Li Du knew this and knew that it was useless to drive these people away. He could use force against these young men, he could teach them a lesson, but he could not get rid of them by killing them, right?
As long as these young men were alive, they would come back to blackmail Uncle Hua sooner or later, and there would be a storm of vengeance waiting for him, even fiercer than before.
Instead of hitting them, he paced slowly towards them, thinking along the way about how he could deal with them.
The youngsters watched him approach with sullen faces, their anger in their hearts melting fast like snow and being replaced by fear and resentment against the restaurant owner.
They decided in their hearts that whatever torments they suffered today, they would pay back twice as much to this damned Chinese restaurant in the future!
Li Du glanced at the young men, and then his eyes lit up.
On the leading young manʼs neck there was a string of fangs, belonging either to a dog or a wolf. The quality of the material was not bad. The size of the beast's teeth was large, and the tooth enamel was somewhat worn and had yellow stains under the light.
Seeing this set of teeth, Li Du asked, "Eh, where did you get this set of the Bite of Anubis?"
Before that, the space-time bugs flew to the teeth and absorbed some of the energy of time.
The young menʼs eyes followed and looked at the string of teeth on their leader's neck. The young man shrunk his neck and said, "What? What is the bite of Anubis?"
Li Du coughed and said, "No, it is just a bunch of dogʼs teeth on your neck."
"These are not dogʼs teeth. These are wolfʼs teeth." The leading young man added, "I got them from my father. Why?"
He looked down at the bundle of fangs that he had snatched from the hands of a streetwalker. He felt that this thing looked hideous and had a hint of cruel beauty, so he had seized it and worn it around his neck.
He didn't pay much attention to it usually, since he has been wearing it for a long time. At this point when he looked back, this string of fangs looked pretty old and seemed to be assembled many years ago.
Li Du said in a casual tone, "Oh, well, I like it, so how about you give it to me? You do that, and we will let bygones be bygones."
The youngsters were pretty smart, and Li Du showed a strong intention of hiding something in his words, so they all judged this set of fangs must have something special about it at once.
In particular, they knew the identity of Li Du. When they had a conflict on the harbor, Li Du said he was an antique relic appraiser. So when they now heard Li Du saying that the string of fangs was the Bite of Anubis, the young men's minds were suddenly activated.
A bald young man whispered, "The bite of Anubis? What is that?"
"I don't know what it means, but I know Anubis, the Wolf god of Egypt!" said another young man, in the same low voice. "Damn it, this is an antique!"
Li Du heard them and laughed as he said, "It is not an antique. It is just a bunch of dog's teeth. Give it to me, man, and I'll let you go!"
The leading young man put a hand over the string of fangs, looked at him cautiously and said, "No, I won't give it to you. We don't owe you anything. I got this from my father, and if you try to snatch it away I will call the police!"
Li Du waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I won't snatch it from you. How about if I buy it? A hundred dollars?"
The young man shook his head hard. "No, I am not selling it. This is something my father passed down to me. It is a family heirloom!"
Li Du said, "How about ten thousand dollars? You sell it to me, and you can come and find me for help if you ever have any trouble. Is that okay?"
His gesture made the young men more alert and more clearly aware of the value of the teeth.
Li Du continued to raise the price, which directly came up to a hundred thousand dollars. Some of the young men whispered, "Boss, sell it. One hundred thousand dollars, dammit!"
The leader snapped, "Shut up. It is my family heirloom. I won't sell it."
The young man who wanted to sell it cried, "This is not any bullshit heirloom, boss, this is clearly…"
"Shut up, it is worth more than a hundred thousand dollars, you idiot." The young man next to him gave him a shove.
Li Du said regretfully, "You won't sell it for one hundred thousand dollars? What about two hundred thousand? I think you have noticed it too. It could be a relic, but I have not identified it yet. It just feels a bit like it. It might even be a fake piece…"
"Whatever it is, I am not going to sell it," the leading youth shook his head firmly.
Li Du sneered and said, "It's okay if you don't want to sell it. I know what you are planning; you want to go out to sell it at a high price. I might as well tell you the truth, you bastard, that this Anubis Bite is not something that anyone can identify or would be willing to buy. I just happen to need it, and it is worthless in the hands of an undiscerning person. You had better sell it to me!"
"No, I am not going to sell it." The firm attitude of the leading youth has grown stronger.
With a sigh of regret, Li Du took out several business cards and handed them to the other young men, looking at them meaningfully and said, "This is my contact information. Anyone who manages to get this string of the Bite of Anubis can contact me, and I will give him a satisfactory price."
It was a clever move. That was how he did things!
The leading young man also understood his meaning, and the greedy eyes of some of his cronies made him realize the threat.
He wanted to take away all the business cards, but Brother Wolf gave him a stare which scared him. The other youths took the business cards after hesitating a while.
After they took over the business cards, Li Du nodded to Brother Wolf. Brother Wolf moved away to let them pass, and the young men dashed out like a swarm of bees.
They had an argument no sooner than they left the restaurant. "Give me all the business cards, all of them!"
"Sell the fangs, boss.""Yes, it is two hundred thousand. We could negotiate for the price of five hundred thousand!"
"Don't even think about it. I have something in mind. You all just listen to me."
"Boss, let's just sell it, we can get a big amount of money even if we split it between us.""That's right, boss, I am broke, let's quickly sell it and split the money."
"Stop talking, goddamn it. Give me this card, come on, what do you want to have it in your hands? I have my own ideas about dealing with this matter. It is my stuff, so don't get confused…"
"F**k, Jackson, what do you mean? What do you mean, you bastard? Is this yours? We took it away together from a street man."
"I was the one who actually snatched it!""Yeah, Larry took it, and I spotted it, Jackson, this is not yours…"
The group of people went further, the sounds faded, and the last few words were inaudible.
Although Li Du could not hear their voices anymore, he knew what would happen. Li Qi and the others knew it as well. The relationship between these few gangsters would be broken!
Yang Dong asked, "Boss, what is the Bite of Anubis?"
Li Du said, "Who knows what it is? I just said the first thing that popped into my head."
Yang Dong felt suspicious and said, "But you said you wanted to give him two hundred thousand… Oh, I understand what is going on now!"
Li Qi shook his head, laughed and said. "You only understand it now? No wonder you couldn't get a master's degree."