Chapter 121 Extricating Oneself

(I'm dying of laughter at myself, the rating dropped directly to 5.1, I'm very curious if the rating will drop below 5 or not...)

After Mu Xin finished that sentence, he turned and walked out of the warehouse. He took out his phone and sent John a message: "Come see me at nine tomorrow morning, something has come up."

John replied instantly: "Okay."

By the time he returned to the Morris Building, it was completely dark. Mu Xin didn't turn on the lights; he sat in the darkness, watching the quiet streets of Oxford Town outside the window.

The extra dollars he received every day could only be spent in Oxford Town.

If he didn't spend it, the money was just a pile of numbers; if he spent it, he would sink deeper and deeper into this game.

He could choose to do nothing, take that money every day, buy a few houses, buy a few cars, eat the best steak, drink the best coffee, and just rot away in that luxury dormitory in the Morris Building.

Mu Xin chuckled, shook his head, stood up, and turned on the lights.

On the whiteboard, the things written earlier still remained: Williams Family asset liquidation progress, hotel construction progress, power plant expansion schedule, Bexorg delay strategy.

He picked up a marker and wrote a new line at the very bottom:

"Ramaswamy — Twenty Russian-made engines, 400 megawatts."

...

The next day, John appeared on the third floor of the Morris Building right on time.

"How was Lily's parent-teacher meeting last week?" Mu Xin poured him a cup of coffee.

"It was quite good." John chuckled, "The teacher said she made friends in class and her drawing has improved a lot."

"That's good." Mu Xin sat opposite him, leaning back in his chair. "John, I need you to help me do something."

John set down his coffee cup, looked at Mu Xin, and didn't speak, just nodded.

"Ramaswamy, have you heard of him?"

"I've heard of him. Republican Party candidate, boss of a biotech company, endorsed by the president." John thought for a moment, "He's appeared on the news a lot these past few days."

"He came to Oxford Town yesterday." Mu Xin's tone was very calm. "He has a shipment in his hands: twenty power generation modules converted from decommissioned Russian military engines, with a total power output of 400 megawatts."

"I need this shipment to solve the equipment issues for the power plant expansion, but I cannot trade with him directly."

John's brow furrowed slightly. "Russian military engines?"

"Yes, refurbished, the quality is fine, but the source is sensitive." Mu Xin stood up and walked to the window, turning his back to John.

"If this shipment is directly linked to me, once it's exposed by the media, all my projects will be investigated by the FBI."

"So your security company..." Mu Xin turned around to look at John, "is my best choice right now."

"You come forward to sign the contract with Ramaswamy and buy these twenty machines."

"But what if someone investigates? If the FBI follows the flow of the equipment to Oxford Town, to your hotel or power plant, what then?" John was a bit worried.

"They won't be able to trace it." Mu Xin walked back to the table and took a piece of paper from the drawer. "This is the power supply contract signed between the Oxford Town Security Management Company and the Oxford Town Public Utilities Company."

"After your company buys the power generation modules, you sell them to the public utilities company in the form of a power supply service."

"The public utilities company then supplies power to the whole town; all the transactions are legal."

"On paper, your company is the owner and operator of the power generation equipment, and the public utilities company is the purchaser; I have nothing to do with this matter."

John picked up the contract and read it over.

"Mr. Mu, are you sure you want to do this? Once these machines are discovered, it won't just be you; I will be implicated too, and Lily..."

"They won't be discovered." Mu Xin interrupted him. "Not because our operation is flawless, but because no one will investigate. Do you know why?"

John shook his head.

"Because the entire United States is short on electricity right now. AI data centers have eaten up the entire country's transformer production capacity. The approval cycle for power grid expansion has gone from two years to five years. Internet giants have poured tens of billions of dollars in, yet they still can't solve the power problem."

"Against this backdrop, who is going to investigate a veteran's security company for buying twenty power generation modules?"

"No one. They will only ask one question: Do you have any extras? Can you sell them to me?"

"Ramaswamy is right; what's most lacking right now isn't money, it's time."

"Whoever can solve the power problem in the shortest amount of time is the winner."

"I don't care if these machines came from Russia or from fucking Mars. I only care about one thing: can they generate power when I need them to?"

"Alright, I'll do it." John didn't hesitate any longer.

Mu Xin walked back to the table, took another document out of the drawer, and pushed it toward John.

It was a letter of intent for procurement, with John Mitchell's signature as the purchaser, and the supplier was that trading company Ramaswamy registered in the UAE.

The procurement quantity was twenty units; the total amount was not filled in and left blank.

"You negotiate the price," Mu Xin said. "I have a rough idea of Ramaswamy's bottom line. His cost for refurbishing and modifying each machine is between 1.5 million and 2 million dollars."

"His target price is around 3 million. You push it down below 2.5 million. For a package of twenty units, keep the total price under 50 million dollars."

"Fifty million." John was stunned for a moment. When he was wandering the streets, he didn't even have fifty dollars in his pocket, and now Mu Xin was asking him to negotiate a 50-million-dollar deal.

"Money is not an issue. After the contract is signed, the money will be transferred from the Oxford Town Public Utilities Company's account to your company's account, and then from your company's account to Ramaswamy's company."

"All the flow of funds is legal and traceable," Mu Xin explained.

"Isn't the money from the public utilities company just your money?" John's brain hadn't quite caught up yet.

"No," Mu Xin smiled. "The public utilities company is Oxford Town's public utilities company, not mine."

"I am just its major client, a major client with millions of dollars in electricity consumption every year."

"A major client signing a prepayment contract with the power supplier to advance 50 million dollars in long-term electricity bills is not a problem at all."

John couldn't help but chuckle. "Mr. Mu, you have every penny arranged so clearly."

"It's not that I arranged it well," Mu Xin picked up his coffee and took a sip. "It's that the American legal system is too perfect. As long as you operate within the framework, no one can find any fault."

"Then what if someone operates outside the framework? For example, if someone doesn't follow the law and leaks this matter directly to the media."

"That would be even better." Mu Xin set down his coffee cup. "After media exposure, everyone will ask one question: Why would a veteran's security company buy twenty power generation modules from Russia?"

"The answer is simple: because power equipment can't be bought in the United States, and his client needs electricity. Who will this question eventually point to? Not me, but Ramaswamy."

"You mean..." John was still a bit confused.

"I mean, Ramaswamy is more afraid of this matter being exposed than I am." Mu Xin smiled.

"He is a Republican Party candidate, endorsed by the president, and has media attention."

"If he is exposed as having ties to Russian military engines, his political career will be completely over."

"So he will be more careful and more cautious than anyone else."

"He won't let any problems happen with this shipment, because if something goes wrong, the first person to die will be him, not me."