Kree Minos wasn’t the one that had quoted the highest price. The Japanese merchant Hashimoto Masata bid $7,800 per cubic meter for 8,000 cubic meters of oak with a diameter over 120 cm at breast height. With a circle on the sheet, Huang Xuan had received 62 million dollars easily.
Unlike the transaction of whale meat, as a legitimate one, the file had to be signed by the lawyer of the Huang Family Funds. By then, Huang Xuan’s personal property would possibly shock the whole clan. However, Huang Xuan didn’t care at all. “My property has become twice as much as two months ago. That’s it.”
Except for the dearest oak, the prices of other types of trees had been rising too. Beech was sold at a price up to $2,000 while fir $500, thrice as high as the market price, which would bring Huang Xuan 300 million dollars, 10% of which had to be paid as a tax.
Galatea couldn’t believe that the teenager who could read poems in Greek was a billionaire. In her mind, billionaires were all as old as her father, arrogant, suspicious, callous, and shameless while poets were the learned spokesmen of aesthetics who were willing to give up everything for beauty, a pure man who could create and find beautiful poems.
Facing Huang Xuan, Galatea suddenly found that there was a tendency of blending between those two types of people.
Having given the last certificate of purchase to Li Qing, Huang Xuan started to shake hands with everyone present. When coming near Kree Minos, he looked behind him with a smile and asked in Greek, “Mr. Minos, are you going to expand your business in Brazil?”
“I’m afraid not. However, you are the most amazing person I’ve ever met. You have so much wealth and such a wide knowledge at such an early age. I am leaving Brazil soon. I will tell my family about you,” Kree Minos said smilingly.
Huang Xuan was amused by this flatter.
“Is the lady sitting behind you your family?” he asked, looking at Galatea.
“Oh, that’s my niece, the lovely Galatea. Are you attracted to her?”
“I think so. Oh, actually, we have met before, haven’t we, the Goddess of calm seas?” Huang Xuan was talking to Galatea when he said the last sentence.
The Goddess of calm seas curled up her lip line, held out her hand and shook hands lightly with Huang Xuan.
“You are like 007 that has a lot of identities. You already surprised me when we first met.”
“That was a good beginning. May I invite you and your uncle to dinner?”
Galatea smiled and turned her head to Kree Minos who shook his head and said, “I am not coming. You two have a good time.”
“How about Sminster Restaurant at 7 o’clock?” It sounded that Huang Xuan was hoping for a positive answer.
Hearing the invitation, Galatea felt weird. Huang Xuan was the age of her younger brother. His Greek was more fluent than her Latin, but it wasn’t a good reason for going on a date.
Huang Xuan was still in a gesture of inviting with the smile fading. Galatea didn’t have the heart to let him down anymore, so she arranged her hair on the forehead and nodded.
“Don’t forget.” Huang Xuan turned around reluctantly, trying to check his excitement. He was still recollecting the cold touch of their hands as he was saying goodbye to others.
Huang Xuan had earned 300 million dollars with nine million RMB, the profit from which was 23,000%, a number even envied by arms dealers, drug dealers, and real estate developers. Nevertheless, Huang Xuan was overwhelmed by a strange feeling that he couldn’t explain. Was it love? He didn’t know because he had never been in a relationship before.
“Huang Xuan, be careful!” Rolin called.
“What?” Huang Xuan was turning around when he heard the shrill scrape on glass. An inch-long dagger was seen moving forward slowly. It ran out of strength and fell on the ground when it was ten-odd cm away from his face. Then the shrill scrape rose on the entire timber mill.
Huang Xuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva and instantly rushed to Galatea, who had just come to herself from the shock and was completely covered with wood flour and dust, except for her eyes. The bodyguards had tried to take her away but eventually gave up in front of the huge moving timber. Huang Xuan grabbed Galatea’s arm, dragged her away and asked loudly in Greek, “Are you all right? Are you injured?”
“What happened?” Galatea sounded collected, but her arm had been injured by the flying wood flour. Blood was dripping down her white arm, looking creepy.
Huang Xuan shook his head.
“The time travelers who are still lingering in P112 tried to kill you, but failed,” Rolin said.
Galatea looked at the sawmill that was already in a mess. A lot of stacks had been pushed over and people injured. She got rid of Huang Xuan, started dialing on her phone with her trembling hands, and then ran toward the injured person lying nearest her.
“How many people do they have? Why me?” Huang Xuan asked.
“Only one. After the passage was closed, the only way for him to leave is to make an oscillation during which a new passage will be made which he can use to contact his base.”
“Would this plane be destroyed if an oscillation occurred?”
“Temporal and spatial oscillation was the fierce movement of the buffer zone,” Rolin explained. “He might have found you and thought that you were the base guardian. The death of the guardian usually causes an oscillation.”
“You are the guardian.” The mere thought of the sharp dagger scared Huang Xuan still.
“He doesn’t know. Actually, I could have found him easily.”
“How about now? Will he try to kill me again?”
“No,” Rolin said positively. “The first thing he will do is to escape from Brazil, even America. I have started scanning all the areas within the boundaries of Brazil. I need more energy to scan all the areas of Earth.”
“How much?” Under the threat to his life, Huang Xuan didn’t hesitate at all.
“At least ten times as much as what we have got recently.”
That meant at least one million barrels of oil, which would cost another 100 million dollars.
“Are you sure you can find him with enough energy?”
“Only when he is using the energy that doesn’t belong to him, like just now.”
The cries around them were louder. Huang Xuan became angry.
“How many more people would get hurt if he came back?”
“He is a standard time traveler who has learned space war tactics. He could even be a space warrior. I can’t guarantee you that I can catch him.”
“What shall we do? Waiting for him to kill us?”
“Our base level and energy will both surpass his. Without big accidents, we will find him.”
“But nobody knows how many years it will take.”
“Even if we fail, we can open a new passage to let him go.”
At this point, the ambulance was heard. Huang Xuan felt much better.
“Why not let him leave?” Huang Xuan said slowly.
“He might have recorded our coordinates. If his base is a high-level one, he is very likely to come back after his base has been replenished. Colonization is always the key to becoming rich quickly.”
This might be the answer Huang Xuan disliked most. He shivered and asked, “Do we have to catch him?”
“Don’t worry,” Rolin knew Huang Xuan’s physical condition at once.
“You have unique advantages that most time travelers don’t. P112 is your mother plane, where you don’t need to consume any energy and can be anywhere you like without worrying about the attacks of the buffer zone. You belong to this space, the others don’t. They will consume more energy and be influenced more widely. Furthermore, they have to worry about the closing passage.”
What Rolin had said didn’t really make Huang Xuan feel safer. Actually, he was just a middle school student who might lose in a one-on-one battle. Although he was stronger than most people, he couldn’t confront the tips of sharp knives and the thick logs. In a world related to planes, he was as small as dust.