Chapter 1028 Snake Tribe (2/2)

However, there were always some who needed cash and came to try their luck. The

police targeted those people and took advantage of their hard work.

The police called this ”Wheat Harvest”, meaning that after slashing a stalk of wheat,

another one would grow.

Li Du nodded in understanding. ”Is there any method to the police raids? Like, for

example, how often do they come?”

Buick said, ”There are no consistent patterns in that. They would send people over to

spy on us. The spies would pretend to search for diamonds, while really looking if we

had found anything. Then they would inform the police when they saw that we have

accumulated a good amount of diamonds.”

”So when you first saw us, you thought we were spies?”

Buick smiled awkwardly. ”Yes, we are always guarded and cautious around strangers.”

This was no surprise. They had found a nice stash of diamonds and were afraid that the

police might raid the camp any day.

Besides, there obviously were spies among them, since Li Du and his group were

clearly not spies.

The Gibra tribe lived not far from the mining site, at a distance of just over twenty

kilometers.

Those people were accustomed to hiking over mountain terrain. Even though they were

pushing the wheelbarrows, they walked quickly. In less than three hours, they were

back at the tribe's settlement.

The home of the Gibra tribe was different from other tribes that Li Du had seen

previously. It was more like a village.

The houses of the tribal people stood close together. They were surrounded by fences

built from wooden planks with vines growing all over them.

Cars and motorcycles drove to and fro, and the people dressed in a more modern

fashion. They were not wearing grass skirts or animal skins.

That was just like the South African tribes. The different tribes were now civilized and

people no longer kept to the old ways of drinking blood or wearing animal skins.

Instead, they have become more modernized and interacted with the society outside.

Nearing the village, Li Du wanted to get closer to take pictures. However, as he stepped

over to the fence, he saw two patterned green snakes sliding up and down the vines.

Hastily, he said, ”There are snakes on the fence, everyone be careful!”

He regained his composure quickly, however. Buick had mentioned before that 'Gibra'

meant 'Snake' in English. Snakes could be their totem.

He related his guess to Buick, and Buick smiled as he said, ”No, snakes are not our

totem, they are our source of food and income.”

After entering the village, Li Du first saw a flat, grand plaza. A few women and children

were drying some white, curved objects in the sun.

Those were peeled snakes. Buick said that sun-dried snake meat would be sent to

hotels in the city. As for the snake skins, they would sell those to handicrafts stores.

”The most valuable would be serum of a poisonous snake. That is expensive.

Previously, it used to be as expensive as diamonds. However, it is difficult and

dangerous to extract. In addition, there are people who have started to breed the

poisonous snakes, causing the price of serum to fall. We can no longer profit from it,”

Buick said as he shook his head.

The Gibra tribe had two sources of income: one was the traditional method of catching

and trading snakes, and the other was searching for melee diamonds.

Back at the village where it was safe, Li Du took out the diamonds from his backpack

and handed them to Buick.

Buick handed out the diamonds back to their owners, based on the markings made on

the small bag, and cheers rang out again.

Once that was done, Buick said curiously, ”Mr. Li, where did you hide the diamonds just

now? I thought that the cops would definitely find the diamonds when they searched

your backpack.”

Li Du pointed to a hidden compartment in his backpack. ”They were here. Luckily, the

cops were careless. Otherwise, our loss would be huge.”