Chapter 156 - Chapter 156: His Affection For Her Stretches Farther Than The Endless Skies And Dives Deeper Than The Vast Oceans
Chapter 156: His Affection For Her Stretches Farther Than The Endless Skies And Dives Deeper Than The Vast Oceans
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The moment Elder Tao saw Lu Zhi, he understood what had happened.
This Lu brat had deliberately scammed him!
The price of this painting had been jacked up at least ten times from its three to four hundred-million-yuan range!
He had spent three billion yuan, not three million…
The Tao family money didn’t grow on trees, so Elder Tao was experiencing serious buyer’s remorse.
He glared at Lu Zhi speechlessly.
But Lu Zhi didn’t seem to feel his resentment. He calmly walked towards the exit of the hall under Elder Tao’s hostile gaze.
Chen Kexin was ecstatic when she saw that the mysterious VIP was Lu Zhi!
She hardly saw him since her hospitalization.
Even after she moved back to the Lu residence, he never visited her.
When she saw Jiang Yining at the auction tonight, she was going to tell him how licentious Jiang Yining was!
Chen Kexin quickly chased after Lu Zhi.
Lu Zhi was about to get into his car when Chen Kexin arrived at the driveway.
She immediately called out, “Brother All Zhi…”
With just a single cry, she felt her nose burn and her tears well as she stared deeply at the person she missed.
She wished she could rip her heart out and show Lu Zhi that she loved him so much more than Jiang Yining did.
The smile on Lu Zhi’s face disappeared when he saw Chen Kexin. He asked coldly, “What are you doing here?”
The disdain in his words was obvious.
“Grandma asked me to come.” Chen Kexin sniffled and continued, “Brother All Zhi, we haven’t seen each other for so long. Don’t you miss me?”
“Um, no. Not at all.” Lu Zhi replied heartlessly.
Chen Kexin felt as if a knife had been stabbed into her heart. With trembling hands, she took out her phone and showed Lu Zhi the video she had just shot. “Why don’t you care about me when I love you so much? Jiang Yining cheated behind your back with Xiao Lang, but you treat her like treasure? Brother Ah Zhi, you’re being so unfair to me.”
When Lu Zhi saw Xiao Lang’s face in front of Jiang Yining’s, his body instantly stiffened.
A wave of anger rose and his pitch-black eyes were covered with a layer of frost.
But he calmed down very quickly.
He held Chen Kexin’s wrist, snatched away her phone and threw it on the ground. “Kexin, stop slandering Yining. I won’t believe this kind of deepfake video.”
“Deepfake?” Chen Kexin was shocked momentarily before her heart shattered into a thousand pieces.
She clenched her fists so tightly that she didn’t even feel her nails digging into her palms. She laughed out loud with a desolate yet crazy expression. “If you don’t believe me, go check the surveillance footages of the auction hall. Jiang Yining and Xiao Lang were there together! If I slandered her, let me be struck by lightning and die a horrible death!”
Lu Zhi’s jaw tightened as he remained quiet for a long time.
“I trust Yining. I’m not going to check any surveillance footage. I don’t believe a word you say.”
Chen Kexin stopped laughing when she heard this, and her brain was buzzing.
He actually trusted Jiang Yining that much?
It was obvious how much he loved her. He wouldn’t even investigate!
Chen Kexin was very disheartened. Her knees buckled as every ounce of energy was drained from her body.
She staggered a few steps before she fell to the ground.
Lu Zhi said coldly, “Qi Feng, send her back to the old Lu residence.”
“Yes…”
Qi Feng was about to step forward and help Chen Kexin up when Jiang Yining walked out of the auction hall.
She looked around and quickly found Lu Zhi.
She rushed up to him and asked in a low voice, “Lu Zhi, I drew that painting. How could you sell it as a Qi Bai masterpiece?”
Lu Zhi lowered his eyes and looked at an indifferent Jiang Yining.
He didn’t question her or act surprised.
Instead, he replied calmly, “If I didn’t use Qi Bai’s name, how could 1 entice Elder Tao and earn 3.5 billion yuan from him?”
“Hmph, you’re really cunning.” Jiang Yining had never met a man shrewder than Lu Zhi! Even Gu Zhanqing was inferior to him!
“Thank you for the compliment,” Lu Zhi said with a faint smile.
“I don’t care. You earned 3.5 billion yuan from my painting, so you must give me some sort of commission. Otherwise, I’ll report you.”
“Okay, how much do you want?”
“Two hundred million!” Jiang Yining demanded an exorbitant sum of money.
If the request came from anyone else, it would be met with a curt rejection from Lu Zhi.
But Lu Zhi agreed without hesitation. “Okay, I’ll write you a check when we get home tonight.”
“That’s more like it.” Jiang Yining was satisfied.
With these 200 million yuan, she could redeem a real Qi Bai painting from Xiao Lang!
She was very happy!
“Alright, let’s go home.” Lu Zhi patted her head.
Jiang Yining nodded.
The two of them got into the car and didn’t even look at Chen Kexin, who was sitting miserably on the floor.
Chen Kexin looked at their car as it drove away, and thorns of jealousy and envy tightly entwined her heart.
She couldn’t believe that the painting was actually drawn by Jiang Yining and not Qi Bai!
She asked for 200 million yuan, and Brother Ah Zhi agreed to give it to her just like that!
His affection for her…
But she was supposed to get his affection!
Chen Kexin was about to go crazy. She clenched her fists tightly and pounded the floor repeatedly.
“Miss Kexin, stop torturing yourself.”
Qi Feng wanted to stop her from hurting herself.
However, Chen Kexin looked at him with her red eyes and shouted through gritted teeth, “Get lost! Who do you think you are? How dare you control me!”
Qi Feng frowned and retreated quietly.
Like a mad woman, Chen Kexin pounded the floor a few dozen times more until her fair and tender hands became bloody…
She then covered her face and wailed as she secretly swore in her heart that she would punish Jiang Yining no matter the price!
Qi Feng waited for Chen Kexin’s outburst to end before he hailed a taxi to send her back to the old Lu residence.
But he was mercilessly rejected by Kexin.
“I’ll go back with Niannian. Leave me alone.”
She was completely calm now but Qi Feng was still worried.
However, Chen Kexin treated him as Lu Zhi’s dog and didn’t respect him at all.
She cleaned her face and reapplied her makeup before she went back to the auction hall.
Since Lu Zhi had left, Qi Feng couldn’t go back into the auction hall.
He could only update Lu Zhi truthfully.
There was a celebration after the auction ended.
Elder Tao and many other distinguished guests were still at Taoran Gallery now.
Tao Niannian was also reluctant to leave. She wanted to talk to her grandfather in hope that he would let her go home.
No matter how well the Lu family treated her, they were not her family.
She was more comfortable at the Tao residence.
Chen Kexin walked to the banquet hall and found Elder Tao. She said, “Old Master Tao, I have something to tell you. Could you spare five minutes to talk to me alone, please?”
Elder Tao had a vague impression of Chen Kexin, but he was a person of influence.
He wouldn’t talk to anyone just because they wanted to talk to him.
“Sorry, I’m not free.” Elder Tao refused.
Chen Kexin didn’t give up and persisted, but Elder Tao’s bodyguards stepped forward and stopped her.
“Elder Tao, 1 would like to talk to you about Qi Bai’s painting.” Chen Kexin said in desperation. “If you don’t talk to me, you’ll definitely regret it!”
Elder Tao stopped in his tracks.
After a few seconds of silence, he turned around and nodded slightly to tell his bodyguards to let her through.
Chen Kexin walked up to Elder Tao and whispered, “Old Master Tao, the work that you bought for 3.5 billion yuan is actually a fake. That painting was drawn by Jiang Yining, and the entire auction was meticulously planned by Lu Zhi to scam you..”