Chapter 713: The Australian Dumpster Diving Master
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This saying indicated that in ancient times, professions could be divided out into at least 360 different ones. The number had grown in recent times.
There were also 360 professions in the US. Li Du's storage auction, old goods trading, and gem hunting were among the more niche professions.
He liked to refer to his main business of storage auction as "junk hunting." In fact, this was just a self-deprecating term; there were junk hunting professions in the US.
Dumpster diving was one such profession—an extremely niche profession.
The United States was the highest trash-producing country in the world. Dumpster diving was a popular profession; the homeless folks everywhere and the poor from the slums engaged in this profession.
Dumpster diving masters originated from these people. As the name suggested, they were masters of dumpster diving, and there were many such people in big American cities.
"They are generally alternative collectors," Hans said. "They look for something worth collecting from the garbage dump and then put them in their own collection rooms. Many of them are millionaires."
Li Du said, "Collectors? They pick up trash just to collect?"
Hans shrugged. "Otherwise, why would they be called 'masters?' Some people call them 'trash artists.' In short, they are different from the other trash collectors."
These people would collect the valuable items that they gathered from the rubbish heap. Something that was "valuable" might not be worth money, but often approximately worth money.
Some of the dumpster diving masters were aged. They reminisced about their younger days and would scan the streets and garbage dumps to find things that were related to their youth, such as some old photos and furniture.
Some dumpster diving masters were immigrants who collected things related to their hometown and their own cultures, such as the Indian dumpster diving masters, the Japanese dumpster diving masters, and those with the highest number—the Chinese dumpster diving master.
The dumpster diving master's home about to be auctioned belonged to the latter category. He was a rarely-seen Australian dumpster diving master. The old man had immigrated to Los Angeles more than 30 years ago. His yearning for his hometown had grown gradually. And so, he'd started to feverishly collect items to do with his hometown.
They didn't have much money, and couldn't go to the grocery stores or shops to buy such items. They also could not visit auctions to buy them, and mainly depended on pick-ups from garbage dumps and trash cans.
Lu Guan had called them to come back because this dumpster diving master was very extraordinary. He lived in a villa estate and owned a villa. A dumpster diving master of such a caliber would usually have a lot of prized items.
Li Du had been home for quite a while already and so after discussing with Hans, they decided to return. According to their itinerary, their first location upon entering the United States was LA—it was on the way.
When Mr. Mrs. Li had learned that he wanted to return to the United States, they didn't stop him, although they were reluctant to part with him.
After all, Li Du had been home for more than two months already. They didn't miss him as much as they used to. Besides, he was going back to further his studies and build his career—they understood his needs.
Two days before parting, Mr. and Mrs. Li had whipped up many sumptuous feasts, so that he could enjoy a few more home-cooked meals.
Of course, those who stood to gain the most were Godzilla and Big Quinn. How much could Li Du eat by himself? The two of them had eaten the most.
However, he'd brought with him many things from his hometown: his mother's homemade meat sauce, egg sauce, the pickled vegetables made by his father, smoked sausages, and all kinds of special seasonings.
He deposited these things in the little bug's black space. This was about three cubic feet, which was sufficient for hiding many things.
In the first ten days of March, the weather in his hometown had become warmer. He bade his parents farewell and got into the car bound for the provincial capital. He then flew to Hongkong from the airport there before taking a connecting flight to LA.
On the way, he learned about the dumpster diving masters in the US. Not many people belonged to this industry, but all of them had their personalities and so were very famous.
The most famous dumpster diving master in the US was Vince Pluto. He lived in Austin, Texas and had built a cathedral out of rubbish.
Vince Pluto was a priest and had been evangelizing in Spain when he was young. For health reasons, he left the church and went back to his hometown in Texas.
About 20 years ago, Texas was in a depression. Many young people had left the city and left behind a lot of trash. The government had appealed to the public to address the issue.
Inspired by the city's trash, Pluto thought of reusing them. Recalling the church models that he'd seen in his youth, and the architectural books that he'd read during his illness, he developed the idea of building a church with the city's trash.
After that, he began his ten-year journey of amassing trash.
During the period, Pluto had collected a lot of trash that he could use for building the church, and then both classified and numbered it. About ten years ago, he started the building work and had finished it in one go.
Li Du read the introduction to the Pluto Cathedral. He filled the empty gasoline tank with cement to be used as the foundation of the church's stone column. He recycled iron and old cartons as auxiliary building materials and decorated the church with lots of colored glass—it was magnificent-looking.
The items to be auctioned off this time was from a dumpster diving master by the name of Viktor. No one remembered his surname; neighbors in the villa estate referred to him as "Stubborn Viktor."
The old man had come to LA more than 30 years ago. He followed his uncle when he emigrated. When he'd first come, he was still a young man and his uncle was his only relative.
Later, his uncle died and left him a huge inheritance, including this villa next to the LA botanical gardens.
Viktor missed Australia very much, but for some unknown reason, he never went back. He stayed in LA and increased his sense of belonging by searching for trash from his hometown.
Collecting trash in an upmarket villa was something the other residents could not tolerate. It was, after all, considered an exclusive residential area.
So, at first, the neighbors had come knocking to negotiate. Viktor ignored them and so the neighbors complained to the property company. Viktor was still nonchalant and so they reported it to the police. Viktor still refused to cooperate.
This was how he got the nickname "Stubborn Viktor."
After 30 years of having obstinately grown his collection, Viktor had collected many things to be stored in his villa – turning the huge villa into a "big garbage dump."
Not long ago, Viktor had died in his sleep. According to his will, his villa and his collection over the years had been donated to a charity that assisted immigrants from Australia: "Kind Australians."
Kind Australians had decided to auction off the items in the villa house before selling the house.
When they had entered the villa for a look, they found that the collection was neither works of art nor other valuable items. Most of it was domestic waste and had hardly any value.
Under the suggestion of professional organizations, they decided to conduct an old-house style auction and took pictures of the items in all the rooms in the villa.
However, their auction was slightly different from the old-house style auction. They were going to auction each of the rooms individually as units.