Chapter 216: Sealed Bidding Auction

Everyone stared at Song Yaxian with a strange look for a full five seconds!

Judging by Zheng Qian's attire, he could absolutely afford a bag like that.

Someone offers to give it to you, and you actually refuse?

If it were any one of them, they would have accepted without hesitation!

As long as Zheng Qian was willing to give them that bag, they would do anything for him.

"Three days, no protection, I'll take the pill."

"Three days? Probably longer, at least three months!"

"Seriously!"

"Isn't the bag you're wearing right now just an entry-level Chanel? It only costs ten thousand yuan!"

"A big shot offers to buy you a bag like that, and you actually reject him?"

Everyone couldn't understand whether Song Yaxian was truly pure and untainted by money, or if she was just feigning innocence, acting arrogant, and putting on an act.

"Fine, since you don't like it, then forget it."

Zheng Qian didn't expect to be shut down like that.

If Song Yaxian had agreed, Zheng Qian would have bought it without hesitation and received a system rebate of over twenty million.

But if Song Yaxian didn't agree, and Zheng Qian forced the purchase on her, it would just be a waste of money, and the system wouldn't provide a rebate.

Good.

He liked this personality of Song Yaxian's.

Right now, her Favorability toward Zheng Qian was 0.

If two million couldn't move Song Yaxian, it meant these things weren't good enough to catch her eye.

She was a stock with huge potential.

If two million doesn't work, then twenty million will.

If twenty million doesn't work, then two hundred million!

No matter what, Zheng Qian couldn't let his trip to Jiangnan be in vain or waste this great opportunity.

...

Paris Queen.

It was a Western restaurant invested in by the top international Michelin chef, Gordon Ramsay.

This restaurant had maintained three Michelin stars for four consecutive years and was a renowned top-tier restaurant in Jiangnan. Without a net worth of over ten million, one wouldn't even dare to step through its doors.

Inside a private room on the second floor.

Three women and one man sat calmly at a dining table.

The women looked to be in their twenties, proud and cold. They wore light makeup, giving off a sense of distant indifference.

The man was middle-aged, slightly stout, with bright, alert eyes.

The remaining two women were their secretaries.

This was a secret business meeting.

"Ms. Jiang, I invited you here today because there is a matter I would like to discuss regarding a potential collaboration. I wonder if you might be interested."

Hua Yunfeng had arrived in Jiangnan two days early to prepare for this restructuring auction.

At the same time, he had invited Jiang Yanran to this secret meeting.

"Mr. Hua, please speak your mind." Jiang Yanran raised her eyelids slightly.

She knew very well that Hua Yunfeng had come to see her because of the bankruptcy restructuring auction of Yuese Cruise Company.

Yuese Cruise Company was a large, renowned cruise company throughout Kyushu, and its most profitable sector was the ocean-going cruise business—a massive cake.

Many domestic shipping companies wanted to take advantage of Yuese's bankruptcy to take a bite out of this cake.

Over the past two years, due to the pandemic, international routes were blocked, and over a hundred countries suspended cruise operations, refusing to allow foreign cruise ships to dock.

This was the reason that led to the bankruptcy of Kyushu's largest cruise company, Yuese Cruise Company, and in two days, the liquidation and restructuring auction would take place.

The bankruptcy liquidation and restructuring auction meant slicing the entire company into several pieces, including the operations department, advertising department, reception department, concierge department, and so on.

The most coveted part was undoubtedly the cruise business.

It was a piece of braised pork that was fatty but not greasy.

Not to mention domestic companies, shipping companies all over the world had the desire to launch a cruise business.

Yuese's bankruptcy provided just that opportunity.

Two years ago, Yuese had taken delivery of three custom-built 100,000-ton cruise ships, but the pandemic hit the very next month.

To this day, these three cruise ships remained docked at the pier, having never sailed a single route; they were essentially brand new.

These were also Yuese's most valuable ships; the others were either retired or sold as second-hand goods.

Many people had come specifically for these three cruise ships.

Jiang Yanran was no exception.

"Ms. Jiang, you are indeed straightforward, so I will get straight to the point."

As a corporate CEO over fifty, he still had to lower his posture slightly when speaking to Jiang Yanran.

After all, Jiang Yanran was the head of Asia Shipping.

"Ms. Jiang, before I continue, I would like to ask if you intend to make a move at this auction?"

Jiang Yanran found this amusing.

If she didn't intend to make a move, why would she waste her time here? To watch a show?

"If you intend to make a move, Ms. Jiang, why not join forces with us, Yuehua Shipping? What do you think?"

"Mr. Hua, why would you think that I would join forces with Yuehua Shipping?"

"I'm sure you know the scale of Asia Shipping. I wouldn't dare say we could operate all three cruise ships, but operating two would be no problem."

With Asia Shipping's scale, connections, and social network, operating two cruise ships was more than enough.

"What benefits would there be for Asia Shipping to cooperate with Yuehua Shipping?"

Yuehua Shipping's scale was only about half that of Asia Shipping. Where did he get the confidence to say such things? Was it the Qijinyi Alliance behind him?

Hua Yunfeng said with a grin, "Ms. Jiang, don't be in such a hurry to refuse. Let me finish what I have to say; it won't be too late for you to consider it then."

He explained the cooperation model to Jiang Yanran.

"Besides, if you are willing to consider it, Ms. Jiang, I can tell you a secret about the auction."

"What secret?"

"Regarding the first cruise ship, the platinum princess, the highest bid outside is five hundred million."

As Hua Yunfeng said this, a very smug expression appeared on his face.

"How do you know that?" Jiang Yanran frowned.

"Heaven's secrets cannot be revealed."

Hua Yunfeng pressed his index finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture.

In reality, this information was secret intelligence told to him by Xiao Xinhao, which was also the source of his smugness and the confidence he had to come to talk business with Jiang Yanran.

This bidding and restructuring auction did not use open bidding but rather a sealed bid auction, which was the traditional auction method in Kyushu.

Simply put, the big shots participating in the auction would write their bids on a slip of paper; the modern method was to input the price on a tablet.

During the auction process, no one knew how much you had bid except for you and the organizer.

This method had both advantages and disadvantages.

Either the price was extremely high, resulting in a huge loss.

Or the price was extremely low, allowing one to pick up a bargain.

You couldn't bid too high, and you couldn't bid too low.

Once, several companies were bidding for 15 seconds of prime-time advertising on TV.

The first-place bidder offered eighty million.

The second-place bidder only offered forty million.

Originally, the first-place bidder only needed to bid slightly more than forty million to win, but by bidding forty million more than the second-place bidder, they suffered a huge loss.

In Hong Kong, there was also an auction for blue and white porcelain that used this method.

The second-place bidder offered two million, and the first-place bidder only offered 2.1 million.

With just one bid more, they took the extremely rare blue and white porcelain home.

One bid, the highest bidder wins; this auction method left behind by our ancestors was all about psychological warfare.