American Gossip King

Chapter 144 A Shameless Deal

On December 13, President Bush announced the United States' withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972.

On this day, at the Windsor Golf Course in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

On the green grass, the scenery is elegant, the sky is vast and the sea is wide, and in the distance, several white swans are drinking water in the pond.

Several cars slowly drove up and stopped at the No. 7 tunnel entrance area.

Ian got out of the car, carrying a golf club, accompanied by a middle-aged man in a white t-shirt, with their respective secretaries following behind them.

The middle-aged man's name is Isolte Cherry, and he is one of the candidates for the next California Senate election.

He was a corporate executive before entering politics and serving as mayor of Auckland.

After stepping down as mayor, he began seeking a seat in the Senate, and that's when James Perry introduced Ian to him.

At that moment, Cherry and Ian approached the ball, wiggled their cues to prepare for a shot, and said, "Five hundred thousand, is there a problem?"

Ian replied, "One dollar."

The cue stick hit the ball, but it veered slightly, and the ball didn't fly up; instead, it rolled diagonally to one side.

Senator Cherry put away his rod, staring at Ian in astonishment: "What did you say?"

Ian laughed and said, "My ball skills aren't as good as yours, so I have to find a way to distract you."

Cheri was speechless: "Then you succeeded. You're quite good at using little tricks!"

Ian replied, "Taking shortcuts is an essential skill in our line of work."

As he spoke, he arrived at his ball.

Cherry chuckled as he watched Ian swing: "So, that means there's no problem?"

Ian glanced at the ball and said, "Five hundred thousand is no problem. Not only that, I will personally speak out for you, and the Herald and the Times will also support you. But CBS is different; they support the Democrats, and you are a Republican. I don't have enough control over CBS to change their political leanings."

Cherry nodded: "That's enough. Your words carry more weight than the entire CBS now."

Ian smiled and said, "I want the California Highway 1 renovation project."

Cherry was taken aback: "You don't have a construction company."

"I can buy one," Ian said, swinging his club and sending the ball soaring high into the air. "I also need to build a prison, and I need your support to give me a contract."

The ball soared high into the air, tracing a beautiful arc, before landing precisely in the lake.

"Fuck!" Ian cursed.

Without cheating, his ball skills are indeed lacking.

Cherry laughed and patted Ian on the shoulder: "Stop trying to salvage it, let them change the ball and try again. So, if you're not skilled enough, just using tricks won't work."

Ian picked up the ball again and swung, this time finally landing it in the target area.

Cherry clapped his hands and said, "You want to use the money you make from building roads to finish the prison? Your profits are too high; this is unrealistic."

"How about we build another hospital?" Ian laughed. "Prisoners need hospitals too. A bunch of ruthless criminals need the humanistic care of doctors. I can contract out the hospital."

He continued, "The highway will take three years to complete, but I can finish it in just one year. In return, I need the state legislature's prison and hospital service contracts. You give me the money for the highway and the hospital, and I'll throw in a large prison. It's a good deal."

Cheri muttered, "That's not called a gift."

He looked at Ian with a puzzled expression: "Usually, the longer these kinds of projects take, the more money they make. Why are you in such a hurry?"

Ian turned around and got into the car with Cherry, heading to the next area.

Ian replied, "The continuity of a project doesn't require something to be left unfinished; that would make both of us look incompetent. It can be fixed, it can break again, and it can be fixed again."

Cheri laughed heartily.

He thought about it carefully for a moment and asked, "How much money do you want to spend?"

"One billion."

Cherry laughed, "So you're going to use the money you make from highways and hospitals to build another prison, while simultaneously making all of California's criminals your big clients?"

"For the safety of the public, and for the democratic freedom of the prisoners... they can't live in such overcrowded conditions. Even prisoners have human rights." Ian laughed. "Oh, and also, don't restrict them to wage-based qualifications."

Cheri looked at him questioningly: "Why?"

"I plan to use people from China; they'll be faster, more efficient, and cheaper," Ian replied.

Cherry frowned. "This project could create thousands of jobs. The United States doesn't need Chinese workers to do our construction."

"They built our railways, and whether you like it or not, the fact is they did a better job, at least in terms of infrastructure."

"But I promised to create more jobs!" Cherrie was very dissatisfied.

As a politician, the most important achievement is solving the employment problem!

Cherry would rather turn a billion-dollar project into fifteen billion and give Ian an extra five hundred million than reduce employment, since the latter is more directly related to the public.

The latest novel is first published here!

But Ian clearly wasn't planning to wait that long.

Time is money. If you finish in three years, you'll have enough time to earn a billion dollars and gain a good reputation in the remaining two years.

“This one project won’t make a difference,” Ian replied. “I might open factories in the future, creating more jobs, and that will all be thanks to you. Give me the projects; faster construction and better security. The 9/17 attacks have just happened; now, security is everyone’s need. A highway and prison that won’t be completed for three years doesn’t meet your needs, nor does it meet the needs of the public. But if you accept, the highway can be completed in a year, and the prison in three months at most, meeting the needs of three thousand people.”

Cheri's brows furrowed even more.

After a long pause, he shook his head: "No, I can't agree to that, Ian. You're offering too little, yet asking for too much."

"It's not just you; this requires the help of many people. I will visit them one by one, including our Governor Davis and the future governor." Ian smiled and said, "Okay, I can donate $800,000 to your campaign fund. By the way, I heard your child is studying finance? You know I also know some friends in the banking industry."

Cherrie immediately replied, "Thank you so much, but the state is short of money too. A billion dollars is no small sum. Maybe they'll cut hospitals, and you'll have to cover some of the costs yourself, or maybe they could downsize the prisons?"

Interesting.

Shouldn't a small prison pay less money?

But that's America.

The prison contracts are signed with the state, and the larger the prison, the more support it needs from the state, resulting in a large expenditure every year.

Therefore, Cherry preferred to let Ian make more money on the project rather than promise him a large prison.

Ian laughed and said, "California will have more prisoners in the future. This country will never lack criminals. Three thousand criminals are just the beginning."

He looked at Cherry calmly and said, "My newspaper will fully cooperate with you to guarantee your election as a senator! If that doesn't work, I'll personally take care of your competitors! I mean what I say!"

"When the project is nearing completion, you can express your dissatisfaction with my company, accuse it of employing foreign workers, and strongly condemn my company. Of course, you can't accuse me; I'll give you a target to attack... Then I'll make those Chinese leave, and you'll have created thousands of jobs all by yourself. Of course, they'll have finished the work by then."

He laughed and said, "There's a Chinese saying: 'To take, you must first give.' Creating unemployment first, then creating jobs—that's the best approach!"

Che Li took a deep breath: "You should at least employ some locals; you can't go too far."

Ian said, "10%."

Cherry said, "20%."

Ian nodded: "Then it's settled."

The matter was quickly settled, and a shameless agreement was reached.

(End of this chapter)