America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 260 Settling the Deal

The three men panicked when Zorro pressed the gun to their foreheads. "Big brother, we didn't do anything! If it's a robbery, just take the money, please don't hurt us!"

"Were you invited by Lightning Oil Company?" Zhang Ailun walked over and questioned.

"Sir, we've never met before, have we? I don't know what you're talking about," the private investigator said, forcing himself to speak.

"Are you all this stubborn?" Zhang Ailun sneered, taking out a satellite phone and a camera. "Why did you film me? Honestly admit what you've done. I know exactly what you're doing. Anyway, this is the middle of nowhere, so even if someone dies, no one will know."

Seeing that their scheme had been exposed and the other party was acting aggressively, the three of them quickly backed down and admitted, "It's true that someone came to our door and asked us to monitor you, but we don't really know what they're doing. We just have a contact person who told us to contact him and send all the footage over. We're from Mickey's Private Detective Agency."

"What did you say in those three phone calls? You didn't even know the employer's identity, yet you dared to take the job?" Zorro questioned.

"They only told us to send the relevant photos and video information to the contact person, and they would transfer a sum of money to our account. We really didn't know their identity because it's an industry practice. We were just doing our job for money. They were very generous and gave us $30,000 right away." The private investigator was on the verge of tears.

If they had known the target was so ruthless, they would never have taken this job.

"I'm only worth $30,000?" Zhang Ailun was a little annoyed. Were those people taking kickbacks?

But seeing how pathetic these three looked, he didn't kill them. He just interrogated them for a while before knocking them unconscious with a single punch.

"What are they going to do?" Zorro asked.

"Send them to the mountain camp for a period of labor reform. There's no need to cause a death over these three scoundrels. This satellite phone can come in handy," Zhang Ailun said after thinking for a moment, preparing to turn the tables.

He simply sat in the passenger seat of the Wrangler and had Zorro take a few close-up photos of him. After glancing at the photos, he found the angles to be good and the images very clear, and immediately sent them to his satellite phone contact.

Mickey's Private Investigator: The target is still driving to the manor when he collided with a private car on the highway, which may affect the progress of their business cooperation.

The other party responded quickly: You did a good job. Please continue monitoring the target. The promised money will be transferred to your studio's account afterward.

Mickey Private Investigator: If you can add a little more money, we might be able to kidnap the person without any problems.

Contact: Are you really that capable? Private investigators doing kidnapping? No, you don't need to alert them. Your task is simply to monitor them; this kind of thing should be left to the professionals.

Mickey Private Investigator: Okay, I'll keep pushing the information to you. I think you should really reconsider.

Zhang Ailun spread false information to the other party, put away his satellite phone, and waited for a while before the Beggars' Sect disciples drove over.

After parking the car on the side of the road, several men got out and jogged over, asking, "Boss, where's the laborer? Are they human traffickers again?"

"Those three guys lying on the ground are them. Take them to the Kilimanjaro Mountains and teach them how to do things properly." Zhang Ailun pointed to the three people who were tied up on the ground.

"These people dare to provoke us? Don't worry, we'll definitely teach them a lesson." Upon hearing this, the Beggar Clan disciples immediately pulled the man up and lifted him onto the cart.

The private investigators regained consciousness midway through the ordeal and found themselves kidnapped and abducted by strangers. They panicked, but before they could even shout or scream, the Beggar Clan disciples injected each of them with an anesthetic, and the three of them instantly fainted and lost consciousness.

After packing the group up, the Beggars' Sect disciple closed the car door, stepped on the gas, and drove off the suburban highway.

Watching the van drive away, Zhang Ailun got back into the Wrangler and let Zorro drive on to the manor ranch.

Although a minor mishap occurred along the way, taking a little longer, we still arrived at our destination within half an hour.

Zorro arrived at the town manor without any obstacles. After parking the car on the ranch, he saw three groups of well-dressed elites observing the oil well pumping machine. The oil pipeline had been continuously pumping out a lot of crude oil, filling more than a dozen tanks.

Nearby was Sheriff Arthur from the Greenfield Town Police Station, leading his men to maintain order. After all, he was paid to do his job. If they didn't perform well, how could the Grand Master possibly give them bonuses and profit sharing?

Anyway, apart from petty theft, the town is safe and secure. There's not much to do on weekdays, so sitting in the office, besides playing cards and flirting with hot girls, there's not much else to do.

Old Carl was also there. Seeing Zhang Ailun arrive, he immediately greeted him, "Why were you so slow?"

"We ran into a little trouble along the way, but it's been resolved for now." Zhang Ailun took out a satellite phone, handed it to Zorro, and instructed him to take the camera to a suitable location to take pictures and then send them to the contact person at Lightning Oil Company to lull them into a false sense of security.

Zorro readily agreed, took the satellite phone, grabbed the camera, and ran to a distance to film the scenery. He then edited stories and fabricated information to deceive the other party, setting traps and snares step by step to make them believe it was true.

The oil company representatives also came forward, warmly shaking hands with the head of the company. The middle-aged white man leading the group was accompanied by a female assistant. He introduced himself, "Hello, Mr. Jin, I am Walter, the manager of Huasen Oil's California branch. This is our deputy manager and assistant. We met at the auction before."

"I vaguely remember you." Zhang Ailun nodded, then looked at his sexy blonde female assistant beside him, who looked to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, and said in surprise, "But this is the first time I've met this lady."

Why are you dressed so scantily?

Judging by that, she probably isn't wearing anything underneath at all, right? Like, she's going commando?

"Hello Mr. Jin, you can call me Camille." The female assistant smiled warmly and held the leader's hand tightly, not wanting to let go, with a direct and forceful manner.

If it weren't for the crowds and the fact that it was outdoors, she really would have liked to hint at something.

Zhang Ailun was secretly taken aback, finding it hard to keep up with the other person's enthusiasm, and managed to pull his hand away with great difficulty.

Executives from Merlin Petroleum and WM Petroleum also came over and warmly shook hands with the leader.

The short-haired woman leading the group, dressed in sexy office lady attire, high heels, and long legs in black stockings, enthusiastically introduced herself: "Hello, Mr. Jin, I am Davis Merlin, the department head of Merlin Oil's California branch. Although we have never met before, I feel very comfortable seeing you."

"..." This was the first time Zhang Ailun had ever seen a relationship brought closer like this.

I'm an Asian, and you look like you're of mixed European and American descent. What kind of kinship do we have?

Speaking of a sense of familiarity, I felt a connection with the person in charge of WM Petroleum next to me; at least he looked like an Asian with yellow skin.

With a strange expression, he said, "Ms. Merlin, I also find you very approachable. Your surname is Merlin? Merlin Oil Company is not your family's business, is it?"

I only meant to make a joke, but the other person immediately admitted it!

"Merlin Oil is indeed our family business, an asset built up by my great-great-great-grandfather. Our company is currently owned by eight board members. Merlin has operations in Texas and Kansas, and also has development projects in the Middle East. I also manage the California branch." Davis Merlin smiled slightly. "I sincerely hope you will consider our sincere offer and reach this cooperation agreement."

She's a true "rich, beautiful, and fair-skinned" woman.

The head of the organization was completely baffled by her. "Hello Mr. Jin, I am the deputy head of the department at WM Petroleum's California branch. You can call me Feng Fei." The WM Petroleum manager had an Asian face, and a friendly smile graced his slightly chubby face.

They might have wanted to get closer by using their identity, skin color, and language to build a relationship, but the leader of the sect simply wouldn't fall for it.

When fellow countrymen meet, they stab each other in the back; the leader of the organization would love to keep his distance from Chinese Americans.

He smiled and nodded, saying, "Hello, Mr. Feng, isn't your supervisor here?"

Everyone else came with their supervisors, deputy supervisors, or female assistants. Why did you only bring a driver and an accountant? You didn't even have a hot girl with you?

The Grand Master sees that you are not sincere.

I can refuse it, but you can't refuse to give it to me.

"Our manager is currently in Las Vegas handling some oil field business and is unable to come over, so he asked me to do it on his behalf. Please rest assured, Mr. Jin, we are absolutely sincere," Feng Fei said.

"Okay, you should have already surveyed the three oil fields at Green Field Manor Ranch, and the oil production should have reached your company's estimated standards, right?" Zhang Ailun then led the group to the three oil field distribution areas and the location of the oil pumping station.

On the hundreds of acres of desolate plain, only three lone nodding donkeys were set up, which had been divided into three different areas with raised fences.

Although the oil was extracted from the same estate, the geographical locations and depths of the oil fields are vastly different. They are completely unrelated, not connected, and do not belong to the same oil field according to regulations.

After all, in some states, even within the same oil field, there are regulations that prohibit two oil wells from being connected within 100 meters. This precisely controls private oil production, and oil companies will also purchase them in segments. A large oil field often has dozens of buyers, and then entrusts it to oil companies for joint management.

This is also to prevent the emergence of monopolistic oil tycoons who could disrupt state oil market prices. A single pie can attract hundreds of competitors; it's impossible for only one person to hold it.

California, however, has much looser regulations on this, with no mandatory spacing requirements. Drilling rigs can be installed arbitrarily on an oil field, sometimes every few meters or even every ten years, to frantically extract oil. As long as the underground oil resources are not contiguous and are distributed at different depths, they are considered independent oil fields.

Even if you are adjacent to another oil field on the surface, but the underground depths are different, one is 1,000 meters and the other is 100 meters, and the surface distance between them is 0.5 meters, they are still two oil fields and will not affect the extraction work.

If you want to purchase it, you will need to pay the price of two oil fields, not the same one, and there will be no discount.

Zhang Ailun also planned to package and sell the oil field, which occupied one-third of the manor ranch, and let them negotiate and cooperate with the local power supply bureau and relevant departments themselves.

It's likely that soon there will be dozens or even hundreds of nodding donkeys on the ranch.

The Huasen Petroleum executive said, "Based on our assessment, the underground resources in your three oil fields are more than predicted. We will maintain our previous prices, and perhaps we can increase the premium by a few percentage points."

Zhang Ailun nodded. "Now we can talk about the price. You can offer your sincere price, and if I think the price is acceptable, I will proceed with the transaction. I don't intend to sell these three oil fields to the same company unless the price is right."

"If that's the case, then the value of these three oil fields might not be as high as we imagine," said the female assistant to the manager of Merlin Oil.

"I don't care about market prices and influence; I only care about how much each of my oil fields is worth. The least valuable of my three oil fields is over one hundred million US dollars. I will sell them to them as long as the price is right. You can consider which oil field to invest in."

Zhang Ailun gave them time to consider, then called over a Beggars' Sect disciple, brought over drinks, and distributed them to everyone present.

He turned and walked aside with old Carl, asking, "Which company contacted you? Want to buy your oil?"

"They haven't arrived yet, and they're not exactly big companies. But just now, people from those three major oil companies exchanged a few words with me. They want to buy my oil, and if the price is right, I might consider selling it to them," Old Karl said.

"Let's just wait for their offers. Anyway, the oil resources are in our hands, and whether we sell or not is up to us," Zhang Ailun smiled. If they don't want it, plenty of people will offer a premium; it's a hard international currency.

A short while later, the deputy manager of WM Oil Company approached and politely said, "Hello, Mr. Jin, after discussions with the board of directors, we have decided to purchase your oil field, which contains 9500 million barrels of crude oil, for $200 million. This price is absolutely very competitive; I can guarantee that the other two companies will not be able to offer a higher price!"

"Your price is already very competitive, but I want to hear the other two companies' offers." Zhang Ailun chuckled, understanding that this was already their bottom line.

The WM executive walked to the side with a confident smile. Soon after, Davis, the executive from Merlin Oil Company, approached and said, "Mr. Kim, based on our board's internal vote, we have decided to purchase your two oil fields for $1.45 million and $3.2 million respectively."

"We're buying your largest oil field for $3.25 million," said the Watson executive.

"Okay." After considering it, Zhang Ailun also chose to sell the three oil fields to three oil companies for $9500 million, $1.45 million, and $3.25 million respectively. The total value of the oil fields was $5.65 million.

"If there are no objections, let's sign the transfer agreement now. You need to make the remittance to the Hamburger Foundation, which I have invested in." Zhang Ailun took out the prepared documents and the Hamburger Foundation's account information.

The oil company personnel returned to their vehicle, retrieved the prepared documents, drafted and signed the contract, and notified the company's finance department to transfer funds. With a sum exceeding one hundred million, the transfer process would take some time, requiring funds to be withdrawn from banks or private equity funds in various regions.

Merlin Oil Company executives were somewhat disappointed because they hadn't secured another valuable oil field.

Zhang Ailun continued his pitch, saying, "My friend Carl Alfred's private ranch also has 200 million barrels of oil resources in its oil field. If you are willing to buy it for $9500 million, you can consider signing a transfer contract with him."

The WM Oil executive immediately stated, "We are willing to purchase Mr. Carl's oil field at the same price."

Old Karl grinned from ear to ear. "Then come with me to the ranch. I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Not long after, Zhang Ailun received a notification that his money had been deposited into his account and glanced at the project funds from the Hamburg Foundation.

+$9500 million. The first payment, from WM Oil, has already arrived.

The other two payments may take some time, but they should arrive in batches by tomorrow at the latest.

Anyway, the contract has already been signed, and the land is here; there's no way they can run away.

Even the Grand Master couldn't help but exclaim, "So this is how you become a billionaire?"

I think you guys are quite sincere.

"Mr. Jin, we have also prepared a celebration banquet to mark the success of our cooperation. The guests at the party are all private oil field owners who have projects with our company. Would you be interested in joining us tonight?"

Watson's female assistant, Camille, came over and extended an invitation, her eyes practically sparkling with desire.

(End of this chapter)