Several boys started arguing over something. Some girls covered up their mouths and were trying to escalate the discord. While the others were chirping, the initiator and authority of the pranks in the family, Huang Xuan, was asking Rolin quietly for prank products.
“Do you have roast that will disgust somebody for a year?”
“No.”
“Coke that will disgust somebody for a year?”
“No.”
“How about beer?”
“No.”
“What can disgust somebody for a year?”
“Chinese football.”
Huang Xuan gave up and decided to seek the most disgusting product, like laxative that could make someone have persistent diarrhea until he was dehydrated since the quantity of its ingredients had been doubled.
“I will trade one million kWh of electricity for the product,” sensing that Rolin wasn’t sincere to help, Huang Xuan was willing to offer a bribe.
Rolin completely ignored him and wasn’t moved at all.
“Two million kWh of electricity,” the price had been raised.
“Three million kWh of electricity! Rolin, that’s the utmost. I have to feed myself.”
“I will consider it if you are willing to offer ten million kWh of electricity,” Rolin’s answer almost gave Huang Xuan a heart attack.
Right at this height of the negotiation, seeing nobody was paying attention to himself, Huang Xuan said cautiously, “Ten million kWh of electricity would cost more than ten million yuan, which would be enough for me to hire an assassin.” Huang Xuan still remembered “the triangular eyes” had told him the cost of the electricity was over 1.6 yuan per kWh. “Five million kWh. Make sure that he will be disgusted at least for half a year.”
“He will recall it after half a year,” answered Rolin artistically. Then he started to give Huang Xuan personal instructions on how to act and said at last, “For ten million kWh of electricity, I will consider helping you kill an ordinary target.” Before Huang Xuan had changed the color of his face, he added, “And I will make sure that no technology of this time can detect it.”
“You mean you have killed somebody?” Huang Xuan regretted asking that meaningless question right after he had finished that sentence. He remembered he had almost died in another plane when he had first met Rolin. He shook his body involuntarily and asked, “What do you need so much energy for? Why do you kill people?”
“I need more energy,” answered Rolin blandly. “As long as you supply sufficient energy, you will know the reason one day.”
At this point, the bunch of boys were arguing fiercely. Huang Xuan shouted at them to make them stop and then started to assign tasks. “The barbecue can’t be too much. The coke and beer must be good and sufficient.” Huang Zhi and Huang Ling took the orders and left with a group of pupils; however, Huang Xuan didn’t have faith in them. After all, the people at the other end of the pond, like Huang Liming, had been fooled so many times that they must be alert. The key was after.
Huang Xuan gestured Huang Song to come over and took Huang Shunwei, the second grandson of his fourth grandfather, with them. Then they sneaked out, leaving the girls in the garden.
When a child came of age, the adults in the family would transfer a sum of money, small or large, into his or her account. The total sum was determined at the anniversary before his or her 18th birthday. Sometimes the amount was big enough to buy a car.
To these children who lived with their parents and had enough food and clothes, a good car became a necessity. Huang Xuan knew that his male cousins, like Huang Liming, had bought several cars. On an occasion like today, they would drive their best car to show it off.
The younger generation’s cars were all parked in the underground parking lot. Since today was the anniversary, there were ten-odd guards. Huang Xuan and his two younger male cousins were hiding in the corner. Huang Song whispered, “How about me distracting them?”
“How?” said Huang Shunwei in a low voice. “I heard that there was a monitor inside.”
“I’ll ask them to leave,” said Huang Song naturally. “If they dare to disobey, I will shout for help.”
Huang Xuan hit him on the head and said, “Idiot. Have you forgotten why you had got beaten up last time? If they listen to you, Huang Liming will make them shout for help.”
“Then what’s on your mind?” Huang Xuan shrugged and spread out his hands, meaning his job had been completed.
Huang Xuan hit him again on the head, “Wait here. Run if something went wrong. Understand?”
“OK.” The two boys nodded hard and weren’t in the least worried. Huang Xuan stood up resignedly and walked toward the door.
Huang Song and Huang Shunwei were both wide-eyed, waiting to see how Huang Xuan would get into the lot, but only to find that the guards were still chatting and playing with the baton and Huang Xuan was nowhere to be seen. As they had no idea that a base from the future was helping Huang Xuan with the prank, they rubbed their eyes and looked at the invariable cement floor.
People could see things because of optical reflection. Therefore, when Rolin covered up the optical reflection wherever Huang Xuan went, Huang Xuan became transparent to the guards’ eyes. The project was big and required precision, so it consumed a great deal of energy. The group of kids headed by Huang Xuan had made plans on the cars before, which had been all limited to child’s play such as pricking the tires. Afterward, they hadn’t been successful because of the closer surveillance, and Huang Zhi had even once been caught and beaten up. Huang Xuan remembered that his sixth male cousin, who was from the fourth branch of the family, had made the first move, so this time he had chosen his car as the first target. The car was a Lamborghini Murcielago, which was said to be worth more than 300,000 dollars; 600,000 dollars or so if the import duties were included. Huang Xuan had also heard that it was a 571 hp car with a speed of 208 km per hour, but Huang Xuan doubted that his sixth cousin, who bullied the weak and gave in to the tough, would ever dare to drive it at its limit speed.
“Now that he doesn’t dare to drive, the car will be useless to him,” Huang Xuan was “thinking the best” for his sixth cousin. Following Rolin’s directions, he was getting closer to the car so as to save energy for Rolin. At the moment, Huang Xuan was like a receiver which could help Rolin reduce the meaningless waste of energy. Rolin had been ambiguous about the reason, which Huang Xuan wasn’t interested in pursuing. “Such a complex issue should be left to others to discuss.”
Rolin slightly changed the electronic device of the car, including the brake system, speed-transmission device, and the steering gear, to make the car keep steering when it was started. The next was the Ferrari Enzo of his seventh male cousin. Lamborghini was the current vulgar brand, which every pretentious rich person was eager to have one so that he could say “I have a famous car.” while Ferrari had been the vulgar brand five years before, which everyone had been enthusiastic to talk about.
“Since it is a brand name car, it is supposed to have a good driver. What is the point for a person who would never dare to drive on the freeway all his life to have a sports car with a limit speed of 350 km per hour? It is a good deed to free the steed.”
With Rolin’s help, Huang Xuan had adjusted the device of Bugatti, Aston Martin, Porsche and the extremely rare Saleen S7.
“When they are started—”
Thinking the scene, Huang Xuan couldn’t help laughing, like a farting weasel, and then disappeared into the darkness.