Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This time, Li Du saw the cruelty of Hpakant for real.
He met with a lot of trouble in the past, starting with his first warehouse auction, where he was prone to confrontations with people, and then several times with guns and even scuffles with poachers in the Boreal islands.
However, he had not experienced a situation of life and death before, let alone participate in the decision of someone else’s life and death.
It was a real hail of bullets, but because of the distance, there was still no death on either side. The function of bullets was more to suppress and control the situation than to kill people.
It also corresponded to the ratio of ammunition consumption to casualties. In World War II, it took 25,000 bullets to kill a soldier on a global battlefield. Many people found it hard to believe, but that was the fact.
Li Du knew the power of guns. He had seen them kill people. When he visited the market in Africa, the scene of warlords strafing with anti-aircraft machine guns was still vivid in his mind.
However, he wasn’t involved in the conflict, so the casualties didn’t matter to him.
This time it was different; this time the death of the King of Hpakant was indeed related to him.
In a way, he was the cause.
Nevertheless, he was not to be blamed in this matter. The King of Hpakant had bullied too many people, so Li Du could not just keep quiet about this, right? However, he did not think that the King would pay so soon and so cruelly. He did not think that human life could be so worthless!
He commanded Godzilla, Brother Wolf, and the others to erect a stone cairn to bury the King of Hpakant, and then went to take two pieces of jade ore and placed in the cairn.
This was the tomb of the King. He was born with an inheritance of jade, his life was easy thanks to jade, and finally, he died because of jade.
Zhong Dapao shook his head and said, “It is unnecessary to waste two pieces of ore.”
Li Du said heavily, “I can afford it. At least I’m still alive.”
Zhong Dapao stretched his arms and said, “Master Li, you don’t need to feel burdened. You didn’t kill the man. We didn’t kill him either. What’s more, I didn’t put a gun to Tu Qin’s head and force him to do it. It was all the King’s own fault!”
Li Du waved his hand and said, “This matter is over. Don’t mention it anymore. Let’s go.”
This time, they made a lot of money by selling the stones. They cut out more than 160 million RMB worth of jadeite on the site. The remaining raw materials also included jadeite, which Li Du estimated to be worth at least 50 million RMB.
He converted the share that belonged to Zhong Dapao’s side into cash and gave it to them. He also gave Da Mao a big red envelope of five million RMB and gifted the remaining ore to Zhong Dapao.
“With this money, the Chinese village will have food and clothing for many years to come,” Li Du said. “Speaking of, I have also made some contributions to our compatriots.”
With so much money and some jade in his hands, Zhong Dapao said happily, “Oh, Young Master Li, it’s lucky we have you. Otherwise, we would not be able to afford a single meal.”
Li Du said, “I’m glad I could help. We are a cooperation with mutual benefit, but our cooperation had to end temporarily. I have to leave Hpakant for a while.”
Zhong Dapao was stunned. “Aren’t you going to participate in the public auction? It starts in October. There are only about ten days left.”
Li Du said, “I’ll have to go to the other side of the mountain. I’ll participate in the public auction. When the time comes I will come to find you. You keep my details, help me sign up when it’s time.”
Zhong Dapao nodded and said, “Yes, Master Li, it’s good for you to leave the town for a while. The King of Hpakant is dead and the town will be in disorder for some time.”
This was indeed one of the reasons Li Du was leaving. Another reason was that he has gone to all the fields he had meant to. The black hole was full. It was useless for him to stay there.
Therefore, he decided to go to Mount Dena and Wooku Town. His main purpose to Myanmar was not to gamble on stones but to look for veins of jade.
Seeing that he was leaving, Da Mao quickly followed. “Boss, wait, don’t leave me here, I want to go with you.”
Seeing this, Zhong Dapao was anxious. “Damn, Little Mao, why are you leaving? Where are you going? How can we bet on stones if you’re gone?”
Even as he listened to these words, Da Mao was firm in his decision. “Actually I was just blindly guessing. Let me go, this place is too damn scary.”
Liu Zi, half of whose body was wrapped in gauze, scolded, “Damn coward, what are you afraid of? I’m protecting you! Besides, how are you going to investigate your father’s case when you’re gone? Your father expects you to avenge him in his grave!”
Da Mao said, “Of course, I, I… remember this matter, but this, I am not in a hurry, I have to take my time.”
Liu Zi still wanted to scold him, but Zhong Dapao raised his hand, shook his head, and said, “Well, I’ll help you to investigate this matter first. You go to Dena with Young Master Li first. You have to stay away from this place for a while too.”
Li Du nodded and said, “Then I’ll take him along with me temporarily, and you all be careful.”
Da Mao did have to stay out of the matter. They’ve been cutting out a little too much jade lately. People were watching them.
The source of his association with the King of Hpakant was Da Mao, who had shown such a remarkable ability in the gambling industry that many wanted to take control of him.
Da Mao gave his father’s and uncle’s photos and other information to Zhong Dapao.
Zhong Dapao was very loyal and immediately began to analyze this matter. “Little Mao, how was your father’s skill in betting on stones? How was it compared to yours?”
Da Mao rubbed his nose and said, “My father was probably not as good as I am. Actually, I didn’t know I was so great before. I did analyze stones when I was with my father and uncle, but I did not get as many harvests as now.”
Zhong Dapao frowned and said, “I’ll try to get some information. Maybe your father and uncle had some conflict with the men behind the stone gambling. Last year a gambling stone master was chopped to death. The reason was that someone hired him to bet on stone, with the result being a loss. The other side thought that he joined with the mine management to trick them, so they hired an assassin to kill him.”
Da Mao shivered. “Damn, why is this field so dangerous?”
Liu Zi sneered in derision, “You call this dangerous?”
With this, Da Mao was in even more hurry to escape.
The motorcade set off, heading northeast, this time for the town of Wooku at the foot of the Dena Mountain.
The town of Hpakant actually covered a huge area of excavated land, and the environment within the area was very bad.
However, after leaving Hpakant, there were more mountains and woods, and the environment became more pleasant again.
Wooku Town, or Foghorn Town, was about 120 kilometers away from the town of Hpakant. It was almost a world apart from the local traffic. There were no paved roads, only dirt trails and mountain roads. They could not cover more than ten kilometers in ten minutes.
Even with the ability of the SUVs, they still used up a day just to get there. They departed early in the morning and approached the Dena Mountain late at night.
Like the Chinese countryside in the 70s and 80s, it got dark early in the Wooku Town area. It was only eight o’clock in the evening, but the town had no lights on.
Li Du followed out blindly. Fortunately, the Markelov brothers had been there twice and had memories of the town. They led them to a hotel and the group stayed the night there.
