Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Standing at the garden opposite the hospital block, Li Du was watching Stein, who looked helpless surrounded by the reporters. He started to laugh. I have spent quite a bit of effort to deal with you guys, don’t disappoint me, you have to go to jail!
Initially, the reporters surrounded Stein and Gasol. After seeing the two men, some youths and parents also rushed forth, agitated. Without another word, they started to kick and hit them.
The two men were too vicious. The two of them had destroyed many people’s future!
Finally, the policemen from Flagstaff arrived and pulled the two men out from the group of furious students and parents. They got them into the police car and left the hospital.
An entourage of cars appeared. There were police cars with their sirens blaring, followed by the cars driven by the students and parents hot on the chase. Then, there were the reporters in their cars trailing behind.
After learning about Stein and Gasol, Li Du had started to plan on how he could make things right again. He had mobilized his network to contact the reporters and told them that there was a piece of breaking news. Then, he contacted the students and parents who had been scammed previously.
When all these people were gathered, it was as if they were a gunpowder barrel.
Initially, those people did not fully believe him. Hence, although Li Du promised that he would provide accommodations, food, and the flights, they were still quite reluctant to come. That was because the entire plan was too secretive.
To prevent their secret from leaking, Li Du did not share the photos of the two men or sent any videos to the students, parents, reporters, and Flagstaff police. The students and parents had been persuaded to come, and the reporters had come because of his networks. As for the Flagstaff police, he had relied on the relationship he had with Luo Qun.
After the various parties arrived in Seattle, he had not gone for the two men right away. Instead, he had waited for all of his invitees to arrive and for the insurance company to release the news of the auction. Then, he decided to torch the gunpowder barrel.
Just as he wished, that barrel had turned into a huge bomb.
The media would blow the matter up. The victimized students and parents would also provide some details or exaggerate to blow the news up further. Meanwhile, the Flagstaff police would be able to arrest the two men and solve the case.
Their connections and networks all belonged to the Northwest states. Hence, they had escaped to Seattle and made use of the port at Seattle to get to Cuba.
The scam case at Flagstaff State College had caused a commotion within Flagstaff. For a small, conservative city, that was a huge crime case and it would remain a hot topic in the upcoming years.
The Flagstaff police had long wanted to rein in the culprits and close the case. However, due to the constraints of the US police system, they repeatedly encountered difficulties when trying to enforce the law, and several arrest attempts failed.
This time around, they had finally succeeded.
Li Du believed that with the media tailing them, the victims standing witness and the local police upholding law and order, the issue would be blown up. Even if Stein and Gasol were well-connected with the White House, they would not be able to avoid going to jail.
Justice may be served late, but it would always be served!
After Stein and Gasol were arrested, Sandler and the rest of the treasure hunters were stumped. Back in the ward, as they had been staying with the two criminals, the treasure hunters had also been beaten up by the agitated students and parents.
They tried their best and insisted that they were not related to Flagstaff State College. However, the people attacked them all the same and linked them by association with Gasol and Stein. Who asked them to be hanging out with the two culprits? Naturally, the angered students and parents did not see anything wrong with hitting them!
Besides being hit, their greater loss had been at the open sea auction. They had clearly bid a high price for the container, but how could it end up in someone else’s hands?
This time around, their key motive for attending the open sea auction was the freezing container that Stein and Gasol had targeted. The two men had promised that if they were able to help them take down the container, each of them would receive at lone to two million dollars’ worth of reward.
They had a close relationship. In fact, Gasol and Sandler were relatives.
To earn their trust, Stein and Gasol had previously revealed to them some information about the container, namely, that the container contained a very valuable oil painting.
However, that was all they knew. They did not know the details of who the artist was, what kind of painting it was, or from which era.
Hence, after Stein and Gasol were arrested, they were flustered and did not know what to do.
The South American said, “There must be something strange going on with this d*mned auction. Let us go check the other bidding slips. I definitely bid two hundred thousand, how can it land in someone else’s hand for fifty thousand dollars?”
Sandler spit out some saliva that had traces of blood. He said angrily, “How would the insurance company show us the slips so easily? We have no time for these games. Follow me up the ship, let’s go keep our eyes on that frozen container. We will strike when there’s an opportunity!”
The results were released in the afternoon and they had to pay up right away. On that day, the treasure hunters would have received all the rights to the containers that they have successfully bid for.
Li Du glanced at the public list. There were only 800 containers that were successfully auctioned off, out of 2000 of them. That was less than half. He asked, “What will happen to the rest?”
Bell said, “They will be auctioned off in a lower level by-invite-only auction. The next time, they would be inviting some Million Dollar Club members, One Hundred Thousand Club members. And if there are still leftover containers, they would again invite more treasure hunters of a lower level. There are a few hundred thousands of treasure hunters in the States. There would be some way of getting rid of all those containers.”
The sea became livelier. The mid-to-small sized ships started to set out. They were ready to bring out the goods.
That was a grueling process. Auctions out at the sea were very troublesome. That was because the ships could not dock at the port. Hence, all the preparations had to be done while out on the water. The treasure hunters had to engage people to move the items they bid for onto a ship that they rented. Then, back on land, they had to move the goods from the ship onto their truck…
Each of the containers was opened up. The sea and the ship became crowded and the traffic was high.
Li Du opened up the frozen container at a corner and Big Quinn brought with him some strong men to get to work.
Playboy and Magic Hand, who had been standing by the side, stretched their heads out and asked, “Hey, Li, what’s that? You bid for a frozen goods container? What’s in there?”
Li Du opened a box and revealed small bricks that were purple-red.
“What are those?” Playboy could not fathom.
Magic Hand examined the small bricks carefully. He frowned and was about to speak when someone spoke from the container by the side, “Whose container is this?”
Hearing the question, Magic Hand turned around and looked. “Mine. Hi, Sandler. Batlon, how are you feeling? Heard that you guys fell into the sea from the ship and then were attacked in the hospital? What happened?”
It was Sandler and his two men who began asking the questions. Sensing that Magic Hand sounded like he was mocking them, the three men felt unhappy but could not let that show.
Sandler muttered, “Nothing much. Does this container belong to you? Are these oil paintings yours too?”
The container was opened and there were movers who were packing up the place. The rotten fruits, vegetables, and meat were dumped directly into the sea. The food items and other stuff that was not damaged were sorted into different piles. In one of the piles, there were more than ten oil paintings.
