Chapter 339
After removing three girls, there were nine girls left.
They each took the cheongsam Sister Wang handed out and then went to get their makeup done.
With nine girls getting their makeup done all at once, the makeup room became extremely noisy in the span of an hour.
Xiao Qi put on her cheongsam...This was her first time wearing clothes like a cheongsam. She felt it was quite loose. Her body type was on the thinner side overall with a small frame and small chest, so it wasn't very tight on her and indeed made her look very young.
The second year management student named Jin Yingying who had spoken to Xiao Qi earlier looked very tight and curvy once she put on the cheongsam, with prominent front and back. Along with her makeup, she looked very mature, like a girl in her mid twenties.
Meanwhile, Xiao Qi still looked like a young girl in her light green cheongsam.
Moreover, the color of her cheongsam seemed to be different from everyone else's. The others were wearing red or purple, while she was the only one in green.
Fortunately her skin was fair, so the bright green didn't look bad on her. Such a vibrant color would have made her look very dark if she was even just a little tan.
It was Jin Yingying who made the others notice that the little girl seemed to be the only one wearing a green cheongsam, subconsciously regarding her with some hostility.
Xiao Qi: ...
She really wanted to violently smash that girl. Her mouth was too foul, sowing obvious discord, and it was quite effective among these young girls.
Seeing the others squeezing to line up for makeup while more or less ostracizing her to the back of the line, Xiao Qi simply found her own makeup station and did her own makeup.
Her makeup skills were professional level. In her judgment, this makeup artist's skills were at most basic level, not even reaching entry level. Xiao Qi hadn't intended to stand out too much, just wanting to do some simple makeup to get by. But seeing things turn out this way with Sister Wang about to arrive, she probably wouldn't even get a turn with the makeup artist.
The makeup artist also noticed the little girl doing her own makeup, but didn't say anything. They were all part-time student workers. Less trouble was better, as long as the girl didn't interfere with her work.
As Xiao Qi started on her makeup, she immediately entered a focused state. Looking at herself wearing the cheongsam in the mirror, she was actually quite curious what she would look like when grown up.
The main thing was she still looked like a kid in the cheongsam, going too far.
She had never worn a cheongsam before and always envied girls who could look nice in them. It was quite magical that she could make the cheongsam look casually stylish.
Staring into the mirror, Xiao Qi carefully smeared colors onto her face bit by bit, aging herself from 17 years old up one step at a time. Once she finished, the image looking back at her in the mirror was that of an extremely charming girl in her early twenties.
Her face was very receptive to makeup and very suitable for heavy makeup.
However, heavy makeup came with one problem for her. With her monolid, phoenix eyes, heavy makeup made her look very coquettish.
Icy allure with a coquettish air. Fortunately her gaze was pure and her chest wasn't too big either, otherwise she would have seemed like a girl from a bad family.
As things were, with small chest and an aloof expression despite the boundless coquettishness, she could still be called a cold and elegant beauty.
Cold, and so gorgeous.
Xiao Qi found that after putting on makeup, she was in no way inferior to her schoolmate Li Weijin in looks.
And in comparison, Li Weijin's looks were truly exceptional, showing great promise. She had a natural refined air about her with a full face of makeup, exquisite to the extreme.
When manager Sister Wang arrived and saw Su Xiao Qi wearing a green cheongsam, she was indeed stunned by the sight.
Very nice. Her eye was still good after all. Among the group of girls earlier, this one had looked the most unripe, not fully grown. But she had an excellent base, and as expected after putting on makeup she now outshone all the other girls, instantly imprinting herself onto one's memory.
Sister Wang decided that for the final lot of the auction tonight, she would definitely have this little girl present it on stage.
Having such a pretty little girl standing on the auction platform, they might even be able to jack up the price by twenty, thirty percent. Much too cost-effective!
The only problem was the item to auction was a bit heavy. If the girl's hands shook... oh well, she could let someone else hold it and just have the girl follow them onstage.
Claiming it as a charity auction this time required some extra manpower, especially since they would be handling valuable items. It was safer to recruit students from the university, whose temperament was also good and came cheap, also being more obedient.
The auction was about to start. Sister Wang reiterated the main points to pay attention to, then arranged everyone's tasks.
Tonight they would be auctioning the auction house's own items as well as some things brought in by VIP customers to auction off themselves, with that money going to charity.
Xiao Qi felt quite curious since she had been assigned the task of carrying items onstage to present them, feeling it was rather special.
Seeing Sister Wang's caring expression, Xiao Qi asked: "Sister Wang, are all the things here real?" Sister Wang glanced over this little girl. Her makeup results were so stunning Sister Wang was shocked. She was truly dazzling, glowing spectacularly. Once she stood up there, she would definitely command the scene perfectly.
But hearing her speak, it was apparent she was still a young brat who didn't know any better. The things auctioned at the auction house could of course only be real. Though whether they truly were real or not was hard to say sometimes.
After seeing Xiao Qi with full makeup, Jin Yingying no longer spouted nonsense. The difference was simply too vast now, nothing left to say. Although she still felt the little girl's question was naive, she held her tongue this time instead of making mocking jabs disguised as casual slips of the tongue.
Seeing Sister Wang's expression, Xiao Qi got the general idea herself.
She had actually wanted to test out her new skills.
Most of the items auctioned at the auction house were antiques with provenance, famous artists' paintings, collected bronzes and the like, each lot coming with an introduction, very high class.
While Xiao Qi's knowledge might not run deep, she still had a basic grasp of history.
One auction item was a painting by a famous painter from the Republican era. The introduction provided about the painter said he lived 1844-1927, born in '44 and died in '27. But Xiao Qi judged that painting to be at most 60, 70 years old. It was completely impossible for it to have appeared during the painter's lifetime, only emerging some 20 years after his death. So there was no way it could have been painted by that artist.
And the starting bid was still over 500,000 yuan!
Taking a look, Xiao Qi suddenly felt rich people were a bit foolish sometimes.
And that wasn't the only case. Just skimming through, Xiao Qi found one other piece where the timing was off. Though one of them had quite an extensive history as well, just earlier instead of the stated time by over a hundred years.
It was an ancient jade piece, pretty unique in shape. A round stamp with the head of a beast, but the carved beast head looked a bit silly. She couldn't tell what kind of animal it was meant to resemble.
The inside had specially verdant green jade. Such a lush deep green, Xiao Qi remembered reading that this kind of imperial green jade was extremely valuable. A pair of bangles made of it could sell for over ten million yuan.
That would be modern era.
There was also no shortage of Hetian jade, with many delicate carvings in small ornaments and pieces.
Xiao Qi had assumed everything auctioned here would be worth hundreds of thousands or millions. Only upon arriving here did she realize there were also some affordable trinkets starting from just ten or twenty thousand yuan.
Auctions would usually set a reserve price. If the bidding didn't meet that price, it would be withdrawn.
She felt that buying the ten or twenty thousand yuan items here would be a better deal than going elsewhere.
Gao Cuihua arrived at the auction venue with her son, an extremely smug look on her face. It had been many years since she experienced taking her darling son out and having everyone gaze upon them enviously. Such a nostalgic and gratifying sensation.
Li Weijin disliked participating in these kinds of events, finding them boring. But today he exceptionally acted the part of a good boy following his mother along silently, smiling like the perfect child. His eyes roamed the surroundings though as the butler said Xiao Qi had a part-time job here. How come there was no sight of her?