Back home, Huang Xuan saw Aubrey, who was in a suit, at once.
"Mr. Aubrey came for you. I let him wait for you in the living room," Li Qing explained.
Huang Xuan nodded and shook hands with Aubrey.
"Mr. White, I am sorry for keeping you waiting. I have plans tonight. Let's get into business."
By then, still nothing had been heard from Rolin. Huang Xuan started to realize how much he relied on the base. He didn't know how the interpreter had interpreted "get into business". Nor could he listen to Aubrey as if he was listening to Chinese, which made him feel that he had lost his judgment on the talk. Luckily, he hadn't chosen to talk with Aubrey in English. Otherwise, there would be no way for them to talk about specialized issues.
Aubrey briefly talked about the purchase of the storing company, during which Huang Xuan's mind had been wandering. Aubrey stopped, said something else and was ready to leave. Huang Xuan didn't get up to see him off but walked into his own bedroom. He found the energy chain and called Rolin's name in a low voice. Waiting, quietly.
After the base had been upgraded to level 22, the energy chain had been of little use in saving energy. Huang Xuan had almost forgotten it.
It was getting dark. A cloud of dust was raised, and trees were rustling as if somebody were brushing them.
"Huang Xuan, dinner's ready." Li Qing knocked lightly on the door.
"OK," Huang Xuan responded spiritlessly.
"Time for dinner."
"OK!" Huang Xuan became impatient. Suddenly, he realized it was Rolin that had been talking to him this time. He jumped off the bed and asked, "Are you back? Everything OK?"
"Yes. It is advantageous to fight in my own territory. There is just a small problem."
"What problem?" Huang Xuan was worried.
"A power cut occurred in Nanjing. There wasn't enough energy, so to make sure the base was safe, I secured a lot of electricity through the energy chain. Now you must think out a remedy."
"That's fine." Huang Xuan was relaxed. "What happened today? What do you mean by fighting in your own territory?"
"Some time travelers intruded into P112."
Rolin answered calmly, but Huang Xuan was shocked.
"Where are they? What happened?" he asked, blinking his eyes.
"They must have intruded by mistake. Their time machine was above level 21 but was in a negative energy circle and the time travelers were in poor health. I have forced the passage closed but didn't find any intruders."
"Have they left?" Hearing the word "intruders", Huang Xuan was scared. "Will it be an army? That will be a huge trouble."
"After the passage is closed, the intruders won't be able to escape from P112. I hope you can help me find them."
"What will happen to them when they are found? How many of them?"
"Just help."
The blunt answer sounded so familiar that it even made Huang Xuan feel warm. He nodded immediately and asked, "How can I help you?"
"A lot of energy."
"Understood."
Huang Xuan opened the door and shouted, "Brother Qing, ask Aubrey to come back."
Against Aubrey's expectation, before his company could close the deal on Capres, Huang Xuan expressed his interest in buying a few big energy enterprises and storing plenty of oil, gas, and ethanol, to which he firmly objected because it was stupid to spend 100 million dollars purchasing before a detailed plan was made. However, his client had made up his mind.
"The sooner, the better."
"How is it possible to settle it in days? A purchase is like a war, which might take only two or three days, but the preparation might take months or even years," Aubrey thought, but half an hour later, he met Ned, the representative of the Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom, who brought a letter of credit of 100 million dollars. Ten minutes later, the investment advisor of the United Bank of Switzerland brought another letter of credit of 100 million dollars. All of a sudden, Aubrey started to be anxious.
After dinner, all the representatives of the banks informed had arrived. Li Qing served some snacks.
"That's it. I want to buy some energy companies and hope you each can do an investment report for me. If it is OK, I will entrust you with the purchase," Huang Xuan said while eating mung bean cakes.
Charles Dutoit with the United Bank of Switzerland writhed his body and asked, "Is the investment volume of Mr. Huang limited to the 100 million dollars deposited in our bank or not?
Obviously, the others were also concerned with the question. Huang Xuan smiled and answered, "I have 250 million dollars in cash that can be employed in investment. I intended to assign the companies among you three banks, but if your report is good enough, I won't care about who will execute the purchase."
After that, he looked at Aubrey and said, "I hope Mr. White can settle the issue of the storing companies in these days."
"Don't worry." Aubrey nodded his head hard. "It sounds that Huang Xuan has decided to let Citigroup purchase the storing companies, meaning that Citigroup has already won advantages over the other two banks. A month ago, we thought that this teenager had only two million dollars in cash, but suddenly, now, he has 250 million. Is there gold everywhere in China?"
"One more thing." Huang Xuan looked at the three and tapped on the table. "I want to buy crude oil or ethanol delivered in July. Any suggestions?"
One of the most important indexes in futures trading was circulation. The goods delivered later usually possessed better circulation, and thus were more expensive. The closer to the trading day, the closer to the price of the goods on hand. Hence, goods delivered in July were the same as goods on hand.
Aubrey was worried that Huang Xuan didn't understand it. He gave a little cough and said, "Mr. Huang, I have a question. Do you want to deal in forwards and futures or goods on hand?"
"Goods on hand, of course."
Aubrey smiled. It seemed this client knew a little about futures business.
"Only Chicago Merchandise Exchange deals in ethanol futures presently. It is in small trading volume, and many customers choose delivery settlement. There are many kinds of crude oil, such as light oil, medium oil, and heavy oil. Besides, there are differences according to the sulfur content and the places of origin too, which both cause the differences in cost. Which kind of oil or which place of origin of oil would you like?"
"It doesn't matter."
Poor Mr. White had never met such an investor, whom he would call stupid. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and decided to make it clear.
"Mr. Huang, how much do you want to buy, and how are you going to store it?"
Huang Xuan had become impatient. Rolin didn't even know, how should he know? He drank some tea, then put the cup down and said, "I am going to spend 50 million dollars on it. As for the amount and the storage, they are your job. Otherwise, why do I pay you the commission? Right?"
"Sure. Sure. Mr. Huang, don't worry. Please leave them to us. We guarantee you an excellent job."
"I want the goods on hand as soon as possible. No matter how many there are, deliver them to Sao Paulo. That simple. Whoever is done with the scheme first gets the 50 million dollars. Clear?"
"Clear," the three answered in chorus.