Lin Mo walked across the wet exhibition plaza, holding Little Guo’er’s hand.
Dr. Gu Qinghe walked beside them, his stride light and confident now that his twenty-year joint pain had vanished. In his breast pocket rested a carved rosewood case containing the ancestral Sun-Simiao Nine-Turn Gold Needles that Lin Mo had redeemed at the Jiangcheng auction and that Elder Sun had entrusted to Dr. Gu for the Tianhai sanctuary branch.
Tie Niu and four security guards escorted them through the main glass entrance of Hall A.
Inside the main hall, the air was warm and stifling.
Over three hundred people sat in plush auditorium seating facing a raised auction stage.
The front rows were occupied by wealthy retired provincial officials, industrial tycoons, and senior traditional medicine collectors holding polished ivory bidding paddles.
On the stage stood twenty illuminated pedestals draped in golden velvet.
Atop each pedestal sat an airtight bulletproof glass case.
