Early the next morning, Liang En got up as usual. While having breakfast, he noticed Pierce approaching excitedly, holding a piece of paper in his hand.
"Absolutely great news." After placing a plate of food in front of him, Pierce excitedly said to Liang En, "Thanks to you, we've got an invitation to an anonymous auction. We might find something good there."
During breakfast, Pierce quickly shared details about the anonymous auction with Liang En. As he had imagined, this auction was primarily a venue for wealthy individuals to sell their items.
However, in society, wealthy people auctioning their belongings is often a bad omen, usually leading to a series of unfortunate consequences.
Thus, the emergence of such anonymous auctions allowed both buyers and sellers to choose whether to remain anonymous, thus protecting everyone's privacy.
Of course, to avoid the ever-prying journalists, the auction imposed strict vetting on its participants. Pierce had managed to secure an invitation purely because of Liang En’s high reputation, which automatically entitled him to one.
The items at this auction were not cheap, so besides the occasional bargains, the core value of the auction was to acquire some rare items.
With money in hand, Liang En was naturally very interested in the auction, hoping to buy some rare artifacts.
After breakfast, they headed straight to a conference room in the hotel's basement, where the auction was scheduled to begin around 9 am.
"Why can’t we enter?" Just as they arrived at the conference room door downstairs, Liang En suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"I'm sorry, sir, but your invitation is for the upstairs auction, not for this anonymous auction," a staff member explained.
"It’s a pity if we traveled all the way from Ireland and couldn’t see this smaller auction," a female voice unfamiliar to Liang En remarked.
"Is there a way we could take a look?" "Well, based on your invitation, it seems you have sufficient funds, but I think you would need at least a reliable person's recommendation to enter."
"May I vouch for my friends?" At this moment, Liang En recognized the man as Officer Burke, so he stepped forward to offer help.
Despite not knowing why Officer Burke was dressed like a wealthy individual and what he was doing there, their multiple past collaborations made Liang En willing to assist.
Officer Burke also recognized Liang En and subtly raised his hand, allowing Liang En to see the name at the top of his invitation.
"You know, my friend William specifically came here to attend this auction. So, if possible, I hope you could let him and his companion join," Liang En said.
"Mr. Liang, you certainly have the right to invite your friends to the auction," the staff member said, bowing slightly and stepping aside. "You are one of our most esteemed guests."
Thus, Liang En and his group smoothly passed the auction's entrance check and found a place to sit down. Only then did Liang En have the chance to ask Officer Burke what was going on.
"It’s alright, Mr. Liang is trustworthy enough," Officer Burke assured, patting his female companion’s arm to calm her, then explained his mission through his phone.
This matter was also related to Liang En, as his past actions had led to the rapid decline of the Golden Society, forcing them to sell some of their assets in an attempt to recover and rise again.
Officer Burke and his colleagues were there because they had received a tip that the Golden Society might use the auction to liquidate assets, hoping to find these items and trace back to the organization.
Given that the criminal organization's internal structure couldn’t be too complex, especially under urgent financial situations, it was likely that the senior leaders were handling it themselves.
So, if they could confirm that the Golden Society was indeed selling items here, the police had a good chance of following this lead to resolve the matter completely.
Although the auction was famous for maintaining seller anonymity, it was relatively easy for the police to uncover the identities of such criminal organizations.
"This is the list of antiques we are sure about; if you are willing, you could help us see if the items for sale are fakes or genuine," Officer Burke said, handing his phone to Liang En.
Liang En quickly browsed through it, realizing that these items were not just European but from all over the world, even more extensive than many museum collections.
Just as Liang En finished reviewing the list, the auction began. Compared to the upstairs exhibition, almost all items here were genuine treasures.
Considering that many of the items were brought by wealthy individuals eager to liquidate assets, the quality of the auctioned items was naturally not low.
However, the corresponding price tags were certainly not cheap, at least from Pierce’s perspective, these items held no purchasing value.
For these items, the final auction prices were not much different from market prices, making this location not an ideal place for stocking up.
However, Liang En appeared very spirited. This was partly because he needed to help Officer Burke keep an eye on the situation, ensuring nothing was overlooked, and partly because he was searching for items he needed.
It was unclear whether today’s sellers were nouveau riche or hollow aristocrats, so the main items auctioned were oil paintings from the 16th century onwards, luxurious sculpted furniture, and various gold and silver utensils.
These items indeed looked opulent and aligned with common aesthetics, but from a historical perspective, they were quite ordinary and did not reflect much of the original owners' substance.
Nevertheless, this did not mean Liang En would not make a purchase. At least when a very well-preserved Patek Philippe pocket watch, made in 1890 with 18k gold and pearl enamel, came up for auction, he spent 14,000 euros to acquire it.
This was essentially an investment, as prices for antique watches had been rising yearly. Most people at the auction were not interested in watches at this price range, allowing Liang En to pick up a bargain.
Indeed, Liang En’s participation blended into the overall atmosphere of the auction. Everyone now believed he was there purely out of curiosity to see if there was anything interesting.
This also made his careful examination of each item more reasonable, with no one suspecting that Liang En was still quietly gathering intelligence.
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