Time Smuggling Starting from the Year 2000 Chapter 9

Huang Xuan had breakfast with his mom in an amicable atmosphere. In the past three days, he had behaved himself. Although unable to stop his mom from supervising his bank card, he managed to get an allowance of 5,000 bucks, which wasn't even enough to pay the diesel bill. He had to owe his cousin for the electricity, hoping that he wouldn't remember it too early. The problem remained that the four generators only produced 20,000 kWh or more each day. Although the electricity stock of the construction site was huge, it could be transferred only during non-working hours, which was just a drop in the bucket, compared to Rolin's needs. At last, out of choices, Huang Xuan suggested using home electricity to Rolin, which was rejected sternly.

In Rolin's opinion, as long as the electricity bill was paid, the authority wouldn't care much about its flow; unless it had been stolen, in which case, both the authority and individuals would show major concern. Also, the abrupt increase in electricity consumption would definitely draw the butler's attention. Thus, just to be safe, he refused to steal it from his home. At this point, Huang Xuan slapped his own head and felt he had slim chance to complete the task.

He was in a bad mood when his cellphone rang. He answered it in an aggressive tone. "What?!"

"Is it Huang Xuan? This is your Uncle Deng." This Mr. Deng was a master of chumming up with people. However, Huang Xuan was unhappy at the time and thus, was no longer as polite as he was the day before. He asked bluntly: "What do you want?"

It seemed Deng Liwei didn't notice the difference between Huang Xuan's tones. He said in a little rush: "Do you still have the program you sent me yesterday? There is a company which is interested. Would you like to come and have a meeting with them?"

Huang Xuan paused the game he was playing, held the phone in between his neck and shoulder, and asked: "Who are they and how much are they willing to pay?"

Mr. Deng was astonished to hear Huang Xuan mention the price immediately. He thought that as the son of general manager Zhang, Huang Xuan would have shown more concern about the programs. Despite his confusion, he said in an amiable manner: "It's Lianyou Company, which is doing well and has developed several office systems for us. They said the price was negotiable."

Entering Sharing Sky Website, Huang Xuan saw spa.r.s.e download and application records of his programs, Code I and Code II.

He unpaused his game and said: "I am occupied right now. If it's OK with them, I can talk with them over the phone."

"OK." Mr. Deng asked: "What are your terms?"

"F-" Huang Xuan was about to say 500,000 yuan when he shut up, prolonged his voice, and said: "F...rom our talk yesterday, you can see I don't know this stuff. What terms do you think I should offer?"

Deng Liwei remained silent for a long moment, then replied: "They said they wanted to meet with you and the terms were negotiable."

"I am grounded by my mom." Huang Xuan started using his mom as an excuse, and said while playing the game: "You tell them to cut to the chase and put forward their offer directly."

Deng Liwei was silent again. After two minutes, Huang Xuan got impatient. Sensing this, Deng Liwei finally said: "I've talked to them. They made an offer of 1.2 million for the entire copyright."

That was more than twice the price Huang Xuan had expected. Of course, he was glad to agree to it, but thinking that Rolin had brought it from a more advanced s.p.a.ce and time, to avoid future trouble, he added: "1.2 million is OK, but just for this edition. The revision of the editions should be approved by me." He thought for a while and continued: "Uncle Deng, I know little about this stuff. You tell them that they can't reprogram it or use it for other purposes."

Deng Liwei hesitated, then covered the receiver. Huang Xuan wasn't in the mood to play anymore, so he closed the game and started to wait. Very soon, Deng Liwei went back to the phone and said: "They have agreed to your terms. When would you like to sign the contract?"

"This noon," Huang Xuan said hastily, reluctant to wait any longer.

"Good," Mr. Deng agreed instantly. Huang Xuan stood there and was in thought. Then he put down the phone and went back to his computer.

The formal signing took place in the cafe near Huang Xuan's home. The other party was astonished to find out he was such a young boy. Afterward, Huang Xuan signed the contract gloatingly while receiving floods of compliments and a pre-tax sum of two million.

After the money had been transferred into his newly opened bank account, Huang Xuan came to the construction site. He decided to spend all of it before his mom knew anything about it.

Li Shenggang had been busy with his errands. In the real estate agency, although he had been working hard and was always toadying, he was a n.o.body. Even his immediate superior was barely familiar with his face. However, one single phone call had changed everything. Even the general manager knew his name. "I must seize this opportunity," Li Shenggang thought.

Therefore, Li Shenggang had spared no costs to meet Huang Xuan's demands, although he thought they were absurd. He didn't even hesitate to displease the project inspector to use the electricity from the construction site. He had figured out that he would never get promoted by leaning on these co-workers and should thank G.o.d if they didn't push him aside. However, if he could attach himself to such a bigwig as the heir to World Group, he wouldn't give a d.a.m.n about his co-workers, and they would look up to him.

Certainly, Huang Xuan would never understand Li Shenggang's thoughts. Seeing two more units of generators had been added and 20,000 kWh of electricity had been borrowed from the site in the past two days, he started to think that those triangular eyes were not insufferable after all.

Rolin got more than 50,000 kWh of electricity by the energy chain, which was a good beginning, although far from 10 million.

Watching the busy generators, Huang Xuan shouted to Li Shenggang in the middle of the rumbling noise: "Did you spend all the money renting these generators?"

"Yes," Li Shenggang said, blinking. "These are all well-working 250 kWh generators."

"What about diesel?" The diesel needed by one generator cost more than the rent. The money Huang Xuan had given him was just enough to pay the deposit.

"We can borrow some from the account of the site temporarily," Li Shenggang said with no sign of embarra.s.sment. Huang Xuan wasn't embarra.s.sed either but seemed worried about giving his money to Li Shenggang.

Shaking his hands, Huang Xuan couldn't bear the noise anymore. He covered his ear, pointed to his pocket and said loudly: "I have some more money. How many more units can we place here?"

"As many as you wish." Li Shenggang's laughter was covered by the rumbling. "From here to the foot of the mountain over there, it all belongs to us. There is enough s.p.a.ce."

There seemed to be over one kilometer from here to the foot of the mountain, undeveloped, lush green with weeds and trees. Huang Xuan nodded in relief and said: "According to your calculation, what would be the cost?"

"The daily rent of one generator is 3,800 bucks. Each generator consumes around 65 liters of diesel per hour. Thus, one kWh of electricity costs more than 1.6 yuan. I have approached Shangcheng Technology Company, and they said the more we rent, the lower the price would be."

Li Shenggang's explanation was in detail. It was clear that 10 million kWh of electricity would cost 16 million yuan. Although the electricity from the site was cheaper, it could provide only thousands of kWh each day, the help of which would be little.

Each generator worked 20 hours and cost 8,400 yuan every day. In a matter of two days, Huang Xuan had owed nearly 100,000. Six generators would cost 1.5 million RMB every month. While calculating, Huang Xuan forced a wry smile. "This is crazy."

"Four more units." Huang Xuan clenched his teeth and made a hard decision. "I have transferred 200,000 yuan into the account of the site. Pay off the arrears first. The rest will have to wait for two more days."

"All right." Without a single question, after a tap on his yellowish brown suit, Li Shenggang pulled out a small account book from his pocket, handed it to Huang Xuan, and said: "This is the accounts in these two days. Please, young manager Huang, have a look."

Although Huang Xuan didn't have the slightest clue of the intricacies of the accounts, he pretended to be reading the tens of pages carefully. His mom had taught him that the point of supervision didn't lie in how many fishy things you found out but how it was conducted. He hadn't paid much attention to these words before, whereas when it came to his own money, it would be a different thing.