The two novice treasure hunters started a bidding war, without any reason, trying to outbid each other over a worthless storage unit.
The storage unit was sold at a final price of 3,500 dollars.
The young black man refused to back down. He ultimately won the storage unit against the golden-haired treasure hunter, who gave up and had been sulking since.
Li Du was wide-eyed in bewilderment. "Are they here for making money or for a fight? That bidding war was meaningless!"
Judging from the young man’s smug body language, he appeared to believe the storage unit he had just won was worth millions of dollars.
The rest of the four units were all won by the novices. Li Du and Hans were not facing one to two greenhorns, but a group of around 20 novice treasure hunters who could not see the specific value of the units, so bid recklessly for them.
The rest of the group of greenhorns behaved similarly to the young man: they treated the auction as a gamble—all they had to do was to place their bids and win.
As for the units, maybe they would pray to God for some good items...
When the auction ended, Li and many other treasure hunters slowly made their way out. The young man and his companion quickly unlocked the first storage unit, heading straight to the boxes of new appliances.
The first box they opened contained a new microwave. Both youths cheered for joy. "Oh yeah, we’re going to be rich!"
Li Du laughed, unimpressed. These household products would enable them to earn at least 4,000 dollars. But the two of them spent 3,000 dollars for the unit—how would they get rich?
The two young men saw Li’s expression. The companion yelled to Li Du, "Hey greenhorn, what are you laughing at? Are you questioning our judgment?"
Li stretched out his hands in a friendly manner. "No, I’m just envious of you both."
The young man spoke loudly in a displeased tone, "Don’t give excuses. D*mn, you were laughing at us!
"Greenhorn, you’ll never get anything good if you act like this."
When the surrounding treasure hunters heard the word "greenhorn," they appeared confused. They glanced back and forth between the young men and Li Du.
A commotion started.
"What? They called Li a greenhorn? Where did these two pop out from?"
"Bullsh*t, they are the real greenhorns—they just joined the storage auction business!"
"Hey Cooper, Adams—what did you call this guy? You don’t know who he is?"
"My young pals, these are Flagstaff’s Treasure Tycoons: Big Li and Big Fox. Both of them taught a lesson to those a**holes from California’s Million Dollar Club!"
Li Du felt fortunate there were still quite a number of veteran treasure hunters around to defend him. Otherwise, he would have been scorned by the novice treasure hunters.
This time, it was the two young men’s turn to be confused. "No, no—you’re China Li? D*mn, but you didn’t win any unit!"
"Yeah—looks like Mr. Treasure Tycoon ain’t special at all—we’re better than him."
Li Du laughed, "Friends, you can say all you want when you’ve made some money. Having confidence is a good thing, but not arrogance."
The youth asked, "What do you mean? Of course we can earn money from this. Look at these appliances, they’re all new!"
If the two novice treasure hunters met Li Du one to two months back, they would have been in big trouble. For the old Li Du would most definitely control the little bug to absorb the time energy of the new household appliances.
But doing that would be too harsh—he was no longer a hot-tempered young man. Li just brushed it off by laughing.
Hans crossed his arms and said, "You both won more than one unit. Go ahead and open the second one, just hope that you don’t lose too much money."
The young man and his companion replied in steadfast belief, "No, we won’t be losing money, but earning money instead!"
While they opened the second storage unit and packed up its contents, the surrounding treasure hunters roared with laughter.
The first unit had entirely new appliances to earn some money, but the second unit was full of domestic trash—although it contained some furniture and old appliances, they were clearly obsolete and worthless.
"The items in this unit are not even worth a penny," a treasure hunter laughed, shaking his head.
Another treasure hunter said, "You both spent 3,500 dollars for a unit of trash, that’s a loss of 3,500 dollars. The previous unit’s earnings will not be enough to cover for this loss."
"Three thousand five hundred dollars? It’s more than that—don’t forget, disposing the trash costs around 200 dollars, then there’s the manpower cost, fuel and parking fees... I estimate the loss on this unit is 4,000 dollars."
As the treasure hunters talked
hunters talked about the costs, the blonde treasure hunter who lost the bid to the youth cried out in joy, "Oh God bless! I nearly got into a mess!"
The two young men looked crestfallen and helpless. It was now clear that they were not some rich kids who could afford to squander their money.
"Don’t be disheartened, greenhorns," Hans consoled. "This is a storage auction—each bid you make could end up with very different results. You must be careful during bidding."
Li Du gave them a pat on their backs and said, "Once you have more experience with this, it’s going to get better. Everyone starts off a greenhorn."
Their encouragement gave the youths hope and they quickly perked up and were energetic once again.
"Yeah, just treat this as a lesson learned. We’ll become Treasure Tycoons too—Phoenix’s Treasure Tycoons!"
But there were some treasure hunters who wanted to taunt the two young men as well.
"You’ll have to get out of this loss-making situation first before you talk about how to become Treasure Tycoons. Now you both look like Scavenger Tycoons!"
Li Du was not interested in staying for long. The weather was too warm for comfort. They left and went back to Flagstaff.
On the way back, Hans said with a laugh, "You’re getting emotionally attached to Flagstaff."
Li Du replied, "You don’t understand how deep the feelings the Chinese have for their homes are. There is a Chinese saying: ‘East or west, home is best.’"
Godzilla, who was driving, agreed as well; he was also a homebody.
Hans suggested, "Then buy a house in Flagstaff. Settle down here."
Li Du shook his head. "I’m not prepared to settle down here yet, and no plans to become a US citizen either. So I’m not getting a house."
Li was ambitious. If he were to get a house, he would want to buy a villa.
With his savings, he could get a villa, but that would mean he would need to be prepared to immigrate to the United States. Otherwise, the various taxes he would need to pay would be a pain in the *ss.
Hans leaned on the seat and said, "Bud, just migrate. Isn’t it good to be in America? I feel that you are born to be doing business here."
Li Du laughed, "Let’s leave it as it is. I have my own land now anyway."
The land Li was referring to was the barren land he rented. Although the land was used for holding trash he got from the storage units, Godzilla had helped to organize them in neat piles.
Li Du wanted to build a simple campsite on the land.
When he suggested this idea, Godzilla immediately responded, "I’ll do it!"
Hans shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, we’ll form a small family then."
Li Du gave him the middle finger. "Get lost, who wants to form a family with you?"
Hans guffawed loudly and said, "I’m the father, you’re the mother and Godzilla’s the baby. Aren’t we a family?"
Godzilla added, "I’m a big baby."