Chapter 40: Encounter in a Foreign Land [10]

"Where did Rou-Rou go after the divorce? Where is she living? Does she have a job?" Lin Fan stared at Jing Nuo, firing questions at him one by one.

"I don't know," Jing Nuo replied, adjusting his collar.

"You bastard!" As the words left his lips, Lin Fan’s fist slammed into Jing Nuo’s face.

"I have nothing to do with that woman anymore. Where she is, what does that have to do with me?" Jing Nuo wiped the corner of his mouth; there was no blood. He did not retaliate, but instead grabbed Lin Fan by the collar, issuing a warning.

"So what? Are you going to ignore this too?" Lin Fan sneered at Jing Nuo. He never imagined that the man he had always looked up to as a brother could be so heartless. Even if he didn’t love Wen Xiaorou, and even if marrying her had been nothing more than a scheme to inherit the Jing family fortune, she had lived with him for ten years. If there was no love, there should at least be some sense of family! If not family, surely there was some friendship! How could he just cast her aside and ignore her fate? Didn't he know she had been raised in the greenhouse of the Jing household her entire life? Didn't he realize she possessed no ability to survive on her own outside that bubble?

"Am I supposed to care?" Jing Nuo shot Lin Fan a cold glare; he despised how Lin Fan was always pestering him over Wen Xiaorou.

"Fine! Good! Very good!" Lin Fan laughed coldly and clapped his hands in mockery. He turned away, marched to the front, and raised his hand to bid.

"Two million." As soon as Lin Fan announced the price, the room erupted. Paying two million dollars for a woman for one night was sheer extravagance.

"Any other bids?" The host pulled back the hand he had been using to toy with Wen Xiaorou’s chin, his face flushed with excitement. This was another massive deal; it seemed he should bring in more Chinese women in the future.

"Two million, going once."
"Two million, going twice."

"Ten million." Suddenly, another man in the crowd raised his hand. He was also Chinese. The room had gone wild; some men, seeing that Wen Xiaorou was about to be taken, were already shamelessly indulging in lewd behavior.

"Damn it." Lin Fan glanced at the man who had bid, feeling as if he might vomit blood from frustration. To bid any higher, he would have to request funds from his family. Was he really going to just watch as Rou-Rou was taken away? He considered risking his life to snatch her, but looking at the bodyguards surrounding the bar, he knew that would only result in two corpses—his and Wen Xiaorou’s. He turned his gaze toward Jing Nuo in the back row, wondering if he was leaving, thinking that perhaps he could borrow some money from him.

"Twenty million." Just as Lin Fan was staring at him, Jing Nuo lifted his hand with effortless grace and announced the price in perfect American English, as if telling the crowd, "I am a tycoon, and I am just that willful."

After Jing Nuo’s bid, both the stage and the floor fell deathly silent. Every eye was locked on him. No matter how beautiful the woman on stage was, twenty million dollars for a single night was simply unfathomable.

"Can I take this woman now?" Jing Nuo walked unhurriedly to the front of the stage and asked the host.

"Of course! I’ll help you bring her down." The host’s voice trembled; he knew this underground club would likely never see a price this high again.

"No need." Before he finished speaking, Jing Nuo vaulted onto the stage. He moved quickly to Wen Xiaorou and untied the ropes binding her wrists. The moment the ropes fell away, Wen Xiaorou collapsed limply into his arms.