Chapter 93: Marching on the Mississippi

Translator: Aristophaneso  Editor: Caron_

“If it isn’t David Oakley. You still have time to play? I heard your cargo has been targeted!”

An unfriendly voice came from the side. The black man had a cigar in one hand and a beauty in the other and was flanked by two bodyguards as he stared at David.

“Go annoy someone else, Natar.” David’s expression darkened when he heard Natar’s voice, but he soon recovered. He turned around and looked at the black man. “There’s a little problem with Ryker’s cargo, but it has nothing to do with you. I just lost a couple hundred thousand. That’s still better than you – you can’t even get the leftovers.”

“Hehe, how do you know I didn’t get anything? Natar smiled darkly.

“Hah.” David snorted. “I knew it was you. You want to play a hand?”

“Haha, I don’t know what you mean, but if you want to play, I’ll play with you.” Natar laughed and handed his cigar to his bodyguard who took it and put it out.

“I need some pocket money anyway. Blackjack*, just the two of us!” David walked over to a table and put his chips down.

“Hehe.” Natar chuckled darkly and sat down.

“Deal!” David gestured to the dealer.

Blackjack was a common gambling game and was widely spread across the world. Pretty much anyone who’d played cards knew the game, and even if someone hadn’t played the game before, explaining the game once was enough.

“Looks like these two have some history!” Chu Xian thought to himself quietly by the side about the hatred between David and Natar.

“David’s going to lose!” As soon as the game began, Chu Xian opened his god-eye-view. All of the cards showed their numbers to him clearly.

Natar had an Eight of Spades and a King of Hearts, which added up to 18! It was very close to 21. However, David only had 15 points. If they showed their cards right now, David would definitely lose.

“Again!” David hit the table and the dealer gave him another card. **

“Ten!” Chu Xian looked at the card and inwardly shook his head. This round was lost.

“Two hundred thousand!” David smiled a little and pushed all his chips in.

Natar frowned. He looked at his cards and David’s confident expression with some hesitation. “I fold!”

“Heehee!” David chuckled and showed his card. “Natar, you’re still a coward.”

“You…” Natar’s expression darkened. Chu Xian shook his head and couldn’t help but admire David’s guts.

In the next few rounds, David won more than he lost. It seemed like he understood Natar’s mind state very well. Everything was under his control.

“Pah!” Natar slammed his cards back onto the table. “You’re very lucky today!”

“Haha, many thanks for your generosity, brother! You could’ve won but you still let me win! You are a good man. You let me win in business and in cards!” David spoke with a big smile and a cold stare.

“Hmph.” Natar smiled coldly. “Don’t be smug so early. You’ll be crying in the end!”

“Who was that?” Chu Xian asked as the black man walked away.

“A very annoying fellow. His hands aren’t clean.” David shook his head. “Never mind, let’s not talk about him. Haha, I won three hundred thousand! Chu Xian, do you want me to find you a beautiful woman? Our American women are very good!”

“Not this time.” Chu Xian refused with a bitter smile. It wasn’t that he was pretending to be righteous, but he wasn’t comfortable with the women here.

“You don’t like this kind of woman?” David seemed to read Chu Xian’s mind and leaned over, wiggling his eyebrows. “Ali has a modeling company. They’re all super amazing models there. You want me to call one out tomorrow?”

“Models?” Chu Xian asked, thinking of those beautiful Victoria Secret models. He was stunned for a moment then shook his head. “No thanks, maybe another day!”

“Haha, alright alright. Let me know whenever and I’ll find you one. We’re all men!” David smiled.

After spending more time on the cruise ship, David took Chu Xian to some night markets. It was about two a.m. when they got home.

The next day, David took Chu Xian to the Empire State building and they ate at the best restaurant in New York.

That evening, David walked over to Chu Xian with a frown. “Sorry Brother Chu, HSD company has some troubles and I need to help out. It’ll probably take a week, so I can’t show you around Chinatown tomorrow. I found a guide for you already though, and he’ll take you around.”

“There’s no need. I can manage without a guide,” Chu Xian hurriedly answered. “Relax, David. Although my English isn’t so good, I can still communicate the basic things. There won’t be any problems.”

“That’s good. I’ll leave you the guide’s contact info and you can call him whenever. Here are the car keys. You can take any car in the garage. I hope you have a good time!” David nodded and didn’t force Chu Xian to take the guide.

“En, don’t worry about me!” Chu Xian breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that David needed to leave. He would’ve needed to find an opportunity to leave even if David didn’t have any business – Chu Xian didn’t come to America just to have fun.

Chu Xian didn’t drive any of David’s cars since he wasn’t familiar with American roads.

After leaving David’s villa, Chu Xian called an Uber.

“Hey bro, I’ll take you to a tributary of the Mississippi. There’s some interesting fish catching there.”

After Chu Xian gave the address ***, the Uber driver talked to him as if they were old friends. Chu Xian liked these gregarious American drivers a lot.

“Oh, what’s happening there?” Chu Xian said in simple English.

“Fish shooting. You use bows and arrows. The sharp arrows can take down the carp in the Mississippi easily!” the driver explained happily.

Chu Xian listened closely and thought back to the information he looked up online.

The Mississippi River was the fourth longest river in the world, stretching 3767 kilometers long. In the 1970s, the American government bought Barbless Carp, Chub, Grass Carp and other types of Asian fish from South East Asia and kept them in some southern farming lakes to cleanse the water. Ten years later, a flood swept the fish into the Mississippi River then they began reproducing exponentially.

Asian Carps ate everything. Every day, they consumed 40% of their own body weight in vegetation and plankton. With no natural enemies, they took over many branches of the Mississippi River within just a couple years. The larger carps could grow longer than a meter and weigh over 50 kilograms. Such huge carp were hard to find in China.