Chapter 337: A Little Trick
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the attic, Li Du saw more glassware. There were wooden shelves along the wall, on them many sealed glass bottles.
Other than these things, there was a pile of rose petals on the attic floor. There were two big tubs in a corner, and in the tubs were also rose petals.
These rose petals were dead—those on the floor had dried up while those in the tubs looked rotten, with their color having turned greyish-black.
The glass bottles on the shelves were filled with a sticky liquid. On one shelf was a batch of labels, with “Damascus Rose Essential Oil” written on it.
Li Du scratched his head—what was this all about, had he entered a production workshop instead of a storage unit?
On the first level was some messily-displayed used glassware. Its identity could not be determined, and it looked worthless.
However, based on what was in the attic, these items probably belonged to a production line: the glassware in the attic was neatly arranged in order while the rest on the bottom level had been either put aside for use or left abandoned.
What was the glassware for? Li Du didn’t understand until he saw the labels, some advertising materials, and posters on the shelves. Then, he finally got it:
The glassware was used to extract the rose essential oil—the liquid in the glass bottles on the shelves was rose essential oil extract!
He gave it all a rough once-over. There was a total of 24 bottles of rose essential oil here; every bottle was very small, only containing about 200 milliliters.
At the very least, there was a total of 4,800 milliliters of rose essential oil.
However, he would not be able to deduce the real identity of the liquid unless he opened the bottles. This was just his guess after seeing the rose petals and the labels displayed on the shelves advertising rose essential oil.
He did not know much about things like rose essential oil, so he searched online for related information.
The very first search result he got indicated there was apparently a shortage of pure, good-quality rose essential oil. The price had increased to 500 US dollars for every 10 milliliters.
Looking at this information, Li Du unconsciously swallowed hard.
Five hundred US dollars for every 10 milliliters? If the liquid content in the bottles was what he guessed, that would mean that the value of the items in the attic was 240,000 US dollars!
Even if the quality of the rose essential oil was only average, then half the price would be 120,000 US dollars!
Swallowing another gulp of saliva, Li Du noted down this unit, and released the little bug again for it to look around.
There were another seven storage units left that would be auctioned off, but compared to the storage unit with the rose essential oil, the value of the other abandoned storage was insignificant.
Li Du had a look and was not interested, thus retrieved the little big and waved to Hans. “Let’s go, we should take a look at the next storage company.”
Within a day, they had visited more than six storage companies and checked 45 storage units—Li Du was dead with exhaustion.
When they returned to their hotel in the evening, the Iron Knight appeared in their line of vision—Godzilla was here.
Not only had Godzilla arrived, the two young masters Ah Meow and Crispy Noodles were also here.
After Li Du spoke with the concierge, he pushed open the door of Godzilla’s room, and two shadows flew into his arms, one after another.
Mr. Li was extremely exhausted, and nearly fell when Ah Meow pounced on him—he had become a big ocelot at around 25 pounds. Just when he finished struggling to stand firm, Crispy Noodles also leaped over.
Therefore, as though kneeling down respectfully, Mr. Li was being pressed down onto the corridor.
Ah Meow squatted on his back, and mewled non-stop. Irritation showed in his eyes and on his bulging face: he was obviously not happy with Li Du for not having spent any time with him these past few days.
Crispy Noodles also whined, showing his displeasure as well. He leaped to Li Du’s side, and used his front claws to pinch his sleeve, refusing to let go.
Big Quinn quickly helped Li Du up, and said, “Boss, are you alright?”
Li Du laughed bitterly. “Almost got crushed by these little b*tches. I’m fine, let me go back for a rest—I’m probably suffering from a slight heatstroke.”
Hans said, “You need to exercise more—why do you get heatstroke so easily?”
“Get lost, go get me something to eat and drink. I’m starving.”
Godzilla nodded in consent. “Yes, starving.”
On the second day, they split into two groups: Hans brought Big Quinn with him to participate in the Beverly Hills auction while Li Du and Godzilla continued to check on the remaining few storage companies.
During the morning, while he was wandering around a storage company, Hans called. “D*mn, these LA guys are filthy rich. Both units have gone for over 10,000 dollars.”
Li Du said decisively, “Then don’t get involved.”
The items in the two units could probably be worth more than 10,000 dollars, but they need to be tidied. With the labor costs and amount of time it would take, it would not be profitable to pay 10,000 dollars for them.
Keeping in mind that there were many rich people in LA, Li Du was more thorough in his viewing of the remaining storage units.
There was a unit with some leather. With the humid weather, the leather—which had not been kept properly—was giving off a stench that one could smell even from the outside.
He walked past, covering his nose, while Godzilla frowned and said, “So stinky.”
Hearing this, Li Du’s heart jumped and an uneasy feeling came over him!
His minimum expectation for this auction was to successfully bid for the storage unit with the rose essential oil, but he was now worried that it would not be easy to get the unit.
This was because storage units could give off smells; Godzilla’s words had reminded him of this. If they could smell the stench of the leather, then it was probably that they would also be able to smell the scent from the rose essential oil in the other storage unit.
There were shrewd characters among the treasure hunters in LA. After smelling the scent, coupled with those bottles on display, many would probably be able to figure out the identity of the storage unit.
Hence, he went in crisis-management-mode and began to think of solutions for the crisis.
The glassware was confusing—the presence of the rose essential oil could not be deduced from the glassware alone. What was most crucial was the scent.
Li Du rubbed his chin and formed a plan.
He went to a supermarket to buy a water gun, and also a few bottles of strong-smelling antiseptic solution.
That night, he poured the antiseptic solution into the water gun, discreetly crept up to the unit, and sprayed the antiseptic solution into the attic as well as the lower level of the unit using the water gun. The storage had roller-shutter doors with gaps at the bottom of the doors and the two sides, so he was able to spray the water through those.
After this operation, this storage unit smelled like the antiseptic solution.
The next day, they went near Pershing Square, where a storage company there was going to start conducting an auction.
Li Du had previously noted that there was a storage unit here with a high-compression fire extinguisher and an engine, which could both be sold for quite a reasonable sum of money.
