Chapter 58 One Hundred Thousand Dollars (1/2)
Chapter 58: One Hundred Thousand Dollars
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Li Du's heart jumped; he thought that The President's Umbrella had realized his plan. But that was near impossible. He only made the plan up on the spot, how could The President's Umbrella have guessed it?
He wore a confused expression, asking, ”What are you saying?”
The President's Umbrella spoke without smiling, without moving a single facial muscle: ”Hmph, nothing. I just feel like you're a cunning one.”
”Then we'll go with that?” Hans asked.
The President's Umbrella nodded. ”Alright, but you guys choose first. You guys take the four, and the rest is mine.”
Hans looked at Li Du. This reaction showed the power dynamic between the two parties.
Li Du said, ”Sure, we'll choose first. The real ones and the fake ones have already been mixed up. Even the fakes should be worth at least a few thousand. There is still a good profit to be made.”
”Then may God bless you.”
The President's Umbrella coldly said these words, then brought the clocks and boxes into the storage unit. He started inspecting, then signaled the two to enter and choose.
Although he felt something was off, this seemed like the best solution, and he felt that this was still a reliable way to get the real clocks. Everyone was betting on their luck; they would see whom Lady Luck smiled most favorably upon.
A pity for The President's Umbrella that Li Du was cheating. He was not going to pick based on luck, as he wasn't someone who liked to gamble either.
He let out the bug, and carefully observed where it went.
Since the auction at the hotel, he realized that the bug had a skill he was unaware of: When choosing antiques, it would pick the oldest one in sight.
Without betraying his expectations, when the bug flew out it went directly to center of the nine boxes; the bug then burrowed into a box and landed on the antique clock inside to absorb the time.
Li Du hastily recalled it. He pointed to the center box. ”We'll pick this one.”
Repeating this, the bug once again flew to the outermost left box without any hesitation.
When it burrowed into the clock, he once again recalled the bug. ”That one too, on the left.”
After releasing the bug, it flew around the remaining boxes, much less interested as compared to the previous two times. After making a round, it flew back to Li Du's shoulder.
Li Du was relieved. The remaining clocks were all the replicas. They were not antiques. The bug was not even interested in absorbing their time.
Randomly picking two other boxes, he said, ”We'll take these four. Hopefully something good is in these.”
”What about the remaining boxes and the cow hides?” Hans said.
”We'll take half of them. The cow hides, we'll take half too.” Li Du said.
He wanted to leave all of them for The President's Umbrella as a form of compensation for taking the antiques, but when he was about to say this, he remembered an old saying: ”One who is unaccountably solicitous is hiding evil intentions.”
If he waited until The President's Umbrella appraised the clocks, found out all five were replicas, and then contact him that he wanted to give up the cow hides, would he still suspect him?
To keep his secret safe, he decided to act accordingly to how a normal person would, which would be fair and professional.
With the four clocks and half of the heavy rolls of cow hides, there were over twenty boxes altogether. With that, they started the journey home.
”It's getting late, why don't we spend the night here?” Li Du asked.
Hans shook his head. ”Jerome has too many bandits and thieves. If they know that we've acquired some antique clocks, they would probably start trouble with us.”
”They're that obnoxious?”
”All of Jerome is like a slum. Spending a night here is more dangerous than staying in North Korea!”