Chapter 103 Diving Up To 1,700 Meters
Two minutes later...
The electric eel reached a depth of 1,400 meters.
Pain...the intense pain. It was as if someone was trying to wrap the electric eel with tape. Even taking a breath was difficult.
The cold...the intense cold. The temperature in the surrounding water was cold. The deeper and faster the eel went, the more the temperature dropped. It was not easy to handle the cold, as not even the thick skin of the electric eel could bear it.
"One thousand four hundred meters, one hundred meters more than three days ago!" After only a few minutes, Chen Fan had to control the electric eel to float back up.
One hundred meters is not much, but it meant that the electric eel could bear ten times more pressure than its original ability. It"s like a sprinter who reaches the limit of their physical ability and wants to decrease their time by a few seconds, but cannot.
...
Later, Chen Fan took out his cell phone and called his father. After much consideration, he had decided to buy the two freighters. Although he had made a lot of money he would have to remain a secret millionaire.
There was not enough power in the industry. He needed a good guarantee for the future.
"Well, son, don"t you tell me half a million is gone?" Chen Fan"s father"s voice was full of doubt. In general, there was one reason for a son to call his father, which was to ask for money.
"I haven"t spent any." Chen Fan paused two seconds and said, "Dad, I want to talk to you about something. I want to buy two s.h.i.+ps for ocean s.h.i.+pping."
"s.h.i.+pping... you"re not going to school?"
"Just leave it there...anyway, the school doesn"t recognize people. It only recognizes money. I"ve been thinking lately that we can"t afford to just spend money our whole life. Even if we are rich, we still have to make our own money.
"There are so many ways to make money. With this much money, if I were to put it in the bank, we could easily make millions from the interest per year." His father suddenly raised his voice five pitches higher. "You don"t understand the transportation industry, and buying the s.h.i.+ps would be a waste."
"I have an old cla.s.smate of mine who is close to me. He is investing in it too, and I could learn things about transportation from him, right? I am sure I would learn all of it in a year or two."
"It"s not because I"m worried about the money. It"s because I have no confidence in you. Wouldn"t I know how much endurance you have?" said Chen Fan"s father.
"Listen to me..."
Half an hour later...
After Chen Fan"s persuasive talk, his father finally agreed.
"How much are you going to invest?"
"Ten million...so we have more than four million left... it"s only the s.h.i.+ps" money if we don"t make a profit for two years... and I could sell them...the most we would lose is two to three million.
"Then I will go back with your mother tomorrow. And we discuss together?"
"Don"t!" Chen Fan said quickly. "Both of you have been working hard for ten years, so it"s not easy to catch a chance to relax. Just enjoy."
His father was silent for more than ten seconds, and finally sighed. "It"s okay then. Anyway, we got the money easily...you can move on! But I tell you, only this ten million...after the loss...directly sell the s.h.i.+ps, and do not invest more."
"Uh-huh!" Chen Fan nodded.
His father advised him for more than a half an hour, then after a series of guarantees, Chen Fan hung up the phone.
Ten million, plus twenty-five million in his own card, and I would borrow five million from Zhang Xueyang...the current period of miscellaneous expenses...
"Money and money...I want money!" he said to himself. Then he called Zhang Xueyang.
...
Two hours later, near the east lake wharf in Zhongyun city.
This was a medium-sized dock with a capacity of two million tons. There were s.h.i.+ps in the sea. The ocean s.h.i.+ps were standing there, loading and unloading goods, or stopping for maintenance.
The scene that came to Chen Fan"s sight was the ocean, the blue sky, and the enormous s.h.i.+p, which slowly revealed the modern industrial picture.
"Well, bro, these two s.h.i.+ps look good, right?" Standing on a white container s.h.i.+p, Zhang Xueyang pointed to a similar vessel on the left.
"The captain and the sailor... are there any available? If there is already a worker, then I won"t need to recruit any." Chen Fan took off his sungla.s.ses and stretched his neck. He just bought that suit, and he was not used to the necktie. "By the way, can you lend me five million? I"m short of money."
"No problem, I"ll write you an IOU. As for the captain"s crew, they were sent home by my unemployable friends...but it wasn"t that long ago, so we should be able to contact them.
Zhang Xueyang took out a stack of data from his pocket. "These are the specific models and parameters of the two s.h.i.+ps. After you buy them, I"ll help you contact a few dealers for you to work with. You could first transport around Southeast Asia with the two s.h.i.+ps because after all, they are small s.h.i.+ps, and it wouldn"t be worth it to sail far with a small cargo."
"Sure!" Chen Fan nodded. Industrial development was just a cover for him. The real focus was on the electric eel and as long as the electric eel was taken care, he would be able to withstand it even if he lost money every day.
Chen Fan laughed and walked up to the pier. "Let"s go...bring your friend along for the doc.u.ments."
Buying a big s.h.i.+p was a lot more complicated than buying a car. The procedures were a real headache. Just after encountering two departments, Chen Fan was completely over his head. He hurried and called Yiteng Yun and Yu Lin, and asked them to take the company"s certificate to the relevant department to run the procedure. After a week"s work, the two freighters were officially registered in Chen Fan"s name.
The former captain and sailor were also contacted by Zhang Xueyang. Chen Fan signed a one-year contract with the captain for an annual salary of 150,000 RMB and 100,000 RMB for the chief engineer. The other mariners had a salary of thirty to fifty thousand.
Now that this was an official transportation company, Chen Fan needed someone who knew how to operate the business, so he asked Zhang Lele to hire her friend who had experience in this line of work. Then he asked Yiteng Yun and Yu Lin to make a report for all the marine transportation expenses of each boat.
...
In just a week, I went from being a guy with a.s.sets of more than 30 million to being a poor guy with only five million!
Chen Fan was really more concerned with the electric eel than the s.h.i.+ps since the eel was what he would be using to transport. After a week of strengthening, the electric eel could now descend to a depth of 1,600 meters which was 300 meters deeper than its current diving ability. Chen Fan hoped he could get the eel to the diving depth of the jellyfish which was two thousand meters deep. It would take about 20 days for the electric eel to be able to move at a depth of two thousand meters.
The next morning, the sky was dark.
Rumbling...
The thunder roared, and raindrops the size of beans turned the surface of the sea into ripples. Looking at the sea, it was a vast expanse of water that could not be seen clearly.
Chen Fan controlled the electric eel as it propelled through the choppy waters. The eel"s dark, s.h.i.+ny skin made it look imposing, like the dragon of the sea in the myth.
After arriving at the s.h.i.+men trench, the electric eel plunged into the deep sea. The arrival of the eel caused quite a disturbance to the surrounding fish. All of them sped off to avoid this horrible monster.
Drop!
Falling down!
Five hundred meters!
One thousand meters!
One thousand and two hundred meters!
...
When he reached 1,500 meters, Chen Fan stopped the electric eel"s feet and began to slowly move under the water.
The electric eel was s.h.i.+vering with cold as it moved slowly to a depth of 1,600 meters.
d.a.m.n cold. The electric eel had never felt such an extremely cold temperature. It was as if the thick skin and strong muscle did not hinder the work. It was very cold, like a sword piercing through directly to the bone and intestines. However, the cold was not that difficult for Chen Fan. The real difficulty was the strong pressure from the sea.
"Let"s try the electric eel"s limit again!" Chen Fan bit his lips and continued to control the electric eel for the difficult climb down.
On a 45-degree seabed slope, the electric eel took six to seven meters per step. When he crawled about 50 or 60 meters below, the electric eel"s blood seemed to be frozen, and the pressure of the sea was so great that the electric eel could not breathe.
Picturing the electromagnetic induction in his mind, Chen Fan found that there was a relatively raised gentle slope within the next 50 meters similar to the stairs in the building across the gully.
"Aim for that gentle slope!"
After that, the electric eel continued to move its four strong claws, holding the earth like a dragon; crawling on the silent, dark undersea ravines. Fifty meters was only seven or eight steps, but when the electric eel finally reached the gentle slope, Chen Fan was more tired than after two hours of digging.
The shape of the gentle slope was unknown, but the width was only ten meters and below it was a bottomless 90-degree angle. It was just like a cliff"s surface. Slowly releasing a thousand volts of voltage, Chen Fan was ready to try to see how deep the cliff was.
One thousand volts could spread about one hundred and twenty meters in the midst of the sea, but it was obvious that the cliff was more than one hundred and twenty meters deep. Chen Fan could only feel the end where the voltage disappeared and to the white icy cliff. He slowly increased the output voltage of the electric eel to reach to about 250 meters, but the cliff"s appearance was the same.
Voltage in the water would not show a trend of double transmission. One thousand volts can detect up to 120 meters, but it was impossible for the 2,000 voltage to detect up to 220 meters. The farther the distance, the more the voltage would be lost to the surroundings and the weaker it would get. The most he could detect was 180 meters.
"Could it go to 4,000 meters deep?" Chen Fan was filled with exaggerated thought.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Fan decided to fully release the voltage to have a closer look at the cliff. If it had a depth of 400 meters or more, then Chen Fan was ready to give up and look for a new dive site. After all, 90 degrees was a bit much and the electric eel would need to rest.
Boom!
A bluish-white light was gus.h.i.+ng out from the electric eel and sweeping across the area.
Two hundred and fifty meters.
Three hundred meters
Three hundred and fifty meters.
Three hundred and sixty meters.
At last, in the distance of 365 meters, Chen Fan successfully detected the height of the cliff.
"Three hundred and sixty-five meters...about ten days." He decided not to give up the climb, but to try again in 10 days.
"Well, what"s that?" As Chen Fan decided to s.h.i.+ft his mind and swim back up, Chen Fan was suddenly attracted by a square object underneath.
This was an object that looked almost the same color as the gentle slope. Chen Fan would have mistaken it for a stone had it not been for its odd shape.
Maintaining the high-frequency voltage discharge, Chen Fan focused all the electromagnetic induction on it.
When the electromagnetic induction penetrated the layer of sediment attached to it, Chen Fan finally found that it was a wooden case full of ancient flavor and engraved with intricate patterns.