A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage)
Chapter 207 I'll Show You

"Dad, what are you doing?! How could you give him money? Although $200 isn't much, but giving him the money is as good as throwing it away," complained Su Qian.

Su Yuan-Shan replied, "It's not easy to survive in the city, especially someone with a poor background like him. He must have endured far more hardship and malice than we can imagine."

"It's not much to me anyway, so I'll help if I can. What's more, what if this youth really turns out to be a master appraiser? I'm just investing $200 to support him. It's no loss."

Despite saying that, Su Yuan-Shan clearly didn't believe that this painting was the legendary work of Su Dong-Po.

After all, none of the people who could come here were fools. How could legendary work from a famous artist get displayed here for so long yet escape everyone's eyes?

Su Yuan-Shan had given Ye Fan the money purely out of sympathy.

Su Yuan-Shan's grandfather was from the countryside too. Seeing Ye Fan's predicament reminded him of how terribly hard his ancestors had to work in the city before finally gaining independence. So Su Yuan-Shan helped Ye Fan this once out of pity.

"Here's $250. Can you give me a receipt?" Ye Fan handed the money to Yang He.

"Oh? Do you even want a receipt? You're just trying to delay things! Fine, I'll give you a receipt. Then there will be no way you can keep delaying things," Yang He assumed Ye Fan was afraid of the embarrassment and was trying to hold things up.

But he was clueless about Ye Fan's true intention.

"It's done. I've taken your money and issued you a receipt. The painting is yours. Now can we get President Gu to appraise it?" said Yang He impatiently.

Ye Fan nodded. "Of course we can.'

Ye Fan and Yang He walked over and asked Gu Long-En to appraise the painting.

All eyes were glued on them.

The sight of Ye Fan's confidence made everyone lose faith, especially Yang He himself. After what happened moments ago, he couldn't help but feel worried. Could this really be a painting by the great writer from the Song Dynasty, Su Dong-Po?

If it was true, then Yang He would swim in regret for selling it off at merely $250!

Of course, everyone felt the likelihood of this happening was nearly zero.

After Old Master Gu studied it for a while, he shook his head somewhat disappointingly at Ye Fan, "Young man, I think you misjudged this painting this time."

"This painting is really a fake. In fact, it's a very badly done imitation and the strokes are poorly done. Its true value is probably about $100 to $200 and roughly the sum you paid for it. Of course, if you include the cost of its paper, that would set you back to almost $0," said Gu Long-En slowly.

This time, the crowd did not come to a conclusion as swiftly. They seemed to be waiting for Gu Long-En to confirm again.

And just as Ye Fan did previously, he smiled gently and said, "President Gu, please look carefully again."

"Hmm?"

Gu Long-En frowned. This time, he specially put his glasses on to look at it one more time.

This time, Yang He was the anxious one.

He was afraid that Gu Long-En might suddenly turn the tables on him again.

But fortunately, the same thing didn't happen twice.

"Young man, I'm afraid that you are going to be disappointed."

"This 'Withered Wood and Stone Painting' appeared in Christie's auction house in Hong Kong in 2018. It was sold for 410 million Hong Kong dollars and ended up in the hands of a Chinese rich man." "The original is already in the hands of a collector, so logically speaking, this piece here must be a fake! Moreover, the artwork is so unrefined, and the words don't look good at all, so it must be a forgery," Gu Long-En's words were like a death sentence on this painting as he confirmed it to be a counterfeit.

In an instant, there was a commotion as everyone burst out laughing.

"I knew it!"

"Like I said, if this painting was authentic, why would it have gone unnoticed hanging here for so long?"

"This brat must have made a wild guess about the blue and white porcelain!"

"It was pure luck. He should have stopped while he was winning. He was asking for it when he insisted on making a bet with Mr Yang."

"He's simply an idiot!" everyone jeered.

Su Yuan-Shan and the others shook their heads. Sure enough, no one could last long if they relied solely on luck when they were out in the world.

"HAHA! Stupid brat, what more do you have to say? You're a good-for-nothing pretending to be able to appraise when you're clueless. Look who's the fool now? Based on our agreement, you have to hand over $1,000,000. How are you going to pay? By bank transfer, cash, or with the house?" Yang He's eyes were gleeful as he laughed and sneered at Ye Fan.

"Damn! You idiot! So you got it by fluke earlier after all! Why pretend if you are incapable? Are you happy now? You just lost a $1,000,000 bet! If you lose Mu-Cheng's house, how are you going to answer to her? I knew all along that you would ruin Mu-Cheng one day!" Su Qian scolded Ye Fan angrily.

Qiu Mu-Cheng only stood there with her face blanched. She didn't say a word to Ye Fan, but she was deeply disappointed with him in her heart.

She wasn't frustrated that Ye Fan had lost, but upset that he gambled with the house instead. He ignored her feelings and risked their house for the sake of his own pride.

Tears welled up in her pretty eyes.

At this moment, she finally saw through Ye Fan.

Perhaps he didn't have her or her family in his heart at all.

After all, a responsible man wouldn't risk the security of their family by using it as a bet that he wasn't likely to win!

Qiu Mu-Cheng had enough of seeing this. Her heart was overflowing with loss and disappointment when she turned to leave.

Gu Long-En sighed too. He initially called Ye Fan 'Little Teacher', but switched to 'Young Man'just now.

He genuinely thought Ye Fan was a talent previously.

But from the looks of it now, Yang He was right. Ye Fan probably had a stroke of dumb luck and ended up making the right guess earlier. Some of the people in the showroom sighed, while others felt emotional, furious, or disappointed. But most of all, they scorned Ye Fan.

In all their eyes, Ye Fan was simply a laughingstock.

Everyone looked at him with eyes filled with disdain, as if they were looking at a clown.

Yet Ye Fan remained calm in the face of everyone's ridicule.

The intense proudness on his lovely face and his cold smile hadn't dissipated all this time.

Ye Fan's gentle laughter even rang through the crowd, "How can you call yourselves members of high society? The way I see it, you're nothing but a bunch of blind dumbasses."

What the...

"What did you just say?!"

"Are you trying to insult us?"

"I think you must be tired of living!"

Even after things had come to this, Ye Fan actually insulted them like this. Everyone was so furious that even Su Yuan-Shan and Gu Long-En seemed a little displeased.

But Ye Fan ignored them. Instead, he walked up to pick up the painting and laid it flat on the table.

At this very moment, Ye Fan's calm, cold laughter exploded in the room.

"Since none of you believe me, then let me show you what a treasure this so called piece of trash that you despise truly is!" said Ye Fan forcefully. His words sounded as resounding as gold falling to the ground as they reverberated through their ears!

It sounded like a frightful awakening!!