Chapter 495 — Meeting an Old Friend in a Foreign Land: Fatty Lai's Smooth Talk Clarified Nothing — Whether the Longevity and Detoxification Pill Would Ever Return, When It Would Come, or What Would Be Added to the Third Auction, He Never Said

Yet even such smooth, equivocal reticence set everyone present buzzing with excitement and anticipation; vagueness, after all, is the surest fuel for the imagination.

"You certainly know how to talk — and said absolutely nothing." Wei Zhao watched Fatty Lai come down and smiled faintly.

"Heh, of course — do you think I can just shoot my mouth off? All of it is a trade secret!" Fatty Lai said with a sheepish grin. "But Boss, tell me — are we still preparing anything for the third auction?"

"Preparing what?" Wei Zhao himself had nothing in mind, though if they started now there would still be time.

"I hear Miracle Doctor Kang will be putting up some deluxe wound salve at tomorrow's auction — supposedly it closes wounds faster and better than the ordinary kind." Fatty Lai paused. "Why don't we auction some deluxe wound salve of our own? I've already offended him beyond repair just now, and the moment our products hit the market we'll be rivals anyway, so there's no need to worry about falling out with him now!"

"Oh?" The news that Miracle Doctor Kang also had deluxe wound salve entering the auction roused Wei Zhao's interest. "Let me think — let's see what I can come up with, and whether it can top his!"

"Now that would be splendid — as expected of the Boss!" Fatty Lai nodded again and again. "You're right; if ours were the same as theirs, there'd be no point to it — it would look as though we were copying him!"

The items that followed were all quite ordinary — though only by comparison. Even these would have counted as top-grade at any ordinary auction!

But here, where every soul present had seen the world, they provoked little wonder, and not a single bid came anywhere near the price of the Longevity and Detoxification Pill — not even a tenth of it.

Wei Zhao had lost interest as well, so Fatty Lai naturally rose from his seat and went straight backstage to complete the settlement. The proceeds from the three pills, less the sum spent on the sheepskin map, were all deposited into Fatty Lai's account.

Once the paperwork was through, Fatty Lai retrieved the sheepskin map and handed it to Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao opened it, took one look, and put it away. This was hardly the place to study such things, and he had no intention of studying them anyway — at any rate, he had no time to spare for it now.

With the piece he already had at home, Wei Zhao owned a mere two fragments. How large the complete chart was, and how many pieces it had been divided into, remained unknown — so the two fragments he now held were, in practical terms, worth nothing at all.

His only reason for having Fatty Lai bid on it had been a fit of curiosity. He never expected the map to bring him any benefit; it had been a passing whim, nothing more.

The auction drew to a close before long. Apart from the Longevity and Detoxification Pill, not another item produced anything like that effect; each was knocked down in haste after a handful of bids.

Nothing about the first day's lots had been remarkable in the first place, and it had always been so in years past — that was simply how it ought to go. The Longevity and Detoxification Pill had merely been the exception.

Wei Zhao, Fatty Lai and Guan Xuemin rose to leave the auction hall, only to catch Miracle Doctor Kang looking their way. The instant his eyes fell on Wei Zhao and Guan Xuemin, his face visibly hardened.

Wei Zhao nodded to him and smiled.

Miracle Doctor Kang had long suspected that Wei Zhao was some rich young master of the second generation, so seeing him with Fatty Lai and Guan Xuemin merely drew a frown; he read nothing further into it. In his view, Guan Xuemin's entry into the business world had been entirely the work of Wei Zhao and Fatty Lai egging him on.

The investor was probably Fatty Lai, with this Wei Zhao holding a few shares besides — but Miracle Doctor Kang did not give him a second thought. The man he actually had to watch was Fatty Lai, that old hand of the marketplace.

"Wei Zhao!" Feng Xiaoxiao could hardly believe her eyes. She rubbed them, and finding the figure a short way off unmistakably Wei Zhao, hurried over and cried out in delighted surprise.

"?" Wei Zhao turned his head and regarded Feng Xiaoxiao with some astonishment, unable to understand why he of all people should run into her here. Had she followed him, he would not have believed it — at boarding he had not caught so much as a glimpse of her. That left only one possibility: coincidence. He could not help smiling ruefully. "What are you doing here?"

"Yes — what are you doing here?" Feng Xiaoxiao put the same question at almost the same instant.

"Just came along with a friend to have a look around." Wei Zhao smiled. "I've got things to see to — I'll be off."

Some instinct made Wei Zhao unwilling to draw too close to Feng Xiaoxiao. The girl's way of thinking was decidedly strange, and he preferred to keep her at a respectful distance.

"Then will you come tomorrow? Shall we sit together?" Feng Xiaoxiao was inwardly vexed — why was his manner toward her so cold? Yet on the surface she gazed at him hopefully and asked in a pitiful little voice.

"We'll see about tomorrow." Not wanting to entangle himself with her, Wei Zhao brushed the question aside.

"All right then — I'll come find you tomorrow!" Thinking of her father waiting over there, Feng Xiaoxiao did not dare say too much. Yet meeting Wei Zhao here filled her with a nameless excitement she could not quite have explained.

Meeting an old friend far from home? Or had she found a chance to strike at Tang Yun and make Wei Zhao fall in love with her? Or... was it simply that she found life unbearably dull?

It was just then that Wu Gonggao and Wu Chengtian came striding over. No sooner had Wu Gonggao learned that the Longevity and Detoxification Pill had been refined by Guan Xuemin than he had taken the idea to heart; he meant to exchange pleasantries with the man and see whether he could lay hands on yet another pill.

"Professor Guan! It has been too long — this old man has missed you terribly!" Wu Gonggao, in his long robe, cut a decidedly martial figure. The moment he saw Guan Xuemin he clasped his fists and spoke with obvious emotion.

"Heh heh — Elder Wu, how is your health?" Guan Xuemin smiled and nodded to Wu Gonggao. He had given the man acupuncture and was naturally no stranger to him, yet he betrayed no excessive warmth or familiarity.

Guan Xuemin had always kept an even hand with these great families, growing close to none of them — not even the surging Rain family, nor this Iron-Hand Wu family.

"Thanks to Professor Guan's good graces, I remain hale enough — though this old injury from my youth will still have to trouble Doctor Guan to give me another treatment with his needles when he has a moment!" Wu Gonggao said with great courtesy.

Even though he was already a master of the Profound tier, he stood before Guan Xuemin with the utmost deference. After all, as a miracle doctor of towering fame, Guan Xuemin had become a figure standing clear above all such worldly rivalries!

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