Chapter 298: Let’s Bet Again
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Li Du was not someone who liked to meddle in others’ affairs. But for this matter, he knew that he must intervene.
The moods between the two groups of people were agitated and they all had their guns lifted up. If anything were to trigger the quarrel further, the worst thing that could happen would be if both groups started firing at each other. The atmosphere was very tense.
Furthermore, Sophie’s father was among them. Li Du did not want anything to happen to him. From previous interactions, Mr. Martin seemed rather fond of him. If he were to court Sophie, he would be a great help.
The situation was critical. Li raised his hand and stepped in. "Hey, hey, hey everyone, stay cool, calm down!"
The Native American youth, Hugo, turned and shouted, "None of your business, just scram, otherwise—sh*t!"
When Hugo saw that it was Li Du, he swallowed the remaining half of the sentence, and could only swear.
Mr. Martin was glad to see Li Du, but he waved his hands dismissively and said, "Li, this matter doesn’t concern you. For God’s sake, you better go."
Li Du walked over. "Please calm down, everyone. No matter what happened, all of you, put down your guns down first, okay? Let’s have a negotiation to solve the problem."
"Negotiation?" Harris sneered. "Go to hell, Chinese! Who do you think you are? Why should we listen to you?"
Li Du replied calmly, "No, I’m not making you listen to me. I just hope everyone can calm down before—"
"F*ck off, who are you to talk here?" Hugo saw Harris’s hostile attitude toward Li Du, and he followed suit.
Li Du gave him a wry smile and said, "You sure you want me to f*ck off? If I leave I’m going back to the Comanche Casino. Harris, I’m going to tell Marlin that your cousin asked me to scram back here."
Without any hesitation, Harris immediately gave Hugo a slap and roared, "Shut up! You’re in no position to speak!"
The dramatic scene amused the group of old men so much that they all broke into hearty laughter.
Li Du felt rather helpless, and watched in amazement as they laughed. The group of old fellows must have had strong hearts, for they did not seem to care about the dark muzzles that were pointing at them.
The group of Native Americans became infuriated when they heard the laughter.
"Shut up, old man, shut your big mouth and go to hell!"
"B*st*rds, you wanna be sent to hell? Want to go to hell?
"Go back to the arms of your old wife! F*ck you, go and die old man!"
The small group of old men did not back down from the loud, offensive words. They pointed fingers at them and started to retaliate:
"Look at your stupid, wretched faces. Get on your knees and s**k my d**k!"
"When I was in the war, you were still in your mother's arms s**king milk—now you dare yell at me?"
"Get out of my way—I'm going to rip this b*st*rd’s mouth off!"
While arguing, both groups of men kept inching forward, and they started to get physical.
On one side was the bigger group of strong and healthy looking Native American men. The other side was a smaller group of old men around 50 to 60 years of age. The difference in physical strength between the two sides was too obvious.
The Native Americans pushed the group of old men backward with ease, but it was fine as long as they didn’t use their guns.
Li Du went up and shoved Harris aside. "Hey, just stay calm, what’s going on?" he snapped. "Who can tell me? Or should I let the police show up and see all of you confronting each other with guns?"
Harris responded with snobbish disdain, "Ha! You can't scare us with the police."
"Yeah! You can’t scare us!" the group of Native Americans shouted in unison.
Li Du threatened, "Well, if I play in the casino under the protection of the police for three days and three nights, what do you think it will result in?"
Harris was so outraged that he was shaking with unrestrained laughter. "Ha! My dear pal, that’s bold of you. You’re threatening me? Threatening the Comanche?"
Li Du said with a sly smile, "No. But I’m thinking that if I do this just before I return to my own country, it’s going to get interesting."
Hugo shouted, "If you have the guts, go then. I swear that the next day someone will find a stinking corpse in a ditch!"
"So that's the way the Comanche Casino operates?" Li Du came to the realization and suddenly smiled.
Harris instantly turned to give his cousin another slap and flared up at him, "Just shut up and get away from me!"
Hugo held his face with one hand and ran away like a bereaved dog.
Li Du made a caustic comment, "You know I can do that, I just need to let the Flagstaff police know that I’m going to donate half of my earnings to them—then they’ll protect me, right?"
Harris wore a cold grin, exposing his pale teeth. Fine, I understand, he thought.
"Well, you want to negotiate, right?" asked Harris. "How do you want to negotiate?"
Li Du turned to the group of old man and asked, "Mr. Martin, what happened?"
Martin gave an account of the incident, "We returned from the hunt and wanted to take a break at noon. Then two mule deer came running in our direction, so we shot them—"
"Hey, old fellow, that's our prey," Harris snarled. "Our prey!"
Martin snapped a curt reply, "Fine, you can take them away."
"We wanted to capture the two deer alive," said Harris. "Old man, you killed them, you have to compensate us."
Li Du immediately understood that these people had deliberately plotted against the group of old men.
He even suspected whether the group of wild boar earlier had also been a trap they had set up to extort hunters, but their plan had been thwarted by him and his friends.
The old men had enough life experience to know that the Native Americans wanted to extort them, so the two sides had gotten into a heated argument.
Li Du knew a direct confrontation would be useless. He indicated for the old men to stay calm, and turned to Harris. "Pal, it’s a misunderstanding, there are more than two deer on the mountain, you can go hunt more."
Harris sat on the shoulder of one of the mule deer and crossed his legs. "Misunderstanding? This is not a misunderstanding. They have robbed us of our prey and we need to talk."
Li Du asked stoically, "What do you want to talk about?"
Harris smirked. "Pal, I'm a reasonable man. I like to reason with people to agree with me."
Li Du almost laughed out loud upon hearing this. He tried hard to keep a straight face while holding back his laughter.
Harris noticed the slight change in his expression, he raised his eyebrows and said, "Any problem with that?"
A faint smile still lurking around the corners of his mouth, Li Du said, "Nothing, so what’s your argument? I'm all ears."
Harris said in a grave tone, "They robbed us of our prey, pal. This is not right, absolutely not right. This is a very, very bad thing to do."
"So?"
"So, we need to ask for compensation," said Harris conceitedly. "Do you want to hear about my terms for the compensation?"
"Wait, you claimed that they robbed you of your prey," said Li Du factually. "Who can prove that? I can also claim that the two deer were their prey."
The choleric Harris froze for a moment. "What?"
"I said, you wanted to snatch their prey," replied Li Du. "These two deer were not driven here by your men—they stumbled upon them."
Harris immediately flew into a rage and yelled, "F*ck you! With your weak limbs? These old turtles? They are able to chase the deer?"
Li Du pointed at Harris and tried to reason, "Don’t cuss, I said you’d better not cuss. Why are they not able to chase deer? They're all good hunters."
Harris suddenly gave a loud cackle. "You claim that you are good hunters before us, the Comanche? This is priceless!"
Li Du also smiled, but with a hint of craftiness. "How about this: Let’s compete with each other. How about another bet? What do you say?"
Harris’s condescending laughter came to an abrupt halt!