Chapter 27 Auctiq


    Jessica <i>made </i>a snap decision to stop intervening in


    Brittany’s attempts to make life difficult for Daniel. No matter how Brittany tried to challenge him, Jessica would not utter a single word. She knew Brittany’s capabilities well; if Daniel could hold his own <i>or </i>even outpace her during their confrontations, it would at least prove that he wasn’t entirely useless that he could be considered clever.


    In her heart, Jessica thought: If that’s the case, after a year, once he’s passed my assessment, I’ll assign him a high–level executive position. He should be up


    <i>for </i>it.


    Half an hourter, Jessica’s car pulled up in front of


    Auctiq.


    Auctiq was Delvin Hub’s most prestigious auction house, offering a variety of items ranging from


    antiques and artworks to strange collectibles – everything under the sun.


    As the trio stepped through the doors, a short, plump man greeted them warmly, his face beaming with smiles. This was Auctiq’s owner, Nichs Snyder – also known as Smiley Nick.


    The wider Smiley Nick smiled at you, the deeper he’d reach into your pockets. His smile wasn’t for the customers; it was for their wallets. With just a grin, Nichs had conquered the auction world. All the bigwigs in Delvin Hub had been cheated by him at some point!


    Even if you realized you’d been had, you couldn’t get mad. Trying to get your money back would likely just end up enriching him further.


    “Ma’am Jessica, what brings you here today?”


    “The eighty million you swindled from me!”


    “Ma’am Jessica, how could I possibly do such a


    thing? You’re my honored guest, the most esteemed


    customer my deity.”


    Nichs kept up his radiant smile. “What did you see today at my ce, Jessica? Or are you just browsing?”


    “Browsing? Every time I’vee here, I’ve walked


    away with a bigger loss than thest. You’ve taken


    eighty million from me.”


    Jessica had Daniel bring over a cardboard box from


    the trunk.


    “These three pieces of junk, I’m returning them all to


    you! Give me back my eighty million, and we’ll call it


    even.”


    “Listen, Jessica, the first time you visited Auctiq, I


    told you about our policy. Auctiq never does returns.”


    “No returns? What did you tell me when you sold


    these to me? This is a Renaissance sculpture worth


    twenty million! This is some ancient Eastern


    porcin worth fifty million! This is even more


    impressive, a M painting valued at a hundredContent property of N?velDra/ma.Org.


    million!”


    “Jessica, this indeed is a Renaissance sculpture !”


    “A fake from World War II.”


    “Ah, well, if it’s from World War II imitating the Renaissance, I didn’t say anything wrong. I may have just omitted a few words!”


    “And you im it’s worth twenty million?”


    “It’s definitely worth twenty million. Yen? Of course, even in dors, it might fetch about a hundred


    thousand.”


    “You…”


    Jessica was left speechless, never having been toyed with like this before.


    “While this sculpture might be a WWII imitation, I’ve


    made inquiries and it’s worth at least three million.


    As for the other two items, I’ve also checked


    one


    is worth five million, the other twelve million. The


    total value of these three items is at least twenty


    million. I don’t want them. You take them back. I know I can’t get the eighty million, but you have to give me those twenty million, right?”


    Jessica was making her bid. She knew before she arrived that Nichs would never return her entire eighty million. All three items were forgeries, whose true valuebined was only around five million. So she started high at twenty million, allowing


    plenty of room for negotiation.