Whether Lehman Brothers followed or not, it ultimately didn't significantly impact Simon's operations in the index futures market. Noah Scott made a special trip from Chicago to mend the relationship, and Simon naturally wouldn't keep him at arm's length.
In this country, if Simon wanted to advance further, it would be impossible to sever ties with investment banks. Although he still wouldn't place too much trust in Noah Scott and Lehman Brothers, compared to the other investment banks that remained silent, the information Noah Scott just revealed showed considerable sincerity.
After dinner, Simon and Janet parted ways with Noah Scott and returned to The Plaza Hotel. It was just past 8 PM.
In the presidential suite atop The Plaza Hotel.
Janet hung their coats on the rack and went to the study. Seeing the man had already sat down by the window with his usual hardcover notebook, she came over and leaned on the sofa backrest. "Simon, what are you going to do?"
Simon held the handmade, bound 16k notebook, drawing staves on the white paper with a pencil and casually filling in notes.
Madonna's new album, a dance-style record called You Can Dance, was set for release next month. Simon had already given her a song fitting the album's style. What he was writing now was another song, intended as the ending theme for Pulp Fiction.
However, Simon's mind certainly wasn't on this right now; he just wanted something to do with his hands.
Although Noah Scott warned him that his index futures market activities were exposed, Simon realized there was little he could do to prevent the news from getting out.
Hearing Janet's question, Simon turned his head and gave her a somewhat helpless smile. "There's nothing to be done. Simon Westeros is about to become famous again."
Janet smiled, moved around the sofa, and sat down beside Simon, leaning against him.
Before them was the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking all of Central Park, but outside was now dark, with only the buildings flanking the park ablaze with lights.
Holding the man's arm, she watched him fill in the notes on the score. After a moment, she said, "Actually, being exposed isn't so bad. You didn't do anything against the rules."
Simon shook his head. "A nineteen-year-old making over a billion dollars in a few months isn't against the rules enough?"
"Heh, it just shows my man is too amazing," Janet said, leaning over to kiss Simon's cheek, then changed the subject. "What did you think of the houses we saw today?"
Simon tried to shake off the feeling of helplessness and followed Janet's lead. "None were great."
But Janet seemed a little hopeful. "I think the triplex penthouse on 68th Street was nice. Three levels, over 12,000 square feet total, facing Central Park. The $15 million price is a bit high, but it's on Fifth Avenue! It'll definitely appreciate. Even if you don't like the Baroque interior, we can renovate."
Recalling the luxurious Fifth Avenue apartment they saw during the day – the top three floors of a 15-story light grey building from the 50s, 26 rooms total, 3 living rooms, 2 kitchens, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, plus amenities like a gym, wine cellar, and private screening room. Simon noticed Janet had unconsciously switched to metric measurements. A smile touched his lips. "Call the realtor tomorrow. We'll buy that one."
Such an apartment on the Upper East Side, right next to Central Park, would easily cost over $100 million in the era Simon came from.
$15 million didn't seem expensive to him at all in 1987, of course.
But in 1987, $15 million was absolutely an astronomical price, especially right after the North American stock market crash. The US real estate market was bound to plummet. In Simon's memory, the famous Empire State Building itself sold for just $42 million two years later.
Seeing Simon agree, Janet's face showed a hint of hesitation. "If you don't like it, we can keep looking."
"Let's buy it," Simon said, turning to kiss her cheek. "Actually, I'm not too fond of any houses in Manhattan. Since we're buying, at least one of us should be satisfied."
Janet blinked a few times. "What kind of house do you actually like?"
"You know, modern, minimalist, and the top floor. I want to stand by the window and see all other buildings beneath me," Simon said, then suddenly inspired, flipped to a new page in his notebook, and began sketching quickly with his pencil, speaking slowly. "Something... like this."
Janet curiously leaned closer, patiently waiting until a building, likely meant to be glass and steel, appeared on the paper.
The building was roughly conical, but the top few floors extended into a platform. Then, Simon added a letter to the side. At first, it looked like an 'A'... probably unfinished, as he quickly changed it to a 'W'.
'W', obviously for 'Westeros'.
The Westeros Tower.
Simon's drawing skills were evident from the Run Lola Run storyboard sketches. A few minutes later, after adding silhouettes of other skyscrapers around it, a building towering proudly over Manhattan, even taller than the Empire State Building, emerged on the paper.
Once Simon finished, Janet couldn't resist taking the notebook from him. She blinked a few times and pointed to the platform at the top. "What's this?"
Simon explained, "A helipad."
"And," Janet paused, then asked, "How tall is it roughly?"
"If I don't want to see the Empire State Building outside my bedroom," Simon thought for a moment, "it should be over 500 meters."
Janet briefly imagined living in a penthouse atop a building over 500 meters tall, then slowly turned her head to look at Simon. "Can this really be built?"
"If I can make over a billion dollars in just over five months, building a tower should be no problem," Simon said, thinking for a moment. "If we start preparing now, maybe we can break ground in 3 years. For a tower like this, including land and all expenses, $500 million should suffice. Of course, the internal facilities would also be very costly, plus future maintenance. But if it can be built, even spending $1 billion is fine."
Janet's expression still seemed a bit dazed. She handed the notebook back to Simon and hugged his arm, nuzzling against him like a kitten. "You little rascal, I want to move in now."
Simon carefully traced over the 'W' he had just hastily changed, glad he hadn't finished the 'A', otherwise the 'Avengers Tower' would have been revealed. The Avengers Tower from the Marvel Cinematic Universe memory was probably only about as tall as the Empire State Building. But since he was building it, Simon naturally didn't plan to follow convention.
Adding a few more strokes, Simon heard Janet and pointed to the part above the helipad on the tower. "When it's done, the top ten floors will all belong to the Westeros family."
"Mhmm, mhmm, mhmm," Janet nodded her head a few times. "I'll change my surname then."
Simon smiled, leaning his head against hers teasingly. "Just for a big house? No backbone."
"Heh," Janet laughed, then pointed to the part below the platform. "What about these?"
"Since it's the Westeros Tower," Simon said, "naturally, the lower parts will be the headquarters of Westeros Corporation. Of course, it will need careful planning, which we'll leave to the professionals."
Janet asked another question. "Where do you plan to build this?"
Simon pointed to the right outside the window. "The corner nearby would be good. If Fifth Avenue doesn't work, then shift east a bit, build it next to Madison Avenue, so we'd still have Central Park at our feet."
They whispered and discussed a few more details before Janet returned to the present. "So, little rascal, are we still buying a house now?"
"Of course, where else would we live?" Simon nodded. "Let's go with the one you mentioned. The tower in the sketch will take years to plan and more years to build. By the time we move in, it might be seven or eight years later. We'll definitely be in New York often before then. We can't be without a place to stay here for seven or eight years."
"Then I'll try to negotiate the price down; probably can get it for $12 million. The stock market crashed, so housing prices will plummet too. $15 million was the pre-crash price," Janet said, then added, "Little rascal, when the tower in the sketch is built, do you plan to move to New York?"
"Of course, we can live wherever we want. In the future, when we have a private jet, we could even commute from New York to Los Angeles for work every day if we wanted."
Janet gently patted Simon. "I don't want that hassle."
Simon said, "Then I'll go to work every day, and you can be a housewife."
Janet immediately shook her head again. "No, I won't be a housewife."
Simon, showing no firm stance, nodded. "Okay, you can do whatever you want."
After chatting for a while, Janet took the sketch from Simon again and looked at it. "Little rascal, honestly, I still think it's a bit unbelievable."
"You just watch me build it," Simon said, then added, "But I'll need to work hard to make money from now on."
"Who was it that just said a nineteen-year-old making over a billion was already against the rules enough?"
Simon thought about it. "Since many people already know, maybe there's no need to hide it anymore. Perhaps that could be a good thing."
Before this, Simon often subconsciously tried to keep his actions low-profile. Although the results were often eye-catching, he hadn't abandoned this perhaps somewhat self-deceiving approach.
Now, if his index futures market activities were exposed, any surprising moves he made later might not seem so shocking anymore.
One had to remember, $1 billion still carried significant weight in this era.
Forbes magazine only began compiling its global rich list a few years ago. According to the latest list this year, the wealthiest were the oil families from the Middle East. Moreover, there were only three families with wealth exceeding $10 billion. The fourth-place Newhouse media family's fortune dropped to $8.7 billion, and the threshold for the global top ten was only $5.4 billion.
Even after all taxes, Simon could now break into the Forbes global rich list top 100.
In 1987, the global population officially surpassed 5 billion. As one of the richest 100 among those 5 billion, it was clear Simon was now firmly among the very top of the pyramid.
In just one year, an 18-year-old youth went from having nothing to breaking into the list of the world's 100 wealthiest people. If this status was accepted by the public, any further actions by Simon that defied imagination likely wouldn't seem too abrupt.
After spending one more day in New York, Simon returned to Los Angeles, while Janet stayed behind in New York to continue handling the house purchase.
On October 30th, the day Simon returned to LA, the first-week box office for Final Destination was also released: $18.16 million over seven days. Both Fox internally and external media generally predicted the film's final North American box office would surpass $60 million.
While it couldn't compare to Run Lola Run or The Butterfly Effect, having two films in the annual top ten and one in the top fifteen within a year solidly cemented Simon's reputation as a bankable filmmaker.
During his free time in New York, Simon also managed to complete the Basic Instinct script. After returning to Los Angeles, he gave it to Jonathan Friedman, letting his agent and Amy negotiate the new film deal with Fox.
With three consecutive major successes, Simon would naturally strive for more benefits this time.
On another front, after Noah Scott's personal visit, they maintained contact in the following days. Simon periodically received updates related to him from Wall Street.
This continued into November. Although he had anticipated it, when the news finally broke, Simon was still caught somewhat off guard.
The catalyst came from Lehman Brothers and involved Soros, whom Simon had been paying attention to.
As the futures broker for Quantum Fund, Lehman Brothers' pre-leaked sell-off on October 22nd caused the S&P 500 to plunge, resulting in significant losses for Soros. After some buildup, Soros formally sued Lehman Brothers and also dragged Simon into the lawsuit.
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