Chapter 186: The Old Expert is All Talk and No Action?

Fortunately, none of the people here recognized him, nor did they know that he was Lin Fan, the man who had been dominating the trending searches over the past couple of days.

In reality, most of the people present were figures from the business world who rarely paid attention to entertainment news. Furthermore, after the news broke last night, both he and Su Yanmo had acted immediately to handle the public relations. Once the trending topics were suppressed, the news notifications stopped entirely.

Even the female guests failed to recognize him and Lin Mu, as they were, after all, mere minor figures.

A wealthy individual like Lin Fan could hardly be considered a big shot in the entertainment industry, let alone a minor beauty like Lin Mu.

There were plenty of women here whose looks and figures were far more striking than Lin Mu's.

"Sir, congratulations on successfully bidding for this white elephant jade carving. Given that this cultural artifact is quite heavy, we can have it packaged and delivered to your residence. Would you mind providing your contact information?"

At that moment, the waiter's attitude toward Lin Fan shifted completely, becoming exceedingly polite and deferential.

After providing his residence and contact details, Lin Fan looked up at Fang Jinyuan.

"Master expert, I'm terribly sorry for snatching the item you had your eyes on. Perhaps you'd like to take a look at something else?" Lin Fan said casually.

While it sounded nonchalant, it was actually a direct and stinging slap to the face, a clear mockery.

What he loathed the most were self-proclaimed know-it-alls who pretended to understand things they didn't. He would rather spend a little extra money just to wipe that smug look off the man's face.

The money he spent on these two cultural artifacts came entirely from his own pocket, not from his simp funds.

He had originally intended to win the artifacts in Lin Mu's name and gift them to Su Yanmo and Zhou Jiayi.

However, realizing that Lin Mu likely wouldn't accept them, he had no choice but to use the funds in his own bank account.

Still, eighty million was mere pocket change to him.

His current wealth had already exceeded three billion; whether he was investing in companies or purchasing cultural artifacts, he did everything purely on a whim.

In fact, he had started the morning with exactly 4.13 billion in his account. But after signing various contracts with Wang Xiaojun to invest in Huayi Music Company and giving Wang Xiaojun one billion, followed by winning the "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter" four-panel traditional Chinese painting scroll and the white elephant jade carving, he was left with three billion.

Just two days prior, while still in Shanghai, when he, Su Yanmo, and Zhou Jiayi went to negotiate with the founders and executives of New Dimension Technology Company, the company's founders had only agreed to an initial investment of five billion.

Although Lin Fan planned to invest fifty billion, New Dimension was still in its infancy, and its future funding requirements might far exceed fifty billion. However, Lin Fan didn't care at all about how much money it would take; he simply wanted to back a cutting-edge technological industry that neither domestic players nor superpowers had yet ventured into. Once New Dimension Technology became the industry leader in intelligent robotics, he would be able to sit back and rake in the money effortlessly.

The same applied to Genesis Energy Company, which he had previously partnered with the Wang family to invest in; he had only put in thirty billion, but subsequent funding injections were likely to follow.

Whether it was the thirty billion invested in Genesis or the five billion in New Dimension, he had made all these investments in Su Yanmo's name, making her the major shareholder of both companies. Meanwhile, he had used his own personal funds to invest a mere ten or twenty million, securing a small minority stake.

His purpose in doing this was to ensure that when Su Yanmo eventually transferred her shares into his name, it would not violate the system's rules.

In other words, once Su Yanmo's affection for him reached one hundred, Lin Fan could trigger an identity reversal, causing Su Yanmo to simp for him instead. At that point, Su Yanmo transferring the company shares to him would not breach the system regulations.

This was the only loophole he had discovered in the system!

In truth, it wasn't really a loophole, but rather a perk provided by the system.

Naturally, deep down, he also wanted to contribute to society; it was simply that he needed to use the simp funds and invest this money under the guise of spending it on women.

"What are you acting so arrogant for? Who among the people here doesn't have eighty million? There are countless people richer than you! But nobody would be foolish enough to spend eighty million on a cultural artifact that might be a fake. When it comes to jadeware, there are far too many counterfeits."

Despite being publicly slapped in the face by Lin Fan, Fang Jinyuan still refused to take him seriously.

He was still trying to trap Lin Fan.

Lin Fan silently cursed Fang Jinyuan's entire family and decided to play along with his game.

Since you want to act superior, I'll make you lose face completely.

"It sounds like you really know your stuff? But you should know that the owner of this estate dares to sell these cultural artifacts at a premium, which proves that ninety-nine percent of the items here are genuine! The counterfeits you speak of probably only exist in the hands of those external appraisal centers or private collectors—those people tend to have more fakes because there are too many swindlers out there. Unlike here, where even the waiters are professionals!"

Lin Fan stared straight at him, challenging his claim.

He guessed that Fang Jinyuan might be trying to bait him into saying something that would offend the estate owner, using the owner's status to suppress him.

Having visited the cultural artifact appraisal convention at the Hangzhou Emperor Hotel several times before, he had acquired a fair bit of knowledge.

He could tell that the waiters here were professionals trained in cultural artifact appraisal.

Therefore, he was certain that ninety-nine percent of the artifacts here were authentic.

Of course, fakes undoubtedly existed.

After all, the antique trade was much like gambling—real and fake intertwined, elusive and hard to fathom.

Yet the owner of this estate was a professional, and the wealthy individuals attracted here were serious collectors; how could there possibly be counterfeits?

Everything Fang Jinyuan said was nothing more than an attempt to drag him into a bidding war and trick him into wasting money on auctions, all to satisfy his petty desire for revenge.

Therefore, an idea flashed through Lin Fan's mind, and he decided to turn the tables on him.

"Since that's the case, how about we make a bet? If I can point out a single fake item, you'll be responsible for paying to buy it at auction. What do you say? Do you dare take the bet?"

"Nonsense! Since it's a fake, how could I possibly bid on it? Besides, how could there possibly be a fake here?"

Fang Jinyuan sneered and rolled his eyes.

Yet the moment the words left his mouth, he realized something was wrong with what he had said.

Just moments ago, he had insisted there were counterfeits, but now he was claiming there were none here—wasn't this contradicting himself?

So he quickly added, "Fine! I'll take your bet! If you can point out a counterfeit worth tens of millions, I will respectfully call you Master! And I'll pay for the auction myself."

This was precisely what Lin Fan had been waiting for!

This fellow thought himself clever, but had blundered right into a trap of his own making without even realizing it.

"You said it yourself, and everyone here can serve as a witness," Lin Fan said with a deadpan expression.

By this point, however, Fang Jinyuan's statements were completely contradictory and logically flawed.

"There shouldn't be any fakes here! If there are fakes, they'd be outside. The cultural artifacts here were personally inspected by Professor Wu before being displayed. Even if there are any, they probably weren't personally examined by him—after all, this is just one of his many villas, and he keeps plenty of other good things hidden elsewhere..."

Hearing this, Lin Fan was utterly speechless.

Did this guy have no brain? He had just repeated the exact same argument he made earlier, acting like an absolute fool.

He was the textbook definition of a pseudo-expert; the moment he was questioned by someone truly knowledgeable, his flaws were exposed, and his statements fell apart.

In the end, Fang Jinyuan could only resort to expressing disdain.

"I don't believe for a second that you're more professional than Professor Wu!"