When Cheng Jie arrived, he saw Li Meier with swollen cheeks resembling steamed buns, disheveled hair, crouching on the ground and crying. Meanwhile, Huayan was shielded by her bodyguard, and both of them looked on indifferently at Li Meier's pitiful state. In truth, Huayan was contemplating whether to take Taekwondo lessons after returning to her country. After all, if such incidents were to happen again, there might not always be someone around to protect her. Learning self-defense skills was indeed necessary.

Seeing this, Cheng Jie was extremely displeased with Huayan. If it weren't for the bodyguard, he would have surely asked Huayan when she dared to lay hands on his woman.

"Did you do this?" Cheng Jie asked, his anger barely contained, in a cold tone.

"Yes," the bodyguard wanted to warn Cheng Jie, but Huayan quietly restrained him. Regardless of how Cheng Jie treated her, he was still Gao Ruqing's business partner. If the bodyguard spoke out of turn, it could potentially tarnish Cheng Jie's reputation in Gao Ruqing's eyes. She imagined that Gao Ruqing would give Cheng Jie some face, but the bodyguard might not fare as well.

"Your audacity is growing. Sir, may I speak with Miss Huayan alone for a moment?"

The bodyguard glanced at Huayan, who had no intention of being alone with Cheng Jie. "But I have something to attend to and no time to chat with you. Also, you should take care of your own woman and keep her from biting people randomly." With that said, she ignored Cheng Jie's anger and left with the bodyguard.

As they walked a few steps, Huayan muttered loud enough for those nearby to hear, "I wonder if it's necessary to get a rabies vaccine. What bad luck."

"It's better to be safe than sorry and get the rabies vaccine. After all, we don't know how long that person has been sick. We wouldn't want to get infected," the bodyguard replied nonchalantly. Huayan secretly gave him a thumbs-up for his response.

Hearing Huayan's words, Cheng Jie clenched his fists, his veins bulging. Hearing Li Meier's cries, he grew increasingly impatient. "Get back to your room, you're truly bad luck." With that, he left without another glance at Li Meier.

The next day was the first day of the auction. Gao Ruqing had instructed everyone to wake up early, and Huayan obediently rose at the first ring of the alarm.

In the dining hall, Huayan noticed Cheng Jie and Li Meier had already arrived. She greeted Gao Ruqing's group, but Cheng Jie and Li Meier ignored them, sitting down and ordering their food as if Huayan and the others were air. Gao Ruqing glanced at them briefly but didn't say much, elegantly enjoying the delicious food on her plate.

Cheng Jie showed no signs of emotion, while Li Meier, upon seeing Huayan, seemed to want to change her expression. But a discreet cough from Cheng Jie made her behave like a startled rabbit. Breakfast was eaten in silence.

The auction hall was filled with thousands of pieces of various sizes of raw materials. The materials here had to be graded and appraised by experts, and only items reaching a certain grade or having a certain value could be auctioned. The starting prices were also determined by experts.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

For the medium-sized public board, the materials were not appraised, and the starting prices were determined by industry insiders or market consensus.

However, they all shared the commonality of being organized by the government. The highest bidder could purchase the desired materials. Gao Ruqing mentioned that competition for good materials was fierce every year. Sometimes there was a shortage of materials on the market, and the competition could be described as fierce.

Following Gao Ruqing around for half a day, Huayan noticed that he instructed his secretary to jot down the numbers of the raw materials. Although Huayan didn't use her X-ray vision, she was still able to confirm that most of the materials he selected were likely to contain jadeite. Since he had such abilities himself, Huayan didn't need to worry. Among the few of them, it seemed that only she had the leisure to go window shopping.

As she delved deeper into the world of gemstone gambling, Huayan realized that it took courage and trust for Gao Ruqing to let his secretary note down the numbers of the materials he favored. The dark side of the auction was that some people would pry into the numbers of materials recorded by other jewelers and the bidding prices they submitted. These intrusive individuals would often prevent some jewelers from acquiring the materials they desired, causing a ripple effect that affected their companies.

After being a follower for several days, Huayan only occasionally reminded Gao Ruqing of some materials with poor quality and low prices but potentially good jadeite, based on her limited knowledge of materials.

When Gao Ruqing took Huayan's words into consideration and submitted bidding prices, Cheng Jie expressed his incomprehension multiple times. Gao Ruqing simply stated, "He knows where Cheng Jie's dissatisfaction lies." Huayan cared even less about Cheng Jie's thoughts and continued to do as she pleased.

In the final days, Huayan purchased eleven pieces of raw materials from the public board. Among them, she discovered that some of the good materials on the public board were artificially made fake materials. If not for Huayan using her X-ray vision, she would have been deceived by these fake materials that were convincingly realistic. However, Gao Ruqing was able to see through the deception. Huayan couldn't help but marvel at Gao Ruqing's true skill in gemstone gambling, unlike herself, who relied solely on her supernatural ability.

"Mr. Gao, are you here for the King-grade material today?" Huayan stood beside Gao Ruqing, while Cheng Jie and his group were elsewhere.

"Yes, did you see the fat guy with the beer belly in the left corner of the hall?"

"Yes, I saw him. Do you know him?"

"Not only do I know him, but we've also been rivals for many years. Although he's cunning and deceitful, he's indeed talented in company management. From what I know, he's also interested in this material. If he buys this good material and operates it, it will be a huge blow to my company."

As they spoke, the fat man noticed Gao Ruqing and approached with a smile. "Hey... Mr. Gao is here too." He glanced at the King-grade material and hinted, "So Mr. Gao is also interested in this material? But I heard that your company's funds are tight, otherwise you wouldn't have partnered with Cheng's family. I'm worried that Mr. Gao can't afford it this time! A wise man doesn't speak in riddles, I'm determined to get it this time!"

Throughout the process, Gao Ruqing's eyes flashed with severity at the beginning, but then remained calm. After the fat man left, Huayan noticed blood stains in Gao Ruqing's left palm. She silently worried that he was not just after making money, but also to prove a point by acquiring this King-grade material. The thought gave Huayan a headache.

The day before yesterday, she had used her X-ray vision when no one was paying attention. Inside the material, there was only a thin layer of jadeite, like paper, while the rest was all stone. Her previous speculation had been completely accurate.

"It seems like the girl is very worried about me buying this material?" Gao Ruqing, back to his usual self, noticed that Huayan was frequently frowning at the King-grade material, as if she had something to say but hesitated to speak.