On the East Coast, at an estate in Greenwich, north of New York City.
After changing into another outfit, Sophia Faisy had to tie a scarf around her neck once again to cover the marks.
Returning to the bedroom, the man was still shirtless, leisurely leaning against the headboard reading a magazine.
Sitting down on the bed, she felt a strong arm habitually wrap around her, and she leaned in to kiss the man on the cheek. She teased, "Aren't you supposed to be at home on paternity leave with Janet? What brings you to New York?"
Simon turned a page of the Time magazine in his hand and said casually, "Got kicked out."
Sophia immediately became interested. "Fight?"
Simon glanced at her with a smile. "You hope Janet and I fought?"
"Yes, maybe then I'd have a chance," Sophia admitted unabashedly. "You know, women are very ambitious."
Simon nodded seriously. "Let me finish this article, and then we can talk about ambition."
Sophia blushed slightly and pushed away the man's hand that was trying to slip into her business suit. "I have to go back. I need to prepare dinner for the kids, and Nancy is coming over tonight too. Do you want to join us?"
Nancy Brill had been in New York recently dealing with Blockbuster Entertainment matters, and Simon was aware of this.
Both New Line and Miramax originally had their headquarters in New York.
After recruiting Robert Shaye and the Weinstein brothers, Nancy had given them considerable autonomy and agreed to keep Blockbuster Entertainment's headquarters on the East Coast.
However, the Weinstein brothers were soon kicked out again by Nancy, necessitating some adjustments.
Simon wasn't in a hurry for Blockbuster to develop its film business, so he let Nancy handle it herself.
He was a bit surprised that Nancy was having dinner at Sophia's place. "Are you and Nancy close?"
"Always have been."
"Oh, I didn't know."
"I'm just your lover; I don't need to tell you everything."
"Sounds a bit resentful. But if you plan to see other men, you do need to tell me."
Sophia gave him a sidelong glance. "What if I don't?"
"I'll build a castle in Tasmania and lock you up forever."
"Wasn't it supposed to be exile to Tierra del Fuego?"
"Um… you know about that too?"
"I'm also on good terms with Janet."
"Seems we need to get to know each other better."
Saying that, Simon tossed the magazine aside, pulled the woman onto the bed, and pressed her down again.
Sophia pushed against Simon's chest, pleading, "I really can't. It's already five o'clock. How about I come over secretly tonight?"
Simon didn't respond.
Seeing he wasn't tearing off her clothes as usual, Sophia stopped resisting and gently embraced the man's head, her breathing inevitably becoming rapid.
A strange feeling arose in her heart.
This wasn't the first time.
She often felt that, at times like this, the man in her arms was like a child, and she was...
Though she thought this way, Sophia never dared to say it out loud, fearing it would make him angry.
After a while of intimacy, Sophia pushed Simon again. "It's really getting late."
This time, the man let her go.
She went to the bathroom to tidy up her clothes. When she came out, Simon was also dressed. Remembering the previous conversation, she asked, "You almost distracted me. Why did Janet kick you out?"
Simon replied simply, "Disagreement on child-rearing."
Thinking he was joking, Sophia didn't ask further. She kissed him again and said, "I'll head back now. You can come over at seven."
Simon nodded, seeing her off. He checked the time; it was still early afternoon in Los Angeles. He wondered what Janet and the others were doing.
The disagreement on child-rearing was, of course, a lie.
In reality, after Veronica dropped off the little one some time ago, she expressed a desire to stay in North America.
Since starting to take care of Melbourne, Veronica's personality had changed significantly. Although only Simon and Veronica knew the reason, it was clear to everyone that the little one had become Veronica's emotional anchor.
Therefore, no one was surprised when Veronica wanted to stay in North America.
Janet had even half-joked about it recently.
As the Westeros system grew larger, both Simon and Janet hoped to have more trustworthy people to manage certain things.
Veronica, having served as CFO at Johnston Holdings, was exactly what Simon needed—a person to oversee the financial health of the Westeros system's subsidiaries.
Janet might not have felt the same urgency, but Simon had always been very alert.
In his memory, the 2001 Enron scandal, where a giant enterprise with annual revenues in the billions collapsed within weeks due to financial fraud, left a deep impression.
Enron was a publicly traded company under significant market regulation.
Now, companies within the Westeros system—Cisco, AOL, Ygritte, Verizon, Nokia, and others—all had the potential to become giant enterprises.
The most crucial point was that Simon held significant stakes in all these companies.
This also meant that if any of these companies faced issues like financial fraud similar to Enron, the entire Westeros system would be severely impacted.
Simon offered generous salaries and benefits to the senior executives within the Westeros system, but he never believed that giving enough would naturally ensure loyalty.
Human nature is never easily satisfied.
Some might see his trust and the power he granted as foolishness.
If Simon trusted them so much and revealed so many management flaws and loopholes, some might feel obliged to exploit them.
Simon was not a trusting person.
With the experiences of two lifetimes and over a dozen different life memories, he had a clear understanding of the ugliness of human nature.
In recent years, Janet had been responsible for overseeing the subsidiaries within the Westeros system. The private intelligence team she set up was also out of Simon's precautionary mindset.
However, with the arrival of several children, Janet inevitably had to focus some of her attention on them.
Even without the distraction of children, the continued expansion of the Westeros business empire required others to share Janet's workload.
Considering all factors, Veronica seemed the perfect fit.
But due to certain concerns, Janet didn't want Simon and Veronica to get too close. So, when Veronica expressed her wish to stay in North America, Janet sent Simon to New York.
The official reason was to accompany Anthony Johnston in discussions with some capital groups about the BHP acquisition.
After two busy days, Simon finally had some free time after sending Anthony off on a flight back to Australia this morning. Coincidentally, Sophia had also been in North America the past two days.
Spending the afternoon at the estate in Greenwich, Simon left for Sophia's residence in the city center around six o'clock.
Today was Friday, September 10th.
Arriving ten minutes early, Sophia came out to greet him. They greeted each other nonchalantly. Simon exchanged pleasantries with Sophia's parents and then with Nancy Brill, who had arrived earlier. The petite executive was patiently helping Sophia's children with their homework.
Twelve-year-old Daniel Faisy was still shy around Simon, while ten-year-old Gemma was excited. After the adults finished their greetings, she curiously asked Simon if he really had $120 billion. When he confirmed, she asked how much that was.
Simon patiently explained until Sophia took the curious girl away to continue her homework. Then he had time to ask Nancy, "What's the deal with Harvey and the others?"
Nancy, who had kicked off her high heels, curled up on a single sofa. "That was last week. You don't know?"
Simon shrugged. "Just thought it was a pity."
Nancy said indifferently, "If I'd known he was a scumbag, I wouldn't have dealt with him at all."
"You know, Hollywood is like that. If you have a moral scruple, Blockbuster Entertainment won't develop."
"I know," Nancy said lazily, "I was probably just in a bad mood recently."
"Starting off like this, I'm worried about Blockbuster's future."
"It's all set up over there. Anyway, you don't have high expectations for Blockbuster Entertainment in the short term, right?"
"Can't you surprise your boss?"
"You took seven years from entering Hollywood to now. If I do better, I'd be Westeros."
Simon raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you have that ambition?"
Nancy, lying on the sofa armrest, blinked at Simon and then, realizing what he meant, rolled her eyes. "You're a jerk too."
Simon sighed. "I'll dock your pay."
Nancy made a dismissive gesture but then glanced at Sophia moving between the kitchen and dining room. "Sophia's Hermes scarf is beautiful."
"I think so too."
"I'm going to try it on later."
"If you do that, you'll lose a good friend."
"Sigh."
Nancy suddenly sighed inexplicably and stopped talking.
Simon also fell silent, picking up a Businessweek magazine from the coffee table.
Nancy, watching her boss's quick shift in focus, admired his ability to forget everything around him and concentrate instantly. She understood it was because he was Westeros.
Such a strong man didn't need to worry much about his surroundings.
After a while, Nancy finally spoke again. "What are you reading?"
Simon didn't look up from the magazine and said one word: "Compaq."
Nancy, slightly dissatisfied, got up and moved closer, barefoot.
Simon was on a two-seater sofa. Nancy, not avoiding him, squeezed in beside him to look at the magazine.
It was an article about Compaq's recent launch of a direct-to-consumer online sales model for personal computers.
The direct-to-consumer model was first proposed by Dell.
Simply put, it meant companies selling directly
to customers, bypassing middlemen, allowing for cheaper products.
Early personal computers were very expensive. Dell's direct sales model, eliminating middlemen, cut PC prices in half, allowing Dell to enter the Fortune 500 in just six years from its 1984 founding to 1992.
Following the success of the direct sales model, other companies, except for giants like IBM that always lagged, followed suit.
Through several successful collaborations with Ygritte in online marketing and the rise of e-commerce, Compaq recently launched an online direct sales model. This business model was essentially the later B2C (Business-to-Consumer) in e-commerce. If operated well, it could even be more cost-effective than Dell's offline direct sales.
In memory, Xiaomi phones used a similar online direct sales model, offering high cost-performance products to users.
With the rise of the internet, the personal computer industry, far from saturated, expanded rapidly.
The basic operating system and core component manufacturers' positions were almost set, with Microsoft and Intel becoming the industry leaders. For OEM manufacturers, controlling costs, increasing efficiency, and providing the best value products to customers were key to survival.
Nancy, peering over Simon's shoulder, read the article with him and commented, "It's a good business model, but execution is key."
Simon, enjoying the scent of Chanel No. 16 that Nancy had reverted to, smiled. "It's always like that. Running a company, the core principles are controlling costs, increasing efficiency, and putting customers first. Everyone knows that. Some just pay lip service, some genuinely execute, and some want to but find their company too unwieldy."
Nancy nodded and asked, "Do you think Compaq will succeed?"
"I don't know. But the ongoing price drop and democratization of PCs is a trend. Compaq's direction is right, but execution is crucial. Of course, I wouldn't invest in any OEM manufacturer. They lack core technology and are capital-intensive, with low risk tolerance. A slight misstep and they're out."
"But I bought some Dell stocks with the money you lent me."
"For speculation, that's fine. With the rise of the internet, Dell, Compaq, HP, even IBM's PC businesses will grow for the next five years."
"You forgot Apple."
"Oh, and Apple."
Nancy rolled her eyes. "Trying to mislead me?"
"You asked first."
"BOSS, do you know just your few words have revealed too much?"
Simon glanced at her delicate face, smiling. "Do you think anyone can hear these words from me?"
Nancy instinctively avoided his gaze but quickly met it defiantly.
She wanted to say something but couldn't. Fortunately, Sophia came to announce dinner was ready, giving Nancy an excuse to get up and head to the dining room.
_________________________
[Check out my Patreon for +200 additional chapters in all my fanfics! $5 for all!!]
[w w w . p a t r e o n .com / INNIT]
[+50 PowerStones = +1 Chapter]