Li Du had not expected anyone else to make a bid. Surprised, he turned around to
identify the bidder. It was a bald black man who stood rubbing his chin and gazing at Li
Du.
The man was thin, with a small nose and eyes. He had a shifty look as he observed the
crowd. His eyes landed and fixed on Li Du after the latter made a bid.
Now that there was finally some interest in the warehouse, the auctioneer perked up.
“Ten dollars, ten dollars. Only ten dollars for a warehouse, isn’t this a good deal? Now it
is at fifty dollars, fifty dollars, fifty dollars. Is there anyone who would bid fifty dollars?”
The auctioneer said enthusiastically in one breath.
Glancing at the bald black man, Li Du wondered, That dude has not made a bid up until
now, so why did he call out after I bid?
Based on his conjecture, there could be two reasons. First, it could be that the bald
black man recognized him and was purposely challenging his bid to win the warehouse.
The other reason would be that the man had not just been observing Li Du, but
everyone else too. Knowing that he did not have good foresight, his strategy was to
challenge other people’s bids.
Li Du felt that it was more likely the latter. The black man wore an aggressive look and
his eyes were shooting daggers.
If that man knew Li Du’s identity and background, he would not be looking so
menacingly. The treasure hunters who were familiar with Li Du would not typically dare
to provoke him.
With no new bids, the auctioneer was ready to announce the winner and declare him
the new owner of the warehouse.
Seeing that, Li Du said slowly, “I will fork out fifty dollars.”
The auctioneer called out again for a hundred dollars and the black man with the small
beady eyes made another bid. Then, he glared more fiercely at Li Du before making a
gangster-like gesture of slitting his throat. He was trying to threaten Li Du.
That tickled Li Du. You want to scare me? Sure, I will play the game with you!
He gave a look to Godzilla, who squeezed through the crowd to position himself beside
the beady-eyed man.
Keeping his eyes on Li Du, the black man declared, “One hundred dollars. This is mine.
No one will snatch my warehouse away from me!”
Godzilla hollered, “One hundred and fifty dollars!”
As Godzilla called out the bid, he elbowed the beady-eyed man.
The black man turned his head with displeasure and saw Godzilla, who was tall and
burly. The hateful expression on his face disappeared at once, and he looked nervous.
Godzilla stared at him, unhappy. “Hey, you son of a b*tch, what did you push me for?”
The beady-eyed black man rubbed his nose and made no more counter bids.
Pursing his lips, Li Du shook his head. That dude was clearly one of the scumbags who
bullied the ones they saw as weak, and feared the strong.
At one hundred and fifty dollars, Godzilla had helped Li Du save some money by
capitalizing on his threatening physique.
Li Du was confident that he would be able to lay his hands on the warehouse. Even
without Godzilla’s help, he would be able to take down the warehouse by spending a
little more. Li Du believed that the beady-eyed black man did not have much money and
would not follow his bid once the price went up to one to two thousand dollars.
After all, the stranger had not really seen the value of the warehouse. All he wanted was
to snatch it from Li Du.
If the man had not resorted to such lowly means to challenge Li Du, Li Du would not
have allowed Godzilla to do that either. He was only paying the black man back with the
same coin.
After taking down that warehouse, Li Du had no more interest in the rest of them.
However, just as the auction of the fourth warehouse began, the beady-eyed man
returned with a few big-sized cronies.
Li Du smiled. Seems like that dude had gone off to get reinforcement.
The beady-eyed man kept his eyes on Godzilla. He was not aware of the relationship
between Godzilla and Li Du. Hence, it could be deduced that the black man definitely
did not know Li Du.
Seeing the way the stranger was acting, Li Du had an impulse to do something.
He gave Hans a look. As the fourth warehouse went up for bidding, no treasure hunter
made a bid because it contained only a bunch of trash. It looked like this warehouse
would be passed in the auction.
When the price dropped to one dollar, Hans made a bid.
Hearing that Hans had called out a bid, the beady-eyed man joined in and yelled, “Ten
dollars!”
Again, he glared menacingly at Hans. As the black man now had reinforcements by his
side, he glared with even greater ferocity, like the leader of a hungry wolf pack.
Hans back glanced at the black man and continued raising the bid. The price went up
quickly to two hundred dollars.
Seeing that the beady-eyed man had raised the bid to two hundred dollars, Hans halted
and waved his hands. “OK, buddy, that bunch of trash belongs to you now.”
Hearing that, the beady-eyed man looked stunned, clearly feeling that something was
amiss.
Once he saw Hans walking over to Li Du, and noticed that Godzilla was standing with
them, he knew that he had been fooled. Those men are all in it together; they have all
ganged up to trick me!
The beady-eyed man was enraged. However, the auction was still in progress and he
did not dare to create trouble. Hence, he ordered a couple of tough-looking thugs to trail
behind Li Du and his gang, subtly threatening them.
Soon, the auction was over and the last warehouse was passed. The auction was a
failure as the five warehouses had either been passed or auctioned off at very low bids.
After paying up, Li Du and Hans walked over in high spirits to clean up the warehouse.
The beady-eyed man stopped them and said in a hoarse voice, “Hey, sissies, where are
you guys from?”
Hans said, “How are you doing, officer? Do you want to check our IDs?”
The beady-eyed black man stared at him and shouted, “Don’t pull any tricks on me, give
me back my warehouse, or you guys won’t be able to leave Wynwood!”
Li Du exchanged a look with Brother Wolf. Then, Wolf brother surveyed his
surroundings and spotted a moderately thick plank of wood outside one of the
neighboring warehouses.
Brother Wolf sprinted in the direction. Just when he was about to reach the plank, he
springboarded off his left foot and stuck out his right leg.
“Kacha!” The wooden plank was neatly split into two.
Seeing that, a few of the big-sized black men were shocked. Then, hanging their heads,
they walked out and left the warehouse.
They were not afraid of Godzilla alone. However, they were afraid to provoke the
combined force of Godzilla and Brother Wolf.
The beady-eyed black man did not leave. He was in an awkward situation, whereby it
would feel stupid whether he left or stayed. In the end, he gritted his teeth and walked
off to clean up the trash in his warehouse.
Hans opened up their warehouse and said moodily, “What is here? Is my foresight that
lousy? Why don’t I see anything valuable?”
Peter added, “That’s right. I didn’t spot anything valuable either. As far as I can see,
there is only a bunch of rubbish in here.”
Li Du signaled for him to move the moldy cardboard boxes and bring out their contents.
Hans did as he was told. There were not many things in the warehouse and it was only
a short while before he was done. As they had finished tidying, they still had not found
anything valuable.
“What is this? Why did you take down this warehouse?”
“As the saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Li Du shook his head. He
walked back into the warehouse and patted the graffiti that sprawled all over the wall.
“Look here. Such a huge thing and you guys can’t see it?”
