Chapter 31: Caught On Camera

“Mr. Thomson, Ms. Alice, let me introduce to you these five professionals that we have invited — Sigrid, Dai Meng, Jiang Meng, Rowan, and Safia.”

“They’re professionals at doing these evaluations. They will be the markers for this round and grade your standard of living. I hope you don’t mind.”

The host pointed at the five people who walked out from behind him.

These five people were neatly dressed, but they had a distinct presence. At a glance, they looked like successful people in business.

There were three women and two men. Each of them had a slightly arrogant look on their faces as if they were not particularly interested in everything around them.

Then, the host said to the camera, “Dear viewers, I believe you guys have been waiting for a long time. Now, let’s follow the judges and explore the standard of living of Gates’s friend, Thomson.”

As the camera moved around, all the furnishings in Thomson’s house were displayed in the live broadcast room.

“This is too ordinary. It’s no different from my house.”

“It can’t be. He’s friends with Gates with this standard of living? It’s not a joke, right?”

“The program team is about to flop. I thought it was a big shot’s house, but it turns out that it’s just an ordinary house.”

“But the painting on the wall looks pretty nice.”

“To be honest, I still think that the nouveau riche’s house from the previous season looked good. Even the rice ladle was made of gold. It was so shiny that it blinded my eyes.”

“This is ordinary and nothing new. Now I think everything before this was part of the script.”

In the live broadcast room, the audience began to criticize the layout of Thomson’s home when they saw it.

Standard of living meant nothing more than what they eat, drink, live, and travel. That in itself would reveal their interests or artistic sense.

First of all, ordinary people ate plain rice and simple food, but people with good life could do all sorts of things to elevate their food.

The second was drinking. Ordinary people drank mineral water or beverages, but people with a good life preferred coffee or the ’82 Lafite for a higher-end drink.

After that was living; the better one lived, the more eye-catching the decor, the better one’s life would be. On the contrary, the less eye-catching the decor, the worse one’s life was.

Finally, it was traveling. Ordinary people would have cars or even electric cars that were worth less than 100,000 dollars. However, those who had a good life would have all kinds of luxury cars. Even if it was a bicycle, it would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As for art-related items like antiques, famous paintings, and rare artifacts, having any one of them would mean a good standard of living.

In short, being rich meant having a good standard of living, and being poor meant otherwise.

At least, that was how the public saw it.

It was as good as saying, between a person wearing an off-the-rack shirt and a person wearing an LV, who do you think had a better standard of living?

Obviously, it was the latter.

After all, one’s outer appearance reflected his or her’s standard of living.

…

“This wall is actually made of wood. When the wind blows and the rain falls, the wood will rot.”

“And this sofa and chair, it must’ve been passed down from your grandfather’s generation, right? My eighty-year-old grandfather doesn’t even sit on this chair anymore.”

“The cabinet is filled with all kinds of counterfeit goods. This standard… Tsk tsk.”

After casually glancing at the things in the house, Dai Meng could not help but shake his head.

At this moment, a crisp voice came from the side.

“Look, doesn’t this look like that famous painting that has disappeared for more than a century, The Last Doomsday?”

This voice immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

“Jiang Meng, what are you on about? According to rumors, Nazis destroyed The Last Doomsday during World War I. How could it be here? It must be a fake.”

Beside her, Dai Meng replied after a glance.

The Last Doomsday was created a century ago by a painter, Van Gogh. It was a world-renown painting.

Even the former Queen of England had hung that work in her palace, so it was very rare.

However, after experiencing all kinds of wars, this painting, The Last Doomsday, was lost. Rumor said it was destroyed a long time ago.

If so, then how could it be here? Who would believe it?

After all, this painting deserved to be placed in a museum.

…

“Is it a fake? Did the program team put it up just to improve Thomson’s standard of living? Then they wouldn’t lose so badly.”

“Hahahaha, putting up a fake painting is like a slap in their face.”

“Who wants to bet that the program team has already set up this place beforehand? It’s all part of a script.”

“There might be other counterfeits later, but fortunately, these judges are quite ruthless. They just came from another live broadcast room, where a fool insisted that his bronze cauldron was an antique from the Shang Dynasty. In the end, they found out that the bottom of the bronze cauldron was carved with the words, made in China.”

In the live broadcast room, the show enthusiasts were all very familiar with this scene.

These were all the show’s tricks, and everyone simply watched it for fun.

At this moment, Thomson, who was sitting on the sofa, suddenly said, “Do you have evidence that it’s a forgery?”

Thomson had a strong impression of this painting.

When Thomson was at the top of the world, the famous Rothschild family had almost made him bankrupt.

As an apology, that family gave Thomson a lot of things, and this painting was one of them.

Thomson believed that with the influence of the Rothschild family, they would not dare to fool him with a counterfeit.

Moreover, those things had been certified by professionals, so the possibility of a counterfeit was completely eliminated.

“It’s not a counterfeit? Are you that good at joking? If it’s not a counterfeit, do you know how much this painting is worth? At least 100 million.”

Dai Meng laughed.

That was true. If the authentic The Last Doomsday painting appeared on the market, there would definitely be people who were willing to spend 100 million to buy it.

However, if someone had the authentic painting, would they live in this 100-square-meters commercial house?

Dai Meng could not be bothered to confirm it, and so, he announced that the painting was a counterfeit.

Thomson said calmly, “You didn’t even evaluate it before you say it’s a counterfeit. It seems like that’s all you can do.”

In fact, Thomson was too lazy to say anything. However, when he saw Alice embarrassed, he could not bear it.

At this moment, Jiang Meng, who was too focused on the painting, suddenly shouted, “This painting seems to be the real one.”