CHAPTER 14: ITEM NUMBER ONE

"Two hundred million."

A heavy silence washed over the whole room. They were already at double the price.

Everyone felt like their skin was itching, especially thosewho were not in the private auction rooms.

This whole time it had been the guests in the private auction rooms that had been debating like tomorrow's expenses didn't exist.

And maybe for those ridiculously rich people, their futures were set in stone. There was no moving them even if they spent a few more hundred million in the blink of an eye.

Han Ziyou couldn't help the slightly bitter taste. She knew she was still on her road of growing but unlike those rich people who may just be buying the perfume for the superficial sake of it, this perfume would be key in something she was doing so she really wanted it.

But at this rate, she was gonna have to give it up.

Han Ziyou frowned openly. Qin Jun noticed and he internally sighed. 'Boss lady stubborn as ever I see.'

Qin Jun got the bid pad and raised it up. Han Ziyou was still caught up in debating on her financial limits when she heard her assistant's calm and obscure voice.

"Four hundred million."

Han Ziyou froze with a strange expression on her face as she gazed at Qin Jun. He smiled faintly in response to her surprise.

"You're a good boss boss lady and I understand that you want to be independent but I think it's time I be an even more excellent assistant." Qin Jun spoke with a cheery smile.

He didn't seem to notice the shock he had left the whole room in. If it was quiet before like as in you could hear a pin drop, now it was as if you had entered a deaf person's world, absolutely no sound.

All eyes were instinctively stuck on Han Ziyou and Qin Jun.

Han Ziyou felt the eyes and her surprise at Qin Jun washed off. "Jun, this—" Han Ziyou was honestly stunned.

Not because she was surprised by the amount he had added on but by his unshaken resolve to help her regardless of the fact that she had told him clearly years back when they had just met that she would never be able to love him the way he initially wished.

Qin Jun smirked playfully. "I did this because you're awesome boss and you deserve that perfume more than anyone in this room."

Qin Jun smiled appreciatively. "Thank you Jun."

No one could hear their conversation with how low the two kept their voices but the casual nonchalance on their faces spoke volumes as if they had not just nearly bid half a billion dollars.

Qin Jun glanced back at the crowd nonchalantly and then he glanced at the auctioneer as if to remind him that no one else was placing a bid and he needed to count.

The auctioneer finally snapped out of his daze. He swallowed hard and then started to count. "Four hundred million going once—"

It finally occurred to the rest of the crowd that they weren't dreaming. Han Ziyou, the unknown show up out of nowhere CEO of Zhou Group of Companies had indeed put up a bid of four hundred million.

At least that's what everybody thought.

Their shock morphed into vivid disdain.

Zhou Family was rich with a networth of about forty billion dollars but in practicality, the actual liquid funds that were available for the family to utilize couldn't cross seven to eight billion dollars.

With the way Han Ziyou had spent that four hundred million dollars so impractically, wasn't the Zhou family just begging for their own doom by keeping her as the CEO.

The person who was seething the most was Zhou Lin, she was not even angry because of the practical loss Han Ziyou's bid could have on the Zhou's but rather she felt so belittled by the fact that the ingrate their family took to repay her father's debt would actually dare to outbid her.

And Zhou Lin couldn't force Ming Xian to outbid Han Ziyou because ever since the bidding begun, she could tell that Ming Xian had been careful how he bidded because the people in those private auction rooms could very well be other members of the top ten families just like him.

There was a whole ranking and Ming Xian's family sat as number seven. There were six whole families ahead of the Mings.

Zhou Lin bit her lip. She glanced at Ming Xian to find him gazing at Han Ziyou with the emotion she hated seeing on his face whenever he looked at women.

The same look he gave her the first time she approached him.

That look of INTEREST!

The auctioneer had once again returned from his daze at the odd atmosphere. He was ready to count again after noticing Qin Jun's impatient stare.

He didn't know why but the young man's stare gave him chills but he couldn't recognize the young man at all.

That's just how Qin Jun kept his identity low-key. Actually, the truth was that it had been a requirement his older brother set up when Qin Jun entered his rebellious and crazy stage as a teen and fresher.

He had to keep his destructive force out of the family and learn to bare consequences.

Consequently, even after Qin Jun's phase ended, he still liked his low-key attitude and chose to stick with it as it attracted less trouble for him.

Everyone knew that there was a younger Qin brother which was him but close to no one actually knew that it was him.

The unknown assistant of the unknown show up out of nowhere CEO.

Qin Jun, from the Qin family, the number three family in the whole country.

"Four hundred million going once, going twice—"

However, the poor auctioneer was once again disrupted. This time it was Zhou Lin who spoke.

Their seats weren't too far off from Han Ziyou so Zhou Lin decided to release some of her anger or more like she lost control.

"Han Ziyou don't you think as a CEO you shouldn't be wasting money like this. At this rate you'll use up all our family's hard earned money when you didn't contribute a cent to start up the business."

Silence reigned.

All eyes turned to Han Ziyou whose calm happiness disappeared and smoothed out into indifferent nonchalance.

Han Ziyou lifted three fingers in the air wordlessly before she spoke so softly so calmly so condensingly towards Zhou Lin.

"Three years. That's all it took for me to increase the Zhou Group's net from thirty two billion to forty billion."

"You've never lifted a finger in your own family's business but you expect to dine like a king at their expense. So how I spend is none of your business."

"Anyway—" Han Ziyou took a pause relishing in the discontent and stunned looks of the crowd.

"Who told you am spending your family's money? Unlike you, I don't have to cozy up to a man or your family's bank to gain what I want so you better focus on your own financial incapabilities."

Han Ziyou looked at the pale Zhou Lin and her expression remained devoid of emotion.

She looked away and smiled at Qin Jun with a raised brow as if to say what.

Qin Jun shook his head in silence but his smile never faded.

'Soo cool boss. Soo cool'

"Please continue Sir." Han Ziyou spoke calmly to Tang Boyi the auctioneer. This time everyone was too lost in Han Ziyou's to even stop the auctioneer.

Han Ziyou felt her chest ease up when Tang Boyi finally said sold. She glanced at Qin Jun gratefully once again.

Everyone finally washed out of their shock when Tang Boyi's gavel hit the surface of his wooden podium announcing to everyone that Han Ziyou had obtained what they had all been fighting for.

All gazes turned a touch hostile and displeased.

Han Ziyou chuckled at the crowd gazing at her with rather unfriendly gazes. One of the reasons she had a limited number of friends in these superficial upper class groups was because she knew the moment she stepped in the place, she'd become an object of unconcealed attacks.

Han Ziyou smirked at the crowd boldly. Baring out her sharp claws too.

"Soo many enemies—I'm quite famous." Han Ziyou spoke with an easy laugh.

Qin Jun joined in her laughter amused by his boss attitude towards her enemies.

Everyone was seething internally because it was obvious that Han Ziyou didn't take many of them serious.

However, only Tang Boyi's voice drew everyone's attention back to the stage.

He was announcing the eminent arrival of the number one item of the night.

It dawned on everyone that unlike what they had all initially thought, the Queen of the Night perfume wasn't the crown of the night.

A strange excitement washed over everyone at what the number one item could be. If everything else including the Queen of the Night perfume could only leave space for the next item to be number one then surely item number one was going to be a stunner.

Everyone was suddenly wondering what it was.

Tang Boyi loved the suspension everyone was in so he teased the guests a bit.

"I won't lie but the next item's starting price starts at three hundred one million dollars."

The room filled with unintended gasps of shock. Seriously, three hundred one million dollars. What were they buying that cost that much!

Right on cue as if to give to everyone's shock meaning and reason, the circular pad on the ground lifted. It was at it's regular speed but it's as if time slowed down.

Everyone was suddenly crying in their minds at how ridiculously slow the thing was.

All their racing hearts were latched firmly to their throats in anticipation.

When finally the display glass' content was in full view, a unified exhale of disbelief left everyone's lips. The gasps of shock were evident and all eyes widened to a size that spoke of their shock.

'This—utterly beautiful, breathtaking, stunning, gorgeous!'

Deep vivid red, the colour of rich blood. The deep and antique heart shaped cut. The hundreds of marvellous edges.

Then suddenly all the lights in the room dimmed and the spot lights all turned their attention to the masterpiece.

It was like an on switch for the magic to truly occur. The moment the light fell on the heart shaped blood red diamond, it was reflected and dispersed into every single direction.

The red hue from the diamond caught everyone's heart's dead in their throats in stupified awe.

The brilliance of the sparkle the diamond gave off stopped everyone's thoughts on any external distractions. Even with the lights dimmed, the diamond's brilliance lit up the room.

In this whole auction, that diamond was the crown that stole attention without even trying.

The lights finally brightened up to their normal brightness but nothing could change the amazed looks on everyone's faces.

Even Tang Boyi who had already seen it before exhaled in amazement.

On the other hand, Han Ziyou whose face always remained calm was looking like she'd seen a ghost instead.

She was still awed but there was something about her expression that seemed unnatural. Han Ziyou felt her heart race at the sight of the diamond.

Something in her tagged her heart so sorrowfully she didn't even understand when a tear slid down her cheek.

Qin Jun looked at her stunned. Never in his life had he had the privilege of seeing Han Ziyou cry but here she was. Unconsciously shedding a tear with a look of such pain, Qin Jun had no idea what to do.

Han Ziyou never showed her pain in public. Never! Not even before him. Not to this extent.

Everyone was too drawn by the diamond to notice the moment crack in the heart of the most ruthless lady of the business world.

For before they caught a glance, she snapped out of her trance and lowered her gaze in the handkerchief she was handed.

She dubbed the tears dry.

'Why do I feel so much pain because of a diamond? Why does it hurt? Something I can't remember—something I miss.'

Han Ziyou bit her lip and looked back up. She steeled her expression back to normal but there was a light tremor across her body.

Qin Jun was worried but he didn't push to know. There were a bunch of things he didn't understand about this boss lady of his and maybe this was one of them.

Han Ziyou looked at the diamond and without a second doubt, she knew she had to find a way of going home with it.

Tang Boyi finally gave the diamond's introduction.

"This is the Blood Promise Diamond. A rare sixty nine carat diamond. Cut into the beautiful intricate heart shape you now see."

"With the deep blood red color that would outshine all other diamonds. The marvelous radiance and brilliance."

"It's history is as outstanding as the piece. Mined and cut by one of the most famous diamond craftsmen in history, a master at the diamond craft."

"The diamond was named by its finder after a promise he made to his beautiful wife who was late at the time."

"He promised that he would love her regardless of the times and even in death that took her away from him, his blood and hers would forever be forged together in a promise of blood."

"Hence the name, blood promise diamond."

Tang Boyi explained with proud fervour.

Everyone listened to every single detail concerning the diamond as if it was a melody of angels.

...