Chapter 414

There are rules for auctions, and normally a certain deposit would need to be paid beforehand to prevent people from bidding without paying.

However, charity auctions are different. Held under the name of doing charity, the invited attendees were all prominent figures, so naturally there was no need to worry about this and no prior deposits were collected.

After all, the Ji Family took the initiative to invite others to participate, and still needed to extract money from them to eagerly buy those items that were completely above value.

Although ZhiXia An refused to answer, Ji ChengFeng was no fool and could guess from her actions that she was familiar with the woman in the painting, which was why she desperately tried to prevent the painting from falling into other hands, and didn’t even feel assured to come back for it tomorrow, impatient to the point of wanting to take the painting with her on the spot.

But this did not hinder anything, Ji ChengFeng was willing to give her this favor.

The Ji Family had just returned and was in the jewellery business, so they naturally did not want to offend these wealthy women.

Moreover, ZhiXia An’s reputation was no small matter, and she also had a lot of face in the government.

The land development of the city center street was originally successful, and he also wanted a share in real estate, so he was particularly concerned about the second round of bidding for the land.

But according to the winds revealed from above, he heard that the government did not intend to cooperate with other developers this time, because the success of the city center street was inseparable from the cooperation of ZhiXia An, and could be considered a win-win result for both parties.

The Ji Family still had their main base overseas, and for now only he was here to lead the effort. The government was also afraid that what happened last time with Hong Kong businessmen fleeing would happen again. By that time, they wouldn’t be able to find another ZhiXia An to help prop things up.

“Since Director An has spoken, it is naturally no problem.” Ji ChengFeng said gently with a smile, “This painting is quite large, I suppose it would be difficult for Director An and Factory Chief Su to carry. Do you need me to have someone deliver it back for you?” “There is no need, but thank you for your kind offer, Mr. Ji."

After some polite exchange, Ji ChengFeng as the person in charge of the auction went to attend to his own matters, while An ZhiXia waited peacefully on her side.

Perhaps the distance was far, but it took Pei Jing nearly half an hour to arrive, along with two friends that ZhiXia An had seen before. They should have been eating together and happened to come over together.

“What’s going on?” Pei Jing’s usually calm and unruffled face showed panic. He also judged according to the message ZhiXia An sent asking him to come over quickly that something must have happened on her side.

He had just sent them over before leaving to the place he had agreed to meet his friends. He had barely eaten a few bites when he hurried over with two friends again.

With outsiders around, ZhiXia An could not explain the specifics to him, she just said, "Nothing much, I just won a painting at auction, it’s quite big, and the two of us can’t carry it back, so I called you over to help, sorry to interrupt your gathering."

"No interruption at all, sister-in-law is too polite." Although he said this, he probably had some thoughts in his heart.

Knowing that Pei Jing was going out to dine, she still specially asked him to come over because she won a painting. That would look unreasonable no matter whose eyes it was seen through.

Fortunately, Pei Jing was not angry, but breathed a sigh of relief instead, "You gave me a shock, I thought something happened to you two, as long as nothing happened then all is good. Where is the painting? Let's go."

"It's this one." ZhiXia An pointed to the painting beside her. She and Su Ying had been waiting here without leaving.

Pei Jing looked back at his two friends and said, "I’ll have to trouble you two to run this errand with me again, but I’ll still need your help to get it into the car. Come over to my house tomorrow and I’ll treat you to some drinks."

"No trouble at all, but you'll have to bring out your best wine to entertain us."

Joking around, they went to help carry the painting out.

The rectangular painting was about one and a half meters long. One person could carry it alone, but two would definitely be more convenient.

With his friends helping to carry it, ZhiXia An and Su Ying did not need to lend a hand and just followed behind out.

The painting was quite long. Fortunately, his car was an off-road type with an open back connected to the front section. With half of it poking out to the front passenger side, someone had to use their hand to brace it from the front seat.

Pei Jing drove to send his two friends home first before taking ZhiXia An and Su Ying back.

But his expression became serious after getting into the car. "What exactly is going on? What's the issue with this painting?" He knew ZhiXia An well. She was not the dramatic or pretentious type. If it wasn't an extremely urgent matter, she wouldn't specifically ask him to come over quickly when she knew he was dining with friends.

ZhiXia An also dropped her fake smile, her face becoming weary. "Let's talk when we get home. You'll know when we get back."

Pei Jing glanced at her as he was driving but did not continue questioning.

When they arrived home, Su Ying got out of the car and tactfully said, "It's late, I'll head back first. You two talk things through when you get home, don't rush it."

This should be considered the Pei family’s family affairs. As an outsider, she should not interfere too much either. This demonstrated Su Ying's understanding of boundaries.

No matter how good one's relationship is, a certain distance needs to be maintained and one shouldn't poke their nose into everything indiscriminately.

Even if help is needed, one should wait for the other party to take the initiative to ask, instead of forcing oneself upon the situation.

Pei Jing already knew it was no small matter, but at this moment, he sensed even more the severity of the situation.

ZhiXia An sighed before softly telling Pei Jing about the matter, now that there were no outsiders around.

The usually emotionally stable man couldn’t help but be furious too, clenching his fists tightly until the veins on his arms popped out.

"Don't be angry for now, resolving the issue is the most urgent thing right now." ZhiXia An asked him, "What do you think, should we leave the painting at our house first, or send it directly to the back?"

"We'll have to let big brother know about this sooner or later, keeping it from him isn't right." A sudden sense of powerlessness surged up in Pei Jing. "You don't have to go, I'll drive the car directly there."

"Okay." ZhiXia An also did not want to get involved. Even though she bid a high price for the painting, she only did so to protect her own family's reputation. After all if the painting spread out, their relatives and friends would not look good. Moreover, she was considered a celebrity of sorts in Jing City now.

Late at night, ZhiXia An closed the door after hearing Pei Jing’s car leaving. She did not know how the brothers would discuss resolving this, or how many more paintings like this existed. She could only hope that things would not get too ugly.

Even though she had never gotten along well with Pei Shuangshuang, she sincerely wished that in this matter, the latter would not appear too stupid - as the victim rather than willingly posing as a model for such a painting.

Although the result was the same, the meanings were completely different.

Pei Yong was already asleep at this time and hurriedly got up when he heard knocking on the door outside, asking aloud, “Who is it?” before opening the door.