National treasure

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhong Zhe received a call from the auction house, and the director of the contemporary art department excitedly informed that a rare Sanyu treasure was being sold by a seller.

"The photo and the brief introduction provided by the seller have been sent to your foundation's mailbox. The seller intends to facilitate a private transaction with you." The director said with a smile, "The other party wants to make friends with you, so he is willing not to conduct a public auction."

Auction houses have seen this kind of thing a lot. With the prestige and status of the Zhong family in the industry, collectors who have various needs and want to get in touch with Zhong Zhe can line up around the Bund.

"I hope you can take a look as soon as possible and give us a reply."

Zhong Zhe understood what the director meant. The autumn auction is coming soon. If he has no intention of this painting, the auction house will rush to the public auction.This is for the convenience of others and the convenience of oneself, without self-doubt, dragging and blocking people's way of making money.

He hung up the phone, turned on the computer, and what jumped into his eyes was a pink baby elephant running happily in the boundless world.

Zhong Zhe knew at a glance that this was a painting of Sanyu's "pink period". However, he had never seen this painting on any public information, but from the ultra-high-definition original picture he sent, it can be seen that the brushstrokes It was San Yu without a doubt.

That was the best time for Sanyu in Paris, when he was young, he was still learning to paint without any worries, and he was his noble son.

Zhong Zhe immediately called back the director, "If there is no problem after the appraisal, I would be happy to make friends with that seller."

The director smiled and agreed. He had expected that Zhong Zhe would like this painting. Although the auction house lost one chance of public auction, the short-term loss caused by this commission was more than the long-term profit that could satisfy the two big customers. It's really a drop in the bucket.

When the evening approached, the director called again and said in an apologetic tone: "The seller is very glad that you agreed. He has been in Shanghai for the past few days and will be leaving soon. He wanted to ask if he could come to visit tonight. "

If it weren't for the fact that the painting was so in line with Zhong Zhe's wishes, he would not be in such a hurry with his style.

In view of the fact that the transaction was done privately, there were some matters that both parties had to discuss first, so that the auction house could proceed later.Since the other party is leaving soon, let's see each other as soon as possible.

"Okay. But you know, I don't go to dinner with people I meet for the first time."

"Mr. Zhong, don't worry, I have already made it clear to the other side. Where do you want to make an appointment?"

Zhong Zhe turned around and looked at his luxurious river view suite in Baiping, "There is no need to find another place, just make an appointment in my room."

The hour hand pointed to 8, and the doorbell rang outside the door on time.

Zhong Zhe got up and opened the door. The two people in the aisle, the older one was dressed in old-fashioned vulgarity, and the younger one was in casual clothes.This was the first visit to Zhong Zhe, and Zhong Zhe didn't show his face, but his first impression was not good.

In the circle of collecting, everyone has their own origins and factions. It’s not that there are no such collectors in front of us, but they just don’t agree with each other. Buying and selling can be done, but friends probably can’t make it.

"Mr. Zhong, hello. I'm Huang Jianguo. It's a pleasure to meet you!" The other party stretched out his hand with a smile on his face, and introduced the person behind him, "This is my nephew."

The light in the corridor is not bright, protruding from the side and behind, casting oblique shadows.

Zhong Zhe's initial impression was that this man was quite tall, more than half a head taller than himself at nearly 1.8 meters. Strangely, he could even completely disappear his presence before he made a sound.

It was a handsome and clean face, as clean and perfect as the lines in the hands of a master.

When shaking hands, the other party took a step forward and walked out from the shadows, the light in his eyes was like a burning flame.

For a moment, Zhong Zhe inexplicably remembered the statue of David.

He seemed to have returned to that summer day, when time stood still, and he lost his mind standing in front of the quietly burning masterpiece of art.

Cheng Ling looked at Zhong Zhe's eyes looking at him, and thought firmly, sure enough, this person has no memory of yesterday's elevator incident.

After greeting, Zhong Zhe let him into the room.

When entering the eyes, there is a stunning night view of the Pujiang River outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the Pearl Tower is shining brightly, and the continuous high-rise buildings outline the unique skyline of the city.

This is a formal living room, with luxurious carpets and retro velvet sofas on both sides. When the guests and hosts are seated, Cheng Ling has already inspected the details of the room without a trace.

On the mantelpiece in the living room is a Baccarat champagne glass that has been drunk. The iconic red point of the glass body shows that the owner disdains to use the hotel's standard equipment and has made additional preparations.

The daily fresh fruit on the round coffee table by the window has not been touched, but there is another plate of exquisitely sliced ​​fruit with only a few pieces touched. Obviously the owner is unwilling to do it, and another room service is called.

There is a custom-made Macbook on the desk, a large stack of exquisite albums from the auction house is piled aside, and a book is also pulled out in the corner of the couch.

Just as they sat down, the doorbell rang again, and the waiter entered the room with a fruit plate and a sea of ​​Chinese tea, and cleaned up the wine glasses and the leftovers as promised.

All the signs have once again confirmed Cheng Ling's first impression of Zhong Zhe. The expert he is about to cooperate with is a rare animal from the old family. He has long-term refined living habits. He is modest and polite on the outside, but alienated on the inside. picky.

He looked again at Zhong Zhe's sitting posture with his long legs crossed, and the picture album pulled down in the corner.Yes, with some sloppy laziness in his bones.

To be honest, no matter how many times Cheng Ling is asked to guess, it will be difficult for him to connect rigorous, academic, senior, professional, these basic words that an expert should represent, with the person in front of him.

Not only that, Cheng Ling could almost guess the difficulty of cooperating with such an expert with his toes. He thought he was ready to make any sacrifices for the mission, but he never thought of being ready to serve the young master at all.

If he hadn't been certain that there would never be any negligence in the mission in the dark green file bag, he would have wondered whether such an expert was specially sent by the enemy to sabotage the operation.

Zhong Zhe sat down, and before the middle-aged man who claimed to be Huang Jianguo could speak, he saw that the other party suddenly took out a certificate and put it on the table.

It didn't take too long for Zhong Zhe to go from the initial surprise to calmly picking up the documents to check.After all, Uncle Gao's phone call prepared him mentally. He just didn't expect that the relevant party would come to his door so quickly, and in such a way that no one expected.

This covert work was really well done, and even the parties were bored until the last moment.

Huang Jiu directly introduced the current situation, and hoped that Zhong Zhe would fully cooperate with the operation to recover 003. He also expressed that the country is very grateful and highly valued the contributions Zhong has made over the years, and he has repeatedly guaranteed that the operation will not let Zhong Zhe Zhe involved in any danger.

He agreed without thinking about Zhong Zhe, he had already made his decision. "The things were sent in by my father, and the Zhong family has been responsible for guarding them before. Now, regardless of personal safety, even for the sake of the country, finding the things safe and sound is the first priority. I will cooperate with the action."

Huang Jiu was very satisfied with the expert's easy-going attitude, and his part of the task was completed here, and he explained something else to Zhong Zhe, "This is a document that needs to be signed in the procedure, please sign it after reading it, so I can take it with you." go back."

Zhong Zhe listened to Huangjiu's general explanation, read through the document again, and then skillfully took out a gold leaf fountain pen from the inside of his suit. He was used to signing and always carried a pen with him.

"Okay, my 'nephew' will be handed over to Mr. Zhong." Huang Jiu successfully completed the task and said with a smile: "Temporary workers, please take care of me."

After the rice wine left, the atmosphere in the room unknowingly cooled down.

Zhong Zhe looked at Cheng Ling, the teacup in front of him hadn't moved, and even his body posture hadn't changed at all. He just sat there before, which made Zhong Zhe inexplicably ignore his sense of existence again.

However, at this moment, when there is no sound around him, his sense of existence is so strong that he is like a black hole in the room, which seems to be able to swallow everything at any time.

Zhong Zhe is an extremely sensitive person with almost instinctive and precise intuition. He doesn't like the uncontrollable desire to escape that arises in his heart. After the accident many years ago, he has not felt this kind of palpitation for a long time.

If he had a choice, he didn't want to cooperate with such a person, but Huang Jiu had already explained that this was specially selected by the higher-ups, so there was obviously no room for substitutions.

Zhong Zhe felt great pressure in the battle between intuition and reason, and he even breathed a little harder.

The heavy pressure was like substance, Zhong Zhe struggled to withstand it, and remained silent, while the other party also remained silent.

After a while, Cheng Ling finally changed his sitting posture, and Zhong Zhe inexplicably felt the loosening of the atmosphere, the black hole receded, and the crisis was resolved.

He couldn't explain his absurd feelings at all, let alone act on it, he could only bite the bullet and think about whether to speak next.

Cheng Ling looked at Zhong Zhe calmly, his reaction was both within Cheng Ling's expectations and beyond his expectations.

He deliberately exerted pressure on Zhong Zhe, which was an absolute psychological power, and he needed to use this invisible and solid first impression to guide his next actions.

But he didn't expect Zhong Zhe to be so sensitive, his intuition was comparable to that of a specially trained team member, he could see that he had the idea of ​​fleeing, and even with such a strong intuition, he resisted it.

This was a silent contest, but it was no less than Cheng Ling's direct attack. He was surprised. Zhong Zhe clearly felt the psychological pressure beyond ordinary people, but he survived it.

From beginning to end, he didn't speak in a panic, as if Zhong Zhe knew that this was a duel, opening his mouth was a flaw, and he could only do his best.

Now, Cheng Ling spoke.

"Everything that Huangjiu promised you just now is meaningless. The truth is, the mission will be very dangerous."

He leaned his upper body forward, and looked over the low tea table to rest on Zhong Zhe's face, "Have you thought about it yet?"

The black hole appeared in front of Zhong Zhe again without warning.

He asked him, it was too late to say no.