Chapter 125: Porter left?
Boateng handed a letter to Xia Fei, but he did not let him open it straight away. He led Xia Fei into the office and very carefully closed the curtains as well as locked the door first before he allowed him to open the letter and read its contents.
Xia Fei did not understand why Boateng had to be so careful. He curiously opened the letter and took the white piece of paper from within.
This was something a good majority of people had already forgotten as the modern humans preferred sending electronic mails or doing video-calls and other such technologically advanced methods to communicate with one another. No one would have thought that Old Porter would preserve such an old habit.
The words written on the letter were neat and elegant. It was hard to imagine that Old Porter’s calloused hands would actually be capable of writing such graceful characters. The language he used was a very old meteor script, looking like countless meteors that had interwoven together to form a whole—the characters beautiful and complex.
“Meteor script!” Phantom exclaimed out of great surprise. “Only the n.o.bles and some ancient family clans of the Alliance will teach this script from young. It’s a script that n.o.body can master without spending decades of time and effort learning it.
“Meteor script is a sort of status symbol; the commoners won’t waste so much of their time just to learn this sort of beautiful but complex script. Old Porter actually knows how to write it… I’m afraid his background isn’t as simple as a mere mechanic.”
Hearing Phantom’s explanation, Xia Fei’s suspicions grew. It was a good thing that his brain had that pretty quality translation chip embedded, so he was able to recognize this ancient language. He carefully read it once.
“Boateng, you are my most loyal apprentice; having you by my side made this master of yours very gratified.
“By the time you read this letter, I will have long left. I’m off to take back some abandoned things. There’s no need for you to try and find me; you won’t be able to, anyway.
“There’s no reason for this factory to continue existing any longer. Sell it and split the money you get with your fellow apprentices. Treat it as the parting gift of this master of yours. Give a portion to Sonny’s family, too. His family had aided me quite a lot when I first arrived at the wars.h.i.+p graveyard. There are also those other workers. Be generous with their severance pay; let them go find work in other factories.
“Songsan and Lina are with me. One is disabled, while the other is a lady. It isn’t convenient for them to stay at the factory anymore, so I’ll personally see to their safety.
“Also, I’ve left something for Xia Fei. It’s in my safe—the code to open it is your birthday. If I’m not mistaken, Xia Fei will most definitely come back, and when that comes, I’ll need you to give it to him. Finally, burn this letter once he’s done reading it.”
Xia Fei placed the letter down on the desk, deep wrinkles across his forehead. Old Porter did not mention what he was off to do in the letter, but reading between the lines, he reckoned that he was not coming back. Otherwise, he would not have had Boateng sell this factory that he had devoted plenty of his sweat and blood. After all, this was his lifeblood’s work.
“Master’s not coming back, is he?” Boateng nervously asked. He actually already understood what happened, it was just that Boateng felt unwilling to accept such an end, which was why he was asking for Xia Fei’s opinion.
Xia Fei nodded his head. “Yeah. Uncle Porter sounded very resolute in his letter.”
Boateng hung his head low in disappointment, a pained expression etched on his face, “Why did master leave… Weren’t we doing just fine here…”
Xia Fei lit a cigarette and consoled the man. “Perhaps Uncle Porter really has something important that he must do. That’s right; what s.h.i.+p did he pilot when he left?”
“A Gaian Tristan-cla.s.s frigate, fully equipped with weapons and has a twin engine system installed,” Boateng replied with a heavy heart.
Xia Fei was slightly surprised. A twin-engine system was an atypical setup. Given how the warp engine technology of today had been highly developed to such levels, installing two engines would not increase any wars.h.i.+p’s performance by much, not unless it was used to traverse distant or highly dangerous locations.
What he was certain was that Old Porter had likely made prior preparations for this trip, and his heading must be a location with very extraordinary environments, and that was why he had intentionally piloted a twin-engine wars.h.i.+p.
“Just what sort of environment would require a twin engine system?” Xia Fei bowed his head to ponder upon this.
Boateng asked for Xia Fei’s lighter, then burned Old Porter’s letter. The expression on his face showed some incomprehensible bitterness; his eyes were dull.
Xia Fei sat beside him and did not say anything, for he could not think of the right words to console the man at such a time. After all, the emotions a master and apprentice shared went deeper than that between any normal acquaintance. Boateng was even willing to divorce his wife than to leave Old Porter’s side; it was enough to show just how loyal the man was to his master.
Getting up, Boateng called Xia Fei over to the safe in the office and entered the pa.s.scode but did not open it himself.
“Master left you something. You can go ahead and look; I’ll be heading out first.”
Boateng moved to leave when Xia Fei grabbed him. “You don’t have to leave. We can take a look at it together.”
“No.” Boateng repeatedly shook his head. “That’s what the master left for you, and he didn’t say that I could see it.”
This obtuse man was simple and completely stubborn. Xia Fei suddenly felt that he was quite like Phantom in terms of utmost respect for their masters, both becoming extremely serious. The only difference was that it was the one thing Phantom could be serious about, and he was lackadaisical in anything else.
Xia Fei smiled. “If Uncle Porter left this to me, then whom does it belong to now?”
“Yours, of course.”
“Since it’s mine, can I not invite you to look at it with me?”
“This…” Boateng was speechless. When it came to reasoning, he was simply no match for Xia Fei. They were pretty much not on the same level, and Xia Fei had a lot more tricks up his sleeves.
Actually, Xia Fei still had the intention of recruiting the man. For Quantum Holdings to establish its transport fleet, what they lacked now was an expert to oversee the maintenance of it, and Xia Fei’s ideal candidate for that was none other than Boateng.
With Old Porter gone and the factory about to be sold off, this was indeed a rare opportunity. If he could pull someone as loyal and honest as Boateng in his team, it would be an immense help to Xia Fei.
A true talent was hard to come by, and though Boateng had quite simple-minded, that loyal and honest personality of his was not something money could buy.
“Since you’re not protesting, I’ll take it as you’re in agreement.” Xia Fei laughed as he said this.
He reached deep into the safe and took out a black metal box. It was not too large in size, and the workmans.h.i.+p was very simple. It even had uneven parts, looking as if it had been in use for many many years.
Xia Fei placed the box on the table and gently opened it.
“Hmm? What is this?” Xia Fei wondered aloud.
Inside was a small, round golden ball. Xia Fei reached in and placed it upon his palm to examine. The small, golden ball was no larger than a hawthorn fruit. Many ancient and strange imprints were carved on its surface, and it felt quite heavy in his hand.
Xia Fei lifted this golden ball to Boateng and retrieved a slip of paper from the bottom of the box. This letter of Old Porter was also in that complex meteor script.
“Xia Fei, I must say that you’ve left quite a good impression on me. This here is an ultra-long-range receiver from the ancient civilization. You can have it. I’ll contact you the moment I locate what I’m looking for. There might be some things that I could use your help with.” Xia Fei read the content of this slip of paper out loud.
Boateng was abruptly startled by this revelation. “Master will be contacting you?”
Xia Fei nodded. “It seems to be what he means to do from what is written right here.”
Boateng very animatedly grabbed Xia Fei’s arm. “Hey, didn’t you say that you want to recruit me as your a.s.sistant to help you out with repairing wars.h.i.+ps of the ilk? I’ve thought about it, and I’m willing to do it.”
Xia Fei was shocked. “Boateng, how did your att.i.tude change so fast? Don’t you wish to take some time and think about it some more?”
“There’s no need!” Boateng decisively declared. “Since my master will be contacting you, following you means that I’ll get to see him again. I don’t even need a salary. I’ll be fine as long as you allow me to accompany you.”
The corner of Xia Fei’s mouth crooked into a smile. Old Boateng had inadvertently helped him immensely. Originally, he prepared to try all sorts of methods just to recruit Boateng, but now, there was no need for all those things. Boateng himself had requested to follow him, and there was no way he would chase the man away.
He glanced at Phantom, and sure enough, that emotional a.s.sa.s.sin had been moved by Boateng’s determination. Complex emotions swirled on his face, looking at Xia Fei before looking at himself. Phantom ducked back into the Moore Stone and did not say another word.
Pouring two cups of tea, Xia Fei sat right across Boateng. “I’m okay with you following me. In fact, I welcome you with open arms, but I’m still studying at the Heaven Execution Training Camp, so it won’t be too convenient to have you around.”
Boateng was evidently very anxious when he heard this. “Then, what am I to do?”
Xia Fei chuckled and said, “There’s no need for you to worry; I have a company back on Earth called Quantum Holdings. Right now, it is lacking a maintenance supervisor. Why don’t you work for my company there in the meantime? When I acquire news about Uncle Porter, I promise to inform you at once.”
Boateng seemed to be somewhat hesitant. He felt ill at ease if he was not right by Xia Fei’s side.
“Earth is my home planet, and though the level of technology there isn’t very advanced, its environment is much better compared to the wars.h.i.+p graveyard’s. It has four seasons in a year, with wondrous weather you can enjoy. There’re also oceans that stretch far beyond the boundless horizon. Your daughter should be at the age to go to school while your wife isn’t physically healthy. This isn’t an environment suitable for raising your family in.”
Xia Fei appealed to Boateng’s emotions and reason first before the latter was persuaded in relocating himself and his family to Earth and taking the job there. Xia Fei was of course elated. It was as the saying went: ‘Once a problem is solved, everything else will follow suit.’ Boateng was not only a great s.h.i.+p maintenance mechanic but also an expert in machine-handling. With him on his staff, Quantum Holdings could definitely reach new heights, technologically-speaking.
With the topic at the end, Xia Fei decided to bring up his intention to purchase freighters.
After hearing the present state of the company, Boateng advised, “A large freighter will be priced around three billion star coins. It’s too much of a waste for Quantum Holdings to make such a purchase given its scale.
“I suggest that you buy a fleet of industrial s.h.i.+ps to transport tools. Industrial s.h.i.+ps are easy to operate, and all they need is a three-man crew even for long-distance transportations. The maintenance costs of industrial s.h.i.+ps are also way lower than a large freighter, so you can have a small fleet of industrial s.h.i.+ps as a start. it won’t be too late to purchase freighters later when the scale of your business is bigger.”
Xia Fei and Boateng happened to hold the same view, so a short discussion between the two was all it needed to come up with a decision of buying eight Gaian Iteron industrial s.h.i.+ps to establish their first transport fleet.
Iteron industrial s.h.i.+ps possessed a 250,000 cubic meter of cargo s.p.a.ce, enough to handle any transport errands they would have at the moment. Furthermore, the price of such industrial s.h.i.+ps was cheap. A new s.h.i.+p would only cost about twenty million star coins, and this price would be further halved if it was a.s.sembled here on the wars.h.i.+p graveyard, meaning that there would be no more than ten million star coins each.
“That’s right. Have you heard of any wars.h.i.+ps that are cla.s.sified as interceptors?” Xia Fei suddenly recalled that Stiletto-cla.s.s interceptor he had encountered on his way back. He felt extreme wariness toward the extreme high speeds that s.h.i.+p had demonstrated then, which was why he was asking about it now.