Merlot shouted at George Anthony, but George Anthony merely plastered a smile on his
face and remained quiet.
Noisy versus quiet, they showed quite a difference.
Li Du, who was watching, knew that Merlot was at a disadvantage. Under such
circumstances, the one who was calmer would have a stronger standpoint, and the one
who panicked would be weaker.
George Anthony didn’t pay attention to Merlot, but said to Li Du, “I’m sorry, Li, for
making a scene here. My partner here has quite a temper. I hope you can forgive him.”
“I’m not your partner!” Merlot leashed out. “You can’t make me pay a million dollars! I
don’t have a million dollars, I just don’t have that money!”
Hans laughed. “No, Merlot, my good partner. You have at least two million. Do you
remember how you used to tell me that you had a million and a half dollars in savings?
Then you stole five hundred thousand dollars from me. So you have a total of two
million dollars, isn’t that right?”
Merlot looked at him quickly and said with despair, “Big Fox, don’t be like that. It wasn’t
me who cheated you… it wasn’t just me! This time I’m the one who’s cheated, please
help me…”
“Help you commit suicide?” Hans’ smile became colder. “You deserve this!”
What goes around comes around. Merlot was a bad guy, but he met someone even
worse. Needless to say, George Anthony would be making him pay the money.
It had nothing to do with Li Du and his men anymore. They moved the machines onto
their truck and left the warehouse company without a second look.
Merlot was still arguing with Anthony. He was supposed to help Conrad take revenge on
Hans but ended up getting in trouble himself. He had brought that upon himself.
After clearing up the things, they did not return to Phoenix right away. Instead, they
dealt with the items that they had gotten from the warehouse.
Hans contacted a watch factory, and the men from that factory were very interested in
the machines that they had gotten.
The watch factory was in the rural area of Los Angeles. After an hour’s drive, they had
arrived at the small factory.
Li Du asked, “Will there be any safety issues around here?”
There were many other small factories around them, mainly family workshop factories.
These were all bungalows and colorful tiled houses, mostly single-story ones.
Li Du was worried that it was a bit too empty over here and that there might be criminals
roaming around.
Hans said without any concern, “No problem, follow me. I have already made contact.”
He made a phone call and the factory gate opened. An old man with grey hair peeped
out and then waved at them. “Hans Fox?”
Hans hopped off the car and shook his hand, saying, “That’s me. And you are Old
Chuck?”
“Yeah, I’m Old Chuck. Come on in, let me see what good stuff you’ve gotten for me
here.” The old man added, “I warn you, buddies. I don’t take any old junk. If it’s not good
enough you might as well take it back.”
Godzilla and Big Quinn got out of the car. Old Chuck swallowed hard when he saw their
faces and their sizes, and he joked, “Are you guys trying to force me to buy something?”
Hans said, “We are proper treasure hunters. Didn’t I just show you our IDs? We’re
treasure hunters from the hundred thousand club. Come on, let us show you what we’ve
got here.”
Godzilla and the other guy took down all of the machines. Chuck’s eyes immediately lit
up when he saw these items, and he laughed happily. “Machine tools manufactured by
the Switzerland Precisa Precision Tool Manufacturing Plant? Great stuff!”
While Chuck was looking at the machines, Li Du asked Hans, “What’s this old man all
about? It seems like he has some mental problem.”
“I heard that. My ears are very sensitive,” The old man yelled out, not taking his eyes off
the machines.
Hans shrugged and said, “He’s an expert at repairing watches. In fact, he is also an
expert at making fake branded watches. Some of the high-end imitation watches in the
Los Angeles black market actually came from here.”
Chuck kept yelling, “Those weren’t imitation watches! What I made was art. High-end
machinery watches are all pieces of art.”
“But this does not change the fact that what you did was illegal. Making imitation
watches is illegal,” Hans laughed.
Chuck insisted, “Art, you understand? Is it illegal to copy a painting of Picasso? How
can art be illegal?”
Hans got serious and said, “You were actually copying high-end machinery watches,
how can you say those are a piece of art? Art is made to cultivate taste, but you did that
for money, didn’t you?”
Chuck stared at him wide-eyed. “Who said that? The watches I’ve made were not just
for money. I made them to cultivate taste too! Follow me!”
He brought the men into his workshop. There were four other men working inside, and
all of them seemed quite old.
As they entered Chuck’s office, they saw that the walls and shelves were full of
watches. They all looked like beautiful, top-notch machinery watches.
“I’m not just making imitation stuff here. Look here, can’t you feel the artistic
atmosphere? Isn’t this watch collection a type of art? If I can’t afford the real watch, can’t
I just keep a model of that watch?” Chuck snapped at Hans.
Li Du browsed around and suddenly saw a familiar watch.
He pointed at the watch and asked in an awed voice, “Trossi-Leggenda, the Trossi-
Leggenda by Patek Philippe? How did you get one of these?”
The real watch was on his wrist. When he was looking for information on this watch,
some records mentioned that it had disappeared from the market for a long time.
Chuck said, “Yes, that is a Trossi-Leggenda. I made it according to the picture. What do
you think? Are you interested in getting one? I swear it looks real, even though I made it
based on the photo.”
“But you said it wasn’t for money?” Hans mocked.
Chuck sensed an opportunity, so he ignored Hans’ mocking and pushed the deal.
Li Du pulled up his sleeve and said, “Sorry, old man. I already have a Trossi-Leggenda.”
As he saw the watch, Chuck took in a deep breath, “Holy shit, it’s the real thing!”
As an expert in watches, he could tell at a glance that the watch was genuine.
Li Du soon regretted showing off. Chuck kept asking to see the watch, he even offered
him the imitation watch as a gift in exchange for another quick look.
Li Du had no choice. He couldn’t stand the old man’s nagging and took off his watch.
Chuck called his four old buddies over, and the five of them gathered around to study
the watch.
Someone even wanted to dismantle it, which shocked Li Du so much that he quickly
grabbed his watch back.
Chuck took away the imitation watch, and Li Du teased him, “Aren’t you going to give
that to me?”
“It’s too fake. Now that I’ve seen the real thing, I noticed that there are some parts which
need work. Just wait, I’ll make one that looks even more genuine than the real thing!”
Just like that, Li Du’s entourage spent almost a whole day at that place. Chuck said he
must fix the imitation watch and give it to him to express his respect for the genuine
Trossi-Leggenda.
The sun had almost set when the watch was finally ready.
Hans settled the price with Old Chuck and agreed to sell all the machines for fifty
thousand dollars. This meant Li Du just broke even. However, he did receive a fake
Trossi-Leggenda watch from Old Chuck. And this type of imitation watch was worth a
few thousand bucks as well. He seemed to have earned a little indeed.
