The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 356 - 355: Attending the Auction, Encountering Sun Feifei Again

Chapter 356: Chapter 355: Attending the Auction, Encountering Sun Feifei Again

Initially, Wang Hongcheng was sentenced to eight years in prison for framing and cheating with substandard goods, tax evasion, and other offences.

As an accessory, Hong Jinbao, because of his surrender and meritorious reporting, was only sentenced to one year and five months with a two-year probation.

Afterward, with the help of Shi Yizheng, Hong Jinbao effortlessly took over Fushun Cake Factory.

From a lazy street loafer, he turned into a big boss overnight.

Hong Jinbao was truly a good-for-nothing who only knew how to indulge in eating, drinking, and gambling. Under his "efforts," the Fushun Cake Factory went bankrupt in less than half a year.

Of course, Shi Yizheng also had a "hand" in this.

And Shi Yizheng’s actions were naturally instructed by Pei Ziheng.

Hong Jinbao had helped Wang Hongcheng harm his mother several times; how could he let the other party enjoy peace and happiness?

Wang Hongcheng still had some foresight and brains. After making his first bucket of gold, he directly bought the land of Fushun Factory.

But since Wang Hongcheng went to prison, the operation of Fushun Cake Factory went from bad to worse. The regular customers had almost all been quietly taken away by Shi Yizheng, and Hong Jinbao himself had no ability to secure new customers. Instead, he spent every day entertaining a bunch of fair-weather friends, squandering money extravagantly, and emptied the factory inside and out, owing a huge debt to banks and creditors. He had no choice but to use the factory to pay off the debts.

Learning that Fushun Cake Factory was about to be auctioned was like a godsend for Shen Mingzhu.

The Fushun Cake Factory covered an area of five acres, with a factory building area of over five thousand square meters, more than double the size of the food factory, and it even had very comprehensive workshop production equipment, including a mooncake production line.

Buying Fushun Cake Factory was a surefire profitable deal for Shen Mingzhu.

She immediately raised money to register for the auction.

She had just bought a house and couldn’t even come up with five hundred, yet she wanted to buy a factory building worth more than fifty thousand.

She admired her own audacity.

...

The auction date was April 25th, and the location was Fengcheng Intermediate People’s Court.

The auction started at ten o’clock, and Shen Mingzhu arrived around nine thirty.

Perhaps because it was still early, there were fewer people in the auction hall than Shen Mingzhu had imagined, with just seven or eight people sitting sparsely scattered.

Some were whispering to each other, while others cast curious and probing glances at her and Shen Hongmei.

Learning from previous experiences, Shen Mingzhu deliberately dressed down today, wearing a checked shirt with a large blue suit jacket over it, with a twist braid hanging behind her head, and black-framed plain glasses on her face.

She looked like a woman in her thirties who was an employee at some company.

Shen Hongmei was dressed similarly, the only difference being that she wasn’t wearing glasses.

Shen Mingzhu found a discreet spot in the back row to sit down and began to look through the auction procedures, while Shen Hongmei looked around curiously.

As it approached ten o’clock, more people had arrived at the auction hall than before.

Shen Mingzhu silently counted and figured there were probably about ten parties participating in the auction.

Two minutes before ten o’clock, a man and a woman walked in through the door.

Shen Mingzhu glanced their way casually, then her gaze abruptly focused.

The man wasn’t very tall and appeared to be in his forties, dressed in a suit and sharp shoes, his hair slicked back with a shiny finish, carrying a briefcase under his arm, exuding the air of a boss.

Following behind the middle-aged man was the young woman—none other than Sun Feifei.

Having not seen her for two years, Sun Feifei had changed significantly, her hair permed into the fashionable big waves of the time, heavy makeup on her face, her collar opened low with a hint of cleavage subtly on display.

In this era, such attire was considered quite bold and unconventional.

As expected, Sun Feifei’s arrival drew sidelong glances from many people, especially men.

Sun Feifei didn’t mind at all, arm in arm with the middle-aged man, and took a seat in the front row.

Shen Mingzhu withdrew her gaze, pondered for a moment, and then turned to whisper to Shen Hongmei, "When the auction starts, you’ll be the one to bid."

Shen Hongmei was so nervous that she was breathing rapidly, "Maybe we shouldn’t, what if I mess it up for you?"

Shen Mingzhu comforted her, "Don’t be afraid, just follow my commands. When it’s time to bid, I’ll squeeze your little finger once, raising the bid by a thousand each time."

Shen Hongmei nodded repeatedly, her face flushed with excitement.

She had never bought anything over fifty dollars in her life, and now she was sitting here, about to buy a factory worth tens of thousands.

This grand scene would be something she could brag about for a lifetime.

The reason why Shen Mingzhu had Shen Hongmei bid was to avoid attracting Sun Feifei’s attention.

Each of their few encounters had ended in Sun Feifei’s disastrous defeat, and in their last confrontation two years ago, Sun Feifei had suffered the consequences of her own actions, leaving behind a criminal record and losing her respectable job.

Knowing Sun Feifei’s character and temperament, if she knew that Mingzhu was interested in buying the Fushun Cake Factory, she would certainly try to interfere.

Luckily, Sun Feifei hadn’t noticed her.

Shen Mingzhu took a mask out of her bag and put it on; the streets were full of flying catkins these days, and she wore a mask every time she went out.

...

At ten o’clock, the auction officially began.

Although not many companies participated in the auction, everyone was quite active in bidding, as the starting price of fifty thousand was significantly lower than the appraised value of sixty-five thousand.

"President Shen, aren’t we going to bid?"

Seeing that everyone else had joined in the bidding while they remained silent, Shen Hongmei’s composure clearly began to waver.

Shen Mingzhu whispered, "No rush, a good meal is worth waiting for."

Joining the bidding now, besides driving up the auction price too quickly, was meaningless.

Once the bidding price exceeded sixty-five thousand, those who had been actively bidding stopped.

When the price was pushed to seventy thousand, only two groups remained bidding.

One was the middle-aged man beside Sun Feifei, and the other was a local seasoning company.

Shen Mingzhu recognized them because she had previously cooperated with the seasoning company.

The two parties went back and forth, quickly driving the price up to seventy-five thousand.

After a brief pause, the middle-aged man beside Sun Feifei seemed to have given up, not bidding any further.

Just when everyone thought the factory would go to the seasoning company, Shen Mingzhu signaled Shen Hongmei to make a bid.

"Seventy-six thousand."

Probably because she was too nervous, Shen Hongmei’s voice trembled, sounding somewhat comical.

Almost in an instant, everyone in the room turned to look at them.

Shen Mingzhu was relatively calm, but Shen Hongmei, having never witnessed such a spectacle, turned red in the face and looked completely at a loss.

But soon, Shen Mingzhu was not calm anymore.

Because the owner of the seasoning company, Cai Kunda, recognized her, "Shen Mingzhu, are you deliberately driving up the price?"

Though she was disguised so even her mother wouldn’t recognize her, Cai Kunda had recognized Shen Hongmei beside her.

Due to some previous unpleasantness between their companies, Cai Kunda mistakenly thought she was intentionally inflating the auction price.

"Seventy-seven thousand!"

Just as Shen Mingzhu was about to explain, someone suddenly called out a new bid in the room.

It was Sun Feifei.

Shen Mingzhu looked up and saw the other party revealing a malevolent sneer.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.