The Goddess Shines on America

The conference room that should have belonged to the first floor has been replaced by the chairman's office on the top floor of the Oslaer-Ben Duoven real estate company. As the core area of ​​the largest real estate company in Carolina, Chairman Ben Nick has arranged the room in an orderly manner, and the large mahogany desk can easily set off his aura.

But that's when dealing with partners.

At this moment, he was obviously in his own office, but he could only stay in the most inconspicuous corner "wronged", allowing the two real protagonists to have their first meeting.

"It's hard to imagine that the one who wanted to buy land in this state was actually Miss Alice, who has often appeared in major newspapers recently."

Governor McDowell has just turned fifty, but already has pale hair: "However, what surprised me the most was the share of this order."

He looked at the materials covered on the table: "And 6,000 acres is not a small area. May I ask, isn't this prepared for summer hunting?"

Many wealthy people have the hobby of buying natural reserves. This kind of land is cheap, and although it cannot be used for commercial and residential development, it can just be used for their fishing and hunting vacations. Strictly speaking, the land of the Great Dismore Swamp is of this nature. Its biodiversity allows the rich people who live here to have enough animals to hunt, as long as it is not a protected area.

"The truth is, I want to start a security company."

Facing the governor of this state, Alice said truthfully: "These 6,000 acres of land are used to build training bases."

"Security company!?"

McDowell was shocked: "If I remember correctly, your current main identity should be the founder of Cisco Systems and a shareholder of Microsoft, right? The field of security companies seems to have nothing to do with you at all. relation?"

Alice smiled easily and shrugged her shoulders: "It didn't matter before, but it doesn't mean it can't be related in the future. Even though I'm a girl, my ambition is no worse than that of a boy. A cool company like a security company, I've been interested in it for a long time."

As she said that, she didn't forget to pat Maiya on the shoulder who accompanied her: "This is my good sister, she just decided to take the military academy entrance exam."

"Oh, yeah, that's pretty amazing."

Of course, McDowell's attention was not on the Akaman father and daughter. After politely showing a little surprise, he said to Alice: "But why did you choose this land?"

"Because it's a swamp, of course."

Looking into McDowell's eyes, Alice noticed that there seemed to be something wrong: "Speaking of which, Governor McDowell, how can such a swamp natural reserve be sold for four thousand dollars per acre? Even if it is In Oklahoma, the cheapest place, a piece of residential land is half the price, right?"

Alice clearly saw that McDowell's pupils shrank suddenly.

"It seems that you have a soft spot for that swamp. Would you like to tell me the old man's reason?"

The reason, of course, is that Blackwater bought this piece of land in history, but Alice can see that neither the owner of the real estate developer nor the Governor is obviously unwilling to buy that piece of land by himself .

why is that?

"I just want to."

Alice shrugged her shoulders and fixed her eyes on McDowell: "But if I just wanted to buy it before, after knowing that the price of this swamp is so expensive, I want to know why now. Mr. Governor, the land price is the state's It was directly formulated by the relevant department, but it is impossible to formulate it casually, the price of this swampland is far higher than its due value, I want to know now, is there any hidden secret in it?"

Alice is ready for a protracted battle. As early as when Blackwater International was originally conceived, the Great Dismore Swamp was already in her pocket. It's just a swamp. Seriously speaking, even if it sells for a thousand dollars, the price per acre is a little expensive, and at four thousand dollars, she won't be taken advantage of like that!

However, the answer does not seem to be difficult to come by.

"It's not impossible to tell you."

McDowell also realized that the girl was difficult, nodded, but still said: "You can guess, if you guess right, I can also reduce the price for you."

Alice stared at McDowell's expression: "Because you have detected mineral resources under the swamp, but because you haven't hired a contractor for the time being, you raised the price to avoid being bought by others?"

McDowell laughed loudly: "Your imagination is really rich, but Alice, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, that's not the reason at all."

After speaking, for fear that Alice would guess endlessly, McDowell hurriedly added: "There are two more chances. If I can't guess the reason, I will never let go of the price of four thousand dollars."

During this conversation, the Akaman father and daughter kept quiet.

Everyone sneaked a look at Bennick.

It stands to reason that when discussing the sale of land, the chairman of the board, Ben Nick, should be the leader. No matter how you look at it, it is an away game, and it should be Governor McDowell. But now it seems that the price negotiation of this swamp has been undertaken by McDowell alone, and Ben Nick feels a sense of relief.

It's really weird!

"Because someone died there?"

Alice directly threw out such an idea: "But that is only the case of ghost houses, and it must be dealt with by reducing the price. How can there be any reason for appreciation?"

Then, a scene that surprised and delighted Alice appeared!

Governor McDowell's eyes full of wisdom, the pupils contracted again because of nervousness!

"Hahaha, Alice, you really deserve to be a novelist. This imagination really makes me feel ashamed."

But McDowell immediately laughed: "I have also read your "Jurassic Park", that novel..."

"It seems that's why."

Alice interrupted him to change the subject: "So it's because people died in the swamp."

After the words fell, both Alice and Akaman's father and daughter were satisfied to see that the expressions of McDowell and Bennick were completely frozen.

"If you think about it this way, you will understand."

Alice nodded, and continued: "There is danger in the swamp, and it is a danger that can cause death, so when you find that the danger cannot be eliminated temporarily, you will increase the price manually, so that there are few people in this swamp. No one will buy the swampland you care about, will you?"

After a long silence, McDowell sighed slowly: "As expected of Alice Wang, although you are young, you are smarter than many adults I know. You are right, then A swamp is indeed dangerous."

Sure enough!

After getting the answer, Alice closed her eyes in satisfaction.

Akaman interjected: "What kind of danger, please? As far as I know, only a small area of ​​the swamp is in danger of submerging people. Most of the map is just wet land full of plants."

Maiya said softly, "Because there are crocodiles? Or miasma?"

McDowell shook his head: "We don't know either. First of all, you have to know that this is not a criminal case after all. The most we can do is to search and rescue the victims. It is impossible to do anything to the swamp itself. Knowing that there is danger In the end, the safest course of action is to keep people from going in, rather than aggressively addressing it."

"Of course, this is not because the state government is inactive, but it is really difficult for us to investigate the cause."

Seeing that everyone's expressions became more confused, McDowell thought for a moment and said, "That's right, as far as everyone knows, most of the people who walked into the swamp failed to come out."

"Aha!?"

"What are you doing?"

"God, are you kidding me?"

Seeing the surprised expressions of the three people, McDowell seemed to be a little satisfied, and said with a smile: "I'm surprised, but the situation is so incredible. After I became the governor, I once browsed the relevant records. From three Since more than ten years ago, there have been frequent disappearances in this swamp, but most of them were handled by the local police as ordinary disappearances.”

Alice's expression also became serious: "So, the reason why you raised the price to prevent people from buying that piece of land must be a large-scale disappearance, right?"

"That's true!"

McDowell's expression became heavy, and he sighed: "That happened fifteen years ago, I believe you don't have much impression, this gentleman... Anyway, the situation at that time was like this."

"There was a family of three brothers. They were citizens living in the small town of Ayden. They were just graduating from high school at that time. Because they were going to college soon, they took advantage of the summer vacation to go on an outing to the outskirts of the swamp... At least, that's what they told their families when they left."

Alice interjected, "And then disappeared?"

"Yes, and then disappeared."

Looking at the serious expressions of the three audience members, McDowell also took an extra look at Ben Nick, who was also serious: "The authorities immediately dispatched police officers to search and rescue the missing teenagers. At that time, a total of 172 police officers were dispatched. Look for them in the depths of the swamp. As you know, that land is at most only highly humid and full of wetland plants, and it is not difficult for ordinary people to set foot..."

Alice swallowed hard: "Could it be..."

On Governor McDowell's slightly aged face, there was a distinct fear.

"You guessed it right, Alice, except for the three teenagers, all of the one hundred and seventy-two policemen who walked into the swamp also lost contact and disappeared completely!"