The Day I Kissed An Older Man

“Boss? Aren’t we going in?” Aaron asked.

Corinne was rooted to the ground as she watched Jeremy get out of the car and walk into Peakrise Auction House. With a frown, she said, “I saw someone I’d rather not see. Let’s wait a while before going in.”

Aaron looked in the direction of Corinne’s gaze. “That seems to be Jeremy from the Holdens. Do you know him?”

Corinne looked disgusted. “Not really.”

…

The auction hall was divided into upper and lower floors. The first floor was for ordinary buyers, while the second floor was for VIP buyers who did not wish to show their identity. They were granted excellent privacy and were identifiable by their room numbers.

Jeremy was in room one, while Corinne was in room seven.

After several unremarkable artifacts were auctioned off, a set of bronze pieces from this auction were carried to the display stand. Once the auctioneer gave a brief lecture on the background and value of the artifacts, bidding commenced at 1.5 million dollars.

“Two million!”

“Three million!”

“Four million!”

…

Eventually, the mysterious bidder from Room One managed to bid for the set of bronze artifacts at a high price of four million, which elicited gasps of awe from the audience.

Inside room seven, Corinne leaned lazily on the sofa and breathed a sigh of relief. Jeremy seemed to have been eyeing the set of bronze artifacts, and judging from the fact that he had already secured it, he would probably leave soon since there was no reason for him to remain there.

“The next piece is a posthumously published painting titled ‘Geese in Late Autumn’ by the famous impressionist painter Nellie Nymphaea. The starting price is seven hundred and fifty thousand!”

“We have a bid of eight hundred thousand from bidder number three!

“Bidder number eleven, nine hundred thousand!

“And now bidder number five, nine hundred and fifty thousand!”

Corinne raised her chin to give Aaron the signal that he could start raising his placard.

million from bidder

such a bid, and they began wondering who the powerhouse behind the ‘number seven’

half million

the word ‘sold’, Tommy

by surprise, and he spoke in a more excited

through the hall when bidder number one raised the bid by that big an amount. Everyone wondered if the painting would spark

wondered why Jeremy

the world is

calmly, “Bid

“Right!”

a bid of four million by buyer

comes the five-million bid from bidder

We now

have seven million? Oh, it’s higher than that! Bidder number one goes for seven and a half million! Any further bids from the floor? No? Alright then. Seven

at the development. Her main issue at that juncture was a lack of

this painting is very important to you, perhaps we

hand and shook her head. “No, I can’t just divert the company’s capital to my personal affairs. I’ll find another way

no choice but to heed

of the gavel, and it was soon announced that bidder number one had secured ‘Geese in Late Autumn’ with

was astonished to see bidder number one spending six million to buy that painting at several times more than its original value. This merely showed that rich people could do whatever they want with their

painted under the pseudonym Nellie Nymphaea in her spare time. Despite being relatively well-known, she was not a particularly mainstream painter, and her works were not very popular either. Jeremy’s reasons for bidding such a high price for ‘Geese in Late Autumn’ could point to two possibilities: Corinne’s mother was either someone he knew personally

beautiful receptionists from the auction house came into their room to serve coffee and

are you here? How did you even get to sit in this room?” one of the female

had apparently taken up a job

gritted her

auction hall could hear it. Over at room one, Jeremy had just walked out of the room and was about to leave when he heard Zoey’s

had just started her probationary period, but she was already speaking rudely to the VIP buyers! Her actions startled everyone at the venue and left an extremely

manager of the auction house rushed over with several security personnel. He had Zoey dragged out while he apologized

knew that she was almost certainly heading for the sack that day, so she let all hell loose when she was taken away by the security guards and yelled out loud, “You’re a b*tch, Corinne! F*ck you! You made me lose my job twice now! It won’t be

And she was the

auction house manager away after receiving an apology from the latter, and he was about to close the door when Jeremy’s

there a Corinne here?” Jeremy shot Aaron

a moment, then nodded with a smile. “Is there anything you’d like

eyes narrowed slightly as he said in a cold voice, “Tell her