The four little ones picked grapes just because it was fun. After Li Du encouraged them, they felt it was even more fun and worked even harder.
In this way, Li Du could not go fishing. He had to stay here with the four little ones.
After two days on Turtle Island, he and Steve talked a lot. Li Du gained a lot of experience from Steve's experience of buying an island, which should be useful when buying Seagull Island in the future.
Two days later, they returned to Sydney and went their separate ways.
Steve flew back to the United States, while Li Du and his party stayed in Australia to wait for Ivana's postoperative treatment.
In the meantime, he did not waste any time. He flew to Tasmania and sent some information to Bull Stuart and Tony Theodore.
After another ten days, Ivana's postoperative treatment was over and she could return to the United States for recuperation.
The little girl still had to wear a veil, but she could accept taking it off when there were no outsiders.
Admittedly, she still looked terrible. Her face was covered with gauze, and under the gauze were knife cuts and many stitches. She looked like a broken rag doll.
However, she looked much better than before. At least her facial features were formed. After constant application of ointment on her skin, the scars began to fade, and she looked like the cute little girl she used to be.
Sophie gave her a gift. It was a blonde hair with the same texture and hairstyle as Ivana's. After putting on the wig, Ivana's mood improved even more.
At first, Li Du's plan was to let Brother Wolf and Sophie take Ivana back to the United States for recuperation. He had to stay here and continue to preside over the black opal excavation.
Because he wanted to buy Seagull Island, he needed a lot of money. The black opal mine in Lightning Ridge was the fastest way to get money. According to his estimates, the gems in the mines around the number 122 mine were worth tens of millions of dollars.
As a result, he soon discovered that this path was not working. He wanted to sell the black opal to his own Harry Winston group. As the saying went, one should keep one's goodies in one's own field.
However, Cole did not have enough cash to buy it, so he could only pay for it with shares. He did not want to continue selling shares, at least not now.
In this way, the black opal that Li Du dug up would have to be sold to other luxury companies.
Black opal was very popular in the international market. If he wanted to sell it, there would always be people willing to buy it.
But considering that these luxury companies were competitors of the Harry Winston group, and that the Harry Winston group was preparing to launch a new line of opal-themed jewelry, if he sold a large number of black opals, it would drive down the value of the jewelry line.
After thinking about it, Li Du suspended the sale of black opals. He let Aubrey and the others continue to mine, but kept all the gems dug out and did not sell them for the time being.
He made this consideration not only because he had to think about Harry Winston, but also because Hans told him about a new money-making opportunity.
Government storage auction!
In early July, the Arizona state government was preparing to auction off property confiscated by state agencies in the past six months. The location would be Phoenix. At that time, there would be a grand government warehouse auction.
Li Du had heard of such auctions when he was in Flagstaff. This was the grandest event in the storage auction industry and would attract a large number of treasure hunters.
For various reasons, local governments, police stations, and banks would confiscate large amounts of property. Some were obtained from illegal items, some were confiscated after borrowers were unable to repay their loans, and some were lost items.
There were two ways to dispose of illegal gains. If it was something that could pose a threat to social stability, the police would destroy it. If it was not a threat to society, they would hand it over to the government for auction.
There were also two ways to dispose of houses, cars, jewelry, and other items confiscated by banks. One was to auction them, and if the auction was unsuccessful, they would be stored in a warehouse.
Government warehouse auctions mainly dealt with items collected from these two ways. Although these items were not accepted at open auction, it did not mean that they were all trash.
On the contrary, there were a lot of treasures and valuable goods in them, but it was a test of people's foresight.
Hans said, "Every government warehouse auction produces multimillionaires. Some people have found old cars, some have found boxes of jewelry, and some have found — a lot of dog poop!"
"Why don't we go back to this auction, Li? With your foresight and my good luck, we might be able to make a lot of money."
Li Du looked at him suspiciously. "There's nothing wrong with my foresight, but what about your good luck?"
Hans puffed out his chest. "I feel insulted. Of course my luck is good. Is there any doubt?"
"There are many questions." Li Du rolled his eyes. "If we rely on your luck to participate in the warehouse auction, who knows how long we will starve to death!"
Hans pondered for a moment and smiled. "That seems to be true. We can't rely on luck to pick up treasures."
At the end of June, Li Du shipped the Mi-8 helicopter back to the United States by sea, and the group took a plane from Sydney to Los Angeles.
At this time, Los Angeles was about to enter summer. The sun was blazing and the wind was warm. Hans got off the plane and immediately opened his arms. Li Du asked, "Are you going to kneel again?"
The last time they returned to the United States from China, when they got off the plane in Los Angeles, this guy had directly knelt down. Li Du remembered this incident clearly.
Hans snorted. "I'm not an idiot. Why would I do that?"
After a short stay in Los Angeles, they continued to take the plane to Phoenix. This journey was relatively short, and Hans and the others were finally home.
Compared to Los Angeles, Phoenix, the desert furnace, had completely entered summer. As soon as Li Du walked out of the plane, a hot gust of wind hit him in the face, and he immediately broke out in a layer of sweat.
Not long ago, on Seagull Island, they were shivering in the cold at night. Now that they were in Phoenix, they were sweating from the heat. The two extremes made them uncomfortable.
Hans got off the plane and knelt down with a thud. He prostrated himself on the ground and kissed the ground with his lips. He shouted, "Ah, my Arizona, I'm back!"
The surrounding passengers pointed at them, and Sophie and the others were embarrassed. Only Li Du was calm and unperturbed.
Hans did not care about the looks of the passengers. He got up happily and breathed hard. "The air in my hometown is sweeter. I feel like my lungs are cheering."
Lu Guan said, "Big Fox, this is an airport. Every day, planes emit a lot of exhaust with excessive metal elements. You should be careful not to get lung disease."
Brother Wolf, Godzilla, and Big Quinn all laughed and nodded in agreement.
When they arrived in Phoenix, Li Du and the others did not return to Flagstaff but stayed there.
Sophie went to contact the nursing home to take care of Ivana, and the others checked into the Steampunk Hotel to prepare for the auction that would be held soon.
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