Chapter 252: Advantages of the Hundred Thousand Club
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Li Du was shocked by the price he heard and exclaid, “It’s worth millions?! Professor, you must be joking! ”
Dr. Clinken said, “No, I’m not joking, what you have with you is the Mauritius dodo’s complete skeletal specin. There are only five of these in the entire world!”
Li Du was thrilled; he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Really? Is my specin that rare? You ntioned that what I have is the Mauritius dodo, so do you an the dodo lived in other places as well?”
Dr. Clinken replied, “Yes, besides the Mauritius dodo, there was also the Rodrigues dodo, which was slimr than the Mauritius dodo, but flightless as well.
“In addition, there was another white dodo. In actual fact it was not a dodo, but a réunion ibis, which belongs to the genus of storks that happens to be extinct as well…”
The professor said many things about the dodo, but the terms used were too specialized for soone like Li Du to understand.
He understood one major thing: the Mauritius dodo was discovered in the 17th century but beca extinct shortly after.
At that ti, people did not have the concept of species conservation, therefore many species like the dodo had suffered. Specins like Li’s—which had been preserved for hundreds of years—were few and far in between. That was why the specin was so precious.
“How did you preserve your specin? It’s a miracle that the specin was so well preserved—even after hundreds of years—without decaying. This is truly exceptional,” Dr. Clinken declared.
Li Du laughed, “Well I’m not the one who preserved it. I got the specin by bartering with the Amish…”
He gave an account of how he had gotten the specin from the Amish to Dr. Clinken, who was amazed by his good luck.
After the enlightening conversation with Dr. Clinken, Li now understood that the Amish couple, Ricky and Ashley Tacoma, had not been lying.
During their lunch at the Amish ho, Ricky had ntioned several tis that the specin had been around for several hundred years. Li hadn’t taken it seriously or believed it was true, but he had been wrong!
Both Li and Dr. Clinken were very worked up about the specin on the phone together. Dr. Clinken could not contain his excitent as he had found a complete dodo skeletal specin, whereas Li Du could not believe that he owned a specin that was worth millions of dollars.
After both parties had cald down, the professor told Li Du a fact as well: the specin might have been worth millions, but in reality, it was hard to sell for that kind of price.
“It’s not hard to understand how it works,” the professor explained. “Although the specin is rare, most of the ti, only museums are willing to buy them. And they might not want to pay so much for it.”
Li Du was disappointed upon hearing that. “Okay, how much will your museum be willing to pay for the specin?”
Dr. Clinken hesitated for a mont and said, “The price might be around 100,000 dollars.”
Li Du felt like throwing his phone. The offer amount was a far cry from the millions of dollars he was told about earlier. Sothing that was worth millions could only be sold for a hundred thousand dollars?
But on second thought, this was still an unexpectedly high price. So he cald down a bit.
However, it was hard for Li Du not to feel cheated, as the price difference was too significant. He even thought that he should just keep the specin instead of selling it.
Li Du honestly told Dr. Clinken how he felt about the price difference.
Dr. Clinken said, “My friend, first of all, the specin won’t be of much use to you. With all due respect, I’m afraid you’re not interested in it.
“Secondly, I think you may not understand how to preserve the specin—the cost of preservation might be a big sum of money as ti goes by. And if the preservation is not done properly, it will beco a heap of trash.
“Lastly, the real value in the dodo specin is to teach people about the dodo, let them know what humans have done to destroy nature and other creatures in the past few hundred years. Shouldn’t this be in a museum?”
Li Du hesitated for a while. “You’re right, professor, but I don’t want to sell it at such a low price.”
Dr. Clinken could make out the hesitation in Li’s voice and suggested, “How about this: give a location, and we can et up to talk about this.”
Li Du said, “Let think about it, professor.”
After talking to Dr. Clinken, Li Du sowhat figured out the reason why he could only see the past of the specin in its current state.
The little bug’s “Relive the Past” ability had a ti constraint. It could only go back to a certain point in ti; for instance, if the limit were 100 years, the little bug would be unable to show scenes that were over 100 years ago.
After hanging up the phone, he returned to his room looking at the skeletal specin on the table.
His heart thumped. This thing is worth millions! he thought.
Unlike the antique Patek Philippe watch and the Batpod, getting the specin had been purely a stroke of luck—even the motive for getting it hadn’t been about money.
Ah ow leaped onto the table, eyed the specin lazily, and stretched out its claw in an attempt to scratch the specin.
Li Du slapped Ah ow’s paw and picked it up. “This thing is out of bounds! The two of you listen up—I will lock up the one who attempts to touch this, understand?”
Crispy Noodles nodded its head obediently while Ah ow seed sowhat displeased; its sparkling green eyes looked as if it were concocting so sinister sche.
Li Du would not take any chances. He threw Ah ow into a cage and locked it up to eliminate any potential threat to his precious specin.
Ah ow was stunned. It desperately used its claws to try to open the latch. “oww! oww!”
Crispy Noodles sat beside the cage and looked at Ah ow sympathetically but soon it was gloating over Ah ow’s plight. Aren’t you formidable? Aren’t you aweso? But you still got locked up anyway.
In the afternoon, Hans left a voicemail for Li Du:
“I’ve found so information about a Coke bottle collector. We’ll be eting them in Phoenix tomorrow.”
The next morning when they t up, Li Du inquired, “I’m surprised you actually found a buyer in such a short ti. Coke bottle collectors are pretty rare, right?”
Hans replied in a relaxed tone, shrugging his shoulders. “This is the advantage of being in the Hundred Thousand Club. The Association has a huge database of custor information. We now have access to a lot more information than before.”
“Is that so?” asked Li Du. “Why did the Association set up their database in a hierarchy? Wouldn’t it be better to just open up the database for all mbers?”
“Of course not, custor information is confidential,” Hans shook his head and explained. “Think of it this way: so of the items these people collect might be so rare or valuable that the odds of an average treasure hunter contacting such a person are too small. Therefore, such information is only open to the higher-tiered mbers.”
This reason was not enough to convince Li Du. However, he understood where Hans was coming from, because Aricans valued their privacy rights. They were very concerned about the protection of privacy, which was sothing the Chinese could not relate to.
Li Du suddenly realized sothing. “By the way, I thought we weren’t yet mbers of the Hundred Thousand Club?”
Hans smiled and announced proudly, “Valerie has gone ahead and upgraded our access rights to that of the Hundred Thousand Club. She knows we should have joined the club much earlier, and the association is sotis flexible.”
They drove straight to Phoenix. Besides eting up with the prospective buyer of the antique Coke bottles, they would also be attending an auction.
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