บท 12: Street Glide
"Five hundred, the bid is now 500! I'm going to ask for 600, 600! Anyone willing to accept 600…"
"Me!" Rambis shouted.
"Six hundred dollars, six hundred, how about…"
"Seven hundred!" Hans followed aggressively.
The cowboy nodded before continuing, "Very nice; it looks like the true value of this storage unit has been seen by some people, but 700 dollars is somewhat…"
"Eight hundred" Rambis interrupted.
Without even waiting for the auctioneer, Hans immediately screamed, "One thousand!"
Everyone quickly understood that these two were competing with each other. The other treasure hunters who had also wanted to bid stepped aside, crossed their arms, and enjoyed the show.
As the auctioneer, the old cowboy was all for this type of competition; his commission would be from the total sales value of the entire auction. The higher the bid went, the more his income would be.
Just after Hans gave his bid, Rambis immediately rose his middle finger, shouting, "Eleven hundred!"
"Fifteen hundred!" Hans gnashed his teeth.
There raised a whistle from the crowd. Those who were enjoying the entertainment even started clapping and yelling things like "Cool!" and "Sick!"
During the chaos, Hans gave Li Du a meaningful look.
Li Du understood.
His face immediately changed and he shoved Hans fiercely, "F*ck! You bast*rd! Why are you bidding like this?! Didn't we agree earlier…"
Hans immediately returned the shove. "Shut up, Li! I refuse to return empty-handed, and definitely won't lose to a wimp like Rambis!"
"You will lose all our money!" Li Du raged. "That's not bidding! You are just taking revenge!"
With these two arguing, Rambis also stopped bidding; the auctioneer quickly said, "Fifteen hundred, fifteen hundred dollars. You guys should know that there might be a Harley in this storage, so is there anyone who's willing to bid sixteen hundred, sixteen hundred dollars, anyone?"
"Me," Rambis offered.
At this, Hans patted his pocket, gritted his teeth and released a furious expression. "Two thousand!"
"Oh wow, is Big Fox crazy?" one of the treasure hunters sighed.
Rambis still wanted to increase the bid. Li Du immediately grabbed Hans and yelled at him, "Stop it right now! Come with me!"
Hearing Li Du's words, Rambis didn't raise the price, but instead gestured towards the storage unit and mocked, "Want to leave? You idiots—leave after paying for this pile of trash. Do you want to treasure hunt with your intelligence? You should go hunt for sh*t instead then!"
Meanwhile, the auctioneer continued, "Two thousand two thousand dollars! Anyone for twenty-one hundred?"
Hans looked around at the crowd hopefully; his face was full of regret, and it truly appeared he wished another person would take this unit off his hands. Everyone surrounding the unit shook their heads.
After two more announcements without any response, the auctioneer pointed towards Hans. "Congratulations Big Fox, you have won this precious unit!"
Hans wore a look of extreme frustration, while Rambis and his followers started to laugh. One member of the group even shook his butt at Hans, taunting, "Eat our sh*t, poor bastards!"
After this came the same old routine: they paid the fees, opened the storage unit, and began treasure hunting.
Once again, Hans sifted through everything while Li Du assisted from the side. Hans picked up an electric fan and said, "Let's see if this is still working. If it is, then it should sell for fifty dollars. Of course, I could also give it to you as a prize. Your acting just now was quite good."
Li Du shrugged. "I am, at best, rookie-level; someone who just graduated from the New York Film Academy. Your performance was professional. That last look of frustration was truly golden. I don't think Tom Hanks could do any better!"
Hans and Li Du hadn't actually fought; they were putting up a show earlier.
When the two of them decided to aim for the fifth storage unit, Hans had assumed that Rambis would compete with him. There were also another fifty to sixty people keeping who could have been interested in the storage as well.
Under such circumstances, there was no way Hans could easily win the bid; he decided to set up a trap. The first part of the plan was to lure Rambis into an irrational competition. Once the crowd saw how emotionally Hans was placing his bids, Rambis would "wisely" pull away from the competition, and therefore give up the bidding for the fifth storage.
By then, Rambis also didn't have much money left. He had already won three storage units; the fact that he didn't even try for the fourth unit reflected on his low funds.
That was why Hans raised the price so unreasonably and signaled for Li Du to argue with him. It gave everyone else the feeling that they didn't want the storage unit, but were only competing with Rambis for the sake of winning. When the bidding started to get high, Rambis retreated; he wasn't there to bid for the storage unit, but only wanted to increase Hans's money expenditure.
As a result, Hans and Li Du were able to successfully carry out their bid without any true interference. Spending two thousand dollars on a Harley was quite a bargain.
After clearing out a bunch of unimportant stuff, the space inside the unit became more and more empty until there were only a few boxes left.
Finally, Hans started to get anxious. "Are you sure that the Harley is here?"
Li Du continued his show, hesitantly stating, "I've already said that I'm about fifty percent sure."
When Hans peaked into one of the last boxes, his face broke into an ecstatic expression. "Oh, sh*t! This is a tire! This is a motorcycle tire!"
Li Du also came over, pretending to be excited. As Hans tore the box open, the smell of rubber started to fill the storage area; they soon stared at the bright silver metal ring outlined by the dark black tire.
"Eighteen-inch extra-wide tire with seven-layered chrome-plated Agitator wheel! God! My God! These are the parts for a Harley!" screamed Hans.
His loud voice attracted Rambis's group, who were in the fourth storage unit next door and the third unit right next to that.
After seeing the tire, Hans, who had seemed exhausted just a moment ago, regained all his vigor and quickly tore apart the rest of the packing.
Then, one by one, another tire, handles, an engine, fairings, a seat, and other parts revealed themselves. Bit by bit, the imposing sight of a Harley Street Glide appeared before the crowd.
Seeing this, Rambis angrily spat, "Dammit, this sh*tty guy had some f*cking good luck."
Hans gave him the middle finger. "F*ck off. We spent 2,000 to get a Harley; how much did you guys spend? Seven thousand? Eight thousand? What did you guys get?"
"We've got the first unit which had two Yamahas! Our earnings today will not be any less than yours."
Li Du sneered, "Don't tell me you guys are novices? You didn't notice that the two Yamahas had their engines removed?"
Hearing this, Rambis appeared panicky for a second, but he continued to carry on with his boss act. "Don't listen to this bast*rd, come see them for yourselves."
The third storage unit had two sets of scrapped motorcycles, and their parts could be sold for around two hundred dollars. The second unit was a bit better with a fully custom-assembled bike that was probably worth around five or six hundred.
Rambis and the others came to the long-awaited first unit and showed everyone the two new Yamahas. However, as they uncovered them, they were stumped; they really did have their engines removed!
This was the worst. Motorcycles were costly because of their engines; to put it bluntly, without them, they were worthless.
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