The warden of the Miami prison, a middle-aged white man with thin hair on the top of
his head, called on Li Du as soon as he received the news.
Felister, the warden, was kind-looking and businesslike. Accompanied by the prison
guards, he met Li Du at the warehouse and asked him cheerfully, “Hey, young man, you
said there is a way to make a fortune? Could you tell me more?”
Li Du said, “This warehouse is a treasure chest, sir.”
Felister looked at him suspiciously and said, “What do you mean? Are you suggesting
we might sell the contents? Is that how you say we can make big bucks?”
He looked disappointed and waved his hand. “No, man, this won’t work. It’s full of
rubbish. I could only send this trash to the dumpsite, and I would have to spend money
on it.”
As warden, he was not brainless. The reason he wanted the prisoners to clean up the
warehouse was that he wanted them to sort through the inventory and see what was
valuable, sell what could be sold, and get rid of the rest.
However, he didn’t think it was very likely anything worth keeping would show up. The
stored items were sent to the warehouse after a preliminary check and were generally
rubbish.
Li Du calmly said, “There is a lot of junk and a small number of valuable goods here, but
if you are not an expert, you will not be able to tell them apart.”
“The things are in such a mess. How many experts do you want me to hire to sort
through them?” Felister interrupted. “Cut it off, this is impractical.”
Li Du quickly said, “No, you don’t need to hire anyone, the experts will come on their
own. I won’t keep you in suspense, Mr. Felister. You can put out an advertisement for a
warehouse auction and organize a public sale.”
On hearing this idea, Felister was stunned and said, “Auction? You mean auction off the
contents? But I only have two warehouses here.”
The prison warehouses were very large, but with only two of them, a regular auction
would not work.
Li Du said, “You don’t have to do it the traditional way, with one warehouse as a unit.
You can set one or two shelves as a unit. The treasure hunters will be interested.”
Felister said, laughing, “The way you say it, it sounds so simple. The treasure hunters
are not fools. Will they really bid on this junk here?”
“The treasure hunters are certainly not fools, sir,” said Li Du. “I am actually a treasure
hunter myself. You can go and look at my file for more background.”
Felister suspected something. He pondered this for a few seconds and asked. “Who are
you?”
Li Du said, “We’re all treasure hunters of the Million Dollar Club in Arizona, with assets
worth millions.”
He didn’t say his property was actually worth a few hundred million dollars. Felister
would not believe him if he did and would decide he was just boasting.
Felister apparently thought so anyway, and laughed. “The Arizona Million Dollar Club,
huh member?”
Li Du’s goal has been achieved. He didn’t really want to help the prison make money,
he just wanted to let the warden understand what trouble the Miami police had got into
by unlawfully imprisoning him. Hopefully, they would get scared and let him out.
He had hoped the officer he had bribed would call Cole, Porter, Steve, and Sophie, who
wouldn’t rest until he was released, but after two days without hearing from any of them,
he didn’t want to wait any longer.
Of course, there was a mobile phone in his black hole space, but he could not use it. It
was easy to smuggle in a bank card, but more difficult to do that with a mobile phone.
After all, they were carefully examined when they were sent to prison.
“Actually, I’m sure you won’t find our files because we were sent in by one of your police
chiefs who bypassed the regular procedure,” said Li Du.
Felister’s expression changed slightly and he said, grimly. “No way. This is my place.”
“But it’s true,” Li Du laughed. “Don’t you know about this? You’re not involved?”
“Involved in what?” said Felister with a stern look on his face.
His tone became harsh, for if what Li Du said were true, he would be in trouble.
Li Du had feared that Felister and the chief police officer who sent them in worked
together. However, it seemed they did not, which made things easier for him.
He said, “I offended the police chief’s nephew, a kid named Caddy Lent, and then we
were sent to jail without trial or procedure.”
Felister’s expression got even darker. “Don’t lie to me or you’ll be in trouble, I swear!”
Li Du said, “If you weren’t involved in this matter, quickly think of a way to get us out of
here. I swear that otherwise, you will get in big trouble. There is something else about
me you should know. I am the second biggest shareholder of Harry Winston Group! The
Miami police made a big mistake by messing with me!”
The United States was a capitalist country, and money was the leading force of society.
Li Du bought the equity of the Harry Winston group in large quantities because he
wanted to enter the ruling class.
It was more useful to be a member of the capitalist class than of the communist party.
The American elite was self-sustaining, like a band of officials who all protect each
other.
Felister made a quick phone call and asked for the names of the four new prisoners.
What he heard on the phone made his eyes bulge. He stamped his foot, hung up the
phone and said, “These bastards! I’ll find out who did this damn thing, and I’ll kill him!”
Having said that, he pointed at Li Du and his friends and roared to the prison guard,
“Take good care of these four and make sure nothing happens to them!”
Felister apparently forgot all about auctioning the warehouse to make a fortune. He
hurried away as if someone had set a fire under him.
At lunchtime, the prison guard Li Du had contacted earlier approached him, gave him a
friendly handshake and said, “I’m Michael, Michael Reid. Nice to meet you, Mr. Li.”
Li Du smiled. “Nice to meet you too, Officer Reid.”
Reid slipped the bank card into his hand and said, “I’ve made the calls for you. I want
you to keep your promise. $500,000!”
Delighted, Li Du said, “Did you make the calls? When?”
“Before I went to work today. I was off work yesterday, and I asked a friend to look up
your information and your phone number, and it turned out that what you said was true,”
said Reid.
After some thought, he added, “Mr. Li, I hope this will stay just between us, right?
Otherwise, I’ll be fired.”
