There were many wild animals in the United States; when it was hunting season, people could get a variety of game meat for food.
The Playboy was not the only one who brought meat. Blacktooth Robbie also brought a similar gift: a large piece of tenderloin, which would make an excellent steak. Steak, however, also required more effort to prepare. Big Quinn directly rubbed the meat with a layer of butter.
There were also some people who brought wild pork meat. Li Du had eaten this chewy type of meat before.
Whether it's wild pork or wild beef, they had eaten or seen it before. There was even one who brought wild goose meat, which was really rare and strange.
Big Quinn cured the peacock meat by marinating it using a mixture of red wine, gin, Japanese miso, and olive oil.
When it was noon, it was time to eat.
American parties did not have many rules in regards to meals; most of the time parties just had buffet-style meals. Hans's party was like a do-it-yourself buffet. Everyone took the prepared or marinated meat and the like, and barbecued it themselves.
Li Du had originally wanted to show off his culinary skills by preparing some dishes. However, there were too many people to entertain. Now that he was very popular, everyone wanted to talk with him. Therefore, he had no free time.
With the large assortment of food at this treasure hunter party, there were mostly burgers. This was the easiest meal to prepare and could enable the guests to fill up their stomachs in the fastest possible time. Big Quinn had prepared a lot of burger ingredients and placed them on the table for the treasure hunters to mix and match.
Li Du put two of them into the oven designed by Big Quinn, which had different layers for cooking. In this way, when the fire was lit, the flames would not rise directly to the top.
"Three-zone oven?" Lu Guan seemed intrigued by the oven; he squatted near it to take a closer look.
Li Du asked, "What about it?"
"Well, this is a high-grade oven—one that is very troublesome to make. Look, the top layer is a low-temperature zone, the highest temperature zone is around the center and the bottom layer is the middle-temperature zone. They all have different roles."
This type of oven was very suitable for grilling burgers. The meat could be placed in the high-temperature for quick grilling, then moved to the mid-temperature zone where the meat inside would be thoroughly cooked. When it was fully-cooked, the meat was placed in the low-temperature zone to stay warm.
But as this was a complicated process, Hans got impatient after grilling his burger in the first zone and ate it after it was ready, skipping the step to place it in the mid-temperate zone.
After chewing on the burger two times, he asked, "Is this the wild beef? It's too lean, the meat doesn't smell good at all."
Big Quinn walked over and took a look. "Nope, it's pork. Just that it's too lean. Come, put some butter on it. Remember not to use the tongs to press the burger during barbecuing or the oil inside will be squeezed out."
Li Du also made himself a burger. He took two slices of bread and a piece of wild beef as he had never eaten that before.
"Don't use too much seasoning with the wild beef," recommended the Playboy. "Friend, just try sprinkling some coarse salt and black pepper powder. This way, you can taste its original flavor."
Li Du added some vegetables since he didn't add much seasoning.
He added lettuce, tomatoes and onions to make a big, fat burger and worked hard to barbecue the beef. When it was ready to be eaten, Hans grabbed the burger from him.
"Come back here, you thief!" cried Li Du angrily.
Hans cackled and had a naughty smirk on his face. "Thank you for your present, Li!"
Looking at the group of people cracking crude jokes and playing around without a care, York suddenly envied them and murmured, "Seems like living life like this isn't too bad after all."
"Live like these barbaric and foolish bumpkins?" Frank laughed condescendingly. "No, just kill me. Our aim is to stay at Beverly Hills where our next door neighbors are Hollywood stars and politicians. As for these fools? They can go to hell!"
Not too far away in the distance, Lu Guan, who was playing with his big golden retriever, shrugged. He went to look for Li Du and commented, "Wanna know some information? Those Two have new criticisms of you..."
Li Du's story of how Shang Yang had gained prestige and trust seemed to work. From the beginning until the end of the party, more than 10 people came to him and told him some so-called "insider news."
Not only treasure hunters there disclosed information to him, but Li even received a call from another city. When the party wrapped up, Li Du got a call from Kevin Zhang, whose Chinese name was Zhang Kai. He was working in Page Town.
If one did a search on the Internet for Page Town in Chinese, one would get results for the city of Pécs. Pécs was a famous city situated between the Danube and Drava rivers. It was one of Hungary's most attractive cities.
The Hungarian city Pécs had a pleasant climate and a long history. The city was host to magnificent museums and had the richest Turkish architecture in Hungary.
There was also a place called "Page" in the United States, which was where Zhang Kai was working. Both Page in America and Pécs in Europe shared the same Chinese name, but there was a huge gap between them in size and population.
In the United States there were many such places. This was due to the first immigrants to Americans were from Europe. In order to cherish the memories of their homeland or simply for easy remembrance, there were many places named after European cities.
Li Du had only heard of the European city of Pécs. He was somewhat nonplussed and asked, "Hello? You're calling from Hungary?"
The voice over the phone sounded startled and replied, "No, I'm in America, in the state of Arizona."
Li Du looked at Hans and consulted him in a low voice. "Is there a place called 'Page' in Arizona?"
Hans nodded his head. "Of course, it's located in the northeastern part of Arizona. It used to belong to the Hopis."
Li Du nodded to himself and continued to answer the phone, "Hello, Mr. Zhang, may I know the purpose of this call?"
Zhang Kai proceeded to use Mandarin to converse with Li, "Hi brother, I'm currently working at Glen Canyon Storage. The company's planning to hold an auction soon, a storage unit auction."
Li Du listened quietly. So someone's giving me auction information? he thought.
Zhang Kai said, "Not sure if you know this: Page is a very popular tourist spot with three to four million tourists coming here annually. Over here, there is a lot of storage units filled with items.
"There will be a total of 45 storage units put on auction with various sizes—the large, medium, and small units. Some of them contain good things inside. Will you be coming for the auction?"
Li Du did not reply immediately. Instead, he asked, "How do you know me? Were you introduced to me by Mr. Ma Zhi-an? Are you also a member of the Chinese Mutual Aid Association?"
"Yes, Brother Ma has informed all the members in this line of business," replied Zhang Kai in a straightforward manner, "saying that we have another member working as a treasure hunter. And if there's a good storage unit, we will inform you about it."
Li Du was quite moved by Ma Zhi-an's goodwill, for this act would greatly help his line of work.
After exchanging contacts with Zhang Kai, Li Du ended the call and talked to Hans. "There's an upcoming auction in Page, we need to set off right away."
Hans nodded and said, "Yes, there's one with 45 storage units put up for auction."
"You need to be mindful of such news," preached Li Du. "There are 45 storage units, there could be something worthwhile in them."
Hans felt wronged. "I noticed it, but I didn't know you were interested. Page is situated in the northeastern part of Arizona. It's rather far away."
Li Du replied firmly, "As long as there's money to be earned, we'll go. Even if it's really far."
Hans immediately disclosed another auction. "There's also an auction in a storage company in Las Vegas with 20 storage units—might have better things in there."
Li Du replied, "Not going."
Hans was speechless.