Time Smuggling Starting from the Year 2000 Chapter 12

According to Rolin, the grains to be taken had better be active; that was, wheat instead of flour, paddy rice instead of rice.

These things could hardly be found in ordinary stores. Afraid that Rolin might change his mind, Huang Xuan asked Li Shenggang to rent two nearby warehouses. Afterward, he found secretary Lou again, dragged him to a meeting room and said: "Brother Lou, I need tens of tons of grains."

"Grains?" Lou Ping wondered about it, with the minutes in his hand. Looking for the right person to transfer his work to in his mind, he asked: "Why do you need grains?"

"Please don't ask. I am asking a favor," Huang Xuan said in a hurry. "If it is not so much trouble, could you please help me with this?" Huang Xuan put his palms together to make a plea. Lou Ping was too embarra.s.sed to refuse, then said: "Wait a moment. I need to hand over my work to my co-worker."

"OK. I will wait here." Huang Xuan sat on the sofa.

Actually, Lou Ping was unfamiliar with crops and didn't even know how many grades of flour there were; however, he had a specialty in channels. Half a day later, he called and said: "Huang Xuan, your request was odd so, I have inquired of some of my friends about it. Are seed grains OK? They are expensive."

"That's all right." Huang Xuan was anxious and said immediately: "I'd like 100 tons. Please make checks on them and ensure a quick delivery."

"No problem. Three days at most." Lou Ping was glad to hear Huang Xuan agree instantly so that he could take the next step. Feeling closer to the "crown prince" of the Group, he said happily: "I have approached two companies. It is ¥6800 per ton. Is it OK?"

Huang Xuan thought that three days was too long a time to wait. He rubbed his neck and said simply: "I will offer ¥7,000 per ton as long as they deliver them to the warehouse before 12 o'clock tomorrow. What do you think?"

Lou Ping didn't respond. He was off the receiver and was discussing it with others. After a moment, he said: "They will take it and start the delivery tonight."

"Okay. I am looking forward to your good news." Huang Xuan told him the warehouse's address and added: "Brother Lou, please help me check strictly on the quality. Quality goes above quant.i.ty,"

Hearing Lou Ping keep saying yes on the phone, Huang Xuan finally hung up and started to pack.

He took off his fas.h.i.+onable clothes and put on some simple ones. Then he took off his watch and necklace too and put on the cloth shoes the butler had bought for him by his request. He stood in front of the mirror, in a gray s.h.i.+rt and cloth pants, looking old-fas.h.i.+oned. After some thought, he took out a sheet of aspirin and quick-acting capsules for colds from the medicine chest and sc.r.a.ped the characters off the packaging with a knife.

Huang Xuan kept tossing and turning all night. Early the next morning, he picked up the small bag he had packed and rushed to the pavilion. He found the teleportation spot and with a flash of white light, entered the base.

The white plank house was the same, but he was in a much different mood this time. With the bag in hand, he looked like a new visiting son-in-law. He looked here and there, then asked: "Rolin, have the grains arrived yet? Are we set to go?"

"Yes, the grains have arrived," Rolin replied. "Do we set off now?"

"Of course." Huang Xuan kept waving his hands in excitement. "Let's go!"

With a slight tremor of the base, Huang Xuan already disappeared in the air. All that was left was the jingles of the metal b.u.t.tons and zippers Rolin had abandoned to save energy.

Huang Xuan was looking right and left in happiness while they were going through the colorful pa.s.sage, with no knowledge that his flyer was open. Then, in a blink of his eye, the pa.s.sage was gone, and a village appeared. Rolin said: "Here is destination P154T1061937W4348."

Huang Xuan felt his feet were weak as he stepped forward and looked around. The place looked like a mound; cooking smoke could be seen curl up in the distance, white clouds drifted in the sky and streams gurgled. The hill was covered with lush green trees that were common but were growing with natural beauty impossible to be seen in artificial gardens.

"Grains are stored temporarily in the pa.s.sage, but for no more than three days." If the intended plane could be certain, Rolin could teleport the grains until when they were needed; however, given the present grade of the base, the planes to be reached would be random. Rolin had to teleport the grains once and for all and store them temporarily at the entrance of the pa.s.sage. This method was feasible nowadays, but back to the days when plane travels prevailed, it had been impossible to place anything at the entrance of the pa.s.sage.

Huang Xuan didn't know anything about this. He sized up the surroundings with a smile on his face, then said casually: "Do you mean that I have to find a buyer within three days?"

"Something like that."

"OK." Huang Xuan was confident with his interpersonal skills. He thought that as long as the price wasn't too high, grains were supposed to sell well. He looked right and left, then walked toward the cooking smoke.

Rolin was still collecting information and said now and then: "On a plane after the shaking of s.p.a.ce and time, no sign of colonization."

"The year 1927 in standard time zone. Jiaxing City, China."

Huang Xuan's English was with a strong Nanjing accent. He had been worried that he would be teleported to a foreign country, in which case only Chinese would understand his English. Hearing that they were still in China, he was much relieved.

Collecting information was an important skill for base guardians because not all planes could survive the shaking of s.p.a.ce and time. While there was only one low-grade observation base in the plane Huang Xuan had been in, there was none in plane P154 which they had just reached. Since Rolin had scanned twice and found no sign of plane technology, he started to tell Huang Xuan things about this plane.

Like P112, P154 also developed from the shaking of s.p.a.ce and time. Given the principle of plane similarity, the humanity and geography of this place were extremely similar to the surroundings Huang Xuan had lived in before. Although the two planes might have the different time, without plane interference, P154 was like a twin of P112.

Rolin calculated P154 via P112. There was no electronic material at this age. Although he could read the paper material and even scan the entire planet, it would consume a great deal of energy, which was fundamental to plane ages. Nothing could be done without energy. Therefore, Rolin just scanned the nearby states, then checked with the data bank.

Huang Xuan was still walking toward the cooking smoke. The country road was rough, although there were already car lanes, dust was dancing in the air, stuck on his clothes and face. The cooking smoke looked close, but it was still a few kilometers away, which would take several bus-stops to finish in the 21st century. Huang Xuan, who had taken either a cab or another riding tool whenever he went out, had never walked so much before. He felt that his legs were as heavy as if they had been filled with lead. He was worn out.

"How far?" After tens more of meters, Huang Xuan couldn't go any farther and sat on the nearby ridge of the fields, regardless of his clothes.

"About 1 km to go," Rolin calculated quickly and answered.

Huang Xuan exhaled deeply as if trying to take off all the weight on his legs through it. He rubbed them then stood up. "n.o.body will come and help." Thinking so, he moved on. The curiosity about the new place had been long gone.

At this point, Rolin started reporting geographic information again, as if he was trying to offer some mental support to Huang Xuan. He said in his typical voice: "Present location: Ganpu Town, Haiyan County, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, equivalent to the year 1927 in standard time zone. What other information do you want to know?"

"Information about making money." Huang Xuan clenched his teeth and said: "Thank G.o.d you didn't throw me on a mountain or in the woods; otherwise I would be dead."

It seemed that Rolin didn't get the sarcasm. He said: "Although the location is random, without purposeful adjustment, we can still approach a former likely entrance spot. So, the possibility of going into a mountain or woods is minuscule."

"Oh?" Huang Xuan responded with a m.u.f.fled voice: "A former likely entrance spot? You mean, time travelers in the past?"

"Yes," Rolin answered immediately. "The level of danger here is K6. Note that according to the records of P001, the year 1927 tends to have ma.s.s wars, which has been verified."

"Talk to me." Huang Xuan was intrigued at once. He had never been interested in history at school but was concerned about current affairs. Now that he was in a new time, he would like to know what was happening around him.

"On April 12th in the standard calendar, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was founded. On April 18th, the national government was established in Nanjing…" Rolin kept talking as if he were reciting a textbook. The clear sky and the clean running water had told Huang Xuan that he was already in a different age. If he weren't, he would have paid no attention to a word Rolin had said.

"The Autumn Harvest Uprising took place on September 9th and The Guangzhou Uprising on December 11th." Huang Xuan repeated these sentences quietly, which he and maybe his father too, had heard more than once from his grandpa. Following closely the wheels of history, the history of the Huangs had begun.