Elson showed Li Du what it meant to be "rage decisive." Within a few days, all eight people involved in the electrical current incident with Steve were sent to prison. However, while they went to prison for different reasons, they all shared the same fate.

Elson had contacted lawyers, private investigators, banks, and the tax office, and sent the mine owners first to court and then to jail. Of the nine mines surrounding Li Du's mine, eight of the mine owners were found guilty, and their mines were taken back by the government. The other owner was lucky. That mine owner had not been involved in the conflict with Li Du, so Elson let him go. Together with Blanchett's mine, 12 mines were taken back from eight mine owners. Elson then bought all the mines. Li Du had no idea how Elson had done it.

After a series of dazzling operations, the matter was over.

Steve had been the victim of mine owners' revenge against Li Du. Elson used his family's energy against them, so this meant Li Du was involved, too.

The story spread through the town, but because the details were somehow kept secret, the big guys just knew the surface of the matter but not the whole truth. Both the owners and the miners a.s.sumed that Li Du was the mastermind. Not only were they shocked that Li Du had such great resources, but they were also more than a little afraid of him. In their view, Li Du's act was total annihilation. Blanchett and the others had been thrown into jail, and their mines were taken away. They had nothing left.

Subconsciously, they were awed by Li Du. They did not dare provoke him. That was the mine's owners' strategy. However, many of the mine owners had had good feelings about the man who had saved Marcos and Aubrey.

Now, after supposedly destroying Blanchett, Lennon, and his gang, they were no longer fond of him. It was back to how it had been in the beginning, where no one came to his mine at night, and no one talked to him during the day.

Li Du used to go to the pub in town and often someone would buy him a drink. Now whenever he went to the bar, no one would even have a drink with him. Li Du was very helpless, but he could not explain. He could only help Steve and Elson to carry the blame.

When he was free, he called Hans, who had been in touch with him several times during the week. However, he had been too busy with Elson's vengeance to call him every day.

The phone rang three times before it was answered. Listening to Hans' lazy, "h.e.l.lo," Li Du couldn't help laughing and asked, "You answered my call after so many rings. Are you angry with me?"

Hans hummed. "Sh*t, why should I be angry with you? You are not my beloved little lover. Cut the long story short. What's the matter?"

"I miss you so much, so I gave you a call." Li Du sighed.

"Go away."

Li Du said, "Well, to tell you the truth, a few days ago I was busy, so I did not call. The matter was very troublesome. I'll talk to you in detail when we meet."

"Ah."

After a few more words, Hans snorted, clearly not wanting to talk.

Li Du said helplessly, "Anyway, I called to see if you were still alive. Obviously, you are, so I have nothing to worry about. I'm gonna hang up now."

As soon as he had said this, Hans, who had been acting strangely, was worried. "Nothing else?"

Li Du laughed. "What else? Dude, what the h*ll is wrong with you? We are brothers, not lovers. We call each other to find out what's going on. Do we have to talk lovey-dovey?"

Hans said rather petulantly, "Who wants to talk to you? I mean, you really have nothing else to talk to me about? Have you seen your email?"

Li Du asked, perplexed, "Why should I see my email?"

Email was an important tool for American businesses and social networking, but Chinese used email less and relied more on instant messaging and text messaging. After coming to America, Li Du did not work in a company, so he had not formed the habit of using email and checking it every day.

"Look at your email first," Hans said. Then he mumbled, "No wonder you haven't called me."

The mine had internet access, so Li Du opened his email from his computer. He found Hans's email, opened it, and a few photos appeared on the screen. The photos had been taken underwater. The first one was of an underwater coral reef. The photo quality was excellent. Seeing this picture, Li Du felt confused. Why had Hans sent these things to him?

The second photo was close to a coral reef, or rather, it was a shot of a common reef next to a coral reef. Several sea snakes with blue, reddish-brown markings appeared to notice the photographer, and their heads were pointed at the camera.

Seeing the photo, Li Du's attention was immediately attracted. The reef under the sea snake had a piece of colorful stone embedded in it. The stone was glittering and translucent, with a dark background and colorful interior. It was a black opal!

How could there be black opal in the sea? Li Du was shocked. But then he remembered that opal could only be formed on land, and that it would take millions of years to form... However, while the black opal might have been formed on land, sometime in those millions of years, the land may have sunk into the sea.

In some of the research material that Li Du had seen, this was the explanation for black opal appearing in the ocean. However, due to the scarcity of samples and findings, there wasn't much information about it.

As Li Du scrolled through the email, he saw an explanation about the black opal along with the photos. The camera had zoomed in, getting shots of the gems from several angles. From Li Du's professional point of view, the gems in the photo were authentic. Realizing this, he pulled out his cell phone and called Hans.

He could not get through to Hans's cell phone, which indicated that Hans was talking to someone else. Li Du put his phone down and waited for two minutes before calling again. Ten minutes later, Hans was still on the phone!

Then Li Du realized that the b*stard had called someone on purpose after he hung up, because he knew Li Du would be interested in calling when he saw the pictures of the gem. Hans acted like a child, but Li Du understood him. Sometimes Li Du was just like a child, too. He had hung up on Hans several times just the other day.