“Here, we have Selina Ren.” Mr. Cheng spoke into the microphone clearly as the curtains rolled up, showing a petite woman with a knee-length, baby blue, spaghetti strapped dress on.
“Miss Ren is the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ruan Ren. She is currently managing her own bakery shop downtown…”
---
“One thousand!” a voice yelled.
“One thousand, twenty five hundred!” another called.
“Five thousand!” Everyone gasped and looked at the man holding up his money.
“Five Thousand!” Mr. Cheng announced. “Going..once..” silence. “Going twice….”….
“Sold! To Mr. Jiro Wang!”
---
“Hebe!” Ella called.
“Ella!” Mrs. Wu called.
“You’re on dock. Come on.” Mrs. Wu tried to push her. She was too concern to get Ella on stage, that she didn’t even notice that Ella didn’t even have her dress on.
“I can’t!” she started to cry.
“Ella!” Charlene yelled from behind the curtains.
“Ella!” she yelled again.
“What?!” Ella screamed at her.
“Get me my shoes now! I’m up and my shoes are on the other side of the stage. Just run and get them. Go! Father‘s calling my name already.”
Ella took the time to break away from Mrs. Wu, and ran across the stage.
---
“Next, is one of my beloved daughters. She’d been with me since young. Please welcome Miss. Char-”
The curtains rose just in time for Ella to be up on stage holding Charlene’s shoes.
The crowd suddenly became silent.
---
“uh-” Mr. Chen looked over at Charlene sitting on one side of the stage.
“What? Ella? That’s suppose to be me!” Charlene scolded as she was about to get up, but Mrs. Wu held her down.
“Charlene, dear. Just wait, you’re time will come soon engough.” Mrs. Wu assured her.
She patted her shoulders.
“Make me proud, Chun.” Mrs. Wu whispered to herself.
---
“I guess we have a little change here.” Mr. Cheng tried to humor the audience.
“Miss Ella Chen, ladies and gentlemen.” Ella stood there shocked and paralyzed.
She signaled her father to stop and let her leave, but a smile just crawled up his lips.
“Ella, is one of a kind. She loves to take pictures and sing.”
Ella could feel the tears build up in her eyes.
“She is currently unemployed, but that’s only because her beloved father only wants her to be pampered.” Mr. Cheng added and scattered of laughter were heard.
As Ella stood there, she didn’t know which one was worst:
The fact that she just embarrassed herself in front of the whole city in Taiwan.
Or
The fact that her father set her up.
“Ok, let’s start the bidding!”
“Five thousand.” A familiar voice called out.
Ella looked up finding a smile upon a face she knew well.
Tank?
“Seven Thousand!” Ella looked at Tank for help.
“One Hundred thousand.” Tank replied as he smiled to her.
The bidding went up, but the hopes of Tank winning went down for Ella.
She knew the Zhongs were rich, but she also knew that they hadn’t particularly liked Ella.
So she figured that Mrs. Zhong was going to stop Tank sooner or later.
She scanned her eyes on one particular person, and smiled.
She missed him so much.
But she suddenly remembered that she wasn’t dressed up, and her look right now was equal to a maid in the kitchen.
Ella suddenly found her legs and started running behind the curtains.
“ONE MILLION!” The crowd was silent.
“One Million!” Mr. Wu exclaimed worryingly. “Going Once…, going twice!” Everyone looked around with confused faces.
“Sold!”
Ella’s heart sanked.
“To Mr. Danson Tang!”
