Chapter 125 The Somali Pirates
Halfway down the road, Chen Fan took a detour to the hardware store and bought a few fires resistant blankets and threw them in the trunk.
When the electric eel looked around the environment last night, the lights in the s.h.i.+pyard were too obvious, so Chen Fan chose a few impermeable fire blankets to cover the dock.
Before coming into the dock, Chen Fan opened the dock gate and drove in with his car.
The high power fans and two solar lanterns were still working as the sun in the sky shone from the s.p.a.ce above the dockside and was reflected on the nine ghost hair jellyfish poison sacs in the water.
Chen Fan turned off the fan and the solar lantern, letting them rest and dissipate heat.
The few pieces of poison capsules floating in the water had shrunk a little. One of the largest pieces was at least one meter in diameter when it was first taken out of the ghost hair jellyfish. Now it was only more than 60 cm long. The smallest block was now a little more than 20 cm in length and had a little sign of condensation turning into a crystal. It looked like before long, the electric eel would be able to consume the ghost moon incense.
Chen Fan nodded. "The effect is not bad!" Now he could faintly smell the similar aroma of ghost moon incense that flowed in the air.
Taking a stick from the side, he moved the poison sacs a little, to let the sun have a better s.h.i.+ne on them.
Chen Fan did not dare risk the chance of no sun exposure to find out whether the poison sac would become ghost moon incense or not. In order not to take this risk, Chen Fan had to let the poison capsule bask in the sun once in a while.
After listening to songs for a while in his car, Chen Fan dusted his palm and got out. He opened the car trunk from the inside and took out three fire blankets. Then he climbed the ladder that was welded to the top of the weighing beam with one hand as he gripped the fire blanket with the other, and opened the iron cover.
The steel tile made a cracking sound as he walked on it. He then covered the hole made by the electric eel with the fire blankets. Feeling that the fire blankets would be easily blown off, he went down again and moved up a few stones from the outside to press on them.
"The endless ocean, how many people"s dream had you carried?"
Gazing at the magnificent sea under his feet, Chen Fan felt a burst of emotions.
As he climbed the ladder, Chen Fan opened the electric fan and the solar lamp, locked the gate and was ready to drive to the s.h.i.+pyard.
A few days ago, Xia Qingqing called and said that the yacht had been completed with various functions, and he could come to collect it. Chen Fan, however, had been busy catching the ghost hair jellyfish until now.
Ring...
When he was halfway through his drive, Chen Fan"s mobile phone that was next to him rang.
"Hey, w.a.n.g Bing, are you back from Australia?" Chen Fan slowed down, and picked up the phone, looked at the number, then answered.
The number was w.a.n.g Bing"s, and it was his Zhongyun"s phone number, but there was no signal in the sea, so Chen Fan made a conclusion based on the prediction of time.
w.a.n.g Bing complained on the phone." Yeah boss, this sailing on the sea can really make people feel sick, you wouldn"t know, three days before, we met the gale, the s.h.i.+p was b.u.mpy and I almost vomited my gall out... "
"Well, then you can take a taxi to Zhongtian s.h.i.+pyard now and collect the yacht with me, and then I"ll treat you to a delicious treat as a reward." Chen Fan quickly interrupted w.a.n.g Bing"s complaint.
"Ok!" w.a.n.g Bing hung up the phone.
When he arrived at Zhongtian s.h.i.+pyard, Chen Fan had just gotten out of the car when he saw w.a.n.g Bing get out of the cab.
"Boss, don"t let me go with the boat next time. It"s killing me."
"The crew was just like a herd of cattle," w.a.n.g Bing said. "The boat was b.u.mpy, and they were all able to casually talk and laugh. If I were not a tough guy, I would have to go to the hospital for a drip by now."
"Let"s talk about it later." Chen Fan did not care and continued, "Did you see any disobedient crew? If there were any, I would fire him."
"No, most of them were retired from the navy. They are very obedient."
"Well!" Chen Fan made a phone call to Xia Qingqing, telling her that he was already in front of the office building.
In a moment, Xia Qingqing came out of the office building and said h.e.l.lo to Chen Fan.
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Chen, the yacht you ordered is not far ahead!" Xia Qingqing pointed to the left direction and made a professional "please move ahead" gesture to Chen Fan.
"Boss, are you ordering this s.h.i.+p to flirt with girls?"
While following behind, w.a.n.g Bing stealthy whispered in Chen Fan"s ear, "I always see those rich kids in the Hong Kong films who own yachts, and they take girls for a ride in the sea, sailing 20 to 30 miles away from the land. Then they say that their yacht had broken down, and they felt sorry about it. Next they will say to the girl in the movie that it looks like they have to spend a romantic night in the sea."
"Do you think girls nowadays have a pig"s brain?" Chen Fan tossed him an annoyed look.
After walking for three minutes, they came to a small pier at the seaside. Xia Qingqing led the two men into the inner circle of the yacht and asked Chen Fan if he was satisfied or was there anything that he wanted to have altered.
It seemed as if the yacht had been injected with a n.o.ble"s blood of grace and elegance. It was luxurious and extravagant. Inside was a sofa made of African buffalo leather. There was an expensive Emperor Brahman West crystal chandelier. The master bedroom wall was wrapped in gold wallpaper. An abstract drawing from the master painter in Zhongyun was hung on the wall. Resplendent dim light was spread in each room on the yacht.
"Satisfied, I"m satisfied!" Chen Fan nodded. No wonder the yacht was also known as "sea villa!" The yacht, in his eyes, was more upscale than his bungalow!
"Then I will take you to sign the formalities!" Xia Qingqing smiled broadly. This guy was definitely a big financier. He did not even think twice when he spent the money for these two s.h.i.+ps that cost 70 million.
After signing several doc.u.ments, Chen Fan asked w.a.n.g Bing to drive the car to the dock first, and then, after half a day of guidance from the technician, he managed to launch the yacht and took it to the seaside dock.
The bridge was designed with paved obsidian, and a cus.h.i.+oned seat like a girl"s breast made the yacht feel more powerful than a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
The gasoline engine used jet engine technology. As the throttle control lever was pulled to the bottom, the engine"s power roared as its twelve cylinders took it up to a speed of 50 knots, cutting through the waves that were trying to stop it.
"F**king great!"
It required only twenty minutes to get to the dock, and he jumped off the yacht, opened the dock to the sea, and drove it in.
He locked the door, stood outside for more than half an hour, and finally, w.a.n.g Bing arrived.
"You call and gather the crew on the s.h.i.+p," said Chen Fan to w.a.n.g Bing as he got in the car. Then he took out a business card and dialed the "Haitian hotel" reservation telephone number.
Again, like the previous time, more than 30 men with Navy style haircuts filled the private dining room. The scene was impressive. The hotel manager tried to be overly friendly to him as he tried to find out what his background was that he could have so many strong, lean men working under him.
...
Two days later...
The s.h.i.+p named "Ocean Storm Marine" was once again filled with coal and headed for the Yanbu city of Saudi Arabia.
This time, Chen Fan did not let w.a.n.g Bing follow along, but gave the rights to Captain Ren Jiang. The payment was made in Zhongyun city. After listening to w.a.n.g Bing, Yiteng Yun and others who reported all kinds of expenses, Chen Fan had known the account status now.
During this time, Chen Fan had nothing to do. He was shuttling back and forth between the dock all day, looking at the progress of the jellyfish capsules.
This afternoon, Chen Fan crouched in the dock and stared at the brown spherical crystal with a diameter of more than twenty centimeters.
After more than ten days of waiting, the smallest of the nine crystals, which had been successfully transformed from a poison sac into ghost moon incense, had been brought up by Chen Fan. He sniffed it. What was surprising was that the electric eel"s desire to devour the incense was felt which proved the value of this ghost moon incense.
This time Chen Fan learned to be sly. He directly used oil paper to wrap the ghost moon incense with a small stone, then threw it into the sea to let it sink to the bottom, then he controlled the electric eel to eat it.
Today, the electric eel had grown to 70 meters long and directly released the strongest voltage to the peak of 13,000 volts.
After it took the ghost moon incense into its mouth, the electric eel licked away the oil paper and stone with its tongue and gulped the ghost moon incense into its mouth.
The phagocytic task was completed. Chen Fan drove his car back home, so he could lay down in bed to quietly experience the electric eel"s body changes. But, halfway back home, Chen Fan received a phone call from Zhang Lele who was in the office.
"Hey, Lele, what can I do for you?" said Chen Fan as he slowed the car down and stared at the road ahead.
"Boss, just now I received a notice from the Maritime Bureau, saying that you should go to the Marine Department for a meeting at 3 PM."
"I see!" After hanging up the phone, Chen Fan curled his lips.
"What kind of d.a.m.n meeting?"
They like to do stupid stuff. Only two days ago all the companies with s.h.i.+ps that were ten thousand tons and above were gathered for a meeting about some "vessel and safety knowledge brief." What were they about to come out with this time?
After arriving at the Marine department in Zhongyun city, the conference hall was filled with dozens of plump, big bosses all gathered and having small talk.
"Chen, you came too!" Ma Rongtao was in the center of the crowd and reached out his hand to greet Chen Fan.
"Boss Chen has arrived early enough."
"Chen, you"re doing well today!"
A few plump bosses next to them all smiled and greeted Chen Fan.
"Well, I just got the notice and rushed here, Uncle Ma. What"s the meeting for this time?" After saying h.e.l.lo to the two bosses next to him, Chen Fan sat down beside Ma Rontao and asked with a puzzled look.
"It has something to do with Somali piracy. In recent days, three more international cargo s.h.i.+ps have been hijacked." Ma Rongtao pinched his forehead. The Somali pirate activities have been more and more frequent. Many s.h.i.+ps without the navy escort no longer dare go to the Gulf of Aden to get to the Suez Ca.n.a.l.
"Oh!" Chen Fan nodded his head.
Within a half an hour, about a dozen more bosses entered, each looking for a good place to sit. After two minutes, three middle-aged men with dark blue uniforms and white wide brim hats walked onto the podium.
"Ahem"
The man in the middle who was in his mid-forties who wore spectacles, took the mic and cleared his throat. "h.e.l.lo, everyone, I think everyone knows the subject of this meeting."
"In response to the increasingly rampant piracy from Somalia pirates, I just want to remind any of you who have s.h.i.+ps going the Suez Ca.n.a.l that you should strengthen your defenses and do the following work."
"First, it is best to go the Suez Ca.n.a.l with the naval escort. The vessels that accept escort s.h.i.+ps must follow the convoy"s relevant discipline, obey the unified command of the navy s.h.i.+p, and should not carry out any unauthorized detachment of escort formation."
"Second, is that the s.h.i.+pping company should strictly follow the relevant regulations."
"Third, the ones who could not reach the point of protection according to the time of the Navy"s announcement, but their s.h.i.+ps that needed navy escort protection or s.h.i.+ps that have less than 10 knots speed should apply to the ministry of transport nine days in advance..."
"Fourth, we should bring in keen attention to the trend of piracy activities and guide s.h.i.+ps to do their own defense and rescue work. We will strengthen the monitoring of s.h.i.+ps in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, and improve the emergency work efficiency of emergencies. "
"Hum... Hum... Hum... "
He wasn"t sure who this bizarre guy was, but he hadn"t even listened for ten minutes and his head was already leaning backward and was snoring.
Chen Fan"s head was hurting from being annoyed. Unable to listen to any content, he turned his face to look at Ma Rongtao whose eyes were narrowed and not paying attention either.
Biz...Biz...
Just then, there was a vibration from the phone in the pocket of Chen Fan"s jacket.
He had set the phone into vibration mode. Chen Fan looked at the phone and saw that it was a strange fifteen digit number.
"Which d.a.m.n place is this number from?" Chen Fan pressed the answer key with a doubtful feeling.
"h.e.l.lo."
There was a strange male voice speaking a foreign language with a Mandarin accent on the other end of the telephone.
"I am a Somali pirate...your s.h.i.+p...has been hijacked by us. Please prepare 50 million ransom as soon as possible to redeem your s.h.i.+p and your crew!"