Chapter 29: It's Not Easy Finding a House
Translator: Vicky_ Editor: Vicky_
The application required a lot of Li Du's personal information in addition to the passport, a picture, and the 100 dollar fee. Soon, an ID card was made.
The words, "Association of American Auction Hunters" was printed on top of the background of the Association's logo: a man with a trash can in the left hand, and a golden coin on the other.
On the front, Li Du's information was printed with a rank of LV1; in other words, he was a treasure hunter in the Ten Thousand club.
Just as they prepared to leave after taking the card, the chubby woman who made the card for them curiously asked, "They say that your stamps were found by a cat; is that really true?"
Hans first signaled her to be quiet with his hands and pretended to nervously check their surroundings. Finding that no one was watching them, he whispered, "Keep quiet, Valerie, that's a secret—come here so I can whisper it to you."
The chubby girl found herself really nervous as a result of Hans's mysteriousness. As she came closer, she also quietly asked, "What secret?"
Hans gave the girl a kiss on her cheek.
Li Du really found himself stunned at this sight; truly stunned.
Valerie immediately, and a little shyly, gave him a slap on the shoulder before complaining, "Annoying, Mr. Fox! You are so bad, taking advantage of me like that."
Hans flew too high yesterday, so his body was still quite weak. Under her slap, he wobbled and almost fell to the floor.
He managed to stand, and immediately grabbed onto the girl's chubby hands, giving her a wicked smile. "Is Mr. Fox a bad guy? Come, look into my eyes, see how sincere I am."
Seeing that sight, Li Du felt that his stomach was somewhat uncomfortable. Struggling to keep a smile on his face, he quickly left and didn't turn back, afraid that he would become blinded by the sight.
A few moments later, Hans came out and snapped his fingers. "Let's go home."
"I thought you said you were going to get information here," said Li Du.
"I already got information. At the end of the month, the Smiths storage company is going to put on an auction," Hans said. "Though it's still mediums sized units, perhaps we'll get some good stuff."
"When did you get the information?" Li Du asked in a shocked tone.
"Do you really think I would find Valerie all that attractive?" Hans asked while rolling his eyes.
"Well, as long as they are girls, I really don't think that you would be picky." Li Du gave him an awkward smile.
"I'm still recovering here, why would I lust over her!?" Hans began to weakly walk forward. "I was trying to distract her so I could get some insider info!"
"Buddy, I really do admire your worth ethics," Li Du said, giving him a strong pat on the shoulders.
This time, he used too much force, and as a result, Hans suddenly became shorter again; this time, he directly knelt on the ground.
At noon, Li Du brought him to a Chinese restaurant and ordered some leek and eggs, lightly stewed lamb testicles, grilled oysters, boiled shrimp, and another bottle of Sanbian wine.
"Don't hesitate to eat these dishes, they will all help you recover your stamina so you can play at the red-light district some more tonight," Li Du said as he continued adding food on the plate for Hans.
He wasn't sure if it was because of the special nature of those dishes, but when night came around, Hans really did recover, and came home with another girl after dinner.
When the girl saw Ah Meow, she immediately started playing with it. "This cat is really cute, and somewhat clumsy as well. Hans, is this your cat? Can I play with it for a few days?"
Hearing that, Li Du immediately took Ah Meow for a walk. He really needed to find a new house now. At this rate, he was not the only one affected; Ah Meow was as well.
The Smith Storage Company's auction was at the end of the month, so Li Du went for a quick survey with the little bug.
Even though there were more than ten storage units being auctioned this time, when he went through them all, he couldn't find many things of value.
There was a storage unit with a large ice maker, but since it was placed at the very front, where everyone could see it, the price of the unit would get really high as well; there was really no point in bidding for it.
There was another storage unit with a bunch of silver dining ware. However, as they were quite normal, and not really antiques, they could sell for, at most, two to three thousand dollars.
The only other storage unit of value was one with a set of European style furniture. They were quite nicely maintained, and with a search on eBay, Li Du found that it would probably sell for around two to three thousand.
With nothing else worth looking at in the storage units, Li Du focused all his attention on searching for a house.
He came from a farming village, so life had always been quite frugal for him. Also, considering that he was still single, a smaller apartment would be more than enough for him to live in.
The cheapest room he would be able to find would be the temporary dorms provided for students. The universities mailed the students about how to apply for them. Those dorms were often leased out for a period of a single year. With a desk and bed, those rooms were quite simple.
As for a private restroom, kitchen, living room, none of them were available; and even if they were present, they were sometimes dirty and broken, and left like that for the students.
In Flagstaff, due to the presence of several universities, there were quite a few of those temporary dorms.
Li Du was really quite interested in these kinds of housing. Because they were located on campus, they were usually surrounded by classrooms, libraries, gyms, restaurants, and banks.
In addition, the security near school was usually quite good with all the security that patrolled the ground. Along with the strict security inside the dorms themselves, that place was really quite safe.
However, the most important thing was that he could see students and teachers daily; this was highly important for someone who still viewed himself as a graduate student.
After finding two available dorm rooms through Craigslist, he went to take a look during the weekend with Hans.
The first dorm was located in Arizona University. It was cleaned up really well, and as soon as Li Du contacted them through the phone, a blond white teen came to greet them.
Seeing his appearance, the teen had a moment of hesitation before asking, "You are Asian? Chinese? Japanese? Or Korean?"
"Hello, I'm Chinese," Li Du lightly smiled.
At this, the teen's attitude immediately changed. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to rent this to a Chinese, because my grandpa was killed by you Chinese."
"Hey buddy, do you want to go to court? That's discrimination there!" Hans shouted.
"I won't rent it to you even if we go to court!" the teen shouted. "My grandpa was a medical volunteer from a neutral nation, yet he was still killed under your Chinese artillery!"
The war that they are talking about was the Korean War. The newly formed the People's Republic of China used that war to show the world the might of their new nation and army. However, war was ruthless, and within war stories were countless tragedies.
Hans still wanted to threaten that teen, but Li Du stopped him and turned to leave. There was no need to cause any trouble for this teen. Plus, there was still another room that they had yet to visit.