Chapter 8 My Ranch

  In the morning, waking up in a safe place, lying on the bed, casually turning on the TV, switching from one channel to another, watching some boring TV series, talking about a transsexual killer, after watching for a while, feeling really bored.

  I didn't expect that the US also has such a nonsense TV series. I originally thought they only produced shows like "Prison Break" and "24".

  Then changed to a station just in time to see the play "Spartacus: Blood and Sand", although I watched it online at home, but I still enjoyed watching it, what attracted me was that all the actresses here are very beautiful, and there are not many ooxx scenes, basically a third-level film, but more bloody scenes than third-level films, such as knife cuts across the neck, fresh blood gushing out of the screen, extremely visually impactful, just satisfying my psychology as a introverted otaku.

  After eating a leisurely breakfast, it was already after 9 o'clock. After tidying up slightly, I made a phone call to the general office. When I went out, the car was already downstairs. A black Cadillac, with a driver dressed in a suit and tie, opened the door for me.

  In just over ten minutes, I arrived at the bank and under the guidance of a blonde beauty, entered the VIP reception room. After confirming my account, I received a checkbook from the manager's hand and then transferred two million to my senior brother Liu Chao. When it was time for her to send me out, I felt that this blonde beauty seemed to be smiling even sweeter.

  Next, I found a place to eat and called Liu Chao, telling him that the money had been transferred. Let him check it out. On the phone, Liu Chao told him that the contract was ready, regarding the investment of 2 million yuan in Ju'an's shares. He asked Ju'an to find a lawyer, and after a few days, Liu Chao would come over to sign it. Ju'an casually said, "Just take a look," but Liu Chao disagreed, saying it was better to be more formal. Ju'an had no choice but to agree with him.

  In the afternoon, I went to the immigration office. The staff at the immigration office verified my assets with the bank and then muttered to the Stars and Stripes for over ten minutes before solving the problem. Now I need to apply for a visa at the Chinese embassy when I return to China.

  Next, according to the appointment time a few days ago, Mike took a simple road test in his car. Ju An thought it was much simpler than the domestic road test, just stopping the car, turning on the turn signal, and braking, etc., and passed the road test smoothly and got the driver's license.

  It was already past five in the afternoon when I returned to the hotel.

  Not long after entering the room, the phone rang. The front desk said a real estate agent had come to see him. Ju An thought for a moment and was sure it was someone from the controlling brokerage company of Rongchu Bank.

  Then a real estate agent in his fifties, who was eloquent and garrulous, introduced nearly twenty ranches, ranging from several hundred acres to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of acres, with prices ranging from several million to over $100 million.

  After carefully examining the place for half a day, they asked some questions, mainly about whether there are mountains or not, whether there are more pastures on flat land or mountainous land, how far it is from town, and whether life is convenient or not.

  Finally, three ranches were identified, one over 10,000 acres in Texas and the other two in Montana, one over 40,000 acres and another over 55,000 acres. The latter two ranches each cost more than $40 million, while the first one costs more than $30 million.

  In the following days, this economy brought two people to accompany Ju'an to fly around. First, they went to Texas and saw a ranch. After that, Ju'an was really dissatisfied with the weather. The sun in June was so violent that it seemed to be killing him. Then he heard that summer is basically above 40 degrees Celsius, which is even more intense than Jiangnan's oven. Ju'an didn't like this kind of weather at all and directly ruled it out.

  Next, the group arrived in Montana. As soon as they got off the plane, Ju An felt a liking for this place. The air here was incredibly fresh and the temperature was only around 10 degrees Celsius. Ju An wasn't afraid of the cold but feared the heat. The broker explained that Montana is one of the wealthiest states in America and also known as Big Sky Country, with hardly any heavy industry, mainly agriculture, some mining, and a well-preserved natural environment, including Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, and various natural forest protection areas. The air was exceptional, and now many wealthy people are buying ranches here.

  Two ranches are roughly the same size, one is farther from the city and about an hour's drive from the airport, but the ranch has good facilities, with a small professional horse riding training arena.

  Another one is relatively close to the airport, about half an hour's drive from the airport. There is no equestrian training ground, and the house building is also good, with two-story brick-concrete buildings hidden among a few large cedars and American red maples, exceptionally beautiful. Next to it are two long one-story worker houses that can accommodate more than a dozen workers. The entire building is located on a small hill several meters high, and not far below is a horse stable that can hold forty or so horses. Next to the horse stable is a large, round wooden granary. Next to the granary is a large warehouse, and not far from the warehouse is a large flower house. The broker introduced that there were originally several pickup trucks, more than ten all-terrain vehicles, a tractor, and some grass cutters, balers, etc. Now only one tractor, grass cutter, and baler are left. Anyway, these things will have to be bought new in the future.

  Then he negotiated with the broker, from the initial 47 million to 43 million, paid in one lump sum. Next, the broker began drafting the agreement.

  Jū ān zhí jiē dǎ diàn huà gěi Mēng Dà Nà zuì hǎo de lǜ shī shì wù suǒ, qǐng yī wèi lǚ shī bāng zì jǐ kàn zhè xiē wén jiàn. Yù fù fèi jiù huā le yī wàn wǔ qiān duō Měiyuán, zhè wèi lǚ shī yī gè xiǎo shí shōu fèi qī bǎi Měiyuán, guài bu dé shuō Měiguó lǚ shī zhuàn qián duō. Zhēn de dà de xī xuè guǐ.

  Both lawyers arrived in Lewistown the next day, and the ranch chosen by Gu An was just a 30-minute drive from Lewistown. The two lawyers studied the contract item by item, while Gu An had some free time with the real estate agent. The two lawyers reviewed the contract for several hours, made a few phone calls to ask questions, and finally confirmed that there were no issues before signing in front of the two lawyers. Then Gu An issued a check, and he fully owned the 55,000-acre land under Giant Mountain. The new Creek Water Ranch was born.

  The rest of the matters were left to his lawyer to handle, and after dealing with them, the day was over. Gu An looked at the sky and decided not to return to the ranch today. The real estate agent left today and gave him a business card with the address of Lewis Town Auto Sales on it, saying that he could buy a car there.

  The next morning, Gideon went to the Lewis Town Vehicle Management Office and exchanged his New York driver's license for a Montana one.

  It was quickly done with the driver's license, actually just replacing a booklet. I don't know how the Americans do it and aren't afraid of trouble, but surprisingly, driver's licenses are not universally applicable nationwide, which is much worse than in our country.

  Out of the vehicle management office, after walking a few steps, I arrived at the car dealer indicated on the card. In fact, the entire population of Lewistown is only over 5,000 people, not even as big as the county where my parents live in China, and it's just like a small town government in China. However, in Montana, Lewistown is the county seat.

  As soon as he entered the car sales store, a young man wearing a cowboy hat warmly greeted him. When Ju An said his intention after taking out his card, the young man ran over to talk to the manager of the store for a few words.

  The manager of the store was a white man in his fifties with a big beard. After listening to the young man's introduction, he enthusiastically came out and shook hands with Ju An, then personally introduced the vehicle to him.

  "Okay, for ranch work you'll need a pickup truck the most. We are an agent for Ford pickups, we have F-150 and F-450. If you need it, you can also book an F-650 here with us."

  "I plan to buy an F-150 first and use it normally," Ju An said, looking at the deep blue Ford pickup in front of him.

  "We have both two-door and four-door models in stock. Let me introduce you, this dark blue one, we also have yellow and white, a total of three colors. If you want the popular matte finish now, you'll have to wait for three days," said the owner.

  "Hmm, can I take it for a spin?" Ju An said.

  "Of course, I'll go get the key," said the store owner as he turned and walked into his office.

  Next, Mr. Ju drove the car with the owner sitting beside him introducing things like genuine leather seats, good handling, engine displacement and so on.

  After getting in and feeling it for a while, I'm very satisfied. The space is very large, and with my height of 1.78 meters, there's still about two fists' distance between the top of my head and the roof. And when operating, it's quite agile, basically you can't feel like you're driving a pickup truck.

  Then I bought a four-wheel motorcycle, also known as an all-terrain vehicle, and spent a total of 60,000. This is still connected to car insurance. The domestic Ford F150 actually sells for over 600,000 yuan, while here it's $54,000 for the top-of-the-line version and $43,000 for the low-end version, which is less than 250,000 yuan.