Chapter 364: Cloud of Suspicion
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
No one clearly saw what happened; everyone just felt Li Du flash up from his seat and the next moment, Lil’ Rick had one hand holding his face and looked like he was about to stumble.
Lil’ Rick staggered to his feet and the beer bottle in his hand fell to the ground.
Suddenly, someone gasped in shock, "Big Li can move so fast!"
"He’s like the Flash! Cool!"
"What’s up? What happened?"
Having been slapped in front of so many treasure hunters, an irate Lil’ Rick picked up the beer bottle and roared, "Chinaman, I’m going to kill you!"
Godzilla stood up again, expressionless, fists clenched.
Rick stopped his son. He gritted his teeth and spoke, "Hey Chinaman, you sure are arrogant."
Li Du lifted a leg and said, "See this?"
Rick thought Li wanted to kick them; he quickly moved a step back with his son.
The group of treasure hunters guffawed at their reaction.
Rick was enraged and shouted, "Shut up! All of you! You want to go to hell?"
Li Du replied, "Look at my shoe."
The lights in the bar were dim. Someone had brought a flashlight with them; they switched it on and shined it on the shoe. Everyone could now clearly see that there was a mouthful of saliva on the shoe.
Turis flew into a rage upon the sight. "Rick, your son’s too much!"
"Pal, that’s too much, really. You’re insulting Big Li."
"If anyone spat on me, I’d beat him up till even holy Mother Mary wouldn’t recognize him!"
Lil’ Rick cried out to defend himself, "What? No! That wasn’t me, there’s one more person between us."
"Fine," Hans sneered, "want to do a DNA check?"
A treasure hunter with a large beard commented, "You could still spit on Big Li’s shoe with another person in between you guys."
"Let’s search—is there another mouthful of saliva lying on the floor? There’s none. Lil’ Rick, you’re a troublemaker."
Rick felt like cussing. The lights were so dim that it would be difficult to find a dog lying on the floor, let alone a mouthful of saliva.
But he couldn’t find any strong reason to refute the treasure hunters, so he pulled his son along, wearing his usual gloomy face, and continued to walk out of the bar.
Hans stopped him. "Hey, hey, hey—you haven’t apologized. Pal, apologize for what you’ve done."
Li Du shook his head. "Forget it, brother. I gave him a slap, this matter is settled."
As spoke, he turned to face the crowd of treasure hunters. "I, Li Du, am fair and reasonable. I don’t bully the weak, whether in terms of strength or numbers!"
"That’s a good man." The treasure hunters gave their thumbs-up to Li Du.
Rick knew he couldn’t continue to stay here anymore. He had high blood pressure. If he didn’t leave soon, he would have a heart attack due to anger.
Lil’ Rick was even more enraged. He shot Li Du a poisonous glare and said, "Let’s see if you can still be so imperious when the auction is over!"
Rick had a sudden change of expression when Lil’ Rick said his piece. He hastily pushed his son out of the door.
Once the two of them left the bar, the treasure hunters were even more in awe of Li and Hans.
The group of them drank until midnight. The next morning, Li Du went for a jog along a path toward the farmland of the town.
There were a lot of farms around the town, but the crops did not look fat and lush. One could conclude that the quality of the land was relatively poor. The area was not suitable for agricultural development.
The four of them had milk and burgers for breakfast. They ate 40 hamburgers in one go, leaving the hotel owner shocked and distressed over the amount of the food they ate.
The hotel happened to provide free breakfast, which was why they chose to stay there.
After breakfast, they went to Vendetta Storage.
Li Du curiously asked if the storage company had wanted to show it was involved in the family rivalry of the town by naming their company "Vendetta." Hans shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe they were involved."
"How serious was the feud between the two families?"
"This road that we are driving on now is one of the main roads of this town," said Hans. "The name of the street is ‘Bucket of Blood,’ which originated from their feud. Every clash between them happened on this road, and every such conflict could shed a bucket of blood!"
On the way, they passed by a quiet museum. Just as they had seen in Kingman, that museum was about Route 66 too.
The museum was not very big: it had two floors and a peaceful, tidy-looking courtyard.
"This was the previous location of the Mahogany Gallery," said Hans. "After they relocated, the museum took over the place."
Li Du had always felt attracted to museums; there were many items in museums that had a rich history, which meant that they had a lot of time energy.
Such items were alluring to the little bug, but he was unwilling to let the little bug absorb the time energy through this type of items. This would make him feel as though he were stealing something.
The drive around town made Li Du realize that the town was not small, just that it was slightly run-down.
When Hans heard his thoughts, he laughed and said, "Of course it's not small. Many people call Holbrook ‘a small city,’ not a small town."
The size of Vendetta Storage was not small either. There were around 100 storage units.
Li Du was bewildered. "Okay, it’s true that this town’s not small, but I don’t think there are more than 500 families here? Who leases all the units of such a big storage company?"
"Some units are not for local residents, but for businessmen," said Hans. "You see, Holbrook has a lot of ranches. Every year there are a lot of farmers and businessmen coming here to buy stuff from the ranches."
Li Du nodded. "I see, so these farmers and businessmen will lease the units here?"
"Yes, but it’s hard to get good units that have been left by the farmers and businessmen," replied Hans. "They are usually stingy and have good memories. They tend to bring everything with them."
As they spoke, they entered the storage company. Hans handed a piece of paper to Li, which contained information on the units that would be auctioned off.
There were a total of 14 storage units to be auctioned. According to Hans, half of them had been left by the Mahogany Gallery.
Li Du sent the little bug to check on the seven units left by the furniture store first. The little bug entered unit 41 first, and Li saw random pieces of the solid wood furniture scattered around.
Seeing this, he was at first pleasantly surprised, but he soon became puzzled as well. Mahogany furniture is expensive. Why did that Mahogany Gallery leave so much valuable furniture here?
The seven storage units were all next to each other in a row. The little bug flew to the next unit with ease. There was also solid wood furniture in there, but this one was arranged in a complete set: a set of tables and chairs.
Li Du’s brows were closely-knitted together upon this sight. This doesn’t seem right. he thought. A mahogany dining table set costs at least 20,000 dollars. What company would actually leave or discard something so valuable in a storage unit? He pondered this seriously.
He recalled the news article he had seen on the Internet. The article had stated that "after taking into account the cost of transportation and labor, and the fact that they want to reward their customers for their many years of support, the furniture in the Gallery will not be moved to the new site. The mahogany furniture will be sold below factory prices in an upcoming clearance sale, in the hopes that this act will benefit more mahogany furniture lovers."
From the looks of it, the clearance sale had not been successful. There was still a lot of unsold mahogany furniture.
And why didn’t the company bring the furniture with them to the new address? No matter how great the transportation and labor costs were, did they really cost more than all this mahogany furniture?
A series of doubts took root in Li Du’s mind. He continued viewing the units with the little bug. All units contained mahogany furniture except the sixth unit, which contained tools, paint, and a few boxes that contained some wood as well.
Li Du felt that something was amiss. He called Hans and said, "Look up that news article on the Mahogany Gallery again. Then do a search of that company."
Hans nodded and got to work. After a while he said, "The Delon Mahogany Gallery is not a famous furniture store. There isn’t much news besides this news article."
"Continue searching," urged Li Du. "Take note of any news or if anyone has mentioned that this company sells fake mahogany furniture."
Yes, he suspected that he had stumbled upon a furniture store that sold fake mahogany furniture!