Chapter 57
Alice is very outstanding. She was already very impressive during her internship at the company a few years ago. I thought she messed up this time, but there was an unexpected twist.
“Haha, Quentin, I’m just letting you know in secret. The higher-ups are very pleased with her abilities, and she even put the local apples on the map this time. You should give her a call and praise her.”
“Sure, sure.”
Quentin’s face was full of joy. After hanging up the phone, he sighed and said, “Liam, you should learn more from Alice. She’s only been in Southbrook for a week, and the higher-ups are already calling to praise her.”
Liam posted, “That’s not surprising. I had always believed that Alice would succeed in everything she does.”
Quentin smiled. With Alice and Liam managing the company together in the future, he, as a father, could retire in peace. He transferred $500,000 to Alice for her to buy something she liked.
When Alice received the payment notification, she was a bit surprised, and then her lips curved into a smile. It seemed that Grace had taken the blame for her again. Well, it served her right.
She looked at the farmers outside with disdainful eyes. These country bumpkins would never earn $100,000 even if they worked hard for a lifetime. What right did they have to stop her car? They were really pushing their luck. She directly called the security guards and had them drive those people away.
However, the people of Southbrook were used to being arrogant and wouldn’t tolerate this kind of treatment. They immediately got into a scuffle with the security guards. Some even swung sticks toward the car, smashing the windows. Only then did Alice realize that they were a bunch of unreasonable barbarians.
She screamed and instantly hid in Yancey’s arms. Yancey’s face was scratched by the shattered glass shard. As he held Alice in his arms, he recalled the night he had spent with Grace. That time, they had passed by a large piece of glass when it suddenly shattered. He had stood there at a loss, and it was Grace who had shielded him. Grace had always treated him very well, and she even protected him in times of danger.
But now, Alice treated him as a shield. Yancey suddenly sensed the stark contrast, which made him feel displeased. Just then, he heard Alice crying, “Yancey, I think I’m hurt.”
She dabbed her scratched hand, instantly pulling Yancey back from his thoughts. The government officials soon came over to help and rescued the two of them.
When they arrived at the hospital, the project coordinator in Southbrook had a grim expression and tactfully advised them, “Ms. Lambert, Mr. Henderson, you should leave for Druville. Everyone is furious now. If you stay here, they might break in directly.”
Sometimes, when there were too many troublemakers, no one could do anything about them. The police could handle a dozen people but not a hundred.
Yancey took a deep breath and asked, “What do you mean? Alice has been working hard to livestream for the past few days, and now, you start to blame her when there’s a problem with the quality of the apples?”
The project coordinator was also holding in his frustration. Wasn’t this mess caused by Alice and those farmers? Alice first spent a million dollars to win over those people and had them kick Grace out. Now, things had gone wrong, and the two groups of people had started blaming each other. On the other hand, Grace had gone to Northbrook and apparently sold all the apples there.
Moreover, the online reviews of the apples from Northbrook had been nothing but good, while the reputation of the apples from Southbrook had instantly plummeted. Recently, all the reviews were from those who had received their orders, and they were all about rotten apples.
Previously, Alice had promised that she had a way to preserve the apples, but her so-called method turned out to be stuffing ice cubes into thermal bags. Not only did that increase the transportation costs, but it was also completely useless, making everyone work hard for nothing.
The project coordinator took a deep breath and said, “Ms. Grace has sold hundreds of thousands of pounds of apples in Northbrook. The CEO of Henderson Group has also set his sights on Alice. We initially had ten spots in Southbrook that were shortlisted, but you’ve spoiled the farmers with the million dollars you offered them. They thought Henderson Group was unimaginably rich, so they demanded ten million dollars for the two spots.”
“Henderson Group rejected it, and now, the two spots in Southbrook have been excluded from the development zone.”
Alice, though she understood the project coordinator was blaming her, didn’t get angry. She just pretended to lean weakly against the side. “I’m sorry. I originally thought of using that sum of money to reduce everyone’s losses, not cause them to breach their agreement with Grace. I never thought this would fuel their greed.”