not large. Apart from a few collectors drawn by the advertised antique furniture, most were Chen Dongsheng's friends and classmates.

The auction lasted only three hours, but the results were quite remarkable.

A total of over seventy items were sold, with the auction amount reaching over 7.5 million yuan.

Among all the bidders, Yan Shilin, a wealthy female executive from Hong Kong's Bincheng Hengyuan Trading Company, stood out. She bid seventy-six times and purchased fifteen pieces of furniture, contributing a third of the total auction amount.

The most impressive part of the auction was the black pottery, which made its debut in public. In fact, aside from the furniture purchased by Yan Shilin and some mixed antique items, black pottery became the main highlight of the auction in terms of transaction volume.

Although the individual prices were not high, averaging only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, the forty-odd pieces of black pottery created a sensation at the auction. They were favored by some Hong Kong merchants and foreigners.

The next day, news of the successful first auction in Beijing appeared in major newspapers. Due to some sensitive information about the design antiques, the news about the black pottery's success spread quietly.

When the beautiful black pottery pieces appeared in newspaper images, they immediately caused a stir in the collector's world.

**Bang Ye.**

Li You, who had been thinking about the broken wood factory at home, had already set off to return. Originally, Li Daoyun wanted to stay in this paradise of fine wine, but having been drunk for half a month, Li Xian couldn't let him stay any longer. He had Zhou Yong drive the family back to the forest farm in the morning.

At noon.

Li Xian, holding a large fan, was lying by the red fish tank on the side of the courtyard, watching the three fathead carps that Su Ya had placed in the tank. He was on the phone, listening to Yan Shilin, who had become the media's focus, talk about the auction scene from last night.

Hearing that Chen Dongsheng's friends and classmates contributed over five million in the auction, Li Xian was secretly astonished.

This was real strength.

The kind of people who could be supported by friends and classmates, and who were so dedicated to traveling to a remote place like Bang Ye for their career, made Li Xian realize that he couldn't stay complacent.

Putting down the phone, Li Xian immediately went to the Black Pottery Association and found Yang Shuzhen.

Yang Shuzhen had been extremely busy these days with various experts coming for inspections and managing the association's teaching. She was overwhelmed with work.

"Auntie, the black pottery pieces we sent out for auction a few days ago were sold last night."

Yang Shuzhen and her daughters Zhu Juan and Zhu Jing, who were tidying up a finished black pottery vase, immediately perked up. Although they hadn't expected to make a fortune from black pottery, who wouldn't be happy to see their craft being valued?

"What? They all sold?" Yang Shuzhen's eyes widened in surprise. "There were over forty pieces!"

Li Xian nodded. "Yes. Guess how much they sold for?"

"How much?" Yang Shuzhen leaned forward.

Li Xian held up one finger.

"Ten thousand?!" Zhu Juan's eyes widened. "Wow, that's a lot of money!"

"Ha!" Li Xian laughed. "Aim higher! Can't you guess a bigger amount?"

Hearing that her sister guessed too low, Zhu Jing covered her mouth in disbelief. "My goodness, a hundred… a hundred thousand? Can what Mom made be worth that much?"

Li Xian lost patience. Zhu Jing's imagination about wealth was really limited. In his impression, her most luxurious dream was to hire a maid, go south in winter, and avoid the heat in the summer at Wudalianchi.

So her aspirations were quite modest.

Thus, although Li Pi's situation was quite dire, the family pressure was still minimal—after all, his mother's requirements were very low.

With no patience left, Li Xian directly revealed the answer under Yang Shuzhen's curious gaze. "Forty-six pieces sold for 1.07 million! After deducting 20% commission, we still have 860,000!"

The three of them were stunned.

Crash.

After a long while, Yang Shuzhen dropped the vase she was holding, which broke into two halves. She covered her mouth with her hands, trying to suppress her urge to scream.

Seeing the vase broken on the ground, Zhu Jing exploded in frustration.

"This is money, Mom! How could you drop it?!"