Sophia continued reading the letter. General Yves was very interested in the South-to-North Water Diversion project she had mentioned before and hoped she could provide related information.
This was easy. After reading, Sophia immediately searched online and ordered a bunch of books from JD.com.
Through this search, Sophia learned that the South-to-North Water Diversion project had taken the country seventy years to complete, and there were still some problems being optimized.
Seeing this, Sophia felt worried. Solving drought and flooding was very complicated. With the technology from General Yves's time, it might not be possible to finish it.
Sophia replied to General Yves, agreeing to his request but also shared her own opinions and concerns.
Right after replying, the delivery driver contacted her.
Sophia hurried to receive the goods.
For the next two days, she was busy delivering. The books she ordered arrived after the food deliveries and were sent together.
Sophia did not only buy books about the South-to-North Water Diversion; she also sent some related to water management.
General Yves received the books and read through them himself.
At the same time, he began gathering experts in the field.
After delivering to General Yves and clearing the warehouse, Sophia started sorting out the things on the third floor.
General Yves had sent so many things that Sophia was starting to lose focus on them.
Last time, when she moved ten boxes from General Yves's delivery upstairs, she realized it was time to clean up.
If General Yves wanted to work on water projects, she might need to support some materials.
But after reading about ancient water projects in the last few days, she realized the wisdom of the ancients was impressive.
Some water projects from over two thousand years ago were still in use.
Their quality was even better than modern ones.
Sophia decided not to interfere too much. If General Yves really needed help, he would ask. She only needed to provide support without interfering too much.
Putting these thoughts aside, Sophia focused on the warehouse's third floor.
She spent two or three days alone counting and recording everything.
Just as she was about to contact Auctioneer Zhena, she received two payment notifications totaling 23 million yuan.
Sophia was confused until Auctioneer Zhena called and explained.
"Sophia, sorry to bother you. The company has transferred 23 million yuan. Have you received it?"
Hearing this, Sophia recalled something and guessed what it was.
Auctioneer Zhena said, "This is for the jade wine set, twelve cups, after nearly two months of legal proceedings. The court decided the other party must pay 17 million yuan, and the remaining 6 million is compensation decided internally for you."
Before the auction, Deron had estimated the base price at 15 million.
Auctioneer Zhena added, "The court ruling is 17 million, and the extra 6 million is compensation from us."
"Okay, thank you, Ms. Zhena."
This reminded Sophia. She had planned to entrust Deron to sell her jewelry but now hesitated.
Thinking about it made her feel uneasy.
After ending the call, Sophia called Amelia.
After hearing Sophia's story, Amelia laughed.
"Deron actually paid you extra? Deron is known in the industry as very stingy. They would rather spend money on lawsuits than pay compensation willingly."
Amelia added, "Do you still have other treasures? I guess Deron must have valued you much higher than those six million."
Earlier, the items Sophia entrusted to Deron had a contract, and the auction house took a 10% commission.
That meant Deron earned more than sixty million from it.
Sophia thought about it carefully and agreed.
"Amelia, Lide is also a pretty famous auction company, right? Have you dealt with them much?"
Sophia sat at her desk, scrolling the company profile of Lide on her computer.
"I have helped my teacher send some collections to Lide before. Their reputation in the industry is good, but their headquarters is a bit far from you, and their auctions mostly happen in the capital and Shanghai," Amelia said objectively, without adding opinions.
Sophia nodded.
"Do you have their contact? Give me one. I want to send some items there to auction."
She found that Lide was currently collecting items for their autumn auction.
After Amelia finished the call, she quickly sent the contact info to Sophia.
She also said, "Do you have any collections from Yuan Zhaonian? My teacher mentioned it a few days ago. If you have some, maybe you can show them to Professor Zhou first. They might offer higher prices than the auction house."
Also, no commission fee in the middle.
Sophia didn't reply right away because she realized she had a lot of items and wasn't sure which ones to send Amelia.
She picked out thirty or forty items she thought were good and sent them to Amelia.
Amelia was with Professor Zhou at that time.
Seeing Sophia send so many items at once, even with a voice message saying she had already selected them, both were surprised.
"How does it look like she's buying wholesale from a dollar store so easily?"
The two felt complicated inside.
The batch Sophia sold to Professor Zhou before was from Yuan Zhaonian, which Professor Zhou got as a lucky find. Now, it wasn't the same.
Professor Zhou used Amelia's phone to mark a few items and sent them back to Sophia.
"Sophia, can you hold these few for me? I plan to visit Yang City in October and will come to find you then."
Professor Zhou sent the voice message using Amelia's phone.
Sophia agreed.
She put those thirty or forty jade, gemstones, and porcelain items aside.
She packed the rest.
Sophia contacted Auctioneer Zhena to mention she had items to entrust for auction.
Zhena quickly replied and arranged a time for someone to come pick them up.
Meanwhile, Sophia contacted the person in charge at Lide.
It took a long time before they replied.
Since it was the first cooperation, they suggested Sophia come in person.
The items needed to be sent to Lide's headquarters in Shanghai.
Sophia needed to check with Ronin to see if he could manage it.
Ronin had a lot on his plate now , the construction site couldn't be left without someone, and the warehouse in town also needed managing. He couldn't be gone too long.