Simon and Jennifer left Melbourne on July 11th and headed to a lakeside forest in west-central Tasmania, a location precisely in the centre of Simon's private estate.
Because the nearest road was thirty kilometres away, the only way to reach it was by helicopter.
The female assistant paid for the construction of three wooden cabins out of her own pocket, one for Simon and Jennifer, and the others for their entourage.
She also built a helipad, and the cost of transporting building materials alone was considerable. There was no running water or electricity in the forest, so they relied on a generator and natural water sources, and communication was only possible via satellite phone.
It was already a very isolated living environment, and when heavy snow covered everything, the surroundings became completely cut off from the world.
Suddenly detaching from his busy work and arriving here, Simon's first feeling was not comfort, but anxiety, a strong sense of loss of control.
Fortunately, Simon, after all, had special experiences unlike anyone else in this world, equivalent to the accumulation of more than a dozen lifetimes, which allowed him to quickly adapt.
The female assistant, however, transitioned seamlessly between a career woman and a domestic woman.
When she came here, she only brought a few books and a drawing pad.
During the day, she had Simon teach her how to draw, and she also ice-skated on the frozen lake in front of the cabin, wearing a very girlish white down jacket, as skilful as an elf.
In the evenings, they would cuddle by the fireplace, and she would read to Simon in her elegant voice, a very thick copy of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time".
Or Yeats's poetry collection.
*...* I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.
*And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made.
*Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee.
*And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
*And I shall have some peace there.
*... After reading, she even suggested, "Should we name the small lake in front of us, or perhaps, just call it Lake Innisfree?"
Simon refused.
Amidst the female assistant's rare pouting expression, he said it should be called Lake Jenny.
However, the female assistant's pout didn't disappear, and she pressed on, asking, "Which Jenny?"
Simon firmly said, "Of course, it's the Jenny right in front of me".
He also brought an original Chinese copy of "Dream of the Red Chamber".
The female assistant had never forgotten the joke Jennifer made back then and wanted to know the story of Xiren, asking Simon to tell it to her personally.
Then she fell in love with listening to the tales of romance, joy, and sorrow in that Grand View Garden.
Even if a strong curiosity occasionally flashed in her eyes, she never asked Simon why he understood such a difficult and obscure language.
She just kept asking all sorts of questions.
She even managed to learn to recite a poem from the book.
Her pronunciation was not monotonous, but very standard.
*On every page, absurd words,
*A handful of bitter tears.
*All say the author is mad,
*Who understands the taste within?
Finally, she couldn't help but ask Simon, very casually, "Is there really a Stone of Three Incarnations?"
Simon said no.
"It's just a story".
She was clearly dissatisfied with the answer, and her lips pursed again.
Simon comforted her for a while, and her little mood finally disappeared.
She was very satisfied with Xiren's ending and declared that if Simon ever stopped liking her, she would find a good man and marry him.
There was even a hint of threat in her eyes when she said this to Simon.
She actually dared to threaten him.
So, she was thoroughly 'dealt with'.
She was always very obedient.
She discovered some things, complaining that many of the very explicit small details Janette had told her were actually not true.
Simon smiled and said, "That can be arranged".
And then...
It really happened.
Calming down, she continued to read 'In Search of Lost Time' to Simon.
Simon listened patiently, and inadvertently, he jotted down a sentence he heard in the blank space of his "Dream of the Red Chamber" book: "Always try to keep a sky outside your life".
He smelled the aroma of food and lazily opened his eyes.
This was the bedroom, so there was naturally no food around, only the scent clinging to the man who had just entered from the kitchen.
He couldn't help but twitch his nose, yet he was too lazy to move.
The room was warm, and Simon was only wearing a wool sweater and khaki pants.
Seeing her open her eyes, he leaned over to kiss her.
She turned her head away, "I haven't brushed my teeth yet".
Simon, however, didn't let her go, kissing her freshly awakened, delicate cheek, then nuzzling her fair neck.
Still not satisfied, he pulled down the blanket a bit and leaned in again.
Under the blanket was a perfect body that could drive any man wild.
She was wearing nothing.
Soft jade and warm fragrance.
Feeling Simon greedily bite down, she finally reached out weakly to push the man's head, laughing, "That tickles".
Simon lifted his head, but his hand reached in, saying, "Are you getting up now, or should I stay with you for a little longer?"
She pressed down on the man's mischievous hand, "I want to get up, you go out first".
"I'll help you get dressed".
"No, I can dress myself".
"That won't do, I must help".
Saying this, he began to act amidst the female assistant's giggles, and finally, the two of them got dressed again.
Breakfast also had to be remade.
The original one was already cold.
After eating, it was already ten in the morning.
The date was July 17th. They had been here for a full week, and although only Janette occasionally made a harassing call or two, it would be difficult to justify staying any longer.
It was a very clear day.
After packing their luggage and standing outside the house, the female assistant showed obvious reluctance.
She was also worried that her cabin might be damaged or occupied by outsiders, and only slightly relaxed when Simon promised to arrange dedicated caretakers.
Taking advantage of the midday sun, they boarded the helicopter parked nearby.
The helicopter roared into the sky, and the already small lake in their view grew smaller and smaller, like distant memories that gradually fade and dissipate in everyone's hearts.
The rented Bell helicopter had insufficient range, so they had to switch to a boat on the northern coast of Tasmania to return to Melbourne.
They arrived back at the villa in the suburbs of Melbourne around four in the afternoon.
After making some calls to close associates, Simon had originally planned to rest for another night and start work tomorrow, but Anthony Johnston called, inviting Simon to a party at the mansion.
It turned out that today was Norman Johnston's birthday, and all the family members would be there.
Having stayed out with Jennifer for a week, Simon didn't believe the Johnston family wouldn't know, so he felt a little guilty and didn't refuse.
The female assistant, feeling even more guilty, dared not go with him.
He arrived at the mansion in the evening.
The party had many guests and was very lively.
Aside from Patrick Johnston winking at Simon, no one reacted too specially to Simon's whereabouts over the past week.
The socializing continued late into the night.
After all the guests had left, Simon originally wanted to leave as well, but the old man kept him, implying that there was no shortage of places for him to stay at home, etc.
Simon understood that the old man still had an opinion about his actions during the previous week.
Naturally, he could only stay put.
Back in Melbourne, he couldn't sleep in anymore, and woke up promptly at seven o'clock the next day.
Leaving the bedroom, he walked down the corridor towards the stairs, passing a room where Veronica Johnston happened to open the door and walk out.
Seeing Simon, her body immediately froze, and she subconsciously raised her hand, but then quickly lowered it.
Simon also stopped, and seeing Veronica's subconscious defensive action, he frowned.
Seeing Simon frown, Veronica nervously raised her hand again, as if to explain, but she only stammered out a "I..." before she couldn't continue.
Simon saw that she stopped speaking, and he also said nothing, continuing towards the stairs.
Veronica stared blankly as Simon's figure disappeared at the stairwell before she walked out of the room.
After breakfast, Simon and Anthony Johnston went together to the Johnston Holdings headquarters in downtown Melbourne.
After the operation targeting the Japanese market last year, although Cersei Capital's headquarters moved to New York, a team was still retained here.
This time, for the crude oil market operation, in order to reduce external penetration into the details of Cersei Capital's operations, the Melbourne team also participated.
In fact, because Cersei Capital had established a very large and complex portfolio of crude oil futures through different accounts in various crude oil futures markets such as New York and London, and had recently started direct participation in spot trading, apart from a handful of people like Janette and Simon, even within Cersei Capital, few people knew the company's specific holding data.
Cersei Capital began establishing long positions in late June, when international crude oil prices were still above $14 per barrel.
In less than a month recently, international crude oil prices have fallen to $13, which is the lowest international crude oil price in Simon's memory.
If only the recent long positions are calculated, excluding the short position gains from two-way holdings, Cersei Capital's book loss has already exceeded $1.6 billion in less than a month.
Moreover, because Cersei Capital is continuously increasing its long positions and reducing its short positions, if international crude oil prices do not rebound as expected, but instead fall to $10 a barrel as many institutions predict, Cersei Capital will not only lose all the profits earned from earlier short positions, but may even lose its principal.
In Simon's memory, international crude oil prices began to rise after negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait over oil production control broke down in late July, and then doubled directly after the war broke out on August 2nd.
Currently, negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait are still ongoing, and according to news from the Middle East, the first phase of results from these negotiations will not appear until next week.
Either Kuwait will compromise and reduce crude oil production, or the negotiations will break down, leading to an unpredictable situation.
Simon didn't think that his appearance could prevent the war from happening.
In fact, the internal causes of this war were far more complex than most people imagined, involving not only the interests of European and American oil groups but also the still turbulent situation in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union at the time.
However, to be on the safe side, Cersei Capital's operation this time was relatively conservative.
As of mid-July, the scale of long positions established was less than $15 billion, and sufficient funds were reserved to maintain Cersei Capital's leverage ratio within 5 times.
According to the plan, after all short positions are closed next week, although Cersei Capital's principal will exceed $5 billion, the total long position scale will still be cautiously maintained within $25 billion.
After spending a day discussing Cersei Capital's next moves at Johnston Holdings headquarters, Simon's energy shifted back to film.
The filming of 'Batman: The Dark Knight' was still going smoothly and didn't require much worry from Simon.
In North America.
More than three weeks had passed since Simon left on June 24th.
Over the past few weeks, several new films have been released in the North American summer box office, including 'Die Hard 2', 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', and 'Days of Thunder'.
Before that, 'Ghost', released on June 1st, maintained a strong box office curve despite the pressure from numerous new releases.
As of July 19th, after seven weeks of release, 'Ghost' had accumulated a total box office of $115.06 million.
Moreover, in its seventh week, this tear-jerking romance film still maintained a single-week box office of over $10 million, reaching $11.07 million.
It is highly anticipated that its total North American box office will break the $200 million mark, making it the first film of 1990 to exceed $200 million in North America.
In comparison, 'Total Recall', which was released at the same time, reached a total North American box office of $106.41 million in its seventh week, successfully breaking the $100 million mark.
However, its single-week box office had already dropped to $4.77 million, with an estimated remaining box office potential of only about $10 million.
The first film in Daenerys Entertainment's 10-film plan that Simon was more concerned about, 'Sleeping With The Enemy', after a first-week box office of $27.62 million, saw a 33% drop in its second week, bringing in another $18.53 million.
A drop of over 30% was slightly disappointing.
Fortunately, in the subsequent three weeks, the drop for 'Sleeping With The Enemy' was within 30%, at 21%, 17%, and 23% respectively, bringing in an additional $14.61 million, $12.13 million, and $9.37 million.
In five weeks, 'Sleeping With The Enemy' had already accumulated a total box office of $82.26 million.
Although the single-week box office fell below $10 million, there was no longer any doubt that this film's North American box office would break $100 million.
Additionally, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', released on July 6th, had its production budget increased to $20 million, compared to the $8 million B-movie budget in the original timeline, making its quality superior to the original.
Coupled with a prime summer release slot and Daenerys Entertainment's relentless promotional efforts, the film's opening week box office reached $39.78 million, far exceeding the first-week figures of 'Ghost' and 'Sleeping With The Enemy'.
In just one week, from July 6th to July 12th, according to the tiered revenue-sharing agreement signed between Daenerys Entertainment and the cinemas, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' had already recouped all of its production and promotional costs.
However, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' largely relied on the popularity generated by its animated series and games in recent years, and the film's quality itself was far from phenomenal.
A high opening in the first week inevitably meant a significant drop in the second week's box office.
July 13th to July 19th.
In its second week of release, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' saw a 43% drop in box office, bringing in another $22.67 million.
With $62.45 million in two weeks, this box office curve was actually similar to that of 'Total Recall', which opened at the same time as 'Ghost'.
Of course, the difference was that the production cost of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' was less than one-third of 'Total Recall', starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
While 'Total Recall's North American box office barely recouped its production costs, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' had already started generating substantial profits by its second week of release.
Due to the excellent market performance of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', Daenerys Entertainment quickly announced the greenlight for a sequel.
In the original timeline, the box office for 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' sequels progressively declined, because apart from the IP's inherent popularity, the series found it difficult to maintain high audience appeal.
Audiences watched the first film largely due to the accumulated popularity of the animated series and games.
However, Simon did not prevent the sequel from being greenlit this time, unlike with the 'Look Who's Talking' series.
Mainly due to cost.
Compared to the two blockbuster series 'Look Who's Talking' and 'Lethal Weapon', even if a sequel to 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' was developed, its production cost would not exceed the first film by too much, nor would there be a big star like Mel Gibson demanding a high percentage of project profits.
If the first film could break $100 million, a sequel, as long as it wasn't messed up, would easily recover its costs and make a profit.