Wang Haitao humbled himself. “You’re too kind. I know nothing but the basics.”
“It’s totally fine, we can all look into this together. I’m just worried that Hanson might have spent money on counterfeits. After all, this is not something you see every day.”
Shen Yaxin subsequently told the waiter to bring about her leather brown Gucci handbag and retrieved an exquisite plywood box.
The crowd grew curious as to what she had contained within it.
Shen Yaxin covered her mouth as she giggled. She then brought the wooden box and placed it in Wang Haitao’s hands.
Wang Haitao chuckled lightly at the crowd before he cautiously unlocked the metal slab on the box.
Once the box was opened, the item within left the crowd in a daze.
It was a patented gold watch motionlessly situated in the box.
The reason why it left the audience in amazement, was because the watch was crafted with gold.
Everyone in attendance was hardly professional in the watch industry, but common knowledge in antiquities was a given among the elite.
“What a pretty watch! Haitao you have a knack for watches, don’t you? What is it?” Huang Lele asked from curiosity.
Wang Haitao was confused for a second before he withdrew the watch from its holder and took a good look. After gently fondling its rims, he exclaimed, “My god, could this be… a limited edition Vacheron Constantin?”
After hearing his words, two other collectors in the hall applauded in astonishment.
“There are only seven of these made in the world!”
“Haitao, are you sure?”
Wang Haitao turned towards Li Jianhe and Shen Yaxin. “It’s undoubtedly a limited edition Vacheron Constantin. Besides, if it wasn’t one, Yaxin wouldn’t have given it to me to verify.”
Li Jianhe replied in a nonchalant tone, “I won this from a bid in the UK last month. It cost me about three million pounds. It was the perfect gift for our third-year anniversary. I heard there were only seven ever made, one of which is in a museum and not for sale. I thought to have you do a cross-verification to make sure it’s real. I was told that there are many carbon copy counterfeits in the market these days. It’s hard to tell the difference.”
Shen Yaxin appeared to be indulged in the envy and amazement of the crowd. At that moment she was so happy that she could explode, but she decidedly kept her composure and smiled.
“I opposed to Hansen spending so much money but he really wanted to. Look at this watch, it’s so rare and precious that I couldn’t bear to take it out of the box. This is the first time I’ve shown it to anyone.”
She might have craved the praise from the people in attendance, but her audience weren’t idiots. A watch of this price wouldn’t possibly be fake! It was nothing but boastful flaunting of her wealth now that she had married into a conglomerate. At one point it wasn’t just about the money anymore, it was about your position and power.
Hence, the reaction she gathered from the crowd wasn’t the gasps of her valuable watch, but acknowledgments towards her successful manipulation of her marriage as a leap in the ranks of society.
Simultaneously, she prompted the crowd to share their attention towards Lin Ruoxi who had wasted such an opportunity and gone for her husband instead.
“Really? That expensive? My gosh, you could buy 2 Boeing planes with that money,” Huang Lele stated, engrossed at the watch. “Haitao, why’s the watch this expensive? Is it because it was made from gold?”
Wang Haitao lovingly caressed the exterior of the watch, before he stoically replied, “The limited-edition Vacheron Constantin was released to commemorate their 250th Anniversary.
“It’s a given that the materials used to create it was nothing short of the best, but the craftsmanship placed into building this watch renders it the most functional, most complex core structure found in a watch ever. Despite its modest size, it has a total of 834 different parts complementing one another. Paired with the dusk sky exterior and hand-crafted gold crescent, it could accurately depict phases of the moon.
“Look on the display ring. There’s even a ten-thousand-year calendar spanning from left to right.
“It shows the actual time of the sun’s self-orbit in contrast with the time on Earth. The best part of the watch is that the graphic of the constellations could accurately reflect that in which it was below.”
The audience was flabbergasted by his detailed explanation. Never ever had they come across a watch which could accurately depict phases of the moon.
As Wang Haitao explained, the crowd were in complete envy of Li Jianhe and Shen Yaxin’s situation.
Among the many gazes in the crowd was Lin Ruoxi, as she couldn’t help but remind herself about that dated watch that Yang Chen had given to her.
Yang Chen could see the hatred Lin Ruoxi had towards him by the edge of her eyes, which gave him chills.
C’mon, that’s real good stuff from the FBI Commissioner! he thought.
Clenching his teeth, Yang Chen decided that it was about time to retaliate. “Seeing how enthusiastic everyone is discussing watches, we would like to participate.”
In a flash, everyone was now contemplating if they heard right. They were talking about extravagant watches worth three million pounds while Yang Chen was just a spineless employee of his wife’s company. If it wasn’t for Lin Ruoxi, he didn’t even deserve a seat there!
Shen Yaxin saw the chance to humiliate Lin Ruoxi once again. Faking a laugh, she said, “Oh I suppose Mr Yang here has something to share too?”
Yang Chen shook his head in response. “Not really, but I do have a watch I gave my wife two days ago. I guess now’s a good time to show it to you guys.”
How did he know I sneaked it into my bag and brought it along with me? Lin Ruoxi was instantly pale from bewilderment.
The watch did have an age tag on it but it was not a competition of age. What about it made him so eager to show it off?
Yang Chen had gone through Lin Ruoxi’s bag prior to this to ensure that she had brought it along. That was why he was confident about bragging.
Lin Ruoxi resented the idea but it was too late to pull any kind of stops. Moreover, it would further dent her image if she were to blatantly rebuke Yang Chen. That, however, did not stop her disapproval to be felt as she glared soul-piercingly at her husband. You’re so dead when we get home, you hear that?!
Yang Chen awkwardly smiled without a word as his arm reached into Lin Ruoxi’s bag, retrieving the analog watch from within.
Just the casual reaction led to a chain reaction of dejection from the crowd. How good could a watch be without even a box?
As Yang Chen subsequently handed the rustic, faded analog watch to Wang Haitao. A few sneers were heard from the crowd.
“Mr Yang, from the looks of it, your watch has been through a lot. Must’ve been a while since its release I suppose? Haha.”
“Give it a chance, you never know.”
Even as hosts, Chris and Jennifer awkwardly chuckled as they shook their heads in disbelief.
Li Jianhe and Shen Yaxin had ominously satisfied grins on their faces as if they had seen the light of day in their competition against Lin Ruoxi. Glancing over at the pale and wary Lin Ruoxi, they pitied her for marrying an idiot as a husband!
As far as it mattered, they had finally had a victory from Lin Ruoxi. It was safe to say that it deeply satisfied their hatred for her in their earlier years.
Wang Haitao courteously received it to do a quick inspection. A watch that was among the only seven ever made was already the cream of the crop. It wasn’t something that anyone would come across in their lifetimes, let alone owning one.
Lin Ruoxi held her eyes shut, unable to fathom the catastrophe that was bound to follow the insulting actions of her husband. He could have just bought something decent for her with the money he had. Not only did he get her some scrap, he decided it was a good idea to bring it out in front of all the nobles!
Just when everyone took the situation as a laughing matter, Wang Haitao who was inspecting the watch gradually went terrifyingly stiff.
Wang Haitao’s hands were shaking and his expressions contorted from one of un-amusement to utter and complete shock!
“Haitao, what is it, why are you zoning out?” His wife Huang Lele, slightly frustrated, shook him slightly.
Wang Haitao snapped out of his daze and carefully held it with both hands as if fearing for his life.
The crowd noticed to his actions and waited patiently before someone yelled out, “Haitao, what’s with it? Is it broken?”
“HENRYG……” Wang Haitao’s pupils were enlarged in amazement, even his words started to fail.
“What?”
Wang Haitao took a huge gulp to make himself clear…
“It’s… Henry Graves!”
Wang Haitao was visibly exhilarated that he was about to yell in astonishment.
The crowd was dumbfounded. What’s wrong with this fellow? Besides, what’s this Henry Graves?