The first two weeks of June was a big test for Li Shenggang. The electrolytic aluminum factory consumed 500,000 kWh of electricity each day before its formal operation. As Huang Xuan’s agent and the only person he could order around at home, Li Shenggang had been demanded to guarantee the electricity supply at any cost. He didn’t know why Huang Xuan had made such a demand. Maybe it was because of some business secret. Whatever it was, the most important thing for him was to hold on to this big shot. Then he would have nothing to worry about.
However, the daily consumption of the factory had increased to as much as 1.8 million kWh, a new record and nearly the utmost output of the transformer. On the other hand, since it was the boiling summer when the electricity for civilian use had reached its peak, the factory had been asked to reduce its productivity and limit its electricity consumption, which had kept Li Shenggang busy. He almost burst into tears when Huang Xuan asked him to increase the electricity supply.
“Boss, I can’t! The director of the factory has been suspecting me of embezzlement. Some people from the government came and asked us to stop stealing electricity. They thought that we were supplying electricity for other factories, to which I didn’t dare to respond and invited them to dinner twice. Since the electricity for civilian use is so tight, the electricity consumption of the factory will be limited soon if it keeps increasing,” he cried on the phone.
“OK. Just keep on guaranteeing the electricity supply. I will reimburse your treatment bills. Remember, I am your boss, not some director,” Huang Xuan said.
That was what Li Shenggang would like to hear. He kept saying yes and nodding his head and then hung up the phone. “Lao Lin, no matter how powerful you are, do you know the boss’s phone number?” he said to himself and smiled.
Neither Huang Xuan nor Rolin cared about the productivity of the factory. Huang Xuan would consider himself lucky if the factory wasn’t losing money with such backward equipment. So he wouldn’t waste much time on it while Rolin worried that the production would affect his energy supply.
“With another 12 million kWh, the base will be able to be upgraded and moved to Brazil,” Rolin said to Huang Xuan.
Huang Xuan sighed. He had little money left now.
“Rolin, we are running out of money,” Huang Xuan turned off his computer and said, shaking his head.
“We will have money soon.” Rolin turned on the computer himself and had some materials printed.
“A Japanese named Nakajima Jiro wants to buy our whale meat. We will have money after we sell the meat.”
“I hope so.” Huang Xuan stretched himself. Sometimes he wondered whether he was using Rolin or Rolin was using him. The money he had earned with so much effort had all been spent on the energy for Rolin, but he had received little help. He would be so embarrassed if he got fooled by a stupid machine.
The Japanese were world cleaners. They not only wandered around the Strait of Malacca but also hoped to benefit from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Nakajima Jiro was a small tradesman who had only three employees, but he did import and export across Latin America and dealt in anything profitable.
His customers were always pleased with his business, but he was not pleased with the profits, He was craving more, always more. Sometimes, he even demanded to take 60% of the revenue. Since the dealing was very profitable in itself to Huang Xuan, he was willing to give up a part of the profit.
Besides Nakajima, two more Japanese and an American joined in the competition. Huang Xuan didn’t need to meet with them. The development of science and technology guaranteed the efficient cooperation between business partners. When one kg of whale meat was delivered to the other party’s apartment, the cordiality was much elevated.
The quality of the commodity was the foundation of credit. The whale meat from 400 years ago was much better than it was today. As pollution worsened, the creatures on Earth all had bioconcentration which had first been discovered in DDT that had been thought effective, but excessive residue had been found in creatures at the upper end of the food chain a dozen years later.
Bioconcentration was especially common in marine lives, perhaps it was because they had a longer food chain. When a small fish ate a shrimp, and a big fish ate the small one, the accumulated residue in the shrimp would be passed to the small fish, and then to the big one. After this process had been repeated many times, the creature at the top of the chain would have bioconcentration. In the whales, it was mercury that was concentrated. Although it was not enough to make people sick, and people didn’t eat the whale meat every day, the merchants were hoping that people didn’t reduce their purchases for any reason. The Japanese government had made a limitation on the amount of mercury in fish, which was no more than 0.4 mg, but the content of mercury in the whale meat sold at the markets in Japan was often a few or tens of times it.
Hence, after Nakajima had examined the whale meat sample, he was very much interested. The biggest problem of selling whale meat in Japan was quotas. The Japanese government announced the number of the whales they would catch for “scientific research” every year, and the enterprises that got the quotas were registered and accredited. When asked how he would solve this problem on the phone, Nakajima answered, “As long as the meat is fine, the government won’t check it a second time.”
Hearing this, Huang Xuan thought that nothing mattered as long as Nakajima paid and Rolin wouldn’t be exposed.
Neither Huang Xuan nor Rolin was interested in where the meat would go eventually. Rolin hoped to get more energy sooner, and Huang Xuan just wanted to sell it out.
The better parts of the whales were sold for 6,000 JPY while the rest for 1,000 to 4,000 JPY in Japan. Rolin was a professional carver. No matter which part the other party wanted, he would find it instantly and have it stored in the container. In addition, he mixed different kinds of whale meat up. No one would find out that the meat of Bowhead whales and Gray whales that were extinct was among unless someone examined each piece of the meat.
Since what Nakajima was pursuing was profits, the examination was just in a small range. As long as Rolin traced the pieces well, they would be fine.
The average price of the meat was 3,000 JPY per kg. Since it was in such a huge amount and might affect the entire market, Huang Xuan settled on 2,500 JPY at last. Because the dealing was illegal, he didn’t demand payment in dollars. After all, the JPY was also an international currency.
Nakajima bought one-third of the meat, which was about 3,000 tons, and all the whale insides at the price of 12,000 JPY per kg. The insides that provided vitamins were the best fish oil health care products. The fat was sold to the Americans as life lubricant at the price of $27,000 per ton. The final profit was 34 billion JPY, which sounded enormous but was actually only $320 million. Huang Xuan threw his bank card into a drawer with disdain.
“The two Z990 you ordered are in place.” It was a call from an employee of IBM.
Huang Xuan was speechless on hearing that. He couldn’t wait to hang up the phone and started yelling, “Rolin, why two?”
“You agreed to buy one during the test and asked me to fix the problems of mouth shape and bytes later. Of course, it is two.”
Huang Xuan still didn’t get how Rolin had done the maths. It was two million they were talking about. His hand holding the phone started cracking. He felt that a Porsche of his was just gone.
“The upgrade of the base will be completed tomorrow, and it will be moved to Brazil in a very short time. Please get the facilities ready. You don’t need any training to operate the Z990. And you can hang up the phone now,” Rolin added.
Huang Xuan went back to play online games, clenching his teeth. He would have skinned that guy if he had been in front of him.
“On the bright side, the profits are rich today,” he comforted himself.