Chapter 1377: Who will walk away with the top honors? (Start)

Translator: Legge  Editor: Legge

At the venue.

The auction’s atmosphere was building up.

Another three items in a row were put up for auction. One was an item that belonged to a female Japanese star, one of them was from Chen Guang, and the other one was from a Korean soccer star. The final transaction values of these items did not exceed that of Xiaodong’s Spring Garden album.

Then Lee Anson’s item was put up for auction.

But no one at the venue saw any item placed on the auction block.

After the host explained the item for a while, some people on the floor finally raised their paddles to bid.

“40,000!”

“60,000!”

“80,000!”

It instantly surpassed the highest value the Chinese celebrity team had set!

Amy said in a stunned manner, “What is he auctioning off?”

The Chinese celebrity team’s interpreter said, “Lee Anson is auctioning a beginner’s guitar lesson that he’ll teach personally.”

Zhang Ye said, “Is that all?”

Xiaodong laughed and said, “Lee Anson is really going all out.”

Big Qi said regretfully, “We’ve been surpassed.”

Amy said, “If someone gets tutored by Lee Anson for even one lesson, they would brag about it forever. This is definitely worth bidding for.”

Zhang Ye shook his head and smiled. He only cared about gorging himself and continued eating.

Xiaodong said, “Teacher Zhang.”

Zhang Ye did not even raise his head. “What? I’m eating.”

Xiaodong said, “Hey, Teacher Zhang.”

Zhang Ye said, “Speak.”

Xiaodong said, “Isn’t that my steak you’re eating?”

Zhang Ye was taken aback. “Didn’t you say you weren’t going to eat?”

Xiaodong was speechless.

Li Xiaoxian giggled, “Pfft!”

Finally, the bidding for the item ended with a high price of $95,000 USD. After conversion, that would come up to over half a million RMB. The winner of this auction item was a Korean father-daughter pair. Clearly, by the look on the daughter’s face, she was most likely to be a diehard fan of Lee Anson. With this present that her father had given to her, she could not be any happier.

The Korean celebrity team was tentatively in first place!

The four tables of Korean celebrities broke into applause!

“Bravo!

“Anson-oppa!”

“Well done!”

Lee Anson was also all smiles.

Korea was their home field, so they wouldn’t want first place to go to anyone else.

Finally, it was Zhang Ye’s turn to have his item put up for auction. No one knew if the organizers had done this on purpose or if it was purely just a coincidence that his turn came right after Lee Anson’s. The Da Hong Pao was revealed, and the onstage host recited from a cue card to introduce the origins of the tea leaves.

The camera cut to Zhang Ye.

Amy hurriedly reminded him.

Xiaodong also anxiously kicked his leg to get him to take note of his image.

But to their surprise, Zhang Ye, who was holding his utensils and devouring food a moment ago, was now sitting upright with his knife and fork placed neatly back onto the table. The corners of his mouth had been wiped clean as well. He was even giving a smile to the camera as though he had been paying attention to the auction all this while.

Xiaodong was speechless.

Big Qi was speechless.

Chen Guang was speechless.

Everyone was looking at him in shock!

Masterful!

How truly masterful!

Isn’t your reaction speed too fast?

If they had not seen it for themselves, they wouldn’t have believed it. They finally understood why Zhang Ye had dared to eat and drink without a care under the scrutiny of all the cameras during a live broadcast that was shown all over Asia. So this fellow had long since been prepared for this!

The auction of the tea leaves began.

The Japanese and Korean businesspeople paid close attention to it.

“5,000.”

“10,000.”

“30,000 from me.”

“I’ll bid 33,000.”

When the price went above $30,000 USD, the businesspeople from Japan and Korea placed their paddles down while shaking their heads. They weren’t going to participate in the bidding for this item anymore as they found it to be too outrageous a price.

It was only five grams!

All it could brew was a single pot of tea, and it was just a small pot!

Even a diamond wasn’t this expensive!

However, the Chinese businesspeople knew the true value of Da Hong Pao. This best tea since the ancient times had a reputation. If they saw this item at any other auction, they might not bid for it. This was because they wouldn’t know if it was authentic. But they dared to bid for it today because they were not at all worried, since this Da Hong Pao was put up for auction by Zhang Ye himself. In the entire world, only so many parent trees of the Da Hong Pao tea leaves existed, and all of them were the personal property of Zhang Ye. The Da Hong Pao that anyone else might bring out could possibly be fake, but not if it was Zhang Ye. To be able to have a sip of the best tea since the ancient times and still do their part for charity, why not?

CEO Sun turned his head. “Boss Qian, aren’t you going to bid for it?”

China’s richest man, Qian Haitao, smiled. “I won’t be taking part for this item.”

CEO Ci smiled and said, “I thought that you enjoyed your tea, Old Qian?”

Qian Haitao said, “Haha, it’s because I’ve had it before. When Teacher Zhang gave some of it to the Station Head of Beijing TV, I approached her shamelessly to ask for some to brew a pot myself.”

CEO Ci asked, “How good is the tea?”

Qian Haitao praised with a sigh, “It’s worthy of being called the best tea since ancient times.”

CEO Ci slapped his thigh and raise his paddle immediately. “40,000!”

In the end, the tea leaves were won by the Chinese businessman with a bid of $40,000 USD.

This dumbfounded many of the foreigners. Five grams of tea leaves for $40,000 USD? Are you people crazy? Don’t you have something better to spend that money on? Do you need to go that far?

The Da Hong Pao was sold for an astronomical price and had set a new record for the auctioning of tea leaves.

But $40,000 USD did not even put it within the top three items of the charity auction. It was far from the price of Lee Anson’s guitar classes. For now, it was still the Korean celebrity team that was in first place.

Lee Anson narrowed his eyes and gave Zhang Ye a haughty look.

Zhang Ye ignored him and went back to eating.

The auction continued.

The competition was becoming more and more intense.

Then Jiang Hanwei’s auction item was brought out. It turned out to be a trophy for an Asian film award he had won many years ago. This trophy was plated in gold and had high value as well as great significance.

Xiaodong said in surprise, “Uncle Jiang, are you going all out?”

Amy said, “Aiyo, that’s something really worthy!”

Jiang Hanwei laughed heartily. “Aren’t I trying to grab the top honors for our Chinese celebrity team? Of course I have to give it my all!”

Zhang Ye said evenly, “You call that lousy trophy giving it your all?”

Jiang Hanwei rolled his eyes. “It’s still better than your five grams of tea leaves, in any case.”

Zhang Ye stared at him. “Are my tea leaves ordinary tea leaves?”

Jiang Hanwei harrumphed, “This trophy isn’t ordinary either.”

The two of them had fought before. When Xiaodong saw this, she tried to intervene. “Aiya, Uncle Jiang, Teacher Zhang, don’t fight. Look at where we are. At a time like this, our Chinese celebrity team should be united. We’ve gotta band together to fend off the other countries.”

Zhang Yuanqi and Xu Meilan, who were seated at the other table, looked over.

The auction began. The trophy was coveted by many of the Asian businesspeople as they bid for it crazily.

80,000!

100,000!

120,000!

The Chinese celebrity team reclaimed first place!

“Bravo!”

“Beautiful!”

“Uncle Jiang is almighty!”

“That’s impressive!”

They applauded and celebrated!

But before they could even be happy about it, a male star from the Japanese celebrity team also brought out the big guns and auctioned off his item, an electric guitar that he had kept with him for many years, at the high price of $130,000 USD. As a member of a band as well as a famous Japanese singer, it was very rare for any of his used guitars to be sold on the market, even if they were from the early days of his career. Bringing it out for the auction was clearly to show they intended to bring home the top honors. The Japanese celebrity team also coveted first place to gain some glory.

The Japanese celebrity team.

“Bravo!”

“Yoshida-kun!”

“Great!”

The other people were symbolically clapping for him.

It was mutual respect!

Sometimes it would be you, sometimes it would be them!

The parties of the three countries looked at one another. The atmosphere at the venue turned heated. Smiles were on everyone’s faces, but the rivalry was boiling over in their hearts!

Only Zhang Ye seemed to be out of the loop as he did not appear bothered by what was going on. This fellow’s sense of patriotism was very strong, but he did not care much for a collective sense of honor. Whoever got first and second place was unimportant to him. Wasn’t this a charity auction?

…

China.

Online.

“Xiaodong, good job!”

“Old Jiang has also given his all!”

“Aiya, we got surpassed again!”

“Quickly, catch up to them!”

“It’s only Zhang Ye who hasn’t contributed much! What’s he doing?”

“Yeah, that fellow is totally not contributing to the efforts at all. The Da Hong Pao tea trees are all his, but he only brought five grams of the tea leaves for auction? Are you trying to feed cats?!”

“How exasperating!”

“Zhang Ye is such a cheapskate!”

“If he brought out half a catty or one catty of tea leaves, who could compete with us? The top honors for the charity auction would surely have gone to the Chinese celebrity team! There isn’t a doubt about that!”

“Hahaha, one catty? For a miser like Teacher Zhang, bringing ten grams for the auction would be akin to taking his life!”

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