Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Hearing Brother Wolf’s words, Li Du had a moment of doubt. “You contradict yourself. I
have sufficient funds and can keep supporting Remonin. But if he suddenly throws me
aside after I’ve been supporting him for some time, you’re saying that my loss will be
greater?”
Brother Wolf said, “That will only happen if Remonin feels that he no longer needs to
work with anyone else and can keep the gains for himself. Otherwise, he cannot do that.
That would be a violation of integrity in the pact between the local authorities and their
overseas partners.”
“Do they care about upholding integrity?”
Having seen Good’s army, he no longer believed that integrity existed among those
local warlords. That madman Good had wanted to slaughter him like a lamb.
Brother Wolf explained, “Boss, they cheat their local partners left, right and center.
However, they do uphold certain principles when dealing with foreign partners. In fact,
they act more honestly than most of the international organizations in Europe.”
“That’s because the armies and governments in Africa lack funds to sustain their power.
Hence, they need support from overseas. They must be honest to get anyone to
sponsor them. Hence, to them, maintaining integrity is very important.”
Li Du was enlightened. So that’s how it is.
He asked, “Then why would Remonin toss me aside after I have sponsored him for a
period of time?”
“If you can be Remonin’s exclusive sponsor, he will be solely accountable to you.
Otherwise… there might be a conflict of interest.”
Li Du nodded to gesture that he understood. This is a tough decision to make.
The car continued its journey towards Phoenix and Li Du kept thinking about the issue
he had to resolve.
If he was unable to provide Remonin with financial support now, both of them could
consider their relationship to be over.
If they fell apart at this point, Li Du would not suffer any great loss. In fact, he had
already earned some money through Remonin without making any investments.
However, if he decided to maintain the relationship, he would have to be cautious. In the
future, he would have to keep providing Remonin with financial aid.
Now that Li Du had money on his hands, a sum of about four billion US dollars,
Remonin had grown greedy. This resulted in his overblown estimate of needing four to
five hundred millions in funds.
From the current looks of it, it seemed to Li Du that he would be able to support
Remonin.
Back at Phoenix, Hans started to clear the items they had gained from the auction. He
also began to seek for notices on other high-value warehouses. That allowed Li Du to
concentrate on thinking about how he could deal with Remonin.
He had not been back in Phoenix long, but he already received several invitations to
parties. Some of them came from treasure hunters in Phoenix, others from the treasure
hunters of Flagstaff. They wanted to thank Li Du for his help by inviting him to their
parties.
At Nogales, Li Du had helped the treasure hunters who were by his side to win bids
successfully. Hence, almost all the treasure hunters had made money and some of
them made quite a lot of it.
Hence, many worshipped him as the God of Wealth and the number of treasure hunters
who wanted to follow Li Du increased exponentially.
The new bodyguard that Hans hired arrived to report for work. Li Du had already noticed
the newcomer, a man of mixed Chinese heritage. His name was Sacre, and he was
also known as Firecracker.
Sacre was a well-built man with a height of about 1.90 meters. Due to his diverse
heritage, he looked somewhat Middle-Eastern. The shape of his eyes, his hair, and his
skin color retained Chinese traits.
Brother Wolf would manage the people he hired, like he supervised Big Ivan. Li Du
placed great trust in him.
However, Brother Wolf would be busy for a while. He had to prepare for his trip to
Australia where his daughter would go through the second stage of her surgery.
Thanks to excellent medical care and costly but effective drugs, Ivana has been
recovering well. Hence, she could now undergo the second stage of the required
surgery.
The first stage restored her facial features and skin to improve the appearance of the
lines and cracks. Currently, those were almost invisible from afar but still noticeable if
one looked closely.
The second operation would restore her face completely. At the same time, she would
undergo surgery on her limbs as well. Ivana would hopefully be able to recover
completely in another six months, once all three stages of the surgery were performed
successfully.
Once Firecracker arrived, Brother Wolf took him to do a quick briefing. As he was going
to Australia to be with his daughter, Big Ivan and Firecracker would be the ones
responsible for Li Du’s safety.
Afraid that the two of them would make mistakes, Brother Wolf took the necessary time
to communicate and instruct the two of them.
As for the issue of Remonin, Li Du could not come to a decision. He knew too little and
did not have much experience with similar cases. Hence, he wanted to consult with
someone else.
The best candidate for that would be Cole. Harry Winston Inc. had many partnerships in
Africa. Although their dealings might not be related to the local government or warlords,
Cole would still know better than he did.
Cole picked up Li Du’s call and offered the same advice as Brother Wolf.
The African government and warlords treated their partners with the utmost integrity.
They understood that losing their reputation on the international stage was as good as
cutting off their funding. Hence, they upheld scrupulous honesty.
Now that he had Cole’s opinion, Li Du made up his mind.
He was ready to give it a shot and wholly support Remonin’s ventures in Mozambique.
He wanted to gain a strong ally for himself.
Shortly after he made up his mind, Cole told him a piece of news that threw him into a
flurry – Carlston was willing to fulfill his part of the agreement. He would transfer his
shares to Li Du.
Carlston held fourteen percent of the company shares. According to the agreement,
every percent was worth twelve million dollars. That would be a total of one hundred
and sixty-eight million US dollars!
If it happened before, it would have been fabulous news. Li Du would have gained what
he wanted in becoming the second largest shareholder of Harry Winston Inc.
However, he was now getting ready to support Remonin’s development and needed a
large amount of cash.
Cole asked Li Du excitedly, “Isn’t it a pleasant surprise? Aren’t you ecstatic? Agitated?”
What could Li Du say? He had mixed feelings!
Hence, he had to rush to New York to complete the paperwork for the share transfer. As
he had to leave Phoenix so soon, he brought Sophie along.
To help familiarize Big Ivan and Sacre with their responsibilities, Brother Wolf included
them in the trip with Li Du.
The three big men trailed behind Li Du and Sophie as they walked. Sophie smiled and
said, “I feel like I have become a government official.”
“This is nothing. In the future, I will bring you somewhere else to let you feel like you’re
the head of state,” Li Du said confidently.
Naturally, he was referring to Remonin’s camp. Now that Remonin had been promoted
to a commander of a military region, he would definitely show great hospitality to Li Du.
There would be a grand parade to welcome them as international VIPs.
Sacre sat next to Li Du on the plane and the two of them struck up a conversation.
Sacre’s grandfather had fled to France in World War II. At that time, he was still young
and was adopted by a French priest. Hence, he had gone to school in France and
stayed there.
The French priest had been very kind to Sacre’s grandfather and did not force him to
change his last name. It meant ‘Thunder’, and his descendants had all kept the
surname.
“You can call me Old Thunder,” Sacre smiled in good spirits, “Or you can call me by my
nickname, Firecracker, Piang!”
Li Du asked, “Are you bad-tempered? Why do people call you Firecracker?”
Sacre smiled. “No, no. I believe that my temper is fine. It’s my grandpa who had a fiery
temper. I inherited the nickname from him and my father.”
