Chapter 152 Two Black Bears
"Buried in soil?" Chen Fan looked at the 10-meter flat area through the eyes of the electric eel. Without a doubt, this place must had been dry land, otherwise the lithographic stone couldn"t possibly be buried 400 meters under the soil.
The earliest stone paintings date back to around 10,000 years ago. However, the origins of mankind can be traced back to 2 million years ago, so there was no way Chen Fan could verify the exact age of this stone. It was possible to salvage the stone and send it to the museum for carbon-14 dating, but not only would the stone be gone, it would also cause a lot of trouble, and Chen Fan did not intend to make the stone known to the public.
Judging from the lines on the stone, the big hole in the middle of the reefs should be around 100 meters in diameter. As for the depth, if the person who sculpted the map had some technical skills, the hole should be over 800 meters deep based on the comparison between the depicted width and length.
800 meters deep… Although Chen Fan couldn"t understand the creativity and imagination of ancient people, he knew that there must be something important at the bottom of the large hole. Otherwise, no one would be so bored as to sculpt so many lines on a huge stone. Now that the hole had been completely covered by seawater and sediments, it was necessary to dig away all the sediments in order to solve the mystery.
800 meters deep and 100 meters wide was considered an average project for the electric eel. "Dig on, dig on, the electric eel needed to build a bigger hideout anyway," Chen Fan said as he looked at the big hole which had been dug to a diameter of 20 meters.
.........
The next morning, inside Chen Fan"s rented office were Yu Lin, Yiteng Yun, Zhang Lele, and the accountant Zhao Shujie. They had all be a.s.signed by Chen Fan to be in charge of matters of the three cargo s.h.i.+ps. Yu Lin was in charge of the two small s.h.i.+ps, and Yiteng Yun the large one. Zhang Lele was responsible for receiving orders, whereas Zhao Shujie was responsible for tallying the final funds before doing up the reports for Chen Fan to see.
"Meeting, meeting!" Chen Fan sat in the boss" chair and looked around. "Now I"m giving all of you a difficult but glorious task!"
"Boss, what task is it? Are you sending Yiteng Yun and I on a s.h.i.+p again?" Yu Lin felt like backing out the moment he heard "difficult task". It was an extremely horrible feeling the first time he been driven offsh.o.r.e to a large s.h.i.+p for business! He almost wanted to take a few bites of the green gra.s.s when he stepped on Zhongyun"s land again.
"Haha." Yiteng Yun pushed the eyegla.s.ses on the bridge of his nose. "Boss, you can"t be that cruel?"
"Don"t worry, not asking you to go on a s.h.i.+p!" Chen Fan took out a few sets of freshly-printed information on the s.h.i.+ps and distributed them to everyone. "I set up a new company with a friend recently and just bought five large s.h.i.+ps from Australia. Take a look at the specifications and ask the crew of they have any friends or relatives who wanna be seamen. Also make a trip to the labor market and the maritime administration office to see if there are any unemployed seamen and captains."
"Boss, five large s.h.i.+ps require around 180 seamen, it"s not easy to find in such a short time!" Yu Lin frowned as he held the data. A large oceangoing s.h.i.+p had to employ trained personnel or those discharged from the navy.
"Then make a trip to the nearby cities. I"ll reimburse your costs when you"re back." Chen Fan said while touching his nose. Seamen were not like pilots, and many young men from poor families in coastal cities wanted to go into this line. After all, other than being a little boring, the salary was still very high. Therefore, it wouldn"t be too difficult to hire if the salary was up to the mark.
"Boss, these five s.h.i.+ps must have cost a lot of money?" Zhang Lele looked at the data as if she was looking at naked photos of male stars. How to conceptualize five large s.h.i.+ps with a total tonnage of 210,000? The crude oil from one trip was already worth one billion USD!
"They were all funded by my friend, I"m just his proxy who couldn"t even get to be a member of the board of directors till now." Chen Fan made up a reason, casually. "Go get busy. Hire as fast as possible. I"m waiting for them to go to Australia to help me sail the s.h.i.+ps!"
"Yes, officer!" Yu Lin stamped his foot and put his legs together.
.........
Time flies. Three days pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye!
After two days of digging by the electric eel, the over 100 meters wide layer of soil in the middle of the reefs had been taken away by the eel. What amazed Chen Fan was, the electric eel had already dug a depth of 300 meters, but the reef at the edge was still standing in the soil and did not show any signs of disappearing.
What did this imply? It implied that these were not bare rocks underwater, but very likely to be a huge mountain buried by soil. Also, there was a huge hole with a diameter of over 100 meters right in the center of the mountain. The stone walls of the huge hole were mostly made up of rough rocks. After the electric eel dug for a while, the soil on top lost its support and gradually got eroded by seawater, revealing its original form.
As the soil on the stone walls slowly got stripped off by seawater, the doubt in Chen Fan"s mind got bigger. The lithographic stone was discovered at 400 meters deep, which meant that ancient people had to get down to 400 meters deep from here in order to sculpt on the stone.
Although Chen Fan was definitely able to get to the bottom by climbing with his hands, the stone wall dotted with stones and stairs, that was only in theory. This was the same as saying everyone can finish walking the Great Wall of China, but no one will be willing to do it unless threatened with a knife at his neck.
Who cares? I"m not an archaeologist. I"ll see how it goes after clearing this big hole. I"ll stay if there"s treasure, if not it"ll be the eel"s hideout. After taking a rest, Chen Fan controlled the electric eel to continue with the excavation.
Although the head of the pike was only one meter, it was 30 meters long! After being inserted forcefully into the soil for over 10 meters and agitated, the soil instantly turned into a big mess as if there had been a fight between Megatron and Optimus Prime. After letting this go on for two hours, Chen Fan retrieved his thoughts from the electric eel. It was 12 noon and he had to settle his stomach issue.
.........
"Food"s here! Bean curd with green vegetables, please try it, Brother Chen." Yun Meng came out from the kitchen with a porcelain bowl.
"Um! You can make bean curd and green vegetables so delicious, you have some skills indeed." Chen Fan wasn"t stingy with his compliments, praising after he took a piece. Actually, just the taste alone wasn"t exactly fantastic; bean curd with green vegetables are just bean curd and green vegetables no matter what, but it was the fruit of her labor, so didn"t he have to make some compliments?
"Yun Meng, I"ll take you to the mall after dinner to get some heavier clothing." Chen Fan bit loudly on the braised crab in his mouth. Bean curd with green vegetables plus crabs, great for getting rid of oil!
Today was Sat.u.r.day, and the yellow floral coat on the girl was a little too thin. Usually Chen Fan felt that it was dangerous for her to go to the city alone. Since she was on school holiday now, he could take her to buy some nice clothes.
After Yun Meng cleared the table, Chen Fan drove her to the famous "Ingot Walking Street" in Zhongyun. All the extravagant commercial brands in Zhongyun could be found there. There were Donna Karan, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Versace, etc. Brands that Chen Fan knew and also those that he didn"t.
The autumn wind rustled as the two, one tall and one short, walked side by side. The guy was in all black with both hands in his pockets, and the girl was in an elegant yellow with her ten fingers twisted in front of her lower abdomen. The two were about 10 centimeters apart, a distance neither far nor close.
Yun Meng"s heartbeat was a little fast as she walked. It wasn"t because she was shy going out with her husband-to-be, but the glares from the crowd made her very confused.
Envy, jealousy, desire, greed...
If it had been someone shrewd, he could announce the meaning in their eyes right away.
Luxury stores like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Versace, etc., were not Chen Fan"s target. The Tianbao Building 200 meters ahead was what Chen Fan came for. It wasn"t because he was reluctant to spend money on luxury items on Yun Meng, but it would be too extravagant for a young girl to wear Chanel and Dior to school.
As they slowly walked forward with the crowd, Chen Fan saw that there was a group of people gathered at the square in front of Tianbao Building, and there was frequent laughter coming from it, although he had no idea what happened.
It was the nature of the Chinese people to be onlookers, and the people pa.s.sing by joined in one after another.
Two women fighting? Chen Fan was full of evil thoughts when he heard the laughter coming from within the crowd. Once women were involved in a fight, there was a high possibility of erotic scenes where clothes are being stripped off, and this made many people full of hopes.
"Let"s go take a look too!" Chen Fan pulled Yun Meng"s delicate little hand and squeezed into the crowd.
There was indeed a fight going on inside, and every punch was heavy. However, it wasn"t two women fighting, but two black bears in red and blue skirts, standing at around 1.6 meters. It was probably a store holding its opening ceremony, hence they got a pair of black bears to perform and attract the crowd.
The two black bears wore boxing gloves, stood in the middle of the red carpet, and punched each other, making the crowd burst out in laughter. There was a trainer in his twenties at the side wearing a jester"s cap, acting as a judge exultantly.
"The red team smashed on the face of the blue team, the blue team was angered and immediately displayed a counter attack…" The black bear is like a human being, able to walk standing up. Other than having shorter legs, they looked pretty convincing boxing.
"Haha, haha." Yun Meng who was being protected by Chen Fan in front of his chest saw the scene and instantly let out a ringing laugh cheerfully from her throat.
The way the two underage muzzled bears fought was indeed amusing. Chen Fan also watched on with great interest.
"Bravo!" A bald man holding an Alaskan Malamute suddenly shouted, giving everyone a scare, and even one of the black bears shook.
Bang! The red team bear took the opportunity to punch on the face of the stunned face of the bear from the blue team, and the blue team instantly pressed the red team under its body.
"Haha, haha." Now even Chen Fan couldn"t help but laugh. The two bears holding and trampling each other was like an art film of a certain island nation.
The two bears seemed to enjoy taking on each other, not separating after rolling on the carpet for a long while. Seeing the audience laughing so happily, the trainer changed the topic abruptly from the boxing compet.i.tion to a newly married couple"s first night.
"Oh, the red team"s skirt has been lifted up. Goodness, there is nothing underneath, and she"s exposed naked in front of everyone. Everybody, we"re getting to the splendid combat round. Please don"t go away, we"ll be right back after a commercial!"
Hearing such explicit words, Yun Meng"s face flushed instantly as if there was an invisible hand slowly apply rouge on her face. The afternoon sun made a golden silhouette right on her face, making it look bleary and like gold dust, so that even the fine hair below the ear helix seemed soft.
Chen Fan looked at Yun Meng"s face and suddenly thought of a word, "delicate." Just when Chen Fan wanted to pull Yun Meng away, some b*stard flicked a cigarette b.u.t.t viciously and shot it right in the arms of the two bears rolling together.
Then, smoke with a burning smell emitted from the two bears. The black fur on the bears" bodies were extremely dense. With black fur thick like a brush on their chest, the two bears didn"t realize after the smoke emitted for a few seconds. It was only after a wind blew and caused the fur to be on fire that they howled and spread apart.
The interesting thing was, the area on fire was actually the genital areas of the two bears.
"Arf, arf, arf." The muzzled bears rolled on the red carpet in pain, failing to put out the flame after scratching all over with their four paws. If the mini skirts under the bellies of the two bears weren"t thick, they would definitely be on fire.
The trainer quickly rushed over, wanting to put out the flame on one of the bears, but was sent flying two meters away by the bear, which was in a state of madness.
This was definitely not an exaggeration. An adult bear is one that even a tiger does not dare to provoke, and a tiger can win a tug-of-war against 10 adult males with just one claw. Although the two bears were still a little young, standing at only a little over 1.6 meters, it was still a piece of cake for them to send a man flying.
"Ah…" The originally lively crowd was already in a mess, shouting and crying out like a mouse whose tail was on fire, running away in all directions.
The bald man"s Alaskan Malamute roared and was about to rush up to bite when the bear pounced on it with lightning speed and smashed it up. Thereafter, with smoke rising up within them, the two bears charged right into the crowd with such brutality that even the urban management couldn"t compete with.
Man can always display the standard of Superman when in danger. The crowd, which was still huddled together, dispersed in the blink of an eye. Other than two unlucky ones who were punched to the ground by the bears in boxing gloves, the others had all ran more than 100 meters away.
This naturally also included Chen Fan. In fact, when the trainer was sent flying off, Chen Fan already pulled Yun Meng"s arm and ran to the side of the Unionpay ATM a 100 meters away.
After taking out a bank card to open the door, Chen Fan instructed Yun Meng to "stay inside and don"t move", and then searched at the back of his waist but was unable to find the Kunwu dagger. He had probably left it in the bedroom when he changed his outer coat. Then, he quickly turned his head and looked around for something usable, but was unable to find anything.
It wasn"t a weapons room; the empty square only had a few street lights standing.
"You, you, what are you doing?" Yun Meng laid against the gla.s.s door and looked worriedly at Chen Fan.
"I"m go kill the two bears." Chen Fan announced before clenching his fists and charged toward the bears like a whirlwind.
The bears had boxing gloves and couldn"t catch! Bears do not kick with their legs! They were muzzled and couldn"t bite, either! So, Chen Fan was quite confident in defeating the two beasts.
There was chaos on Ingot Street, looking as if it was the end of the world, with screams and cries of the pedestrians everywhere. Other than Chen Fan, no one dared to rush forward to fight; there are more herbivores in nature after all.
"Ah, is he looking to die?" Two young ladies who were almost knocked over by Chen Fan gazed nervously and fearfully at Chen Fan who was approaching the two bears without batting their eyelids.
St.u.r.dy gra.s.s withstands high wind. True gold stands the test of fire. Chen Fan who had gone through close to non-human strengthening, performed a modern version of "Wu Song Wu Song Fights a Tiger" in front of everyone.
After rus.h.i.+ng to the bear in blue skirt which was madly trampling on an innocent pedestrian, Chen Fan"s right leg created a big arc and kicked fiercely on the bear"s belly. Although the bear was very strong, it could not exceed 90 kilos with a 1.6-meter height. Chen Fan"s kick was as if he kicked on a flour sack.
With a huge growl, the bear"s belly sank in, and it rolled away for five to six meters.
The bear in the red skirt saw its companion sent flying off and instantly gave up on chasing a girl in red. It charged madly toward Chen Fan on all fours and stood up, all ready to display its "war techniques"!
Ever seen polar bears preying on seals hiding in ice caves? They looked the same with their front paws raised up and about to smash the ice caves.
Bang! The bear in red skirt just raised its paw and wanted to smash on Chen Fan"s chest when Chen Fan suddenly punched it right on its nose.
For all biological creatures, the nose which has countless nerves is definitely a sensitive area like the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. The bear was forcefully smashed by Chen Fan and did a 180-degree turn, and the blood which splashed out from its nose almost shot on Chen Fan"s face.
There was no need for Chen Fan to do it another time. With smoke emitting from their bellies, one of the bears curled into a black ball and rolled on the ground. The other one laid weakly on the ground with blood coming out from its two egg-sized nostrils as its body convulsed violently.