Chapter 653: Besieged
I went back to my room and just as I put on a black undershirt, but before I could find the jerky for Obama, I heard the sound of engines coming from the entrance of the hotel, which is near the back door of the school.
Huh, did Loud Mouth’s food blog really have this many fans? She only uploaded a few photos last night and only write a few dozen words of travel tips, but she already attracted this many tourists? How remarkable! I heard there were different classes for bloggers. The upper echelons can resist against forced evictions while the lower echelons can call on fans to boycott Japanese goods. Loud Mouth, compared to us mere mortals, are equivalent to long time cultivators.
I was curious and went out to see what was going on, but I realized that wasn’t the case.
As soon as I stepped out of the hotel, I saw the young and old entomologists, each covered in bandages and sitting in a wheelchair while cursing at each other.
“You little bastard.”
“You old pervert.”
“I said don’t call random people, but you just had to do it. Now look, all kinds of people who want to get rich came.”
“Why are you allowed to call your son, but I’m not allowed me to call my friends? Besides, I almost caught it, but you lunged at me and we rolled into a ditch.”
“Nonsense, how can I let a brat like you catch the treasured butterfly.”
“Fuck you…”
Leaving aside those two, there were 17 or 18 cars parked behind them. There were vans, jeeps, motorcycles… the number was also continuing to increase.
Many of the people who exited the cars had mean mugs. Although they were holding insect catching nets, or even larger fishing nets, but any outsiders definitely would not think they were here to catch bugs. It looks more like they were here to participate in a gangster competition, campaigning for the glorious title of “Dong Shan City’s #1 Gangster”.
“I heard it’s ¥500,000 if we catch the butterfly.”
A bald, strong man clutching a large fishing net in his hand, said aggressively.
“Yeah, it’s much faster than collecting protection money.”
“It’s not ¥500 000, but 500 000 USD! I heard the conversion rate is 1:6… how much is 500,000 times 6…”
If you can’t even solve a question even elementary school students can answer, then it looks like you can only be a gangster.
The majority of the people who came to participate in the search to catch the butterfly were basically all older than 20 years old who had nothing to do. More and more people gathered until they completely covered the front door of the hotel. They also desperately consulted the two entomologists for the characteristics of the target butterfly.
“Is it fine as long as it’s blue? Can I trick them if I dye an ordinary butterfly blue?”
“Do you think foreigners are all stupid?”
“Old man, you’re already badly injured, so you have no way to catch the butterfly. Why not let your son, who knows about butterflies, to go with us, then we can share the bounty equally. How about that?”
A smarter gangster made that request, then others also began to compete for the old entomologist’s son.
The young entomologist, was also badly injured, but he called a lot of people. They formed their own faction, and were determined to catch the blue morpho.
“Say, is it really worth that much money? I found people on Taobao selling blue morphos for ¥300.” Some people also questioned.
My dear friend, you’ve been scammed. A regular blue morpho with blemishes only goes for ¥200 with shipping included.
“That’s right, it’s not worth any more, so leave.” A few people were eager for others to drop out of the competition.
“Lao Si, are you dumb? I heard that the butterfly on Cui Song Mountain is a subspecies of the blue morpho. It’s tens of thousands of times more valuable than an ordinary blue morpho butterfly.”
“How is it more valuable?” Lao Si still didn’t understand, “Why is it worth so much more just because it’s a subspecies?”
“You don’t believe me when I say you’re stupid, but think about it. Misprinted stamps and bills can be very different from the normal ones. The reason why they are so valuable is because items increase in value when they are more rare.”
“The boss is right. Lao Si, if you were a ‘human subspecies’, then scientists will have to take you to an institute to research all day.”
Lao Si exclaimed: “How did you guys know I’m a subspecies?”
Damn, not only is he an idiot, he’s also a chunni.
It looks like an accident is going to happen with all these oddballs gathering at Cui Song Mountain. My classmates is still on the top of the mountain, looking at the scenery, eating barbecue, and have zero knowledge of the upcoming arrival of the butterfly hunting army.
I took out my phone to call the class leader, so that she could be prepared, but I then noticed five youngsters dressed in expensive mountain climbing clothes exit from two black Mercedes’ sedans.
Who else could it be other than the Five Tiger Punishment Squad.
“What are you guys doing over here?” I shouted out in anger.
Xing Xing, the first one to notice me, was surprised and immediately ran over to greet me with his brothers.
“Bro Ye Lin, why are you also here?”
“Did you also come to catch the butterfly? Bro Ye is very efficient, based on your appearance… you already came last night, right?”
I did think about catching the butterfly yesterday, but I watched it fly away right in front of me.
A rare butterfly once flew in front of me, but I did not cherish it. I only regret it now after I lost it, there is nothing more painful in the world. If God gives me another chance to start over, I will say three words to the butterfly that flew away: “Yamete.” If I had to exchange the butterfly for something, I hope it would be: $500,000 USD.
I saw that each of them had brought their own insect catching nets and they were quite advanced and professional, so I couldn’t help but reach out to them and say:
“Is there an extra one, lend one to me.”
“Yes, there are extra.” Xing Xing quickly offered the net in his hand, “If Bro Ye wants it, you have to say yes even if there is none.”
I held the aluminum pole of the insect net and asked, “You’re all rich, so why come here to fight over a butterfly?”
“Bro Ye.” Xing Xing scratched his pockmarked face, “We’re only a bit above average at Qing Zi Academy, there are tons with more money than us.”
“That’s right! Even if our parents have a lot of money, why would they be willing to give us $500,000 USD at once?”
“Also, the news has already spread all over the city. If we were actually able to get it with so many people fighting over it, wouldn’t it feel very dignified? Then when the news spread of our heroic deeds, even Bro Ye will feel the positive effects.”
The five of them chuckled and felt it was profitable for them to come to Cui Song Mountain.
“Do you guys know how to swim.” I suddenly asked.
“Eh.” Xing Xing was puzzled, “Do we need to know how to swim to catch a butterfly? Does the butterfly live in the water?”
“Wow, as expected of a ‘subspecies’, that’s amazing.”
“Could it be the ‘Atlantis’ butterfly?”
I hit the pole of the net in my hand to silence them, then put on the dignity of an older brother to admonish them, saying:
“Don’t look down on nature. Although Cui Song Mountain has been developed as a tourist location, it’s still very primitive and dangerous up there due to the small amount of traffic.”
I might have borrowed some lines from the class leader, but they wouldn’t know.
“If you guys insist on going up the mountain to catch the butterfly, I won’t stop you…”
The five of them looked at the net in my hand and smiled at each other.
“But…” I raised my voice, “Pay attention to safety. Do not approach the water if you can’t swim and stay away from steep cliffs and deep ditches.”
In order to let them understand the serious consequences that negligence can cause, I pointed to the two entomologists on the wheelchair who were still cursing at each other while covered in bandages.
“You little ****.”
“You old ****, I’ll **** your ****.”
The five of them were able to see the truth after watching them and said that they would pay attention to safety and would not end up like a mummy.
At this time, the smarter gangster who asked the old entomologist to cooperate with his son, began to ask about hotel accommodations as he was ready to fight a war of attrition.
After hearing that something had happened at the back door of the school, the principal came running with two security guards. They were shocked to see so many men with evil faces surrounding the front of the hotel.
“What, what do you guys want?” The principal tried desperately to be brave and the two security guards behind him also nervously gripped their rarely used batons that was at their waists.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.” The smarter gangster said kindly, “We are insect lovers. We heard that a rare species emerged from Cui Song Mountain, so we came here in admiration. May I ask, is there any vacancy in this hotel.”
The principal lifted his glasses and frowned, “Yes, but there are also students here on a trip. It’s already half full, so there are only about 11 or 12 open rooms left…”
“Then give me 6 rooms first.” The smart gangster immediately handed over a wad of bills as a deposit for accommodation.
“Hey, 6 rooms at once, are you going to let anyone else stay?” A competitor protested from the back.
The smart gangster smiled contemptuously, “First come, first serve. It’s good enough I even left half of the rooms for you.”
“Ah, boss, I want two rooms.” The competitors, who had only just reacted, called the principal “boss” and waved their money, then shoving it into the principal’s hand.
“Don’t give him the room, give it to us.” Another man piped in, “I’ll pay double the accommodation fee.”
“I’ll pay three times. I want to rent for a month and I’ll pay it all right now.”
The people from who were all thinking about getting rich, stuffed money into the hands and pockets of the principal. He was embarrassed to death and had an expression like he was an overly popular stripper in a nightclub.
It’s really like what Shu Zhe said. As long as you say there’s a rare and valuable butterfly at Cui Song Mountain, there will be droves of money grubbers running over and rent out all the rooms in the hotel!
Except Shu Zhe’s suggestion was for us to make up rumors, but in this case, it actually did exist. Since the butterfly subspecies was worth $500,000, it will be fought over extremely fiercely.
My classmates at the top of the mountain will be okay, right? This feels like a besiegement.