Chapter 207 Boring Banquet

"His parents are working. Since he graduated early and there's no one at home to look after him, he came to stay with me, his grandfather. I thought it wouldn't be fun for him to stay cooped up on my farm all the time, so I brought him to New York."

A slightly aged yet gentle voice answered Carter's question.

"I hope this child hasn't offended you with his boldness, esteemed Mr. Blake! I am his grandfather, Saadi Fritz."

"No offense at all. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fritz! Contrary to your concerns, I think this child's future is promising, and he is quite sincere."

After shaking hands with Mr. Fritz, Carter and Ken Griffin continued their conversation for a while. As they talked, Carter realized that Ken Griffin's family background seemed quite impressive.

Of course, anyone who could enter this venue surely had a decent family background. However, Ken's family seemed to align particularly well with Carter's plans!

His father was originally a project manager at General Electric but now runs a construction supply company in Florida. Interpreting it Carter's way, that meant a building materials company. Meanwhile, his grandfather, Mr. Fritz, had a regional fuel company in Illinois, a seed company, and three large farms. Their output included precisely what Carter needed: corn and soybeans.

Carter wasn't worried about coming off worse in this exchange. After all, compared to building materials, the prices of American farm products had remained relatively stable since the 1970s. As long as the big grain traders didn't cause any trouble, or there were no natural disasters, purchasing materials from Fritz's farm wouldn't increase Carter's procurement costs.

On the other hand, with Julian's intentional or unintentional disclosures about Carter, the seventeen-year-old with over forty million dollars in assets, Mr. Fritz also looked on with envy. Regardless of whether they would cooperate, just looking at his little grandson, Mr. Fritz didn't want to upset Carter.

For a moment, it seemed like a perfect match. Each fox, with their own thoughts, conversed enthusiastically, and the intention to cooperate was naturally reached just a minute before the banquet hall doors opened.

As the banquet progressed, it was quite boring for Carter. Apart from a plaque unveiling ceremony where Carter had to go on stage and lift a corner of the curtain with Julian and John Griffin, there wasn't much for him to do. After all, his task as bait had been fulfilled once the doors to the reception hall closed. In such a public setting, the bigwigs like Lynch and Rogers, except for the sour-faced Soros, chatted and joked, and there were no real business deals to be had.

Listening to the gossip of the big shots for a while, such as who was recently caught having an affair in the office by their wives, or which securities company collectively solicited prostitutes, Carter felt the entertainment industry was indeed chaotic, but there was no real benefit for him.

You're all gossiping away, but at least let me know your contact information, wouldn't that have made my wait worthwhile?!

Thinking about it, Carter felt a bit tempted by the idea of mingling with this group of people. But who let these big shots only joke around and not disclose where they found the people?

This was frustrating, and what was even more frustrating were the conversations with the second-generation children. Compared to the straightforward Ken Griffin, these people were much smoother. Smooth to the point that they always managed to find some strange angle to approach a topic.

For example, Carter saw whiskey at the waiter's station and suddenly thought of the fear he had once had of bourbon domination, so he beckoned the waiter for a glass. Then, adding some ice cubes, someone immediately struck up a conversation nearby:

"In 1915, Glenlivet is best not to add more than two square ice cubes; otherwise, it will greatly destroy its rich flavor. I'm xxx, let's be brothers."

Sorry, the latter part got a bit lost in translation.

Anyway, this kind of conversation routine, Carter initially agreed with it. At least he thought these people, well, were pretty slick at such a young age, which was pretty good. But after experiencing it multiple times, he couldn't help but feel a little bored.

Because these folks, in the end, were all about trivial matters. Either they were indirectly probing his background, or they were discussing where was fun to go, which nightclub had the prettiest girls, when they should go together, and so on.

In the end, it seemed that apart from playing, he couldn't get any returns. Instead of gossiping with them, Carter felt he might as well chat about math with Ken Griffin. At least with math, he could exercise his logical thinking abilities, right?

So he kept waiting until nine o'clock, when the last guest was sent off, before he took Lily back to the hotel where they were staying. Carter, who had been busy all day, had already taken off his coat and loosened his tie in Julian's car.

In the morning, he was neatly dressed, but by the evening, he looked disheveled. Yet even in this disheveled state, some people still found him irresistibly handsome because...

The money had arrived!

"Mr. Blake! I hope we didn't disturb you by staying this late. Our mission has been completed. Tomorrow morning, they will come to Chinatown to apologize!"