Chapter 550: Possession of Military Equipment
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Cyril looked at Li Du coldly and said, “I don’t want to get to know them. However, my fists want to get to know your pretty face!”
One of the gem hunters sniggered. “Give him a punch, buddy. Give him a taste of Winslow’s Iron Fist.”
Facing their threats, Li Du was not in the least bit bothered.
He took a step forward, standing in front of Sophie, and said blithely, “Well, you want to fight? Why don’t we find a place with fewer people so I can have a taste of your Iron Fists?”
The three pets felt the enmity of the men. Ah Meow leaped, his hackles raised. He glared at them fiercely and yowled, “Meeeooowwww!”
Crispy Noodles was not the best fighter, but he was loyal to Li Du. Li Du stood in front of Sophie, and Crispy Noodles moved to the front of Li Du, brave and staunch.
Ah Ow looked up and howled, “Owwwuuu! Owwwwuuu!”
One gem hunter was surprised to hear the howling from Ah Ow. As there were wolves in the National Park, he was able to recognize that right away. “D*mmit! This b*st*rd kept a wolf as a pet!”
The group of men could easily ascertain Ah Ow’s real identity.
Just then, a man squeezed in between both confronting parties, an idle smile on his face. “Hi Li, I didn’t expect to meet you here. I’m so glad to see you.”
Li Du was pleasantly surprised and laughed, “Akkalou! Friend, you’re here to participate in Winslow’s carnival as well?”
Yes, this man was the playboy, Akkalou, the reincarnation of Casanova. He held a slender, dark-haired, long-legged beauty in his arms.
The gem hunters stared at the Playboy viciously. “Hey look, another pretty boy showed up. What should we do? Should we break his nose?”
The Playboy whistled. “Wow, pals, you want to hit me?”
“Of course,” a big man taunted. “Or, maybe you can put it in another way—we want to ‘caress’ you.”
The Playboy laughed, “This is outright bullying.”
“Yeah, we like to bully people,” said Cyril in a condescending tone.
The Playboy smiled brilliantly. “That’s a relief. Now my conscience won’t be burdened.”
With a wave of his hand, the Playboy gave a command. “Boys, come here!”
In no time, many sounds were heard and suddenly they were surrounded by at least 20 handsome, Italian-looking young men. They were all tall and well-built, with an icy aura around them.
Looking at the group of Italian men and the Playboy who was laughing nonchalantly, Li Du suddenly realized that Italy was not only famous for their handsome men but infamous for their mafia as well.
The gem hunters were now surrounded. The good-looking Italian men held either beer bottles or barbecue skewers. The beer bottles seemed solid and the barbecue skewers looked very sharp. They started to wuss out.
There were security guards on duty at the carnival. When they saw the tense atmosphere around the group of men, they hurriedly made their way over and shouted, “Hey, what are all of you doing?”
Faced with the security guards, the gem hunters quickly retreated. Their faces were now drained of color.
The Playboy let go of the beauty in his arms and put his arm around a security guard. He raised the beer bottle in his hand and declared, “We are celebrating the carnival. Cheers, my friend!”
The group of Italian men followed. “Cheers!”
The Playboy, with his arm around the security guard, walked away. The Italian men dispersed as well.
Li Du wanted to thank the Playboy for his help even though he was not afraid of the gem hunters who were actually just tough-looking wusses.
But after the Playboy walked into the crowd, Li Du did not manage to find him as there were now more people streaming into the park for the carnival.
When he came back to Sophie he was shaking his head. “We’ve seen a lot of chivalrous heroes today.”
Ah Meow’s earlier behavior of a martial arts master had been followed by the Playboy’s sudden appearance—which had saved him from a lot of trouble—and then left without a trace. It had definitely been an eventful day. The Playboy’s heroic deed had especially made Li Du feel this was like a case of an anonymous person doing a good deed and leaving no name behind.
In any case, Li Du now owed Akkalou another favor!
They enjoyed the rest of the carnival without any other unexpected events. The couple got to enjoy two days together.
The two of them had originally planned to enjoy themselves for the next two days. But because Sophie had arrived two days ahead of schedule, she had to make up for two days of missing work. So, she headed home on October 11th.
Li Du accompanied Sophie directly back to the hospital for work while he returned to the cabin. He saw Hans using gun oil to wipe an M4A1 rifle for maintenance.
He asked curiously, “The folks from Homeland Security didn’t take all the guns away?”
“What right do they have to take away our property?” Hans asked listlessly. “The Declaration of Independence states that private property was sacrosanct and inviolable. The State and Government have no right to take it away.”
Li Du was astonished. “These guns and equipment were private property?”
“Now they are,” Hans replied curtly.
“You don’t seem happy about it,” Li Du said. “What’s wrong? Isn’t it a good thing that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t confiscate all this equipment?”
Hans smiled in a way that made it seem like he wanted to cry instead. For a moment, Li Du felt like cringing away from him. “Good? Yeah f*cking good! Homeland Security has checked the NSN codes. All of them are all legally imported pieces of civilian equipment!”
“Isn’t that good?” Li Du asked. “We have the legal right to own them. This is unbelievable. Your country actually allows civilians to own equipment made for the military?”
“Yeah, it’s unbelievable. None of this equipment can be traded or sold!” Hans said with a gnashing of his teeth.
Li Du muttered, “No trading? No selling?”
“Yes.” Hans nodded unhappily. “According to the information on the NSN codes, this equipment originally belonged to a retired Marine officer. He went through legal methods to keep them and was not allowed to trade or sell them away.”
Li Du now understood why Hans was upset about this. If this equipment couldn’t be traded or sold, that meant they couldn’t earn any money off of it. They could only keep it for display or just keep it intact.
However, they could not show off or display their military collection in America. They needed to keep quiet about the equipment or it could become a time-bomb, a hot potato, at any time.
His biggest fear was that the weapons and equipment could be extremely attractive to terrorists or criminals. Someone who wanted to rob a bank would certainly be interested in their equipment.
If they wanted to protect themselves, they could not expose the existence of the weapons. They had to lock all of them up in a storeroom, a vault or a safe.
And with that, what was the use in having all the equipment and weapons? Hunting? No, military weapons couldn’t be used for hunting. Posing for photoshoots? No, they needed to keep them a secret. For fights? No, they would get jail time for that, life imprisonment.
No wonder Hans was so depressed and in such a bad mood. Li Du started to feel upset as well. Unless they participated in a war, these things were useless to them!
Nonetheless, it was still a good thing the equipment had not been confiscated by Homeland Security. If they were faced with a terrorist attack, they could execute a counter-attack.
Li D consoled himself with that thought. Otherwise, if he kept on thinking about all the disadvantages of keeping the equipment, he might not be able to hold himself back and end up crying with Hans!
