January 16th.
Africa.
Congo Gold.
In Bei Ji Province.
A convoy traveled on a bumpy road.
Leading were two pickup trucks, followed by three massive trucks covered in light blue tarpaulins, their contents obscured, and this was the team of engineers from Huawei Company.
The jolting journey.
Everyone had grown accustod to it.
Inside the leading pickup truck.
"Everyone, be careful and pay attention to the surroundings. We’re now in Sadoke’s warlord territory," Xia Yuxing said through the walkie-talkie, vigilantly watching out the window.
He was the on-site engineer here.
"If the wages weren’t high, I definitely wouldn’t have co to do such dangerous work," said the young driver, feeling helpless.
Hearing this,
The person in the back seat quickly agreed.
"That’s right. Earn money for a few years, go back, get married, and never co to this place again. I never imagined that the only thing to keep company here would turn out to be these stacks of ’Huawei Access Network Equipnt Technical Manuals.’"
"You should learn from Old Zhou and find joy in photography," the young driver said with a smile.
"No thanks, I’m no artsy youth."
They used this thod to ease their psychological stress.
The African business.
It was a market that Huawei Company always valued highly.
Of course,
it was different from the dostic market.
In Africa, many used products that were phased out dostically. While 4G was already widespread dostically, 3G services had just beco mainstream in African countries. But here, even 2G network coverage was not yet complete.
Just last month.
Huawei Company won the bid for part of Congo Gold’s communications infrastructure projects, upgrading the dostic networks; 4G was unaffordable and unnecessary for them, so the focus was mainly on building the 3G network.
And so,
Their Project Team One was dispatched here.
Under the recomndation of the subsidiary,
The command center of the engineering project in Bei Ji Province chose a spot on the map that was nearly unmarked, hearing that there was a Huaxia minerals enterprise there, they readily made their way.
With Chinese people.
They felt a sense of familiarity.
Having been working here for so long,
Chaos.
Danger.
An ever-present anxiety.
It had beco the norm, and although the actual situation wasn’t so perilous, the local state of affairs was certainly not optimistic, especially since they were still in an area ruled by warlords.
The vehicles continued on.
The windows were rolled up to avoid being seen and potentially causing unnecessary trouble.
On their way here from Kinshasa, the Capital, they had been stopped more than a dozen tis, not by robbers but by the local African police—every few miles, they had to give sothing.
And not giving was not an option.
Others claim you’re obstructing their way; what can you say to that?
Two hours later.
An hour’s journey away from that Steel Factory.
"We might have soone tailing us," said the driver Sha Li, panicking. Their vehicle wasn’t fast; if it were just soone passing by, they would have overtaken, but now after being followed for so long, it was truly worrying.
"Speed up, see if we can shake them off," suggested soone from the back seat.
Sha Li said helplessly, "We have trucks, even if we speed up, it’s useless."
"Then what should we do?" asked the man, nervously.
"Sha Li, just keep driving. In this lousy place, even if we call the police, it would be fast if they arrive in an hour," Xia Yuxing said, frowning. Here, calling the police often ant going directly to the Police Station.
"Alright," that was all they could do.
In a short while,
The vehicle following them suddenly sped up.
And drove parallel to them.
The driver glanced at them, seeing the tint of the co-pilot’s window and sped up again. Upon reaching the front of the vehicle and seeing Sha Li’s Chinese facial features, there was a look of delight in his eyes.
Sha Li knew.
That was not a friendly greeting.
It was the look of soone who had spotted a ’fat sheep.’
"This is bad."
Xia Yuxing and the others felt a sudden pang of fear inside. This was a warlord’s territory; if anything happened, they wouldn’t find anyone to help, and it wasn’t like people would wage a war over them.
Imdiately after,
Their worries proved to be well-founded.
The African driver in the cockpit took out a gun, shouting at them. They couldn’t hear what was being said due to the diesel vehicle’s noise, but it was certainly sothing about stopping.
"What do we do? They’ll shoot," Sha Li panicked.
Xia Yuxing took a deep breath.
"Pull over."
They had an African guide with them; they wouldn’t likely be stripped bare and left on the roadside; after all, they were here to build, to benefit the local community, which was also why their equipnt wasn’t robbed en route.
"Okay," Sha Li replied.
Signaling to the other vehicles with the right turn signal to pull over.
Soon,
All the vehicles stopped.
Xia Yuxing and the African guide got down.
This was a French-speaking region, and Xia Yuxing, only an on-site engineer, didn’t speak French, but their African guide was an English-speaking asset, an employee of a Huawei partner.
"Ask them what they want?" Xia Yuxing told the guide, Fielding.
"Alright."
Fielding communicated with the other party.
"He says our trucks are too big and heavy, they’ve damaged the road, and we need to pay a maintenance fee, ten thousand dollars," Fielding said, feeling helpless. Here it was again; on Sadoke’s turf, he had no confidence to talk tough.
"Tell them what we’re here for."
Xia Yuxing, of course, would not accept it; ten thousand dollars was not sothing they could expense.
"Alright."
Fielding turned and pointed at Xia Yuxing, explaining.
"They are from Huaxia, here to build base stations for you, so that your mobile phones can make calls in more places, providing better phone services."
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