Chapter 604: Auction at the Bazaar
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The result of the game was set. Small Boy Kim looked unperturbed by it.
He shrugged his shoulders and shoved his chips over to Li Du, before saying in a resentful tone, "If this were Texas Poker or Texas Holdem, I would definitely not lose."
Knight glanced at him with the same smile and blasted look in his eyes.
Li Du and the Playboy had won. Knight did not discredit the result and very calmly said, "Not bad, Akkalou, seems like you have found an amazing helper in your hometown. You win this time."
The Playboy breathed a sigh of relief before he cheekily grinned and said, "God is fair, how could I possibly keep on losing? Thank God for sending me a great helper. Goodbye, Li!"
It felt like he was casting Li Du aside after he had served his purpose. Requesting that he leave immediately after making use of him to achieve victory was undue, regardless of how Li Du looked at it.
Despite that, Li Du understood his intentions. As it was clear that the Playboy and Knight had something to negotiate and that the less he knew the better, the Playboy had taken the initiative to cast him aside in order to protect him.
Li Du nodded at both of them and was ready to leave. After Knight let out a cough, the middle-aged man, who had led the way earlier, promptly extended his arm to hold Li Du and the rest back.
Knight walked toward Li Du and said, "Sir, forgive my ignorance. You are clearly a pro. May I ask what your name is?"
Li Du blankly replied, "I introduced myself earlier. My name is Li, Li Du."
Knight smiled. "Is that your real name? I don't seem to have heard it before. Could it be that you rarely come to Las Vegas?"
Li Du nodded. "It's my real name and, yes, I rarely come to Las Vegas."
"No wonder," Knight replied. "Why don't you come to Las Vegas? A pro like you should stay in here—this is your stage."
Li Du shook his head. "No, my partner informed me that the businesses here are controlled by gangs. As such, for safety, I don't dare to come here."
The people next to him grinned in succession—what he said was true and precise.
Knight let out a slight smile and said, "Clearly your friends have demonized Las Vegas. Where are you most of the time? Macau? Oakland? Vancouver?"
Those were the top three gambling cities in the world in terms of the number of Chinese people there. This was especially so for Macau, which was the territory of the Chinese gambling kings.
"No, I stay in Flagstaff," Li Du said honestly. "I'll also occasionally go to Phoenix and Tucson."
Knight was baffled. "Ah?"
Li Du added, "In short, I mainly go around Arizona. Recently, I've decided to expand my business to Utah, Nevada, and some other places. Thank you for your concern."
Knight blinked. "What business are you in? Aren't you in the gambling business?"
"Of course not," Li Du laughed. "I do storage unit auctions together with Akkalou."
Knight stared at him in shock at him before looking at the Playboy. "This gentleman does storage unit auctions?"
The Playboy admired the shocked look on his face and with much interest, said, "Yes."
Knight was silent for a while before he looked Li Du in the eye and said, "Are you interested in coming to the casino to help me work? I can give you ten times the income of storage unit auctions."
Li Du shook his head. "Sorry, Mr. Ferrari, I'm not interested in this business. I like storage unit auctions and traveling to various places to experience different sceneries and cultures."
Hearing his words, Knight did not force him and said, "I respect your interest Mr. Li, but I have one last question. Since you don't like gambling, how are you so good at playing Blackjack?"
Li Du smiled. "I am pretty good at memorizing cards as well as predicting the remaining cards, and together with other skills, I was able to win."
"For example?"
"For example, when the total value of my cards is 12 to 14 points, I will not request for more cards as, based on probability, the chance of winning is higher with those cards in my hand."
Li Du explained in a serious manner while Knight also listened in a serious manner.
After he had finished explaining, Knight gave him his name card and with a wave of his hands, invited them to leave.
When no one was noticing, he whispered, "What a load of nonsense. Do you think I'm stupid?"
Seeing Li Du leave, Small Boy Kim could not help but ask, "Hey, wonderkind, are you not going to take your chips?"
Li Du elegantly turned his body and smiled. "No thanks—"
"There's ten million dollars here!"
"F*ck!" Li Du was shocked.
He was stunned by the large betting amount placed by the Playboy and Knight. He did not know what both of their backgrounds were to have such an impressive social status when they were just four to five years older than him.
Knight asked, "Do you want me to exchange the chips? I thought Akkalou had explained clearly to you that he would give you the money after you went back. Apparently, you guys did not communicate with each other on this matter."
He had started to sow discord between Li Du and the Playboy.
Li Du was only startled and paid no attention to his remark. He continued to elegantly turn around and said, "I am here to help and not to make money. Since I have finished helping, goodbye."
Knight gazed at him with relish before saying to Playboy, "This fella is pretty interesting, I like him."
"Sorry," the Playboy responded. "He's not the same as you. He's attracted to females, unlike you, who are attracted to men."
That was the last part of the conversation between the two that Li Du heard. After which, he decided that no matter what he would not get close to Knight and would also try his best not to come to Las Vegas.
Nothing else was said that night. He woke up the next day to dull weather, with the great auction starting soon.
Li Du and the others hurriedly drove to the storage unit company. If not for his previous trip here, he would have thought that he'd gone the wrong way and had arrived at the entrance of a Las Vegas bazaar instead.
The carpark of the storage unit company and the surrounding empty spaces were all packed full of cars. There were people walking about everywhere, men and ladies, Caucasians, Asians, African-Americans, both young and old. The place was filled with people!
Even though the cab of the Iron Knight was very tall, he was unable to see an end in sight when looking out the window. That proved how many people were participating in the auction!
Li Du exclaimed, "F*ck, how long will the auction take? Won't it take half a day for just this group of people to queue up and finish seeing the first storage unit?
Hans curled his lips. "Queue up to see? Not a chance!"
"Then how is it done?" Li Du asked with surprise.
Lu Guan answered on behalf of Hans. "They will give out a colored picture of every storage unit for people to base their bids on. After the auction, they can compare their storage unit with the picture when taking it over. If the contents of the storage unit are different from the picture, they can refund the storage unit."
Li Du was dumbfounded. Is this business really that unreasonable to have people determine the price just after looking at a picture? It doesn't really test eye power anymore and purely tests their luck!
This had both advantages and disadvantages to him. The advantage was that it would be more difficult for others to find out the exact contents of the storage units, while the disadvantage was that he would not have enough time to check the last 45 storage units.