Chapter 290 Who hasn’t been young once?
Xiao Peng was about to curse, but Fabian's face turned ugly: "Uncle."
"Uncle?" Xiao Peng was stunned after hearing this and asked Fabian in a low voice: "Pierre?"
Fabian nodded. "The people next to us are all owners of ocean exploration companies within the Cousteau Diving Association. Some of them participated in the last Spanish submarine salvage operation."
Xiao Peng instantly understood why this guy hummed at him. This uncle was Pierre-Yves Cousteau, the current president of the Cousteau Diving Association?
But this shouldn't be the reason for him to humph at himself.
He hummed at himself because he had another identity: Pascal's father.
This guy is here too? I doubt he'll be nice to me!
Pierre was their competitor when they were searching for the Spanish submarine, but Pascal was also bad. They found the submarine but did not report it in a hurry. Instead, they towed it on the sea for a long time.
Spain's submarine search was also a messed-up operation. It was a classic case of "no rabbit, no eagle"—no money paid until a sunken ship was found. Seven ocean exploration companies went searching for the submarine, but all came up empty-handed. Xiao Peng's small sailboat was incredibly cheap, costing only a few hundred a day, including living expenses. Those seven companies were searching in the Bay of Valencia, where the currents are strong and the waters are deep, so they used standard ocean exploration vessels. What does that mean?
It's expensive! The minimum cost per day is tens of thousands!
Anyway, considering the labor costs, equipment costs, and ship usage during the search for the sunken ship, the seven ocean exploration companies will at least lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Although one cannot run an ocean exploration company without money, not all companies are as wealthy as Xiao Peng, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses may require loans or fundraising.
Those who work in ocean salvage are basically gamblers. They are all gambling.
If you win the bet, like Xiao Peng, you will make money and then develop more connections in Spain. But if you fail, you will lose money again and again.
Xiao Peng actually respects the Cousteau family from the bottom of his heart.
After all, three generations of this family have been dedicated to ocean exploration. Not only did they pioneer scuba diving, but they have also devoted their lives to protecting marine ecology. The four marine protected areas along the coasts of France and Spain were all established by Mr. Cousteau.
But people are subjective. Xiao Peng and Pascal have such a good relationship. If Xiao Pa doesn't like his father, Xiao Peng naturally won't like him either. And he just humphed at himself?
Fuck you!
Pierre was still waiting for Xiao Peng to speak, but Xiao Peng just patted Fabian and said, "I'm leaving first!"
Without even looking at Pierre and the others, he took a glass of champagne from a nearby waiter and turned away. Pierre and the others were also stunned. Why didn't this Chinese play by the rules?
He can go, how can Fabian go? He stood there a little awkwardly.
"Brother Xiao! Hahaha!" At this time, a familiar greeting was suddenly heard. Xiao Peng knew who it was without looking: it was Chen Zetao.
It’s not surprising to see Chen Zetao here.
Chen Zetao and Ge Dan have a good personal relationship. Xiao Peng first met Ge Dan through Chen Zetao.
Xiao Peng greeted Chen Zetao: "Brother Chen, you're here early!"
Chen Zetao sighed. "Don't mention it. Old man Godan is quite stupid. You know how arrogant the French are. When you first started in this industry, even though you salvaged Mata Hari's jewelry, he didn't take you seriously. Maybe in his eyes, you were just a flash of luck. After all, there are too many people like that in the marine salvage industry. But I didn't expect you to grow to this point in such a short time. Now I regret not having a good relationship with you and not taking you seriously, so I was asked to accompany you as a buffer... What's going on with you? Your old friend?"
Only then did he see Pierre and others staring at Xiao Peng.
Xiao Peng took a sip of champagne and said, "Who knows what happened? After I came here, someone came to trouble me."
"To cause you trouble?" Chen Zetao frowned after hearing this: "What's going on?"
Xiao Peng grinned. "Brother Chen, I'm not even angry, so why are you so anxious? Who cares about these losers?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a group of scantily clad women approaching. Xiao Peng thought they were looking for him: private cocktail parties like these always have these so-called "socialites" trying their luck. But the girls didn't even glance at Xiao Peng and his group. They just walked over to Pierre and the others and started chatting and laughing. The most popular one was Fabian, and several girls immediately surrounded him and started chatting with him.
Damn, Pierre and the others can be their fathers based on their age, okay?
Fabian looked at Xiao Peng with embarrassment when he saw this. Xiao Peng waved his hand to indicate that it was okay and let him have fun by himself. However, there was a hint of pride and provocation in Pierre's eyes when he looked at Xiao Peng, and the meaning was obvious: See, I'm more popular than you even though I'm older!
"Are these girls blind?" Xiao Peng said angrily after seeing this. "This is racial discrimination! Is it because we are Chinese?"
Although Marseille, known as the "Capital of North Africa," boasts people of all colors, the cocktail party at Godin was exclusively white. This is a hallmark of the Western world: despite the emphasis on "freedom and equality," discrimination is pervasive. This is especially true in upper-class society, where white people still have the final say.
Take America, the "most free and equal" country, for example. Although black people hold up half the sky in film, television, music, and sports, in fact, among the 643 billionaires in America, there are no more than ten black billionaires.
(PS: In the West, the term "billionaire" doesn't refer to someone worth over 100 million. Instead, it refers to someone with over 1 billion in liquid assets, such as cash, stocks, funds, etc. Real estate and businesses are not included. According to this calculation, Xiao Peng is not considered a "billionaire.")
Chen Zetao was stunned after hearing this: "Brother Xiao, are you interested in a girl like this? Girls like this have had a very 'twists and turns' in their first half of life."
He was still being very tactful in his words, meaning that these girls could basically be described as fickle.
Xiao Peng shook his head like a rattle. "Who the hell is interested in them?! Well, I have to say they are all beauties. I am still somewhat interested in them. However, the twists and turns of their first half of life have nothing to do with me. I only care about their lower half."
Chen Zetao was stunned after hearing this, then he laughed: "Brother Xiao, you are also a person of temperament!"
Xiao Peng blinked: "Brother Chen, shouldn't you be teaching me to keep myself clean or something like that?"
Chen Zetao shook his head and said, "Brother Xiao, everyone has a youthful past. Let's go sit by the swimming pool for a while. Ge Dan will come find you later. Oh, and I have some good news for you."
"Good news? What good news?" Xiao Peng asked puzzledly.
Chen Zetao laughed and said, "Don't you know you won the award?"
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