American Scandal King

Chapter 144 Shameless Deal
On December 12, President Bush announced that the United States would withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 13.

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

The scenery is elegant on the green grass, the sky and the sea are vast, and there are a few white swans drinking water in the pond in the distance.

Several small cars drove slowly and stopped at the No. 7 cave entrance area.

Ian got out of the car, holding a golf club, accompanied by a middle-aged man in a white sweatshirt, and behind them were their respective secretaries.

The middle-aged man is Iseult Cherry, one of the candidates for the next California Senate.

He was once a corporate executive and later entered politics, serving as mayor of Auckland.

After stepping down as mayor, he began to seek a run for senator, and then James Pelley introduced Ian to him.

At this moment, Cheri and Ian came to the ball, shook the club in a ready-to-hit position, and said, "Five hundred thousand, is there a problem?"

Ian replied, "One dollar."

The club hit the ball and it was off target. The ball did not fly up but rolled diagonally to one side.

Senator Cherry put his club away and looked at Ian in surprise: "What did you say?"

Ian laughed and said, "My ball skills are not as good as yours. I have to think of a way to distract you."

Cheri was speechless: "Then you succeeded, you are very good at playing tricks!"

Ian replied, "Taking shortcuts is a necessary skill in our line of work."

As he spoke, he came to 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. The Herald and the Times will also support you, but CBS can't. 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 now carry more weight than the entire CBS."

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

Cheri was stunned: "You don't have a construction company."

"I can buy one," Ian said, swinging his club and sending the ball flying high. "I'm also going to build a prison. I need your support and a contract."

The ball flew high in the air, drew a beautiful arc, and then fell accurately into the lake.

"Fuck!" Ian cursed.

Without cheating, his playing skills are indeed not good.

Cherry laughed and patted Ian on the shoulder. "Don't bother trying to win. Let them change the ball and try again. So, if you don't have enough skills, it's useless to just use tricks."

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

Cherry clapped his hands and said, "You want to use the money you earn from building the highway to complete the prison? Then your profits will be too huge. This is unrealistic."

"How about building another hospital?" Ian said with a smile, "Prisoners also need hospitals. A bunch of evil criminals need the humanistic care of doctors. I can contract the hospital."

He said, "The highway will take three years to complete. I can complete it in just one year, but in return, I must ask the state legislature for a prison contracting service and a hospital contracting service. You give me money for the highway and the hospital, and I'll give you a large prison as a bonus. It's worth it."

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

He looked at Ian suspiciously: "Usually, the longer a project like this takes, the more money it makes. Why are you in such a hurry?"

Ian turned around and got in the car with Cherry and headed to the next area.

Ian replied, "The sustainability of a project doesn't require leaving something unfinished. That would make you and me look incompetent. If it's fixed, it can break again, and if it breaks, it can be fixed again."

Cherry laughed. He thought for a moment and said, "How much do you want to spend?"

"One billion."

Cherry laughed. "So you're going to use the money you make from the highway and the hospital to build another prison, and you're going to make every criminal in California your big client?"

"For the safety of the public, and for the democratic freedoms of the prisoners... they can't live in such crowded conditions. Even prisoners have human rights." Ian smiled. "By the way, there shouldn't be any restrictions on employee qualifications."

Cheri looked at him puzzledly: "Why?"

"I plan to use people from China. They are faster, more efficient and cheaper," Ian replied.

Cheri frowned. "This project can provide employment for thousands of people. America doesn't need Chinese workers to build our business."

"They built our railways. Whether you like to admit it or not, the fact is that they did a better and more outstanding job, at least in terms of infrastructure."

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

As a politician, the most important achievement is to solve employment problems!
Cheri would rather turn a 1 billion project into a 1.5 billion project and give Ian an extra 500 million than reduce employment. After all, the latter is more directly related to the people.

But Ian obviously didn't intend to wait that long.

Time is money. If it is completed in three years, the remaining two years will be enough for you to earn 1 billion yuan and gain a good reputation.

"This one project isn't a big deal," Ian replied. "I might open a factory in the future and create more jobs, and that will all be thanks to you. Leave the project to me. It'll be faster and provide better security. September 917th just happened, and safety is everyone's priority. A highway and prison that takes three years to complete doesn't meet your needs, nor the needs of the public. If you accept this, the highway can be completed in a year, and the prison in three months at most, meeting the needs of people."

Cheri's brow furrowed further.

After a while, he shook his head: "No, I can't promise you, Ian, you give too little, but you ask for more."

"You're not the only one involved. This requires the help of many people. I'll visit them one by one, including Governor Davis and the future new governor." Ian smiled. "Alright, I can donate $800,000 to your campaign fund. By the way, I heard your child is studying finance? You know I have some friends at the bank too."

Cherry immediately said, "Thank you very much, but the state is also short of money. One billion is a lot of money. Maybe they will cut the hospital. Can you at least pay some of it yourself? Or maybe they can make the prison smaller?"

Interesting.

Since the prison is small, shouldn’t the money be less?

But this is America.

Prison contracts are signed with the state. The larger the prison, the more state support it needs, which is a huge expense every year.

So Cherry would rather let Ian earn more money in engineering than promise him a large prison.

Ian laughed and said, "There will be more prisoners in California in the future. There will never be a shortage of criminals in this country. Three thousand criminals is just the beginning."

He looked at Cherry and said calmly, "My newspaper will fully cooperate with you and guarantee that you will be elected as a senator! If that doesn't work, I will personally help you deal with your competitors! I say it, and I will definitely do it!"

"And when the project is almost finished, you can express your dissatisfaction with my company, accusing it of hiring foreign workers and strongly condemning my company. Of course, you can't blame me. I will give you a target to attack... Then I will ask those Chinese to leave, so that you can create thousands of jobs on your own. Of course, they will have finished the work before that."

He smiled and said, "There's a saying in China: 'If you want to take something, you must first give it.' First create unemployment, then create jobs. That's the best way!"

Cheli took a deep breath and said, "You should at least employ some local people. Don't go too far."

Ian said: "10%."

Cheri said, "20%."

Ian nodded: "Then it's settled."

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

(End of this chapter)