Chapter 248: Doctor Hans
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Now that the gun was out of the way, Avril’s family members approached her.
Hans blocked them so they wouldn’t come too near. He hugged Avril by the shoulder like good friends do, and led her to the entrance of unit 19.
"Come, talk to your family, and tell them what you think of Adam," Hans said.
"Who’s Adam?" Avril asked. "My beloved storage unit is called Benjamin!"
"Oh yeah, I got mixed up. Previously I had a friend who named his house Adams," Hans quickly corrected his error. "Anyway Avril, have a good talk with them, don’t do such a drastic thing again."
Avril looked rather dejected at the suggestion. "I want to talk, but trust me—they don’t want to talk about it!"
Hans said, "I’ll warn them, don’t worry. I’m here to help—they have to talk this over with you."
Hans turned to Mr. Larry. "Give me the storage unit keys please."
Mr. Larry was full of grat.i.tude, and, at the same time, in awe of Hans’s guts and quick thinking. He handed the keys over and consulted Hans, "Young man, how should we handle this?"
Hans said, "First, you have to remember that this is your daughter, a member of your family, a gift that G.o.d sent to you!
"Next, you need to know that what she wants would not hurt anyone. Do not use authoritarian means to handle the matter. I mean, you should communicate with her more."
"But she doesn’t want to communicate," Avril’s brother commented. "She’s refused to listen."
"What’s wrong with you, brother?" Hans frowned. "She will never listen if you use this kind of att.i.tude! Get a pastor or a psychiatrist, both mother and daughter should have a good talk with each other too!"
Mr. Larry coughed and said, "We’ve tried a psychiatrist before, but there weren’t really any results. Why don’t you have a talk with her? Young man, I mean uh, are you married?"
Hans was thunderstruck by the question, and stared at them in silence.
It was a good thing that the incident ended well without anyone getting hurt. Hans opened the unit with the keys to let Avril know that nothing had been done to the unit.
When she saw everything was intact, she was relieved and had totally calmed down.
The auctioneer had no choice but to remind them and say, "According to the regulations, this unit has been put on auction—we have no right to retract that!"
When an auction had started, extra units were allowed to be added but units publicized for auction could only be withdrawn two hours prior to the auction.
The storage company personnel who was present shrugged his shoulders as well. "Don’t look at me. I really didn’t know this would happen. I was just acting on the unit owner’s instructions!"
Li Du was worried that Avril might go hysterical again. He stepped forward and suggested, "No worries, everyone please calm down. Auctioneer, let’s start the auction for this unit."
Li Du looked at the treasure hunters and said, "Pals, everyone, please let me win the bid for this unit, and I’ll return him to his girlfriend, alright?"
The treasure hunters were in approval of the arrangement and nodded their heads.
"We won’t place our bids, Li."
"Anyone placing their bids are a**holes!"
"We support you!"
The auctioneer immediately started the auction. "Okay let’s start the Auction now, rules will not be repeated, the first auction is unit 19, the base price is one dollar, this is a one dollar unit!"
Li Du raised his hand, and the auctioneer pointed at him. "One dollar, one dollar, one dollar, the bid price of this unit is one dollar, anyone else bidding for it? Very good, the storage unit is yours!"
Li Du turned to Avril and said, "Now I am transferring the rights of this unit to you. For the next 24 hours, the unit will belong to you. After 24 hours, you will need to enter a new lease agreement for him!"
Avril nodded her head and expressed her grat.i.tude to both Hans and Li Du. "Thank you so much, both of you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Li Du pointed to all of the treasure hunters. "Well, not only both of us, but everyone here—we were all thinking about how to help you and your family."
Mr. Larry gave Li Du a hug. "Now, I have a new understanding about the storage auction industry. All of you are heroes!"
He gave Hans a hug as well and asked, "You don’t have a girlfriend right? Let me be frank, young man: Avril is a nice girl, an absolutely great person. Let me add you on Facebook and Twitter."
Avril locked the storage unit and left with her family.
Li Du teased Hans by imitating Mr. Larry’s tone: "Young man, I would like you to marry my daughter, because you’re a good man."
Hans was peeved. "F*ck, of course I’m a good man!"
Li Du continued to tease Hans: "Yes, I’m an alcoholic, I gamble, I’m a playboy but I am a good man—ha!"
Hans rolled his eyes and gave Li the one-finger salute.
The treasure hunters who had heard that were laughing as well. "Big Fox, you’ve done well today. But it seems like you got yourself dragged into this too—I think he wants to make you his son-in-law."
Li Du continued poking fun at Hans. "Yeah, the Superman rescue mission turns out to be a hairy-legged son-in-law knocking on the door."
Hans rolled his eyes. "All of you jerks just continue to say what you like. It’s a fact that Big Fox has done something heroic today."
"Well Big Fox, I take my hat off to you on that," Li Du said in a serious and sincere tone. "You know, I was really worried too—worried that you might screw up."
Hans smiled. "I’ve a.n.a.lyzed and done my own research on objectophilia before. No way I’d screw up. They’re basically a group of people who are immersed in their own worlds—it affects more women than men.
"They might have had some traumatic experience that scarred them for life or it might be caused by social pressures that caused them to develop an extreme fear of developing interpersonal relations.h.i.+ps.
"In order to understand them, we need to understand that they choose to develop spiritual and physical relations.h.i.+ps with things because they are more stable and reliable than relations.h.i.+ps with people."
After hearing Hans’s detailed explanation about the disorder, the treasure hunters stopped their laughter and one of them said, "Big Fox, you’re really a professional!"
Hans said, "Of course, pals, you can be like me too. Use more free time to read and learn more things—it’s beneficial for everyone."
The auction proceeded and Li Du did not bid for the first two units.
The next auction was unit 28, which was a medium-sized storage unit. It could have belonged to a convenience store previously, as there were some display racks inside.
The little bug made one round in the unit and Li found two Coca-Cola vending machines behind two storage racks.
This type of automatic vending machine was common in the streets. It was red with a picture of the Coca-Cola bottle—there was nothing special about it.
However, the little bug was attracted by one of the vending machines. Li left it fly freely to see the exact thing that had caught the bug’s attention—some green cola bottles.
Li Du could not make out the value of the green cola bottles, but if it could attract the little bug, it should be an antique or an item with a long history. With that, he decided to bid for the unit.
From the entrance, the vending machines were hidden behind the storage racks, and there were no other items that seemed valuable. The starting bid was at the price of 200 dollars.
When the bidding price increased to 500 dollars, the treasure hunters shook their heads and Li Du won the bid.
The last unit contained items that could be sold for a good price. The items were mostly tools used for mining. There were tools like a water pump and a high pressure spray gun—these were considered worthwhile to bid for.