Seeing the painting and Li Du’s wide smile, the three companions’ hearts sank.
Right then, they came to the realization that they had fallen into a trap.
The South American still held onto some hope and asked, “How much would that be?”
Li Du lifted up his index finger, with the smile still plastered on his face.
The South American asked expectantly, “Ten thousand dollars?”
Li Du shook his head.
Sandler’s face darkened and he said, “Are you really going to sell one painting for ten thousand?”
Li Du continued to shake his head and said, “Seems like your imagination has been limited by your lack of class. What I mean is, one hundred million! US dollars!”
The three men took in a deep breath. They shouted in unison, “What the f*ck! Are you mad?”
Li Du said seriously, “Of course not. It’s just that you lack foresight. According to what I know, you guys were not even accepted into the Million Dollar Club, right? If I were you, I would not be so anxious to take the risk here. I would think about ways to gain more experience first.”
Sandler said fiercely, “Don’t talk like you know everything.”
Li Du said, “I know more than you guys. Not happy? Fine, let’s not talk about this painting, let’s talk about these items. What are these?”
Saying that, Li Du balanced one small purple-red brick in front of them.
Sandler and the two men were desperate to prove that their foresight was sufficiently qualified. However, no matter how they looked at it, they could not tell what that brick was.
Batlon did not want to swallow the defeat and did not want to appear like a failure in front of a person like Li Du. Hence, he decided to take a gamble. He coughed and said, “This is a sort of jewel, no, I should say that it’s a sort of natural-occurring crystal. It’s like a piece of ore.”
Li Du looked at him in surprise and said, “How did you know that?”
His expression got Batlon ecstatic. That was a blind guess. He could not give more details to Li Du and hence he pretended to sound mysterious and said, “Of course I know…”
“You know nothing,” Li Du did not give him a chance to continue putting up a pretense. He opened up other boxes and revealed batches of purple-red small bricks. “So many precious stones are here? Do you think that you’re in Myanmar, at the jade mining field?”
“What do you say this is?” Batlon said, refusing to back off.
Li Du said, “This is an antique!”
The people who were watching by the side asked curiously, “What antique is this? Is this porcelain from your country?”
Pieces of the purple-red small bricks shone brightly under the sun. Indeed, they looked like exquisite porcelain pieces.
Li Du shook his head. “Nope, can’t you guys tell? However, these things have not appeared for a long time. These are grape bricks. They are estimated to be antique grape bricks, seventy or eighty years old!”
“Grape bricks?” Playboy repeated.
Magic Hand looked like he understood something and said, “Just now, I had wanted to give that as the answer. These should be wine bricks made from grapes, right? Most of these things made from dehydrated grape juice were meant to be used for the production of wine during the American Prohibition Period.”
Effective January 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution-Prohibition Act had come into effect.
According to that law, it was illegal to manufacture, sell, or even transport beverages with an alcohol content of more than 0.5%. It was not illegal to drink at home, but it was against the law to drink with friends or hold a banquet. One could be fined up to one thousand dollars and imprisoned for half a year.
The Prohibition Act left a strong mark in the recent history of the United States and was the origin of many stories.
Li Du had previously come across other items that had been created because of the Prohibition Act, such as a private winemaker. This time the wine bricks could function as a convenient wine ingredient and used for at-home wine brewing.
As wine production was banned, many winemakers cut down grapevines to grow another type of crop. Others began making grape bricks in order to continue to profit from grapes.
As a result, dehydrated grape juice became popular, because under the new laws, bricks could be legally dissolved in water to make grape juice or wine without overt fermentation. This helped the winemakers who owned vineyards make good profits.
Under the Prohibition Ordinance, grapes could be grown, but only in crops that did not make alcohol. In addition, if winemakers sold grapes to others, they could be sentenced to jail if they knew their customers were going to use these grape bricks to make wine.
That meant that the brewers had to judge whether their grapes could be fermented to make wine.
To resolve that problem, the brewers would warn those who bought the grape bricks. They would tell them not to place the bricks in water for too long. Otherwise, they would start to ferment and turn into wine.
However, as the quality and taste would be greatly affected after the grape juice was made into a grape brick, it was not a real replacement for wine. It did not exist for a long time in history and soon disappeared from the market.
None of the people present there had experienced that crazy era. Grape bricks were not well-known in modern times, so few people knew about them. If Li Du had not seen the process of making them back in time, he would not know what it was either.
These grape bricks originated in South America. After they were produced, the makers realized that they were not popular in the market. Hence, they kept and stored them. As they were produced through the process of dehydration, they had a long shelf life.
Of course, despite this, while the wine bricks were not rotten, the taste had already turned bad.
As Li Du explained this, he picked up one and placed it in a cup. After pouring warm water over it, they saw how the wine brick turned into purple-red liquid. Licking it, he could feel the sour-sweet taste.
Back then, wine bricks were not valuable. However, today, almost a century later, they had become a rarity item. Li Du felt that if they went back into the market, many history lovers would be interested in them.
After understanding the nature of wine bricks, Sandler glared at Li Du and said, “I admit, buddy, you have better foresight than all of us. But what’s with this painting?”
Li Du shrugged and said, “It’s just as you’ve seen. I’ve also bought a painting. My foresight tells me that this painting is worth millions. It is not from the same artist as the oil paintings that you have bought. However, that said, this painting does not hold much meaning to you guys. You guys bought your paintings as a keepsake from a friend who had passed away, right?”
Seeing Li Du’s smile and the painting in his hands, Sandler shuddered. He was not a stupid man; in fact, he was an intelligent one.
By that time, he had already realized that they have fallen into a trap. The painting in Li Du’s hands was the one they had been targeting. They had just spent almost two hundred grand on a bunch of trash!
Bell had also guessed what happened. He sighed, “I’ve warned you, don’t mess with Li. I said that for your own good!”
Comments