Chapter 363: Unloading
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Liang Chai sat alone in the chair, looking solitary. His cold face refused everyone that approached him. After spending more than thirteen million Hong Kong dollars on an emerald pendant, the gift was still exceeded by someone's twenty-million dollar roadster. Liang Chai was unpleasant. To him, the ten-million price difference was no big deal, but being exceeded by other people and losing face mattered much.
From afar, Liangcheng Jia's arrogant look kept attacking his confidence, which made Liang Chai felt even worse. What an upstart! Liang Chai snorted. As the third generation of Hong Kong shipping magnate, Liang Chai looked down upon these mainland rich people. His grandfather began his shipping business in the last century, since World War Ⅱ ended, and had become one of the richest people in Hong Kong in the early nineteen seventies. Even the new richest man, who enriched his family through land and property, was very polite in front of Chai, the King of Ships.
On the contrary, most mainland rich people earned their fortunes in the recent ten to twenty years. Although many of them had caught up to Hong Kong rich men, they were not able to exceed the wealth rankings in Hong Kong people's hearts. Priority remained.
However, at this moment, priority was just an excuse to comfort Liang Chai himself. Although Chai's family was wealthy, Jia's family was about the same. Besides, Liancheng Jia was the rich second generation, while Liang Chai was the third generation. The son definitely inherited family property sooner than the grandson.
On the other side, Liancheng Jia was flattered by the crowd, flattery such as "Young master is bounteous", "Mr. Jia is forthright", and so forth, and Liangcheng Jia's vanity had been greatly satisfied. As such, he absolutely put on an arrogant face, enjoying this happy moment.
"Mr. Jia, is your car the grand finale of the latest Donggang International Car Exhibition? I inquired about the car, and they told me that it was already reserved. I have been wondering who is so generous, never expecting it's you! Mr. Jia, is this car vigorous?"
"Haha, Yang Chen is our specialist on roadsters. Hey Yang Chen, would you like to introduce the car to us?" Liangcheng Jia said with a smiling face.
Yang Chen knew that Liancheng Jia wanted him to flatter him in a different way. But Liancheng Jia did say one thing right, the only person who truly knew about cars was him.
Yang Chen cleared his throat, then said: "Mr. Jia's Ferrari is Ferrari's flagship sports car. This car has a hy-kers hybrid power system, 6262cc V12 engine, and can reach speeds up to 200km/h within 7 seconds, accelerate from 0 to 300km/h within 15 seconds, and its fastest speed is 350km/h. This car is exclusive, as there are only 499 of the same model cars, and it is the best roadster in the world. Moreover, based on its speed, this should be the fastest Ferrari roadster."
Yang Chen's introduction made Liancheng Jia feel even better. He couldn't help looking at Liang Chai, who sat alone sulking, satirizing in his heart: You are from Hong Kong Chai's family, so what? Your family has been declining, a few years more, and you are won't even be qualified to clean my shoes.
At this point, a beep rang from afar. A truck with a container appeared, slowly drove in to the resort villa's gate, and parked in front of the crowd.
"Whose gift is this? It's carried by a truck, must be a big one. What do you think?"
"I say it's a 90% probability it is a roadster, too. Other things don't need to be carried by a truck."
"And it's packed by a container. What a mysterious gift."
"You see, the loader is a foreigner!"
Two foreigners got off from the back of the truck. The one with a red beard opened the container door, then took out a remote control and pressed a button. Mechanical gears transmitted, then, gradually, a support stretched from the container. There was indeed a roadster in the container.
However, the roadster was tightly covered by a layer of white plastic film, and although people saw the shape of the car, they couldn't tell its color, let alone its logo.
The red beard foreigner kept pressing the remote control, bringing the support slowly down, and finally landing it on the ground.
"This container should be specialized in shipping roadsters, seems to be first class."
"I feel the same. The whole car is covered by plastic film, looks mysterious, plus two foreign loaders, hey, the level immediately raised."
People involuntarily recalled that, not long ago, when Liancheng Jia's Ferrari was shipped here, the car was also loaded on a truck. But the differences were, that Ferrari was carried by a trailer, and was driven off from the trailer. On the contrary, here, this roadster had a special shipping container with a hydraulic support, so unloading was completed simply a remote control.
Although a remote-control hydraulic support didn't contain much high-tech, it was automatically functioning, which was completely different from manual operation. It was similar to thirty years ago, when people switched TV channels by twisting a button, then later, remote control was invented. But it was the remote control which raised the levels of television. Besides, there were two foreign loaders!
The two foreigners were sent by the European shipping company. They were not only loaders, but also technical advisers for unloading. After all, a polymeric membrane had been protecting the car. This membrane could even block sharp blades, so it definitely needed specialists to uncover it. But in the crowd's eyes, the two foreigners raised several levels up for this gift.
It was like dining out in a restaurant, where one sat in a French restaurant, with a violinist playing beautiful songs, and the waiters were all foreigners, with golden hair, blue eyes, dressed up in suits and ties, speaking French, and the menu was written in French, as well. Even though the guest could not understand the menu, he would feel the restaurant was exotic with high quality.
But, in contrast, if one ate in a noodle house, served by an old man in a sleeveless sweater and flip flops, who spoke dialect, asked about the food you wanted, then made loud noises when stretching noodles. Even if the beef noodle soup tasted way better than the French cuisine, the guest could not feel any romantic sentiment.
Thus, this scene of a professional container, electronic unloading, whole-cover polymeric membrane, plus two foreign loaders, altogether made a gorgeous packaging for the product. The value of a product could be increased by packaging. The same apple, which was worth one yuan in a local market, when put it into a special fruit and vegetable market with a tag, and stored in a fresh-keeping cabinet, the apple could then be sold for four to five yuan. But if it was kept in a delicate box, and was sold at Christmas Eve, the the price could be tens of yuan.
Liancheng Jia looked embarrassed. Although he had no idea whose car it was, the unloading process had already humiliated him. He even began to regret that he didn't buy a container and hire some foreign loaders, too. It wouldn't cost much anyway.
Who's being deliberately mystifying here?! Liancheng Jia snorted. But he could not restrain the others' curiosities. To be honest, even he was eager to know what kind of roadster was under that white protection membrane. Everyone's attentions fell onto the membrane-wrapped roadster. Many people talked in whispers.
"A roadster again, whom does it belong to? And the car is protected under a membrane, what kind of car is this?"
"No idea, it looks pretty high-tech. From its streamline design, it should be another roadster."
"Well, it doesn't really matter what car is it. What car can be better than Mr. Jia's laferrari?"
"Makes sense. How can this car exceed laferrari? But back to the topic, who sent it here? Mr. Jia bought a roadster, he also got one, how can his car be better than Jia's? Isn't he looking for humiliation?"
"Right. People are afraid of outfit clashes, same as sending gifts! The key point is, in this gift clash, his gift is not as good as the other's. What does the proverb say again? "Comparing with other people, the lowest rank will die; comparing with other products, the worst product will be thrown."
Those discussions went into Liangcheng Jia's ears, which made him feel better at once. That's true. No matter how gaudy your car packaging is, how can yours exceed my laferrari?! Mine is the most expensive car in the entire Donggang International Car Exhibition! The best roadster in the world! Liancheng Jia thought confidently.
While Liancheng Jia was comforting himself, suddenly an exclamation rang from the crowd: "Oh my God, this is...this is..."
A figure shot pass the crowd and rushed directly toward the car, peering at the unwrapped roadster. It was Yang Chen! "This is fxx! Am I right? Ferrari's fxx." Yang Chen's voice trembled with surprise.
The others might not know about fxx, but as a senior car fan, how could Yang Chen not recognize fxx?! Even though the car was totally covered by a protection membrane, its shape was very clear. Yang Chen recognized it right away by its shape.
The next second, Yang Chen looked at the two foreigners, and asked in English: "Is this car Ferrari's fxx?"
The foreigner slightly hesitated, then nodded: "Yes, you are right."
"Jesus, fxx, this is a real fxx! I see a real fxx!" Yang Chen almost wanted to dance. His eyes, his facial expression, were as if he was a sincere pilgrim worshiping his God. In fact, to a crazy car fan like Yang Chen, seeing a fxx by himself, the feeling was the same as worshiping God.
Everybody saw Yang Chen's craziness.
"What's wrong with Yang Chen? Is he insane? He looks crazy!"
"Is it because of that car? What did he say? Ferrari? Is this roadster also a Ferrari?"
"I heard him saying fxx, what is it? Is it the name of the car?"
"Fxx? Is it famous?"
"I heard it somewhere before. Right, fxx is also a supreme roadster in Ferrari."
"Is it? Then which one is better, laferrari or fxx?"
Not every rich second generation here knew about roadsters. Wealthy people directly bought the car, but only keyboard men who could not afford a roadster setting roadsters as wallpaper, and talking about roadsters online all day long. As the saying went, people who afford it don't talk, people who talked a lot wouldn't buy. Were there any domestic rich kids boasting about roadsters online all the time?
Real wealthy people, even though their roadster was crashed, would sit down and look through webpages on their phone. They didn't care about millions of money. They changed roadsters just like ordinary people changed clothes, so likewise, was there anyone who kept talking how many buttons, or how many stitches there were on a coat?
This Ferrari fxx was a special car, as it was made ten years ago by Ferrari. Back at that time, most of these rich kids hadn't even gotten their driving licenses yet, so how would they care about this fxx?
Even though they wanted to know, there was no way to do so. There were only thirty of the same cars produced, and none of them were found in the country. Even senior roadster fans like Yang Chen only saw its model, rather than the real car.
Finally, someone couldn't help asking: "Yang Chen, what car is this? Could you introduce it to us?"
Yang Chen was pulled back from his excitement. He took a deep breath, then introduced it: "This is Ferrari's fxx! So far, it is the most high-tech car produced by Ferrari. This car contains a lot of racing techniques, so technically speaking, this car is a racing car! To us roadster fans, this car is our God!"
As he said this, Yang Chen's voice sounded more excited: "You know what? Even with the prototype car, there are only thirty of them in the world, in the whole world! And they all belong to top-level roadster collectors, we have none of them is in this country! Wait, no, finally, we now have one!"
Enthusiasm shone through Yang Chen's eyes. His eager look was like a puppy seeing a bone. You feckless! It's just a car. Liancheng Jia snorted in his heart.
Right now, someone stood beside and asked the question that Liancheng Jia was eager to ask, which was also the question most people wanted to ask: "Yang Chen, how much is this car?"
To everyone's surprise, Yang Chen shook his head: "I don't know."
"Are you kidding? Is there any car in the world that you don't know about its price?" someone immediately asked.
"I'm not joking, I really don't know!" Yang Chen shook his head again depressingly: "This car was not open to the public, at that time, so if one wanted it, he must meet certain standards. More precisely speaking, Ferrari chose customs, and only if they chose you, did you get the chance to buy this car."
"How could this happen? Sellers choose buyers, only Ferrari dares to do so."
Somebody sighed.
Liancheng Jia felt his show was stolen, and he involuntarily asked: "I say, Yang Chen, even though this car was not open to the public, it should have had an appraisal, shouldn't it?"
Yang Chen thought for a while, then replied: "At the time that this car came out, some European media assessed its price should be no lower than one and a half million euros."
"One and a half million euros, converted into RMB, is around twelve million, so similar to that Star of the Princess something!" Liangcheng Jia talked out loud deliberately, aiming at telling everyone that, this fxx was way cheaper than his laferrari.
"One and a half million euros TEN YEARS AGO." Yang Chen reminded, ill-timed.
The crowd was enlightened. The exchange rate was different ten years ago. At that time, one and a half million euros was equal to more than fifteen million RMB, plus inflation, fifteen million RMB ten years ago was worth way more than today's twenty million. What fifteen million RMB could do a decade ago, might not be done with thirty million RMB at present.
Apart from anything else, if one bought a fifteen-million house in a first-tier city, conservatively speaking, the price would increase five to six times, and if lucky enough, the price might be ten times higher than the original value. But Yang Chen hadn't finished yet, as he continued: "Ten years ago, media assessed it to be one and a half million euros, but no one would be willing to sell it with this price. In recent years, no trading record about this car was found. It would probably be auctioned. I guess if it was priced at three million euros, it would be sold."
"Three million? Then this car is more expensive than that laferrari, isn't it?" Liang Chai said, chuckling.
Liancheng Jia suddenly turned around, giving Liang Chai a murderous look...