Inside and Outside the Circle

That afternoon, nine pieces of jade were auctioned. Starting with the first piece, Henglong repeatedly bid high prices.

The other jewelry stores won the first two pieces, while Mingrui wanted the third.

After several rounds of bidding, only Mingrui and Henglong remained. When Henglong raised its bid again, Mingrui's people could no longer stand it. "Li Dafu competed with us for the last piece, and now Henglong is doing it again. You two... are you driving up the price?"

That was a rather blunt thing to say, but in business, especially when competitors gathered together, speaking openly was not necessarily a bad thing.

Mingrui's complaint was not without reason. The auction was being held at Henglong's venue, while Li Dafu had handled the invitations. Those two companies had already gained quite a lot that morning, yet they were still pushing up prices in the afternoon. What exactly were they trying to do?

Boss Feng, the jade seller, was a newcomer. Everyone had heard some stories about him, but no one had ever dealt with him before. So... where exactly had this man come from?

Given these unusual circumstances, Mingrui had every reason to question them: what exactly was the relationship between the three parties?

Could this Boss Feng be a new jade source found by Li Dafu and Henglong, with the two companies jointly putting forward an agent?

The person representing Li Dafu at the auction was a vice president, but its chairman, Li Yongrui, was also present, sitting beside Feng Jun and drinking tea.

Seeing everyone turn to look at him, Chairman Li became angry. "We've only bought two pieces of jade in total, while Henglong has bought five. What are you people thinking, dragging Li Dafu into this?"

It was perfectly normal for Li Dafu to buy two