The auction was going to start at 9. Since it was currently 8:30, they still had to wait another half an hour.

People slowly made their way into the hall.

Since Shi Sheng and Yu Jiu both looked underage (though in truth one of them was already of age) and were seated closer to the front, they couldn't help but draw attention.

"Xiaoximeimei, do they think I'm very handsome or something?" Yu Jiu moved closer to Shi Sheng and asked a narcissistic question.

Shi Sheng replied coldly, "They're afraid you don't have the money to participate."

Yu Jiu, "" 'Lil green plum isn't cute at all.'

The auction began at 9 sharp. Shi Sheng was completely uninterested in this, so she stared at the ground the whole time.

"Xiaoximeimei, can you cause money to appear by staring at the ground?"

Shi Sheng turned to look at him. "Can I ask something of you?"

As the light reflected in her eyes, it was like he was looking at the slightly rippling surface of a lake. But when he looked closer, it was as calm as usual.

He blinked and nodded while smiling. "Do tell."

"Shut up."

'So fucking noisy! Are you really a man with how chatty you are? Villains die from talking too much, y'know?'

Yu Jiu, "???"

'What does she mean?'

After shutting him up, Shi Sheng propped up her jaw and gazed at the auction stage.

The item currently on auction right now was a jade hairpin. The auctioneer praised it to the point where you'd think it was a unique, one-of-kind artefact before telling a sob story about its history. Soon, some idiots started taking the bait.

"1 mil."

"1.2 mil."

"1.4 mil."

Being an auctioneer is truly inhumanely taxingnot only do you need to be a fast speaker, you also need sharp eyes and a fast reaction to call out the numbers every time someone raises their bidding plaques.

"3 million, going once! 3 million, going twice! Sold!"

The auctioneer brought the hammer down, and an emcee immediately brought the jade hairpin away.

Shi Sheng turned to look at the idiot who'd bought the thingand unexpectedly found the FL.

Shen Jiayin was with the two male supporting leads she'd been with in Curio Street. They flanked her on either side.

"Xiaoximeimei, what are you looking at?" Noticing that Shi Sheng's gaze had been fixed at a certain one spot for an abnormally long amount of time, he followed it there. "Wen JingxuanXiaoximeimei, you know them?"

Shi Sheng could hear that he was displeased. She turned back. "And how does that concern you?"

An unnameable emotion flashed in Yu Jiu's eyes. "Xiaoximeimei's business is my business, so naturally it concerns me."

'Crazy.'

That was the label Shi Sheng pasted on Yu Jiu.

The last item being auctioned was a piece of blue-and-white porcelain.

Shi Sheng didn't really have a clue how much these kinds of stuff were worth from a glance, but she had used the Treasure-Hunter's Phone while they were strolling amongst the exhibits before and noticed that it was being valued in the hundreds of millions.

Usually, only the FL sold these kinds of rare items, though it was unknown where exactly she'd gotten it.

The appearance of the blue-and-white porcelain caused a lot of commotion.

Of course, there weren't many present who could actually afford to buy it. So the majority could only get excited, but not actually bid for it.

As expected, after the auctioneer declared the starting price, the crowd quietened down. The bidders were pretty much all from the first two rows.

In the end, it was won by an old man seated in the front row. From everyone else's respectful attitudes, he was a pretty big deal.

After the auction ended, the people who had made a bid for collector's items had to go to the backstage area to pay.

Yu Jiu said he had to go to the washroom and told Shi Sheng to wait here for him.

But after waiting a long time, Yu Jiu still showed no signs of returning. When most of the people had left, and he was still nowhere in sight, Shi Sheng's expression darkened. 'What's that idiot playing at this time?'

Shi Sheng looked in the FL's direction. The latter was currently chatting with the old man who'd won the bid for the porcelain. She didn't know what they were talking about, but the old fellow seemed very happy.

'The FL's managed to catch herself a golden thigh, eh?'

If she followed the script that pretty much all supporting female leads did, she would go up, cause trouble for the FL, and then get face-slapped.

But Shi Sheng didn't make a move. However, this didn't stop the FL from coming over of her own volition.

'Plot-sama Fucking seriously?! Just what enmity do you have with supporting female leads for you to push them towards death like this?!'

"Sheng Xia, you're here too? What a pleasant surprise!" Shen Jiayin had a polite smile on.

"No it's not."

Shi Sheng retreated a couple of steps. Her expression nearly said 'I don't like you, don't talk to me'.

Shen Jiayin, ""

"Lass, you know her?" Wen Jingxuan was the gentle type of supporting male lead, so his tone was gentle and his looks leaned more towards the 'warm jade' archetype.

"En. We're classmates." Shen Jiayin nodded. "I never expected to see her here."

Shi Sheng saw that contempt in Shen Jiayin's gaze again.

Cocking her head to the side, Shi Sheng blatantly asked her, "Shen Jiayin, just what are you looking down on me for?"

Shen Jiayin blinked and stared at Shi Sheng innocently. "Sheng Xia, what do you mean?"

"Nothing." Shi Sheng scoffed coolly.

'Never try and get someone to admit something they're pretending to be oblivious about.'

Shen Jiayin, "" 'Why is this conversation so weird?'

She had no way to continue after that.

"Just why are you speaking like that, eh? Your attitude is so harsh! Did no one teach you manners?" Xie Chen cried injustice on Shen Jiayin's behalf.

Xie Chen was younger than Wen Jingxuan and was also the type to always say what was on his mind, so he was more impulsive.

Shi Sheng gave him a side glance. "What's it to ya whether I'm polite or not?! Am I eating your family's rice, or taking your family's money? Since it's neither of these, what right do you have to get me to get me to be polite? Sick fuck!"

Xie Chen, ""

'You're the one that's sick in the head, okay?!'

"Manners are the most basic rule of society. You don't even know this, yet you dare show up in this kind of place. Aren't you afraid of offending people?"

"Oh, well I'm offending you right now! What can you do to me, eh?" Shi Sheng raised her chin with a provocative expression. "Are you going to say: this young master will make sure you can never show your face here again? I reckon you'd only dare to say this to people lower in status than you. Would you dare to say it to those powerful and influential people?"

Xie Chen, ""

[] 'I(bxt) simply cannot understand why Host always likes to lash out at people. Would it kill her to talk nicely?'

Some habits were very hard to change. Shi Sheng was guarded towards everyone. As long as a single word sounded off to her, she'd start giving them a tongue-lashing and wouldn't stop till she'd caused them to bleed {metaphoricallyand maybe literally}.

Don't say this would alienate people, or that it was unreasonable, or that mistakes should be forgiven since everyone made them. People like that always suffered silently, and Shi Sheng was never one to take things lying down.

If she ever did keep quiet howeverthen you had to watch out, for she was definitely planning to unleash a big move.

System had to thank the fact that this wasn't other worlds, where it wasn't illegal to kill people. If it had been a cultivation world or something similar, Shi Sheng would've long drawn her sword and started hacking.

"May I ask if you are Ms Sheng?" A woman wearing the robes of an emcee suddenly walked over, breaking the awkward atmosphere.

Shi Sheng examined her. She put away the sharp, opposing aura around her and nodded in a manner that could be counted as genial. "En."

The emcee smiled. "It's like this, Ms Sheng. Mr Yu had to leave early for reasons unknown. He made a successful bid for one of the auction items, so may I please trouble you to follow me and help him pay the bill?"

"Can you repeat that?"

Seeing that the girl in front of her revealed no signs of anger, merely requesting that she repeat herself, the emcee smiled and did so.

Author's note:

The lil hobby-horse is courting death again~