Chapter 1276 — Bidding High Again

"That's right," Su Taizao nodded in agreement. "The man doesn't know his own limits! Brother An, compete with you for money? You could crush him under sheer cash!"

"Exactly. Outbid me, An Jianwen? What a joke!" An Jianwen's underground fight rings had lately been printing money—a trade with no capital and nothing but profit—and his coffers were bulging fat. Flush with cash and feeling his oats, he shot to his feet and bellowed, "Three hundred thousand! I bid three hundred thousand!"

"Three hundred thousand!" Shen Yushu cried out, alight with excitement. "Three hundred thousand—do I hear any higher?"

So saying, she shot Feng Xiaoxiao a meaningful glance.

Feng Xiaoxiao took her meaning at once. The two were of a single mind—as befitted the Troublesome Twosome, one look was all it took to read each other.

Feng Xiaoxiao surreptitiously drew out her phone and texted Wei Zhao: "Hubby Wei Zhao, you may jump in to stir things up and push the price higher, but An Jianwen has to be the one to win it!"

Wei Zhao was just about to bid when his phone chimed with a message. He took it out, glanced at the screen, and went briefly blank. He had no idea what this was about, yet Feng Xiaoxiao must surely have a trick up her sleeve; however recklessly she and Shen Yushu carried on, they would never make a joke of Gu Mengyao's kiss.

Wei Zhao smiled faintly and raised his hand. "Three hundred fifty thousand!"

Wei Zhao had meant to cry five hundred thousand outright, but after reading Feng Xiaoxiao's message he called three hundred fifty instead, adding a mere fifty thousand—lest he frighten An Jianwen off in one stroke.

"Ha! That kid Wei Zhao has dropped to raising by fifty thousand—he's out of money!" Su Taizao said smugly.

"Of course he is. This one is in the bag!" An Jianwen gave a sly chuckle, rose to his feet, and said, "Four hundred thousand!"

Four hundred thousand? Wei Zhao felt the price was already high. An Jianwen's breaking point, he figured, lay somewhere around five hundred thousand. So he hesitated, then stood. "Four hundred fifty thousand!"

"Five hundred thousand!" An Jianwen fired back at once, without a heartbeat's hesitation.

Yet Wei Zhao did not know whether he should go on bidding. He feared that if he raised again, An Jianwen would drop out—and blow Shen Yushu's and Feng Xiaoxiao's plan to pieces!

So Wei Zhao lifted his gaze to Feng Xiaoxiao and saw her signalling to him. The price, he judged, was about right. He raised a hand, then sank back into his seat, wearing the face of a man utterly bereft, and yielded the field—though in truth Wei Zhao had never intended to win the bid in the first place.

To Shen Yushu and Feng Xiaoxiao, five hundred thousand was already a princely sum. Any higher, and what if An Jianwen gave up? Then they would never get to fleece him.

But just as Shen Yushu was about to call, "Five hundred thousand—anyone higher?" another voice rang out with a bid!

The bidder was Gu Pengzhan!

"Eight hundred thousand!" Gu Pengzhan raised his hand and said coolly.

Eight hundred thousand was nothing to Gu Pengzhan: he could do a good deed and buy his daughter's kiss in the same breath—a bargain by any measure.

Wei Zhao started. He had never imagined that, the moment he bowed out, Gu Pengzhan himself would bid.

He caught sight of Feng Xiaoxiao and Shen Yushu on stage, both wearing blank, astonished faces, and jumped. Whatever happened, Gu Pengzhan must not wreck the two little minxes' scheme!

So Wei Zhao lost no time in forwarding Feng Xiaoxiao's message to Gu Pengzhan. There was no time to retype it, so the tag "Hubby Wei Zhao" went along with it—but he was confident Gu Pengzhan would see perfectly well what it meant.

No sooner had Gu Pengzhan placed his bid than his phone rang.

Gu Pengzhan sat back down, drew out his phone at his ease, and glanced at the screen. Huh? He went rigid on the spot.

The message read: "Hubby Wei Zhao, you may jump in to stir things up and push the price higher, but An Jianwen has to be the one to win it!"

"'Hubby Wei Zhao'?" Gu Pengzhan blinked, thunderstruck. How had he become Wei Zhao's hubby? Surely this had gone to the wrong person? He hurriedly checked the sender's number—but the message had come from Wei Zhao, so it must have been forwarded by Wei Zhao himself.

The original message, he guessed, had come from either Tang Yun or Feng Xiaoxiao, telling Wei Zhao to drop out of the bidding.

Which meant they had no intention of auctioning off Gu Mengyao's kiss at all, but were holding something in reserve. At this, Gu Pengzhan felt a pang of regret at his rash bid. Would it scare An Jianwen off?

And he had leapt the price by three hundred thousand in a single breath! Would An Jianwen still dare to bid on?

Sure enough, Gu Pengzhan's sudden bid gave An Jianwen a tremendous shock. He had never expected Gu Pengzhan to intervene. What did it mean? Was he determined to keep the kiss from An Jianwen—or was he probing him?

And why had Gu Pengzhan held back all along, only to bid the very instant Wei Zhao dropped out?

So An Jianwen wavered. "Taizao, what do you make of this? Why did Gu Pengzhan suddenly bid?"

"Well... Brother An, I reckon Gu Pengzhan is probing you, seeing just how much you care about Gu Mengyao. She's a rich man's daughter too; five hundred thousand for a first kiss is honestly not much. So on the one hand he means to drive up Gu Mengyao's price, and on the other he wants to test whether you really are sweet on her. If you are, you won't mind spending a few hundred thousand more; if you're not, you'll probably just give up." Su Taizao analyzed.

"Mm, that makes sense!" An Jianwen clapped Su Taizao on the shoulder. "Then tell me—when Wei Zhao was bidding, why didn't Gu Pengzhan join in? Could it be that Gu Pengzhan favors Wei Zhao?"

"Not necessarily. While Wei Zhao was driving the price up, Gu Pengzhan had no need to act. Now that Wei Zhao has dropped out, only then did he step in to raise the stakes," Su Taizao said.

"Is that so? Then is Gu Mengyao's kiss really her first? It isn't just Shen Yushu shooting her mouth off, is it? Last time she swore that Gu Mengyao had already given her first kiss to Wei Zhao!" An Jianwen asked, half in doubt.

"Since when can you believe a word Shen Yushu says? That girl talks through her hat—we've been taken in rotten by her for years! I'd say her own first kiss may well have gone to Wei Zhao, but Gu Mengyao's? Absolutely not." Su Taizao mused for a moment. "Can't you see it? That little Shen seems to have a bit of a soft spot for Wei Zhao, and she can't bear to part with Gu Mengyao, so she's forever egging Gu Mengyao on to marry Wei Zhao too—so they can be his senior and junior wives together!"

"Mm, put that way, it does add up! That girl has a wicked heart—steer well clear of her from now on!" An Jianwen nodded, now convinced. So when Shen Yushu called in bitter disappointment, "Eight hundred thousand—third and final call!" An Jianwen bid once more!

For the fastest updates and a pop-up-free reading experience, please visit our site.