"Come meet me at the salvage yard with the transfer deed in two days," Mandy ordered Jared from the driver's seat of her Stingray, giving him time to settle the legal matters.
"Sure," Jared nodded, though he seemed hesitant. Noticing this, Mandy asked, "What is it? Speak your mind."
"It's Mr. Greg. He increased his offer for the yard to $360,000," Jared replied, showing her his IM with Greg, but immediately regretted mentioning it. After all, it wasn't relevant—Mandy had already bought the yard. Plus, Greg's offer was fifty thousand dollars shy of Mandy's, though it was ten thousand more than what Hank was willing to settle for.
"Tell that greedy old fool to go to hell with his offer. I shouldn't have approached him in the first place. Now I have to rush things because of him," Mandy snapped. After a moment, regaining her composure, she added, "Make an offer of $900,000 for his 25 acres by the salvage yard."
"Mandy, are you sure you want to spend so much money on land only good for growing fodder? Besides, $900,000 is too low. He won't even consider it," Jared pointed out. He also didn't understand why Mandy was so intent on buying up farmland. Even going as far as to sell her shares in a promising local indie game company.
"If he refuses to negotiate, tell him he'll need to find another water supply for his plantation. Let him know I'm no pushover like Hank," Mandy asserted, dismissing Jared's concerns.
"See you in two days," Mandy interrupted, cutting off Jared's attempt to persuade her, before stepping on the accelerator.
Ace, an unwilling spectator to all this, sat silently in the passenger seat of the Stingray, not daring to speak. He couldn't figure out why, but Mandy seemed genuinely furious with this old guy, Greg. He'd met Mr. Greg once before and remembered him as a mean old man, so he assumed Mandy had a good reason for being so upset.
Soon, Mandy's phone rang, breaking the tense silence in the car. Ace managed to sneak a peek at the caller ID as Mandy reached for her phone. It read "Greedy Greg." Seeing this, Mandy rejected the call, switched off her phone, and threw it onto the dashboard, fully aware of why Greg was calling. Jared should have already informed him that Hank's yard was no longer on the market, as Mandy was now the owner.
"Want to talk about it?" Ace asked, his concern motivated by the fact that Mandy, in her anger, seemed to have forgetten how to drive, with her foot glued to the gas pedal.
"Enjoy the rest of your high school days as much as you can, because once you enter the society, things will change very fast. Well, you've still got college, so forget I said that," Mandy sighed, finally easing her foot off the gas.
"What's wrong? In your line of work, you must be used to dealing with people like Greg by now, right?" Ace asked, hoping to learn more about Mandy. Having seen her at her best, he was thoroughly impressed by her.
"No, I am not. Which is why I quit after I earned enough," Mandy said, tight-lipped at first, but then she suddenly opened up. "I had to sell my shares in a local indie game company to get the money to buy the yard."
That's when it hit Ace—how did Mandy manage to buy Hank's yard and make an offer on Greg's land when she'd already spent most of her money starting her own ranch? It turns out she had invested in a local indie game company that was doing well—so well that Mandy regretted selling her shares. He learned this as Mandy recounted her struggle to gather the funds to acquire Hank's auto salvage yard.
According to her, she hadn't planned to buy Hank's land at first, as neither she nor Dan had the extra funds to do so. But, against her better judgment, she reached out to Greg, who owned 25 acres on the west side of Hank's yard. Greg had been buying water from Hank's borewell to meet the needs of his 60-acre avocado plantation, so Mandy assumed he'd be reasonable.
With declining underground water levels, the local authorities had banned new borewells and imposed strict regulations for getting licenses to drill. However, borewells drilled before the ban could still be used. But many older wells had dried up in recent decade which prompted strict monitoring of underground water usage in the first place.
Fortunately for Hank, both of his borewells—one at his house and the other in the salvage yard—were still thriving with no signs of depletion. This was the primary reason his property fetched such a high price, farmland without a proper water source was practically worthless. Since Hank's auto salvage yard didn't require much water, he sold most of it to Greg for cheap, due to the close ties between their families.
However, Greg, forgetting Hank's help, tried to take advantage of his situation by offering a lowball price for the yard. This didn't sit well with Mandy. Knowing if she trusted Greg, not only will Hank suffer a loss but her bother-in-law's tangerine plantation would too, overnight, she sold her shares in the local indie game company, planning to give Greg a taste of his own medicine. Ace was amazed to discover this side of Mandy. He used to think she was just a brainless blonde bimbo who only cared about her beautiful self, but his opinion of her kept improving.
"I don't know if this helps, but I did a quick check on the indie game company you invested in. Their promises to investors and the market data don't align. I think you got out at the right time," Ace said, pretending to look through his phone.
What he revealed wasn't even a fraction of what Dame Wasp had uncovered about the company. The local indie game company in question was involved in too many fraudulent conducts such as inflating their games' popularity and success stats, misleading their investors, and diverting the gathered funds. It was a total scam. Mandy was lucky to get out when she did, turning her $350,000 investment into $1.7 million. That's almost 5x return. This was only possible because she was one of the early investors who opted out while the company's false hype was still at its peak. It made Ace wonder if Danny was right about Mandy having the Midas touch.
"That's sweet, Ace. But you don't have to lie to console me. I'm over it," Mandy said, dismissing Ace's words. She wasn't gullible enough to believe he could find all that with a simple internet search. But she was touched by Ace's attempt to console her. It's the thought that counts.
Ace shook his head, not bothering to explain himself. Just then, Dame Wasp updated him about their last night's escapade through their shared senses, 'Master, the sheriff's office has finally discovered the massacre at the cabin outside town. They're keeping it on the down low since it is related to the 'World of Curses.' Based on the deformed bullets at the scene, they've determined that the entire gang was taken down by a single curse master or slave. The sheriff has already reported it to the CIB and handed the case over to them. Knowing the way CIB does things, the whole town will soon be crawling with CIB curse masters and slaves. It seems leaving town for the lake saved you a lot of trouble.'