Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Under McRae’s urging, Li Du and Hans got into their car and left.
Once they had left, McRae stopped to ponder. Then, he turned back to walk towards number 77. Li Du’s earlier words seemed to have revealed some message.
Just as he neared warehouse 77, a bald white man appeared. The man frowned and said, “McRae, come over. What do you want?”
Seeing him, McRae jumped. He said, “Ah, Supervisor Wendette, you, you… when did you return? I’m just preparing to check if the warehouses have been locked up safely. Want to make sure there’s no issue with the door locks.”
The bald man said, “No need to check further. There are no problems. Come with me. Just now, someone told me that you brought two men into the warehouse. What’s going on?”
McRae jumped in to start explaining, using the excuse he had thought of earlier. “Those are maintenance workers, Supervisor, if you don’t believe me, you can go to the kitchen and ask Old Harley. He brought the two men in with me to do some work…”
Wendette looked at him, suspicious. Then he nodded and said, “Alright. You better not try anything funny. If something happens, you’ll be sorry.”
McRae shook his head. “No, no, I wouldn’t do anything funny.”
The bald man replied, “Fine, you’ve knocked off. What else are you doing staying around here? I don’t see you being a hard worker on regular days. Go home.”
McRae turned to glance at number 77 for the last time. He smiled sneakily and walked out.
At that time, Li Du’s car had not gone far.
Seeing that McRae had left the compound, Li Du nodded and said, “Driver, let’s go back at high speed.”
Seated in the truck, Li Du said, “There’s gold in that warehouse, and also jewelry. Warehouse number 103 definitely has good stuff.”
Hans could not understand. “How can it be? How would Macy’s be so careless? Number 77 has got lots of branded new furniture. And now number 103 has got jewelry? What’s up with them?”
Li Du said, “Who knows? No wonder they are closing down. Their internal management must be a mess. In any case, I definitely saw jewelry. There are diamond necklaces and ruby earrings. I swear, they seem genuine.”
Hans said, “No wonder those rascals from Eagle Beak Gang wanted to get number 103. There’s gold jewelry inside. D*mnit, we have to take that warehouse down, right?”
Li Du nodded. “Of course. 103 and 77. We must take down those two warehouses. However, are those men you contacted reliable? I hope there will be no problem with the information you got on number 77.”
Hans spoke up confidently, “Definitely no problem, I swear! I know them from Las Vegas. They still owe me gambling debts and they are definitely keen to make money. The furniture in that warehouse is worth at least five hundred thousand. I promised them two hundred thousand. With this deal, he revealed that piece of information to me.”
Li Du shook his head. “The warehouse manager we saw just now is really dumb. Did they exchange the information on warehouse 103 for money? They should have looked for a treasure hunter to work with. That warehouse is worth millions!”
“Millions? That much?” Hans was shocked.
Li Du said, “Yes, the jewelry that I saw fell out from one safety deposit box. There must be more inside. You saw the gold jewelry on the photographs. Think for yourself, wouldn’t it be worth millions?”
Hans replied, “I did not see the gems you mentioned. However, those accessories made of gold, I guess we can sell them for at least two to three hundred thousand. But do you believe that information? What if it’s fake?”
Li Du went silent for a while. Then, slowly, he nodded and said, “There’s that possibility. That rascal might be just fooling us. We don’t know him well, he is unreliable.”
“How should we deal with warehouse 103?” Hans asked. “Do we still want to take it down? We might offend the Eagle Beak Gang.”
Li Du said, “Who gives a damn about those gangsters? Money is the law we follow. Even if there is no gold jewelry, the profits should still be pretty good.”
Hans found it hard to believe. “It’s that valuable?”
Li Du nodded. “Believe me, the jewels in the safety deposit box are very valuable.”
Hans considered this for a while before he said firmly, “Then let’s be more daring. We must take it down, and we will increase our maximum bid. We will increase it up to six hundred thousand. We can take it down as long as it is up to that sum!”
There was silence in the car. After thinking for some time, Li Du spoke. “Alright, six hundred thousand dollars it is.”
After having dinner outside, they drove the car back to the hotel and continued to discuss the auction that would take place the next day.
“Number 103 might not be easy to win. You heard the guy. That dude said they have sold the information. I’m afraid that there will be many people who got the news. Hence, we must definitely take down number 77.”
“No problem with number 77. The furniture is all inside the boxes. They are well kept. From the outside, it looks like just a bunch of boxes, and nobody would want to take a risk for those.”
“Then let’s first take down number 77. How far can we go?”
“That’s not easy to decide, brother. If all goes OK and nobody knows what is inside the warehouse, we can keep the price at two thousand dollars. But what if the in-charge revealed the information to others?”
“He won’t do that, right? What would he gain?”
“But what if he did? On the other hand, maybe he really didn’t tell anyone. However, who can confirm that nobody else knows what is inside number 77? We should be ready for anything.”
“Alright then, let’s set an auction reserve price. How much would you say?”
“Four hundred thousand. The furniture in the warehouse is from brands like Zenith Badge, Versace and other similar brands. We can sell it off for at least five hundred thousand. Even if we get four hundred thousand for it, there should still be a profit for us.”
“Then we should go ahead with that. Four hundred thousand dollars as the auction reserve price. And for warehouse number 103, we will set it at six hundred thousand?”
“Yes, we just have to take down those two. We would be able to make a six-digit profit. If we are lucky, it might even go up to seven digits!”
“F*ck, we must definitely succeed!”
The two of them kept up an animated discussion. In between, Hans made another phone call to confirm with someone the information on the items inside warehouse number 77. He also took the chance to ask about warehouse number 103.
The other party did not know anything about 103. Now that the warehouse was locked up, he did not have a way to go in for a look anymore.
After Hans hung up, he and Li Du continued to drink and chat about other topics. It was only nine-thirty when they split up to go to bed.
Though it was the first weekend of January, the surroundings of the Macy’s warehouse became lively. There were many pickup trucks passing by in the early morning and the carpark was filling up fast.
The trucks and cars did not stop arriving and when the parking lots were all occupied, the drivers had no choice but to park at a deserted area nearby.
Li Du and his group had had a comfortable breakfast before driving towards the warehouse.
It was not even eight o’clock when they arrived and there were already forty to fifty people. The carpark was full and hence, they ended up parking their car at a random empty spot.
Shortly, two MPVs parked near them. When the door opened, a few tough men with the Eagle Beak Gang tattoos on their necks stepped down.
