Chapter 134: The Great Crawl Up

  He nodded in agreement with Wang Fan's words: "It's really hard for an old American to do a government job, so after you get married, just don't let her work anymore. Anyway, it's popular for women to stay at home and take care of children in the US, and her income isn't much for you anyway."

  Wang Fan smiled and said, "This is nothing to be worried about. By the way, are you going back to the ranch for Thanksgiving? If not, then we'll just have to make do with each other's company."

  Shaking his head, Ju An said while cleaning the fish in his hands: "Tomorrow afternoon, no matter if we've finished talking or not, I'll fly back early the day after tomorrow. The Chilean cowboys at the ranch are fine, but the American cowboys definitely need a holiday. At that time, only Thomas' family and Er Zhuang will be left, and they really can't handle it. If I don't go back, I won't feel at ease. Why don't you come with me to the ranch for the holiday?"

  Wang Fan said with some distress: "I have a lot on my plate too, and after getting into business, I don't feel as carefree as before. So I can only spend time with the single guys in the company."

  "They're not going home for Thanksgiving?" Quinn asked strangely.

  Wang Fan explained: "In the company, two foreigners went back, one of them was going to accompany his girlfriend and so on. Several young colleagues wanted to go back but couldn't, so I had no choice but to spend the holiday with them."

  "Alright, stop complaining. In the past when you weren't doing business, you wanted to do business. Now that you're doing business, you complain about not having time. You're being ungrateful, you know?" said Ju An with a smile.

  Wang Fan was speechless for a moment, and the two of them continued cooking and chatting. At dinner time, they had some white wine. Getting himself drunk made him fall asleep much faster.

  When Wang Fan woke up early in the morning, he was still sleeping. Ju An learned to be smart today and didn't stay in the house for too long. After saying a word to Wang Fan, she went out of the community directly and took a taxi to Manhattan to stroll around. It's true that there are more people here, although they don't know each other. But it's much better than the empty house after Wang Fan goes to work.

  It wasn't easy to drag on until the afternoon, and then I received a call. Ju An took Nian with him to negotiate, and now there were more people. A group of people surrounded a table, and they had nothing better to do than haggle. Originally, Ju An thought that a big company would at least be worth tens of millions, and he could take 10% multiplied by some coefficient n. Although it couldn't be put in his pocket, the appearance was also good, but who knew that after repeated evaluations, these people only offered $40 million and wanted to take over half of the shares? Ju An was unwilling, of course. Are you kidding me? In my ranch, there are a bunch of hungry wolves waiting for food, and here we are haggling over a total of several hundred million, which would only be tens of millions per person, and if we're not careful, it'll all be gone.

  It was good for two rounds and then started to drag on, very lively, until everyone's share was settled. When it came to the later addition, they started dragging again, and finally dragged on for more than three hours, almost four hours, before signing the agreement, others don't know. Anyway, it was dragged out so that one's mouth was dry and tongue-tied, extremely boring.

  Who knew it was just a show. As soon as the contract was signed, those Americans suddenly changed their faces like they were performing Sichuan opera, and immediately put on smiles, opened a small champagne, and started celebrating. Nima, don't play like this, are you guys also going to follow Dehua Ge's lead?

  After a brief celebration, the Americans suddenly scattered like birds and beasts, disappearing in an instant. Only Nian and Mike were left beside Ju An.

  After releasing Nian, Mack took Ju'an to a nearby restaurant to fill their stomachs. As the sky completely darkened, the two of them drove towards the climbing area.

  As the car headed towards the suburbs, Ju An turned to Mike and said, "You must have gotten it wrong, this guy is almost out of New York, and the place to climb is quite remote."

  "Come on, you don't understand what's trendy. The more luxurious the wine is, the better. For young people, the more distinctive their ladder is, the better. This way, they can attract young people who follow trends to participate."

  "I said, Mike, this place looks like a bunch of abandoned factories to me. You must have gotten it wrong." Ju An looked at Mike as he drove into an area surrounded by large buildings about 7 or 8 meters high. It wasn't dark, and the lights inside were shining through. The streetlights on the side of the road were also intact, and there were many cars parked along the road. However, looking at it, Ju An felt like she was back in her childhood, when her mother worked in a textile factory's large workshop. The red brick walls were exposed, with slogans written on them: "Safety production, responsibility is heavier than Mount Tai" and so on. Except that here, the walls were painted with colorful patterns, looking like ghostly symbols.

  When Mike stopped the car in a slightly larger open space, two people got out of the car and Mike introduced that this was originally an abandoned warehouse, later converted into a studio for avant-garde artists, then some distinctive bars opened up, attracting some trendy people, and finally formed this relatively distinctive fashionable community.

  Looking at the mottled wall, if it weren't for the many cars parked by the road and occasionally seeing a few people walking around with walkie-talkies, and also seeing some sports cars scattered around, you'd be better off telling Guan An that this is a haunted place. From getting out of the car to walking all the way to the entrance of the broken factory building, Guan An didn't feel any sense of fashion here at all. Is it because brother has gotten old?

  Mike pushed open the large iron gate, and a passageway appeared, with flashing lights, just like in the Hong Kong version of Ghost. After walking for only a few steps, they reached the end of the passageway. Now what? Three walls surrounded them, and on one side wall, there was even an ATM installed. What kind of joke is this? Just as Ju An was about to complain, he saw Mike enter a set of numbers on the ATM, which slowly slid open towards Ju An's wall. Suddenly, a huge noise came from inside, leaving Ju An stunned.

  Mike pushed the wall gently, and the two of them walked in. The wall then returned to its original position. It turned out that this wall was an automatic door. This idea wasn't bad, but it was too noisy inside.

  Mack made his way through the crazy crowds, heading inside.

  The interior was not as luxurious as Ju An had imagined, with no mirrors, lacquered glass, or leather sofas. Instead, the entire space was dominated by a large, snow-white platform in the shape of a cross, about chest-high, surrounded by shiny railings and four steps leading up to it. On top of the platform stood a gleaming pipe, from which hung a star-spangled banner that fluttered in the wind, likely due to air vents on the pipe. The original factory's steel frame still loomed above, but now it was adorned with dozens of rows of colorful lights that rotated continuously, occasionally shining down on the frenzied crowd below.

  There are over ten girls dancing on the table, holding wine bottles in their hands. One girl danced with abandon, unbuttoned her bra, took it out from under her shirt and threw it into the crowd. Then she started to unbutton her shirt, which immediately triggered a chorus of screams from below. It seems that these girls are not professional dancers, but rather seem to be high on marijuana and dancing wildly.

  One side of the wall had a platform fixed to it, with one end attached to the wall and the other end held up by two black iron chains, making the platform appear to be floating in mid-air. A metal staircase led up to it, where a band dressed like ghosts was enthusiastically performing. I guessed this must be some kind of Gothic style. On the other side of the wall, however, there was nothing except for a long, narrow fence, behind which some young people were smashing empty beer bottles against the wall and then raising their hands in triumph, as if it was a great achievement to smash someone else's beer bottles.

  Following Mike through the crowd, they arrived in front of a two-meter-high railing on the mezzanine floor. Miles was wearing a casual suit and leaning against the railing with a large pair of sunglasses on his face. Despite being in such a dark place, he didn't seem to be afraid of falling. When he saw Mike bring An over, he raised a beer bottle to gesture to them, and then they went up a staircase guarded by a big man. Miles and An hugged each other, shouting: "An! How's my ladder?"

  After some effort, Ju An finally understood what Miles said and shouted back loudly: "Great!"

  Then Miles shouted back: "I'll come over and greet you later."

  Jū ān nodded and followed Mike to the back, this guy speaks loudly, tired to death.

  As soon as they reached the entrance of a large iron gate on the upper floor, the music behind them suddenly stopped, and Miles' voice rang out: "Welcome to this place, everyone jump freely, God bless America". Then came a huge roar from below, followed by the deafening music that once again invaded their ears.

  He pushed open the rusty iron gate, and a bright light appeared in front of him. As soon as the door behind him closed, the outside noise was almost gone. Inside, there was a space of about 200 square meters, with a long bar counter directly opposite the door. The large space had only one bartender standing behind the counter. The wall surface was made of some unknown material that formed natural protrusions and waves. On the right-hand side wall, there was a large aquarium filled with colorful fish whose names he couldn't recall. On the wall facing the aquarium, Marilyn Monroe's iconic pose was painted. As for the part of the wall on this side of the door, it seemed to be transparent but was too dark to see clearly.

  Mike sat down on the middle sofa with Ju An, then asked Ju An what he wanted to drink. Ju An said it didn't matter, just bring some beer. Mike ordered two bottles of beer from the bartender, and the two sat back on the sofa, leisurely drinking. The bartender had nothing to do now.

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