Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Two waitresses, both dressed in cheongsams, came up.

One of them was holding a hardcover booklet, while the other was carrying a blue lantern.

A candle was lit inside the lantern, and the light was dim, clearly not intended for illumination.

The auction list was placed on the table, and the two servants nodded slightly to Hu Ming before hanging a small blue lantern above his head.

"Second Master, the sky lantern is lit."

"Miss told me to tell you not to worry, and to light the lamps with confidence. If you don't have enough funds in your account, Miss will make up the difference for you."

Tingnu bent down and explained softly to Hu Ming.

"Hey, that woman Yin Nanfeng, she's underestimating the Hong family, isn't she?"

"Although our Hong family has been out of this business for nearly half a century, whether it's antiques or jade, surely we can still afford to light a mere sky lantern for Second Master!"

The door opened, and Hong Xia, dressed in red, stepped in, letting out a soft hum.

"Alright, everyone calm down for a bit. It's just a sky lantern. My savings are more than enough to cover it. This thing is only worth a couple hundred million at most."

Hu Ming picked up the list, looked at the only item up for auction, and shook his head with amusement.

Good intentions aside, the amount is indeed enormous. No matter how wealthy a family is, most of their funds are in real estate.

It's not easy to come up with two or three hundred million yuan of idle cash flow in a short period of time.

During this period, Hu Ming also frequently sold some treasures brought out of the tomb. To put it bluntly, in terms of cash flow, Hu Ming could take out two or three hundred million yuan without hesitation.

That's how extravagant we are!
The sky lanterns were lit, and the scene instantly became a little commotion. In less than half a minute, the commotion turned into an uproar.

Clearly, the story of how Zhang Dafoye burned his vast fortune by lighting three sky lanterns here last time is still circulating in Beijing.

Now, after more than half a century, how could those people not be astonished to see someone lighting sky lanterns again?
Before Wu Xie and Fatty, who were completely bewildered and confused, could recover, the noise stopped and was replaced by enthusiastic applause.

These people were motivated by two reasons: first, they admired Hu Ming's courage in lighting the sky lantern; second, they were looking forward to seeing the spectacle!
"Uncle Ming, what's going on? Is there some special significance to this seating arrangement?"

Wu Xie and Fatty frowned deeply; even the most oblivious person would realize that there was something mysterious about this chair.

"You didn't even read the notes your grandfather left you carefully, did you?"

"The Crescent Moon Hotel has a rule: the seats on the left are specially reserved. Whenever someone sits in these seats, a servant will come up and light a lamp."

"That means that in this round of auction, no matter what price the others bid, one vote will be automatically added at the end. It's like, no matter how you play the game, I'm going to take this!"

Hu Ming glanced at Old Mrs. Huo, whose expression wasn't very pleasant, and then introduced the situation with a leisurely air.

"This is what they call lighting sky lanterns? I seem to remember now, Zhang Dafoye once lit three sky lanterns, burning away half his life's worth of wealth!"

Wu Xie scratched his teeth, a look of surprise on his face. Hu Ming reminded him of an anecdote he had once read in his notes.

"Two or three uncles, you're awesome!"

Remembering the price Hu Ming had casually mentioned earlier, Wu Xie gasped. That amount was something he would never even dare to dream of.

If you think about it carefully
A cold sweat instantly broke out on Wu Xie's back. If he were sitting in that position...
Damn it, even if the entire Wu family sold off their assets, they still couldn't raise that much money!
"Master Zhang... Humph!"

"No one has dared to light this sky lantern in this restaurant for a long time. You've really made a name for yourself. From now on, everyone in the martial arts world will know the formidable name of Hu Ming, the Second Master of the Hong Family!"

Old Mrs. Huo recalled some old stories, snorted coldly, and sighed sarcastically.

"You don't need to worry about that. I, Hu Ming, can easily afford to light a mere sky lantern."

Hu Ming smiled slightly, unconcerned. After all, how could taking the Ghost Seal from Old Madam Huo possibly make her happy?
"Look, Wu Xie, Fatty, this is today's auction item, exclusively sponsored by Grandma Huo."

"Does this look familiar?"

Hu Ming casually crossed his legs and tossed the auction booklet to Wu Xie and Fatty.

A photograph was pasted on the paper, showing a dark blue-green seal.

The base is carved with intricate designs and has little luster.

Below are a few lines of handwritten text, all numbers, representing the dimensions of the items in the photo.

At the very bottom, there is a line of smaller characters: Ghost-shaped Dragon Fish Jade Seal.

"Could this be the ghost seal from King Lu Shang's tomb???"

The more Wu Xie looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. Wasn't this the Ghost Seal mentioned in the murals of King Lu Shang's tomb, the one that could command ghost soldiers?
"But... I remember there should be two of these, one in your hands and one in your brother's, right?"

The fat man frowned, realizing that the problem was not so simple.

More than half a year ago, when he was underground in the Cloud Palace, he clearly saw Hu Ming and Xiao Ge each holding an identical ghost seal, and they followed the Yin soldiers into the Bronze Gate!
At that time, Fatty roughly understood that there should be a Ghost Seal in the tomb of King Lu Shang, but it was taken away by the young man without a word.

Although he wasn't quite sure where the one in Hu Ming's hand came from, Hu Ming's methods were always mysterious, so it wasn't a big deal.

But then, a third ghost seal appeared before them?
Holy crap, has this stuff become so rampant?
"The one in my hand was indeed taken from the tomb of King Lu Shang. As for the one in Hu Ming's hand... there's nothing to say about it; that's his own skill."

"As for the Ghost Seal that is being auctioned, it is something I traded with the Nine Gates more than half a century ago."

The young man, who had been silent since arriving here, suddenly spoke up.

Given their previous agreement with Zhang Qiling, the Nine Gates are indeed in the wrong regarding this matter.

Facing the expressionless young man, Old Madam Huo snorted coldly and fell silent, turning her attention to the auction below, her eyes flickering uncertainly.

She was already thinking about how to end things; Hu Ming's forceful intervention in lighting the sky lantern was something she had never expected.

The methods she had prepared for retrieving the Ghost Seal were completely ineffective against Hu Ming.

However, the Ghost Seal is of great importance, and Huo Xiangu is unwilling to simply hand it over to someone else.

At this moment, while the group was talking, in just a few minutes, the price of the Ghost Seal below had already soared to over 100 million!!!