Chapter 3 Going Abroad

  He stretched out his hands and gently rubbed his ears, the eardrum was still slightly trembling, he swallowed his saliva for a while before calming down.

  Undo your seatbelt, adjust your seat, and gently press the temples. The lovely flight attendant comes to your side with a warm towel in both hands.

  "Thank you." Gaoyang smiled and took the towel pressed against his forehead. The flight attendant with a signature smile slightly bowed and left, soon returning with a pair of warm slippers. "Sir, would you like to change into slippers?" The flight attendant in uniform was impeccable in every aspect.

  The flight attendant went to get coffee, and Gao Yang put the towel on the tray, feeling much better from his hangover. He had also taken planes before, but this was his first time in first class. He had also flown with China Airlines before, but the flight attendants he encountered in economy class and those in international business class were completely different from each other.

  Gao Yang just brought a backpack with some spare clothes. All the good things from 1924 were stored in the storage space.

  In the morning, I took the bank deposit certificate to an international travel agency to apply for a European single-person visa for Germany and Switzerland. With fluent French and German conversations plus payment without bargaining, I boarded the flight to Frankfurt on the second afternoon.

  Before departure, I called my parents to inform them that I would be going on a business trip out of town and would return home after the New Year's holiday.

  As for Gaoyang's fluent German, it is a short-term service provided by the origin. Each hour of speaking, reading and writing consumes 10 points, while listening is free.

  Mei Mei slept beautifully, and after 10 hours the plane arrived in Frankfurt. With a smile, she memorized the flight attendant's phone number, put on her backpack, and found a high-end hotel in the city to sleep in.

  The second day, on the way to Zurich, through the origin into the internet and Sotheby's contact set up a meeting place time. In the afternoon in Zurich Sotheby's reception hall, Gao Yang took out the items brought from 1924.

  This is the imperial palace treasure that Gao Yang bought from a eunuch with several thousand yuan, a eunuch organization specializing in stealing and selling palace goods, as long as they are given money, they dare to steal anything.

  There are only three things, one is a jade pendant said to have been used by Emperor Qianlong. One is a turquoise snuff bottle said to have been used by some prince, but it's unknown how the eunuch in the palace got his hands on it. The most treasured item of Gao Yang is a set of white porcelain tea utensils with dragon and cloud patterns, produced by the official kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty, consisting of one teapot and eight cups.

  When Gao Yang took out the porcelain, Su Fu Bi, who had been sitting and watching all along, suddenly stood up and stared at it. However, he quickly came to his senses, touched the glasses on his nose, and sat back down. His eyes, fixed on the porcelain, revealed a greedy gaze.

  Gao Yang smiled lightly and didn't say anything, the authenticity of the porcelain had already been verified at the time of purchase. When Gao Yang bought it, he knew that this set of porcelain was truly good stuff, in 1924, porcelain wasn't as crazy as it is now.

  The bald middle-aged man sitting opposite Gao Yang looked at the appraiser beside him, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said to Gao Yang who was reclining on the sofa, "Mr., ah, may I ask how should I address you?"

  "Just call me Mr. Smith." Gaoyang replied with a relaxed face.

  "Good, Mr. Smith, nice to meet you. My name is Karl Jung, and I'm the reception manager at Sotheby's auction house." Manager Jung paused for a moment, picked up his coffee cup and took a light sip.

  "It's great to see you, Mr. Jung." Gaoyang said with a smile at the corner of his mouth, looking relaxed as he gazed at Jung.

  "Ah, Mr. Smith, would you like Sotheby's to auction off these pieces of art for you? Do you have any specific requirements? Please tell me." Ronger got straight to the point.

  "First of all, none of my information can be disclosed." Gao Yang picked up his coffee cup. "These items are entrusted to your company for commercial auction, and the commission part can be collected according to your company's standard." Gao Yang took a sip of his coffee, put down the cup, and continued, "I have an idea, your company can first appraise them, give me an estimated price, I'd like to mortgage them to your company at that price. Of course, the interest can be collected at the bank loan rate." Gao Yang stared at Rong Ge.

  "Mr. Smith, the collateral is no problem, our bank can provide this service. As for the interest, it will be charged according to the Swiss bank loan rate. If there's no issue, we can start the appraisal now." Ronger leaned back on the sofa, and the appraiser next to him took out his tools and began working.

  Jung stood up and invited Gao Yang to visit Sotheby's collection, asking him questions in a roundabout way. Gao Yang responded while cursing in his heart, "Don't even mention German, 1 hour is 10 points, not even 1 hour is also 10 points, can you afford it?"

  Half an hour later, the appraisal ended. Ronger asked Gao Yang to come to an office and took out the contract documents to explain to Gao Yang: "Mr. Smith, your three artworks are valued at 72,000 euros for the imperial jade buttonhook, and 150,000 euros for the noble green jade snuff bottle."

  "Speaking of which, Rong stopped for a moment and looked at Gao Yang, who continued to say: "The estimated price of the Song Dynasty dragon-patterned porcelain tea set is 3.9 million euros. The total estimated price is 4.122 million euros. Our bank will auction these three artworks in the next season's art auction at an estimated price, and charge a commission of 15% of the auction price."

  "Mr. Smith, according to your mortgage intention, these three artworks will be kept by our bank before the auction. This is a Swiss bank's anonymous savings card with 4,122,000 euros inside. After the auction, we will deduct this amount from the auction proceeds and also deduct 7% of the mortgage interest. Do you have any further questions about these matters?"

  "It's done, thank you." Gaoyang picked up the pen and signed the contract, took over the bank card and shook hands with Rongge, then slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out of Sotheby's.

  Sitting on the high-speed train to Berlin, Gao Yang looked at the black card in his hand and smiled, "Brother is also a rich man now, hey, considered a high-rich-handsome guy?" Gao Yang fell into daydreaming.

  "Contact has been made, this is the transaction time and location sent by the other party." Yuandian's voice pulled Gao Yang out of his reverie.

  "Oh, okay, thank you." Gaoyang returned to his usual calm demeanor.

  Before departure, the originator had placed an order and paid a deposit through the Internet with a certain illegal organization in Europe.

  The next day, Gao Yang was excitedly touring around the Brandenburg Gate with his backpack and camera. As someone who had never been abroad before, Gao Yang was extremely enthusiastic. Because he didn't have enough 800 energy points, opening an hourly 10-point German translation didn't hurt Gao Yang at all. "If you should spend it, then spend it." These were Gao Yang's original words to Yuan Dian.

  "You can't get energy points in this time and space." The origin's reply.

  "What a killjoy." Gao Yang's face was speechless.

  After a whole day of wandering around, Gao Yang seemed to not feel tired at all. After dinner, Gao Yang carried a large box of euros taken out from the bank to the agreed place.

  An abandoned underground parking lot, several white men wearing sunglasses took Gao Yang to a small room.

  A cramped room, dim lighting, a big man in a suit and sunglasses. "Just like shooting a movie." Gao Yang muttered to himself, but he wasn't afraid at all.

  The bald man sitting at the desk picked up two black boxes from beside him, placed them on the table, opened them and pushed them in front of Gao Yang. Gao Yang took out a stack of 50-pound notes emitting the scent of ink from the box, gently flipping through them.

  Gao Yang handed over the counterfeit group's specially customized 1919 version of the pound. Gao Yang couldn't understand it either, and pretended to let Yuan Dian do the inspection.

  "Possible, 1924 detection technology couldn't find out, and the amount was also against a total of ￡2 million." The original point gave a conclusion.

  Gao Yang handed over the box he brought with him to Guang Tou, waiting for the other party to inspect.

  After checking, they went their separate ways, from start to finish, neither of them had said a word.

  The next afternoon, in a cafe, Gao Yang received the customized 1922 version of the German Army Officer School graduation certificate. Looking at his black and white photo on the certificate, Gao Yang smiled silently. He handed over the 40,000 euros wrapped in a leather strap to the other party.

  In the evening, boarded the return flight in Frankfurt, and coincidentally, it was the same flight attendant in first class. Gaoyang's mood was good and chatted with the flight attendant for over an hour before resting. When he woke up, they were already in the skies above Beijing.

  A handsome guy smoking and leaning against a glass wall in a certain business building in the central business district of Beidou, looking at the rolling traffic below.

  A knock at the door, and the secretary walks in with an envelope. Opening it to look through documents and photos, she blows out a ring of smoke and whispers softly "Going to Europe."

  Moved out of the rental house and booked a top suite at Hilton Hotel, hung up a "Do Not Disturb" sign. Let the original point scan the room, no problem.

  Huan returned to the room of Beidou Hotel through time and space, cancelled the room and rented a separate courtyard in the city for only 25 taels per month, the place was very quiet.

  After doing all this, Haiyang came to Citibank and deposited the entire 2 million pounds. This was a huge sum of money, which was really impressive in 1924.

  The Bank of China spent several hours just verifying the cash. After completing the deposit, Gao Yang brought the check to the State Council of the Beiyang Government and found his good friend Cao Longguan.

  Officer Cao saw Gao Yang and started laughing. He spent 10 kilograms of gold to buy a security team, so his good friend must have a good meal together.

  In the midst of clinking wine glasses, a ￡100,000 check also found its way into Officer Cao's pocket. In response to Gao Yang's request, Officer Cao promised everything would be taken care of by him.

  The next day at noon, several soldiers in uniform came to the yard where Gao Yang lived.

  They ask each other for tea and water, distinguish between host and guest, sit properly, and then start introducing themselves to each other.

  "I am Gao Youcai, captain of the 13th Infantry Regiment of the Beiyang Army, graduate of Baoding Military Academy in 1918, from Bengbu, Anhui."

  "I am Li Guangbiao, a captain of the 13th Infantry Regiment of the Beiyang Army, a graduate of Baoding Military Academy in 1918 from Fuyang, Anhui."

  "I am Yang Dong, a junior lieutenant of the 13th Infantry Division of the Northern Army, a graduate of Baoding Military Academy in 1919 from Bengbu, Anhui."

  "I am Li Zhengcheng, a junior lieutenant and deputy commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment of the Beiyang Army, a graduate of Baoding Military Academy in 1919 from Tongling, Anhui."

  "I am Wang Daifu, a junior lieutenant of the 9th Infantry Division of the Beiyang Army, a graduate of Baoding Military Academy in 1919 from Anqing, Anhui."

  "From now on, I am your superior officer. Remember my name, I'm Gao Yang." Gao Yang's heart was filled with joy.