Chapter 155 Strategic Partners.h.i.+p
William Endor from Germany once mentioned in the book War for Oil, "The party that controls oil will have control over all countries!"
In the year 1960, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was formed by five major oil-producing countries. To date, it has 11 country members, making it an enormous organization that stores 69% of the total global oil produced. These facts alone would definitely make any country tremble!
During the signing of the agreement, Chen Fan decided to pump all five tankers full for his first transaction. After that, he borrowed Abdul"s computer to transfer 5 million US Dollars, as a deposit, from his Switzerland International Bank account, together with 10%, which is 1 million US Dollars, as a payment in advance for the oil purchased.
Switzerland International Bank"s portable secret electronic key uses a four-digit code pa.s.sword. It also has 96 dynamic random pa.s.sword encryption modes. It changes once every second, without any specific identifiable trend. Therefore, Chen Fan did not need to worry about someone hacking his account.
"Let"s hope that our collaboration will run smoothly!" Abdul waited until Chen Fan signed the agreement in both Mandarin and Arabic words, before he used tea as a subst.i.tute for wine to gently clink gla.s.ses with Chen Fan in a toast.
After the signing had been completed, Abdul sent Chen Fan off with a smile. He also promised that, as business expands, he would offer him even better deals.
"Little Chen, I am going on a trip to Egypt soon to negotiate several projects with business partners there. Are you busy?" Ma Rongtao asked Chen Fan, once both men were inside the lift. "If you are not busy, why don"t you follow me on the trip? You can see the Egyptian Khufu Pyramid, then we could return to our country together."
"No thanks. What is so nice about a pyramid?" Ma Rongtao had to stay in Egypt for three to five days, and Chen Fan certainly was not interested in the idea of staying in the scorching hot desert for that long.
"Hehe, it"s up to you then, since only the pyramid is worth seeing in Egypt." Ma Rongtao looked at his watch. "Coincidentally, there will be a flight returning to our country at six o"clock in the evening. I will get the translator to book two return tickets for you."
As they were a group of men, after settling their main objectives, they were too lazy to even go to the first three floors of the Royal Tower, which were actually filled with a famous shopping center. Instead, they went back to the hotel to wait for the translator to buy their tickets at the airport.
"Boss, aren"t you afraid that the guy with the big mustache called Abdul may be a cheater?" w.a.n.g Bing took the opportunity to ask with concern, after Ma Rongtao had returned to his own room. "After all, we"re talking about a business worth over 10 million US Dollars! Even among those negotiators on television, some may take a few months to negotiate those contracts!"
"He can"t be a cheater. I am not a fool, so how could I be cheated so easily?" Chen Fan answered w.a.n.g Bing, while he mindlessly changed the channels on the TV.
In fact, the main reason that Chen Fan was so confident that Abdul was not a cheater was simple. There was a photo of him with the higher-ups of PetroChina on the official website of PetroChina. It even included a description regarding the signing of a collaboration proposal that was worth a few hundred billion between PetroChina and Saudi Arabia.
While the two were casually chatting about some other useless matters, the satellite phone on the bedside table rang. Once Chen Fan saw that the caller ID showed that it was Yun Meng, he quickly pressed the accept b.u.t.ton.
"h.e.l.lo, Yun Meng, what"s the matter?"
"Nothing. Big Brother Chen Fan, when will you be coming back? I… miss you already."
Yun Meng spoke with hesitation. As she was speaking, her voice eventually got softer. If it wasn"t for Chen Fan"s good hearing, he would not have been able to even understand her last words.
"I see! I will get home tomorrow morning. Be good, okay? I bought you some gifts!"
Once Chen Fan hung up the call, w.a.n.g Bing hissed, "I seriously despise you for having the heart to deceive even young girls! Presents? Where are these presents?"
"I can just buy one when we go out later, right?" Chen Fan crossed his legs and said, not missing a beat.
After lunch, Ma Rongtao"s translator pa.s.sed them the two return tickets. They first went to Mecca City, before boarding the plane to Egypt. There, the translator bid both Chen Fan and w.a.n.g Bing farewell.
At three o"clock in the evening, Chen Fan and w.a.n.g Bing stepped out of the hotel"s main door. They were prepared to head towards Riyadh International Airport, which was located in the desert about 20 kilometers away from town.
Initially, they wanted to grab a cab to the airport, but after taking two steps, Chen Fan remembered that he had not bought the gifts yet. Walking around aimlessly, he found a shop that sold all sorts of weird stuff.
w.a.n.g Bing also bought a present, claiming that he wanted to give it to his sister, who was currently studying at a university. Just as Chen Fan stepped out of the door, after buying what he wanted, he felt a ma.s.s of yellow sand flying towards him!
"No wonder Arabians like to wear robes and scarves! It"s probably due to the large amount of sand here!" Chen Fan could not resist complaining.
"Yeah, wrapping a scarf around one"s head is fine, but why have to wrap the face, too?!"
Chen Fan pointed at the lady in front of them, who was fully wrapped with a long black cloth. "I am really curious as to how they date, when they can"t even see each other"s faces. Is it possible that their sense of beauty is different from the rest of the world"s, where they only need to look at the eyes?"
"The eyes are the window to a person"s soul! The trend nowadays is inner beauty, so I suppose there is nothing wrong with looking at the eyes!" As Chen Fan got closer to that black-robed lady, he could not resist looking at her eyes.
The sidewalk was a bit narrow, due to someone having parked their car on it. As Chen Fan and w.a.n.g Bing were walking in a horizontal line, they coincidentally blocked the sidewalk. By the time this lady, who was walking with her head down, realized this, she had almost b.u.mped right into Chen Fan.
"Ah!" The black-robed lady was seriously frightened, quickly backing away with a sharp shout.
Gosh, why so timid? Chen Fan complained to himself, as he walked in a vertical line with w.a.n.g Bing, in order to allow the lady to walk past them through the side.
The black-robed lady hastened her steps, hoping to quickly walk past these two foreigners. Then. just when they were side-by-side, a strong gust of yellow sand suddenly flew up, blowing so fiercely that they could not open their eyes.
"Pooh pooh pooh…"
After Chen Fan spat out the sand that had filled his mouth, he discovered something interesting. That black-robed lady"s face veil had been blown away by the gust, sending her rectangular black veil swirling into the air. He could clearly see now that the lady was not old, probably in her mid-twenties. She had a common appearance, but her eyes were really big.
"Ah!" The big-eyed girl sharply shouted, as she used one hand to cover her face and another to grab at the face veil in the air.
Arabian women have always been known as being among the world"s most mysterious women. As they were bound by strict rules, they seldom showed their faces.
Even if they were to go out, they had to cover themselves completely, and were not allowed to make contact with anyone else. Otherwise, they would be deemed impure, then scolded and punished by the people in their society. Therefore, when her face veil got blown away, one could well imagine how afraid she felt, especially when it was in front of two foreigners.
w.a.n.g Bing laughed loudly, when he saw what happened. The girl was not tall, and as the face veil flew, it got caught on a tree branch a few steps away. She stood below the tree, desperately jumping to reach for it, but to no avail. She looked to be on the verge of tears.
"Whoos.h.!.+"
With two accelerated runs, w.a.n.g Bing jumped up and grabbed the face veil. After that, while watching the mysterious Arabian girl with a playful stare, he pa.s.sed the face veil to her. As he did so, he thought excitedly to himself.
The most mysterious of women...Today, we finally saw one without her mysterious veil!
However, it seems that the two had to pay a price for it, as to onlookers, the scene appeared quite different. To pa.s.sersby, it appeared as though two foreigners were surrounding a girl on the street, while holding on to the girl"s face veil.
Hence, when five boys, who were chatting and laughing as they walked by, saw this scene, their eyes flamed with anger. A picture was formed in their heads of two evil and cruel foreigners, who were cruelly blocking a beautiful young lady. To make matters worse, it looked like these two men had shamelessly stripped off the sacred veil from her face in broad daylight!
In this sort of situation, any Arabian would definitely stand up against them, much less a a group of five hot-blooded youngsters! The five Arabians" reactions were not only like arrows shot from the bow, but also like a wild bulls that have seen a red cloak! Immediately clenching their fists, they rushed towards the two foreign men in a mad rage.
In this sort of misunderstanding, even if the two had eight mouths and could speak the Arabic language, they would still not have been able to explain themselves in time. Chen Fan, his motto being "the less complications the better," pulled w.a.n.g Bing to run away.
However, when a person has bad luck, even the most impossible and craziest things may happen. Before they could even completely turn around, they could hear angry screams and shouts, as if their houses had been bombed.
Now, this is great…
Both of them were soon surrounded by an angry mob, with only a cl.u.s.ter of flowers on their left and a car on their right.
...
"Bakayarou!" w.a.n.g Bing"s eyeball made a turn, before he shouted in j.a.panese. Then, he kicked away an attacker, just as his fist was raised.
"Baka!" Chen Fan also shouted weirdly in j.a.panese. Then, he lifted his leg to trip another person.
w.a.n.g Bing was definitely a stumbling machine. With a pivot foot landed on the floor, he did not hide from these five people. Instead, like lightning, he raised his knee in mid-air to draw a flying arc and knock down two people with a roundhouse kick. Then, with a fist, he grabbed onto the arm swinging towards him, raising his leg again!
20 seconds later…
"Souka!"
"Yos.h.i.+!"
"Ah!" The lady sharply shouted, then used her veil to cover her face as she ran away.
Chen Fan and w.a.n.g Bing looked at each other, quickly crossed over a guy that was lying on the floor, then disappeared together into the sky full of yellow sand. After 10 minutes had pa.s.sed, the two youngsters came out from an alley in a distance, looked around a few times, then quickly grabbed a taxi to escape.
At the same time, a few police cars, sirens blaring, arrived at the scene, faced with a floor full of casualties.
"Two… Two j.a.panese did this…" said one of the men. He had a big moustache and was clutching his stomach and moaning. The three protagonists, who had caused this incident, were no longer present, having left only a floor full of casualties in their wake.
In just a blink of an eye, dozens of policemen also came rus.h.i.+ng to the scene from various regions. Some also went to nearby stores to check the CCTV, and some went out with their cars to search the nearby vicinity. Still others went to the immigration office to check for the records of these j.a.panese men. Needless to say, a series of other methods were also being used.
Half an hour later, at Riyadh International Airport.
"w.a.n.g Bing, do you think that the police will be able to find us?" Chen Fan asked w.a.n.g Bing softly, as he sat at the back hall, holding onto someone else"s newspaper, pretending to read it.
"I am not familiar with the investigative techniques over here, but I think the chances of them finding us are slim. We have been walking on the streets for a long time, so to use CCTV footage to identify us now would be almost impossible, unless they are willing to spend a large amount of time to compare frames, one by one. Even if they do manage to find us, it shouldn"t be a big issue, because there is no direct evidence to prove our actions. By the time they manage to find out about the truth, we would probably already be sleeping back at home in Zhongyun," w.a.n.g Bing answered, also pretended to read a newspaper.
"Sigh… This is really a bad accusation. We finally did a good deed, but ended up surrounded by people in a fight. Not to mention that we had to run away with our tails tucked between our legs, despite merely acting in self-defense!"
...
The streets of Abachel in Riyadh was home to 135 different countries" emba.s.sies and consulates, including China"s emba.s.sy in Saudi Arabia. Colonel Ye Xi was sitting in her office, using a computer to individually compare the records of people going in and out of China. Preventing spy infiltrations was also part of her daily tasks.
When she saw a familiar face, she used the cursor to click on his personal information.
Chen Fan: Han Chinese, 22 years old, residential address…
His visit to Saudi Arabia this time was registered as a business project inspection. His return to China was reported as being yesterday at six o"clock in the evening.
At the age of 22, he already owned a s.h.i.+p trading company with three cargo s.h.i.+ps and a small s.h.i.+pyard. His total a.s.sets were estimated to be around 120 million Renminbi. His parents were not tyc.o.o.ns, and all of these a.s.sets came about from a small company that was established half a year ago.
Based on the available information, he had no real criminal records either. This could be considered as the history of a typical youngster, who had obviously worked very hard to build up a fortune.
Ye Xi shook her head. A university student earning 100 million in half a year"s time? Perhaps if a serious inspection was carried out, at least 50% of his wealth would be uncovered to have come from unknown sources. Otherwise, there must be something fishy going on.
However, she did not have the time to investigate Chen Fan"s success story, because the foundation of tyc.o.o.ns in the country would be more or less unclean. If everything were to be meticulously investigated, probably 90% of the tyc.o.o.ns were going to become paupers, while another 8% would be running away to overseas countries. Thus, as long as it did not involve certain cases or crossing the legal limits, no one would be willing to do anything that would cost them their jobs.
w.a.n.g Bing…
When Ye Xi saw the information of w.a.n.g Bing, who had accompanied Chen Fan, she couldn"t refrain from feeling somewhat weird.
His grandfather and father were military personnel. At the age of 16, he was specially recruited by the armed forces, then sent to Nanjing military area to serve the army there, where he got third place in the army"s fighting compet.i.tion and first in the same compet.i.tion a year later.
At the age of 19, he entered the Flying Dragon Special Task Force. At the age of 20, he was sent to an unt.i.tled team for army service. At the age of 23, he was the combat instructor of a combat brigade. At the age of 26, he was sent back home, because he had fought with a military officer. After reporting to the armed forces back in his hometown, he sought out a career as a bodyguard.
"Broke an officer"s ribs?" Ye Xi shook her head, mumbling aloud.
A great future was ruined, just like that...
"Military Officer Ye, Saudi Arabia is organizing a military exercise tomorrow, and has invited our emba.s.sy"s military officers, together with 16 other emba.s.sies" military officers, to attend. Please get ready, as we are departing tomorrow morning at eight o"clock," said a guy with a colonel rank on his shoulder, as he gently knocked on the door.
"Yes, Officer Zhou!" Ye Xi nodded her head. The person who stood at the door was the Chief Military Officer here, who also happened to be her direct superior.
"Good. The exercise will be carried out at a place bordering the desert, where the temperature is relatively hot and dry, so be careful when the time comes." This Chief Military Officer spoke without the arrogance of a typical superior, in fact, his tone was almost gentle.
Of course, this was not because he had any motives towards the pretty Ye Xi, as he was already in his mid-thirties and had children already attending high school. He was merely being concerned and considerate towards his subordinate. It also didn"t hurt that Military Officer Ye Xi"s cousin was his direct superior, and not to mention, her father and uncles had even higher positions.
After a while, Ye Xi stood up from her chair, held her cup of coffee, and walked towards the window to relax her thoughts by looking at the streets below. The streets were very broad and had various beautiful flowers at both sides. Looking at the pa.s.sing pedestrians was very helpful for her.
When she had finished half a cup of coffee, Ye Xi spotted a large group of men in white robes, appearing at the left side of the street. Each of them were indignant, holding signs and pictures in their hands.
Ye Xi, who excelled in the Arabic language, instantly recognized the contents of those signs.
"We demand the j.a.panese emba.s.sy severely punish the murderers…"
"To serve justice for the insulted lady and the brave and righteous warriors…"
"The j.a.panese emba.s.sy must give us an explanation…"
"The j.a.panese must kneel in front of the Quran to repent…"
Immediately, countless question marks appeared in Ye Xi"s head.
This crowd looks like they are heading towards the j.a.panese emba.s.sy. Did the j.a.panese do something on the streets that angered the public?
When the crowd of men slowly walked closer, Ye Xi could clearly see the two pictures which were being held the highest.
Why does one of them look like the guy called Chen Fan, who was on the airplane and spilled tomato sauce on my face? And...The other one looks 50% similar to that guy called w.a.n.g Bing…
Two minutes later, the crowd surrounded the j.a.panese emba.s.sy, sitting on a piece of vacant land just in front of it. No matter how hard those j.a.panese emba.s.sy workers attempted to persuade them, they just would not get up and go away.
"Miss Ye Xi, can you please lend me your office window for a while, so that I may take a few photographs?" A lady with a camera hanging around her neck came in to the office, giggling.
"Zhang Yun, why is the crowd below attacking the j.a.panese emba.s.sy?" asked Ye Xi curiously, turning to address this lady.
"Apparently, yesterday afternoon, on Knox Street, there were two j.a.panese men blocking a lady, who then tried to forcefully strip her veil away from her face. At that time, there were a small group of local guys that rushed forward, but were all taken down with just seven moves by the two j.a.panese. The police investigated, but to no avail. Besides, the j.a.panese emba.s.sy were not very being cooperative with the police. This instigated the public"s anger, which is why they have now gathered in front of the j.a.panese emba.s.sy, requesting for the release of the murderers." Zhang Yun gripped her tiny fist emotionally. "This time, there will be news exposure, so I better take a few more photos."
"Stripped away the lady"s face veil?" Ye Xi could not help but lament the luck of these two j.a.panese men. "If this had happened in the city area, the police would most likely not have even needed to interfere, as the countless religious believers would have torn them apart."
"Wait a minute… Taking down a group of men with just seven moves?" Ye Xi suddenly remembered something. She then took Zhang Yun"s camera over and used the camera"s high magnification function to take a closer look at the two j.a.panese men"s faces.
After 10 seconds, Ye Xi confirmed that these two were not j.a.panese, but rather those two fellows called Chen Fan and w.a.n.g Bing! Although the pictures were drawn with some deviations, Ye Xi would recognize that black coat with stripes, which was worn by Chen Fan, anywhere!
After Zhang Yun finished taking her photos, Ye Xi walked to the front of the computer to look up Chen Fan"s personal handphone number, which had been registered in his profile upon his entering and exiting the borders.
...
At 8 o"clock in the morning in Zhongyun, Chen Fan was snoring in his sleep, when he was awoken by the sound of his phone ringing. Rubbing the corners of his eyes, he took the phone and saw the words "Unknown Number" displayed on the screen.
"Who is this person with nothing better to do, changing his number to hidden mode?" murmured Chen Fan, reaching to answer the call.
"Hi, good morning. I am a staffer from the China Emba.s.sy in Saudi Arabia. I have something to inform you about." On the other side of the phone was a voice that sounded like a skylark.
"Are you Ye Xi?"
Maybe because she had such a nice and unforgettable voice, but Chen Fan astoundedly had correctly guessed this speaker"s ident.i.ty on his first attempt!
"Cough… Cough…" Ye Xi was surprised that he was able to recognize her so quickly, using just her voice. After coughing twice to cover her embarra.s.sment, she said, "The act of you two stripping someone"s face veil on the street yesterday has been exposed. The Saudi Arabia police force issued a warrant this morning, requesting that we, the Chinese emba.s.sy, hand you over to them to attend a court trial. You guys better book a flight ticket over here now. Otherwise, the Ministry of Public Security will be forced to take extreme measures."
"Oh my G.o.d! Little sister, I think you got the wrong person. I am Chen Fan"s friend. He migrated to America this morning. That"s all, goodbye."
Hanging up the phone, Chen Fan had a suspicious look on his face. Since Ye Xi pointed out that it was me who stripped off someone"s face veil, then it would mean that the Saudi Arabian police force must have already investigated my whereabouts. However, it would not make sense to extradite us back there, right?
According to the regulations, if the Saudi Arabian police force were to request us to be handed over to them, then the emba.s.sy must reject them. Then, the criminals will be punished based on their own country"s laws.
But setting aside the matter of stripping people"s face veils off and brawling, even if I had stabbed someone, as long as I"ve already escaped back to my own country, not only would the Ministry of Foreign Affairs never agree to the extradition, even a punishment would not be able to be carried out there.
Is it possible that this girl was trying to make a fool out of me?
Chen Fan had not finished organizing his thoughts, when the phone rang again. And, again, the words "Unknown Number" flashed across the caller ID.
"h.e.l.lo.... h.e.l.lo…" Chen Fan"s throat felt dry.
"Chen Fan, are you done considering?"
"This…" Chen Fan could not stop blaming himself for having called out her name just now.
"Okay, I admit I am Chen Fan, but that was just an accident. The wind blew her face veil away to a treetop, and we were the ones who helped her get it down. But, coincidentally, we were seen by those men from far away, so they got furious and fought with us, as they didn"t understand the situation. What we did was purely self-defence."
"Oh, really? Well, regardless, it is useless to explain to me. I am not the court judge of Riyadh. So, you can only go and explain to the judge there!"
"Little sister, has there been any change in the law? I thought the Ministry of Public Affairs should reject any request of extraditing our citizens to another country?
Ye Xi stayed silent for a moment before saying, "That is true. However, you are now a wanted figure by the local police. They thought you were j.a.panese, so there are a lot of people sitting in front of the j.a.panese emba.s.sy right now, protesting."
Sensing he had won this argument, Chen Fan offered the half-hearted words, "You gave me a big scare."
After hanging up the phone, Ye Xi felt defeated. She had obviously failed to truly frighten him.
"If it wasn"t because of your military uniform, I would have definitely given you a good beating," Chen Fan said with resentment, after hanging up the call. It wasn"t as if I purposely splashed the tomato juice on your face.
He didn"t hope to continue sleeping after such an upsetting phone call, so after was.h.i.+ng up, he sat on the couch and turned on the television. He flipped through the channels, looking to see if there was any news regarding this incident.
Failing to find any related news, Chen Fan rubbed his head and took out his phone to read his messages.
He discovered that the five tankers had left Australia"s s.h.i.+pyard for Saudi Arabia. They would arrive approximately 10 days later, but must sail through the Gulf of Aden.
The Gulf of Aden was a known haven for pirates! Besides, the navy patrolling that area did not care about the s.h.i.+ps of other nationalities, but only their own s.h.i.+ps. After thinking about this matter for a few minutes, Chen Fan gave Abadi"s translator a call.
"h.e.l.lo, it is good news this time, so you better not tell me Abadi is not around again. Be quick and translate this to him."
"Alright, please wait for a moment…" The translator hesitated for a few seconds, then walked towards Abadi to pa.s.s along Chen Fan"s message.
"I am Abadi, what can I do for you?"
"I have something to discuss with you. I am going to have a few tankers pa.s.sing by there. In fact, it will be their permanent route a few times per year." Chen Fan"s mouth twitched. He then continued. "I am afraid that you guys will play some tricks on me, if I always make you watch helplessly. So, I have come up with a partners.h.i.+p for the both of us."
"What sort of partners.h.i.+p?"
"Every time you manage to discover my s.h.i.+ps as they pa.s.s the Gulf of Aden, I will pay 50 thousand US Dollars as a toll fee to you. If you do not manage to discover them, I will not pay you a single cent. Those five tankers are very easy to identify, as they display the names Cruiser-01 until 05."
"But I will remind you again. If you ever dare lay your hands on them, I will sink every single one of your s.h.i.+ps. I believe you know the pros and cons of this issue right?"
Chen Fan thought about it for a while and said, "If I ever request you to release other captured cargo s.h.i.+ps in the future, I will ensure that the owner of those goods will pay you a rate of 100 US Dollars for every ton, within a month"s time. That way, if you"ve hijacked a 50 thousand ton cargo s.h.i.+p, you can get 5 million US dollars as income. Thus, it is very profitable."
"Okay, I promise you!" Abadi quickly agreed.
"Good! Do you have a Swiss bank account? Let me know if you have one."
"I don"t have a bank account, because it will be seized by Switzerland if I use it…"
"I see. In that case, I will ask my crew to throw you the money, if they are discovered by your people," Chen Fan said, while he slapped his thigh and laughed.
"Similarly, I will also give you some benefits. If you ever need me to engage with any enemies on the ocean, just give me a call. The price is negotiable!"