The couple snuggled together, whispering sweet nothings. The sunset gradually sank below the horizon, and the sky darkened before they knew it.
The clicking of high heels echoed, sounding crisp and pleasant in the empty hall.
Ever since she learned that wearing high heels frequently could lead to toe deformities and that Simon liked natural beautiful feet, Janette had rarely worn high heels outside of formal social occasions. Even at work, she often wore white flat sneakers like a young girl.
However, Simon actually quite liked the crisp sound of high heels tapping on the floor.
Turning his head, he saw the Housekeeper, Alice Ferguson, walking toward them.
Since they were moving, the four girls, ABCD, and the seven-person team led by the Housekeeper had been staying here for the past few days, responsible for a comprehensive cleaning of the interior of Seashell Villa and the organization of items in all the rooms.
Usually, a 120-square-meter apartment can be divided into seven or eight rooms. Seashell Villa has a total internal space of 12,000 square meters across three floors, which is equivalent to 100 times that of an ordinary apartment. One can imagine how large the interior actually is.
Excluding the lobby of about 2,000 square meters and the 3,000-square-meter space on the basement floor partitioned into a wine cellar, garage, vault, and workshop, the other areas still total 7,000 square meters.
The remaining 3,000 square meters of space on the first floor, outside the lobby, is divided into areas such as a kitchen, bar, study, bathroom, meeting room, living room, parlour, gym, library, storage room, and private screening room. Among them, the kitchen, bar, bathroom, etc., are located in more than one place.
The second floor of the villa also has 3,000 square meters of space, containing six suites with their own separate living rooms, studies, bedrooms, and bathrooms, each exceeding 200 square meters. Other individual bedrooms, studies, living rooms, walk-in closets, storage rooms, home theatres, and more are all available.
The streamlined, spiralling third floor mainly consists of a saucer-shaped master bedroom, which alone exceeds 300 square meters.
The master bedroom is located on the easternmost side of the third floor. To the west of the master bedroom, there are supporting rooms such as a study, bathroom, and walk-in closet. Janette has also specially arranged two nurseries during these past few days.
Because there are often rooms within rooms, as well as many open semi-partitions, it is difficult to calculate exactly how many rooms this villa has. However, according to the usual calculation method for residences, there are 11 bedrooms alone in the villa, and even more bathrooms, reaching 19.
It can be imagined that although there are 11 people in total including the four girls, ABCD, and the Housekeeper's team of seven, just taking care of this single villa is definitely a very difficult physical task. It would be even more difficult to manage all of Simon's properties across North America.
Simon did not allow just anyone to manage his properties, so the Housekeeper had recently been discussing hiring more people with Janette.
By the glass curtain wall, when Simon turned his head, Janette also turned around and leaned lazily on the back of the sofa chair.
Being watched by both of them, Alice's expression remained unchanged as she said softly, "Sir, Madam, should I prepare dinner?"
Janette rested her chin on the back of the sofa chair, her eyes sparkling without saying a word.
Simon said, "Yes. Also, call everyone over first and turn on all the lights in the villa".
Alice nodded and left again, her high heels clicking.
Janette's upper body didn't move, but her small feet in white flat shoes kicked rhythmically against Simon's leg in time with the clicking sound. She teased, "Maybe I should add a hard sole to my shoes so they can make noise too".
Simon held down the woman's restless leg and laughed, "How about nailing on some horseshoes? That way the sound will be even louder".
Janette rolled her eyes at him, swung her leg, and kicked Simon again.
A few minutes later, all the lights in Seashell Villa turned on together. Point Dume is on high ground, and a dreamlike blaze of lights at the point of the city could be seen from most of Malibu.
Inside the villa, eleven tall, blonde, fair-skinned women with excellent temperaments soon appeared before Simon. They were all dressed in uniform black professional office suits, looking extremely pleasing to the eye.
To an outsider, these women would definitely look like elite professionals; no one would ever guess they were just maids for the Westeros Family.
In fact, these 11 women, who earned salaries at the level of corporate vice presidents, were indeed elite professionals.
In addition to their $200,000 annual salary and bonuses after a five-year contract, Simon covered all their daily expenses for food, lodging, clothing, fitness, and medical care, which were no less than their salaries. To make it easier for the Housekeeper to lead the team across various locations to manage his properties, Simon had even specially provided them with a Gulfstream IV private jet.
To be frank, Simon was raising "vases".
This was another of his hobbies besides purchasing real estate.
He didn't seek any return, let alone have many carnal demands; it was just a hobby. Having earned so much money, he naturally wanted to do whatever he pleased. It was quite an interesting thought to raise a group of high-quality "vases" so refined that they made many men and women feel inferior.
Appreciating the pleasing scene before him without concealment, Simon finally looked at Miss C, Claire, and asked, "C, have you thought about what you want to do in the future?"
Claire felt many other eyes on her, but she only looked at her boss and said, "Open a company and be my own boss. I haven't decided exactly what to do yet".
Simon nodded and turned to the other women, who all looked over with hidden anticipation in their beautiful eyes.
After looking them over, Simon said, "It's like this: I plan to set up a venture capital fund. Hmm, let's call it the 'Vase Fund'. What do you think?"
The meaning of this name was too obvious. Lady A, Allison, quickly asked, "Boss, is it for us?"
"Of course", Simon nodded and said, "$10 million for each of you to do whatever you want; fashion, technology, real estate, finance, and so on. Even if you want to make movies, that's fine; I can help to give you some advice. If you feel that doing it alone is a bit difficult, you can also cooperate with each other. Well, I suggest you cooperate; two people would have $20 million, and 11 people would have $110 million. However, everyone only has a share of $10 million. If you lose it, you won't get a second chance".
Confirming that Simon was not joking, the women couldn't help but look at each other, their faces filled with eagerness.
$10 million. Although this amount was nothing to the current Simon, it was enough to satisfy the ambitions of too many people who wanted to climb upward.
A moment later, a woman standing next to the Housekeeper spoke up boldly, "Boss, can you give us some advice?"
Simon looked over, remembered that this woman's name was Zoe Parks, and nodded with a smile. "Of course. Besides cooperating with each other, I suggest you invest in the emerging new technology sector, such as the Internet. I believe we are in an era similar to the Electrical Revolution a century ago, which saw the rise of Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie. Similarly, this rapidly rising Information Age will surely see such a group of people emerge. Perhaps you will be among them".
Another woman next to the Housekeeper said somewhat lackadaisically, "How is that possible? We're women".
Simon sensed the almost coquettish tone and looked over with a smile. This one was named Isabelle Dunn. He said, "How about we just forget about your $10 million then?"
The woman hurriedly shook her head, then felt the reaction was wrong and hurriedly nodded, then felt it was still wrong. She could only pout and look at Simon pitifully.
"Alright, just kidding", Simon said. "That's it for now. I won't worry about the specifics; you discuss it yourselves. I'll mostly just be responsible for the money. Now, go back to what you were doing. ABCD, you're in charge of dinner".
The women dispersed, whispering among themselves.
Alice stayed behind. Once the others had left, the Housekeeper looked at Simon and asked, "Boss, do I get $10 million too?"
Simon said, "Of course. But that doesn't interfere with your original plans. What you do specifically in the future depends on your own choice".
Alice shook her head slightly and said, "I mean, $10 million is a bit small for me".
Simon showed an interested expression and asked, "You already have an idea?"
The Housekeeper nodded and said, "I've looked at the materials you gave me. E-commerce, that's a project I think has a very bright future".
Simon's expression became a bit strange.
In his original plans, Simon hoped that Jeff Bezos, who was currently in charge of Ygritte's network business, would pivot back to e-commerce in the future. If the Housekeeper were truly outstanding enough, he hoped she could become Bezos's successor.
Now it seemed that plans would likely never keep up with changes.
Simon had opened up a lot of materials related to the new technology industry to the Housekeeper according to their original agreement. He hadn't expected her to discover the industrial prospects of e-commerce so quickly.
After thinking for a moment, Simon said, "There's only $10 million for you in the 'Vase Fund', but as long as you do well enough, money naturally won't be a problem".
Janette, who had been quietly listening by Simon's side, also smiled and said, "Cersei Capital can also invest in you. You can have as much as you want".
"Actually, it's still a bit early for e-commerce. Waiting another year or two, until the number of world wide web users reaches the level of millions or even tens of millions, will be the most suitable time to enter the market. Since you have ideas, you can rely on the Ygritte Portal to test the waters on a small scale first, such as focusing on selling books or electronic products online in California or New York State". After saying this, Simon composed his expression and added, "Of course, the most important thing for you right now is still to do your own job well".
Alice listened seriously to Simon, nodded, and said, "Then I'll also go help prepare dinner".
"Go ahead. Also, you can pick a bedroom in the villa and stay here tonight".
Alice paused just as she was about to turn around, but still nodded gently.
Once the Housekeeper was far away, Janette pretended to be dissatisfied and said, "Keeping her here, are you planning to go on a night raid tonight?"
Simon pecked the woman's pouting red lips and joked, "She's for you".
Janette's eyelashes fluttered as she understood. "I'm not a lesbian, but maybe we can do it together".
"Isn't that bullying her too much?"
"Aren't maids meant to be bullied?"
Simon showed a look of disgust. "I didn't think you were such a woman. Get away from me, you evil capitalist".
Instead of retreating, Janette lunged forward and played around with Simon for a while before asking curiously, "Why set up a 'Vase Fund'? Isn't it good to let them be real vases?"
Simon held Janette's waist and said, "They'll still be vases, of course, but I want even the vases of the Westeros Family to reach a level that many people look up to. Just think, a large group of female billionaires who started as Westeros Family maids in the future, even reaching the level of breaking into the Forbes list, wouldn't that be very interesting?"
"You think they can really do it?"
"I'm giving them the best entrepreneurial conditions. As long as they work a little hard, it's actually quite easy to achieve something. You picked them all out yourself; not one of them is just an empty shell of a vase, right?"
"True, they're all quite ambitious. Some even want to take my place", Janette nodded with a smile, then teased, "But aren't you afraid of ending up benefiting some other man?"
"I'm not afraid. This money is all an investment; if they do well, I'll get a return too", Simon shook his head and said, "Besides, there aren't many 'other men' in this world that I need to care about".
"True", Janette said in a raised tone, teasing, "Someone seems to quite like other men's women, though".
"Uhh, that's slander".
"Hmph".
"What does 'hmph' mean?"
"You know it yourself".
Unsurprisingly, the scene of the first lighting of Seashell Villa at Dume Cape Manor appeared in many newspapers the next day. Naturally, there was no shortage of critical voices, accusing Simon Westeros of living a luxurious lifestyle where the electricity consumption of one villa was equivalent to hundreds of times that of an ordinary household, and so on.
Simon naturally didn't care about this; he wanted the world to gradually get used to his increasingly exposed sharp edges.
Regarding the 'Vase Fund,' Janette eventually took over the matter with great interest, planning to place the fund under the umbrella of Cersei Capital. Simon naturally had no objection; doing so would instead make the fund appear more official.
After a brief weekend break, the work week arrived, and the first thing Simon faced was a lawsuit.
The three major Hollywood guilds, the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America, simultaneously filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court in Delaware, where MCA and Daenerys Entertainment were incorporated. On the grounds that Daenerys Entertainment's merger with MCA would lead to a monopoly and cause the working environment for media industry workers to deteriorate, they demanded that Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA be prohibited.
The three major guilds were clearly well-prepared. Not only did they hire the most famous anti-merger legal team in the United States, but they also collected a lot of human and material evidence.
Among them, the serious overtime phenomenon within Daenerys Entertainment became one of the important bases for the three guilds' lawsuit. Members from all three guilds came forward to testify that while working for Daenerys Entertainment, they were forced to endure long hours of overtime.
Furthermore, the three guilds believed that once Daenerys Entertainment and MCA merged, the films produced by the company would directly or indirectly account for around 40% of the domestic U.S. box office share, reaching $2 billion, which already constituted a suspicion of monopoly. Daenerys Entertainment would also use its industry advantages to further compress the compensation and benefits of industry practitioners.
This allegation was also backed by both human and material evidence.
At the same time, many media outlets also launched a public opinion offensive against Daenerys Entertainment.
Many people sensed that in order to prevent this expansion by Daenerys Entertainment, Simon Westeros would likely face a litigation bombardment. There are many precedents for this sort of thing in the West; many corporate mergers often fail due to the pressure of litigation and public opinion.