Treasure Hunt Tycoon

Li Du could tell, even just with one glance, that they were here to stir up trouble.

He had too much experience in this aspect. In the past two years, he had seen all sorts of things in the business of storage house auctions. To think that someone would actually take it upon themselves to pick a fight with him today!

The stranger who had bumped into him was a heavily bearded white man, behind whom trailed two others: another white man who seemed like he could not care less about what was going on, and an expressionless South American. Li Du remembered them — these people had been with Stein and Gasol earlier before they boarded the ship.

Li Du turned to look at them, then cut straight to the chase. “You’re here to cause trouble, aren’t you?”

Big Beard was a little taken aback by Li Du’s words, but he smiled immediately. “Hey, that’s quite the temper you have, man. I just bumped into you accidentally, that’s all.”

Li Du waved his hands as he spoke. “Get out of here.”

The other white man walked up, pointing at him as he said, “F*ck you, Chinaman. I’m going to bust your f*cking *ss, you damned chink, you arrogant son of a b*tch!”

Li Du’s face hardened. The three of them were definitely here to pick a fight with him.

He stretched his arm to point at the man who had been cursing at him, first to make a thumbs-up sign, then turning his wrist to point his thumb down.

Before the man could even begin to retaliate in another wave of curses, Brother Wolf suddenly barged in like a whirlwind. He lifted himself off the ground to deliver a sidekick.

A dull thud rang out as the man was sent flying like a sandbag. He landed heavily onto the ground and cried out in pain, “F*ck, f*ck, ow, ow! God, help me!”

Li Du sauntered over leisurely at the sound of his screaming. He stared down at the man and said, “Well? Go on, pal, run that foul mouth of yours and keep the curses coming.”

Big Beard and the South American were instantly enraged. They rolled up their sleeves, looking like they were going to charge.

Brother Wolf stared at them coldly and said, “Would you believe me if I said that you’d be eating liquid food for the rest of your lives if I kicked your jaw with this leg of mine?”

The two men were terrified and swerved immediately to help up the man instead. Big Beard turned and hollered, “Security! Security! Help!”

The South American threatened angrily, “We’ll be back with more men!”

They were all senior members of the Million Dollar Club. Though they had no personal bodyguards by their sides, the porters they hired were all massive and strong and could easily double as bodyguards.

Though that might be so, porters were still not actual bodyguards when all was said and done, so they would not be able to fight like real bodyguards could.

The insurance company was unprofessional concerning the organization of this storage auction. The cargo ship was a huge one and there were not enough security men on board given its size. As such, the response was slow and nobody came in to maintain order.

A few treasure hunters did come in to join in the commotion, though. Big Beard chose to play dirty. He pointed to Li Du and shouted, “This Chinese man, he’s gone too far! The bastard’s stirring—”

“All I did was bump into him accidentally, damn it! I bumped into him and he started cursing at me, so my friend tried to get even for me but he ended up getting kicked! He was kicked!”

As he spoke, he took out his phone. He hit ‘play’ on an audio file the moment he stopped talking, and a recording started playing.

The recording taped the conversation he had with Li Du, but the other white man’s voice was absent in this clip. It was obvious that this was a premeditated operation to frame someone, and their target was Li Du.

Security finally came in, though a little late. The three men perked up at the sight of the security staff.

They acted like a bunch of shrews when they were dealing with Li Du but immediately started playing the victim in front of the security guards. “How dare you take such a long time to get here? If we had run into a violent maniac we would have been pummeled to death a long time ago!”

“Who’s the person in charge of you guys? Bring your manager over; I want to speak to them!”

“The truth is out and everyone here saw what happened. The proof is right here. I’ll cut straight to the chase — handle this according to the operating procedure!”

The standard operating procedure was to kick out the people who were causing trouble. It was true that the evidence was greatly disadvantageous for Li Du, but there was no reason for him to leave. After all, he did not even lift a single finger.

Brother Wolf was escorted off the ship. He threw Li Du a look of concern, in response to which the latter shook his head to indicate that there was no need to worry.

Big Beard watched as Brother Wolf left and sneered vindictively at Li Du. “Hey, it’s your turn next.”

Li Du raised his phone and said, “I have that on tape.”

Big Beard’s face changed and he cursed, “F*ck!”

Bell walked out. He spoke as he pointed at Big Beard, “Don’t stir up trouble here, Sandler. I’m warning you for real this time, don’t mess with Li if you want to live to see another day. I’m saying this for your own good!”

Bell’s words must have made Big Beard Sandler feel awkward, because it showed on his face. He replied, “You know me, Chris, I’m an honest man. It’s this Chinese guy who bullied me—”

Bell walked up to pat his shoulder and said, “I don’t know what exactly happened just now, but I do know for a fact that you were the one who caused trouble. Don’t provoke Li. Trust me, I have your best interests at heart. Don’t mess with him or the consequences will be dire!”

Unlike Gasol and Stein, Sandler and the other two knew some things about Li Du.

They knew that Li Du had a bad reputation so they had planned on causing trouble with him to rile up the other treasure hunters so they could band together to go against him.

They wanted to do this for two reasons: to help Stein exact revenge, but also to draw Li Du away from the refrigerated cargo container since he had already spent too much time there.

It was not a stretch to say that they had fulfilled that goal — at least Li Du’s attention was now diverted from the refrigerated cargo container.

The three of them did not want to provoke Li Du any further, not after being warned by Bell like this or being surrounded by a bunch of treasure hunters who were just there to watch and offered no support. As such, they left with their tails between their legs.

Li Du followed behind Bell and they continued making their rounds. Though they were looking at the cargo containers, their focus was on the trio.

They had to be beaten if they wanted to stir trouble, punished since they made a mistake — this was the truth.

The lot of them had made the mistake of assuming this was the end of the issue since no one was taking action anymore. They did not know Li Du at all, and it was clear that they did not understand the current situation either. They still believed that the initiative was theirs.

In a bid to save time, lunch was a quick affair settled on the cargo ship. After all, the cargo ship was quite some distance from the harbor, so returning to land just for lunch would waste a great deal of time and effort.

The insurance company had provided a buffet — simple but rather tasty. More importantly, it was sufficient to feed the crowd. Everyone grabbed a tray to pick their food and drinks before finding a spot to settle down.

The majority of the people were waiting alone with only their partners. They had small notebooks in hand and as they ate, they were discussing and jotting down information.

There were also a few people who formed a small circle with some other treasure hunters. This was the case with Li Du and Bell, Playboy, et cetera, and also with Sandler and Gasol’s company.

The five of them had picked a great spot. They were leaning against a railing at the bow of the ship, the sea wind blowing in their faces as they sipped a beer. There was some sort of comfort that could not be put into words.

At a spot no one could see, two little bugs crawled onto a segment of the railing and channeled every last bit of their strength into sucking the time capability from the pole. The railing very quickly degenerated.

When they sapped enough of the time capability to hit a critical point, the metal railing that was once as thick as an arm snapped cleanly with a resounding crack.

Four of the five were leaning against the railing at this time; only the South American was squatting by the side.

He was about to say something but the moment he looked up, he noticed the four people in front of him were gone before he could even make a single sound. What remained of them were shocked exclamations, “F*ck!””Sh*t!””Oh no!””Dear God!”

The South American was so shocked he could not move. He crawled on the deck, over to the edge where he peered over. The roaring crash of heavy objects hitting water rang over incessantly.

This really scared him out of his wits. He finally broke out of his reverie to say, “Help, hurry, please help!”