Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As the second warehouse was opened up for viewing, Hans exchanged a look with Li
Du. He said, “That idiot has set his eyes on us and will be following us, should we get
rid of him?”
There was a reason why treasure hunters did not follow other people’s bids without a
reason. Although they knew that some treasure hunters had good foresight and timely
and accurate information, they did not follow blindly. That was because they knew some
people were more scheming and cunning than others. If they fell into a trap, they would
be doomed.
Unless they were prepared to take a high risk, most treasure hunters would still rely on
their own foresight and make their bids in a more grounded manner.
Li Du shook his head and said in a low voice, “That dude is very smart, he would not be
fooled so easily. Let’s try later. I will give it a shot.”
There were many daily necessities and some random items in the second warehouse.
These were most likely things the prisoners had left behind when they got out of prison.
The prison workers must have been too lazy to organize them and had thrown them into
the warehouse.
That warehouse did not have much value. Li Du did not spot any items that could be
sold off easily. He could only make money from that warehouse if he got it for free.
When the bidding began, Li Du called out his bid. He did so early, when the price was at
two thousand dollars.
After he made his bid, Li Du turned his attention to Princeps.
Obviously, Princeps was conscious that Li Du would be looking at him. Hence, he no
longer camouflaged himself in the crowd but stood up.
However, he did not challenge the bid but only rubbed his beard, smiling at Li Du.
Li Du continued to up the bid, raising it to four thousand dollars. Still, Princeps had not
made a counter-bid.
At that point, other treasure hunters had joined the bidding and Li Du stepped aside.
Seeing that, Princeps looked even happier.
After the second warehouse had been auctioned off, Princeps walked past Li Du and
laughed. “You want to up the bid? I will not be fooled. I will snatch the real, valuable
warehouse from your hands!”
Baffled, Li Du looked at him and said, “I don’t understand, Princeps, are you godd*mn
crazy or something? Why are you targeting me?”
Princeps smiled proudly. “Why, are you afraid? Let me tell you, I will keep targeting
you!”
Li Du shrugged his shoulders. “What a mad dog.”
“That’s a honey badger, okay,” Hans corrected him.
Since Hans had pushed Li Du previously, Ah Meng had set its eyes on him. Ah Meng
kept making trouble for Hans. At times, when he went to the bathroom and was
squatting over the toilet bowl, Ah Meng would jump off the window and bite him.
Princeps had members of the Tucson Brotherhood by his side. One of them said, “Big
boss, why must we provoke this Chink? We should be making money, right?”
“Shut up,” Princeps chided. “I have my own plans. We can make money by snatching
the warehouse from him.”
The Tucson Brotherhood members felt uneasy. Ever since Princeps met Li Du, he
seemed to have gone a little crazy. He was insistent on pitting himself against Li Du and
despite that, he had not reaped any rewards.
If Princeps were doing that because Li Du had provoked them previously and he wanted
to take revenge, the wild Tucson Brotherhood men would have been willing and happy
to help him deal with Li Du.
However, in the past, when Princeps had been with Conrad Anthony, he had been
sucking up to Conrad, treating him like a king and using all sorts of tactics to get into his
good books. That had displeased the Tucson Brotherhood. To them, Princeps, the big
boss, was not a strong, tough man.
Princeps was acting like that just for Conrad, and they could not fathom what he had
gone through.
George Anthony was a cunning old fox. He had looked Princeps up and warned him not
to go near Conrad. George had even extorted a huge sum of money from Princeps.
Princeps was the root of Conrad’s and Li Du’s conflict. After George had investigated
the conflict, he went on to extort money from Princeps.
Previously, Conrad had lost a few hundred thousand dollars in Los Angeles. However,
he did not have to suffer a massive loss in the end. That was because George had
looked Princeps up and made him fork out the majority of that sum.
Princeps was enraged and felt that Li Du was the cause of it all. Hence, he wanted to
target and pick on Li Du.
When the third warehouse was opened, Li Du maintained on placing a bid during the
auction. Then, he observed Princeps’ reaction.
Princeps continued to refrain from bidding and so Li Du shook his head to quit that
auction. However, before Li Du chose to quit, Big Beard Carl said to him, “This
warehouse is worth up to twenty or even thirty thousand.”
Twenty to thirty thousand was a small sum of money to Li Du. It was not worth bidding
for. It would be a different story if there were something he was interested in inside the
warehouse, like a Taser gun.
Sadly, that Taser gun had landed in Princeps’ possession.
Li Du did not bid for the next few warehouses, as they were not of high value. There
was little point in bidding for those.
When it came to the seventh warehouse, Li Du grinned and exchanged a look with
Hans. Li Du said, “Take down this warehouse.”
Princeps had been keeping tabs on Li Du, but Li Du did not care.
At the start of the auction, Hans changed his bidding strategy. Like the regular treasure
hunters, Hans upped his bid slowly, one thousand, then two thousand. A slow battle
was started.
Princeps was a little cautious but he kept a sullen face and resisted from joining the
auction of that warehouse.
Princeps thought that it was another scheme of Li Du’s. In fact, Princeps’ only
motivation this time was to snatch a warehouse from Li Du.
He just wanted to take down one warehouse. Having pitted himself against Li Du for so
long, he felt that he already understood Li Du very well. Princeps’ underlings had said
that Li Du was a cunning Chinese man. However, from his point of view, Li Du was a
cunning monster!
To fight head-on with Li Du, Princeps agreed that he was no match for the latter. Hence,
he could only use guerrilla warfare methods. He had learned from the Vietnamese
soldiers during the war and used the tactic of disrupting Li Du while staying hidden.
According to his research, the warehouses that Li Du was persistent in taking down
were all especially valuable. The value typically amounted to tens of thousands or even
millions.
Hence, as long as he was able to snatch a warehouse from Li Du, it was sufficient profit
for him.
Princeps’ strategy was to target Li Du and see which auction he would be attending.
Then, Princeps would camouflage himself among the crowd and join in the bidding
when he saw Li Du’s interest in a particular warehouse. Then, he would take down the
warehouse Li Du wanted.
After taking down one warehouse, Princeps would halt. That was because if he struck
again, he might fall into a trap that Li Du set for him.
Hence, he was still staying around because he wanted to disturb Li Du.
From Princeps’ view, that was the best tactic to deal with Li Du. Besides, he was not the
one who had thought of that tactic. Someone else had told him about it.
That person was none other than George Anthony.
Although George had extorted a large sum of money from him, Princeps did not hate
him too much. He felt that the tactic George taught him was very useful.
As long as he had the patience to deal with Li Du, he could definitely make Li Du pay for
what he had done. Besides, Princeps believed he would definitely make a lot of money
from that.
After Li Du took down the seventh warehouse, Princeps sauntered over and continued
to taunt him. “Hey, that was nice. It’s now a draw for us, you have also taken down one
warehouse.”
Not bothering to indulge Princeps, Li Du pursed his lips and left.
Princeps followed behind him and continued to provoke him, “But that is the only
warehouse you can take down. The next one, the next warehouse that you make a high
bid for, I will definitely take from you. I will not let you make any more profits.”
Princeps was not doing that to cause trouble for himself. His motive was to taunt Li Du
and make him angry so that he would not be able to participate in the auction
peacefully.
That was also something that George Anthony taught him.
