Chapter 98: Charity Auction

Xiao Ran kept forcing a smile, glancing at Lin Qingxia beside him and asking, “Sister Hong, what is it so great about? I can bid for it and give it to you later!”
“Ugh, stop talking nonsense right next to Qingxia!” Zhong Chuhong covered her mouth with a light laugh. “It’s a piece of fashion clothing—nothing really expensive. Otherwise, I guess you wouldn’t hesitate to spend money on it, right? Bus boss!”
Xiao Ran felt extremely embarrassed. The so-called “bus boss” was another nickname given to him in the circle, referring to the fact that he didn’t even own a car and probably had to take the bus to work. But he had joked with Zhong Chuhong many times before, so he teased her casually, “Okay, then let’s talk nonsense again next time when Qingxia isn’t here!”
Lin Qingxia glanced at Zhong Chuhong with a smirk, gently tapping Xiao Ran to remind him that the auction had already started. They stopped joking and began to watch the auction attentively.
In fact, the items up for auction this time were quite varied—ranging from antiques to fashion clothes, from jewelry to vases. Xiao Ran briefly skimmed through the descriptions before focusing on a portrait of a lady by an unknown artist from the Song Dynasty, as well as the fashion piece Zhong Chuhong had mentioned.
Xiao Ran quietly leaned over to Fa Ge and pointed at the two items, saying, “Fa Ge, help me bid on this portrait, and I’ll take that fashion piece myself!”
Fa Ge quickly understood what Xiao Ran meant and nodded with a laugh. The portrait was bid on smoothly, and it was acquired for just 110,000. After that, Fa Ge bid on a piece of jewelry, probably intending to give it to his wife.
Finally, it was time for the fashion piece. The starting bid was only 15,000, which was equivalent to an ordinary family’s monthly income. Yet, it seemed very popular—its price doubled after just three rounds of bidding.
During the fourth round, Xiao Ran thought it was time to bid. Just as he was about to speak, he heard a voice not far behind him shout, “40,000!”
Xiao Ran was slightly stunned. Along with Lin Qingxia, he turned to look. It was a man in his thirties, dressed with great taste—likely from a wealthy family. Seeing Lin Qingxia looking at him, the man smiled slightly in her direction.
Xiao Ran couldn’t help frowning. It seemed like a rival had appeared. Noticing Xiao Ran’s expression, Lin Qingxia secretly smiled and said, “That’s Mo Huaien, the boss of Renwei Company.”
A rival—definitely a rival. The thought of Mo Huaien looking at Lin Qingxia filled Xiao Ran with resentment. Without hesitation, he raised his bid loudly, “100,000!”
That was a surprisingly high bid. The entire venue was shocked, and everyone turned to look at Xiao Ran. Seeing Lin Qingxia beside him, most realized she was the boss of Meiying Company. After bidding, Xiao Ran glanced at Mo Huaien, sending him a look that carried a hint of provocation.
Mo Huaien hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t that he lacked money, but he thought spending 100,000 on a piece of clothing wasn’t worth it. However, thinking of Lin Qingxia’s happiness if she received the gift, he became inspired and threw everything else aside. “110,000!”

Xiao Ran chuckled. Whether he bought this outfit or not didn’t matter, as he had originally planned to give it to Zhong Chuhong just as a joke. But now, he suddenly felt like teasing Mo Huaien: “Two hundred thousand!”
It caused another uproar, with everyone’s attention turning to this new rising star in the film industry, wondering if the kid had been shocked by something. Some thought he must be crazy, or perhaps in love and trying to pursue someone!
Lin Qingxia grabbed Xiao Ran’s arm and shook her head gently. “Stop arguing. It doesn’t matter whether we buy it or not. Besides, I might not even like this dress!”
Mo Huaien stayed silent this time. He felt there was no need to spend two hundred thousand on a dress that wasn’t even diamond-encrusted. Was it really that important? Two hundred thousand could easily cover an ordinary person’s expenses for a whole year!
In the end, under Xiao Ran’s extreme frustration, Wei Dongling’s strange giggling, Fa Ge’s wry shake of head, and Zhong Chuhong’s smug smirk, he ended up buying the dress, which was worth at most three hundred thousand, for two hundred thousand. Xiao Ran wanted to shout in frustration—two hundred thousand! That could buy a nice car!
Feeling extremely aggrieved, Xiao Ran took the dress that made him want to pound his chest. Without hesitation, he gave Lin Qingxia a glance and handed the dress to Zhong Chuhong. The whole place was in an uproar, with many people discussing it: So this kid wanted to pursue Sister Hong! No wonder he was willing to spend so much on the dress.
Zhong Chuhong, caught off guard by Xiao Ran’s unexpected move, took the dress casually but felt extremely embarrassed under everyone’s strange looks. She glared at Xiao Ran fiercely before sitting down.
Seeing that Sister Hong was really annoyed, Xiao Ran quickly leaned in and explained with a smile, “Sister Hong, don’t be angry. I originally planned to give you this dress. The painting of the lady was meant for Qingxia. Don’t you want to see those newspapers and magazines? Maybe they’ll make this the headline tomorrow! Consider it helping me!”
Zhong Chuhong suddenly realized that Xiao Ran was doing this not just to amuse her, but also to cover up his relationship with Lin Qingxia in public, so as to avoid any suspicions. If the media linked her to Xiao Ran, they would naturally mention Lin Qingxia less. Most importantly, Zhong Chuhong was around the same age as Xiao Ran, so together they would appear completely innocent.
Realizing Xiao Ran’s intention, Zhong Chuhong felt envious. If only she had such a thoughtful boyfriend. Thinking of this, she didn’t dare to go any further. Xiao Ran didn’t notice Zhong Chuhong’s expression and simply explained his plan to Lin Qingxia. Lin Qingxia just smiled at him coquettishly; she trusted Xiao Ran.
The charity dinner was over, but for Xiao Ran and Lin Qingxia, it wasn’t over yet, because Mo Huaien came over. Ignoring Xiao Ran’s attempts to flatter Lin Qingxia, Xiao Ran was about to explode when he suddenly remembered that his apparent status was just that of a foster brother. So he simply watched everything coldly.
“Miss Lin, how about I take you home?” Mo Huaien glanced at Xiao Ran. He had thought earlier that Xiao Ran was competing with him for Lin Qingxia. Seeing Xiao Ran give the dress to Zhong Chuhong, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“No need, I have my own car!” Lin Qingxia politely declined. She wasn’t new to dealing with such situations and always handled them effortlessly. “Besides, I want to leave with Aran and talk about something along the way!”

Xiao Ran found Mo Huaien to be quite good-looking and seemingly reliable, making it easy for women to think he could be trusted for a lifetime. However, Xiao Ran believed he had already identified Mo Huaien’s fatal flaw—stinginess.

It wasn’t so much stinginess as it was practicality. Mo Huaien was far too practical. In a situation like that, any other man would have tried hard to take photos out of pride. But Mo Huaien didn’t; instead, he stopped in a very rational manner.

Xiao Ran felt both admiration and disdain. If possible, he would have wanted to show both emotions at the same time. Being too practical wasn’t necessarily bad—at least Xiao Ran thought such people could thrive in business. If Mo Huaien also understood the principle that suffering a loss was an opportunity to gain an advantage, then this man would be truly remarkable.

He needed to have Guan Xin investigate this person! Xiao Ran made up his mind secretly. Ever since he had a vague idea of Guan Xin’s identity, he had thought that having Guan Xin handle investigations was the best approach. In fact, Guan Xin always managed to get everything done well.

After sending Mo Huaien away, Zhong Chuhong couldn’t help but blame Xiao Ran as she walked toward the car. “Aran, next time if you leave me unprepared like this, I’ll expose your secrets!”

Suddenly, Zhong Chuhong bumped into a man. Xiao Ran quickly caught her and frowned as he asked the handsome young man, “Friend, remember to look where you’re going!”

“I’m sorry, I was thinking about something else and didn’t notice!” The very handsome young man apologized politely repeatedly. Then he suddenly exclaimed, clearly recognizing Xiao Ran and Zhong Chuhong. “Are you Xiao Ran and Zhong Chuhong? By the way, my name is Zhu Jiading.”

Zhu Jiading? Where had he heard that name before? Xiao Ran tapped his head in confusion. Zhu Jiading handed him a business card. Upon closer inspection, it clearly read “Lingzhi Advertising Company.”

Suddenly, he remembered who this guy was and found it quite interesting. But soon he lost that thought, sensing something unusual about this young man.

Zhu Jiading himself wasn’t anything worth Xiao Ran’s attention. What mattered was that his father, Zhu Xuhua, was one of the founding heroes of the Shaw Brothers film empire and had a very close relationship with Shaw Brothers’ founder. His elder brother, Zhu Jiaxin, was the chairman of Xiantao Digital Planning Group, while his wife, Chen Yiling, was a former Shaw Brothers actress—sister of Chen Meiling. His second brother, Zhu Jiamei, seemed to be studying bacteriology in the United States.

What did Xiantao Digital do? If you paid attention to major films produced after the mid-1990s, you’d almost certainly see Xiantao Digital’s name in the end credits. It was a renowned post-production company, unique in Hong Kong.

Xiantao Digital specialized in computer graphics, having worked on films like “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” and “Chinese Hero,” as well as “Shaolin Soccer” and “Kung Fu,” for which they handled the computer graphics.

Xiao Ran took a close look at Zhu Jia Ding—truly a handsome man; no wonder. With his constant giggling, Xiao Ran looked almost like a gay man, which made Zhong Chuhong and Lin Qingxia both amused and annoyed. After giving Zhu Jia Ding his business card, Xiao Ran said nothing and just left with his giggles. Back at Xiaoyao Wo, he began discussing something important with Wei Dongling—something related to the development of Meiying Company. Organizing his thoughts, Xiao Ran’s expression turned serious. He didn’t want Wei Dongling to think he was joking: “A Dong, I think there’s something we must do. We need to establish a team in the production department as soon as possible—a computer effects team!” “Computer effects?” Wei Dongling asked in surprise. “Do you think it’s necessary given the company’s size? Shaw Brothers tried to imitate Star Wars a few years ago with a movie called Star Trek, but the results were terrible, and it didn’t sell at all!” Though he asked the question, Wei Dongling basically agreed with Xiao Ran’s proposal, as Xiao Ran had never made a mistake in terms of the company’s strategic direction before, and now it seemed to prove just how brilliant those strategies were. Emotionally, he believed in Xiao Ran’s idea, but logic told him it was impossible. So, he needed reasons. The term “computer effects” originated from Star Wars, but back then, computer effects were very simple, almost just animation effects. It was Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park that truly brought out the extraordinary charm of computer effects, marking them as one of the most important elements in film production. Xiao Ran had been considering establishing a computer effects team for a long time, but obviously didn’t have the capability at that time. However, things were different now. So Far, Prison Storm had already earned six million for Meiying Company. After deducting investments and expenses, the movie could still make at least fifty million in profits. Xiao Ran’s idea was to use the profits to expand the company. Computer effects were essential, and they had to be developed on a large scale, to rival Hollywood’s standards. But based on current technology, it was difficult for Hong Kong to reach Hollywood’s level. Therefore, to achieve this, Xiao Ran needed to acquire a Hollywood film company to get access to real computer effects talent. Of course, acquisition wasn’t something Xiao Ran could do alone. But he could pave the way for computer effects in Hong Kong. It would be too late to start Xiantao Digital once Zhu Jia Xin arrived in the 1990s. After pondering for a while, Xiao Ran knew he had to come up with a practical suggestion to get approval—this was Wei Dongling’s stubbornness, which was also a strength. After thinking, he said in the simplest tone possible, “A Dong, you must have watched Star Wars. Tell me, what do you think of it?” “It was absolutely stunning!” Wei Dongling replied, eyes wide with admiration. He had been studying in the United States at that time and had certainly watched it. “I think it’s hard to find a better science fiction movie than that!”

“Star Wars relies not only on its storyline but also on its fantastical and stunning special effects, which I think you understand as well!” Xiao Ran felt he didn’t need to say more; adding just one sentence would suffice: “Times are always evolving. Since Star Wars has paved such a wonderful path for us, why not follow it?”
“I don’t quite understand what you’re talking about!” Seeing the silence, Guan Xin suddenly interjected, “But I know that computer special effects are a type of technology, and we can’t reject new technologies. Especially for those in the film industry—if technology becomes outdated, they’ll be left behind, just like those directors from the past.”
After countless thoughts racing through his mind, Wei Dongling finally looked up at Xiao Ran, gritted his teeth, and said, “I’ll trust you one more time. I hope it won’t fail!”
*****
Novel name — Zhu Jiaxin
Real name — Zhu Jiaxin
Zhu Jiaxin is the chairman of Xiantao Digital. He is the founder of Xiantao, which was originally an advertising company before transforming into a special effects company. It’s truly remarkable that Zhu Jiaxin has been able to persevere, otherwise, it would have been impossible to build what will eventually become Asia’s leading special effects digital company. Unfortunately, his brother Zhu Jiading married Zhong Chuhong.