Chapter 467: Chapter 164: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (51) Part 2

The four of them hit it off immediately, securing their admission and eligibility to participate in the auction.

It was a small, tiered conference room, and their seats toward the back gave them a clear view of the entire hall.

The auction began shortly after. All of the items up for bid were parcels of land, starting with those in the city center.

First, everyone submitted their bidding proposals. These documents outlined their project’s requirements for the land—such as lot size and desired foot traffic—followed by a detailed description of the project itself.

The organization would review the proposals. Those deemed beneficial to social, economic, and cultural development would be granted priority bidding rights for the land. Unsuitable proposals would be deferred to the bidding for the next parcel.

Just as Chi Yun’er had said, she had the backing of one million Pounds, and her bidding proposal was exceptionally well-written.

Her proposal took a comprehensive view of the nation’s economic development. It addressed the people’s long-term demand for appliances and electronics. The plan was to consolidate the south’s various electrical appliance manufacturers—big and small, with their disparate brands—to provide the people of the Capital City with affordable, convenient services and products.

What made the proposal impossible to refuse was Chi Yun’er’s plan to use a portion of the substantial profits to establish a large-scale research institute. Investment in technology and the intense competition it spurred were things the organization strongly encouraged and supported.

Of course, the main reason the organization gave this proposal special consideration was that its authors were promising young talents from Xiahua. If their own country’s youth could rise to the occasion, what reason would the organization have to refuse them?

Naturally, you had to protect your own!

So, acting on their convictions, Chi Yun’er and her group began bidding earnestly from the very first parcel. They were like robots, locking horns with every other bidder in a fiery competition.

The foreign investment group was composed of heavyweight capitalists from various countries, each more shrewd than the last and all aiming to maximize their profits. They had already contacted one another and coordinated their strategy before even arriving in Xiahua.

Furthermore, once they knew the auction items, they had held heated discussions to decide who would bid on which project. Dissent was pointless. No single member could out-muscle the others in terms of capital, and they certainly couldn’t let Xiahua play the fisherman, profiting while the snipe and the clam were locked in battle.

But the unexpected interference from Chi Yun’er’s group put everyone under immense pressure. Parcels of land that could have been won for a few hundred thousand—or even as little as a hundred-something thousand—were now being bid up to inflated prices.

Yet the price was never so ridiculously high as to make them give up in a huff. Instead, it hovered at that perfect, agonizing level where it stung to pay but was too painful to let go.

They were tempted to stop bidding, just to see if this suspected shill from Xiahua actually had the means to buy the land.

But Chi Yun’er’s group was completely unfazed. In fact, when the investors stopped bidding, their faces lit up with obvious delight at the prospect of winning a prime parcel.

Unable to restrain themselves, they would resignedly raise their paddles and increase the bid in the final second before the hammer fell.

It was all because Chi Yun’er’s group had judged their breaking point perfectly.

Xiahua was a massive, undeveloped cake, and as long as they invested successfully, their future profits would be immense. As it stood, they were merely failing to get a bargain and eating into some of their future margins.

Anyone could do that math. Why would they give up so easily just because Chi Yun’er was driving up the price?

And yet, the way Chi Yun’er’s group always jumped in to bid just before the hammer fell was excruciating, like being slowly roasted over a fire.

Winning the bid and securing the land should have been a joyous occasion. They had achieved their goal for coming to Xiahua, after all. But having spent so much extra money, their initial sigh of relief was quickly followed by a wave of frustration.

At times like these, Jiang Zishi wished he could just shrink into his seat. ’If these guys find out that I’m the one bankrolling the person breaking all the rules,’ he thought, ’I wonder if they’ll kill me.’

Soon, the bidding began for the suburban land parcels. The outskirts were the preferred location for most factories, except for those that produced noise or needed to discharge wastewater and exhaust fumes.

The organization wasn’t about to kill the chicken to get the egg; they wouldn’t allow such factories to be established in the first place.

After the bidding for the downtown parcels concluded, the competition for the suburban lots dropped sharply. Jiang Zishi watched as several adjacent parcels sold at prices he found both affordable and satisfactory.

The only problem was that Chi Yun’er was there for every auction, driving up the price. At one point, the investment group’s designated bidder, out of sheer frustration, deliberately dropped out, allowing Chi Yun’er to win a parcel for a price only slightly above the starting bid.

Everyone assumed Chi Yun’er’s funds had been depleted and that she would no longer be able to so brazenly drive up the prices. But they were wrong. Chi Yun’er kept raising her paddle...

The entire investment group was tortured to their breaking point, feeling as if they were awaiting a verdict. It was an exquisitely agonizing experience.

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