Becoming the Richest Man Alive

Chapter 237

Casper couldn’t help but feel amused at his words. He thought that he was about to encounter some kind of classic internal conflict within rich families, but had almost spat out his food when he heard Tony saying, “Have you been watching too much drama?”

“This old man is quite forward-thinking,” he mumbled to himself as he shoved food into his mouth.

It wasn’t his place to say anything at that moment. Although it was a little awkward, it wasn’t a big deal for someone as shameless as him.

“I’m sorry that you have to see this. My children are all good-for-nothings. I’ll show you my collection once we’re done eating and we’ll talk about the Dragon and Tiger Gang too.”

“Alright. It must be my lucky day today for I’m able to see your collection,” Casper replied with a nod.

Tony’s children left after the meal and as the servants came to collect the dirty dishes, he sighed. “Do you think I was wrong to form a temporary alliance with other families in exchange for my sons’ happiness? It used to be such a normal thing in the past but it seems like it’s an absurd thing to do now.”

“I think it’s fine. Your daughters-in-law are quite beautiful too,” Casper said as he scratched his head.

The older man’s expression was odd and he didn’t know what to say. I asked about my family’s problem but you’re telling me that my daughters-in-law are beautiful?

“Let’s just go take a look at my collection.” He began to lead the way to the second floor.

As they went up the stairs, Tony pointed at the paintings hung on the wall and said, “Our family had collected countless antiques in the many years we have been developing and growing. Out of the many foreign antiques we have, these paintings are the only ones my son had bought in an auction. He told me that the works of the top foreign masters are as valuable as our country’s national treasures. So I

told him, ‘Why are you stating the obvious? Which country wouldn’t have their own national treasures when history existed? These are the essence of a country’s culture.’“

Casper stared at one of the paintings for a moment. He realized that it was authentic and it would cost at least ten million.

Then, the former continued, “Later on, I told them to stop getting these and collect the treasures we left abroad instead if they wanted to. In the antique industry, the profits are too high and you have to have a great understanding for the industry to be able to do well. An ordinary antique shop might be able to do very well even if they had just opened. Well, that being said, money isn’t really something that our family needs to work for now.”

The latter’s eyes brightened with amusement and he knew that Tony wasn’t exaggerating at all. The Lingham family were the richest in Horington, valued at about three billion. However, these statistical data were estimated based on the market value of listed companies on NASDAQ.

Under normal circumstances, a company wouldn’t be seen as a competition if it wasn’t listed. But there was an exception for one of the industries, which was the antique industry under the Lanes. They may only have two listed auction houses, and it may seem like their properties were only worth two hundred million, but the worth of the antique properties that they owned were not calculated. If they had actually done that, the Lingham family were nothing compared to them.

Of course, due to the particularity of this line of business, the Lanes’ economic impact was far inferior to that of the Lingham family. This was also their shortcoming.

Thousands of people’s careers and livelihoods were affected by the Lingham Hotel under the Lingham Group. As the corporation that had contributed to most of Horington’s GDP, they indeed had the right to be the richest in Horington.

However, the Lanes were more powerful when it came to underground circles.

These weren’t Casper’s guesses as Victoria had told him about it. After he was done with the antique forgery the other day, he told the woman that there might be people stirring up trouble in the Antique Fair but she didn’t pay it any mind.

He still couldn’t stop worrying about it afterward, so he gave her a call. Yet, she replied calmly, “You haven’t been long in Horington but you should know that those working underground aren’t just rascals. The power of the family in the antique industry is just as unfathomable.”

The huge profits earned by those in the antique industry would sometimes enrage even those in the finance industry. A painting or a porcelain vase could be sold for a price up to billions and an ordinary person would surely be dumbfounded to hear of it.

When Casper was younger, he watched an auction, “The Great View,” happen on TV. One of the paintings was done by the infamous Sanqi and it was auctioned off for 1.26 billion.

Back then, his grandfather had said as he shook his head, “Mr. Sanqi’s works are priceless!” before turning to leave. Upon hearing that, the former turned and looked at the painting that was hanging on the living room wall, realizing that it was done by the same painter.

Later on, he asked his mentor, Harry Crane, if he could forge those kinds of paintings. Harry smiled, “How did you think your old man hired me? Your family may have a lot of money but I’m not interested in that. He promised to give me a chance to forge the painting, and that’s why I agreed to become your mentor.”

“Have you succeeded, then?” Casper asked.

His mentor pursed his lips for a moment before answering, “Antiques can be forged because time has washed their essence away. But these top modern artworks are too difficult to forge. I might be able to do it if a few hundred years passed.”

Harry was someone with high expectations of himself. When he said that he couldn’t forge something, he meant that the artwork he made wouldn’t be able to fool everyone, though it was very easy to fool the experts. As long as the actual professionals didn’t see it, no one would be caught. However, he would never allow himself to create such an artwork.

Casper shook his head to try to stop thinking about all the irrelevant thoughts. He followed Tony and arrived at a safe room on the second floor. There were two guards with cold expressions standing on each side of the door.

“This is a part of our family’s collection. Even though there isn’t much in there, it’s still the fruit of our labors. That’s why we assigned people to guard this place,” Tony said.

After getting his fingerprint and irises scanned, the metal door unlocked and swung open.

“I didn’t allow it when they planned to do this originally. However, after losing one of the antiques in here, I felt the need to do so too.” Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

He opened the metal door that was as thick as the door of a bank vault, revealing the insides of the room. More than a hundred antiques were carefully arranged inside, with the paintings mounted on the walls and porcelain locked in glass cabinets. There were also some antiques with lower value piled up in a corner as there wasn’t space for them anymore. Casper took a quick glance and instantly noticed a carving that cost millions.

“The Lanes are really something. These are only a part of their collection but they can already take down half of the Lingham family’s stocks with these antiques alone.”

He did a simple estimation and found that the price of the antiques in the vault surpassed 1.5 billion, and that was the lowest estimated price.

However, this was moderate when compared to his own family’s collection.

Casper remained expressionless and was starting to miss home. Seeing the antiques in there made him think of the vault back at home.

Tony had been staring at him the moment they stepped foot inside. He had brought many people to look around previously and everyone had different reactions. Most of them had malicious intentions and they wanted to steal his treasures.

He wanted to see what kind of expression Casper wore but he had not expected him to be so indifferent.

“Does he have facial paralysis?” he mumbled to himself as he furrowed his brows. The old man wanted to make sure that he wasn’t acting but as he studied his eyes, Tony noticed that there wasn’t a single hint of surprise in them.

What is going on? Does he not know the value of these things? If these things were to be auctioned off, the antique market in Horington would reach saturation in an instant. He’s someone who studies finance so he should understand such a concept, shouldn’t he?

He started to get suspicious. Even his youngest son, who was normally cold and indifferent, was stunned for a long time when he saw what was in the vault. Wyatt had also told him that this was the epitome of the abnormal antique market and it was the manifestation of the large gap between the rich and the poor. As a result, both of them started to quarrel.

“What do you think of my collection, Casper?”

Tony decided to take the initiative to gauge a reaction from Casper. He might be so shocked that his mind has stopped working.

“Oh… Wow! It’s uh, it’s rather… big?” the latter forced the words out through gritted teeth.