Chapter 239

Chapter 239: A Wide Range of Services

Manager Wen was also stunned when he heard her say that. He asked: “Miss Du, you… know them?”

“…I don’t.”

[But I know all their secrets!]

Xi Jing Yue thought: [I knew it!]

The story of the Xiang siblings appeared in the second half of Du De Sheng’s book. At that time, Du Qi Chang had temporarily dropped out of the competition because of the Jiangyu Plaza bombing case, and then kept a very low profile for a long time.

He showed up again because of these Xiang siblings. Xiang Qiu Fu’s brother, Xiang Si Da, was an antiques expert, and also an expert at forging antiques.

Using the convenience of his job, he would secretly list some real antiques as fake ones in his appraisals. Then, using the excuse that he was “helping to deal with fake antiques so they wouldn’t circulate and hurt more collectors,” he bought those real antiques back at a very low price.

After that, he secretly resold those real antiques overseas to make money.

Xi Jing Yue’s eyes turned cold. Taking real national antiques, disguising them as fakes, and smuggling them overseas was no less evil than fraud or robbery. That was straight up smuggling.

Forget Du An Rao, even his own urge to report them was starting to stir.

As for Du Qi Chang, the reason that spineless fence-sitter could lie low and survive peacefully all the way to the end of the story was all thanks to his luck.

They had thought the bombing case would crush him for good, but who knew that right after that, Heaven would send him this huge case of Xiang Si Da.

One of Du Qi Chang’s men accidentally discovered Xiang Si Da’s smuggling operation while on a mission. Because they found out in time, this sale failed. Du Qi Chang led his people to intercept all the antiques in Xiang Si Da’s hands. Among them were many highly representative national treasures and rare calligraphy and paintings.

Because of this, Du Qi Chang made up for his past fault with great merit and returned to the first tier of competitors.

After sorting out the siblings’ background and the plot related to them, Du An Rao’s gaze toward them changed at once. She no longer looked lazy and careless. Instead, there was a faint chill in her eyes.

Manager Wen noticed the change in her expression. For some reason, his heart suddenly began to pound hard. He faintly felt that something big was about to happen.

“Miss Du…”

“Call me President Du.”

Manager Wen froze for a moment, then still obeyed and changed how he addressed her: “President Du, you are…”

Du An Rao gave him a gentle smile, then walked over to stand in front of Xiang Qiu Fu. She said meaningfully: “You said your husband is a veteran at this auction house. That means he has worked here for quite a long time, right?”

“Exactly.” Xiang Qiu Fu raised her head and glanced at Du An Rao. Maybe she felt that looking up at someone made her lose momentum, so she quickly got up from the floor. Acting all high and mighty, she said: “My husband has worked at this auction house for a full ten years. Ten years! Who knew that just because of a tiny little mistake in the accounts, this ungrateful white-eyed wolf called the police on him and had him arrested. He still hasn’t come out.”

“If you ask me, my husband was framed by him and took the blame for him. Otherwise, how could a small accountant like him have the ability and the guts to embezzle that much money from the company? Poor me and my son, losing the head of our family overnight. To survive, we still had to force smiles in front of the one pulling strings behind the scenes.”

Shameless people were all drama kings.

Just one second ago, Xiang Qiu Fu’s arrogant face had been full of contempt for Du An Rao. The next second, she could cry to her with tears streaming down, like she had suffered some great injustice. If someone who didn’t know the truth saw this, they might really think she was very pitiful.

Manager Wen had not expected this woman to be not only unreasonable but also to twist black and white like this. His hands, hanging by his sides and clenched into fists, began to tremble slightly.

“President Du, don’t listen to her nonsense…”

Before he finished, Du An Rao raised her hand to stop him: “I know.”

Manager Wen was slightly stunned. The words on the tip of his tongue were swallowed back down.

“Since your husband has been in the company for so long, did the former boss, who was from my parents’ generation, ever tell you anything about his true background?”

“Wh…” Xiang Qiu Fu had not expected that after saying so much, Du An Rao would ask such an unrelated question. For a moment, she choked.

“Looks like he never told you. Or you never knew.” Du An Rao said lightly, “In that case, I’ll introduce myself.

“My elder was from a Daoist family. He inherited an orthodox Daoist tradition and was skilled in feng shui, choosing sites, and divining good and bad fortune. Simply put, he could do divination, and his business covered a wide range of things.

“As his junior, I don’t dare say I inherited all his true skills, but I can at least do a bit of reading people and judging character.”

As she spoke, Du An Rao even winked at her playfully: “Put it this way. In front of me, whether a person is good or bad, they have no fig leaf to hide behind. I probably know more about what goes on in your family than you do.”

“Playing ghosts and tricks, fooling people with fake mysticism. They were all fooled by you and your elder. I don’t believe you!”

“Oh, really?” Du An Rao spread her hands with a look of “there’s nothing I can do with you”: “At first, for your husband’s sake, since he worked so many years at the auction house, I wanted to at least let you and your son keep some face. But it seems you don’t really want it.”

“You… what nonsense are you talking about?”

Manager Wen’s eyes flashed. He seemed to have thought of something, but he did not dare to jump to a conclusion.

“Xiang Qiu Fu, you are fifty-nine years old this year. You were born into a very poor family. Your mother loved to gamble, and your father did nothing all day except drink.”

“You’re fifty-nine this year? I thought you were… fifty-three?” Du An Rao had just begun, and Manager Wen quickly caught the key point.

“Don’t listen to her nonsense. I’m fifty-three…”

“You know very well whether I’m talking nonsense or not. Since you were young, you’ve lied and cheated and done all sorts of bad things. You dropped out before finishing middle school and ran around with people. After that, you did business for a long time where you used your body to make money.”

Du An Rao was already putting it nicely. Business where you used your body to make money, wasn’t that just…

The calm look on Manager Wen’s face finally cracked. Xi Jing Yue and the others all looked like they had just heard a huge piece of gossip.

The only one who broke down was the party concerned, Xiang Qiu Fu: “You’re lying, you’re lying, you’re lying! I’m going to call the police. I’m going to sue you for slander!”

“Sure, go ahead. Then the police officer can explain to you what a crime it is to forge an ID card.”

Xiang Qiu Fu was choked by that. Her eyes started to dart around in a guilty panic.

Seeing that she was scared, Du An Rao did not waste time. She continued: “After that, you met Mr. Wen’s cousin. You lied to Mr. Wen’s cousin and told him you had just started working in society, and that you were forced by life to go and work in that kind of messy place.”

“He believed you. To get you out of that place, he gave you all his savings. You thought he was an easy-to-control honest man, so you decided to settle down with him. Then you changed your age and made up a background story that had nothing to do with the truth. You had him bring you home and make you his wife.”

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