Chapter 52 (2/2)

”What's going on?” he asked grimly, looking at the messy room.

”He hit me,” the guy on the ground said with a swollen face and a thick tongue.

Facing the ten-odd st.u.r.dy Germanic men who might have become militiamen, Huang Xuan thought it was better to reason with them. He gave a cough and said, ”He refused to take my wheat and cursed me.”

”Oh?”

”He said he had five thousand pounds of wheat. Such a trouble-maker…” the guy with a fat face explained right away. His voice went lower and lower and finally stopped. The old man's face was even grimmer.

Huang Xuan laughed secretly. ”Such a stupid guy! If I were him, I would say that he wanted to buy on credit or raise the price instead of talking about what I think.”

Although the old man's face was as black as if it had been stepped on by someone, he managed to suppress his anger and said to Huang Xuan, ”What he said…”

”I indeed wanted to sell five thousand pounds of wheat to you.” Huang Xuan looked at the st.u.r.dy men around him and continued, ”There are 60 thousand pounds of wheat of mine in the warehouse at the port.”

The old man glanced at the mess on the ground, worried about letting Huang Xuan go. Then he said to a man standing beside him, ”Guderian, go and check the port. This mister, which chamber of commerce do you belong to?”

Of course, Huang Xuan didn't belong to any. He took out the leasing contract and the key. After having thrown the latter to Guderian, he said, ”Let him check for himself. We can talk later.”

The Germans in the room were surprised to see Huang Xuan hand over the key.

”Go get a cup of coffee,” the old man said to the guy on the ground with a swollen face and left.

The Germans on the spot cleaned up the room quickly and threw the broken counter out. The place was soon back to its normal order. Huang Xuan sat on the chair next to him with legs crossed. He savored the coffee and looked at the sloppy guy beaten by him provocatively. The environment was pretty comfortable to him except for the three burly men standing in front of the door.

Guderian was back soon. He greeted Huang Xuan cordially, asked others to take good care of him, and then walked quickly into the backyard. Huang Xuan looked at the guy with a swollen face, curled his lips up, and made a gesture of kill.

The guy stood up quickly. The person beside him pulled him back onto his chair. Huang Xuan laughed loudly without a word, but everybody understood the meaning of his laugh.

Before the guy could vent his anger, Guderian walked in. He said to Huang Xuan with a smile, ”Mr. Adolf wants to see you.”

Just like other chambers of commerce in Germany, the backyard of Honeywell was made up of bungalows. The warehouse was built closest to the main entrance. In the middle were some flowers and gra.s.s, which were of common varieties and were growing well.

Adolf was waiting quietly in the hall of the backyard, in the middle of which were put French style table and chairs. After the episode, he remained calm, savoring the wine in his hand.

Huang Xuan sat casually on the chair opposite Adolf and said, ”Shall we do business or talk about something else?”

”Business, of course,” the old man spoke fast but didn't sound hasty. Although Huang Xuan couldn't understand what he said, he felt that this was a methodical man.

”What's the price?” Huang Xuan asked directly.

”52 Talers every 1,000 pounds,” Adolf said with a smile. That was two Talers more that the offer of the former shop.

”Deal!” Huang Xuan held out one hand and said readily.

Guderian looked at Huang Xuan in shock until he walked him out. To him, this kind of style in business was rarely seen in an Asian person. After all, that was a deal of more than 3,000 Talers.

After the clerks of the chamber of commerce had examined the wheat in the warehouse, Huang Xuan smoothly received 3,120 Talers. Although Huang Xuan was alone, Guderian didn't take all the wheat. It had to be admitted that the Germans were honest in business. If it had been in France, it might have turned out to be totally different.

Huang Xuan rented several more warehouses with the money and sold all the materials he had taken with him after he had approached a few more chambers of commerce. When all this was done, it was already nightfall. Huang Xuan wasn't relaxed until he had put the last bag of silver coins into the plane pa.s.sage.