Chapter 24 - A Big Problem
Translated by: Ciel
Edited by: Isalee
They arrived in the wee hours of the morning. After Gao Yang stepped off the plane, he felt a slight chill run through his body and he couldn’t help but shiver.
Benghazi in January was over ten degrees celsius, but in the early hours of the morning, it was only around ten. Gao Yang was used to warmer climates after having lived on the plains for so long.
Gao Yang followed Morgan into an actual hotel where he could finally lay in a real bed and sleep. Gao Yang wasn’t able to sleep for long however. At noon, Bob invited him into Morgan’s room.
Seeing Morgan in this setting, Gao Yang could hardly believe that he was getting close to sixty. Like him, Morgan had experienced a high level of stress during the escape. Now that he was sitting on the plane with him, Gao Yang was dispirited and tired while Morgan was full of energy.
Gao Yang sat before Morgan. Once Gao Yang settled in, Morgan pulled out a wad of cash and put it on the table. He then pushed it over to Gao Yang and smiled. “This is six thousand in U.S. dollars. I still owe you ninety-four thousand. My apologies, but that is all the cash I have on me right now. Of course, it doesn’t look like you have the means to receive this much cash. But don’t worry, once you’ve returned to your home country, as long as you give me a single call, I will immediately transfer the rest into your account. I’ll even pay the transfer fees.”
He gazed at the stack of cash on the table. Gao Yang stiffened as he looked at Morgan. “Mr. Morgan, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Morgan opened up his arms and said, “As I’ve said before, as long as you escort me to Malakal, I will pay you ten thousand in U.S. dollars. I am a man of my word and now I am fulfilling my promise.”
It was only then that Gao Yang vaguely remembered that Morgan had said something along those lines. He had not thought much of it at the time however. Never would he have imagined that Morgan would really go through with his promise.
Gao Yang thought about it for a long time. He then took the wad of cash, put it in his bag, and sincerely said, “This right here is enough. Mr. Morgan, I was never planning on taking your money. But, I do need some cash right now so I will take this much. No need for the rest. I didn’t do much. Even if you weren’t there, I would still bring Professor Buck and the others to Malakal. Besides, you’re already taking me out of Africa so I think we are now even.”
Morgan shook his head and said, “I like your att.i.tude towards money, but I don’t like your att.i.tude towards business. Friendship is friendship, business is business. When I hired you, you didn’t reject the business. Instead, you escorted me all the way to Malakal. Our business has concluded and it is only reasonable that I pay you. We must honor the contracts we enter. Besides, you may not think much of saving a stranger from the end of a shotgun’s barrel, but I still stand by the same words. Friendship is friendship, and business is business. You take the money, but our friendship still remains.”
After hearing Morgan’s words, Gao Yang nodded and replied, “Alright then. Mr. Morgan, thank you for your generosity.”
Morgan waved his hand and laughed, “Alright, youngster. Benghazi isn’t a very big city, nor is it very spectacular, but for someone who’s been living in the plains for three years, you must want to take a look around, right? Go, go. Find some fun things to do to reward yourself. Most importantly, find a good restaurant and get a good meal. I think you must be famished right? I am very sorry that I won’t be the one to take you to your first real meal now that you’ve returned to civilization. Unfortunately I have some other matters to handle.”
After Morgan finished talking, Bob raised his eyebrow and said, “Hey, brother, now that you have money in your hands, don’t you want to take me out for some fun?”
Gao Yang smiled. He stood up and shook Morgan’s hand before turning around to Bob and saying, “Let’s go. No matter what you want to do, I will be treating.”
The hotel lobby had a currency exchange service, making it convenient for them to exchange the dollars into dinars. Gao Yang and Bob walked out of the hotel and strolled into the center of Benghazi. It was as though a lifetime had pa.s.sed since Gao Yang was last in civilization. He couldn’t help but sigh. “And I thought that I would never return.”
Bob shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t think too much of it. All you need to focus on right now is celebrating. First off, let’s get you into some more decent clothes. You look a little comical right now.”
Gao Yang felt a little chilly in what he was wearing as well and agreed with Bob. They found a shopping center a bought a new outfit. However, Gao Yang decided to keep his current shoes. He even specifically found a pair of jeans to match the shoes.
With a complete new look, Gao Yang felt refreshed and full of energy. He and Bob began to discuss where to go next. They agreed on eating a meal first, but couldn’t decide on a specific restaurant.
As they looked down the street filled with shops and restaurants, the two had no idea of where to even start. Gao Yang made a suggestion: “I’ve got a good idea, how about we eat some Chinese food?”
“Sounds great! But where are we going to find a Chinese restaurant? I haven’t seen a single one this whole way here.”
Bob glanced everywhere and then looked back down at his watch. “This is my first time outside of the country so I do want to look around. It’s getting late. How about we keep an eye out for one as we walk around?”
Gao Yang didn’t have a problem with that so he strolled the streets with Bob. The two slowly made their way onto a small street. There were less and less people around them. Looking at the empty street, Gao Yang suddenly remembered something.
“Hey, Bob, your dad mentioned that Libya wasn’t very stable right now, and he cautioned that we shouldn’t walk too far from the center.”
Bob looked completely carefree. “You saw just now, everything looks completely fine. It doesn’t look dangerous or chaotic at all. Do you think people would be out and about shopping on the streets during a war? You can tell there’s nothing wrong just from looking at the people downtown.”
Right as Bob’s words fell, a large group of people suddenly appeared in the streets. Several of them had even appeared from the small alleyways that fed into the street. They raised up a flag and shouted a salute. They looked incredibly angry. En ma.s.se, they surged forward.
Gao Yang and Bob gaped at the scene and said at the same time, “F*ck.”
“I take back everything I said just now. Something big is happening right now, we have to leave.”
Gao Yang quickly dragged Bob back a few steps and whispered, “Quiet down. Let’s just wait for them to leave .AFterwards we’ll just go back. You don’t want to follow them to their meeting place do you? When there’s less of them, we’ll go straight back to the hotel.”
Bob nodded and whispered, “D*mn it, looks like we’ll just have to wait for them to pa.s.s through before we can leave.”
Gao Yang and Bob didn’t make a single move and just stood at the the corner. They needed to sneak past countless people. Gao Yang was worried that they would be the focus of these b*st*r*ds attacks for the sole reason being that they were foreigners. He himself was easier to be mistaken, but Bob’s head full of golden hair was too conspicuous. You could immediately tell that he was a Westerner.
Thankfully, Gao Yang and Bob only caught their attention, but didn’t provoke any attacks. Finally, they managed to wait until the streets were empty again. Gao Yang wiped away the sweat on his brow and said, “Hurry, let’s leave now.”
The two of them jogged in the opposite direction of the ma.s.s. On the way, they happened upon four other groups of people. Thankfully, despite the daunting experience, no mishaps happened as they pa.s.sed the groups. Gao Yang was most upset by the fact that none of the groups were heading in the same direction. Gao Yang couldn’t get a good read on which direction was safest.
The worst part was that they were lost now. The two of them walked from street to street, and didn’t even know where they were in the city. Instead, the only constant was that they kept on seeing these mysterious groups. They couldn’t even call over a taxi if they wanted to.
After seeing another ma.s.s of around a hundred people, Gao Yang tugged on Bob’s clothes and softly said, “Follow behind them, otherwise we won’t get out of here even if we wander around for a day.”
While he felt that Gao Yang’s suggestion was risky, Bob couldn’t think of any better ideas. And so, Gao Yang and Bob followed the group of people as they tried to return to the main road.
Very quickly, Gao Yang realized that his suggestion wasn’t very smart. The ma.s.s of people that they were following grew bigger and bigger. As Gao Yang looked behind him, he jumped and saw that more people were starting to follow behind them. Now Gao yang and Bob were a part of the ma.s.s.
Gao Yang tugged on Bob’s sleeve and curled his lip to signal to the side. The two of them slowly started leaning towards the edge of the group. Right as they reached the border, they walked out of the labyrinth of streets. Before them was a large street, filled with an angry mob.
When they returned to the main street, Gao Yang pulled Bob over and the two began to ran. They didn’t care which direction they went, as long as they were away from that angry mob.
Gao Yang and Bob did everything they could to avoid notice. The carefully walked along the walls of buildings. Just as they reached the end of the crowd, Bob suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong, why aren’t you moving?”
Gao Yang said in a panicked voice. It was then that he saw Bob’s pale face. Bob dragged Gao Yang over and whispered, “Look behind you. There’s a Chinese restaurant.”
Gao Yang anxiously whispered, “You can’t seriously be thinking about eating right now, right?”
“There’s two men standing next to the doors holding guns. What do we do?”
Gao Yang slowly turned around and followed Bob’s gaze. That’s when he saw the lantern hanging next to a Chinese styled gate. The bushes were neatly trimmed, and looked just like a Chinese Lily. Right behind those bushes, shadows seemed to be moving and two guns pushed past the leaves.