The Great Worm Lich

Zhang Lisheng declined Tina’s request to go to the auction together without hesitation. “I haven’t earned enough credit for school. My mom will be livid if I skip class for no reason again. Furthermore, I know nothing about auctioning art pieces, I can’t help on anything even if I went.”

“Alright then, I’ll call you after the verification’s done at Christie’s. I’m 70% positive that it’s going to be good news…”

“I’ll treat you to a good one tonight if it’s good news.”

“You’ll have to treat me even if it isn’t good news. I’ll wait for you here until you finish class in the afternoon. Be there or be square,” Tina went inside a sports car parked by the road and vanished within seconds as she drove away. Zhang Lisheng walked across the road hastily back to his good friend’s side. “What are you dawdling around for, George? Let’s go to class.”

“Zhang Lisheng, you gotta tell me how you scored such a babe who drives a sports car!” George screamed out of excitement.

“I saved her life before this and she repaid me. Then I helped her with something again and she began helping me… No matter what, that’s how we know each other.”

“Sh*t, your luck’s so great. Oh yeah, does she have any friends who are hot as well?”

“Of course she does.”

“Introduce me!”

“Don’t you already have Lina?”

“Don’t you already have Maddie? Aren’t you also dating that babe just now at the same time! I saw how that hottie was looking at you. Damn, you’re insulting my IQ if you tell me you guys are just friends…”

“She wore sunglasses just now. Furthermore, there’s nothing between me and Maddie…”

“Her sunglasses couldn’t conceal her fire when she looked at you,” George said while shaking his butt in a disgusting way. “Also I heard from Lina that Maddie’s always asking about you. Why would she do that if there’s nothing between the both of you…”

“George, you’re as annoying as a black-feathered parrot.”

“Hey buddy, I can sue you for being racist with that ‘black-feather’ you mentioned. You better get your hot girlfriend to introduce me to a couple of babes with the body of a model.”

Zhang Lisheng and George walked inside Lowbige Junior High’s school building as they chatted happily. Not long after, the school bell rang as both of them rushed up the stairs while following the crowd and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The morning class went by in a flash. When Zhang Lisheng walked out of the building and turned his phone on that was turned off during class, he saw three missed calls from Tina on the screen. It only rang twice when he called and Tina’s surprised voice came from the other side of the phone. “Baby, good news. Guess how much your little stones are worth?”

“100 million?” Zhang Lisheng said in a slightly expecting manner while enduring the chilly wind.

“Wow you’re so greedy, you asked for 100 million right away!”

“I heard a story from my teacher back in junior high in China about this broke painter whose works were merely enough to get him by when he was alive that was worth tens of millions of dollars for each art piece after he died…”

“You’re talking about Van Gogh, only one Van Gogh was born in the entire world since the Renaissance… Forget it, the joy in me would be gone if I listened to your story any further. Listen, Christie’s is willing to auction the three stone artifacts of yours at 12 million dollars as the starting bid. The mask is priced at 5 million while the other two sculptures are priced at 7 million dollars combined. That’s just the starting price, they’re expecting to sell them above 23 million dollars in total. But of course if there’s an unexpected turnout, they could be sold at even 30 to 40 million dollars.”

“It’s best that you can come to Christie’s right now. The seller must be there for an auction of this level. I’ve thought about it for a while… after you sign an agreement with Christie’s, we will sell the antiques off when everyone’s crazy about it in the first New Year spring auction. After that, I’ll get Sheila to build the factory for you right away. If that’s the case, your new slaughterhouse should be up and running before you go to university in September. I’ll peacefully leave by then.”

What Tina said was so detailed that Zhang Lisheng could not fight back. “Alright then, seems like I’ll have to skip a half day of class again. Wait for me at Christie’s, I’ll be there as soon as possible.” Zhang Lisheng walked across Lowbige’s lush green field with big steps and drove to King Avenue.

The one and only way of expanding and maintaining an auction house’s fame was to auction expensive items consistently. The same applied to the Christie’s auction house although it was already the third most renowned artwork auction house in the world. Therefore, when the precious art pieces brought for verification was completed, the auction house would ask the seller to stay for the auction. It was in ways, a way to gain both fame and money.

Zhang Lisheng stated his identity when he arrived at Christie’s, he was treated as a VIP right away. Initially, he thought he was treated better because of the Douglin family’s fame from Tina. However, he soon found out that the white old man with long, thin silver hair that was combed back named Kowalski was more respectful to him when compared to Tina.

“Are you using the momentum of the first spring auction to sell your collections as well, Mr. Zhang?” The auction’s art director Kowalski asked while sitting on a chair inside the biggest, most comfortable and luxurious office in Christie’s looking at the young man with a friendly smile.

“Yes, Mr. Kowalski. Tina told me…”

“I’m sorry, please allow me to interrupt. I’m asking for your opinion, not Ms. Douglin’s opinion. You might not know how precious your collections are as well as the little tricks when you auction the art pieces. Your collections totally have the eligibility to be the grand finale items in a big-scale auction since stone artifacts are the current big hit which is unexpected. In other words, if you’re willing to wait for the autumn auction to sell these three collections, they would be showcased on the ‘Christie’s Autumn Auction Collection’ booklet’s first page. Don’t underestimate this Mr. Zhang, don’t you ever underestimate this. An art piece’s auction price isn’t limited to its value but more on…”

“I need a lot of money at the moment Mr. Kowalski, I definitely can’t wait until autumn.”

“I understand. May I know how much money do you need, Mr. Zhang? If it’s under 10 million, you could totally pawn your collections to Christie’s for advance payment.”

Zhang Lisheng widened his eyes in shock after hearing such a generous offer.

“Lisheng, this is an auction tactic. Just like before a war, they would send in elite soldiers by batches because they don’t want to use up all of the good ones at the beginning of the war. To all auction houses, having authentic, precious art pieces are hard to come by. Christie’s already have the Indian round third-eye wooden pattern stone mask and Cezanne’s Battle of Love for the spring auction this time as the grand finale items. No matter how great your stones are, they can’t bring any light to the spring auction. However, if you make them the grand finale items in the autumn auction, you’re bringing Christie’s to the next level for letting them auction such great quality art pieces twice consecutively. The auction house’s very willing to sacrifice a little bit for that,” Tina explained softly by the side.

Kowalski smiled and added while patiently waiting for the girl to finish talking, “This is not only for the benefit of Christie’s, but to guarantee the maximum benefit for you as well.”

“But I really can’t wait until autumn, no matter how much more money I can auction them for. I’m sorry Mr. Kowalski.”

“You don’t have to apologize Mr. Zhang, the customer’s always right at Christie’s. If that’s the case, I’ll include these three collections into the spring auction just like you said… Oh, let’s put it in the last round on the last day of the auction. It’s easier to sell it at a higher price by then, I’ll get the auctioneer to give it a grand introduction.”

“Thanks.”

“That’s my job, now let’s talk about how to get you off tax legally. The American art taxation is divided into capital gain tax, sales tax, and use tax…” Kowalski remained his usual attitude and spoke without stopping after being rejected by Zhang Lisheng again and again.

Since Zhang Lisheng had never come in contact with American tax involving auction items and his lack of interest in the topic, he was lost when he was listening and could not help but say, “Mr. Kowalski, could you get straight to the point? Just tell me how much percentage I’ll get for the items?”

“The best proposal would be 78%,” Kowalski said while looking at Tina. “This percentage is actually pretty high, it’s safe to say that we’ve shown our utmost sincerity.”

“The rate’s not bad,” Tina nodded and whispered into Zhang Lisheng’s ear.

“Okay, let’s sign the agreement then Mr. Kowalski.”

The old man was secretly relieved to have closed a great deal. He said courteously and gently, “Alright Mr. Zhang, please give me a moment. I’ll get my lawyer to prepare the agreement. Julie, open the best champagne we have. I want to celebrate with this young millionaire before me whose bank account’s going to get more handsome soon after signing the agreement.”

Just like that, Zhang Lisheng signed a commission auction agreement with Christie’s a little bit over ten minutes later. He said goodbye to Kowalski after a glass of champagne and left the auction house with Tina. Three days later, the one-sided carved insect-patterned grimace stone mask which the thief thought it was worth at least 500,000 dollars back then which almost got the young man killed was sold. It broke the global single stone artifact item record on the last auction at Christie’s spring auction. It was bought at 24 million dollars by an enthusiastic, anonymous, and mysterious Chinese buyer.

Due to that, the two remaining sculptures that were sold in a pair were sold at a high price of 27 million dollars which was rare. After the deduction of taxes and auction fees, the three antiques came to a total of 38.78 million dollars as the money entered Zhang Lisheng’s account, giving him approximately 43 million dollars worth of usable fund. It was possible for such a price that was out of expectations to appear in famous European paintings and popular jewelers which had high credibility in the market. However, to auction items that had low credibility in the market but extremely high artistic factor and production process would have their credibility boosted as soon as it became a big hit. If that happened, it was easy for the items to be sold at an unexpectedly high price.

The auction’s result was considered perfect. With enough funding and Sheila’s all-in help thanks to Tina, the barren Mutteslow saline-alkini land outside of New York City had high cranes erected within a day. There were hundreds of big-scale construction vehicles coming in, it had turned into a busy construction site.