Chapter 28: Appendix Energy Storage
Chapter 28: Appendix Energy Storage
At the Meihao Hotel, Bai Ge waited for a while, and then Zhuang Ze came with his father, Zhuang Bi.
“I’ve heard from Xiaoze about the matter. Name your price; how much money do you want?” Zhuang Bi got straight to the point, making Bai Ge startle.
“Money? About the balance payment? Zhuang Ze still owes me three hundred thousand…”
Bai Ge had not finished speaking when Zhuang Bi interrupted him.
“Three hundred thousand is not a problem. I only want to settle this once and for all— keep your mouth shut.” Zhuang Bi finished speaking.
Zhuang Ze hastily cried out, “Dad, Brother Bai doesn’t mean it that way…”
“Quiet!” Zhuang Bi said sternly.
Bai Ge quickly realized that Zhuang Bi had mistaken him for someone trying to extort money.
Zhuang Bi indeed thought that way— after all, was taking exams for others really that easy?
In fact, he had never held much hope for his son; no matter the results, he planned to pay his way to get the child into university.
But taking an exam for someone else was different: if caught, the exam score would be canceled directly, and the person would be banned from taking it again for several years.
With such a blemish, it would be difficult to secure a university place even with money.
When he heard Zhuang Ze relay the matter, he instantly assumed Bai Ge was cheating for money— how could there be a high score? It was likely just scribbled answers.
Moreover, it could become a leverage point in the other party’s hands; if they ever ran short of money, they could threaten Zhuang Ze with this matter.
After all, if Bai Ge exposed this, the impact on a guy like Bai Ge— already in society— would be smaller, but for Zhuang Ze, it could severely hurt his future.
In effect, it shattered all the plans he had for his son.
Bai Ge laughed heartily and said, “I have principles when it comes to my actions. Actually, I’m more worried that you might slip up.”
“I’ll be upfront about this: the score won’t be low. Your son can choose the university he wants to attend. I suggest you align with Zhuang Ze; no matter who questions why he performed well, you must firmly support him without any doubts.”
“Because anyone else can doubt him, but his family cannot. After all, no one knows how ‘hard’ Zhuang Ze has worked at home.”
Bai Ge went on to share many more precautions, making Zhuang Bi more and more confused.
He thought Bai Ge had come to extort money using the exam-taking scheme, but instead, Bai Ge was warning them not to get caught?
“Bai Ge, my grades are usually so poor— if I suddenly get a high score, will I be investigated? Will they make me retake the exam?” Zhuang Ze asked.
Bai Ge calmly said, “That’s impossible. As the invigilation System becomes stricter, as long as you don’t get caught, there’s absolutely no problem.”
“For your future university, who will care about your high school grades? That’s meaningless; the college entrance exam decides everything.”
“At the teacher-appreciation banquet, your teachers and classmates might doubt you, but their words are fleeting clouds. Even if they report it to the police, it won’t help— they have no right to influence your college entrance exam results or your future.”
Zhuang Bi silently nodded; he knew this well.
The crucial point was to avoid being caught during the college entrance exam itself. Now that it was over, nothing could easily overturn the results.
So he wasn’t worried about other things, only about Bai Ge— the key figure— exposing things with solid evidence.
As long as Bai Ge, the person who took the exam, didn’t come forward, all the doubts from teachers and classmates were irrelevant.
“I prepared one million for you, but you only want three hundred thousand. Seems you’re quite restrained…” Zhuang Bi said.
Bai Ge shook his head with a smile and said, “Those three hundred thousand are the balance payment Zhuang Ze promised me. Frankly, I don’t even want them. Today’s visit is mainly to discuss a business deal with you.”
Zhuang Bi asked doubtfully, “Discuss a business deal?”
His eyebrows shot up with a startled expression.
After all, in his mind, what kind of business could such a person— Bai Ge— have with him?
Bai Ge laughed and said, “I plan to buy ninety-six tons of standard 0 diesel daily, for one week for now, meaning a total of six hundred and seventy-two tons of diesel.”
“I’ll pay directly, with no delays.”
Zhuang Bi frowned tightly and asked, “Do you know how much money six hundred and seventy-two tons of diesel costs?”
Bai Ge said, “At wholesale prices, around four million one hundred thousand.”
Zhuang Bi sized Bai Ge up and said, “You have that much money? If you did, why not go directly to Sinopec? I have to buy oil from them too.”
Bai Ge asked, “If I buy it myself, it costs 6,105 yuan per ton. What price do you get?”
Zhuang Bi smiled without speaking; he understood Bai Ge’s meaning.
Bai Ge clearly hoped to buy oil cheaply from him; the wholesale price Zhuang Bi got was bound to be different from Bai Ge’s.
After thinking it over, six hundred tons wasn’t much; as long as he didn’t lose money, Zhuang Bi decided to sell it to Bai Ge, since it was unwise to offend him after the exam thing.
“I can sell it to you for 5,600 yuan per ton. No bargaining— and this is solely because of that matter,” Zhuang Bi said.
Bai Ge calculated; it saved him over three hundred thousand yuan.
But this was only for one week— later, he might need even more since Energy could never be excessive.
“Here’s the five hundred thousand yuan deposit. We agree at 5,600 yuan per ton. Without major changes in the future, don’t raise the price,” Bai Ge handed over a card.
Zhuang Bi started and said, “In the future?”
Bai Ge smiled and said, “Yes, I’ll need it weekly. Later, I might increase the quantity. Don’t worry; I’ll always pay on the spot with no debt.”
Zhuang Bi’s face twitched— even at this price, he could profit, but it was too skimpy.
He had thought it was only six hundred and seventy-two tons, but it turned out to be a long-term deal.
“Four weeks at most, or no deal. I hope you’ll never bring up the exam-taking again later.”
After speaking, Zhuang Bi glared fiercely at Zhuang Ze.
In his mind, if only his son had just taken the exam normally himself— the whole proxy thing was unreliable.
Deep down, he didn’t believe Bai Ge had the skill to score high.
“Four weeks? … Fine. After four weeks, I won’t need to buy from you anymore.”
“Come, let’s sign an agreement.”
“Tonight, can you deliver a hundred tons first?”
…
At Bai Ge’s strong request, by about 10 P.M., a hundred tons of oil was delivered to his factory.
The remaining diesel would be delivered the next day.
After everyone had left, Bai Ge was alone in the factory. He moved fifty-liter oil barrels one by one into his Brain Hole.
He poured the diesel directly into the Material Universe and threw the barrels back out.
That was the beauty of the Brain Hole World: storing things sometimes didn’t even require containers.
Like the generators, they were lined up and floating in Outer Space.
“Ling Dang, from now on, maintenance and refueling will be up to you,” Bai Ge said.
Ling Dang said, “Understood. After generating electricity, where should the current flow?”
“Let’s see if I can use an electric cable to connect the Brain Hole and Reality simultaneously,” Bai Ge took out a cable and tried it.
Unfortunately, the result was dismal; whatever let him enter and exit the Brain Hole didn’t seem to be like a “passage” concept.
It might involve some sort of quantum leap; in any case, besides consciousness itself, nothing could bridge both ends simultaneously.
The cable had to be wholly brought to Reality or wholly into the Brain Hole.
If he insisted on having half in each, it would slice with a break, and it would cost Energy.
The Energy consumption happened because it cut into material from Reality.
“If I can’t charge freely around the clock, it would drastically reduce my efficiency in drawing Energy!”
“I plan to charge nonstop twenty-four-seven!”
“Ling Dang! Cut off my Appendix!”
Using the Appendix for charging!
Bai Ge’s body setup was such that every cell could store electricity; since human bodies include keratin cells like hair and nails, the Appendix naturally stored electricity too.
In theory, leaving any body part in the Brain Hole could function as a battery.
To ensure Bai Ge could operate in Reality while charging his body in the Brain Hole.
Leaving a piece of Appendix as a power bank seemed a good choice.
After all, for adults, the Appendix held little use; while it had minor benefits, removing it was fine.
“Yes!”
Instantly, Ling Dang excised Bai Ge’s Appendix, and set up two cables against it.
Ten generators running together outputted twenty thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour.
Whenever Bai Ge needed to use electricity, he could reconnect the Appendix to the Cecum; such material-form operations consumed negligible Energy.
Really high consumption came from qualitative changes.
“If the Appendix gets full later…”
“Cut off the whole Cecum!”
“If the Cecum isn’t enough, cut out a kidney!”
…