"Oh? I'm all ears." To be honest, Jiang Hai had been waiting for her to say this. In fact, he thought it was a bit redundant for these women to come here. What's the point of playing around? It would be simpler to just do what Zhang Lao does—order a certain number of cows, determine the meat's worth, decide the price, and exchange the money. That's it.
You could say that this Pra Walton also wanted to come and observe, but wasn't that troublesome?
However, it is a buyer's market after all. Although Jiang Hai could easily sell these cows, most Western restaurants and other establishments can't handle buying more than 10,000 cows at once. Jiang Hai's reputation may have grown through this competition, but it's limited to the New York circle. No one in the United States, China, or the West knows who he is.
So, if Jiang Hai doesn't want to lower the price and sell to middlemen but still wants to avoid trouble, he must strike a deal with Pra Walton.
"To be honest, your beef is better than I expected. If a perfect beef score is 100, yours would be 95, but right now it's only 80. The 15 points deducted are because your chef is terrible. If I were you, I would've fired the chef by now." Pra Walton raised her index finger, speaking seriously.
Though a bit immature and sometimes irrelevant, she wouldn't joke when it came to serious matters.
"Oh, I made the beef myself." In reality, if a chef had served a dish like this, Jiang Hai would've opened his shop without needing any advice from Pra Walton. But since he made it himself, there was no way to open a shop with it.
"I thought about this long ago... Now, let's talk business. I haven't looked closely at the ranch in your manor, so I don't know if you have any secret recipes, nor am I interested in knowing. If I wanted to buy a whole cow, you wouldn't agree. So, let's stick to calculating based on the slaughter of the cow. After slaughter, we'll discuss the price per grade of meat." Looking at the working habits of the Americans, they don't usually talk business while eating, and Pra Walton understood that Jiang Hai was Chinese.
Chinese people often discuss business at the dinner table, so she was simply catering to his habits.
"If you can guarantee the quality of your cattle, I can take care of all of them. You should know the current market price. Premium beef averages $375 per pound, prime beef goes for about $130 per pound, and commercial beef is around $50 per pound. I'm not interested in the lower grades, but I can still take them off your hands, since we have outlets like Walmart for those. You can consider the price I'm offering. I'll raise it slightly for premium beef: $380 per pound for premium beef, $140 per pound for prime beef, and $55 per pound for commercial beef. Standard beef will follow the market price. You probably understand there's no profit in those," Pra Walton casually quoted the price.
Upon hearing her words, Jiang Hai started to calculate in his head. Although his cattle aren't as exceptional as when they participated in the competition, their quality has improved due to recent breeding efforts. He'd also receive a commission. At this price, he could sell one cow for about $120,000 before tax. If she buys all the remaining cattle, after setting aside the 2,000 cows for Zhang Lao, he'd have over 11,000 cows left, worth more than $1.2 billion. This was a significant deal, and Jiang Hai was a bit tempted.
"Wait a minute, is the price you mentioned the one you'd pay if you buy out all our beef?" Jiang Hai hadn't agreed yet, but Qi Li, who had recovered from her shock, looked at Pra Walton seriously.
"Of course," Pra Walton replied with narrowed eyes, a slight smile on her lips.
"I don't think that's a reasonable price," Qi Li said, shaking her head.
"Oh? What's unreasonable?" Pra Walton was surprised that Qi Li would directly call the price unreasonable.
"I can't deny that you want to buy the remaining beef, but let's not talk about whether other people are interested. Just focusing on the beef itself, I think the price for the special selection is a bit off," Qi Li said, quickly analyzing the situation.
Having lived in the United States for a few years, Qi Li had some understanding of beef prices. As a second-generation wealthy individual in China, especially as a woman, she knew how cheap beef was in the U.S. and how expensive top-grade beef could be. Unlike many in China who weren't familiar with beef grading, Qi Li at least understood it. Generally speaking, premium beef in the U.S. is comparable to 4A and 5A beef in Japan, but prices differ greatly between those grades.
Now, Pra Walton's pricing was clearly intended to irritate Jiang Hai.
"Are you suggesting a new price?" Pra Walton, tapping her fingers on Jiang Hai's oak table, looked at Qi Li with a playful expression.
"We'll still need to discuss this. Didn't you come here to have fun? There's no rush," Qi Li replied calmly, refusing to disclose their bottom price yet, especially since she didn't know the manor well. She was determined not to let Jiang Hai suffer a loss.
"Well, I didn't expect Jiang to be so henpecked," Pra Walton said, amused. She wasn't in a hurry; her initial offer was just a test. She had come to enjoy herself, but business was still part of the equation. She wasn't a hard-nosed negotiator; after all, the price she offered wasn't too unreasonable. But since she had been seen through, she didn't mind.
She wasn't just any small-time businessman—she was Pra Walton, in charge of Walmart's Sam's Club.
Although Qi Li's skills were far below hers, Pra Walton remained interested and continued to watch.
"Heh..." Jiang Hai didn't know how to respond. There was no need to make his relationship with Qi Li public, so he remained silent.
"Alright, after dinner, is there anything else to do?" Pra Walton asked with a smile, her demeanor changing back to that of an ice queen.
Jiang Hai was taken aback by how quickly she shifted her mood.
"Uh, no," he replied clearly.
Pra Walton didn't seem to mind his directness. She greeted the others, especially Selena Gomez, before heading upstairs. Selena smiled awkwardly, unsure of how to react, but sometimes she couldn't bring herself to say anything.
"Well, she's full, but I'm not. Let's continue," Jiang Hai said, and the table became lively again. The main reason for the renewed excitement was Qi Li's assistant, a real foodie who, though using a fork—something she wasn't the best with—was still unstoppable at the table. After discovering how delicious the steaks were, she became even faster with her fork.
It was hard to understand how all the food disappeared so quickly. The girl was good-looking with a great figure, but her eating habits left much to be desired.
The meal continued smoothly, and after some minor issues, everything went according to Jiang Hai's expectations. After the dinner, Qi Li, rubbing her full belly, led her assistant back to her room, glancing back every few steps. Selena Gomez also went back to her room.
Darlene and Marian helped Jiang Hai clean up briefly before heading back to their rooms to admire their new bracelets.
Though unspoken, it was clear that they appreciated the gifts Qi Li had given them.
This was a bit of a headache for Jiang Hai, as he hadn't expected to be in this kind of situation with Qi Li just yet.
After cleaning up, Jiang Hai returned to his room, threw himself onto the bed, and began rubbing Xiao Huang's head. Xiao Huang had been kept inside because of the guests. He stared at the ceiling, feeling that Qi Li would likely come to talk to him about their relationship. Given that she had flown all the way here, it seemed unlikely she would let things be. He feared something might go wrong again. (To be continued.)