"Good evening, distinguished guests."
"I am Zheng Liping, the Auctioneer of Yan Jing Poly Auction House. Next, please welcome our Lot No. 1, "Thousand Character Classic" · Autumn Mountains Seeking the Dao, by Pu Ru and Qi Kun."
"Starting bid: 20,000 RMB!"
After the Auctioneer took the stage, she didn't say any unnecessary words. After greeting the audience, she officially began the auction.
As Lot No. 1 began bidding, the LED large screen at the live broadcast continuously displayed images of this collection fan. The front was the "Thousand Character Classic" written by Pu Ru, and the back was "Autumn Mountains Seeking the Dao" painted by Qi Kun.
Soon, the guests present and the staff responsible for telephone bids began bidding, causing the price of this collection fan to skyrocket in a very short time, breaking the 500,000 mark in the blink of an eye.
"Oh my god!"
"It's multiplied by 25 times!"
Guan Yuntao looked at the auction scene in front of him, completely stunned, even forgetting to slurp the sea snails in his hand.
"The starting bid for all collection fans today is 20,000, which has no reference value. This is just the beginning; later, collection fans that have increased by hundreds of times will appear," Tang Yuan glanced at Guan Yuntao and explained with a smile.
"Hundreds of times?"
"Wouldn't that be over a million?"
"Just a single collection fan, is it that expensive?"
Li Qiming was a bit amazed.
"If you knew the identity of the author of this collection fan, you might not think so," Tang Yuanpointed to Lot No. 1, which was being bid on the projection screen: "Pu Ru, full name Aisin-Gioro Pu Ru. His great-grandfather was Emperor Daoguang, and his grandfather was Prince Gong. He was deeply fond of poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and achieved success in all of them. He was known as 'Southern Zhang and Northern Pu' with Zhang Daqian, and also 'Southern Wu and Northern Pu' with Wu Hufan."
"With an original work by such a person, do you still think it's expensive now?"
At the end, Tang Yuan glanced at Li Qiming and asked with a smile.
"Holy moly!"
"This person has such a background?"
Li Qiming showed a hint of surprise after hearing Tang Yuan's introduction.
"Yuan Ge, you know all this?"
"Aren't you a bit too amazing?"
Guan Yuntao looked at Tang Yuan with a hint of admiration in his eyes.
Tang Yuan heard this and waved his hand: "Because I'm interested in collection fans, I happened to find Pu Ru while doing research, so I know a bit about him. It's just a coincidence."
However, facing Tang Yuan's explanation, Guan Yuntao and Li Qiming clearly didn't quite believe him; they just thought Tang Yuan was being modest.
While the three were talking, the first lot was finally hammered down at a price of 780,000, successfully purchased by a mysterious buyer via telephone bid.
Next, collection fans were successively bid on, with Sold Price prices ranging from a minimum of around 200,000 to a maximum of nearly 1,000,000.
As the auction reached its halfway point, when it was time for Lot No. 13 to be auctioned, Tang Yuan, who had remained inactive, finally made his move.
With Tang Yuan's frequent bidding, Lot No. 13, "Ren Chen Landscape · Running Script Painting Theory," was quickly acquired by Tang Yuan for 1.94 million, pushing the entire auction to a minor climax. However, for Tang Yuan, this was just the beginning.
Just ten minutes later, Tang Yuan made another move, successfully acquiring Lot No. 15, "Quiet Reflection · Running Script Seven-Character Poem," for 1.82 million. Immediately after, Lot No. 19, "Palm Leaf Insects," and Lot No. 20, "Frosty Dawn Chrysanthemums," were successively taken down by Tang Yuan for 2.49 million and 2.41 million, respectively.
It can be said that all four of the most valuable and artistically significant collection fans in the entire special session so far have been acquired by Tang Yuan.
Who were the authors of these four collection fans?
Huang Binhong, a famous modern and contemporary painter, a grandmaster of landscape painting!
Fu Baoshi, a famous modern painter, whose representative work "Majestic Maoshan" sold for nearly 200 million yuan in 2017!
Qi Baishi, a modern and contemporary Chinese painting master, a world cultural celebrity!
Pan Tianshou, a famous modern painter, whose representative work "Eagle and Rock with Mountain Flowers" sold for 243 million yuan in 2015!
Every single one of them was a master craftsman in the art world.
Now, all of them have been acquired by Tang Yuan.
With four out of five goals successfully achieved, Tang Yuan was very satisfied and also breathed a sigh of relief.
If it weren't for coincidentally encountering such a special auction for collection fans, it would have been truly difficult for Tang Yuan to successfully purchase five treasure-grade collection fans within 15 days.
"Huh?"
"What are you two staring at?"
"Are you full?"
Tang Yuan turned his head, put his gloves back on, and just as he was about to peel a few more crayfish to eat, he found Guan Yuntao and Li Qiming staring at him blankly, as if they had been hit by a petrification spell.
"Yuan Ge…"
"If I didn't miscalculate just now, you spent a total of 8.66 million for these four fans, averaging nearly 2.16 million per fan. Any one of your fans is enough to buy a house in a second-tier city. What are you doing this for?"
Guan Yuntao looked at Tang Yuan, who seemed unfazed, and asked with a somewhat dazed expression.
Initially, he thought the gap between them was that he was on the 10th floor, and Tang Yuan was on the 100th floor.
Later, he thought the gap between them was that he was on the 10th floor, and Tang Yuan was in the stratosphere.
Now, he finally realized that he and Tang Yuan were not from the same world at all. He had never even seen the things the other person played with, and the other person's values were beyond his comprehension, even possibly beyond his parents' understanding.
If he spent 2 million to buy a car, his parents might approve, but if he spent 2 million to buy a fan, his parents might just choose to delete his account and restart.
"What am I doing it for?"
"Because I like it."
Tang Yuan naturally couldn't tell the other party that he was doing it to complete a system mission, but his answer wasn't a lie either.
Because while completing the mission, Tang Yuanwas indeed selecting collectibles with an appreciative eye, not just completing the mission for the sake of completion.
Take this experience mission of collecting fans, for instance. Collection fans, as a minor category in collecting, due to their inherent limitations, are generally considered treasure-grade collectibles if their value exceeds one million.
If Tang Yuan's sole purpose was to complete the mission, he could have bought cheaper collection fans, as the final mission rewards would be the same.
Between saving money and liking, Tang Yuan chose liking.
Having experienced various things in his previous life, Tang Yuan no longer valued money as much.
Since he would definitely profit in the end, why not collect items he liked?
It was merely a matter of earning more or less, so in the selection process, Tang Yuan acted entirely on his own accord. He would rather spend a high price to buy collectibles he liked to admire and play with daily than buy collectibles he didn't like just to save money and then put them away in storage.
Being happy is the most important thing in life.