Chapter 10 oil prices have risen

It was an extremely cold night, it was snowing heavily outside the house, the biting cold wind was blowing the pine trees in the mountains, and large flakes of snow fell in front of the window.Seeing that the fire in the room was not too hot, Duck stood up from the chair, walked to the fire in the center of the room, and threw a piece of firewood into the burning fire.He looked out the window, and the terrifying snowstorm and night had completely covered the valley. If someone was trapped outside at this time, he would definitely not last long and would be frozen to death. Duck walked back to the kerosene lamp and continued to read the advertisement catalog that came in the mail.Despite the heat from the stove, he still felt chills in his body.

At this time, there seemed to be some movement outside the house. Dak listened attentively, but he heard nothing except the howling of the strong wind outside.When Duck continued to read the advertisement catalog with his head down, there was another sound from outside the house, that's right, it was a knock on the door!Dak raised his head in surprise. On such a cold winter night, which fool would come to this barren mountain? "Bang bang bang", the sound of knocking on the door became louder and more urgent.Duck walked to the door full of doubts, and pulled the rusty latch with great effort, only to see a figure followed by a cold wind mixed with snowflakes.

It was a middle-aged man with a gray narrow-brimmed hat on his head, a windbreaker, and a pair of leather shoes covered with mud, which had been soaked by melted snow.The man was obviously frozen. As soon as he entered the room, he went straight to the stove and rubbed his cold hands to let his almost frozen body slowly relax. "This is a city guy." Dark said to himself. "It's too cold, I'm about to freeze to death..." The man squeezed out a sentence tremblingly through his teeth. "Yes", Duck lazily replied, and then fell silent. The man took off his wet windbreaker and introduced himself, "My name is Kehan."

"Oh, my name is Duck, do you need help?" he asked. "My car broke down eight miles away, the gas tank was empty, and now I need some gas," Kerhan said, pointing out the window, explaining, "I made it all the way through the snow!" "Then you should be secretly glad you're going in the right direction. If you go the other way, you'll have to walk a full twenty-five miles to find the nearest village, Cedarwood. But I believe you haven't reached it yet." There they would freeze to death on the way.” "I know that we drove here from Cedar Village, but we ran out of gasoline halfway," Kehan ​​said.

"Then how sure are you that I'll have gasoline here?" "Because I saw some oil tanks in the yard outside, I thought you must be able to provide gasoline here." "Oh, what a pity! If you come here during the day, you will see it clearly," Duck shook his head and said, "Those two oil tanks have already been scrapped, and even the mouths of the tanks are rusted to death. I haven’t installed a drop of oil in 2019. Since the state government built another road, there are very few cars passing by here, and sometimes I don’t see a car for two or three weeks, especially in winter.”

"Ah? You don't have gasoline here?" Kehan ​​looked a little surprised, "But, I need gasoline urgently now." Dak stroked the beard on his face, took out a squashed cigar from his pocket, and said slowly: "Then there is no way." He struck a match on the table while talking, Lighting the cigar, "You just have to wait patiently. If you are lucky, maybe a car will pass by in a week or two, and you can ask them to help you tow the car away." "No, that's too late, I have to get gas tonight, I have to!" "I know," Duck said with an imperceptible smile on his face, "Why do you have to leave tonight?"

"My wife is still waiting for me in the car, and if I don't get back in time, she will freeze to death in the car." "So that's the case," Duck said after a few seconds of silence, "Don't worry, there should be a way." "I don't have that much time, man," Kehan ​​said anxiously. "If you have gasoline here, I want to buy two gallons. If you don't, then I have to..." After finishing speaking, he picked up the windbreaker and turned around. about to leave. "You can't find gasoline anywhere else." Dark said coldly behind him, "Such a big snowstorm, not to mention, unless you go back to Cedar Village, which is twenty miles away from here." Five miles."

"Then how about I move on?" "If you keep going, you can get to a small airfield run by Dudstin, which might have the gas you need," Duck said triumphantly, "but that's seventeen miles away, too. .” As if all hope was lost, Kehan ​​became panic-stricken and said in a panic, "No, I'm going to walk back to the car right away and get my wife Helen here!" Dak slowly stood up from the chair, walked leisurely to the window, looked at the wind and snow outside the window, and said softly: "This round trip, you have to walk sixteen miles in the wind and snow, I'm sure you'll be able to get to the car, but I doubt you'll be able to get back, especially if you're traveling with a woman. Mr. Kehan, have you ever seen a man freeze to death?"

"But, I have to go back, or my wife will die!" Kehan ​​said bitterly. "I sympathize with your situation," Duck said, "Yeah, it seems... I'm not sure, it seems that I still have some gasoline here, I can sell you some, anyway, my truck is broken, the cooler It’s also scrapped, and I won’t be able to use the gasoline for the time being.” "Really? That's great!" Kehan ​​said pleasantly, and his tense body relaxed accordingly, "Please sell me some, two gallons are enough." Then, he took out a a wallet. "Wait a moment, sir." "What's up?"

"How do you take gasoline? You can't pour gasoline into your pocket, can you?" "By the way, I almost forgot, can you lend me an oil drum or other container?" "I can't give it to guests for free," Dark said, "but I can sell you one. Look at this." He took out a glass bottle from under the table. Kehan ​​smiled and said, "Okay! Dude, how much is it?" "Five yuan." "Hehe, it's really not cheap! Five yuan for a gallon of gasoline? In view of the wind and snow, I'll let you blackmail me once! Okay, give me two gallons." He took out a ten-yuan bill from his wallet and handed it to him.

Duck didn't reach out to take it, but stared straight into Kehan's eyes, "I think you misunderstood, my bottle is only worth five yuan, and that doesn't include gasoline." "What? A glass bottle costs five yuan? Did you know that you can buy such a bottle for twenty-five cents in an ordinary store! You actually sell it for five yuan?" "You're right, then you can go and buy it for twenty-five cents, and I didn't stop you." After finishing speaking, Duck made a gesture to put the bottle back. Kehan ​​looked at the wind and snow outside the house, feeling resentful and helpless, he clenched his fists and asked Duck, "How much does your gasoline cost?" Darke's eyes fell on his wallet, "Oh, it seems that gasoline is very important to you and your wife, how about it, fifty yuan a gallon." "What? Fifty yuan? You profiteer, this is simply taking advantage of the fire!" Ke Han shouted. "It can't be helped, why did the price of oil go up!" Dak said slowly, "I'm not joking with you, it's the truth." Kehan ​​had no choice but to count the banknotes in his wallet one by one, and finally said: "I only have sixty yuan." "Oh, then you can buy a gallon of gasoline and a bottle, and I'll give you another five yuan. I won't charge you for the fire just now." Dark said with a smile. "You are so generous," Kehan ​​said sarcastically, "one gallon is not enough, I need two gallons of gasoline!" "It's a pity you didn't bring enough money," Duck said. "Maybe your wife has money, or you go back and ask her for some? Oh, by the way, we almost forgot about her, you're late , maybe she will be frozen..." "Please sell me two gallons, and I can give you a watch!" With that said, Kehan ​​began to untie the watch strap. "Don't give me a watch. In this deserted valley, time means nothing. If I were you, I'd take this gallon of gasoline and go back to the car first. Look at the snow outside, it's getting bigger and bigger, I suggest you drive back to my place by car, and then you can decide whether to buy more gasoline or stay with me until the weather improves. As for the cost of food and lodging, I will give you a discounted rate, which is charged daily or weekly. Row." After speaking, Duck walked into the back room with the bottle, filled a bottle of gasoline from a large oil barrel, and walked out to hand it to Kehan. "Here's the money!" Kehan ​​handed over a dozen banknotes angrily, "Use this dirty money to buy a coffin!" "I saved your life, so you should thank me." Dak took the money and counted it carefully twice, "Yes, it's exactly fifty-five yuan. It's a pleasure to do business with you! I wanted to give You take a ride, but as I said just now, my truck broke down, so I can only trouble you to walk back by yourself. But I think we will meet again in two or three hours, right?" Kehan ​​pushed open the door cursingly and walked into the snowstorm. In the middle of the night, the drowsy Dak lying on the table was awakened by the sound of a car outside. He opened the door, and the wind and snow outside had stopped. Kehan ​​was helping his wife out of the car. up and down.The couple entered Dak's house, and the two of them snuggled up to the fire, when Dak noticed that their lips were blue with cold. "This is my wife, Helen," Khan introduced to Dak. "I told her about the gasoline just now. You are very kind." "Of course, I'd be happy to help you," Dak said with a smile. "So, do you want to buy another gallon of gas?" "Yes, we'd like to buy another gallon of gas," said Mrs. Hank. "We brought enough money this time." "Okay, but before I say something, the price of gas has risen again, and now a gallon of gasoline is sixty-five yuan. You just bought a bottle to hold the oil, so you've saved the five yuan now." Dak blinked at him. Said the sly little eyes. Helen and her husband looked at each other, opened the purse, and threw a stack of banknotes to Duck, which just landed at Duck's feet impartially, "Should this be enough?" Helen said. Dake hurriedly bent down to pick up the stack of banknotes. Suddenly, he exclaimed: "These money...however..." "Is the amount wrong?" Helen asked coldly. "Yes, yes, but... what is written on this note is..." Dak raised his head in surprise, only to find that Kehan ​​was holding a gun in his hand at some point, pointing it at him. "You're wondering why the cedar bank is printed on the slips of paper bundled with all this money, aren't you? Dude," said Cohan, "actually, there are wads of brand-new bills like that in my car. A lot. I told you we did come from Cedar Village, but I didn't tell you what we did there." "Could it be... that the money was robbed from the bank?" Duck shouted in horror, "But when you first came here, you said you didn't have that much money!" "Do you think I'm a fool? When I came out to look for gasoline, I brought so much money with me?" Kehan ​​said with a sneer, "I'm still worried about being interrogated by the police!" "Mr. Kehan," Dark stared at the muzzle of the gun in horror, begging, "No one knows that you have been here, I...I will keep it a secret." "Brother, I'm sorry, I know you are a ungrateful guy, so I'd better kill you. Helen, take the rope off the wall and tie him up!" "Do you want to gag him too?" "No, let him let go of his throat. Just now he told me himself that no one will pass by here for at least two days. When people find him, we will have gone far away." While talking, Duck was already firmly tied to the chair by Helen.His hands were bound to the arms of the chair, and his feet were bound apart to the rung between the legs of the chair - there was absolutely no way he could get out without help. "Okay, now it's time for gas," Kehan ​​said to him. "Don't worry, we'll just add two gallons of gasoline, and never more." "Why is that?" Duck asked puzzled. "You mentioned to us earlier that there is an airport nearby, but we already knew it was there. When we successfully rob the bank, one of my pilot friends will wait for us there, and we will take the plane out of the mountains. So, we My goal is to get to the airport and meet up with that friend," Kehan ​​said. "It's a pity that you forgot to fill up enough gasoline." Helen mocked him. "Yeah, so our car broke down on the way. If you would have given me two gallons of gas, we would have gone straight to the airport and never had to come back to you, but you were so greedy that we had to Drive back to your place and get some more gas. Oh, it just occurred to me, maybe you heard the bank robbery on the radio?" "No no! I swear, I didn't hear anything!" Dark said in a trembling voice, "I don't have a radio here." "Haha! Dude, I can't believe what you said now, so I have to wrong you." Soon, Kehan ​​and Helen filled up the car with gas.Before going out of the house they double-checked the ropes to see that they were securely fastened to their captive. "Mr. Kehan," Duck yelled, "it's cold in the mountains!" "I know, what's wrong?" "The fire in the stove can only burn for a few hours. If the fire goes out, the temperature in this room will drop below freezing!" "You're right. So you can't tie me here, I'll freeze to death!" "So you are also afraid of the cold? Then why are you indifferent when my wife is freezing outside?" "I just lied to you about a gallon of gasoline, and you let me die here. Isn't the price too high?" "Ha! Do you remember what you said yourself, old man?" "What did I say?" "Oil prices have gone up."