Chapter 20: Boeing 80 Passenger Aircraft, Four Boxes And Eight Thousand Silver Dollars
“You can buy it, but it’s completely useless once bought, unless you’re with the military.” Howard replied.
Yeah, civilian aircraft can be used for business with some ingenuity, but military aircraft cannot be owned by private individuals.
Fang Wen flipped over the military aircraft and looked at the civilian model behind it.
Curtis Condor
Empty weight: 420 kilograms.
Maximum takeoff weight: 714 kilograms.
Maximum speed: 196 kilometers per hour.
Maximum range: 437 kilometers.
With only 300 kilograms of payload, Fang Wen was disappointed; compared to Curtis Company’s military aircraft, the performance was much worse.
Clearly, this was a company whose main business was military aircraft.
But what Fang Wen wanted now was an airplane like the Rhein NYP-2.
He closed the catalog: “None of what I want.”
Howard nodded and took a folded poster from his pocket.
“There’s also this one, but it’s very expensive.”
It was a large biplane with three propellers.
There were some airplane parameters below the poster.
It could carry 3 crew members, 18 passengers, and 400 kilograms of cargo.
Top speed of 222 kilometers per hour, range of 740 kilometers, and maximum flight altitude of 14,000 feet.
Compared to the Rhein NYP-2, the payload was less, but it could carry three times more passengers, and the flight altitude converted to meters was around 5,000 meters.
The two were evenly matched, but this one better met Fang Wen’s requirements.
If such a comfortable airplane operated in Shanghai, more people would probably ride it.
Plus, with a flight distance of 740 kilometers, it would be valuable for long-distance air flights either north or south.
More crucially, when war officially breaks out, land transport is far less safe and convenient than air transport, and airplanes with greater carrying capacity are more useful.
“What’s its sale price?” Fang Wen asked.
“I need to ask someone.” Howard replied.
The conversation about the private airline company ended there; it was time to rest.
Looking at the five boxes, Fang Wen felt a headache; with so many valuable things, he probably wouldn’t sleep soundly tonight.
For two days straight, Fang Wen didn’t sleep well.
Still on vacation, he now urgently wanted to resolve the problems brought by this batch of wealth.
To that end, he could only send Howard, who had gone to send the telegram, to find Shopkeeper Liu and Sun Debiao.
Howard, who had been out for half a day, brought back Shopkeeper Liu and a woman in a qipao.
“Come in.”
Fang Wen opened the door and invited Shopkeeper Liu and the woman inside.
After the woman entered, she immediately looked at the box with the double happiness character; when she saw the seal torn off, she suddenly became angry.
“Did you touch my things?”
“The things are mine, why can’t I open them? But don’t worry, I didn’t read the letters inside.” Fang Wen replied.
“Even if you didn’t read them, it’s not okay; these are my most precious things after marriage, even my husband hasn’t seen them.” The woman insisted unrelentingly.
Shopkeeper Liu hurriedly mediated.
“Young Mistress, don’t argue; don’t forget the things are still in his hands. Commissioner Fang, don’t stoop to a woman’s level; if it really blows up, we can’t talk business today.”
His words calmed the woman down; she found a stool to sit on, turning her body away from Fang Wen.
Fang Wen naturally wouldn’t argue with her and directly discussed with Shopkeeper Liu.
“All the things are here, five boxes; I’m keeping one, and for the others, if you want to take them back, you can exchange with silver dollars, US dollars, or gold.”
“Then I need to take a look; we’re from the Zhao family alone today, and we don’t know what’s in these boxes.”
“Sure, the boxes are already open; you can look slowly.”
Immediately, Shopkeeper Liu opened those boxes.
For each box, he gave a fair appraisal.
“Such a large box of eastern pearls; this is the Xia family’s goods. They supplied eastern pearls to the court during the Qing Dynasty. Now without royal procurement, these have dropped in price, but still worth a lot of money.”
“I dare not look at our Young Mistress’s dowry box.”
“Broomhandle Mauser, good stuff; gangs are everywhere in Shanghai, everyone secretly buys weapons for self-defense, this can fetch a good price.”
“Top-quality Changbai Mountain wild dry ginseng; look at those whiskers, probably a century old. My goodness, all ten roots are aged. I know, it’s the Wang family’s. They made their fortune early on with ginseng; didn’t expect they had such good stock left.”
“Gold bars, no need to appraise these. Commissioner Fang, you’re so lucky.”
Listening to Shopkeeper Liu’s appraisal, Fang Wen nodded and asked.
“Besides the gold bars, all to your family; how much can you exchange?”
Shopkeeper Liu turned his back to his own Young Mistress and discreetly gave a thumbs-up behind him.
But he said:
“This? Hard to say. How about I go back and calculate?”
Fang Wen pondered in his mind what Shopkeeper Liu’s thumbs-up gesture meant.
He had his back to the woman, so it seemed the Young Mistress was leading this time.
In that case.
Fang Wen replied: “Sure, calculate it when you go back; if other families come to see the goods and offer a suitable price, I can’t guarantee I’ll hold them for you.”
Hearing this, the woman sitting sideways got anxious and stood up turning around.
“No, it must be settled today. The things in my box can’t be shown to others again.”
Shopkeeper Liu had a bitter smile: “Young Mistress, this is a big business; we came from the Northeast with not much money to begin with; we need to deliberate carefully.”
“Are you in charge today, or am I? Right now, set the price.”
Under the woman’s urging, Shopkeeper Liu took out abacus, paper and pen, and indeed priced each item one by one.
These four boxes totaled eight thousand silver dollars.
So much money; renting a small Western-style building in the French Concession only costs 3,000 silver dollars, enough for several years of expenses.
As for whether it was a profit or loss, Fang Wen didn’t quibble; cashing out the items through Shopkeeper Liu was already the best way; finding buyers outside might run into swindlers or those with ill intentions upon seeing the wealth.
He unhesitatingly agreed to the price; following the Northeast business firm’s rules, both parties drew up a deed, signed and sealed it, and the money and goods were cleared.
After the other party took away the four boxes, Fang Wen finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The next day, Fang Wen and Howard drove the airport’s car, taking the gold bars and silver dollars to the urban area.
Such a large sum of wealth naturally had to be deposited in a bank, better than days of restless guarding.
As for which bank, Fang Wen chose Citibank; he and Howard entered the bank.
There were only two counters in the bank, with few people handling business.
A bank staff member came over to inquire.
“Hello, what service do you need?”
“Do you have safe deposit boxes here?” Fang Wen asked.
“If it’s valuable items, I don’t recommend storing them in a safe deposit box; our bank does not insure items inside safe deposit boxes.” The staff member replied.
Depositing in a bank with a deposit slip was instead a dangerous way to flaunt wealth, especially in gang- and swindler-infested Shanghai; Fang Wen wouldn’t buy the bank staff’s rhetoric.
After unhesitatingly choosing the safe deposit box service, they were taken to the manager, paid a safe deposit box rental fee, and then the manager brought Fang Wen and Howard to the bank’s underground level.
There, the manager opened two layers of iron gates and waited outside.
Howard didn’t go in either.
Fang Wen alone dragged two bags into the narrow safe deposit box corridor, found his rented safe deposit box number, opened it, and put everything inside.
Leaving the bank, he felt relieved at last; no more worry about the treasure hidden under the bed being stolen.
Next, the car went to the post and telegraph office, where Howard picked up the telegram reply from across the ocean.
“Boeing 80 sale price is 130,000 US dollars; they provide door-to-door delivery service, equipped with 5 years of accessories replacement and regular maintenance; as for maintenance personnel, an additional employment fee is required.”
Fang Wen was stunned; 130,000 US dollars was very expensive.
He had to calculate this account.
