There was nothing valuable in the back of the warehouse. Li Du carefully searched
around with the help of the little bug, found nothing.
The tenth warehouse has opened. Inside was a pile of recycled old books, mainly
comics and novels. Many of the comics were wrapped in plastic and well taken care of.
Li Du searched the warehouse once more, but still found nothing. He sighed and
prepared to leave.
The treasure hunters nearby were discussing the value of the warehouse. “Hey, it’s all
old books, damn it, this is a dumpster. No need to stay here.”
“There are a lot of comics. Might be valuable.”
“Haha, how can it be? Unless there are some out-of-print comics…”
“If it’s the early ‘Superman’ or ‘Movies Comic Weekly’, it would really make a big profit.
How much are they worth now? Millions?”
“Who knows exactly? Anyway, Stan Lee’s hand-drawn version of ‘The Hulk’ sold for
eight hundred thousand dollars at the New York Metropolitan Auction!”Li Du, who was
ready to leave, stopped `when he heard this. What? Someone bought the hand-drawn
version of ‘The Hulk’ sold for eight hundred thousand dollars? Are comics so valuable?!
He clearly remembered that some of the comic books in the warehouse were hand-
painted versions and that some people here mentioned ‘Superman’, which he recalled
having seen in a box of comic books.
The auction has begun and the starting price was, as usual, five hundred dollars.
The treasure hunters shook their heads and said that the price was too high. They were
unwilling to spend five hundred dollars on a pile of old books that might be waste paper.
In the United States, there was no industry collecting waste paper. To deal with bulk
waste paper, one would have to go to a recycling station and spend money to sort it.
Li Du gave the officer a look and signaled that he would take the warehouse.
There was a warehouse in front which cost a million and a half. The transaction was just
settled. The auctioneer was very satisfied with the profit today, but he found that nobody
was interested in the tenth warehouse. He immediately lowered the price. “Okay, okay,
let’s end the auction with a starting price of four hundred dollars. This is very
reasonable, isn’t it?”
The officer raised his hand. “Four hundred dollars, fair enough.”
Most people were not interested in this warehouse. Li Du asked the people around him,
“Isn’t it worthwhile to buy a bunch of old books for four hundred dollars? As you have
said, there may be some out-of-print comics and rare things like that in there.”
This made a few people laugh and shake
their heads. “No, that’s impossible”. “The chances are practically zero. It would be like
looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Although they had previously discussed what valuable goods might be in the
warehouse, they didn’t really believe that there would be anything in there. They mainly
just wanted to encourage others to buy so that they could watch the fun.
That was just how the treasure hunters were, lively people who did not mind a bit of
action.
The officer took down the warehouse for four hundred dollars.
Hans came up and asked in a low voice, “What’s inside the warehouse?”
Li Du did not get any more information about this warehouse, so he shook his head. “I
don’t know, but it looks valuable. Anyway, four hundred dollars is very cheap, so take it
and see for yourself.”
Since Tang Dynasty never spoke a word, one could assume that among the twelve
warehouses this one was the most likely to have contents worth tens of millions. Other
warehouses were unlikely candidates.
After the twelve warehouses were sold, it was already afternoon, and the group went to
complete the transaction.
Conrad and Merlot slugged into the warehouse, facing a pile of replicas, and looked as
though they could cry. Everyone saw that they were not in the mood and no one dared
to provoke them.
The warehouse company people didn’t want to provoke them either because this
transaction brought in one million five hundred thousand dollars. The warehouse
company hasn’t had so much turnover in this whole year.
The boss himself came forward with his security guards. He said politely, “Mr. Anthony,
you have to go through the formal procedures. Of course, if you want to pay the money
right now, you can do that.”
He brought the accountant of the warehouse company too. Seeing this, Li Du came
over and pulled a stack of green bills from the suitcase. They had taken a high-priced
warehouse, fifty thousand dollars.
The boss loved and hated to see him.
He knew that warehouse number103 would hardly bring him one million five hundred
thousand dollars without Li Du, but he hated how Li Du told the truth too early. If he had
kept silent, Conrad and Merlot would have gone away calm and happy.
This incident taught the treasure hunters that Li Du had set up a trap for the unlucky
Conrad and Merlot.
Looking at Merlot’s bleak expression and his sluggish eyes, Hans couldn’t help but
laugh. “Hey, good partner, wake up, don’t sleep, it’s time to pay the money.”
Merlot ignored him and looked at the piece of Patek Philippe in despair.
Conrad’s anger was triggered. He suddenly stood up, pointed at Li Du and shouted,
“Chinaman, you conned me! You conned me! You actually conned me!”
Li Du said coolly, “Is it my fault? Did I force you to buy the warehouse?”
“You absolutely did!” Conrad growled. “I want you dead! You bastard! I am going to kill
you today!”
He picked up a wooden stick from the ground and dashed at Li Du.
Li Du moved backward while Conrad raved like an enraged tiger. “I want to kill you! You
go to hell! Either you kill me or I will kill you! It’s not a big deal, let’s go to jail together!”
A few treasure hunters hastened to stop Conrad and said, “Calm down, calm down.” In
fact, they very much hoped that he and Li Du would fight.
Brother Wolf wanted to fight Conrad, but Li Du stopped him.
This time, Conrad wanted to fight desperately. Brother Wolf wanted to stop him and
knock him out with a punch, but a serious injury could get them involved in a lawsuit.
He thought of another way.
With fifty thousand dollars in hand to prepare for the payment, Li Du changed his mind.
He threw the money down and said, ‘Whoever is willing to protect my safety these fifty
thousand will be his!”
There were not only treasure hunters in the surrounding crowd but also local thugs from
the ghetto.
These gangsters were real madmen. They did drugs, gambled, stole and robbed. They
did whatever they could to get money. Fifty thousand dollars was a huge sum for them,
and several pairs of eyes sparkled.
A skinny black man rushed out and roared, “I’m your man!”
A big man next to him reached out, threw him down to the ground and said disdainfully,
“Roll aside, you junkie, what can you do?”
The big man looked at Li Du and said, “A hundred thousand dollars. I will share it with
my brothers, and we will help you take care of this idiot!”
Li Du said, “No, I don’t want you to take care of anyone, I just need you to protect me.”
The big man nodded. “A hundred thousand dollars, and whoever tries to touch you will
only do it over our dead bodies!”
Without saying anything, Li Du opened his suitcase, took out another fifty thousand
dollars and threw the money at the big man.
The man laughed, quickly picked up the money and said, “Guys, go on! Get me that son
of a bitch!”
