Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

Chapter 071 Income

"Link, Wilson came to collect the site management fee. I told him you're a star client and asked if he could give us a discount, but he said no."

In Baker's dive shop, chubby James saw off two diving tourists, placed two glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice on the round glass table, pushed his buttocks backwards with a creak, and lay down on the nearby beach chair. He took off the hat from his head and brushed back his sweaty brown curly hair with his hand.

"Of course, the beach isn't his, so why the hell would he offer a discount?"

Link sipped through a straw, but remembering the upcoming Olympics and needing to control his weight, he spit out the sugary juice and drank some mineral water instead.

"How was our income last month?"

"Haha, very good. After accounting for equipment wear, management fees, and other expenses, our net income was 9,524 US dollars. This was the most we've ever earned since we opened. We almost hit ten thousand."

James excitedly waved his arms, his mouth spread into a banana shape.

"Link, here's what I'm thinking: now that we've got some money, how about we buy some new high-end diving suits and sell off some of the old ones? Nobody wants to rent old dive suits."

"That's fine."

Link said nonchalantly.

In the qualifying round, he had made quite a bit of money. He won 50,000 US dollars in prize money, a gold-plated trophy, and the Florida Sports Commission rewarded him 100,000 US dollars for training expenses. The Amateur Boxing Association had also awarded him 20,000 US dollars, asking him to prepare for the Olympics in peace.

During the competition, he also placed two bets. The first time, he fought Pitts and bet on a KO victory with odds of 1:10.2, wagering 2,000 US dollars. The result was a TKO, which at the betting company counted differently than a KO, costing him 2,000 dollars.

In his fifth fight against Aragon, he bet 2,000 US dollars on knocking Aragon out, with odds at 1:12.5. He made 25,000 US dollars.

Altogether, it was about 200,000 US dollars.

So he wasn't really concerned about the small profits of Baker's shop.

James, lying on the chair, flipped through a few pages of Playboy and said, "Link, you've earned quite a bit of prize money this time around, including the Golden Gloves, almost two hundred thousand, why don't you consider buying a condo?

With the housing bubble this year, the market's pretty bad, and lots of condos are being sold at reduced prices. There's one near my place on sale, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big terrace, and a small garden, on 27th Street in West Palm Beach. It's in a great location and only priced at 580,000 US dollars with installment payments allowed.

If you want to buy, I'll call my mom right away to contact a real estate agent for you. She's really good at negotiating prices."

"Thanks to your mom for me, but I'm not planning on buying a house just yet."

"Why? You're an adult now, and you'll get married and have kids eventually. Are you planning on having them live in a vehicle?"

James turned and pointed disdainfully at the small shop behind them.

"Yes, I do need a house, but not now and not a tiny condo. I plan to earn more money, and once I've saved up a hundred million US dollars, I'll go to the wealthy area of Palm Beach and buy a big villa. What do you think?"

Link said, swinging his legs.

"Buy a villa in a wealthy area?"

James shook his head repeatedly.

The wealthy area of Palm Beach is in the northern part of the outer banks. The residents there are either rich or prestigious, including Fortune 500 shareholders, CEOs of listed companies, high-level US government officials, big stars, and so on. It's said that the lowest price for a villa there starts at five to six million, unaffordable for ordinary people.

Pointing to the bandage wrapped around Link's arm, he said, "You pulled a muscle after just one boxing match. What if you get even more seriously injured next time? If you ask me, you should use the money you've got now to buy a condo. At least if you can't box, you'll still have a place to live, right?"

James hesitated for a moment. "Also, this is what Catherine thinks. Your mom talked about this with my mom over the phone. Catherine was at the arena during your match with Aragon. Did you see her?"

"I did!"

Link nodded. He had only seen Catherine Baker, Link's mom, once before—it was when Link was stabbed and lying in the hospital. Catherine had visited once and left some money.

Link didn't have a close relationship with Catherine.

The root of this issue lay with Link's father, Bob Baker.

In the 1980s, Bob Baker went fishing in the Gulf of Mexico with Link's grandfather and didn't make much money.

In the 70s and 80s, thanks to its convenient geographical location, Miami gradually became a transit point for illegal drugs entering America, with trillions of US dollars worth of illegal drugs transited through Miami to various parts of North America every year, and many people engaged in the illegal drug trade here.

Bob Baker, seeing others make a fortune through trafficking illegal drugs, decided to quit fishing and went to Columbia to buy cheap banned substances to sell them at a high price back in America.

In those years, when the DEA was cracking down hard, the prices of drugs in North America kept rising, and Bob made millions in dirty money in just a few years.

It was also at that time that Bob Baker met Catherine Baker at a dance party, when she had just entered the fashion scene. Catherine, a descendant of Italian immigrants, was tall and strikingly beautiful with aspirations to be an actress.

Under Bob Baker's financial onslaught, she married Bob, who was eleven years her senior, and soon after, Link Baker was born.

Bob was not the conforming type, even after the marriage, he continued his extravagant lifestyle and often engaged in alcohol-induced domestic violence, with both Catherine and Link being the victims.

When Link was four, their marriage broke down, and Catherine filed for divorce, intending to take Link away to live elsewhere, but Bob disagreed and pulled out a gun to threaten her.

Catherine, intimidated, no longer mentioned the divorce and left the Baker house with her luggage, seeing Link only a few times in the following years.

Five years ago, when the DEA intensified its crackdown, Bob Baker, still undeterred, wanted to continue smuggling to make money but soon died in a street fight, allegedly over an uneven distribution of the loot.

After Bob Baker's death, most of his estate was seized or divided by his partners, with Link squandering the small remainder within two or three years. During that time, Catherine came back once to take Link to study in New York, but Link refused.

Link, having grown up with Bob Baker, was very cold toward Catherine and had little contact with her.

Link had almost forgotten that he had a mother in name.

This time at the boxing match in Havana, seeing Catherine there was a surprise for Link, and even more surprising was that Selena Gomez turned out to be his cousin.

Selena was sixteen this year, a child star who had acted in a TV series at the age of 7. In 2004, she was signed to Disney, becoming an entertainer, and last year she starred in Disney's magical comedy "Young Magician," becoming a young actress.

Catherine Baker is now Selena's Executive Agent, similar to the roles of Mrs. Andrea and Miss Irene.

After the last match, he and Catherine had met once, and Selena had conned him into a seafood feast. Afterward, he had work to attend to, and Catherine also had her job, so they exchanged phone numbers and parted ways.

He now counted one more familiar face with blood ties.

Regarding Catherine's suggestions, he could take them or leave them.

"Hey, Link, James, do you want to play volleyball?"

Michael and Daniel, dressed in T-shirts and beach shorts, holding a yellow volleyball, waved from a distance on the beach, surrounded by five young women in scanty clothes.

"No, I'm nursing an injury."

Link raised his bandaged arm in response.

"That's too bad,"

Michael squinted his eyes and smiled.

"Go if you want, no need to keep me company here."

Noticing James's eyes constantly drifting towards the girls, Link picked up a newspaper and spoke again.

James shook his head, hesitated for a bit, then took off his hat and, shaking his plump body, pitter-pattered over to the nearby beach to play volleyball with the group.

Initially, they played well, but later, the girls found it amusing to target the overweight James with the volleyball.

Link was about to intervene, but seeing James grinning broadly, his face flushed with joy, he thought it best not to meddle.

"Hey, Link, how are you feeling today?"

Dr. Holt carried his medical bag as he stepped down from his car.

"Not too bad, Gregory!"

Link got up and led Dr. Holt inside to change his dressings.