Chapter 584: Space stone
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The group of gem hunters suddenly got excited after hearing Li Du's words.
"Hey mate, are you making fun of us? Is this really that funny?"
"Are you serious? Are you really willing to take over?"
"Ten thousand dollars—no, 5,000 dollars. I will sell it for 5,000 dollars."
Li Du smiled. "As long as you guys accept my trading terms and give me a bank account number, you guys will know if I am making fun of you guys or not."
Old Deckard stared at him with cloudy eyes. With a look of anticipation, he told Li Du his bank account number.
Li Du operated the online banking from his phone for awhile and said, "Wait 30 seconds."
Soon, Old Deckard's phone gave off a notification sound. He proceeded to open the notification while all the gem hunters surrounded him.
After looking at the screen, Old Deckard blankly stared up at the crowd, "Twenty . . . Twenty thousand dollars. He really gifted me 20,000 dollars."
"It's not a gift, it's a trade." Li Du beamed. "Your piece of land is mine for the next two days."
Old Deckard's lips trembled twice. He embraced Li Du and tears started streaming down his face. "Oh, God. Oh. Thank you, friend! F*ck me—no, I'm very thankful to you! Thank you!"
The others became excited. One after another, they began shouting in a disorderly manner.
"Me! Me too!"
"I also want to sell to you!"
"I'm sorry for calling you a 'Chinaman' earlier. Please forgive my stupidity."
No one was willing to turn away money.
Seeing the crowd go from feeling hopeless to being revitalized, Sophie smiled. "So this is what God's messenger looks like."
Brendan and Alicia were stunned. "What God's messenger? Is Li Du nuts? Seven people—that's 140,000 dollars!"
Besides Li Du, there were seven others who were scammed. With 20,000 dollars given to each one of them, it added up to 140,000 dollars, which was a huge sum of money!
However, Li Du was not bothered by it as he still had around 2,500,000 dollars left after deducting the bonus he gave Godzilla and Big Quinn from the previous two days profit of around 2,600,000 dollars.
Also, after trading with the others, he would obtain the land in their possession. The piece of land Stevenson and Christopher rented had a total area of two square miles. One square mile of the land had already been completely searched by Li Du, while the other square mile he hadn't searched yet. So, it would definitely contain a lot of opals.
The piece of land would earn Li Du at least 140,000 dollars—maybe even another 2,600,000 dollars.
Of course, he could have just spent 1,000 dollars to rent the same piece of land. However, he could not bear seeing the miserable looks of Old Deckard and the others when they had been scammed.
Furthermore, he had just joined this profession and needed to make a favorable impression. As Americans were very exclusive, his days in this profession would not be easy if he did not make a favorable impression on people.
He had just been in the profession for two days, but Brendan and the others were already eyeing him. How many more people would be eyeing him if he stayed in the profession?
Since a young age, Li Du had understood the power of the masses. He did not wish to go against the gem hunters and wanted to gain their support, just like how he had started out in Flagstaff's storage unit auction society.
One hundred forty thousand dollars to win over a group of people and gain a good reputation was considered peanuts to Li Du. Besides, he could earn 20,000 dollars by just finding a decent gemstone.
The transfer of the 140,000 dollars was very quick. The customer service of the bank gave Li Du a call and verified his identity, before enquiring if there was a problem with his bank transfer.
Li Du dealt with customer service and proceeded to treat the gem hunters to a meal.
With everyone benefitting from the money, he easily gained their friendship.
Nonetheless, friendships built on money were the weakest. However, Li Du did not intend to become close friends with them and only wanted to give them a hand after seeing them in a pitiful state.
It was already night time when they returned to the national park.
Hearing that Li Du and his company had encountered wolves, the gem hunters rented the land beside theirs and set up tents nearby to protect them.
Li Du was bummed out as he did not anticipate that they would return his favor. Truth be told, he did not want to be with outsiders and wished that his actions could be more discreet.
Since it had already come to this point, he could only order Godzilla and Big Quinn to be more careful when making moves.
Dozens of iodine-tungsten lamps lit up and illuminated the surroundings, making it as bright as day.
Li Du started working on the newly obtained one-hectare piece of land. Fortunately, in addition to the one-hectare area being rather large, it was also night time, when everyone's vision was the worst. The surrounding people could not clearly see what Li Du and his company were doing.
The little bug flew inside the cracked rocks. It was much easier for him to search for opals here. First of all, he had experience. Secondly, during the day, Stevenson and his company had divided the land into smaller pieces and marked them with strings.
The area of each piece of land marked by the strings was one-tenth of a hectare, which was also equivalent to 1,000 square meters. Li Du proceeded to search each piece of land more meticulously.
Sophie was also looking very seriously for opal. She still wanted to find a piece for her father's birthday present.
Not long after letting the little bug out Li Du found a gemstone the size of both his thumbs. Because he found the gemstone near the surface of the crushed rocks, wrapped in clay, he did not have to dig it up and could just pick it up using his hands
Casting the gemstone aside, he continued his search. After he found a gemstone, he would stuff a piece of preserved fruit in the rocks near it. Crispy Noodles would then pick up the scent of the preserved fruit and proceed to force open the rocks. Seeing a sparkling opal, he would take the initiative to bring it out using his mouth.
After approximately 30 minutes, Sophie suddenly let out a cheer. While raising a gemstone that was still stained with clay, she excitedly said, "I found one! I found one! I found one!"
Pretending to be astonished, Li Du looked back and said, "You found an opal?"
Sophie nodded aggressively. She looked flustered with her dirt-stained blonde hair stuck to her face due to the perspiration.
However, she felt that it was worth it because her hard work had paid off in the end. Furthermore, the hard work she had put in made the opal that much more valuable in her eyes.
Li Du helped Sophie wash the clay away using water. Sophie crouched next to him and excitedly explained, "I didn't notice it at first because it was nearly completely covered with clay. God bless—I saw it after hitting it a few times with a hammer."
After they washed the clay away, the opal revealed a crystal clear appearance.
The piece of gemstone was very beautiful and pure. In it were some grey, green and purple patterns. The green pattern was made up of small continuous slices, while the purple spots were located on the top side.
Li Du raised the opal and exclaimed, "Heavens! It's really beautiful."
Sophie nodded aggressively again. "Yes, yes, so beautiful. What do you think it looks like? Don't those purple spots look like stars? Don't the grey and green patterns look like a small mountain?"
Li Du contemplated for a while after hearing her words and said, "It does look like that."
Every type of opal's most valued pattern was unique. As the background of a fire opal was orange-red, the most beautiful fire opals had patterns related to the sun and crimson clouds.
On the other hand, the most valued pattern of a black opal was a starry sky. As a black opal was black, it has the mysterious nature of a night sky. Together with the bright pattern inside, it looked very much like a starry sky.