Chapter 1194 Christmas Presen (1/2)

As the auction was held at a rather unexpected period, not many treasure hunters were attending it. Most of the people chose to stay home during the holidays, together with their families.

Out of habit, Li Du and his group arrived at eight o'clock at the location of the auction. He was surprised to notice that no treasure hunters had arrived yet.

He took everyone to search for a coffee shop. It would not be precise to say that the weather in Philadelphia was warm. Compared to New York, Boston, and the surrounding big cities, it was indeed warmer.

However, compared to Phoenix, which Li Du was familiar with, it was still cold. It was especially cold in the mornings when the grass that lined the pavements was covered in a snowy frost.

His breath came out in white puffs resembling a steam engine.

This triggered a memory of playing with his friends when he was in primary school. At that time, in winter, everyone would form a line and run around, exhaling with all their might so that their breaths would resemble the smoke from a departing train.

Thinking back about what happened twenty odd years ago, Li Du found that meaningful and could not help but smile.

Unfortunately, he would not be able to return to the past. In fact, he could not even reconnect with friends from primary school. With the demolition of his county, the old neighbors had all moved away.

Brother Wolf surveyed their surroundings and said, ”Boss, there's a coffee shop here.”

”Let's wait inside, it's too cold,” Li Du exclaimed. He exhaled a warm breath and it left his mouth like a cloud of white smoke.

They had their coffee and sat at their table until half past eight. Only then did they finally see treasure hunters arriving at the entrance of the museum.

There were few people, and they stood scattered near the door. They did not look like they were interacting. Each was doing their own thing, some rubbing their arms, others smoking.

After a while, more people came.

Li Du examined the treasure hunters who appeared to be strangers to him. Among them, he spotted two familiar faces. One of them was a man whose hair was combed back. They had met the night before.

Seeing that man, Li Du grinned and waited for the museum to open, feeling relaxed.

The man with the back-comb saw him but paid him no special attention. The night before, it had been very dark at the museum. With the poor lighting, the man had only noticed that Li Du's group had quite a few strong men. He had not managed to see the men's faces clearly.

The sun had risen and it was bright and sunny.

The museum auction attracted less than twenty treasure hunters. That was a rare sight for Li Du, based on all the auctions he had been to.

Initially, he did not give it much consideration, but now that he thought about it, it seemed like the museum administration had purposely chosen to hold the auction two days after Christmas. They had hoped that as few people as possible would attend the auction.

The museum had already undergone some cleaning. Once they entered, it became obvious there was little left at the place.

Treasure hunters hated to come to an auction and discover this. In fact, warehouse companies would not do that as it was against the auction guidelines.

A fat man whined with a grouchy face, ”Look, buddy. I told you we should have stayed at home to play Call of Duty. Look at this lousy place, it has been cleaned up.”

”Sh*t, let's complain about them to the Warehouse Auction Association. Why would we come? Do they treat us as trash collectors?” A treasure hunter who had a gold chain hanging from his neck said angrily.

The two of them were in a temper and they left after some scolding.

Li Du shrugged his shoulders and the treasure hunter beside him smiled. ”So what if they complain about the museum, right? They will only hold the auction once and would not care about qualifying for future auctions.”

That was another reason why few came to participate in the museum auction. Watching the local news, one would know that the museum had undergone bankrupt eviction. Anything valuable would long have been confiscated by the bank or government.

Li Du grinned and said, ”Of course, they don't care about our complaints.”