Remonin pushed away the white man and furiously yelled, “Hey guards, what’s going on here? Why didn’t this liar go dig for diamonds?”
The black brother by the door immediately saluted him and shouted, “Reporting to General, he said he had no energy, was having headaches, and after a meal he was experiencing vomiting and diarrhea episodes. He even had white foam coming out of his mouth. I think he is really sick, so I let him stay in the jail room to rest.”
The white man sprawled over the fence door and used all his might to reach out; he screamed, “Take me away! Please save me, mister—dear, respected mister! Please save me! I will repay you . . . “
Remonin looked at this man with disgust and kicked hard on the fence door as he growled, “Send him to the mines. Look at him, how is he sick? Dammit, he’s even more energetic than our dogs!”
This was true. Hyenas were wild animals, after all. They needed freedom and high levels of activity to stay energetic. They had been chained by the soldiers near the prison as guard dogs, and they looked listless.
The white man was still shouting. “Save me please. I am Spanish, I have a British green card. Please save me, or tell the Spanish and English embassy. I beg you, please . . . “
Remonin pushed Li Du away and said, “I want to explain the situation to you, Mr Li. I did not kidnap a foreign citizen, I locked him up because he is a liar. He cheated us out of a few hundred thousand US dollars!”
“What happened?” Li Du asked.
Remonin took off his beret and slammed it onto the ground furiously. “If you weren’t our important guest, d*mmit, I would never ever tell you this. Every time I think about it, I get very angry!
“This bast*rd is a liar. He had some other friends too, but most of those bast*rds ran away. I could only catch two of them.
“I became interested in diamonds a few years ago. I wanted to find a mine to fund my military expenses and to maintain the operation of my village. But at that time I had not come here yet, and I didn’t have any diamond mines.
“These liars used my naivety and kindness—they cheated me! They told me that they had some kind of high temperature, high pressure molecular conversion nanotechnology that could turn pencil lead and graphite into diamonds!”
The white man was yelling loudly behind him. “I am not a liar! That technology is real, it’s just that you did not have a suitable machine for it. That needs a very advanced machine—if you don’t believe me you can ask this noble man. Diamonds, pencil lead, graphite and such are basically the same thing, right?”
Remonin looked at Li Du, who opened his arms and said, “Well, they are in fact the same thing. It’s just that the arrangement of the carbon is different—”
“That’s right!” the white man shouted. “See? See? See? I did not lie to you!”
Remonin looked at Li Du suspiciously. He said, “So, graphite and pencil lead can really turn into diamonds?”
Li Du did not know how to answer, so he said carefully, “It works theoretically, but the converted diamonds are not the diamonds that you want. This type is not valuable.”
Remonin got furious once again. He yelled, “D*mmit, they still lied to me!”
Li Du said, “What is the problem exactly? They cheated you out of a few hundred thousand US dollars?”
Remonin nodded with a gloomy face. “Yes, these s*ns of b*tches showed me some information and said that some Mexican scientists could turn tequila into diamonds, and that they could even turn peanut butter into diamonds. Graphite and pencil lead as well.”
Li Du said, “This actually cannot be considered lying to you. That information is not fake. They can actually be turned into diamonds, but they just need highly complex science equipment. It cannot be done by normal people.”
Remonin said, “Four hundred and fifty thousand US dollars∏can this amount buy me the equipments?”
Li Du said, “Not even forty five times that much could get you that. That equipment cannot be bought with money as the government does not allow the private sale of it.”
Remonin threw his beret once again onto the floor. “They used some sly way to convince me into trusting them. Then they took away 450,000 US dollars! These liars!”
Li Du looked at the white man and said, “So then, you guys really are liars.”
The white man tried his best to explain. “No, we are not liars, my noble friend, we were cheated as well. We thought that 450,000 dollars could get the equipment.” Then he quickly said, “General, you have misunderstood us. You see, the information we showed you is true, isn’t it? The experiment of turning tequila and peanut butter into diamonds has worked.”
Li Du said, “Then did you also know that the experiment turning bone ashes into diamonds was also a success? General, did you know that bones can be made into diamonds?”
There were many things that could be used to make synthetic diamonds, but they had intense requirements regarding the equipments and skills. It was too difficult for commoners to use these things to create synthetic diamonds.
After hearing Li Du’s words, the white man quickly retreated in fear, but he was still begging, “Please, for the sake of God, save me. I have a sick mother and children who have no one to look after them at home. My wife ran away with another man—I need to go back to take care of my family . . . Really, I swear. I had no choice, I had to lie to the general for my family . . . “
This made Li Du feel funny. He had seen something like this on television when he was three or four years old. The liars on the television always used an excuse like this to get away.
Remonin coldly said, “So, now you admit you cheated me?”
The white man was stunned. He suddenly fell to the ground, and his body started convulsing. His eyes blinked and rolled to the back of his head, and white foam started coming out from his mouth.
Li Du, shocked, asked, “Could he be suffering from epilepsy?”
Remonin took out his handgun and loaded it. “Epilepsy?” he asked coldly. “What disease is that? Is it contagious? Never mind, I’ll just kill him and burn his body. If it infects the others then it will be really troublesome.”
The white man lying on the ground climbed up immediately; he kneeled on the floor with both his hands over his head and called out, “Don’t shoot, General. Don’t shoot. I’m not sick, I was just faking it, I’m not sick!”
Remonin already knew this would happen, so he put his gun away and fiercely said, “You just stay here and think of a way to get me back my 450,000 US dollars. If you can’t, don’t ever f*cking think about leaving here. Whoever comes here cannot help you!”
The white man desperately said, “I’ve already given you an idea. You should contact our embassy, they will pay you 450,000 to release me.”
Remonin smiled coldly. “F*ck you. You still want to fool me? If I f*cking leak your news out, the government army will probably come here! Dammit, you better think of something quick. Or else when our food supply runs low, you’ll be out of time!”
This white man seemed like the type of trash who could no longer fool around in his country so had fled to Africa to cause trouble. Li Du did not bother saving him. He was kind hearted, but he was no saint.
After visiting the prison, Remonin said, “Look, at least from the aspect of prison, I’m not the executioner warlord that you imagined, right? I’ll bring you to visit my mine, but you have to wear this.”
He waved his hand. The soldier behind him took out a piece of black cloth and gestured that Li Du should tie it around his eyes.
