90,000 Years of Longevity

Chapter 76: Light the Lantern

Peaceful Restaurant, auction room, Private Room No. 1.

The invitation letter sent by the auction to the gallery obviously had special arrangements and intentions, and even this private room had been specially treated.

In the middle of the private room, there was a red rosewood round ancient table. Around the table, three chairs with delicate patterns stood freely. On the table, there was also a set of classical wooden fish stone tea sets neatly placed. This set was worth tens of millions.

Ye Bei walked into this private room, and when he saw the table and chair, his eyes were extremely unconcerned about.

Perhaps the decoration of this private room looked very elegant in other people's eyes. But in Ye Bei's eyes, it was full of a sense of contradiction.

The wooden stonefish of the Song Dynasty matched with the red rosewood of the Qing Dynasty. Compared with the ancient wooden table and the crystal cup of the Warring States Period in the Longevity Temple, the things in front of him could only be considered as inferior products.

With his hand held down, he walked to the table, brushed his shirt, and sat down at will.

Ye Bei's eyes sedately observed the pattern here.

The main venue of the auction house was changed from the lobby of the restaurant.

In the middle of the hall, there was a table with a red carpet.

There were many chairs around, for ordinary guests who came to bid to sit.

Private Room No. 1 was on the third floor. Two windows stood on both sides. One was facing the direction of the hall. With a wide view, sitting in front of the window could clearly see the entire auction scene.

The other one was facing the Ancient Street because the buildings on the Ancient Street were generally not high. Sitting here, one could see the entire Ancient Street from a distance.

However, what caught Ye Bei's attention slightly in this private room was a hand-scrolled figure hanging on the wall on the left.

Ye Bei sat in a chair, watching leisurely... but his thoughts flew away quietly.

Ninety thousand years ago, there was a young man who wore white overall, walked on an ancient mountain trail with his hands clasped behind his back.

The sky reformed suddenly, 87 celestial beings descended from the heaven and appeared in front of the young man. They marched in line to participate in the grand ceremony of Taoism. Their postures were rich and graceful, with immortal auras fluttering around with white mist.

Seeing this scene, the young man raised his hand on a whim, and a piece of silk was manifested out of thin air.

He held a meticulous brush lightly in his hand.

The silk was suspended in front of the young man, the moment he lifted the brush, he instantly revealed the natural elegance and smoothness of his movement.

As time went by, celestial beings appeared quietly on the silk one after another. In the painting, those being had streamers on their sleeves, wrinkles on their clothes, and flags, and tassels. They seemed to have achieved a harmonious interest and walked in the interlaced and swirling ink lines of a teenager. Even in the painting, the various musical instruments in the hands of those immortals were emitting a melodious tone.

That day, the teenager finished his painting, and when he went down the mountain, he gave the painting to a Daoist cultivator and ignored it again.

Then the years passed...

When the teenager was disassociating with the world, he saw this painting three times, and each time, he always felt some kind of emotion.

That hand scroll had a name called "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls".

The hand scroll had been passed down to this day, and no one knew who made it. Nowadays, the historians of China attributed it to the same style of Tang murals, thinking that it was not something that Tang people could do, and some even judged it to be Wu Daozi's work. (A/N: Wu Daozi was a Chinese painter of the Tang Dynasty.)

Dong, dong

In the private room, when Ye Bei was looking at the painting as if returning to 90,000 years ago, two slight knocks came from the door.

"Unfortunately, the handkerchief hanging here is just a copy of the fake. If you want to see the original one, I'm afraid you will have to wait a while." Ye Bei returned to his senses, shook his head and sighed, then turned his eyes to the Ancient Street quietly and said softly, "Come in."

Creak

The door of the private room was pushed open.

A young girl in a white Tang suit, carrying a red lantern, walked in leisurely.

The young girl was in her fragrant age, beautiful and pure, shy and lovely, the crystal clear snowy jade skin shone with an ivory halo, and the soft white skin was as graceful as hibiscuses and condensed snow lotus.

The fascinating and beautiful faint glowing red, pure, and beautiful eyes closed shyly, black and long eyelashes tightly concealed the trembling of the cut autumn pupils, the white and beautiful straight jade neck had a pair of soft and round delicate fragrance shoulder

However, when this young girl saw Ye Bei, who was sitting in the private room, dressed in a white robe, with a cold face, his eyes were as deep as the sun, the moon, and the stars, she was taken aback for a while, and then her face turned reddish.

"Sir" The pink lips lightly opened, and for a moment they closed and forgot what to say.

"What's the matter?" Ye Bei spoke slowly, his voice was so in line with the current situation that most guy would, and he looked at the girl indifferently when he spoke. Although her appearance had ethereal color and celestial fragrance, pure without blemishes, but he still felt that the person in front of him had a little bit less unique aura than his old friend. She could not even make Ye Bei's heart throb a bit.

When the girl heard this, she quickly returned to her senses. Her cheeks were already red, and her voice whispered, "Sir, today's auction will have a lot of valuable antiques. The organizer prepared some lanterns in order to allow some guests with a special identity to bid for their favorite items. If they encounter items that are inevitable, they can hang the red lantern on the window. Which means that no matter what price someone else pays, you are twice as high as him."

"After the item is obtained, you can retrieve the lantern. Of course, to prevent someone from maliciously increasing the price, all those who bid with the lantern there will strictly verify their assets. Once someone dares to make a random bid no matter who it is, they will pay a heavy price for it."

"Ok." Ye Bei nodded softly after listening.

This rule was a bit interesting. Turning the auction into a gamble, lighting a lantern was like a fire, burning oneself up for a certain item, bankrupting, and stimulating consumption... However, this kind of thing was of little significance to Ye Bei.

Ye Bei nodded, and the girl wanted to hang the lantern on a hook on the wall of the private room. Just as she stood on her tiptoe, Ye Bei, who was sitting on the wooden chair, said leisurely, "Hang the lamp directly on the window."

"Huh?" The girl was startled; her face was puzzled.

"I want all the antiquities here." Ye Bei's voice was not loud.

This time's auction was related to his old friend. Ye Bei knew very well that there must be clues he needed in this auction. Unfortunately, it involved the mystery of longevity, so he could not predict it. As a result, buying all those things was undoubtedly the best way.

But when the girl holding the lantern heard this, her body was taken aback, and all her clear pupils were shocked.

"Sir? You mean... hang out now?" The girl asked hesitatingly.

"Yes." Ye Bei nodded.

"Sir, I think I must remind you, I have read the rules. These lanterns will be given to every private room. If someone hangs out first and other private rooms also hang out, they must take out twice the amount of the other party's wealth. At the same time, the starting price of the item will also be calculated based on that person's worth. If you run into a rival and bid maliciously, no matter how much wealth you have, it won't be enough to consume." The girl tried to remind Ye Bei.

"Hang it up." Ye Bei said indifferently.

"Yes!" The girl was taken aback and then realized that she talked too much. Who was the one who could come to the Private Room No. 1? Obviously, the person in front of her was not from simple origin.

She opened the window gently and hung the red lantern on an iron hook with shaky hands.

And at the moment when the lantern was hung out...

The auction scene, where many people had gathered, instantly became silent.