Chen Zhao did notice that the town wasn't doing too well recently.
The unemployment rate was as high as 20%. It was a terrifying number.
In the past, many people relied on the brewery to work and live. Plus, the one-stop sales and transportation took up a lot of jobs.
Ever since the brewery had caught fire, there had been a lot of calls to rebuild it.
Back then, the new mayor, Afate, had proposed to rebuild the brewery. That was how he obtained the support of the townspeople and defeated his competitors.
But after Afate took office, he didn't keep his promise.
He actually wanted to do agriculture and borrowed a huge loan from the bank.
A total of 200 million dollars.
How much was 200 million dollars?
The value of agriculture in Los Angeles was around this amount.
But Afate actually used 200 million dollars on agriculture in Mountain Town.
Of course, he also knew that the land in Mountain Town wasn't suitable for growing crops.
The salinity of the land was too high.
Therefore, a large portion of the 200 million dollars was used to treat the land.
But reality proved that Afate was too naive.
The salinity of the land in Mountain Town was much higher than he'd expected.
He'd invested a large amount of money to treat the land.
Then, the crops would all die after a few days.
After retesting, he found that the deep soil had high salinity too.
To completely treat it, he didn't need 200 million dollars, but two billion.
200 million dollars was enough to treat a few hundred acres of land. How many crops could he grow?
It would probably take a few hundred years to pay off the loan with a few hundred acres of land.
In the end, he angered the bank. Then, a large amount of the town's land was forcefully expropriated by the bank.
Now, half of the land in Mountain Town was in the bank's hands.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't matter to the townspeople whose hands the land was in.
But if it was in the bank's hands, it would be a serious problem.
The bank could sell it to whoever it wanted.
If it was Chen Zhao who bought the land to build a house or treat it as his backyard, it would be fine.
But if it was sold to a chemical factory, the townspeople would probably want to die.
The bank didn't care if the townspeople objected or not.
To them, they would sell to whoever offered the highest price.
In America, it was difficult to get approval from the local government for the construction of chemical factories.
Therefore, many chemical factories were built in remote areas.
But now, the town government still owed a large amount of money. If they wanted to object, they had to consider the bank's attitude.
But this had nothing to do with Chen Zhao.
He didn't rely on anyone in town to earn money anyway.
Plus, Chen Zhao had a green card, so he had no right to object to the new mayor.
Anyway, the new mayor was chosen by them.
A sin committed by Heaven could be forgiven, but a sin committed by oneself could not be avoided.
The new mayor, who had high standards but low abilities, indeed had no management skills.
His campaign slogan was louder than anyone else's: Eliminate unemployment.
As a result, after he took office, the unemployment rate broke historical records.
Occasionally, Chen Zhao would pass by the entrance of the town government. He could see people blocking the office building and protesting, asking Afate to step down.
Chen Zhao was considered half an outsider here. He didn't even have the right to vote. Other than supporting Deon Slote verbally, he couldn't influence the town's voting.
"I've already arranged for people to spread the news in the town. Why don't you let me come back and continue being the mayor?" Deon Slote said.
Chen Zhao glanced at Deon. He was indeed an old fox.
This method was many times more advanced than that of the new mayor.
In the past, Dean Slote did not have a good reputation.
But he had indeed done a lot of practical things.
Putting aside Deon Slote's moral character, at least his ability was there for all to see.
"Chen, what if I say that I hope you can invest in a beer factory? What would you think?" Deon Slote asked in a testing manner.
"Err …" Chen Zhao really did not expect Deon to make such a request.
After all, Chen Zhao had no concept of operating a brewery. He didn't know how to manage it either.
"Chen, in the past, when the brewery was still here, its sales were always good in the LA area. It made millions of dollars every year and the sales were stable. Plus, the sales didn't disappear. I still have the contact information of the distributors, so it's easier to open up a market than a new brand."
"Mr. Slote, I really don't plan on doing this."
Chen Zhao had always kept his distance from businesses he was unfamiliar with.
Because he was unfamiliar with them, he was worried about losing money.
Also, managing a company was very complicated.
Chen Zhao did not want to tie himself down because of this.
"Chen, if you're afraid that you don't know how to manage it, you can leave it to a professional manager. Plus, your old friend Bant is an old employee of the brewery. He's passed down the taste of wheat beer. Because of this skill, he's always been the brewery's unobtainable taster."
"How much do I need to invest to rebuild the brewery?" Chen Zhao asked.
"At least five million dollars."
Chen Zhao could afford five million dollars.
But this was an investment, not a game.
Especially when it was a business that he was unfamiliar with.
"I can't answer your question right now. I need to think about it."
"Okay, I'll wait for your good news."
Chen Zhao had a rough idea of Deon Slote's plan.
He wanted to rely on his own investment to build a brewery, and then gain a wave of popularity and rise back to the top.
But this also meant that Chen Zhao's interests in Mountain Town were tied to Slote's.
Chen Zhao did not know if Slote had suddenly thought of this or if he had planned it for a long time.
But if the conditions were right, Chen Zhao would rather work with Slote than an idiot like Afate.
Slote knew that he should stop here, so he did not continue pestering Chen Zhao.
After Fali and Azina came out of the supermarket, he left.
"Fali, let's go to Bant's house for lunch."
"Sure."
Chen Zhao took out his phone. "Bant, are you home?"
"I'm here. Chen, why? Do you want to come? "
"Fali and I are too lazy to cook, so we plan to go to your house for lunch. You won't reject us, right?"
"Come quickly. I've been home alone for two weeks. Mary and Ken are both busy and don't have time to come back. I eat alone every day. It's great that you guys can come and eat with me." Bant was very welcoming of Chen Zhao's family.
"We came empty-handed this time. We didn't bring any gifts."
"I hope you guys don't bring anything. You always bring gifts. I have to prepare gifts every time I go. It's so troublesome." Bant was very straightforward and said whatever he wanted.
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