Chapter 554: The World’s Too Small
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As Li Du stood at the entrance of the small garden, Ah Ow scratched her claws against the fence and howled, "Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!"
She could not wiggle through the fence as the gaps were small; probably to prevent animals such as puppies, wild cats, raccoons, and rats from entering.
Li Du carried her in. The moment she entered the garden, she dashed to the front of the kennel, opened her mouth and howled non-stop.
In one leap, Ah Meow landed deftly on the fence and struck a graceful pose. He then dropped to the ground soundlessly, and with two quick steps followed by a leap, ended up on the roof of the kennel.
Hans and the rest crowded around and asked, "The *sshole is here?"
Tilting his chin toward the kennel, Li Du said, "Just look at Ah Ow. She's been chasing him."
After he spoke, he then shouted in the direction of the kennel. "Hey buddy, come on out. It must be quite suffocating to be hiding in there. Isn't it sort of pointless?"
It was quiet in the kennel; only Ah Ow's howling could be heard.
Li Du got impatient and said, "Don't force us to call the police."
Ah Ow had a valiant character by nature, and so after prolonged howling, she decided to spring into the kennel instead.
Seeing that, Li Du got anxious and yelled, "Ah Ow, get out! Ah Meow, go protect her!"
If Ah Ow were the age of an adult wolf then he wouldn't be worried—a Mexican wolf dealing with a young man would be child's play. Ah Ow was only three months old and so was still considered a young pup.
Even so, the young pup would not be easy to deal with. After she had wriggled in, moaning could be heard coming from inside the kennel. "Sh*t, don't bite me! Get lost!"
Ah Meow jumped into the kennel from the top, while Crispy Noodles struggled to climb up the fence and then jump down to join his buddies in battle.
The flustered young man hurriedly ran out from the kennel. Hans was furious upon seeing him. He jumped over the fence and was about to give the young man a thrashing.
Li Du stopped him; this young man did not look like a bad person. Just now, when he was bitten by Ah Ow and Ah Meow, he had only cursed at them and did not hit them.
The young man's jersey was torn and there was a big gaping hole in his pants near the buttocks. He stretched his hand back to touch it—his hand was stained with blood!
"D*mn it, will I catch the rabies virus?" he whimpered.
"You deserve it," Li Du said coldly. "Why did you steal our ball?"
Surrounded by a group of fierce-looking men in the garden, the young man could neither escape nor hide. He could only admit truthfully, "Sorry, I really like Wade, and when I saw his signature on the ball, I couldn't resist taking it with me."
"Then since I like Angelina Jolie a lot, can I just take her away?" Hans snapped.
Ah Ow stood upright as she rolled the basketball along. She looked like a lion with her front claws placed on the basketball.
The basketball was not damaged. Hans quickly grabbed it. "Should we call the police?"
"Don't, don't, don't!" the petrified young man pleaded. "Guys, don't call the police. Let me off just this once. Like all of you, I'm just a basketball lover."
"Don't push the blame for something like this on being a basketball lover," Dickens said, shaking his head.
Li Du felt like there was no need to give this young man a hard time. First, he hadn't caused any damage. Second, his motive wasn't purely to rob. He had definitely done it out of his love for a basketball with his idol's autograph.
If they were to lodge a police report, it would be classified as a case of robbery. The young man would get into trouble and would surely be jailed.
In addition, if not for this young man stealing the ball, he wouldn't have discovered the set of National Geographic magazines. Based on these few reasons, he didn't harbor that much animosity toward this young man.
Seeing Li Du was not planning to pursue the matter, Hans remained indignant and said, "Count yourself lucky to have met my soft-hearted buddy. Get lost—go and buy each of us a bottle of Gatorade. D*mn, I sweated a ton just chasing you!"
The young man quickly ran off to buy them beverages; he then brought a whole box of Gatorade back for them.
At this point, he had realized he had committed a grave mistake—robbery was considered a criminal case!
With the ball and beverage in hand, they returned to their game of basketball.
Later, Hans got busy contacting the Hopi for the sale of the siege tower. The price had been fixed. All they needed to do was to help send it back.
Li Du had expected the Hopi to bring with them items like hunting knives and coffins to barter with. In the end, they brought money with them. Evidently, they used money, unlike the Amish who were absolutely constrained to bartering.
Having sold the siege tower for 30,000 US dollars, Hans then went to contact others to sell the valuable autographed sports equipment off.
Li Du, however, was more interested in the storage unit with the magazines; the full set of National Geographic magazines in it was a precious collector's item and he was keen on buying and keeping it.
Although these magazines were in the storage unit, they were someone's personal belongings. He didn't want to resort to underhanded means to get ahold of them but was planning to buy them over at a reasonable price.
He had fixed the price at a million dollars. Spending a million dollars on a set of magazines sounded crazy. After all, this sum of money could be used to buy a high-end villa in Flagstaff.
However, to him, this set of magazines was worth this much.
He had done some research on the Internet; the inaugural issue of National Geographic was worth 400,000 dollars, while the issues from the 19th century were also very rare, and equally valuable. In addition, the entire 20th-century set could be sold for about 400,000 dollars.
Therefore, he felt that a million dollars was a reasonable estimate.
When he had discovered the publications, the house attached to the storage unit was empty. The next day, he drove over to visit. Upon knocking on the door, he found out that there was someone in the house this time.
Before this, he had arranged for Lu Guan to find out more about the neighborhood near the sports arena. Lu Guan, who was a know-it-all, got ahold of all the information to do with the storage unit's owner in no time.
The storage unit was owned by a Chalmers Diamond, an insurance salesman.
This storage unit was originally not his but had belonged to an uncle of his. His uncle had passed away two years ago, and Chalmers had inherited both the house and storage units.
Li Du also got Lu Guan to check his uncle's background. As these magazines were very valuable, so his uncle must have been someone of importance to amass such a collection of magazines.
The explanation turned out to be both unexpected but yet reasonable: Chalmers's uncle, the elderly Diamond, was just an ordinary elderly man but had probably collected these precious magazines from his former jobs at various libraries and bookstores.
He knocked. Someone came to the door and asked, "Who is it?"
Li Du smiled. "Hello. How are you, sir . . . " He hadn't finished his words but he wasn't able to continue.
It was a stranger who had opened the door. He looked well-mannered and bright-eyed. Wearing a smile, he gave the impression of being a smart man.
There was another person behind him. That person looked sullen, and had a plastered arm in a sling hanging off his shoulder. He walked with a limp and was familiar to him—it was Dog Ears Rick!
Li Du was flabbergasted to see Rick here. How could he possibly bump into this guy here? Flagstaff was really way too small a place.
Flagstaff was indeed a small place; with only 20,000 people in the town, the probability of him bumping into someone he knew was actually quite high.