A middle-aged man dressed in a suit stood in front of a stretched limousine at the entrance of the largest flea market in Ilasas city.
"Sir, it's been five years. Your father has already acknowledged his fault. Please come back!"
"You want me to go back? Get him to divorce his current wife first!" George Harvey said with a cold expression.
"Back then, he was the one who drove me out of the Fraser family and now he wants me to go back? I'm the Appraiser Supreme, what does he take me for?"
.....
George turned and started walking away, but then suddenly backtracked and added offhandedly, "I forgot to mention, my surname is no longer Fraser. It's Harvey now!"
Having said that, he strode away while carefully cradling the painting he had just acquired from the flea market.
"George, George Harvey, it seems you still haven't gotten over the pain of your mother's passing..." muttered the middle-aged man to himself.
The Fraser family was Cebro country's oldest antique appraisal family. They were in charge of the most well known auction house in the world: Genesis Auction House. It could be said they had enough wealth to rival even a country, so it wasn't far-fetched to say they valued money as much as manure.
......
George Fraser—correction, George Harvey—was the sole heir of the Fraser family. He was also the world's youngest Appraiser Supreme.
Appraiser Supremes, which are legends in the world of Cebros' appraisers, have appeared exclusively within the Fraser family for generations. This was because the Frasers had a legendary appraisal technique called Devil's Eyes.
That being said, due to an incident which occurred five years ago, George was forced out of the family. He had since changed his surname and had been willingly living as a house-husband, because of his love for his wife.
George arrived at the entrance of a moderate-sized company building where a beautiful woman could be seen anxiously looking about.
It was his wife, Marina Rhodes. She was a woman with an excellent appearance and figure, which was exactly why the wedding five years ago turned the Rhodes family into Ilasas' laughingstock.
Back then, Marina was urgently seeking a husband in order to be able to receive her family inheritance. George, who appeared in a timely manner, became the unfortunate candidate.
The Rhodes owned an auction house and several antique shops but it was a pity that they could only be regarded as a second-rate family in Ilasas at most. Over the past five years, as the family head grew older, the Rhodes' performance grew worse. Especially in the recent years, they could not even be regarded as a second-rate family.
As she watched George walk towards her at a slow pace, Marina's anger bubbled over and she yelled, "Five minutes, you are five whole minutes late! Do you know what day it is today? Hurry up and get inside!"
Truth be told, she looked down on George. Back then, if it weren't for the inheritance money, she wouldn't have married such a useless man as George. Five years had passed since then and her disappointment in him had only grown. Apart from doing the house chores, he would visit the flea market daily and occasionally return with some random junk, claiming it was a rare find while showing it off. She was really fed up with him.
Smiling awkwardly, George lowered his head and quickly followed Marina into the company building.
Today was the family's annual performance evaluation day. Each year on this day, every branch of the family had to present the best antiques they had collected over the year, in order to determine their performance for the given year.
Initially, everyone approached the event in a perfunctory manner. However, in light of the family head's advanced age, everyone had begun putting effort into the event in recent years because the head could pass away any moment.
Reason being, everyone wanted to earn favour with the Head, so that they may receive a larger share of the family's inheritance.
"Remember George, don't say a word when you're inside. Today's meeting is critical; I don't want to lose face because of you." Marina did not forget to warn George as they headed to the conference room.
......
George merely nodded in acknowledgement with a bitter smile on his face.
Marina had a strong urge to kill him upon seeing George's expression. "How can he be so cowardly," thought Marina. "He is still a man at any rate. It's bad enough that he is useless but he doesn't even have any guts! Such a meek person, he deserves to be bullied!"
The two of them reached the conference room, where the representatives of each branch were already waiting, including their sworn rival, Reuben Rhodes.
Reuben, who was the son of one of their uncles, looked at them scornfully. "Hey Marina, you're getting more and more arrogant, making all of us wait for you."
"I'm sure they wanted to come earlier, but what's the point if they didn't have anything to present? Wouldn't it just be shameful?
"Jamie Rhodes, that's not quite right. Who said they don't have anything? Look, isn't that rubbish they've brought with them?"
"Haha, that's right."
The branch family members led by Reuben Rhodes sneered at Marina. In their eyes, George was utterly useless. Even the beggars at the door were thousands of times better than him.
...
Reuben looked at George. "Hey George, what do you have there? Did you pick up rubbish from the flea market again?" he said disdainfully.
"Excuse me, this is a rare find." George corrected him.
Reuben laughed mockingly. "Haha, someone like you thinks he has a rare find. Who do you think you are, Appraiser Supreme George Fraser?"
George retorted. "How do you know I'm not?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, laughter erupted in the conference room, as though they had just been told the funniest joke in the world.
Faced with everyone's ridicule, Marina's expression gradually changed into a scowl but she chose to remain silent.
In her opinion, George embarrassing himself was his own business and had nothing to do with her, so long as she wasn't caught in the crossfire.
"Marina, it's the family evaluation today. Don't tell me you're actually going to rely on this good-for-nothing."
As though wanting to demonstrate how outstanding he was, Reuben pointed at the Penny Black postage stamp that was on the conference table. "Do you know about this particular stamp? The Frasers' auction house gave it an estimated value of 30 million. A single dot on this stamp is worth more than your good-for-nothing husband."
Marina's scowl deepened even more. Although she had decided not to pay any heed to George, it was getting harder and harder to stomach Reuben's words. Moreover, he was gradually shifting the focus of the discussion onto her. If she still didn't stand up for herself, who knows what Reuben would say about her next.
"Reuben, we're all relatives, so you'd better mind what you say," replied Marina in a dissatisfied tone.
"Who the h*ll is relatives with him!" Reuben sneered. "He is just an aimless good-for-nothing."
"You!" Marina's face turned red. She was so angry she couldn't speak.
It was at this moment that George gently unveiled the painting he was holding, revealing a very ugly painting to everyone.
"Is... is this the painting that was on the news? The one that history's most legendary Appraiser Supreme, George Fraser, identified to be a piece by abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock?" Ezra Shaffer, the Rhodes family's Chief Appraiser, suddenly exclaimed.
George gave a satisfied nod and coolly said, "I think I remember him mentioning this was worth about 200 million."
The whole conference room went silent at his revelation...