Chapter 191: A Stepping Stone for the High and Mighty

Everyone was curious about Lin Fan’s identity.
To be able to win the favor of someone as proud and influential as Professor Wu, his background was clearly extraordinary.
However, Lin Fan suddenly pointed toward the glass display case behind Wu Jianghai, where the Nine-Dragon Phoenix Crown was housed.
"Professor Wu, I would like to purchase that Nine-Dragon Phoenix Crown. Would you do me the honor of selling it to me?"
"That is the museum's centerpiece, valued at half a billion. Are you certain you want to buy it?"
Wu Jianghai looked at him in disbelief, suspecting he might just be putting on a show.
After all, it was their most expensive collection piece, functioning in every sense as the soul of the museum.
To everyone's shock, Lin Fan made an even more astonishing remark: "It's only half a billion, not that expensive. If you need to raise the price, whatever amount you add, I'll accept. Six hundred million? Or seven hundred million?"
"Holy crap! Is this guy serious? Millions are just numbers to him? Could he be the richest person in the world?"
"Isn't this the ultimate flex? Could he be here to launder money?"
"Unlikely. If there were any issues, Professor Wu would never trade with him. It's just a case of wealthy eccentricity. Perhaps he's the heir to some secretive and powerful aristocratic family, hence the pretension."
On his way here, Professor Wu had naturally looked into Lin Fan's background. He knew Lin Fan was the newly prominent shareholder of Starlight Live, a stealth wealth billionaire who had dropped eight hundred million to buy a super mansion in Shanghai.
Yet in Kyoto, luxury estates far more expensive than Manor No. 18 were a dime a dozen, not to mention that more than half of the people present here were high-ranking officials and nobles.
"If you are certain you want it, let's complete the transaction at half a billion."
Since someone was delivering a fortune to his doorstep, Wu Jianghai was naturally more than happy to part with the Nine-Dragon Phoenix Crown.
He personally wrote out the receipt and handed it to Lin Fan, who completed the transfer on the spot.
At that moment, the broadcasting system once again rang out with congratulatory remarks.
"Let us once again congratulate Guest No. 155 for purchasing the museum's most valuable Nine-Dragon Phoenix Crown for half a billion! Let's give him a round of applause!"
Wu Jianghai was the very first to lead the applause.
Lin Fan graciously accepted the praise and congratulations of the crowd. Several people even stepped forward proactively to hand him their business cards, all of which Lin Fan politely declined.
The phoenix crown was meant for Zhang Yi, funded by his "simp fund" system.
Once the transfer was completed, the fifty-million cash-back rebate arrived in his account accordingly.
Shortly after, accompanied by Wu Jianghai, Lin Fan viewed two more collection pieces.
One was a calligraphy and painting scroll valued at five million, and the other was a Hotan jade Guanyin statue worth forty million.
However, Wu Jianghai gifted both pieces to him free of charge.
Lin Fan intended to present the calligraphy and painting to Zhang Yi's grandfather, while the Hotan jade was meant for her mother.
As for the half-a-billion-dollar Nine-Dragon Phoenix Crown, it was naturally destined for Zhang Yi.
Although this massive media storm hadn't diminished Zhang Yi's affection for him, she had previously messaged him to say that her family was also paying close attention to the incident.
He could guess that the Zhang family would likely doubt his character, and he had no desire to offer them any explanations. Things had escalated to the point where scandalous rumors filled the skies, making truth and falsehood indistinguishable. Given his current wealth and status, over-explaining would only lead the Zhang family to believe he was merely unfaithful, leaving a lingering sense of unease in their hearts.
Therefore, the best way to quell the doubts of Zhang Yi and her family was to crush their anxieties with sheer financial force.
As the saying goes, money can cure a hundred ills.
As long as one was willing to spend, it could buy people's hearts and heal any psychological distress.
Buying this phoenix crown was his way of showing Zhang Yi that her place in his heart would always be the highest.
During this time, he also exchanged some knowledge on cultural relic appraisal with Wu Jianghai. Wu Jianghai remained curious about how Lin Fan had managed to spot the issue with the agate black elephant using just his eyes, when his own team of experts required extensive time with professional instruments to verify its authenticity.
Lin Fan had no choice but to fabricate an excuse, claiming he simply had good luck, suspected something was amiss with the agate black elephant, and happened to guess correctly.
Yet, through this conversation, he realized that the privileged elites gathered here were actually eager to integrate into the circle of the wealthy.
It turned out that many within the upper-crust society were well-versed in such knowledge.
This prompted Lin Fan to consider redeeming the permanent cultural relic appraisal skill once the system store upgraded to level three. That way, whenever he encountered dignitaries in the future who took an interest in antiques, he would be able to converse with them effortlessly.
Most wealthy people's hobbies revolved around collecting. Some weren't laundering money at all; they simply chose to enter the world of antiquities and collectibles to showcase their culture and refinement.
Wu Jianghai lavished praise on the professionalism Lin Fan demonstrated, even taking the initiative to exchange contact information and telling Lin Fan he could reach out anytime should he develop an interest in cultural relics in the future.
At the end of the day, it was all about business.
The two of them stayed until nearly midnight before leaving. Before departing, Lin Fan repeatedly instructed that since he might remain in Kyoto for a few more days, these collection items should only be delivered to his aircraft when he was finally ready to leave.
Had they been sent to the hotel, there was a high probability of them being stolen.
After all, these pieces were genuine cultural relics, quite unlike other modern collectibles.
Modern collectibles fell far short of antiquities in value; most of them were a hodgepodge of items with severe markups, marketed as valuable simply under the guise of "scarcity creates worth."
The most common examples included various stamps, anime figurines, and unique pieces by foreign artists. In truth, these modern collectibles were worth less than dirt compared to domestic cultural relics.
When the two returned to the hotel, it was already one o'clock in the morning.
Just as they stepped out of the car, the system sounded an alarm.
[Ding! Detected several individuals harboring intense murderous intent toward the host lurking nearby. It is recommended to redeem the Golden Armor item for self-protection.]
"Several people? Could they be assassins?"
Lin Fan felt a jolt of surprise. This was Kyoto, yet assassins dared to operate here? They were recklessly bold.
Nevertheless, his expression remained completely calm. After getting out of the car with Lin Mu, he took out his phone and sent a message to Li Yang, instructing him to head down to the underground parking garage to clear out those assassins.
The hotel had been arranged for them by Huayi Chairman Wang Xiaojun, and Lin Fan's room was directly across from Lin Mu's.
Fifteen minutes later, after Lin Fan had finished his shower and emerged from the bathroom, Li Yang walked into the living room to report to him.
"There were five of them in total. All dealt with. According to the leader, the father-and-son duo Wang Yu and Wang Bo paid six million to hire them to assassinate you."
Lin Fan nodded. Without a word, he picked up his phone and transferred twelve million to Li Yang's account.
According to their agreement, Li Yang served as his shadow bodyguard; no matter who came to assassinate him, he would pay Li Yang double the bounty, and Li Yang would handle everything on his end.
Seeing the transfer notification, Li Yang nodded silently and then departed on his own.
Three o'clock in the morning.
The Wang family villa.
Wang Yu had just fallen asleep when his eldest son, Wang Bo, suddenly called him.
Wang Yu frowned, answered the call, and immediately asked, "Did something go wrong?"
"Yes! The five external martial arts experts I hired were all killed by an unknown, mysterious assassin. There's a terrifyingly powerful killer hiding by Lin Fan's side!"
Hearing this, the muscles on Wang Yu's face twitched violently.
He hadn't expected Lin Fan to be prepared in advance.
"Dad, should we spend a massive fortune to hire professional hitmen?"