Simon returned to Los Angeles from San Francisco in the evening on February 9.
When he arrived home, he found that Catherine Bigelow, whom he hadn't seen for a while, had come by for a visit. She was chatting with Janet by the large glass windows of the Shell Villa, bathed in the golden light of the setting sun.
Catherine seemed a bit embarrassed when she saw Simon.
The primary reason was the failure of Detroit. The film had long since finished its theatrical run, barely making over $10 million at the North American box office, and it hadn't won any awards.
Simon, however, held no grudge. After hugging Catherine, he joined Janet on the nearby sofa, flopping down with no care for appearances, resting his head on Janet's lap. He even kicked off his shoes and let them fall lazily beside him.
Catherine smiled at the scene. It was clear that Simon was so comfortable with her presence that he didn't consider her an outsider. She asked, "Busy with work? Tired?"
Simon simply responded with a grunt.
Physically, he wasn't tired—it was the mental strain that had worn him down recently.
Janet affectionately stroked Simon's hair as he lay on her lap, grinning mischievously at Catherine and silently mouthing, "Too much indulgence."
Catherine rolled her eyes slightly at Janet's playful comment, knowing there was no way to respond to that.
Sensing something, Simon grabbed one of Janet's hands, squeezing it gently as she yelped in surprise. He asked, "What are you whispering about me?"
Without pulling her hand away, Janet brought Simon's to her lips and bit down playfully before changing the subject. "Kate and I are going to the convention center tomorrow morning for an art exhibition. Wanna come with us?"
"No," Simon replied.
"Come on, it's a charity art show. You could do some good."
"Can I do something bad instead?" he teased.
"Sure, you could go ruin a few famous paintings and make the headlines: 'Simon Westeros Loses It Again.' Then, I'll become the guardian of the Westeros family's $900 billion fortune."
"And after that?"
"I'll send you back to the Watsonville Mental Hospital," she said with a smirk.
Simon chuckled. "That sounds like the plot of a movie."
"Oh?" Janet raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, The Bad Influence with James Spader from a few years ago. The husband was framed by his evil wife, sent to a mental hospital to steal his fortune. Guess how he turned the tables?"
Janet blinked. "How?"
Catherine, sitting nearby, also looked intrigued.
Still resting with his eyes closed, Simon reached up and gently grabbed Janet's slender neck, feeling its softness before letting go.
Janet immediately understood. "Wow, that's intense."
Catherine, confused, asked, "What's going on?"
Janet explained, "Insanity makes it legal to kill someone."
Catherine finally got it and glanced at the couple, both of whom were playfully discussing sending each other to a mental hospital and murder—yet the supposed victim seemed rather excited. Catherine thought back to when she had once... Anyway, these two were clearly a special breed of crazy, something she could never manage in her own relationships.
The conversation continued as the evening fell.
Catherine stayed for dinner and even ended up taking care of one of the kids, though little Nick bit her once (he still hadn't kicked his teething habit). Despite that, Catherine found herself somewhat envious of the lively and warm atmosphere of the Westeros household.
After dinner, she declined an invitation to stay longer.
By the time Catherine left, it was around 8 PM. The family gathered in a living room on the east side of the Shell Villa until all five of the children were asleep, and then Simon and the two Janets—Janet and Jennifer—had time for some private conversations.
Most of the discussion revolved around recent events.
Simon's decision to abandon his year-long plan to sell shares hadn't been as casual as it seemed.
Just like the assassination attempt two years ago, which had triggered a series of events, the root cause was the Woodfield family's over-leveraged short positions in tech stocks. When their predictions failed, they resorted to desperate measures, such as attempting to kill Simon to cause market chaos and recoup their losses.
The current situation was much worse.
Because of the optimism surrounding tech stocks, countless people had poured into the Nasdaq market, buying massive amounts of shares or aggressively establishing long positions. Many people's fortunes were now tied to the continued rise of the Nasdaq. In such a situation, Simon's decision to go against the trend and suppress tech stocks carried immense risks.
Sensing mounting pressure and even warnings from various quarters, Simon not only decisively abandoned his original strategy but also raised the security level around his family to the highest degree. The Westeros family's private intelligence network had also been put into full operation to ensure any potential threats could be neutralized before they materialized.
Ultimately, the problem was that the Westeros System still wasn't powerful enough. It hadn't yet reached the point where it could truly control the U.S. or even the global economy.
To reach that level, Simon needed to integrate his current $900 billion fortune—currently just on paper—into the global economy. Once that happened, he wouldn't even need to act personally to exert control. Merely giving the word would prompt others to do his bidding.
Only then would the full power of his immense wealth be realized.
"The revolution isn't over yet, comrades, so we must keep working hard," Simon quipped.
Lying on Simon's lap this time, Janet laughed at the strange phrasing and pressed him for details. She also asked about his visit to the Lawrence Livermore Lab earlier that day. Hearing that Simon had decided not to support the laser ignition project, she blinked. "Why not? Did you forget about, you know, that?"
Simon knew exactly what she was referring to.
The Westeros family's "Sword of Damocles" project.
Of course, he hadn't forgotten.
If the Westeros System gained control over laser ignition, it would essentially possess the most advanced hydrogen bomb technology. This would serve as an incredibly powerful deterrent.
Thinking it over, Simon explained, "It's just not the right time. I plan to focus on the magnetic confinement approach first, setting up two teams to work on both tokamaks and stellarators. Once the magnetic confinement method matures, the technological groundwork will be in place, and laser ignition will naturally follow."
Janet asked, "What if someone else gets to laser ignition first?"
Simon laughed. "That makes it even easier. You know, once a method is proven, developing nuclear weapons becomes faster and faster. The same will happen with laser ignition—once one country achieves it, others will follow quickly. Besides, looking at the current state of fusion research worldwide, even if we give them another 20 years, I doubt they'll accomplish much."
Jennifer, who had been quietly listening, asked curiously, "Why is that?"
Simon pulled her closer as he explained, "It's the current environment. Without rivalry or belief, it's hard for nations or individuals to achieve great things."
Jennifer leaned into him and asked, "What about us?"
Simon smiled. "We have interests. Without rivalries or beliefs, the most effective motivator for a team to overcome technical challenges is self-interest. That's why I don't have much hope for state-led space or nuclear research. Whether in North America, Europe, or Asia, researchers in these fields are paid mediocre wages, and bureaucratic issues are rampant. Success isn't properly rewarded, while failure brings harsh penalties. In such an environment, progress is nearly impossible. That's why space and nuclear technology haven't advanced much beyond the 1960s. But we're different. Not only will I give them a generous budget, but I'll also distribute most of the company's equity to the research teams. As long as they achieve breakthroughs, even if we only keep 10% of the shares, the profits involved will be enormous."
Janet, resting on Simon's lap, added, "In that case, we'll need to ensure a dual-class stock structure to guarantee our control."
"Of course."
Without absolute control, if Westeros' stake in companies like SpaceX were ever reduced below 50%, they could end up in the same stagnant state as Boeing or Lockheed Martin.
Seeing that Simon had already considered every aspect, Janet didn't press further and instead brought up adjustments she was making to the family's private intelligence team to prevent a repeat of the assassination attempt from two years ago.
After taking the weekend off, Simon spent Valentine's Day at home before flying to New York on February 15 to attend Thinkable's IPO ceremony the following day.
After two weeks of roadshows, Thinkable's pre-IPO demand was 17 times the offering amount. Faced with such high demand, Thinkable raised its offering price from $43 to $50 per share, increasing its valuation from $35 billion to $40.7 billion.
Even though this price hike drew some criticism, the 130 million new shares were quickly snapped up.
Investors knew that even a 16% price increase left Thinkable's potential $100 billion market value far out of reach.
The $50 per share price meant that the IPO raised a total of $6.5 billion. Westeros also cashed out 30 million shares, raising $1.5 billion.
At the same time, to avoid delays, Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley quickly finalized the purchase of $3 billion worth of stock in Danelys, Cisco, and AOL following brief negotiations with Westeros.
After Westeros' February 2 reduction announcement, the
company also swiftly completed its $2 billion sell-off of AOL shares in the past two weeks.
With $1.5 billion from Thinkable, $3 billion from the private sales, and $2 billion from the AOL reduction, Westeros had cashed out $6.5 billion in just two weeks. Combined with previous sell-offs of Danelys and Cisco, and after deducting 15% capital gains tax, Westeros had netted around $9 billion.
Since Westeros held 100% of its shares, this money belonged entirely to Simon.
That amount alone surpassed the total net worth of most of the world's top billionaires at the time.
Moreover, the Westeros System's cash reserves far exceeded just this.
Take Egret, for example—following its IPO last year, the company raised over $20 billion. Simon had placed strict limits on how this money could be used, essentially leaving it untouched. Expansion efforts were to be done through stock swaps, and large projects like data centers were to be funded from Egret's own revenue.
This massive cash reserve not only prepared Westeros for the anticipated bursting of the tech bubble, allowing it to further consolidate control over the tech sector, but also enabled its expansion into other industries.
New York.
Simon arrived on the afternoon of February 15, coinciding with the final day of New York Fashion Week.
The four major fashion weeks don't all last exactly seven days but vary depending on the number of participating brands.
This year, for example, New York Fashion Week lasted eight days. London Fashion Week, which followed, would be only four days long. Then came Milan Fashion Week, which would last seven days, and finally Paris Fashion Week, the longest, lasting nine days.
The duration of each fashion week reflects the importance of each country's fashion industry.
France still leads the way.
In Bryant Park, the main venue for New York Fashion Week in Midtown Manhattan, Lyudmila Bessonoskova wrapped up a show as the closing model. Amid applause, she walked back with the designer for the final bow. Backstage, she immediately saw her sister, Ekaterina Noskova, with two other girls.
Btches!
Lyudmila cursed inwardly, though her English had improved significantly.
After a year of private training, Lyudmila had finally debuted at this fashion week, and based on the feedback, it had been a sensational debut.
With her striking looks, great figure, and a year of professional training, Lyudmila had quickly become one of the most talked-about new models at this year's New York Fashion Week. In just eight days, she had walked in 21 shows, including the finale of Marc Jacobs' namesake brand tonight. Thanks to Elite's management, she had already been featured in Vogue and BAZAAR.
But she wasn't happy at all.
Why?
Because despite working over 12 hours a day and walking in 21 shows, she was only paid $1,000 per show. After Elite's 30% cut, taxes, and other expenses, it looked like she had earned over $20,000 in a week. To an outsider, especially a newly debuted model, this might seem like an incredible achievement, but to Lyudmila, it was maddening.
She had worked herself to the bone for a week, only to pocket a mere $21,000, while Ekaterina and her friends, whom she saw as spoiled little btches, could spend that much on a shopping spree down Fifth Avenue. Watching Ludaeva flaunt her new LV bag in front of her made Lyudmila want to strangle her.
Btches!
It was so unfair.
Why did she have to work herself to the bone?
Ahhh!
Of course, Lyudmila would never show any weakness in front of them. This was just the beginning, after all. Someday, she would be like those top supermodels, earning millions, even tens of millions a year.
And you all…
Heh, just wait until Simon Westeros tires of you, and then you can cry all you want.
She had heard that the girl group that Rifny Media had been quietly selecting had finally been chosen. They were all stunning, sure to become Simon's new darlings.
In short:
Ahhh!
With a storm of frustration inside her, Lyudmila maintained a flawless appearance, something she had mastered over the past year of training. She warmly chatted with the head of the Russian brand Helen Yamak, a fur brand—she loved fur. And since they were both from Russia, there was a natural camaraderie, even though the Soviet Union had collapsed. Everyone still spoke Russian, after all.
After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Lyudmila finally approached the three girls who had been lingering.
She talked about her upcoming Marc Jacobs show, gritting her teeth as she invited Ekaterina and the others to attend. Come, btches, I'm not afraid of you, you little dependents who only rely on men!
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