Two Places (Part Three)

Feelings became more important to the elderly. So were they to Huang Jindi.

In the past two weeks, he had felt tired and low-spirited which he disliked. He had worked all his life and wasn’t expecting idle later years.

However, the reality was stubborn, even more than the elderly.

Either the deficiency of energy had triggered his eagerness for nature, or the craving for life had made him religious, Huang Jindi started to study Taoism and Buddhism. It was in this kind of mood that he had seen Huang Xuan at the anniversary. An indescribable feeling had seized him that his first-born grandson wasn’t as bad as people had rumored. If he had another 20 years, he would have been able to cultivate a perfect successor.

He felt that fear for the future had been his biggest weakness, although others didn’t see it in this powerful old man, which had made him content with things as they were and unwilling to reform the decaying and enlarging Huang Family.

Unknowingly, Huang Jindi had seen Huang Xuan as himself. He hoped that his first-born grandson wouldn’t follow his bad example and would be able to keep the family going, which only he could.

“Be brave…” Huang Jindi had pinned his hope, the only thing time had been merciful enough to offer him, on Huang Xuan.

There were many flights from China to Brazil. People could take Air France, Lufthansa, or KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to transfer in Europe, South African Airways in Johannesburg, and United Airlines in America, which would require an American Visa. To get Huang Xuan an American visa for some leeway, Zhang Xinyi picked United Airlines, the much dearer one, for him, on the excuse that to transfer in Europe would take too long, which demonstrated her shrewdness.

The flight would take off at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Huang Xuan looked up at the white clouds. He had taken care of everything: saying farewell to his family and classmates, leaving the factory to Li Shenggang temporarily, and so on. The base would still be at the factory, but as long as Huang Xuan took the energy chain with him, he would be able to keep in touch with Rolin. With this most important job done, at the moment, all Huang Xuan felt was the sadness to part with his family.

When his mom saw him off, she acted strong, as if her son was going on a tour. Huang Xuan hugged her and said to himself, “I must come back proudly!”

When the flight became steady, the passengers were gestured that they could unbuckle their safety belt. Huang Xuan couldn’t wait to take that imposing thing away. Then he looked out of the window while ignoring his father’s expression.

Big clouds were floating below the wings of the plane making the blue sky an ornament. Huang Xuan greedily watched these familiar or unfamiliar scenes in his daily life, afraid that he would never see such clouds or blue again after he got off the plane.

“Rolin, are you there?” Although Rolin had promised, Huang Xuan was still worried that he would disappear when he needed him most.

“Yes.”

“Can you cure my grandpa?”

“He is not sick, just weak.”

“So?” Huang Xuan felt that he, himself, had become weak too.

“There’re many ways to get vigorous, but I can’t do them right now.”

This was something Huang Xuan had already known, but he had felt an impulse to ask and had finally got disappointed. The clouds outside the window rolled back. His lips shivered. “Rolin, when can you do them?”

“They not only demand a high level of the base but also materials from the current plane. The exact time can’t be estimated.”

Huang Xuan was silent. So was his father, who was reserved, faultless in being a father but inarticulate. Usually, his communication with his son was done by Zhang Xinyi; however, even he was sad now. His life assistant, Li Qing, who had just been promoted to be the acting butler, was accompanying them with few changes of the responsibilities yet a dramatic increase in the salary. For Li Qing, staying at home and going to Brazil made no much difference. Traveling abroad for free might be delightful; however, maybe the silence of Huang Xuan and his father had affected him, he looked worried.

Speaking of Brazil, many Chinese had known it for its football, samba, and the carnival, but few knew its beans and coffee. In fact, as the strongest economy in Latin America, Brazil has the biggest production of sugarcanes, coffee, and oranges in the world, the second biggest production of cocoa and beans, and the third of corn. Furthermore, China was the biggest importer of Brazilian beans. When a Chinese bought a bucket of soybean oil, there was a probability of 10% that it came from Brazil.

The investment of the Huang Family was mainly in ports and agriculture. Brazil was strange with agriculture. Different from China, which had started farming thousands of years ago, Brazil was still reclaiming the land. It had 0.4 billion ha of arable land and 1.2 billion ha of utilizable land. However, there were only over 50 million ha of cultivated land, which accounted for only 6% of its total area, despite a yearly increase of 1.8% over the past two decades. Such data would shock any Chinese. If Emperor Qin Shi Huang had known about this fertile land, he would have dreamed of conquering it.

Huang Xuan was reading the document his mom had given him, an enclosure of a share assignment agreement, which said, “Assign the properties in Brazil of the Huang Family Funds to Huang Xuan. The properties in question shall be managed by his guardians before his 18th birthday.”

The Huang Family invested most in Brazil. They had a wholly-owned subsidiary, Shengfeng Company, which owned three ranches of the famous savanna, and took up 120,000 ha. According to the purchasing price back then, they were worth $1,070 each ha, and $130 million in total. In addition, World Group and the Huang Family Funds respectively held a half of the shares of Xihuang Industrial Company, which held 10% of Docas Company’s shares. Docas was worth more than $150 million, it had constructed ports and enjoyed the operating rights of the world’s biggest export port, Santos, and ten-odd other ports of different sizes. Therefore, all of sudden, Huang Xuan possessed $200 million. Furthermore, both of the properties were fine assets and the mainstay for the family to extend abroad. Ceding such important properties to a minor grandson was the main reason why other people of the family were opposing it so violently.

For this, Huang Jindi must have tried really hard.