Chapter 35: The Big Score
The $500 bid carried the right amount of dominance.
After Xu Youyou made her offer, no one else followed up.
The people at the auction looked at her like she was a reckless newbie.
“$500 is hard to make back,” the Chinese guy from earlier whispered.
Xu Youyou casually replied, “Then I’ll just consider it a fun expense.”
The guy was speechless.
The storage company staff led the group to the next unit up for auction.
Xu Youyou followed but didn’t bid again for the rest of the event.
During this time, she received several calls from Lu Jingyao’s subordinates, saying that he had been missing since last night.
Xu Youyou had no idea where he was—she hadn’t seen him for days.
Once the auction ended, she went with the other winning bidders to make payments and receive the keys to their units.
Now, she could finally see what kind of treasure she had won.
“Boss, are we really taking all this junk? The car won’t fit everything,” one of her bodyguards asked.
Xu Youyou shook her head. “I’ll check first to see if there’s anything valuable.”
Her two bodyguards from China diligently took down the higher-stacked boxes and helped sort through the contents.
But the local bodyguard she had hired for the day just shoved his hands in his pockets. “Beautiful, my job is to protect you, not pick through trash.”
Xu Youyou didn’t mind. She turned to her Chinese bodyguards and said in Mandarin, “Thanks for the help—I’ll give each of you an extra $500.”
Hearing that, the two bodyguards worked even harder.
“One box of children’s toys, most of them broken.”
“This one’s full of kitchen junk—pots and pans, nothing valuable.”
The bodyguards felt guilty, thinking they had taken extra pay for nothing.
Xu Youyou didn’t care. “It’s fine. This was just for fun anyway.”
After digging through seven or eight boxes, they finally found something.
“Boss, this might be worth something!” one of the bodyguards shouted excitedly.
Xu Youyou quickly walked over. The box matched what those two white guys had mentioned earlier—ceramics.
She was an expert in porcelain identification. With just a glance, she knew this so-called “ceramic set” was just regular tableware.
Not even high-end tableware.
They kept digging, and suddenly, one of the bodyguards practically shouted, “Boss! We hit the jackpot! Big score!”
From a dust-covered box in the corner, the bodyguard carefully pulled out a bottle.
“Boss, it’s Moutai—30 years aged! This stuff is already valuable in China, and in a foreign market, it’s even more valuable!”
He ran his fingers over the dusty packaging, his hands trembling.
Xu Youyou asked, “How much is it worth?”
“The official price in China is around ¥12,000 per bottle, but you need connections to get it. Usually, it’s resold for ¥14,000 at least.”
Xu Youyou didn’t know much about liquor. “Is it real? I’ve heard a lot of fakes are in circulation.”
The bodyguard nodded firmly. “It’s real, no doubt!”
The other bodyguard chimed in, “Boss, he’s a liquor expert—he won’t get it wrong.”
The “liquor expert” examined the box carefully and then checked the production date. “This one’s from 2016. The older it is, the more valuable. This could go for at least ¥16,000 per bottle, maybe even ¥20,000.”
Xu Youyou looked at the box—there were three identical bottles. If sold, they would indeed be worth about $6,000.
“Hell, you actually got lucky,” the Chinese guy from earlier suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “I’ll take a loss and buy them for $3,000.”
Xu Youyou wasn’t clueless. She firmly shook her head. “$10,000, or no deal.”
She thought she was overcharging, but to her surprise, the guy agreed immediately. “Deal! You said it, no backing out!”
Xu Youyou: … She underestimated the price!
She had no idea how much Moutai was worth abroad.
“You’re still making a profit at this price?” she asked.
The guy grinned. “In California’s duty-free airport stores, they go for $4,680 per bottle. Trust me, I’m still making money.”
Since she had already named her price, Xu Youyou wouldn’t go back on her word.
The guy added, “But I’m not making a huge profit. Once I pay the taxes, I’ll only earn a few hundred bucks. You’re saving yourself the hassle of finding a buyer. Let me treat you all to dinner tonight, how about that?”
Xu Youyou shook her head. “Nah, I’m good. I didn’t lose out on this deal anyway.”
She had spent $500 and made $10,000. If she were a professional in the storage auction game, she’d be popping champagne to celebrate.
The guy suddenly switched gears. “Are you keeping the rest of this junk? If not, I’ll take it off your hands for $50—saves you the trouble of dealing with trash.”
Xu Youyou had already searched every inch of the unit. There wasn’t much else of value, and she had no intention of dragging a bunch of garbage back to the hotel. She nodded in agreement.
With the money in hand, Xu Youyou and her three bodyguards got into the car and headed back to the hotel.
Not long after leaving the storage facility, the car came to a stop.
“Something’s wrong with the car,” the driver said.
They had stopped in a narrow alley.
Before the driver could even get out to check, a group of people surrounded them.
“Chink, made some good money today? Too bad, we need some cash,” said the freckled guy from earlier, leading the gang.
Xu Youyou took a quick look—over ten people, all familiar faces from the auction.
She instantly realized the car breakdown was no accident.
“You’re robbing me?” she asked.
Freckled guy smirked. “Just taking a little spending money. Hand over the $10,000 you made from the liquor sale, and we’ll let you walk away.”
“Does every successful bidder get targeted like this?” she asked.
He sneered. “You ask too many questions. Just hand it over, or we’ll kill you!”
Xu Youyou snapped, “Take them down!”
The driver shrank back inside the car, but her three bodyguards immediately jumped out. The local bodyguard even pulled out a gun.
“They’ve got a gun!”
The gang instantly panicked and scattered.
Xu Youyou sneered, “You’re risking your lives over a few hundred bucks each? Is that even worth it?”
Freckled guy turned pale.
She didn’t let him off, yanking him forward and kicking him hard several times. “You just couldn’t shut up, huh? Barking all the damn time!”
Freckled guy begged for mercy, “I was wrong, I won’t do it again!”
Xu Youyou was about to kick him again when suddenly, a chill ran down her spine. A sense of danger surged through her.
In an instant, she dodged sideways and rolled behind a garbage bin.
A gunshot rang out.
Freckled guy, standing right where she had been, wasn’t so lucky.
A bullet went straight through his forehead.
Xu Youyou had no time to be afraid.
The shooter hidden in the shadows didn’t stop. More bullets hit the garbage bin she was hiding behind.
