Alpine pasture

Chapter 35 Charity Auction

Entering the hall, I saw several waiters busy. Under the leadership of Mike, Ju An took Emma into the elevator. When they got out of the elevator, they saw a huge roof garden with a small band playing. There is also a female singer singing something.

What catches the eye are well-dressed people everywhere, standing in groups of three or five, talking about something. On the other side of the garden, there are several dining tables filled with food. There is also a small bar next to the dining table. There are three or four bartenders inside, busy, and some waiters are walking around with trays of these various drinks in their hands.

Turning his face a little, he saw Philips walking over with a smile on his face, and then gave Ju An a hug: "Ann, my friend, I mentioned you just now."

Ju An was a little surprised at the enthusiasm of this old friend Philips who had only met once, but she didn't show it on her face. She hugged Philips enthusiastically and said, "It took a lot of time to make this dress." Shrugged shoulders.

Then Philips told Ju An not to be restrained and have fun, and then greeted the guy who just came up below.

Mike introduced a few more people to Ju An, the company director, the New York State Congressman, everyone was talking nonsense, and Ju An's face was going numb with laughter, and finally took a break, Ju An shook off Mike and threw it down. The girl named Emma, ​​holding a glass of red wine, walked to the railing and looked at the lights of thousands of houses around.

After a few minutes, I suddenly heard someone from behind say, "May I ask if you are of Chinese descent?"

Ju An turned around and saw an Asian man in his 30s, holding a wine glass, standing next to Ju An.

"Yes, I just came to the United States not long ago," Ju An said with a smile.

"Hello, my name is Zhang Yonghe, I'm from Shaanxi Province, and I've been in the United States for more than five years," Zhang Yonghe said with a smile in Chinese.

Ju An replied, "Then you are much earlier."

Zhang Yonghe went on to say: "I just saw you here alone, looking like a compatriot, come up and ask, and go to introduce you to a few friends."

As he said that, he took Ju An around a few groups of people, and came to a circle of people with black hair and yellow skin.After everyone introduced each other around, they realized that these people basically came from the mainland of the motherland.

"My name is Duan Bin, I'm from a black province in China, and now I'm running a venture capital investment company," a short, fat man in his 30s with a round face introduced.

"My name is Li Yannian. I'm from Jiangsu Province. I've only been in the United States for more than three years. Now I'm doing import and export business." Another one, about 1.7 meters tall, introduced with a smile.

Ju An said: "Then we can be considered fellow villagers. My hometown is also in Suzhou, and Si County, Suzhou, and now Montana has a ranch."

"That's a real fellow. My hometown, Xu County, Suzhou Province, depends on it," Li Yannian replied with a smile.

"Then I'll be far away from you. I'm from Sichuan Province, my name is Ma Chaohan, and I manage a private financial company here," the tall middle-aged man introduced.

Several people chatted in Chinese, and they felt more enthusiastic.

"Xiaoju, I just came from China not long ago, and I may not know much about Chinese Americans. Now we Chinese Americans have about 400 million voting rights, which is already a source of votes that cannot be ignored in the American political arena. Over the years, more and more Chinese Americans have entered politics. Chinese Americans are also voting more and more, but the turnout rate is still very low, only 30.00%, I am doing some work in the Chinese American Federation, so that everyone can vote, no matter who they vote for,” said Duan Bin with a round face.

"We Chinese are still too honest. Many older people don't care about politics at all. They just bury their heads and look after their own family. Fortunately, the voting rate of the new generation of Chinese is getting higher and higher, which can be regarded as a big progress. "Li Yannian said with a smile.

Ma Chaohan said with a smile: "The older generation doesn't care about politics, so they don't know what the votes in their hands represent. Now the Chinese generation is much better. Now the two-party elections, if you want to show your Chinese name, you I'm embarrassed to call myself a presidential candidate."

"That's because there are more and more Chinese Americans. It is estimated that in more than ten years, the number of Chinese Americans who have the right to vote will reach 700 million. No matter which political party can ignore the votes in the hands of Chinese Americans now, the new Chinese Americans have slowly become It is a political force that cannot be ignored in the United States," Zhang Yonghe said.

After listening to the chats of several people, Ju An also had a general understanding of the living conditions of the Chinese in the United States. Zhang Yonghe also set up a Chinese-American Mutual Aid Association to help some Chinese-Americans who were living in difficulties. After listening to Ju An, he also promised to donate some money.

The next auction was quite simple. Everyone entered a hall together. Most of the hall was lined with rows of chairs, with a slightly higher table in front.A microphone was placed on it, and Ju An, carrying the brown-haired beauty Emma, ​​found a place to sit down with a group of fellow villagers she had just met.

Next, I saw that the old Philips first came to power and held a meeting in China. First, thank you for the nonsense such as welcome.

Next, the auction will begin. The auction items are small things with the emblem of the Democratic Party printed on them. Ju An's visual inspection, the cost is only a few dollars, and they are still soft girls.

Next, the auction will begin, and the small things that everyone is still quite enthusiastic about are basically sold for a good price of tens of thousands.

Among them, Ju An also took pictures of two small things, which cost more than 2 US dollars.After the filming, I asked Zhang Yonghe next to me where to pay.

Zhang Yonghe said with a smile: "Just write a check when the auction is over, and someone will contact you at that time."

Ju An asked again in a low voice, "So how much will it cost you to support the Democratic campaign for a year?"

Zhang Yonghe asked strangely: "What money do you spend on campaigning? Is it rare that someone cheats money in the name of the Democratic Party?"

Ju An quickly replied: "No, a friend of mine wanted to draw me closer to the Democratic Party, and I thought I would pay tens of 100 million yuan."

Zhang Yonghe said with a smile: "If you want to spend so much money, you can be included in the campaign action committee. You need to understand the legal mechanism of the United States. Most of the election funds in the United States come from free donors. The so-called free donors That is, ordinary people, the denomination of donations per person per election does not exceed 90.00 US dollars. For example, 60.00% of ***’s campaign funds come from these people, and many of them are [-], [-], and [-]. This kind of money can be hundreds of millions of dollars, and at that time, McCain’s donations of less than [-] US dollars accounted for [-]%. This kind of money is called hard money. And the supervision is very strict, and there is a special election The website, as long as you enter your name and address, you can basically find out how much money you or someone you know donated and who you donated to, and even if there is any remaining money, the donator can’t take it away, and put it there as a For the funds for the next campaign, for example, Hillary Clinton has a special account, and the money in it is the funds for the failure of the candidate in the Democratic Party, but she cannot take it out and use it for other places.”

Ju An asked curiously again: "Then I want to support one million and 80 to one person?"

Zhang Yonghe immediately said: "Don't do this, you are called bribery, it will cause big trouble, and no candidate dares to charge you this money, the supervision here is very strict, you just have illegal money, You can't spend a lot of money, that's why American gangsters talk about money laundering."

Ju An scratched his head and said, "I think there is some discrepancy with me. I thought all the money came from rich people."

Zhang Yonghe smiled and shook his head: "The rich have all funded political parties, and do you have any bribes? There must be, and there are always corners that the law can't control. Last time, a mayor in the United States took [-] bribes. Thousands of dollars, known as the largest bribery case since the founding of the United States, and you confuse the free donors within the consortium with the consortium itself. These free donors do come from within the consortium, but they are all free donors and represent themselves. , does not mean rich people, then you will find that among these free donors, there are supporters of both parties. Even if you donate to a political party no more than [-] dollars a year, it is illegal to donate more. There are some The source of funds is called soft money. Through the campaign’s action committee, these funds cannot be directly involved in the election campaign. This part of the funds is largely uncontrollable, but you can’t use this money to talk about yourself, you can only use it. If others are bad, the money will not appear on the books, and there are tens of millions of funds provided by the government, the property of the candidates themselves, and the funds provided by the parties.”

Zhang Yonghe's words made Ju An think for a while.

After the auction ended, I broke up with a few fellow villagers I just met.After staying with Mike for a while, Mike introduced himself to a Montana senator, complimented each other again, and then went home with Mike.

When he went back, because Mike's house was not far from here, Mike asked the driver to take him home first, and then take Ju'an to the hotel.

After Mike got out of the car, Ju An asked the brown-haired beauty Emma where she lived, and sent her home first. The several teases in Emma's words were all distracted by Ju An. It wasn't because Ju An didn't like beautiful women. , and it's not that Ju An Qing Gao or something, but I don't like the girl who is looking through the window, I feel twisted.

After seeing Emma off, when she was about to arrive at the hotel, Ju An got out of the car at a red light and told the driver to go back.

Unbuttoning his bow tie, he put it in his trouser pocket, and unbuttoned his shirt to make his breathing easier. Under the bright street lights, Ju An walked along the road to the hotel.

After walking for a while, I found a bar by the road. Ju An didn't really like bars, but he wanted to have a few drinks today, so he pushed the door and went in.

There were a lot of people in the bar, the lights were a little dim, and many people sat together drinking and chatting.

Ju An sat down at the bar, and said to the bartender, who was obviously of Latin descent, "Have a glass of whisky."

The bartender looked at Ju An, handed over a glass, poured a small glass of wine, and said with a smile, "Sir, this is your first time?".

"How do you know it's my first time here?" Ju An asked as he raised his glass.

"People wearing Patek Philippe and handmade suits don't often appear in this kind of bar. If there is one, I will definitely remember it." The bartender shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"Maybe what I'm wearing is fake." He sipped the wine into his mouth, and a stream of heat flowed down his throat into his stomach, "I'm having a drink."

"Wow, then I can only praise, your fake is the same as the real one." The bartender glanced around: "Then, you will immediately know whether yours is fake or not, and someone who will identify it. coming".

(End of this chapter)