Conrad and the peoples" appearance were rather discomfited. He had been defeated and bullied by Li Du.

Li Du did not think about it much. He rarely provoked people, but if others provoked him, he would not be silent, and he would certainly return the resentment with more resentment.

The local treasure collectors saw the loss of Conrad and his men, but what they didn"t see was that Conrad had brought it upon himself.

These people went to Conrad and asked him what was going on. Conrad and the others certainly did not take responsibility for themselves. They whispered and pointed and put the blame on Li Du"s gang.

Li Du antic.i.p.ated this, and he noticed that the gang"s eyes were not friendly after hearing what Conrad and his people said.

Hans noticed too. Frowning, he said. "d.a.m.n it. These *ssholes might backstab us. We need to explain."

"How do you explain that? Remember, this is Indiana, this is the east. We are considered invaders, the local treasure collectors thought we were here to grab their wealth, can you change their point of view?"

Hans shrugged and did not speak. It was true.

After the complaints, Conrad and the others were in a good mood but did not come to see Li Du and the others; they quietly waited for the door of the storage unit company to open.

At 8:30, the weather started to warm up but Indiana was in the northeast, not the same as Phoenix in the southwest furnace. The sun, though rising, was not particularly hot.

At a storage unit auction in Phoenix in the summer, treasure collectors must bring cold beer or they would be dehydrated and struck with heat stroke.

This certainly would not happen in Indianapolis, where people were more civilized and polite, except for whites, who were less friendly to people of different skin colors.

If someone drank at the auction here, they would be considered a drunk.

As the door to the storage unit company opened, treasure collectors swarmed in, and a white auctioneer and a couple of security guards stepped out while chatting merrily. They beckoned the crowds to queue up and enter.

As usual, Li Du stood at the back of the line, and a few white men stared at him in an unfriendly way and then went behind him.

Seeing this, he smiled sadly. He would need to get used to it; he"d forgotten that this was not his home.

A young man with black eyes noticed and sneered, "Hey, you"re only One Hundred Thousand Club members. Do you think you"re a treasure hunter tyc.o.o.n? Do you need us to get you a throne?"

Li Du said calmly, "You were beaten by the kangaroo."

The young man blushed and said, "Make clear the circ.u.mstances. What was up with sneaking around and attacking us? If you have guts. .h.i.t me now!"

"You were beaten by a kangaroo." Li Du still remained calm.

The young man gnashed his teeth and shouted, "Shut up, you b.l.o.o.d.y b*stard, taking beasts to the restaurant? You are really ill-bred, are all Chinese so ill-bred?"

"You were beaten by a kangaroo."

The young man was in a rage. One of the treasure collectors could not bear it anymore and said, "Okay, can you stop quarreling? Chinese man, say something else. Or do you really want to have a fight here?"

Li Du said, "I"ll use another sentence. Your face was sh*tted on by a racc.o.o.n."

The young man was so mad that he rushed over to hit him but was stopped by Conrad and the others; he would have been chased out of the auction.

The door of the first storage unit opened and people lined up to see it.

Li Du looked at the door briefly. He had no interest in this storage unit. No one else did either. They had come for the sports shoes" storage units. The storage units which were not very profitable were ignored by most people.

Of course, not all of the people who came to the auction came for the sports shoes" storage unit. There were people interested in the regular storage units, people who had less money and couldn"t compete for the shoe storage unit, which was bound to be an expensive sale.

At the end of the visit, the auctioneer stepped forward and began to bid, "Okay, has everyone seen it? I"m not going to repeat the rules. Is there anything you don"t understand? Who doesn"t understand me? I could explain."

"This guy is so friendly, isn"t he?" said Li Du after he heard the auctioneer speak.

Auctioneers in Arizona and California talked like rappers, trying to say a hundred words without stopping. And the auctioneers didn"t ask for opinions from the treasure hunters, which sounded like asking questions in cla.s.s here.

Hans shrugged. "I told you the pace was slow, the compet.i.tion among the scavengers isn"t fierce, and the att.i.tude is friendly."

No one objected, and the auctioneer began to shout, "Let"s start with a hundred, then. It"s a good storage unit. A hundred per bid."

"I"ll give you a hundred!"

"Hey, 200, I"ll take it."

"Three hundred…"

The bidding atmosphere was also quite relaxed, going from the price of 100 to 800. The treasure collectors who gave up the bidding left, leaving the winning bidder.

The process of the latter several storage units was similar, and the auction ended with a very friendly atmosphere. There was no conflict between the collectors, let alone any fights.

Finally, they opened unit 220, and the treasure hunters immediately crowded around it, eager to take a look.

Most people had come for this unit and knew that it could be extremely profitable if it were handled correctly.

Li Du had an advantage over these guys. Not that the little bug could see the shoes, but that Kobe had told him the shoes were worth at least two million!

Many of the shoes were in sets, and once they were combined their value would grow a lot. Many were signed by the stars, their value was even higher.

Other treasure hunters did not know about this; they only knew that these were the shoes from the star"s collection. They knew the value was not low, but they were not clear on the specific price.

.

Big Ivan was at his first storage unit auction, and he was curious about everything.

Listening to the discussions amongst the treasure hunters, he realized the value of the storage unit and asked, "Why didn"t the owner come back for them? Surely these shoes cost less than they are worth? Otherwise, you wouldn"t buy them."

Li Du nodded. "Yes, the reason why Dun Jones didn"t come to buy these shoes is that he is in a lawsuit with the storage unit company. He wants to take back the shoes through legal channels without compensation."

Jones did break the agreement beforehand. The owner knew the value of the storage unit. He could get at least a few hundred thousand, why would he give away this big chance?

At the end of the tour, the auction began, and the white-gloved man smiled. "I see your faces. This is sure to be a tough battle, folks. Spend money, because to win it you will need to produce a huge amount!

"Well, it"s my pleasure to announce that storage unit 220 has an initial bid of 100,000 dollars, a thousand dollars at a time. The bid starts now!"

Li Du nodded to Hans and said, "Start bidding!"