Chapter 129: A Banquet that Shocked the Entire Industry

Lan Ying fell silent for a moment, but didn’t explain anything.

I can’t possibly say that it’s rare for my son to excitedly use the red envelope money the old man gave him to earnestly make a request, and I as a mother can’t even accomplish this little thing?

One must know, since Pei Shuo was little, there have truly been very few moments when he explicitly proposed wanting a certain item.

Finally having a chance to farm some favorability with my son, I naturally have to handle it perfectly.

Therefore, with such a resolute attitude, Lan Ying directly secured the first three pieces in one breath. She directly reported a million for each piece, completely lacking any intention to bid slowly, causing the entire venue, including the auctioneer, to be dumbfounded.

Even Simmons himself almost suspected whether he had drawn some treasure map inside this raincoat, otherwise was it really necessary to buy three of the same clothing?

Or is it that the wealthy have a fetish where a piece of clothing can only be worn once and then must be thrown away, so they must buy several pieces to wear once and throw away once?

When auctioning the fourth piece, and Lan Ying called out that phrase “one million” for the fourth time, everyone in the venue gradually became numb, as if one million wasn’t one million, but more like a hundred yuan.

“One million and ten thousand?”

Finally, another guest tentatively broke the calm and called out a brand new price.

It wasn’t that she deliberately wanted to snatch things from the Lan family, but her precious daughter was truly so anxious she was almost crying at home.

She wished she could buy Xueyan’s matching raincoat today, command the city to make artificial rain tomorrow, and then wear the raincoat to kindergarten.

“Two million?”

Hearing this, Lan Ying, somewhat hesitantly, continued to bid again. It was mainly that she wasn’t used to anyone competing with her. After reporting the price, she even smiled amiably at the other party.

This successfully extinguished the bidding impulse of that mother with cold water.

Is this… meaning to threaten me?

The collectively silent venue suspected even more:

Could this person be planning to directly increase the price by a million each time? Even too lazy to say the loose change.

After all, the bidding mode and the anticipated mindset revealed in an auction are crucial.

In this kind of game auction where everyone knows each other’s identity, unless there is a grudge between them, they would rarely clash openly, and everyone tacitly leaves some leeway.

And the Lan family in the past, precisely because of their style and personality of trying to please all sides, had no so-called clear enemies in the entire S City.

And this eldest daughter showing a worldly style completely different from her parents for the first time, even smilingly making such a domineering monopolistic move throughout the whole process, was simply even more terrifying.

But Madam Julia, looking at the latest voice message sent by her precious son Louis using his phone watch, also had a very subtle expression.

【Great and omnipotent Mommy—Can you let dear David send my raincoat home first? [Puppy Dog Expectation]】

David was Madam Julia’s private assistant, and Louis had already planned it out. He was going to enshrine the raincoat at the head of his bed, and thus pray to Santa Claus every night before going to sleep to make it rain the next day!

The reason he didn’t pray to God was purely because Louis felt Santa Claus thoughtfully prepared a room full of gifts for him every year, but God seemed to have never given any concrete gifts.

Listening to this message, Julia couldn’t possibly reply to her son:

The factors involved in wanting to win this raincoat at auction are unexpectedly complex, your omnipotent Mommy is still considering it.

Starting from media, the Lan family belonged to the role where befriending them might not have clear benefits, but offending them would definitely make one very uncomfortable.

After all, no one wants to open their eyes the next morning and see the headline of the newspaper exposing a scandal about their own enterprise…

Fortunately, right after the first five pieces were all bagged by Lan Ying, the Masis organizers suddenly announced an intermission and arranged other tasting activities scheduled for the banquet.

“Probably coming for you, Sister.”

From her initial surprise to her current curious smile, Lan Yu easily noticed the Masis person in charge cautiously walking over, inviting Lan Ying to step aside for a talk.

Lan Ying was just bidding and feeling unsatisfied, wishing she could tell Masis to stop making it so complicated and just auction the remaining pieces together in a bundle.

They do things so un-nimbly.

“Hello, President Lan. I am Masis’s Special Executive Assistant Steve. Regarding the premiere auction of this set of raincoats, could we discuss some special compensation plans with you?”

Steve bowed slightly, his tone very polite as he began to converse.

Lan Ying was slightly displeased at this, vaguely anticipating that this guy wouldn’t be running over to limit purchases, right?

Sure enough, after inviting Lan Ying to a VIP reception room aside, Steve extremely respectfully asked Lan Ying if she could give other guests some purchasing opportunities. Masis would additionally provide a compensation plan of free custom-made accessories for the five raincoats Lan Ying had won.

Including that matching umbrella originally planned to be sold separately, as well as special customization services like pet clothing.

“Pet clothing?”

Lan Ying, originally expressionless, actually became somewhat interested upon hearing this compensation plan from Masis. Because Lan Ying remembered that the cat on the poster indeed also wore a matching raincoat, looking very cute and agile.

“That is correct, Madam. We can provide haute couture services for any breed of pet, and can guarantee that there will be only these two pieces globally. The first piece is the pet raincoat on the poster you saw, and it will be personally handled by our Director Simmons.”

Sensing a loosening in Lan Ying’s attitude, Steve hurriedly added guarantees. Simmons nearby actually had an indifferent attitude. Even if Lan Ying bought them all, he was willing to watch the drama. However, Steve sensed the atmosphere wasn’t right, and considering the pressure they might face afterwards, he decisively chose to negotiate a plan with Lan Ying.

After all, those major clients who didn’t win a piece might not dare to pester Lan Ying, but they would very likely come pressure Masis afterwards. Steve’s only regret was how he forgot to set a purchase limit.

“Oh… so even a tiger is okay? That will be hard work for this young and talented Director Simmons.”

Lan Ying nodded, and looked at Simmons with quite some approval. Simmons, who was watching the fire from the opposite bank a second ago, instantly turned his head, widened his eyes, and looked over: ?

Wait, a tiger? I didn’t hear wrong, right? Who on earth is going to do personal tailoring for a tiger!? Is this customizing clothes or customizing a human-flesh boxed lunch?

The next second, as Simmons looked at Steve with horror and anger, he was quietly held down by Steve:

“It is possible, Madam. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] If you wish, our Masis is very willing to serve your beloved pet.”

Regardless of whether this tiger is a real tiger or not, or if this Madam is deliberately mocking us to apply pressure, right now it’s best to agree. After all, requesting someone to stop bidding is already extremely presumptuous.

Simmons, on the other hand, was beyond furious.

You can agree, since it’s easy for you to say! Can a big cat be considered a cat!?

Did the family send you here to assist and cultivate me, or to murder and assassinate me!?

Unexpectedly, perceiving the interesting chemical reaction between the old and the young, Lan Ying actually burst out laughing and explained:

“Don’t worry, it’s one raised by my son, and so far, it hasn’t bitten a good person by mistake yet.”

“Hasn’t bitten a good person by mistake? Does that mean it will bite bad people?”

Simmons couldn’t resist idly asking again.

“Yes.”

Lan Ying nodded, and saw Simmons fall into deep thought.

Simmons recalled the biggest bad deed he had ever done, which was probably planning to go to the Lu family and steal his angel muse out.

But can stealing a muse be called stealing? That’s called… that’s called the pursuit of art!

“Alright then. I can withdraw from the auction, but I require Masis’s remaining five sets to be shipped a slightly later production schedule. Is that okay?”

The final request Lan Ying proposed actually made Steve feel relieved while sighing with emotion.

Sure enough, what these major clients care about is that others cannot be the first to wear it. No wonder she wanted to buy five sets all at once!

Therefore, after private negotiations with Lan Ying, the second half of the auction resumed, and the entire venue joyfully discovered that this time, that person from the Lan family truly didn’t raise her paddle again!

The atmosphere of the auction naturally heated up again instantly.

The piece with the highest price was once bid up to over one million two hundred thousand, and was successfully bagged by the smug Madam Julia amidst the attention and applause of the entire venue.

This game-like auction originally positioned as a pre-dinner dessert had an overly hot atmosphere that even influenced the sales of adult haute couture to rise repeatedly.

Halfway through the entire banquet, the news that Masis’s new season product release sales had exploded again for the first time in a long while after Simmons officially took office had already flown out.

And Simmons, who was the explosive point of the topic, directly became an existence crazily studied by the entire industry.

Countless rivals slandered and attacked Simmons for using gimmicks and hunger marketing, completely losing the noble tone of a blue-blood brand, while simultaneously attempting to study and replicate how exactly Simmons achieved this performance.

The final conclusion drawn was that this guy bundled limited-edition children’s haute couture with adult haute couture, attempting to manipulate the major clients by manipulating the aesthetic tastes of the minor clients.

Perhaps we should try this too. Especially that child clothing inspiration muse and sales champion of Simmons, we must poach him even at a heavy price!

The little model at the banquet was indeed the one Steve could temporarily find with a figure and temperament most similar to Xueyan on the poster.

Coupled with the fact that Xueyan’s face wasn’t shown on the poster, a bunch of people mistakenly believed that the little model holding a cat with natural expressiveness on the poster was also this one.

Therefore, Simmons bizarrely discovered that the day after the banquet ended, the little model Steve arranged was poached overnight.

Tempted by high remuneration, the little model’s parents did not hesitate to actively pay a high penalty for breach of contract to prematurely end their child’s original long-term contract with Masis.

“…Heh.”

Simmons sneered looking at the materials in his hands, and after thinking for a bit, he realized the key points inside.

The outside world misunderstood the identities of the two raincoat little models on the poster and at the banquet, and that pair of parents naturally went with the flow, neither refusing nor denying, directly contacting those brands.

This way, they left no handle on the surface, but genuinely enjoyed the benefits.

They are truly a bit too smart.

Unfortunately, what this world lacks the least is smart people.

“I am very sorry, Young Master Simmons. This is indeed my lack of forethought. I didn’t expect such a situation to happen. Do we need to contact the Lu family to inform them?”

Even Steve’s face was very ugly, not expecting that pair of parents to be short-sighted to this extent.

Do they really think there will be a good end after offending Masis?!

“There’s no need to keep those who want to leave. Let that pair of parents pay the penalty and leave. Blacklist them, complete boycott across all Masis categories.”

“As for announcing it, there’s no rush. Since my dear peers are so smug about poaching a model, let them be smug for a while. Spending so much money to find a fake, hehe.”

Simmons suddenly felt that the Lu family’s special status and position wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

After all, what can be bought with money can naturally also be snatched away by money, which is meaningless.

If you have the ability, why don’t you throw money at the Lu family and smash out my true muse.

The most crucial point is, if they do this, they offend more than just Masis.

After the news of Simmons smashing things, losing his temper, and sneering in his office spread, it made quite a few industry competitors secretly smug, snatching up contracts extremely fast.

It was said that pair of parents directly raised the price on the spot, causing several companies to jointly bid.

“Sister, do you know about this? It can be considered a little model that you inadvertently made popular by throwing money around.”

Lan Yu, as an insider in the circle, naturally also knew about this fashion industry business war anecdote. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Masis became famous in one battle at their new product release show, and the next day the model was intercepted.

And no matter how popular a model is, in the final analysis, there must be clients paying for brands to recognize their commercial value.

Lan Ying, however, instantly frowned.

“That can’t be. The little model on the poster should be the little class monitor Xueyan from Xiao Shuo’s class that he talked about. That cat is also the Charlie cat that went to compete with Xueyan.”

Anyone who had watched the competition as an audience member or judge would not fail to be deeply impressed by the Ph.D. cat beside Xueyan.

Even Pei Shuo, who noticed it didn’t rain today and was eating breakfast with a rather gloomy face, looked over upon hearing Xueyan’s name.

Someone is fraudulently claiming Xueyan’s raincoat poster?

Lan Yu instantly realized something was amiss too.

There’s this drama? No wonder Masis hasn’t given any official response until now.

In fact, Lu Xun and the others knew about this even faster.

Because Xueyan’s competition video involved the infringement of a cub’s portrait rights, it couldn’t be posted on the intranet. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] However, an unknown parent at the scene filmed a short video clip and posted it online.

Consequently, that final foreign language display segment went viral, and the internet-famous Ph.D. cat from Carlos University also became wildly popular along with it.

After countless top students from Carlos University saw it, they also enthusiastically shared deeds and photos of Charlie, this honorary alumni Ph.D. cat, throwing his weight around on campus online, and sighed saying no wonder they hadn’t seen Professor Philenster’s beloved cat Charlie recently.

This time, many netizens who originally thought this video was purely staged or a fabricated story had to believe it was actually true?

A Ph.D. cat wearing haute couture, this simply has too much topic value!

Moreover, that little angel telling the story nearby is a bit too cute. Do all cubs in Country C look like this?

For a time, many foreign tourists visiting and touring Carlos University all expected to find Charlie, this internet-famous cat, to take a photo.

“What, my Charlie has become a big star cat?”

When Professor Philenster heard this news from a student, his first reaction was amazement.

Hehe, consider those people from Country C to have good eyes!

“Yes, yes, we even got a competition red envelope from Xueyan and Charlie from Eldest Brother Lu’s hands, Professor!”

The enthusiastic students naturally shared.

Philenster: ?

“Wait, you guys got red envelopes? When did that guy come to the school! How come I didn’t even know?”