Gu Biao and his entourage had a cordial and friendly conversation at Fiodorovna Restaurant with French honey roast duck, Maryland crab & polon salad and beef scorpion stick bone toast.

The restaurant is upscale and belongs to the top five in DC. The main dish per person costs about 40 dollars, and the three-course meal plus the peripheral and service fees cost 150 dollars per person, which was definitely a luxury price in 1980.

As for the taste, Gu Biao doesn't think it's very good - especially the honey roast duck in French food, in the eyes of Gu Biao, who is used to eating Chinese roast duck, it's like an axe.

Chinese food needs to make that crispy duck crispy skin that melts in your mouth without the help of honey. It can be done just by the duck raising skills and the selection of barbecue wood.

But the salad is still a little interesting, at least the Chinese don't use Maryland blue crab and Boston lobster like this.

The last cow scorpion toast, in fact, was not originally called this name, it was customized by Gu Biao. It is to dig out the charcoal-grilled beef bone marrow and spread it on the toast slices instead of butter.

Because of the clever use of rosemary and crushed parsley, the peculiar fishy smell of beef bone marrow is completely masked, but the taste that is much more beautiful and rich than butter is retained, and the creativity worthy of three Michelin stars is that the cholesterol explodes a little.

During the meal, there was also a small episode: Sarah Sandberg and another graduate student, because they were Judah, did not choose Maryland crab and polon salad, and ordered salmon and lamb chops respectively.

But Prince Abdullah of Jordan did the same—Middle Easterners could eat eels, shrimp and crabs, but Jews didn't.

After all, this is the United States, and the Jews only dare not eat quietly by themselves, and they definitely dare not be arrogant enough to stop the others at the same table, which will undoubtedly cause public anger.

Even if the students usually go out to a banquet with their teacher Kissinger, they will only avoid shrimp, crabs and shellfish on the table when Kissinger is the guest of honor or inviter, because Kissinger is also a Jew. That's the Venerable Master, another story.

During the Cold War, many senior officials in the United States diplomatic field were new immigrants to Eastern Europe, such as Kissinger, a German Judaw, and Brzezinski, a Polish Judaw. These Jews were characterized by a particular hatred of the Soviet Union, but not necessarily pro-Israel.

On the contrary, the people of Judah, who have lived in the United States for many generations, are more sympathetic to Israel. Perhaps the first generation of Jews who left their homeland had a first-hand experience of hatred for the country and family, and they were too busy to hate the Soviet Union, so it was too late to kiss it.

……

Maybe it was because he saw the Judah classmates watching the shrimp and crabs eat deflated at the dinner table, and Prince Abdullah of Jordan still had a good impression of Gu Biao, a new classmate. In addition, the two were of the same age, so they chatted a few more words.

Prince Abdullah is just 20 years old, even if he is only in the first year of his master's degree, he is young enough. This is obviously related to factors such as when he received basic education in China in his early years, and he jumped a grade.

A few days after arriving here, the seniors I saw were all four or five years older than him, and his grades were undoubtedly the lowest among all his classmates, and he had the highest degree of scum, so it was inevitable that there would be a generation gap with others.

found that Gu Biao was a year or two younger than him, and it was easy to promote a common language.

"Gu, you said that you know President Hussein of Iraq? When you talk about big business? Is this true? President Hussein is our big hero in the Middle East. ”

Gu Biao: "Actually, it's nothing, I sold an air separation plant for about $30 million at that time, as well as some infrastructure orders. By the way, I just helped him formulate some advice that he liked. ”

Prince Abdullah is obviously a novice in science: "Yes, what is the 'air separation equipment' you are talking about?"

Gu Biao had no choice but to spend some space explaining in a language that he could also understand as much as possible.

"Oh...... I don't care, anyway, you say that you sell it much cheaper than the French goods, and the quality is not bad?" Prince Abdullah chose to simplify the question.

You can understand that too. Gu Biao shrugged.

"Then our domestic hospitals are currently supplied by expensive French equipment?"

"It's more likely to import oxygen cylinders directly, which is more expensive. ”

"Yes? Then I'll call home and ask, if the country is blank at the moment, I'll buy 3 million US dollars - we are much smaller than Iraq, and we have no military use, so don't be afraid that the order is small. ”

Gu Biao didn't mind this kind of small order for state-owned enterprises, and said pertinently: "No, no, no, it's not small, you can't compare with President Hussein." Maybe your country will be self-sufficient by buying 2 million pieces of equipment. And you place an order casually at the table, won't you be hasty?"

"I'm going to inherit the throne, what's the hurry?" Prince Abdullah didn't understand.

He felt that he was saving money for the country and the people, this was a good deed, what was there to investigate? As for whether he could save more, that was another question.

Gu Biao was dumbfounded.

Indeed, Jordan is still a monarchy, and it is a traditional monarchy, not a constitutional monarchy, which means that the king holds the actual executive power.

It is similar to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Among the younger brothers of the Americans, there are really many traditional absolute monarchies.

Gu Biao patted Prince Abdullah on the shoulder: "Okay, you can do it if you think it's okay." I'll help you keep the price down - to tell you the truth, the factory that produced air separation equipment, although my father was in charge, the profits belonged to the state. So don't worry, I won't quote a black price. If I treat you as a brother, I won't cheat my brother for the sake of the country. ”

Gu Biao only used two sentences to narrow the distance between him and other classmates, so that everyone accepted that he was a "pragmatic black-hearted capitalist", rather than a "fake and empty patriotic attention".

……

The group left the restaurant happily, leaving only the eldest senior Macallan and Gu Biao to come with Brazilian cigars and serve as a guide for him in private - in fact, this was also ordered by the teaching assistant.

"Gu, have you found a place to live?" asked Senior McCarron, puffing on his cigarette.

Gu Biao just came yesterday and stayed in a hotel, and Akio Morita was treated. At that time, he thought that the school would provide dormitories when the admission procedures were officially completed.

Of course, Gu Biao doesn't like the dormitory, but he is afraid that if the school rules are compulsory, it is better not to be a head bird.

At this moment, after listening to the senior's question, he took the opportunity to ask: "Isn't there a dormitory in the school?"

Macallan was startled and coaxed, "Hey, aren't you rich, you don't really want to live in a dormitory, do you?"

Gu Biao: "I thought the school rules would be mandatory. ”

McCarron complained indifferently: "the school rules - graduate students are free to decide their accommodation, especially at Waltz Diplomatic College, where there is almost no dormitory, and the school is happy to save rooms." I, for example, have been living in the embassy for 10 years. ”

When McCarron talked about his family background, he couldn't help but feel a little complacent, and then taught Gu Biao a lesson with old qualifications: "With your financial resources, if you want to buy a house, I will help you introduce it, save the $10,000 or 20,000 intermediary fees, and you don't have to earn it to outsiders."

If you don't buy a bag and have to deal with it for a while, you can also go to the Chinese embassy to spend the night, which should take you in, or rent a hotel for a few months. If we are engaged in diplomacy, the dormitory will be looked down upon, and the social party will not be opened. ”

Gu Biao was speechless for a while: "Are you still short of money?"

Maika said of course: "My family is not a businessman, so why not do it." Tell me what you're asking for. ”

No wonder this guy is so enthusiastic about helping his junior every time, and he even does some part-time work......

What an amazing group.

Gu Biao thought about it, he was going to stay in Washington for two or three years, and he might come back often in the future, so he might as well buy one.

But don't buy too expensive, because a house in the United States has to pay a property tax of 1.5% of the average house price around it every year, and if a house of 600,000 yuan can't be put away, it will cost 10,000 US dollars a year, which is equivalent to "government infrastructure management fees".

"I didn't ask for anything, just the villa. ”

McCarron: "Yes, $400,000 starts, and within the boundaries of the Special Administrative Region, if you don't mind crossing the state, it's cheaper." ”

Washington DC is just a square about 15 by 12 kilometers in length and width, and the area is not large, so even if it is "interstated", the traffic will not be very inconvenient.

If you live in Virginia or Maryland on the D.C. side, it's a 10-kilometer drive to the White House. Later generations of Chinese who are accustomed to commuting in megacities have to take twenty or thirty kilometers of subway to work on the last shift, which is not a problem at all.

Gu Biao thought for a while: "I don't need to cross the state, just the western suburbs of the Special Administrative Region, I hope to have a house on the banks of the Potomac River." ”

McCarron was also very simple: "Then it will start at least $600,000, and it depends on what kind of listings happen to be available at the moment, I can't say well." ”

"Then I'll trouble you, as long as you introduce it, I'll buy it, and I'll stay in the hotel for a few more days. "Gu Biao is very straightforward, and he doesn't mind this little money to attract his classmates.

After the two separated, McCarran said that he would do it, and he called Gu Biao that afternoon to ask around. Then inform him that there is a Potomac river view house in the western suburbs, the room type is not bad, two-story modern villa.

However, because of the use of steel structure and large double-glazed floor-to-ceiling windows, the property tax will be more expensive - buying a house in the United States, a wood-framed house will be valued together with a wood-framed house, and a steel-framed house will be classified as a separate type of valuation. Because the steel structure is generally used in luxury houses, the tax may be several times higher.

Therefore, when you see a wooden bungalow or a small wooden western-style building in an American drama, don't think that this is the owner's elegant style, maybe it's just poor, it's so primitive.

"The owner is a consortium lobbyist from New York and doesn't live often. I think the tax of $20,000 a year is too expensive, and I am willing to sell $770,000. McCarron said on the phone.

Gu Biao did the math and understood the doorway: the owner himself felt that the house was only worth seven or eight hundred thousand US dollars. But unfortunately, the federal government's tax department thinks that the house should be worth 1.2 million, so it is taxed at 1.5% of 1.2 million per year.

This is also the reason why when Detroit went bankrupt in 2013, no one bought those $1 houses that were sold - because your $1 sale price can be regarded by the federal and state governments as a "tax avoidance yin and yang contract", which the federal government does not recognize.

At that time, some Chinese real estate speculation groups went to find out, and found that after buying for $1, they had to bear more than $2,000 a year in taxes, because in the eyes of the tax department assessors, those Detroit houses were worth at least $100,000.

In the United States, "hoarding luxury houses and not living in them" is a real loss.

"Well, that's enough, I don't need to be too good. Is it convenient for the landlord to make a deal today?"

"You can come up with 800,000 cash today?"

"I think it's fine. ”