Chapter 342: Seraphina’s Next Target (6)

Chapter 342: Chapter 342: Seraphina’s Next Target (6)

Although this Faulkner Inkstone was an antique, one used by the great writer and poet Dongpo Sullivan, at its core, it was still just an inkstone! A single inkstone, and the bidding had soared past forty million!

Heavens!

Have these people all gone mad? Is their money just paper to them? You can’t spend this much, even for an antique!

A clash between the Hale Family and the Sterling Family!

Now things were getting interesting! The Hale and Sterling families were both titans in Aethelgard, but since their business interests didn’t overlap, no one had ever really compared the two. Who would have thought that while they’d never seen the two powerhouses clash in the boardroom, they’d get to see them duel in the auction house!

The auction continued. The bidding continued. The competition continued.

"Fifty-six million!" Though Walter Sterling still looked all smiles, his eyes flashed with a grave light.

"Sixty million!" Mr. Hale was in a similar state. The bid for the Faulkner Inkstone had already doubled his budget. ’That old Sterling is really holding on. I’ll see just how long he can last!’

"Sixty-one million!" Walter Sterling raised the bid again.

"Seventy million!" Mr. Hale shot back with another massive jump in price, a clear signal of his determination to win. It was a show of force.

Walter Sterling was about to raise the bid again, but Seraphina Sterling quickly stopped him. "Grandpa, since Mr. Hale likes this Faulkner Inkstone so much, I won’t compete with him for it. My teacher always said to respect your elders. Besides, I’m not that fond of this inkstone anyway. I can practice my calligraphy just fine without it. It’s so expensive—even if you won it for me, I’d be too scared to ever use it!"

Walter Sterling felt a pang of guilt. He had promised to buy her anything she wanted, but he never expected this complication. That old man Hale was just as stubborn about this inkstone! It forced him to go back on his word.

’Seraphina is so considerate! She knows that continuing to compete is pointless, and the current price has far surpassed the Faulkner Inkstone’s actual value. If we keep going, not only might we fail to get the inkstone, but we’ll also make an enemy of the Hale Family. Given the Sterling Family’s current situation, we can’t afford to make new enemies.’

The more considerate Seraphina was, the more guilty Walter Sterling felt.

In truth, Seraphina Sterling couldn’t care less about this so-called gift. Her real mission today was to drive up the price of the Faulkner Inkstone and secure a large profit for Apex Collections. The current price had already surpassed her wildest expectations. Her objective was complete. Everything else was irrelevant.

In the end, it was Mr. Hale who won the Faulkner Inkstone. To the crowd, the Hale Family was the victor of the bidding war. But from another perspective, the biggest winner was Seraphina Sterling.

A seventy-million-dollar Faulkner Inkstone would likely be the highest-priced item of the night. Riding the wave of this astronomical sale, Apex Collections was bound to get a huge boost in popularity. With Joel Xavier’s skills, he could certainly leverage this opportunity to help Apex Collections establish a firm foothold in Aethelgard.

Joel Xavier, who had been monitoring the auction from behind the scenes, witnessed the relentless bidding firsthand. When his gaze fell upon Seraphina Sterling, standing between Walter Sterling and Mr. Hale, his admiration for her skyrocketed.

He had initially estimated that, based on past appraisal auctions, a third-ranked antique might fetch ten million at most—and that would be a fantastic result. The lowest had been just over five million. His own forecast for the inkstone had been around eight million, a price he would have been more than happy with.

’I can’t believe Seraphina Sterling is this incredible. With just a few words, she got it to sell for seventy million! That’s almost nine times my estimate! Making money is way too easy for her! All she had to do was talk!’