Chapter 99: Good Temper Brings Wealth

“Can you tell me what exactly happened?”

“My father went to South America last year to work as a peacekeeping police officer and was scammed. He bought me a crystal cube, claiming it could cure my headache. But it was completely useless.”

“Your headache is still not better? You should have listened to me and gone to the United States for treatment.”

Imanka asked with concern. She knew that Du Qiu had a severe headache, and the cause had never been diagnosed.

One of the reasons she urged Du Qiu to go abroad years ago was to get treatment for his headache in the United States.

Imanka never expected that the reason Du Qiu’s father bought that crystal cube from South America was for such a purpose.

In fact, Imanka wasn’t quite clear on the true reason why Walkerson wanted to obtain this crystal cube.

She had overheard Walkerson’s phone conversation by chance. It seemed that some important figure was demanding that he must acquire the item.

Walkerson had arranged for her to come to Magic City in the hope of using her exceptional thieving skills to steal the crystal cube.

Imanka had initially gained Walkerson’s favor, becoming his secretary, by the merit of a successful operation in acquiring an important government document.

In fact, it was just an arrangement by Nesta.

The reason Walkerson gave her was that a patron of Natural Force liked this item as a collectible and they must succeed in obtaining it to get a large amount of funding.

“It has never gotten better.”

Du Qiu’s voice brought Imanka back to the present, and she asked, “Does this crystal cube have something to do with Walkerson?”

Du Qiu shook his head and said, “I don’t know. Your boss Walkerson first sent mercenaries to try and steal it and failed, then he sent corporate spies.

Fortunately, I come from a family of police and my friends helped me catch both groups.

They confessed that your boss had sent them, so tell me, with someone like him, do you still want to work under him?”

Imanka made a shocked expression and said, “Oh my God, such things really happened? That’s terrible!”

“Yes, if you like environmental protection, you can join other environmental organizations. Working for such a person, it may be too late if something happens.”

Imanka nodded and said, “You are right. I will resign after I return this time.”

She had already received Nesta’s approval, and her undercover work infiltrating Natural Force would automatically end. She would return to the Langley headquarters for her work.

Thus, Imanka smoothly brought up her resignation.

Du Qiu nodded and said, “If you can listen to me, that’s good.”

“By the way, what are you going to do with your crystal cube? Walkerson is a very persistent person, he may still send people for it.”

“Do you also think he’s persistent?” Du Qiu frowned, “Can you do me a favor?”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Could you convey a message to Walkerson for me, asking if he’s willing to pay for my crystal cube?”

“You want to sell it?”

Du Qiu nodded and said, “Yeah, since Walkerson wants it so badly, it must be either very important to him or he really likes it.

Moreover, according to my father’s description, this item is a relic from the Mayan civilization, it should be worth a lot of money.

Now that I’ve started a company and am a bit short on funds, if he’s willing to pay ten million dollars, I’ll sell it to him.”

“Ten million dollars! Isn’t that too expensive?”

Imanka was surprised at Du Qiu’s asking price, even though she had seen that Walkerson seemed to value the crystal cube, he never thought of buying it with money.

After all, according to him, he planned to use the item to exchange for funding from the patrons.

“Is it expensive? This is a relic of Mayan civilization! You know, the cultural relics of our country from the same period easily go for tens of millions of dollars at international auctions. He must recognize the value of this item since he’s so keen on it.”

“I can convey your message, but whether he’s willing to pay, or to pay that much, we’ll have to wait for his response.”

Du Qiu waved his hand and said, “It’s fine, just let him know. But make it clear—if he doesn’t want to spend the money and still tries to obtain it illegally, I won’t be polite to him.

There’s a saying in Tang Country: Friends are welcomed with good wine; bandits with a shotgun!”

At these words, a trace of fierceness appeared in Du Qiu’s eyes, “My business is doing well now, and I can afford to hire mercenaries.

However, as a businessman, Tang Country’s merchants believe in ‘good temper brings wealth’, and I don’t want to make enemies. This is why I’m willing to sell the cube to him.

Otherwise, given that this was a legacy left by my father, I would certainly cherish it and not sell it at all.”

“Alright, I will definitely deliver your message.”

Imanka then asked with concern, “Has your father passed away?”

“Yeah, it was the big earthquake in South America two months ago that took his life.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

“It’s okay, it’s all in the past now.”

++++++++

After meeting with Du Qiu at his company, Imanka and he had dinner together.

Because they had drinks, Du Qiu called a designated driver to take her back to the hotel, but he did not go upstairs with her.

Imanka returned to her room somewhat disappointed. She could tell that Du Qiu no longer had feelings for her and considered her just a friend.

After washing up, Imanka sat at the table and opened her laptop.

She logged into a secret website using a certain software on her laptop, and a chat interface appeared.

“Mr. Walkerson, I’ve met with the target Du Qiu directly. He suggested that he’s willing to sell the crystal cube.”

“Sell it? How much does he want?”

“He’s asking for ten million dollars.”

“He really dares to ask for such amount. With that much money, our organization would be left with almost nothing. By the way, haven’t you been able to steal it?”

“As reported to you earlier, there are definitely security personnel hidden around Du Qiu. Also, today I found that his anti-theft system is very advanced; I have no confidence in stealing it.”

“It seems that after failing twice, not only have security personnel been alerted, but he has also become wary.”

“Mr. Walkerson, he asked me to tell you that Tang Country’s merchants believe in ‘good temper brings wealth’, although he knows that you have attempted twice to obtain the crystal cube, he still doesn’t want to hold grudges against you.”

“Tang Country’s merchant? Isn’t he just a recent Ph.D. graduate?”

“No, he already owns a promising company and is well-known in Tang Country. Many newspapers here have reported on him.”

“Ha, has this little fellow grown up?”

“He also said that if you harass him again with illegal means, he wouldn’t mind hiring mercenaries to deal with you, as he can afford it.”

“…”

Imanka waited for a while but Walkerson still did not reply.

After thinking, Imanka typed a message.

“Mr. Walkerson, those reports say that Du Qiu’s company could be profiting billions this year, meaning he’ll be a billionaire soon.

He said the crystal cube is an heirloom left by his father. If you won’t pay for it, as a relic of Mayan civilization, he plans to keep it for himself.”

“Agree to it! When you deal with Du Qiu, bring Shadow Wolf with you. He has a way to authenticate the crystal cube. I don’t want to spend money on a fake from Tang Country.”

“Understood. And the funds?”

“Shadow Wolf will transfer the money to Du Qiu after verifying the goods on-site.”

“Got it. So, is my mission over?”

“Yes, you can come back after that.”

“Oh, I’ll wait until the Yangtze River Mouth environmental survey project is finished before returning. It’s meaningful and I like doing it.”

“Then consider it a vacation. Take care of yourself.”

After finishing the conversation with Walkerson, Imanka breathed a sigh of relief and restarted her computer.

The moment the computer booted up, she pressed an ‘S’ key, and the system subsequently entered a primitive DOS window state.

She began entering a series of strange letter combinations that looked like none of them were English words.

Once the typing was finished, Imanka finally closed her laptop.

This was a special intelligence transmission channel of the US GIA, which exploited a certain base module of the operating system.

This channel was part of the famously robust Prism system, and the US operating systems originally had a function to collect user information and feed it back to the US headquarters.

The information on this channel could hardly be intercepted or decrypted unless completely disconnected from the internet.

This was one of the United States’ greatest tools for maintaining control over the world.

The only thing that bothered Imanka was that this method was one-way; she couldn’t receive instructions from her superiors.

When carrying out secret missions abroad, she couldn’t directly contact her handler, Nesta; she had to wait until she returned to her home country for that.

What Imanka didn’t know was that just a few days earlier, Nesta had the misfortune of encountering one of the most startling sights in the United States—a street shooting—and was shot dead by an armed criminal without warning.

For the time being, she was now out of contact.