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

to see such a bid, and they began wondering

auctioneer began to count, “One and a half million going once! Going twice! Going

and uttered the

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

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

frowned and wondered why Jeremy was

world is Mister Jeremy’s problem? He’s just trying

calmly, “Bid

“Right!”

bid of four million by buyer number seven. Do we have a higher

the five-million bid

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

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

Her main issue at that juncture was a lack

this painting is very important to you, perhaps we can

company’s capital to my personal affairs. I’ll find another

choice but to heed her

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

million to buy that painting at several times more than its original value. This merely showed that rich

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 or someone

from the auction house came into

even get to sit

up and recognized the person as Zoey, who had apparently taken up a job as a receptionist at the auction house after being fired by Alpha

she spotted the handsome, well-dressed Aaron in a designer suit sitting to one side. She gritted her teeth in envy and yelled, “Bravo, Corinne! You made me lose

walked out of the room and was about to leave when he heard Zoey’s screech.

speaking rudely to the VIP buyers! Her actions startled everyone at the venue and left an

several security personnel. He had Zoey dragged out while he apologized profusely to the bidder

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

clear on that occasion—there was no doubt that someone named Corinne was there. ‘That girl… She’s here? And she was the one bidding in room seven?’ He narrowed his eyes coldly and turned around to walk toward room

receiving an apology from the latter, and he was about to close the door when Jeremy’s tall figure appeared right in front of

there a Corinne here?” Jeremy

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

he said in