Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This was the surprise that Li Du had prepared for Victoria: walking jack-o’-lanterns.
“You underestimate these jack-o’-lanterns. Not only can they walk on their own, but they can also run and even jump on their own. Ah Bai, jump for us,” Li Du said excitedly.
The group of them stared with their eyes wide, then turned to gaze at one another. Ah Meow, Ah Ow, Ah Bai, Ah Meng, and Crispy Noodles were very evidently dejected. They might as well have been shaking their butts in front of a camera, honestly. That might cost them their dignity, but what they were doing here cost them both their dignity and their freedom.
Victoria was elated once she got over her shock, and she started waving to the little guys. “Ah Meow, Ah Ow, come here, you guys. Trick or treat, trick or treat!”
The little ones were wearing the pumpkins that Li Du had carved earlier in the day; Ah Bai was wearing a long one while the rest of them wore rounded pumpkins. The pumpkins had openings and the insides were decorated with colored lights. When the lights were on, the pumpkins looked like Halloween jack-o’-lanterns.
Of course, because the little guys were wearing the pumpkins, they shifted with every step they took. Ali stood by the side, pleased with himself; he was not involved in this at all. Ali was the only one who was not wearing a pumpkin because his body shape was too weird to fit into one — even Ah Fei’s claws had two tiny jack-o’-lanterns attached to them.
Li Du pushed Ah Meow forward. “Go on, go. Hurry now, Victoria’s calling for you guys.”
“Meow, meow,” Ah Meow called out twice, disgruntled. Ah Meow trudged towards Victoria unwillingly. Hampered by its outfit, it could not sashay as it usually did and ended up looking a little clumsy as it trotted forward.
Halloween was a huge festival in Santa Monica; kids started knocking on their doors the moment night fell. Because the main gate to the manor was quite some distance from the house, there were many dogs roaming the area. Li Du was worried the dogs might scare the children, so he waited with Sophie at the main gate.
Two kids rode up to the mansion on their bicycles. The two — one dressed up as Batman and the other as a Dokuro — ran up to the door, hands stretched out towards the knocker. At this time, a pair of eyes and a mouth on the knocker opened. The mouth spoke, “Hey, brats, what are you doing?”
The two kids were spooked. Why did this door have a face, and why was it speaking? They did not want the candy anymore and ran away trembling.
Li Du looked at Brother Wolf, who was all over the door, laughing uproariously. “What do you think you’re doing?”
The manor itself had a huge iron gate. Now one of its doors was sealed off with wooden planks and there was a metal knocker installed on it. Visitors could use the metal knocker and the sound of it hitting against the wood of the door planks would serve as a doorbell.
The two kids ran straight for the metal knocker, only to find it was mounted on a person’s face. This person was Brother Wolf, who had his entire body wedged in close to the door. He crammed his head into the hold in the door planks and had his face painted the same shade of copper as the metal knocker and the wooden planks.
Brother Wolf said helplessly, “I promised Elena that I’d surprise her, and this is my Halloween costume.”
Sophie burst into laughter. “Oh my, this is too good. Brother Wolf, I really respect you. A father’s love is truly a force to be reckoned with.”
Brother Wolf’s idea was actually quite innovative. The kids had never seen such a Halloween costume before so initially, they were frightened. However, after word got out, more and more of them came over to knock on the door to tease Brother Wolf.
Every time the man spoke like a villain, the kids would giggle as they dispersed. There was a kid dressed as Aquaman, who shot at Brother Wolf with his water gun. The other children watched him and, seeing that it was fun, used the water gun as well. However, the kids took it a little too far. Initially, their water gun had been loaded with ordinary, warm water, but when they ran out of water they had been too lazy to run home to refill it, so the boys got resourceful and simply peed into the gun…
“D*mn, thank god it’s just children’s piss!” Brother Wolf scrubbed at his face vigorously.
After finding out that kids sprayed urine at her dad, Elena, who was usually shy and reserved, became enraged. She looked for a water gun and went with Victoria to spray the ignorant kids and chase them away.
Sophie was shocked. “Wow, you girls are Wonder Women. How did you manage that? There were more than ten kids in that bunch!”
Elena pursed her lips. “It’s actually simple. We went out with the guns right at them, face-to-face and without any fear. We didn’t retreat, and we stared death in the face!”
“Impressive!” Sophie gave them a thumbs-up. “But would this scare them away? How did you win so soon?”
Elena thought for a while, then said, “Maybe it was because we put boiling water into the gun.”
Li Du, who had been drinking, almost spat out a mouthful. “You loaded the gun with boiling water?!”
Victoria hurriedly corrected herself, “Not boiling water, just hot water. Hey, don’t look at me like that, it wasn’t my idea. Someone on the internet taught us to do this.”
“Who on the internet taught you such a move?” Li Du was furious — this was a provocation.
Victoria replied fearfully, “I don’t know. I just typed into the Google search bar ‘how do you win a water gun fight’ and this was the answer I got.”
Li Du was speechless — this house was filled with brats!
The end of Halloween ushered in November. Early in November, Cole took a plane to Los Angeles. Winston, Inc. did rather well last year. Despite the luxury industry being in recession all around the globe, they managed to turn their loss into profit — and they made quite a profit, too — and successfully staged a comeback. When he found out that Li Du had returned from Myanmar and asked to discuss business with him, Cole sensed that the corporation had a new goal in mind.
When they met, he pulled Li Du into a warm embrace and then cut straight to the chase. “What will we be discussing this time? What is it that you have in mind?”
Li Du snapped his fingers, and Brother Wolf walked in with a box. Cole opened the case and stared straight at the twenty-odd glossy green gemstones in the box. These gems were not very transparent, and they varied in terms of color density and size, with the largest one the size of half a volleyball. The sight of these gems shocked him. “These are all jade?!”
Li Du confirmed. “These are supreme quality pieces of water-grade jade, A-grade jade. There is wax-grade, ice-grade, and glass-grade jade, of which the wax-grade jade is the lowest quality. Those are blue with green or blue marbling. And they’re sufficiently big, too. What do you think they’re worth?”
Cole was an expert in the gemstone industry so, naturally, he would have studied the most popular gems in Asia. Harry Winston, Inc. had its Asia headquarters in Hong Kong, but it did not have branches in countries like China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and India. As such, if they had good quality jade in their hands, the company could roll out a new line of gemstone-based luxury goods just for the Asian market.
Cole used the magnifying glass and torchlight in the box to take a good look at the gemstones, continuously ooh-ing and aah-ing as he examined them. “This is unbelievable!””Such a stunning imperial green, my God, is the color shifting?””This is great, these are simply exquisite!”
Cole prattled on excitedly after he finished examining the gemstones. “Li, my good man, you are simply a magician. To think you collected so many A-grade jade pieces! The company can develop a good business now.”
Li Du smiled. “Let’s not rush now, President Cole. Let’s talk about our partnership first.”
