When Baekeland was taken away from the Table Mountain Hotel, he didn't know what mistake he had made. Then Baekeland was taken directly to the airport. Only then was Baekeland informed that during the time he left New York, his
Partner Leslie has transferred the patent rights to phenolic plastics to Swinburne & Co., a company established by Sir James Swinburne, on behalf of Baker & Wright.
"Then, just for this, you dragged me out of the hotel and took me directly to the police station. You have already got what you want, what else do you want me to do?" Baekeland's body was uncontrollable.
The trembling and pain of betrayal almost made Baekeland lose his mind.
"Sorry, those policemen misunderstood me. I took them to apologize to you. There is a plane flying to Nyasaland in the early morning. Although it is not so comfortable, it is faster than civil aviation. If you don't mind, you can
You can come with me." O'Connor said sorry, but there was no apology on his face.
Before Baekeland could speak, the police dragged Baekeland's luggage over and put it directly on the plane parked on the tarmac.
Baekeland stopped talking. Even if he minded, there was no room for objection.
O'Connor was right. The comfort of cargo planes is indeed not as good as that of passenger planes. The plane shook violently when it took off. Baekeland was still wearing pajamas from the Table Mountain Hotel. He gripped the armrests of the seat tightly with both hands, and his joints started to crack.
It turned white. This was his first time flying.
O'Connor had long been accustomed to the turbulence of cargo planes. When he saw Baekeland next to him, O'Connor took out a silver flask from the pocket of his windbreaker and took a sip, then handed the flask to Baekeland.
Baekeland turned pale, took the wine bottle from O'Connor's hand, followed O'Connor's example and took a big sip, and then spat it out with a loud sound.
O'Connor suddenly frowned. The cabin of the plane was full of cargo. In the small space, the smell of alcohol was really not pleasant.
Baekeland was unable to complain. He knelt on the floor of the cabin and almost vomited out his stomach. His clothes were stained with filth. He lay on the ground like a dead fish, rolling his eyes and gasping.
At this time, the plane gradually entered the level flight stage. O'Connor helped Baekeland find a change of clothes from Baekeland's suitcase and threw them on Baekeland's chair.
When Baekeland got up with difficulty, he actually thanked him politely. This behavior of drinking may be suitable for O'Connor, but it is definitely not suitable for Baekeland.
O'Connor didn't realize it. When Baekeland was changing clothes, O'Connor ran to the cockpit, banged the door, and then hid in the cockpit without coming out.
After Baekeland changed his clothes, he also felt that the smell was really unpleasant, but there was no way to clean it up on the plane, so Baekeland followed O'Connor's example and broke down the door.
"What for?" O'Connor's expression turned ugly as he opened the door.
Baekeland's face turned even more ugly.
O'Connor glared at Baekeland for a while, and finally got away angrily.
There are two pilots in the cockpit, and in addition to the two pilot seats, there is only one spare seat.
Baekeland went out to drag the suitcase over again, and sat on the suitcase, leaning against the cockpit door.
"Your job is quite comfortable. If possible, I would also like to become a pilot -" The noise in the cabin was a bit loud, and O'Connor chatted with the co-pilot at the top of his lungs.
The co-pilot who was looking at the map didn't say anything and just gave O'Connor the middle finger.
"How much money do you make a month? Do you have R100?" O'Connor was very interested in the life of a pilot.
"More than - at least a thousand!" the co-pilot said with malicious intent.
"Hahahaha——" O'Connor raised his head and laughed wildly. One thousand is impossible, and one hundred is impossible.
However, the salary of a pilot is indeed a little more than that of an ordinary job, but the amount is limited, about thirty or forty rand a month.
In fact, there are quite a few.
After laughing, O'Connor returned to his old ways and took out a flask and asked the co-pilot to drink.
The co-pilot looked at O'Connor with frightened eyes and made a warning gesture to O'Connor.
O'Connor put the jug back in a hurry. On someone else's territory, he still had to restrain himself.
At this time, the earth is still dark, but the sky in the distance is white, and stars can be seen in the sky. The boundless night is like a beautiful crystal music box, and the plane flies alone in the sky, giving it a sense of absurdity as it wanders around the world.
.
At seven o'clock in the morning, the plane landed at an unknown airport. O'Connor finally had the opportunity to ask someone to come up and clean the cabin. Then O'Connor and Baekeland were kicked out of the cockpit.
"Keep on holding on, we can arrive in Los Angeles around eleven o'clock." The plane would stay at the airport for an hour, so O'Connor took Baekeland to have breakfast. In order to express his apology, O'Connor took the initiative to pay for the meal.
Baekeland was not focused on paying the bill. Although the cabin restaurant was simple, the food provided was rich, including milk omelets, some pasta that Baekeland had never eaten before, and a special drink.
This drink looks similar to American Coca-Cola, but tastes completely different.
Coca-Cola was founded in 1886. Before that, in 1885, the state of Georgia where Coca-Cola's inventor Pemberton was located issued Prohibition, so Pemberton wanted to prepare a non-alcoholic drink to replace people's demand for alcohol.
, Coca-Cola was invented in this context.
Up to now, there are many varieties of cola on the American market. Coca-Cola was the first to be launched and the most famous, but it has not yet reached the level of dominating the market.
Baekeland also drank Coca-Cola, but he didn't like the taste of Coca-Cola. On the contrary, Baekeland liked the slightly sour but generally sweet drink provided at the airport.
"This is called sour plum soup, a traditional summer drink. The main ingredients are plum, hawthorn, tangerine peel, osmanthus, licorice and rock sugar." O'Connor explained in detail. In fact, the ingredients are written on the bottle, but Baekeland can't read the Chinese characters.
"Can it be produced on a large scale?" Baekeland was concerned about whether there was a chance. The anger at being dragged out of the warm bed in the morning had long since disappeared without a trace.
"It should be possible. This is originally a product launched by a South African company and is sold throughout southern Africa." O'Connor doesn't know much about the process of large-scale production, but there should be a method. When he was in Los Angeles, O'Connor drank more than a dozen drinks a day.
bottle.
"God, more than ten bottles! You really don't want to live anymore." Baekland felt unbelievable. If you drink a drink like Coca-Cola more than ten times a day, it's hard to say whether you will die or not, and your teeth will definitely be damaged.
As for how expensive dentistry is in the United States, everyone knows.
"Hahaha——" O'Connor didn't waste any time and directly bought a box of sour plum soup to drink on the plane later.
Baekeland was thoughtful, and then turned his attention to the pastries.
"Baozi! This is the essence of our southern Africa. I have never eaten bread since eating buns. Compared with buns with many flavors, bread should be fed to pigs -" O'Connor said too much.
Absolutely, but you can't ask too much of O'Connor, after all, operators don't need to think dialectically.
Baekeland didn't refute, and tried to eat a few more. As expected, the taste was very rich, and it was indeed better than bread.
So when he got back on the plane, Baekeland brought two cages of steamed buns with him as snacks on the road.
Not long after the plane took off this time, Baekeland suddenly heard a bang, then felt the plane shake violently, and then the plane's fuselage tilted a bit.
"What the hell is going on?" O'Connor's horrified voice changed its tone. The plane was now more than 2,000 meters high. If you were not careful, it would crash and kill everyone.
"It doesn't matter, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that we lost one engine, and the good news is that we still have three--" The co-pilot was a crow's mouth. Before his voice could finish, there was another loud noise outside the cabin.
The co-pilot directly opened the window next to him, and then said with a pale face: "I want to correct my words, now we have lost two engines-"
The plane tilted even more seriously at this time. The captain was not in the mood to be funny and shouted to the co-pilot, asking the co-pilot to help control the fuselage. He also asked O'Connor and Baekeland to return to the cabin immediately and find a way to fix themselves in their seats.
O'Connor and Baekeland simply rolled and rushed back to the cabin. When O'Connor was looking for the rope, he found Baekeland chanting a prayer.
"Stop praying, find something to fix yourself quickly -" O'Connor yelled at Baekeland, but Baekeland turned a deaf ear.
Through the cabin window, O'Connor could see that the engine on one side of the plane was already on fire and burning.
"God, Bodhisattva, Lord God—" O'Connor's eyes straightened, and he recited all the gods he knew, feeling the necessity of prayer for the first time.
At this time, there was really nothing O'Connor and Baekeland could do except pray.
However, God is not on earth, and the prayers of O'Connor and Baekeland have no effect. A burning engine suddenly breaks off and falls directly from the sky.
O'Connor suddenly exclaimed and hurriedly started looking for paper and pen.
"What are you doing?" Baekeland finally finished his prayer.
"Looking for paper and pen to write a suicide note. The money I worked so hard to earn cannot be cheap for those vampires at Rand Bank -" O'Connor found paper and pen, but under the violent shaking, he couldn't write anything at all.
At this moment, perhaps with the help of God, although the fuselage was still severely tilted, the plane miraculously regained its balance, circled in the air, and flew crookedly towards the airport not far away.
O'Connor and Baekeland remained motionless, fearing that even the slightest movement would affect the balance of the aircraft.
Through the porthole, O'Connor finally saw the cleared airport runway, and countless ground staff were rushing towards the runway with fire extinguishers.
