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.

half million from bidder number

see such a bid, and they began wondering

half million going once! Going twice!

uttered the word ‘sold’, Tommy raised

surprise, and he spoke in a more excited tone compared to before. “Three

the bid by that big an amount. Everyone wondered if the painting would spark a bidding war between

and wondered why Jeremy was still

as upset as her. “What in the world is

calmly, “Bid

“Right!”

four million by buyer number seven. Do we have a

the five-million bid from

bidder number seven is going even higher! We now have six million from bidder

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

was annoyed at the development. Her main issue

perhaps we can shift the project funds to

my personal affairs. I’ll find another way to get

but

and it was soon announced that bidder number one had secured ‘Geese in Late Autumn’ with a final price

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

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

house came into their room to serve coffee

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

the person as Zoey, who had apparently taken up a job as a

a designer suit sitting to one side. She gritted her teeth in envy and yelled, “Bravo, Corinne! You made me lose

could hear it. Over at room one, Jeremy had just walked out of

applied for the job a day ago and had just started her probationary period, but she was already speaking rudely to the VIP buyers!

house rushed over with several security personnel. He had Zoey dragged out while he apologized profusely

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

on that occasion—there was no doubt that someone named Corinne was there. ‘That girl… She’s here? And she was the

from the latter, and he was

Corinne here?” Jeremy shot Aaron a hostile

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

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