888 Everyone’s Gain
"Tens of thousands? Los Angeles house prices are not high." Li Du had believed it would cost more than a hundred thousand dollars to buy a small building in this county.
"It's not a villa, it's just a country apartment. You see it's so far away from downtown Los Angeles, it's so cheap, a developer can build hundreds of them out of a piece of paper," said Hans.
Indeed, Bell's family was a long way from downtown Los Angeles. They were driving pickup trucks on smooth roads at a speed of at least 80 kilometers per hour, and it took more than half an hour to get there.
Bell's house would be very busy. Starting tomorrow, almost all of his guests would be present.
Li Du called Bell and when they got out of the car, he stood waving at them from his door.
"Welcome and let me introduce you to some new friends, old friends, and people who you aren't friends with. For the sake of my reputation, please don't leave the moment you walk in," Bell laughed.
Li Du and Hans repeatedly asked why they would do so, but after they walked inside they really did want to turn back.
Princeps and Conrad were sitting in the courtyard chatting, and Bell invited the two over.
Luckily, there were many acquaintances at the event. The magician and the Playboy were also in the yard playing table tennis.
Bell patted Li Du on the shoulder and said, "Have fun but don't drink too much. I organized a party for the evening."
Hans laughed. "Don't worry, Chris. Li is the biggest drinker in Arizona."
They were joking, and Princeps heard them and said, "Did you hear what our buddy boss said? Li is America's number one drinker and he's going to out drink everyone tonight.
This was a misinterpretation of Hans's words, and apparently, Princeps was looking for trouble.
Li Du looked at him and asked, "Hey, are you really going to pick a fight in Chris's house?"
At this, Princeps was being perfectly honest. But he was rolling his eyes and whispering something to Conrad, probably planning to do something bad.
Bell had invited a considerable number of treasure collectors, about 20 to 30, to the event, but he had a large yard in which people could stay under parasols.
Li Du walked to the pool table. The Magic Hand handed him the cue. "Have a shot?"
The Playboy laughed, "You can think of the ball as those two *ssholes: they are the same."
"I can't play table tennis. I can play basketball," said Li Du casually when he saw there were no basketball stands in Bell's yard.
At his words, Bell's eyes lit up. "Hey Li, do you like playing basketball?"
Seeing his face, Li Du knew that things were not right, but he could not change what he had just said. "I like it, but my abilities are limited."
"It doesn't matter," Bell said. "You can come to our basketball game tomorrow. Believe me, you'll love it then."
"But I'm not good at it," Li Du said weakly.
Bell patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's okay. Your teammates won't mind your abilities. They'll be able to bully their opponents even if we give them a dog as a team member."
The Playboy laughed, "Hey Chris, you're insulting Li."
Bell laughed. "Then I'll toast him tonight and apologize for my mistake."
Hans was curious. "Who did you invite? A basketball star?"
"You'll know tomorrow. Have fun today." Bell winked at him.
After Li Du and the others arrived the next day, the rest of the people arrived gradually. When the last person arrived, there were over forty people—the team was quite large.
From the identity of the treasure collectors he'd invited, they could see his contacts in the industry. Those who participated in the activity were all the heroes in the warehousing auction industry—at least One Hundred Thousand Dollar Club members.
The treasure collectors were mainly from California and the neighboring Arizona, where Li Du was popular because he'd picked on Boll and York.
Frank Boll had mania, and he had offended a lot of people in California, and the reason why California treasure collectors were hostile to Li Du in the past was that they were low-level treasure hunters.
Boll had offended the treasure collectors of his level, the low-level ones who, instead of provoking him, were on good terms with him.
The topic of the chat was the government warehouse auction, which had happened not long ago.
Needless to say, Li Du had harvested the most out of everyone, and they found several tons of India black tea bricks that cost millions of dollars.
Besides, the magician had gained a lot.
In the warehouses, he'd photographed a 40-year-old Yamaha motorcycle and an antique car that had great potential in the motorcycle collection market and was worth millions.
Bell got a couple of fancy yacht engines, which together could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Chatting about their harvest, someone asked Princeps, "Hey, buddy, you got a lot of warehouses. What goods did you snag? How about telling us?"
Princeps smirked. "I haven't had time to sort out the goods. Oh, I mean, it's my men who are going to take care of it."
"Your men? Aren't you now working under others too?" joked the Playboy.
Princeps glared at him. "Hey, this is not a good place for conflict. We are all guests of Chris."
Neither Conrad nor Princeps had gained much at the auction, and they didn't want to be a joke, so Conrad expanded on the subject, saying, "I didn't care about this auction because I got a bunch of North Korean veteran badges from Tucson."
"What's the use of that?"
Conrad wore an exaggerated expression. "What's the use? That's North Korea, man, mysterious North Korea! Have any of you been to North Korea? None of you, except the North Korean soldiers' badges!"
"There are fifty-two badges. I traveled around Tucson for ten days and then made 800,000 dollars," said Princeps.
Conrad glanced defiantly at Li Du and asked, "Man, I heard your business has expanded to Australia. What did you get there?"
Princeps smiled. "There must be a lot of good stuff. He's been there for more than half a year."
"I got a helicopter. But my main auction, the mine, was a good one. I found gems, and they were estimated to be worth tens of millions," said Li Du casually.