Published at 30th of March 2019 12:30 am

Chapter 152: Military Official

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The slim-figured girl couldn’t have more than a few years’ difference in age as Chen Fan. If not for the two bars and three stars on her shoulder which bedazzled him, Chen Fan thought that she could even be Yun Meng’s classmate.

“Please make way!” The colonel reminded Chen Fan again.

“Oh, alright, alright” Chen Fan quickly stood up from the seat and let the pretty colonel in.

The 07-style uniform not only have the rank on it, there was also an armband and a name badge on the right chest. The colonel was facing Chen Fan just now, and Chen Fan only saw the name badge on her chest which had the two words “Ye Xi” printed on it, but did not see her armband. Therefore, Chen Fan started looking at her armband after she was seated, wanting to see which department she was from.

A colonel taking a plane to Saudi Arabia, and wearing a military uniform, this meant that she must be entrusted with a certain mission instead of acting on her own accord.

On the shield type armband was a type of national emblem that Chen Fan wasn’t familiar with. Instead, there were two crossed sabers in the center of surrounding wheat, and a bright red five-star flag embroidered above the sabers. What made Chen Fan’s jaw dropped further was, the words “Ministry of National Defense” were embroidered above the red flag.

Although she was wearing a “Ministry of National Defense” armband, it didn’t mean that she definitely worked there. However, this was much more exciting than meeting big stars like Andy Lau, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li on the plane.

After sitting down, the young colonel named Ye Xi just looked to the side in silence, like other girls who either adjust their phones to “turn off wireless” mode to listen to music and play games or read magazines nonstop.

Chen Fan wanted very much to strike up a conversation with the female colonel, like ask her how did she manage to get around at work? She actually got to the rank of colonel at such a young age, and also why was she going to Saudi Arabia?

Although she looked quiet and easily bullied, the words “Ministry of National Defense” on the armband sent a chill down Chen Fan’s spine. It wouldn’t be fun if he got treated like a spy.

The plane had already been towed by the tractor toward the runway. Chen Fan suppressed the curiosity inside him and crossed his arms in front as he went into meditation.

Not long after the plane soared into the clouds, the air stewardess pushed the aluminum cart and distributed lunch to each passenger one by one.

The plane would reach Saudi at 7 p.m. local time, so Chen Fan had to settle his lunch and dinner on the plane.

The food provided in the business class of an international airline was not bad. There were a total of three types of main courses, six dishes, and various desserts and beverages to choose from. There were rice, bread, fried noodles, beef brisket, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, etc.

Chen Fan chose a set meal with rice as the main course, whereas the lady named Ye Xi chose one with fried noodles as the main course. After pulling down the tray table in front, Chen Fan quickly wiped out the rice and asked the air stewardess for another set. It couldn’t be helped, since he was in the prime of life, and he could really eat, as if there was a meat grinder in his stomach.

After Chen Fan finished eating and burped twice, Colonel Ye Xi was still eating the fried noodles in small bites. She probably liked sour stuff. After putting a packet of ketchup into the fried noodles, she took a second packet and wanted to tear it open.

Probably due to the negligence of the production staff, the ketchup packet did not have teeth to make tearing it open easy. Ye Xi tried twice but did not tear it open and could only put it back to its original place.

“Let me help you tear it!” Chen Fan smiled and took the ketchup on her tray table. How could she be military personnel when she couldn’t even tear open a packet of ketchup? She should be an actress for “The Dream of Red Mansions.”

It was only after Chen Fan took the ketchup that he realized it didn’t have any teeth and was really difficult to deal with. Not only was the surface smooth, more than half of the inside was filled with ketchup and there was only a half-centimeter sealing strip. Chen Fan pulled twice but it slipped from his fingers both times. If the packet of ketchup was his, Chen Fan would definitely put it into his mouth and use his teeth to bit. However, with a beautiful lady beside him, Chen Fan would never do something so unrefined!

After rubbing his fingers, Chen Fan pinched the sealing strip tightly and then used all his strength!

Bang! A small hole exploded from the sealing strip of the packet and the thick bright red liquid inside shot from under Chen Fan’s eyes in the form of elongated strip onto the face of Colonel Ye Xi who was beside him.

Chen Fan could only gasp before the ketchup hit the porcelain-like face of Colonel Ye Xi.

Chen Fan subconsciously licked away the ketchup on his fingers, and then looked at the spots of red ketchup on her face in shock. The ketchup was very red, and her face very white. The two formed an extremely discordant pattern.

It was too fast, and too unexpected. Chen Fan was still unable to react from the shock.

Ye Xi was also not yet able to react. The fork in her hand froze as she stared at Chen Fan in disbelief. Uh, there was even ketchup on her curved eyebrows.

“This… I… sorry, sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Chen Fan quickly grabbed a facial tissue and wanted to wipe away the ketchup on her face, but changed direction halfway and put it into her hand. After all, the two had only met by chance, and he might be seen as taking advantage by doing that.

“I’m fine!” There was no anger from Ye Xi’s expression. After taking the facial tissue, she wiped away the ketchup on her face bit by bit.

“There’s some here!” Chen Fan pointed at his own forehead. It was actually on part of her hair hanging down, but Chen Fan was unable to demonstrate with his crew cut hair.

Ye Xi changed to a clean piece of facial tissue and wiped a few times but didn’t manage to find the correct position. “On the hair, on the hair!” Chen Fan stretched out his index finger and gently pointed beside her forehead.

Ye Xi retracted her face and wiped according to where Chen Fan pointed at.

Luckily, the ketchup didn’t sputter onto her military uniform. After wiping carefully a few times, there was no trace of it.

After the air stewardess cleared the tables, the two went into silence again. Although Chen Fan wanted very much to chat with her, he could only continue playing with his electric eel after seeing Ye Xi’s unhappy look.

Just as the plane took off, the electric eel dug up another skeleton. However, the skeleton was a little pathetic; its skull had been smashed into a big hole, and there was even some residual gravel inside.

As of now, Chen Fan did not find any remains of metal weapons, but only stones and the like. This meant that their history exceeded more than 4,700 years, and they were likely to be human beings from the Stone Age.

China’s bronze vessels appeared from 4,700 years ago, and were gradually replaced by metal vessels more than 2,000 years ago, spanning about 3,000 years of history, so Chen Fan concluded that their history exceeded 4,700 years.

……..

It was sunset and night was approaching. When Chen Fan’s party of four walked out of the plane’s cabin door, a surge of hot air came toward them.

Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh is of a tropical desert climate, and the temperature in summer can sometimes reach about 50 degrees. Although it was now autumn, the high temperature made Chen Fan feel like he was in midsummer.

“Holy crap! This colonel became an embassy’s military official at such a young age? Her dad must be really amazing!” Wang Bing who was walking beside Chen Fan saw Ye Xi’s armband and exclaimed at once.

“Embassy’s military official?” Chen Fan couldn’t figure that out. “What’s that? A bodyguard in the embassy?”

“No!” Wang Bing shook his head and pointed to her armband. “See the words ‘Ministry of National Defense’? She belonged to the National Defense Military Officials, which is totally different from a bodyguard. It is official post responsible for military diplomacy and cooperation. Not only does it enjoy diplomatic privilege of meeting the highest military officer anytime, it also enjoys immunity. That means, even if she punched someone on purpose, the police do not have the right to arrest her and have to leave it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate.”

“Whoa, isn’t that awesome!” Chen Fan’s eyes were larger than those of a bull.

“Indeed!” Ma Rongtao also pursed his lips.

After seeing the pretty female military official get into a black car, Ma Rongtao tapped Chen Fan’s arm and pulled him out from his shock.

“Let’s find a hotel for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll go to Riyadh’s landmark, Kingdom Tower, to meet the nephew of the minister of petroleum and mineral, Abdul.”

The first impression Saudi Arabia gave Chen Fan was monotony, extreme monotony. Not the buildings there, but the people.

For the pedestrians he met on the way, the men were all unified in white robes and white shawls, looking like Osama. As for the women, they were all black gowns and black shawls. The only difference was they had an additional black mask, and the only visible part of their bodies were their two round eyes, making it impossible for one to tell their age and looks.

“Goodness, this is killing me! I wanted to look at beautiful foreign girls, but all I can see now is black cloth!” Seated in the car, Wang Bing covered his head with his hands miserably.

“Go to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates if you wanna look at beautiful girls. There are beautiful girls from all over the world lying on the beach there. People like Julia Roberts and Britney Spears frequent there. Who knows, you may even see them skinny dipping!”

“The best part is, if you get their local nationality, not only can you marry four wives, the government also subsidizes the cost of living for the five of you which is equivalent to 4,000 RMB every month. You get an additional 100,000 for marriage and 50,000 for childbirth. You don’t have to come up with a single cent before the child turns 18. Everything is paid by the government, including studying overseas.”

“What?” Wang Bing blinked. Was Chen Fan talking about a fairytale? How could there be such a wonderland in the human world?

“Don’t believe? Go do some research later, and you’ll see.” Chen Fan gave Wang Bing high hopes and then dampened his enthusiasm. “But the houses there cost over 200,000 RMB per square meter on average. You need to have four houses if you marry four wives, and you have to pay them in full without any housing loan.”

“Isn’t that simple? First I’ll use up my entire fortune to get a small house of over 10 square meters and then marry and divorce repeatedly 100 times. Wouldn’t I then be able to get five houses from the government?” Wang Bing’s eyes beamed, looking as if he wanted very much to give it a try.

Ma Rongtao who was drinking mineral water didn’t swallow the water and almost choked.

As the capital of the world’s oil superpower, although Riyadh is not as luxurious as Dubai, it was no less than any metropolis Chen Fan had seen. The fancy cars, some of which Chen Fan knew and some which he didn’t, even had Ma Rongtao who was the richest man in Zhongyun in awe.

…….

The next morning at 7 a.m., Chen Fan’s party of four arrived at the landmark building of Riyadh, Kingdom Tower.

The Kingdom Tower was constructed by a Saudi prince’s funding, and was listed as one of the new “Seven Wonders of the World” for new modern buildings by the famous American travel magazine “Cond Nast Traveler.” It is a building with a very special style, with a triangular hole at the top quarter of the building, looking a little like a bottle-opener. Needless to say, the hole is not for opening bottles, but for withstanding hurricanes by letting them pass through to reduce the building’s resistance.

It is similar to the tall buildings in mainland China. Its first to third stories are shopping malls with all the luxury brands in the world. Above the third story are various corporate offices and private residences.

After they walked into Abdul’s private club, Chen Fan finally understood the meaning of “Nouveau riche.”

Holy sh*t, the handles on the two doors were made from 8,000 grams of gold, and even the carpet below the feet were made from giraffe skin, looking extremely stylish.

Abdul was the nephew of the minister of petroleum and minerals, 32 that year. Like most peripheral members of the royal family, he made use of his identity to get a considerable number of oil fields at a low price, and the amount of oil exports alone each year was more than 20 billion USD.

After the two mustached men in green military uniform scanned his body with a metal detector, Chen Fan finally met the oil magnate.

“May Allah praise and bless you, my dear Abdul!” After walking into the hall, Ma Rongtao went forward in stiff Arabic and warmly held the hands of the mustached man in a white robe sitting on the couch. Needless to say, that was the only Arabic sentence he knew.

“May Allah bless you too, my partner!” Abdul’s moustache shook as he smiled. “Is this the business partner you wanted to introduce to me? He looks really young!”

“Hello, how are you!” After listening to the interpreter interpret in Mandarin, Chen Fan also smiled and held his hands.

“Please take a seat!” Abdul gestured for them to sit down and got an attendant to brew some tea.

“Young man, you must be tired after travelling from the far east. Come try our calyx tea, it’s effective in relieving fatigue.” Abdul touched his dense moustache as he smiled. “This type of tea is picked only three days a year, although it is also planted where you come from, but the taste cannot be compared!”

“Mr. Abdul, may I know how much a barrel of crude oil you export is?” After the tea was served, Chen Fan drank a sip and felt that it was a little sour, but tasted quite good.

“According to the international crude oil price that day, if it is more than 100,000 tons at one go, I can give you a one percent price fluctuation. If more than 200,000 tons, it would be two percent. More than 300,000 tons of course, the price cannot exceed five percent.

Abdul smiled as he drank the calyx tea. “My requirement is at least 10,000 tons shipped each time, and also a signed long-term agreement of a year or more. It cannot be purchased as government procurement, otherwise the price has to be raised by three percent. We’ve signed agreement with OPEC, so the price positioning is different for different countries.”

“Yes of course!” Chen Fan readily agreed to Abdul’s request. Anyway, he only had to pay a five million USD deposit, which he could afford to lose. If anything really cropped up, he could just quit this line and go collect protection money at the pier here.

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