At that moment, the four players approached the two arenas respectively. One arena was on the left, and the other, on the right. Each arena was surrounded by spectators. Today, there were no empty seats. Before the match began, there were endless sounds of applause, whistling, and cheering.Charlie stood under the arena behind Aurora. This was also the spot for the Sanda coaches in the competition. The opponent’s coach looked at him nervously at that moment. He also looked at Aurora, who was in the area, from time to time. He had his towel ready in his hand. Once his apprentice could not support herself onstage, he would throw his towel in at the quickest time possible to admit defeat.In the arena, Aurora looked at her opponent, Victoria, with a callous expression.Before Charlie had helped Aurora to improve her body physique, she was indeed no match for Victoria. After all, this Australian girl was tall, and her body function was much better than Aurora.But now, Aurora was very c
Aurora’s voice pierced the air, shocking Victoria!She had seen the match between Aurora and Joanna, and she knew that Aurora had explosive power. With this kick, she was afraid would fly directly out of the arena, just like Joanna had. As a result, she quickly withdrew her right leg in a single step. Her left and right leg formed a triangle on the surface of the ground, and this would further strengthen the stability of her lower body. Next, she put both her arms in front of her, preparing to block Aurora’s kick with a blocking motion.Alas, she was not Joanna, and she did not have the slightest idea as to how strong Aurora’s kick was! She only felt her arms being hit by a tremendous force. The next thing she knew, she heard two crisp fracture sounds—both her arms had been broken by a single kick from Aurora! This was quickly followed by intense pain. She could not withstand that powerful force. Like Joanna in the previous match, she immediately rose high into the air! A huge excl
Charlie looked on from a distance. He could not help but feel surprised. He never thought that Nanako could be beaten by the American girl. Nanako seemed very passive and would not fight back.Furthermore, her beautiful face was also bruised and bleeding due to repeated hits, especially the corner of her right eye, which appeared cracked. Looking at her made one feel anxious.He could not resist coming over to the side of the arena. He carefully observed Nanako and noticed that even though Nanako was injured and very passive in the situation, both her eyes stared at the opponent’s every move intensely. He could not understand. Since Nanako was observing her opponent, why didn’t she fight back? What was she waiting for?At this moment, Nanako saw Charlie.Besides feeling amazed, she was also surprised. This was because she could see a bit of distress in Charlie’s eyes. She asked herself in her heart, ‘The distress in Charlie’s eyes, is it because of me? Is he caring for me?’ The ne
In the spur of the moment, Ito Nanako’s willpower gave her the strength to push forward. Even with the painful wounds on her body, she pressed forth. It was during that split-second, her body radiated with explosive energy!Immediately, Ito jumped from her position, and in midair, her body turned two hundred and seventy degrees before swinging her slender right leg across Michelle’s face.Michelle was surprised by Nanako’s performance. She didn’t expect her to suddenly strike her with that much energy and power.Plus, the sudden burst of energy in her which was released by Charlie took her by surprise.Nanako’s strike far surpassed her performance during her prime!Michelle gradually recovered from the shock and was about to defend herself against the incoming kick, but it was already too late. The reaction time that Nanako gave her had already passed.She felt as though a shadowy figure had struck her face with a lot of force. The moment she lost focus and tried to recover from it, th
The referee held the microphone to his mouth and spoke, “The Arena Winner is Japan’s very own ITO NANAKO!!!”“The battle today was spectacular! It was truly unexpected that both arenas would have winners that took out their opponents with a single blow! Both the winners are qualified for the finals!”“Firstly, our contestant from Oskia, Ms. Aurora Quinton! Previously she defeated her opponent, Joanna from Brazil! Once again, she has showcased her ability to defeat her opponents in a single strike! Amazing performance!”“Now, Ms. Aurora Quinton will go head-to-head against Japan’s contestant, Ito Nanako! They shall have their showdown during the finals!”“As for the losers of this round, Ms. Victoria from Italy and Ms. Michelle from America shall battle for third place! Stay tuned!”The crowd cheered and applauded!It was unexpected that the Oskian contestant would be able to make it to the finals and even perform extremely well in the competition! She was indeed the black horse of the
Every gift basket was the size of a business suitcase. The entire package was black with strings of gold, which made it look low-key luxurious.Charlie couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Why are the packages so big?”Isaac promptly replied, “Young Master, I purposely chose the best gift baskets which contained all of the most expensive gifts which are worth three hundred eighty-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars. It is the complete package with all their most exquisite products which includes the eye and face cream in big quantities as well.”Charlie nodded. “Thanks for the hard work.”Isaac replied hastily, “This is nothing, Young Master.”Charlie snorted, “Isaac, I’m heading over to Eastcliff for a bit. I’ll pass the stuff here to Albert and you. Please take care of it, especially my wife’s family. You must protect her from the shadows. The Webb family is still lingering out there, I’ve got a bad feeling that they are still unwilling to give up.”Isaac quickly excla
Charlie nodded with a smile and asked. “Is Aunt Matilda there?”“Of course!” Jacob smiled widely and spoke in a very soft voice, “Your Aunt Matilda is sitting next to me now. I am teaching her how to appreciate Yan ZhenQing’s writings!”“No problem, father!” Charlie laughed. “So, you’re currently researching Yan ZhenQing?”“Yes.” Jacob said happily, “Anyway, since when do I only perform research about Yan ZhenQing? I also research Wang XiZhi, Huang TingJian, Liu GongQuan, OuYang Xun, and more. I, your father, do all kinds of research!”Charlie laughed. “Alright. One of these days, I will have to learn from you.”Charlie continued, “Oh, yes! Father, the skincare products that you requested are with me now. Why don’t I send it to you now? If I bring it home and mother finds an extra set, it’s going to be difficult to handle.”The main reason why Charlie had prepared 3 sets of skincare products was because instead of just giving Elaine one as a gift, naturally, he needed to give one to hi
Charlie knew that his father-in-law had a lot of dissatisfaction with Elaine. All these dissatisfactions had been accumulated throughout the years they had lived together.Even more so when Matilda had returned to the country, his father-in-law had seen that Matilda was so much better than Elaine, and this only made him even more dissatisfied with Elaine.It was to the point that he wanted to divorce his wife, Elaine, but she didn’t give him the chance, so naturally, he despised her even more now.Although his intention was good, Charlie didn’t think that it would be appropriate for him, especially when it came to giving Elaine a fake set of skincare products. It was quite embarrassing to present someone else with something fake.It was not because he was afraid that Elaine would find out that the products were fake, but instead, he was more afraid of what his wife would think of him if she found out that he had presented her mother with fake goods.Thus, he turned to Jacob and said, “
There were those in Antique Street who made their living from swindling the average Joe while others swindled antique traders.In fact, it was already cliche for them to trick antique traders with forgeries, and it was not surprising that someone had tried their luck on the opening day of Raymond's shop.As such, it was strange that he had just started today without any hype or even a proper shop sign, but someone was already after him.That told him that he was being targeted, and Raymond was putting his money on Zachary.The sole reason for that was how Zachary had come earlier to ask Raymond about how much capital he had, and he had humbly said a few hundred thousand.The fact that Billy had come and immediately demanded 500 thousand made even more sense—he wanted to siphon all of Raymond's capital.Even losing money wasn't the worst part—the worst was being labeled as an amateur.When that happened, customers who wanted the good stuff wouldn't come to him, and he would find
Just as Jacob was celebrating fooling Raymond, getting his revenge, and earning 200 thousand on top of that, Charlie was left musing to himself on the second floor of the teahouse.He knew that Billy was a conman as soon as he saw him, but he didn't understand why Raymond would buy from Billy.Could the item really be medieval as Raymond stated?As soon as the thought occurred to him, Charlie was sure of it. Given Raymond's knowledge of antiques, there was no way he would mess up in Antique Street of Aurous Hill.While his father-in-law and Zachary had worked hard to weave this elaborate conspiracy, Charlie still wondered how they would take the news that Raymond had bought something worth millions for just 300 thousand.Meanwhile, Raymond watched as Billy left and locked the door from the inside before studying the bronze sculpture once more.He trusted his own judgment that it was a gilded bronze statue from the medieval era. He was playing down its importance since the bronze
Meanwhile, Raymond sighed unhappily. "I really can't afford four hundred grand—like I said, there's not much to offer here in my shop, which I've been investing a lot in. I'd have to pay rent to the owner soon as well, and everything would end terribly for me if I paid that much…"Billy blurted right then, "You said it's medieval and worth millions, didn't you? You'd make a fortune if you sold it!"Raymond sighed again. "Million-dollar antiques aren't that easily sold, and people would be especially skeptical with a small business like mine. I could sell it at an auction too, but that's only happening when someone decides to organize one, not to mention the troublesome appraisal processes it involves.""And right now, I just think it's medieval in terms of style, but I'm no authority in the matter. In the end, it's up to experts and specific groups that would verify it, and if I messed up, it's entirely my loss.""Even if I'm lucky and it's medieval, I'd still have to wait until th
"Invest?!"Billy was left dumbstruck at the term.What even was this fool up to? This definitely wasn't in the script! What about the questions he was supposed to ask? It was like sitting for a grade-schooler test and suddenly being hit with a bar exam!In the car, Jacob blurted out, "What the hell is that bastard thinking? Is he really going to pay 250 thousand?!"Zachary pursed his lips. "Maybe he's just throwing us bait. Think about it—if we took the deal, we'd have to leave a contact number.""After that, he would trick us and say he sold it for ten million and lure us in for the five million. We'd definitely show up, wouldn't we? Once we came, it might turn out that he has called the cops and would even produce\ the bronze sculpture as evidence. Wouldn't we be just shooting ourselves in the foot?"Jacob was left in misery, his face contorting as he pouted, "But you said the cops wouldn't get involved…"Zachary rolled his eyes, "Yes, they wouldn't most of the time since that
However, neither Zachary nor Jacob expected Raymond to confuse them further as he asked Billy, "If you can afford to wait, you can leave the bronze sculpture with me as a consignment. I'll only take 10% off the sales while you get the rest—how about that?"Jacob was stunned and asked Zachary, "What the hell is he up to? Did he get too deep into character?"Zachary shook his head. "I don't get it either… is he trying to keep the bronze sculpture to use as evidence against us?"Jacob frowned. "I thought you said there was a gentleman agreement in this business, and the cops won't really care anyway?"Zachary snorted. "He said he would keep it as a consignment, meaning that he won't spend a dime. What if he told all the antique dealers instead of going to the cops? He would prove that he's sharp, making a name for himself… and what can we do? Do we take back the bronze sculpture? Even if we do, can we really ask for it?'"Fuck!" Jacob swore. "Then what are we waiting for? Tell Billy
In Treasure Measure, even Billy was having a hard time understanding what was going on.Before he came, Zachary made it very clear that he was here to dupe Raymond Cole, and he had come.As such, his job was now to claim that this bronze sculpture which was made in the last century was actually from the Renaissance era and then sell it to Raymond at a cutthroat price.But now, Raymond himself was saying that it was medieval? What was that supposed to mean?Even as he was left confused, he blurted out, "Sir, if you say it's from medieval times… then how much is it worth?"Raymond thought about it and said, "It's quite an unpopular item, but it's not to say that no one would buy it or that no one likes it. The main issue is that there were plenty of wars at that time, and most bronze would be used for weapons. Copper production would be low with rationing as well, so bronze tools were naturally rare for civilians.""Gilding is common for better quality items, and from the northern
Zachary couldn't help pointing at the screen and snapping, "Fucking loser! The more you feel pressed, the less you should be nervous! What are you thinking?! You're falling right under that bastard's trap!"Jacob was frustrated too, growling through his teeth, "Shit! I didn't think that bastard was a sly old fox. Fucking hell!"He then sighed, shaking his head. "Forget it, Zachary—I'm going home to pack my shit, and I'll depart for Dubai first thing tomorrow. Just handle that bronze sculpture for me and wire the money over."As he was about to get off, Zachary sighed in exasperation and apologetically said, "Sorry, Mr. Wilson… but it's fine! Even if this plan screwed up, just let me cook up another plan to destroy Raymond Cole!"Jacob ignored him as he strode out of the car, but that was when Raymond spoke audibly from Zachary's phone, "You can calm down. I'm not accusing you of lying to me. I just think that it's not Renaissance… Rather, it's medieval.""E-Early medieval…?" Billy
In Treasure Measure, Raymond unwrapped the red cloth around the bronze sculpture in front of Billy and the camera.There was a brief flash of surprise on his face, and it was soon gone.Still, he picked up the bronze sculpture, fiddling with it as he asked, "Do you know where it's from?""Yeah," Billy nodded. "A Renaissance-era sculpture. I think the base makes it obvious."Raymond looked up at him and asked in curiosity, "Are you sure about that?"Billy, presuming that Raymond had already noticed a catch, quickly said, "Well, the old man had an expert check it, and the expert said it was immediately obvious! To be honest, I want to sell it because the old man just passed away—gotta sell this baby before my brother goes for a garage sale."He had certainly added more details to the script, and Raymond nodded as he said nonchalantly, "But it doesn't look Renaissance to me. Sculptures from that era—be it the craftsmanship or the unique attributes? It's quite different from this one
In the antique trade, items that raised eyebrows would only be shown in the evenings—when various shops were about to close.That was certainly the case in Antique Street, as most items arriving in the evening were either freshly excavated, stolen, or forgery used to dupe unsuspecting victims.Even if Raymond had started his career abroad, he had learned every last unspoken rule during his earlier stint in Aurous Hill.Seeing the wariness on Billy's face and the way he was holding something in his arms, Raymond knew right away that what he carried wasn't legal.Still, the antique trade was no different here than it was abroad.Tomb raiding, forgery, or adding some touch-ups that increased the value of an item—everyone across the globe pretty much played the same tricks, and Raymond had his fair share of experience.Still, he did not let his wariness show, instead grinning, "Yes, of course. Come on in—let's talk inside!"And with that, he quickly led Billy inside.Meanwhile, bot