Chapter 1471: A Trap
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After a dozen rounds of competition, the price reached $240,000, a price offered by a man sitting next to Logan.
At that price, there was no profit to be made from buying the house, and Ollie gave up
Li Du didn’t like the second house. Ollie hated Logan and his sidekicks because of their actions, and when one of them bid for a price, he followed the bid.
The starting price of the house was the same, 120,000 dollars, and several ordinary buyers joined in the bid and raised the price to 150,000.
One of Logan’s men raised his hand and shouted, “$152,000!”
Ollie grimly said, “160,000!”
His purpose was to top up the price. Li Du did not tell them about the house, but they had seen it together. The house was not very different from the previous one, and it was probably worth more than 200,000 dollars.
Ollie was ready to pull out when the price went up to $200,000, but he didn’t have a chance. When he raised the bid to 160,000, the other side gave up.
With the prospect of gaining a valuable piece of property so easily, Ollie was surprised and delighted.
Li Du, however, shook his head secretly. The house would be a loss, and Ollie might need to keep it to himself. Because the house was self-built with poor materials, the property would have almost no value besides the plot of land.
Ollie came back, excited, and said, “Big Li, how about the house I just won?”
Li Du said thoughtfully, “Well, no loss. However, I’m afraid you won’t make any money. The house is of poor quality and you’ll have to work hard to sell it.”
The reason why he didn’t really want any of the treasure hunters to buy the house was that it would be difficult to resell it, which would stop the circulation of capital.
For real estate dealers, the circulation of capital was very important. Because a house costs hundreds of thousands, unless they are very rich, it would be difficult for them to manage their business if they kept losing out on property.
The third house was also good, and Li Du’s appraisal of its value was 360,000 dollars.
Dickens joined in the bidding for the house, and after a lot of fighting the price climbed up to 355,000 dollars.
It would be pointless for Dickens to buy it, so he could only stomp his feet in frustration and give up the bid.
The battle was fierce. Li Du has never had such an experience!
The auction continued, but they were yet to win anything. Logan’s side was determined to fight them to the end, even if the price has reached the market value and there was no room for profit. They would not give up, no matter what.
If the treasure hunters were angry and wanted to bid on some houses that Li Du thought were worthless, he would stop bidding once they made an offer.
They were not able to take the houses they wanted but bought a few houses that they did not aim for. When the auction ended, Li Du found out that he had lost utterly and completely this time.
Several treasure hunters signed some procedure documents of house ownership transfer and prepared to make the payment under the lead of the real estate agents. Li Du frowned and was ready to leave, but Logan came up to block him.
Looking at Li Du, Logan said slowly, as if savoring the moment, “I told you everyone, has to take responsibility for what they do. Are you ready?”
Li Du shrugged. “Always ready, but I don’t know what I’ve done to be responsible for.”
Logan sneered and said, “It’s useless to act tough, Mr. Treasure Hunter Tycoon. You may be a tough guy in the warehouse auction business, but this isn’t a warehouse auction. This isn’t Arizona. It’s better if you do not come to a place like this unless you are confident enough that you are richer than the real estate dealers of California.”
Li Du said, “You’ve been in this business for a long time. You’re an expert, aren’t you? Then you must know that the house you bought has no chance of giving you profit.”
Logan said in disdain, “What do you know about profit? You are just a rookie. This industry is a long term game, man!”
“And what if we don’t make any money? You can’t even get a house, so how would you make money? I’d like to see how long your bootlickers will stay with you when they realize they can’t make money this way!”
Turis pushed up against Logan and said angrily, “Well, we’ll see. First look at yourself, though. Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re the emperor of California? Ha, asshole, let’s see who has the last laugh!”
At the sight of Turis’s attack, the real estate dealers flew into a rage, and about a dozen of them gathered around and roared with indignation:
“Hey, Smallville, do you dare to touch us here? Who do you think you are?”
“Apologize or we’ll beat you! No, not just an apology, give us compensation!”
“Get out of here, son of a bitch, or we’ll kick your ass!”
“Chinese guy, look here, you’ve lost!”
Hearing this last sentence, Li Du looked at them coldly. He pushed the man in front of him aside and left with an icy expression on his face.
After a long time of traveling around and fighting hard battles alongside his bodyguards, Li Du’s temperament was quite different from the past. When he walked towards a person with such a cold face, he looked dangerous. Logan’s men made way for him unconsciously.
Brother Wolf followed behind with his eyes locked on the man who insulted Li Du.
The frightened real estate dealer stepped back into the crowd, put on a brave act and shouted, “Are you going to fight with our crowd? You would have to deal with the police!”
Most of the men did not dare to block Li Du’s path. Logan refused to back down, however. He planted himself in front of Li Du and looked at him arrogantly. “Why do your people harass my man? Isn’t he allowed to speak his mind?”
Brother Wolf pushed Logan away. Li Du suddenly walked faster. Disregarding the confused expressions on the faces of Logan’s men, Li Du pushed several people aside and dashed towards the guy who insulted him.
When they were close together, Li Du raised his hand, which made the other man recoil. However, Li Du did not hi him. He merely brushed a speck of dust off his clothes for him and whispered, “Remember these words, I hope you don’t live to regret today.”
Then he tapped the man on the shoulder and waved. “Let’s go, boys!”
The tenants were relieved. They raised their hands and shouted, but this time no one dared to scold Li Du and the treasure hunters directly.
Outside the housing administration bureau, Li Du was still frowning.
Hans asked, “What’s the matter, are you upset about losing today? You’re used to winning, but it’s no big deal. We didn’t get ripped off. We don’t have to make money at every auction.”
Li Du smiled and said, “I know. Do you think I’m a sore loser? I just feel that we’ve been screwed!”
Ollie and the others had gone through the procedures and walked out grimly. When Hans asked them what was wrong, Ollie said angrily, “We’ve been screwed up. The whoresons must have known there was something wrong with these houses. They spread some news just now.”
“Damn it, I hope it’s not true!” whispered Dickens.
Li Du said, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll deal with them later.”
