BXBX NOVEL Chapter 350 How Much For Her?
Chapter 350 How Much For Her?
The room provided by the hotel was indeed quite good. At the very least, it appeared clean. If he did not know for a fact that he was presently in Africa, he would have thought of this hotel to be no different from the hotels in China.
After entering the room, Chen Xiaolian re-inspected the room to confirm that there was nothing amiss. Only after having done that did he lock the door.
He found a map of Kabuka on the table inside the room.
This discovery surprised Chen Xiaolian.
While hotels would generally have the map of the local area, this place was Kombia.
Chen Xiaolian opened up the map and checked it.
The hotel was located in the east side. The entire city of Kabuka could more or less be defined as east rich and west poor.
The west side of the city was the slums while the conditions on the east side was somewhat better. Most of the rich and government officials stayed in the east side of the city.
There was also a shop in the hotel, which specialized in various items, such as cigarettes, alcohol and other tightly controlled goods.
Naturally, their prices were not cheap!
Comparatively speaking, the west side of the city was in a much worse state than the east side.
The west side mostly consisted of shacks and littered rubbish. Additionally, the state of law and order there was not good.
Kombia was constantly plagued by domestic wars. Even the current President Zayad had attained his position through a coup. Despite how chaotic the situation had become, despite how many poor people there were among the people, the number of guns remained substantial.
Getting robbed in the day while simply crossing the road was a common thing in the west side – although Kabuka was the only place in Kombia with a police station, the police officers would only care about the east side and not the west side.
Looking at the map, Chen Xiaolian noted that this hotel could already be considered as a landmark in Kabuka.
There were only three or five other landmarks that he could see on the map.
The most important one was Chen Xiaolian’s goal.
The presidential palace!
The presidential palace was located to the south of the east side. Looking at the map, he saw that there was less than three kilometres between here and there.
Chen Xiaolian sat on the sofa and inspected the map intently. At the same time, he silently attempted to memorize all the surrounding streets, directions and routes.
When the sky turned dark, he left the room and walked downstairs into the hotel’s restaurant.
To his surprise, there were quite a number of people there in the restaurant.
There were some well-attired Africans, wearing suits made of leather; they sat inside the restaurant and had their dinner inside. They held onto knives and forks in an elegant manner while a beautifully soothing music played in the background for their pleasure, and they ate as they conversed in hushed tones.
The waiters there were all very polite and they wore suits with a bow tie.
If Chen Xiaolian had not known that this was Kabuka, he would have mistaken this place for an European restaurant.
On a table at the side, an African with a napkin placed upon his neck was opening his mouth widely as he gorged down on caviar.
It was not hard to imagine just how pricey caviar would be in a place like Kombia.
Chen Xiaolian was unable to stop himself from thinking back to when he had first entered this city. He had seen the poor, unkempt civilians in ragged clothing who sported hopeless expressions.
Those people were so thin they were practically walking skeletons. But this African who was relishing the taste of caviar was so fat it seemed as though the chair might not be able to accommodate his ass.
Chen Xiaolian then heard one of the waiter servicing the African man address him as ‘Minister’.
Chen Xiaolian recollected himself.
He ordered a steak for himself. To his surprise, the steak was quite good and the cutlery was actually pure silver!
He then ordered a bottle of wine – although it was just an ordinary bottle of wine, the price was above $100!
After he ordered the bottle of wine, the waiters’ attitude toward him had clearly changed – naturally, even though this was the only luxury hotel in Kabuka, that price tag was not something that anyone could afford.
Chen Xiaolian deliberately ate slowly. At the same time, he furtively observed the African minister who was seated at the side.
Sometime later, the minister was finally done enjoying his dinner.
Someone who looked like the manager of the restaurant quickly walked in.
The manager moved until he was beside the minister. Behind him were three women with very beautiful makeup.
One was Caucasian while the other two were African. They wore highly revealing evening dresses, high heels and a strong perfume.
When the manager reached the minister’s side, he bowed and whispered a few words to the minister before pointing at the three women behind him.
The African minister became excited. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the three women. He carefully appraised them, their faces, chests, waists…
Chen Xiaolian could more or less guess what this was about.
To his surprise, the African minister did not pick the Caucasian woman. Instead, he pointed to the two African women and nodded.
The manager swiftly revealed a smile and instructed the two women to sit on the minister’s left and right.
Next, the manager led the Caucasian woman away.
As they were walking past Chen Xiaolian, he suddenly spoke up, “Wait.”
The manager was surprised and he stood still and looked at Chen Xiaolian.
With the pure silver table knife in hand, Chen Xiaolian pointed at the Caucasian woman beside the manager and asked, “How much for her?”
The manager was momentarily shocked. Before he could regain his wits, the Caucasian woman had quickly interjected while pointing at herself, “I am high-grade goods, $100 per night.”
Chen Xiaolian smiled.
One hundred US dollars, not quite as expensive as the bottle of wine he had popped open just now.
“Ok, you stay.”
Chen Xiaolian pulled out a piece of $100 bill from his pocket and placed it on the table.
The woman glanced at it but did not reach out for it.
Chen Xiaolian was quick to understand. He picked up the bill and waved it at the manager. “This is yours, and she is mine.”
The manager quickly revealed a flattering smile. He used both hands to accept the $100 bill and stuffed it into his pocket. Then, he bowed and said, “I wish you a pleasant night, esteemed sir.”
Chen Xiaolian watched as the manager left happily. Then, he turned to face the Caucasian woman and said, “For him to be so happy, it seems I’ve had to pay a high price.”
The woman pursed her lips and gave an awkward smile, not knowing how to answer.
Naturally, Chen Xiaolian’s actions had attracted the attention of the African minister who was seated on the table beside him.
Seeing Chen Xiaolian fork out the money for the Caucasian woman that he had rejected, the African minister was unable to stop himself from laughing out.
Chen Xiaolian quickly turned around and raised his cup of wine to toast the minister. The minister grinned and lifted his own cup in response to toast Chen Xiaolian.
With just that one move, the two strangers appeared to have grown closer.
“I… can I eat some?” The Caucasian woman looked at the dishes on the table that Chen Xiaolian had ordered and she pursed her lips.
“Sure,” replied Chen Xiaolian who wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“… thank you!” There was a look of gratitude in the Caucasian woman’s face.
Chen Xiaolian raised his hand and had the waiter bring another set of cutlery. Then, he watched as the Caucasian woman gulped down a portion of the vegetable salad and bread.
He then stood up, bringing the bottle of wine with him as he moved toward the African minister’s table with a smile.
“Good evening, Mr,” said Chen Xiaolian with a relaxed smile. He brashly pulled out a chair and sat down before saying, “Me sitting here, you don’t mind, do you?”
As he said that, he put down the bottle of red wine on the table.
Seeing the bottle of red wine, the minister smiled brightly. “Of course not.”
“Please excuse me for being so bold. Truth be told, I just want to have a drink with you. See, isn’t this an interesting turn of events?” Chen Xiaolian revealed a smile that made him look like a seasoned playboy.
The minister laughed out loudly – naturally, he understood what Chen Xiaolian meant by ‘interesting turn of events’.
Chen Xiaolian glanced at the two African women who were seated beside them and said, “Ladies, now you are responsible for serving the wine.”
The women obediently picked up the bottle of wine and poured a cup each for the minister and Chen Xiaolian.
After seeing Chen Xiaolian drink the wine first, the minister lowered his guard and he too, lifted his own cup of wine and drank its contents.
The minister then looked at Chen Xiaolian’s table and the Caucasian woman who was eating there.
“Too wasteful.”
“Mm?” Chen Xiaolian knitted his eyebrows.
The African minister pointed at the Caucasian woman and said, “For such a good food to be fed to these low-class humans is simply too wasteful. Since you’ve paid for her, there is no need for you to feed her. For women like these, just some food from the outside is enough for them. The food inside this restaurant are things that they will never have the chance to enjoy.”
Chen Xiaolian smiled coolly.
“Also, why did you choose a white devil?” The minister drank another cup of wine and began to chat away. “Here, white women have no value.”
“Why is that?” Chen Xiaolian felt curious – wasn’t this Kombia? The number of Caucasian women should be limited here.
“These white devils… some of them have dirty hands and feet. Additionally, they are also very dangerous.” The minister pursed his lips to the side and continued, “Just a few months ago, an incident had occurred. An unfortunate fellow had his ‘that’ bitten off by a Caucasian woman! Thus, for safety reasons, I chose not to have a white devil sleep with me.”
Hearing that, Chen Xiaolian finally understood.
No wonder that had happened. From a beauty point of view, the Caucasian woman’s beauty was a notch higher than the two African women. Yet, she was not picked.
“Special incidents are rare.” Chen Xiaolian purposely laughed out in a disgusting manner. “I for one love to sample the finer things in life.”
The minister laughed out in response.
The two of them exchanged glances which said ‘this is something that all men understand’.
The bottle of red wine was soon finished. Chen Xiaolian generously ordered another two bottles over.
After draining down the third bottle, the minister was obviously getting drunk.
It wasn’t long before Chen Xiaolian pried out some information from him.
This fellow’s name was…
Oh fine, since this fellow was drunk, when he introduced himself, he had uttered a name consisting of at least 10 words. Additionally, he had spoken using the native language and Chen Xiaolian simply could not be bothered with it.
However, he had a very interesting identity.
He was… the Deputy Minister of the Kombian Ministry of Transport.
Chen Xiaolian thought about how he did not see a single expressway on his way here; not a single highway that was comparable to China’s could be seen… additionally, all the roads in this city of Kabuka were all terrible.
Linking the dots together, Chen Xiaolian was able to surmise where the money for this Deputy Minister of Transport’s caviar had come from.
To Chen Xiaolian’s surprise, this African minister also held another identity.
He was the brother of President Zayad’s wife – the President’s brother-in-law.
Mm, thinking about it, Zayad had 16 wives… only God knows which one of the President’s wives was his sister. Kombia did not have any birth control program. Thus, Zayad’s 16 wives… the number of brother-in-laws would probably go to the dozens…
However, for him to be able to attain this position of Deputy Minister of Transport and live such a good life, Chen Xiaolian speculated that Zayad was treating this brother-in-law of his quite well.
“I came to Kombia to do business.” Chen Xiaolian introduced himself.
“Oh? What business is available here?” Clearly, this minister was now drunk. “This Hell like place that has no mineral veins… ah, are you in the arms business? Or smuggling? Mm… could it be you are someone who deals with those dirty poachers?”
Chen Xiaolian gave a light smile and said, “Truth be told, I can do any business. I am also willing to do it… as long as I can make money.”
“Making money in Kombia is not easy.” The minister sighed.
Chen Xiaolian quickly took the opportunity to say, “That is why I urgently need a special permission from His Excellency, President Zayad. Naturally, I would be most honoured if I could personally meet His Excellency.”
As Chen Xiaolian spoke, he put a roll of US dollars on the table and slowly pushed it forward.
The amount in that roll went up to nearly $10,000.
The African minister immediately turned somewhat sober.
The Kombian government lacked discipline; it also had no anti-corruption agencies. Thus, this African minister would have no scruples in taking it. The amount there made him secretly happy.
$10,000 was enough for him to lead a life of indulgence for days.
The Ministry of Transport was so poor, what little amount of money it had was not enough to satiate his greed.
“If sir Deputy Minister can arrange a meeting with the President for me, I will thank you with even more,” said Chen Xiaolian. He had noted the trace of greed showing though the minister’s eyes.
The minister stretched out his fat palm to cover the roll of US bills on the table. Then, he pulled his hand back. Naturally, the money was no longer on the table.
“Just what type of business are you into exactly?” asked the African minister seriously.
“As I’ve said, I’ll do anything that can make money.”
“But His Excellency, the President is not someone who will meet up with just anyone. I can give a recommendation, but I will need an acceptable reason.” Clearly, this African President was not a complete moron. The minister then continued, “Unless you have something that can interest the President…”
Chen Xiaolian thought about it for a moment and said, “Firearms?”
The minister laughed. “Firearms… we’ll have to pay with money. Are you thinking of getting money from President Zayad’s pocket?”
Chen Xiaolian reflected on it and said, “What if what I want is not money?”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“I want to… survey for mines.” Chen Xiaolian made up a lie.
The minister suddenly laughed out loudly. It was as though he had heard the most ridiculous joke.
“Ha ha ha ha! Mines? You want to find mines here? Youngsters!” The minister continued laughing. “The Germans, French, British and Americans have come here to search before! As your friend, as thanks for the few bottles of wine you have treated me to, I will give you this kind advice. I can tell you, Kombia has no mines! Nadda!”
Chen Xiaolian nodded his head – not bad, this fellow has a bit of conscience in him.
“Don’t you worry about that. I happen to have the best surveying technology at my disposal and thought I’d try my luck… to me, this is simply spending a little bit of money as a gamble. If I win this gamble, I will get millions back in returns. If I lose… I’ll just lose a little bit of money.”
Chen Xiaolian deliberately emphasized the words ‘a little bit of money’.