Chapter 922: Uncle Carter’s predicament (1) Xia ruofei’s heart skipped a beat. He stopped the car by the roadside and said to Lin Qiao,""Qiao’ er, let’s talk about visiting the town later. How about we visit our neighbors first?" "The neighbor that produces Semillon wine?" Lin Qiao said,"Okay, okay!" "Can you not be so jubilant?" Xia ruofei did not know whether to laugh or cry."Didn’t you hear what brother Liang said today? the Wester family’s company is in a financial crisis?" "Oh, I know ..." Lin Qiao stuck out her tongue. The two of them got out of the car and walked into West Winery. Carter. West and his wife, cabalie, were standing at the entrance of the winery. Both of them looked worried. Old West was still pacing back and forth, as if he was waiting for someone. Xia ruofei waved at them from a distance and said loudly,""Uncle Carter, aunt cabalie, how are you?" Old West and Kelly looked over. When they saw Xia ruofei, they were stunned for a moment before they smiled warmly. They remembered their young and generous neighbor. "Hey! My dear Xia, long time no see. " Old West came up and smiled. Xia ruofei could tell that there was a trace of worry in his smile. Aunt kabelie was more cheerful. She gave Xia ruofei a big hug. With her weight, Xia ruofei almost couldn’t breathe. Then, Auntie caitley hugged Lin Qiao and kissed her cheek. Then, she smiled and said,"Xia, is this your girlfriend? What a beautiful Oriental Beauty ..." Lin Qiao was the representative of the English class in high school. Her English was pretty good, especially her listening. However, she was not fluent in speaking because she did not practice much. Therefore, after hearing what the aunty said, Lin Qiao’s face turned red and she quickly explained in English,"No, no, I’m not his girlfriend ..." She said. Xia ruofei also said awkwardly,""Auntie Capella, in China, this is called a match made in heaven ... Alright, let me formally introduce her. This is my sister, Lin Qiao." Then, Xia ruofei said to Lin Qiao in Chinese,""Qiao’ er, these two are the owners of the West Winery. You can call them uncle Carter and aunty cabalie." Lin Qiao greeted the two of them with a red face. Auntie cabelie scratched her head and said,""Xia, why does your sister have a different surname from you? Uh ... I don’t know much about the situation in China. Maybe this is normal in your world?" "I’m not related to Qiao’ er by blood, but she’s my sister,"Xia ruofei explained. "Oh! "Alright ..." Auntie kaberli nodded with a smile. "MA ’am, I’ve drunk the Semillon that brother ruofei bought from your winery. The rich and mellow taste left a deep impression on me!" Lin Qiao said with a smile. Auntie caitley smiled and said,""Lin, I’m very honored that you like our Semillon!" At this moment, Old West said apologetically,""Xia, I’m sorry. It’s a mess here today, and the workers are all on vacation. I can’t entertain you like last time." Xia ruofei nodded."Uncle Carter, I’ve heard some things about your situation from brother Liang. However, he doesn’t know the details. Can you tell me more?" Had they really reached the point where they needed to sell their winery? Uh ... I’m not trying to pry into your privacy. I just wanted to see if I could help. " Old West smiled."The company’s financial status is public information. There’s no secret. Since you’re interested, I’ll tell you." Aunt cabalie sighed and said,""Don’t just stand here, let’s go inside and sit!" "Yes, yes, yes, Xia, please come in!" Old West said. Everyone walked into the winery together. The last time Xia ruofei had come, there were still many tourists here. Everyone was here to taste wine and food, and many people were here to buy good wine. Today, however, it was cold and quiet, and it seemed a little messy. Old West invited Xia ruofei and Lin Qiao to have a seat while Auntie Kabili went to the bar to prepare drinks for everyone. Old West then told Xia ruofei and Lin Qiao about what had happened during this period of time. It turned out that Old West did not inherit the winery from the beginning. On the contrary, he had no interest in the family winery with a long history when he was young. After graduating from university, he started his business in Melbourne, and his import and export trading company soon became very successful. But later, his father got older and older, and he could no longer run the winery as he wished. Old West reluctantly took over the winery, but his focus was still on the company in Melbourne. However, as time went by, Old West grew to like life in the winery more and more. Perhaps he had the genes of wine in him since he grew up in the Hunter Valley area, but it had not been activated when he was young. As a result, Old West’s work and life were more and more focused on the winery. Under his management, the winery had also rejuvenated and became a very famous winery in the Hunter Valley area. Many foreign tourists came to visit and buy their wine. In contrast, Melbourne’s import and export Trading companies began to neglect their management. Old West didn’t expect the company to make a lot of money. At his age, he preferred a leisurely life in the winery. The slow pace of the Hunter Valley was exactly what he wanted. However, since the beginning of this year, the economic situation in Europe had not been very good. Old West’s company in Melbourne was mainly in the European market. Since March, there had been a delay in many payments, and the company’s operating funds had begun to be stretched. For the past few months, the situation had continued to deteriorate. On the one hand, the payment from Europe had not been collected. On the other hand, Old West had begun to be unable to pay the suppliers and employees in Australia. The capital chain had actually broken. The winery and company were both under West’s name. Once the company went bankrupt, the winery would definitely be auctioned off in court to pay off the debt. Old West naturally didn’t want to see such an outcome, so he could only bear the pain and sell the winery, hoping to exchange it for cash to deal with the company’s crisis. This winery had a history of more than 150 years and had been passed down from generation to generation in the Wester family. Unless it was a last resort, he definitely wouldn’t be willing to sell the winery. In the words of the Chinese, this was the foundation of their ancestors! Although Westerners didn’t have a very strong concept of this, Old West had grown up here since he was a child, and he had devoted himself to running the winery since he was in his forties. He had put a lot of effort and energy into it, so this was a really difficult decision for him. "Uncle Carter, how much money do you need to get your company out of this crisis?" Xia ruofei asked. Old West said without thinking,""We still have some personal savings, so we have a gap of about 1.8 million Australian dollars," At this moment, Auntie Kelly walked over with a plate of delicious - smelling pies and fresh fruit juice. She had also heard Old West and Xia ruofei’s conversation. Auntie caitley placed the food on the table and said angrily,""Xia, our winery has been valued by a professional agency at at at least 2.4 million Australian dollars, but we’ve contacted a few buyers. They all know about Carter’s financial crisis, so they hope to take the opportunity to buy the winery at a low price. None of them offered more than 1.5 million Australian dollars." Lin Qiao also said indignantly, "Isn’t this looting a burning house? How could they do this?" Xia ruofei didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "It’s just business. Uncle Carter is in urgent need of money, so the buyers will definitely take the opportunity to lower the price. This has nothing to do with morality." In consideration of Old West and his wife’s feelings, Xia ruofei said this in English. Old West smiled bitterly.""Lin is right. The competition in the business world is cruel." Xia ruofei smiled faintly."However, their price is too low. This is not very particular!" "Yeah!" Said Madam kabelie. We’ve taken the initiative to lower our prices many times, but if we can’t even get 1.8 million Australian dollars for the winery, then it’s meaningless for us to sell it. This amount of money isn’t even enough to tide over the company’s crisis. " Lin Qiao saw the worried faces of the West couple and couldn’t help but feel a little sympathetic. She couldn’t help but look at Xia ruofei, but she didn’t say anything. Before coming to Australia, Lin Qiao had read some guides and naturally knew the exchange rate of the Australian dollars. She knew that 1.8 million Australian dollars was equivalent to 10 million Chinese dollars, which was not a small amount of money. Although Xia ruofei might be able to fork out this sum of money, the West couple was not related to Xia ruofei at all. They had only met a few times and were only neighbors with a good relationship. There were countless people in this world who needed help at all times. Xia ruofei was a human, not a God. How could he help everyone? Therefore, Lin Qiao chose to remain silent. "Uncle Carter," Xia ruofei asked with a smile,"if you can exchange the winery for enough money, what do you plan to do next?" Old West said tiredly,""I’ll use this money to pay off the company’s debts and dismiss the employees. I think the remaining money should be enough for me and Capella to live." "The economic situation in Europe isn’t very good now," said Madam cabalie."Carter had wanted to close the company’s business for a long time and focus on the winery business. However, the company can’t be closed just because you want to. There are a lot of capital transactions, creditors, and debts that have to be dealt with step by step. I didn’t expect that the company would suffer a heavy blow and can’t hold on any longer before we could sort out all of these." Xia ruofei nodded and got the answer in his heart. He pondered for a moment, looked at the vintage - looking winery, and said with a smile,""Uncle Carter, I’m also very interested in your winery. Can we talk about acquiring it?"