Chapter 131 New York, Not What I Imagined

On the way to New York.

Su Yehao was drifting in and out of sleep, roused by the sound of snoring.

Even though he was the boss and could wake up the snoring bodyguard so he could sleep in peace, he felt it wasn't the right thing to do.

It wasn't about status; it was about basic decency.

After arriving in New York, he randomly chose a five-star hotel in Queens, checked in, and started catching up on sleep.

His biological clock was a mess.

He woke up and looked at his watch, only to find it was just after nine o'clock.

Su Yehao quickly realized that he had flown from the West Coast and hadn't adjusted his watch, so it was already noon in New York.

He picked up his phone and checked his missed calls. Xiao Nizi and Nong Qingying had both called, as well as Jeff Koons.

Before yesterday, this artist's work had never sold for more than $300,000.

But today, many people had contacted Jeff Koons after learning that his *Balloon Dog* had been bought by the founder of Yahoo for over a million dollars.

Among those who contacted him, Su Yehao's offer was the highest, exceeding the others by over a million dollars, which was probably why Jeff Koons had taken the initiative to call.

First, he contacted Jeff Koons and arranged to meet at an exhibition hall in Lower Manhattan at 2:30 p.m.

Then, he sent messages to Xiao Nizi, Jiang Yu, and Nong Qingying, telling them that he had come to New York on short notice, so they wouldn't miscalculate the time difference and be unable to reach him.

After tidying up, Su Yehao left with Yin Liuli. The fleet of cars he had rented through the hotel was already waiting at the entrance…

It was only the beginning of March.

The weather in New York was still very cold, the city winds were biting, and there was unmelted snow in the shady spots along the streets. The rats in the sewers were so cold that they were sunbathing on the railings of the Brooklyn Bridge.

During a slow traffic jam, Yin Liuli saw a dark shadow on the bridge railing. At first, she thought it was a stray cat, but after a closer look, she realized it was several large rats, which shocked her.

Su Yehao wasn't surprised and joked, "It's worthy of being New York. The food must be good because the rats on the street are several sizes bigger than elsewhere…"

Last time, when he brought Xiao Nizi to New York for shopping, she was so scared by the shadows darting around in the alleys and parks that she screamed.

The darker it got, the more rampant the rats of New York became, and they had become a major attraction.

While driving around 1990s New York City, Su Yehao chatted idly with Yin Liuli.

He had once heard a driver say that experts had conducted a study and concluded that there were more rats than residents in New York, with an average weight of over 330 grams, and even cats were afraid of them.

As the economic center of the United States and even the world, it couldn't spare a few million dollars to exterminate the rats. Coupled with the garbage on the streets and the bumpy roads, Su Yehao's good impression of New York had quickly shattered after his last visit.

Interestingly, the New York authorities didn't have money to exterminate the rats, but they did have money to subsidize the office building management in Manhattan, so they could keep the lights on at night to maintain a brightly lit and prosperous cityscape, claiming that it would prevent providing convenience for thieves.

For Su Yehao, the standard for evaluating a city was whether he wanted to live there.

Silicon Valley was quiet and comfortable, San Francisco had a high happiness index, and Los Angeles' Beverly Hills had actresses. They all seemed pretty good, but while Manhattan in New York had skyscrapers, it was hard for him to like it.

The reason was probably that while New York had the highest concentration of millionaires in the world, it also housed the largest number of homeless people.

It had the densest cluster of skyscrapers, but it was reluctant to repair its infrastructure or hire more cleaners.

All in all, the good parts were very good, but the bad parts were really bad. The management was too poor, so the overall score wasn't high.

At least when living in Silicon Valley, Su Yehao dared to go out to pubs and eat late-night snacks without worrying too much about safety, but in New York, even with bodyguards, he felt a little uneasy.

After chatting with Su Yehao, Yin Liuli's anticipation for this trip to New York instantly dropped a bit.

Paying attention, she noticed that the car was indeed bumping around quite a bit. Along the streets of Lower Manhattan, there was a long row of tents, with homeless people wrapped in thick clothes, squatting at the entrances of their tents asking pedestrians for money, which was completely different from the exquisite sets in Hollywood movies.

With tens of thousands of homeless people living in New York, it would be strange if the public order were good, which was why in the 1990s, the media described New York as "Gotham City without Batman."

Of course, Su Yehao didn't like the atmosphere of New York, but that didn't change the fact that it was really prosperous.

Commercial trade was extremely developed, and the environment and public order in the wealthy areas such as Midtown and the Upper East Side of Manhattan were relatively good.

However, this so-called world's largest city seemed a bit overrated, not considering the living environment, public order, and happiness index, making it a bit too focused on money.

The car arrived in the East Village of Lower Manhattan, and soon they found the exhibition hall with Jeff Koons' poster on the outer wall.

It looked like a newly hung promotional poster, but someone had already spray-painted a big word on it, probably something like "idiot," along with an insulting drawing.

The security guard at the door, who looked over two hundred pounds, stopped Su Yehao and his group, saying, "The exhibition hasn't started yet. Come back tomorrow. The artist who rented the venue this time... is a bit crazy. I went inside and saw it. It's very boring. I suggest you don't go in."

Speaking of the artist, the security guard even made a "2" gesture with his fingers and hooked his finger, obviously mocking him.

Su Yehao didn't know how Jeff Koons had offended him, thinking maybe he hadn't given the security guard a tip. After thanking him, he directly took out his phone and called Jeff Koons.

Soon, the artist, whose career had just taken a turn for the better, personally came out to greet them, and they exchanged greetings as they walked into the exhibition hall.

It had to be said that the two huge *Balloon Dog* sculptures did look a bit interesting. Because of their large size, they easily caught everyone's attention.

As for the other things, most of them were just as the security guard at the door had said – particularly boring.

For example, the sculpture of Michael Jackson holding a monkey had an ugly color scheme of yellow and white, and the decorative paintings that randomly pieced together patterns were an eyesore.

The normal path of art had been occupied for thousands of years, forcing people in modern times to develop in abnormal directions.

For example, Picasso, the so-called Fauvism, or Realist Abstractionism, Pop Art, and so on. Anyway, rich people often didn't care about the quality of the work. As long as the creator was famous enough and the artwork had the potential to appreciate in value, that was enough.

After walking around the exhibition hall, Su Yehao suddenly felt that Jeff Koons had to have a relatively good agent to survive in the industry for so many years, or he was a rich second-generation himself with some money in hand.

Otherwise, with this pile of works that seemed to lack any aesthetic appeal but were priced surprisingly high, this guy would have starved to death on the streets long ago.

Most of it was garbage, but there were also treasures among it.

Soon, Su Yehao set his sights on a stainless steel rabbit, similar to the *Balloon Dog*. It also had balloon patterns on it and looked a bit interesting.

He remembered that this small sculpture was the one that had sold for a sky-high price, made entirely of stainless steel with a unique shape.

Although the high price in his previous life might have been for money laundering or asset transfer, Su Yehao wanted to take a gamble and try it out since he had finally found an artist worth investing in. Anyway, investing early wouldn't cost much.

Touching his chin, Su Yehao asked, "Two dogs, plus this rabbit. I'm willing to offer $2.3 million. Direct payment, no extra commission. It's a good deal for you. Deal?"

"They are all my representative works. Once you buy them, I won't be able to continue the exhibition."

Jeff Koons thought for a moment and added, "It needs to be at least $4 million."

Su Yehao then asked him, "How many *Balloon Dog*s have you produced in total?"

"Only three. What's wrong? Actually, there's also an unfinished one. I haven't decided what color to paint it."

As soon as Jeff Koons finished speaking, Su Yehao said to him, "How about this? I know you worked on Wall Street. Your business sense is much better than other artists. You sell me these three things for $2.3 million now. When the next *Balloon Dog* is sent to auction, I guarantee to back it up with a price of $10 million. If someone else's bid is less than $10 million, then I'll buy it."

If no one else offered a higher price by then, it would be equivalent to Su Yehao spending $12 million to buy three *Balloon Dog* sculptures.

The average purchase price of a *Balloon Dog* would be $4 million, but the last one would sell for $10 million at that time, and the orange and blue ones would also appreciate in value.

But if someone else offered more than $10 million, then Su Yehao would be spending $2 million to buy artworks worth $20 million. Regardless of whether they were really worth that much, that was the market price.

No matter how you look at it, it wouldn't be a loss. At that time, he could hype it up through the internet, increase its reputation, and maybe earn tens of millions of dollars back.

Artwork often sells for its fame.

Jeff Koons' heart was pounding after hearing this.

He knew that he had been targeted by a tycoon who was going to hype him up.

His head started to spin. He took a few deep breaths and asked, "Can this promise be written into the contract? When will it be sent to auction?"

Su Yehao shook his head and said, "Of course, it can't be written into the contract, but I'll have two by then, and Jerry Yang from Yahoo will also have one. We definitely all want the last one to be auctioned off for a sky-high price, so our inventory will also appreciate in value. No matter what, the whole thing is very beneficial to you, but the *Balloon Dog* can't be produced anymore. This needs to be written into the contract. No one likes artists who mass produce and ruin their own brand."

Regardless of anything else, even just the $2.3 million was enough to make Jeff Koons ecstatic.

The magenta *Balloon Dog* that was sent to auction yesterday was an item he had sold to an art dealer for $90,000.

In other words, the money from last night's auction had nothing to do with him.

Therefore, after understanding Su Yehao's meaning, Jeff agreed very readily and immediately shook hands with Su Yehao to seal the deal.

The opportunity to be noticed by a super-rich man wasn't common. No matter what, making money was the priority, and if these three *Balloon Dog*s were sold, the unfinished one in the warehouse would be worth a lot.

As for that stainless steel rabbit, it had been produced for over ten years and had never been sold. It had only been found in the old warehouse a few days ago.

What was there to be dissatisfied with if it could sell for $300,000?