The Johnston Family mansion.
The loud sound of a child crying rang out, and Veronica was the first to appear at the door.
In the living room, Simon and Janet each stood on one side of the room, with a certain little fellow in the middle.
Janet was still gently comforting and encouraging him, but Mel ignored her and sat on the carpet wailing. Seeing Veronica appear, the little guy immediately held out his chubby hands toward her and said indistinctly through his sobs, "Nana, hug."
Looking at the little guy's state, Veronica stepped forward clearly distressed, but then stopped, looking at Simon, who had a helpless expression while holding a baby toy.
Tomorrow was December 6th, Mel's first birthday.
Normally, a child at this age should be trying to walk, or at least be able to stand. However, clearly under the pampering of the whole family, the little fellow couldn't even stand steadily at this time.
He did learn to speak quite early, though.
But this point made Simon even more depressed.
It didn't matter if the first word the child learned wasn't 'Papa' or 'Mama'; even 'Grandpa' or 'Grandmother' would have been fine, since he was being looked after here.
But the first word a certain little fellow learned was actually 'hug'.
He wasn't shy at all and wanted a hug from whoever he saw.
Facing such a perfectly carved and adorable baby who knew how to act spoiled, such a request would naturally be granted.
As a result, he was often carried around by adults. He could already crawl at six months old, but now he was too lazy to even crawl, let alone walk.
Regarding the child's education, while the little guy was still in Janet's belly, the two had occasionally discussed it and said one would definitely play the good cop and the other the bad cop.
Looking at it now, both Simon and Janet belonged to the 'bad cop' category.
Of course, there was no shortage of good cops.
Basically everyone on the Australia side was one.
Since Simon didn't speak, Veronica didn't dare step forward to pick up the child. Seeing that his usually doting 'Nana' wasn't moving, the little guy's crying grew even louder.
Then, the family head made his appearance.
Raymond Johnston appeared at the door. Taking one look at the situation in the room, he immediately understood what was happening. Perhaps due to the special bond with grandchildren, the old man doted on the kid even more. He merely kept a straight face and glared at his daughter and son-in-law before walking over and picking up the kid, who was already shouting 'Papa, hug'.
Watching the child being carried away by her father, Janet threw down the rattle in her hand, glanced at Simon, and said, "This won't do."
Veronica remained at a distance. Hearing Janet say this, she said softly, "Mel is still small."
As she spoke, she looked at Simon again.
Simon also dropped the toy in his hand. Noticing the obvious worry in Veronica's eyes, he hesitated for a moment but only shrugged his shoulders.
Veronica was clearly worried that the couple would take the little guy away this time.
Janet observed this strangely emotional exchange between Simon and Veronica. Feeling a bit miffed, she simply opened her arms and shouted to Simon, "Hug!"
Noticing the dissatisfaction on Janet's face, Simon smiled and stood up. He walked over, bent down, and picked up her light body, kissed the woman on the cheek, and then left the living room in such a lovey-dovey manner.
The old man had originally been somewhat dissatisfied with Simon and Janet leaving the child in Australia for Veronica to look after. When they had just arrived last month, he had hinted at taking the kid back to Los Angeles.
However, after seeing the couple's attempts to teach the child to walk these past few days, he suddenly stopped mentioning that matter.
In Janet's words, the old man had raised his own eldest and second children, but after that, he wasn't very good at nurturing the next generation. For this youngest grandson, his pampering was beyond limits.
If the little fellow was kept here indefinitely, if they wanted the Westeros Family to have a successor, the two would probably have to have another child.
Of course, this was mostly a joke.
The child was indeed still a bit young.
The next day was the Mel's first birthday. Preparations had begun in advance, so it was naturally very lively. A crowd of various Australian tycoons, social elites and celebrities came. The child was completely oblivious to it all, as it felt more like a social party.
Perhaps inspired by *The Tale of Genji*, which she had been reading continuously, Janet also played a little *erabitori* (choosing objects) game at the party. It was all various objects with very good symbolic meanings.
She gave the child absolutely no chance to become a *Hikaru Genji*—a spoiled, pleasure-seeking noble.
In the end, he picked up a piece of iron ore, which kept the old man Johnston happy for the entire day.
Janet was very depressed, believing that the reason he grabbed the iron ore was that the thing looked a bit like chocolate.
What a little foodie.
Simon felt it was more likely that among a pile of serious items like pens and watches, that dark, lumpy piece of iron ore looked the most 'unserious'. Seeing something strange among a bunch of everyday items, the little guy would naturally grab it out of curiosity.
The scale of the Westeros System was simply too massive. Even on vacation, it was impossible for Simon to completely let go of everything.
Over in North America, the most eye-catching thing during the Thanksgiving period wasn't *Home Alone 2*, which naturally achieved high box office results, but the videotape sales of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
After the ABC television broadcast created a ratings miracle, Daenerys Entertainment quickly put the show's videotapes on the shelves a week later.
Whether it was the memorable and enchanting charm of the Victoria's Secret Angels or the five new songs in the show that mostly became classics, both greatly drove the sales of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show videotapes.
Coinciding with the peak sales season during the holidays, in just the first week of being on the shelves, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show videotapes quickly sold 780,000 units.
If it weren't for the videotapes being so popular that production and distribution couldn't keep up with demand, first-week sales exceeding 1 million units would have been done deal.
In the following two weeks, the weekly sales of this videotape reached 1.36 million and 950,000 units respectively.
In just three weeks, total sales reached 3.09 million units.
At a price of around $30, with 3.09 million videotapes, the sales revenue exceeded $90 million.
Clearly, this was only the beginning.
Industry experts generally predicted that in North America alone, sales of this phenomenal videotape could exceed 10 million units, and globally, it might even reach a total of 15 million units.
One should know that for the few Hollywood films with the best box office results in recent years, their total global sales after releasing on videotape were around this number.
15 million units, $450 million in sales revenue.
It was an absolute miracle.
Over the years, the entire Hollywood industry had been trying as hard as possible to catch up with Daenerys Entertainment.
However, just this one videotape made other competitors feel a sense of awe and frustration once again.
Whether in the entertainment industry or the fashion world, everyone was amazed by the sales of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show videotapes.
Later, there were even rumors that Ford Models attempted to demand a share of the profits from these videotape sales.
According to the basic agreements between Hollywood and the major guilds, film creators are indeed entitled to a small commission from videotape sales. However, this videotape was a complete exception.
Even though some of the Victoria's Secret Angels had actress status, this time, the contracts signed between Daenerys Entertainment and the Victoria's Secret Angels were ordinary runway contracts.
Wanting a share? Don't even dream about it.
When Amy Pascal heard the news, she directly announced that if Ford intended to make a fuss, not a single model from that company would be allowed on the Victoria's Secret runway next year.
They already knew that getting a share was unlikely. Faced with such a warning, the various parties with such ideas immediately went silent.
The boost this show gave to the careers of the participating models was obvious.
Due to the ultra-high TV ratings and the massive videotape sales, the forty Victoria's Secret Angels already possessed public fame far exceeding other models in the same industry, and collaboration offers were flooding in.
Competition in the fashion circle is fierce. To have such an advantage is something everyone desires, so naturally, no one would cause unnecessary trouble.
If they were really kicked out, someone would ready to replace them.
And getting back in such a short life span industry was close to a career failure.
Leslie Wexner, the chairman of LTD, was even more relieved yet filled with regret. He had almost agreed to fully license the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to Daenerys Entertainment. If he had done that, LTD wouldn't have seen a penny of the huge profits from this videotape sale. The regret was that if they had borne all the investment for the show instead of splitting the budget with Daenerys Entertainment, most of these profits would belong to LTD.
$450 million in sales revenue—after deducting all costs, the net profit is estimated to be $150 million!
For the entire LTD, the net profit in most years might not even be that much.
Of course, Leslie Wexner also knew that the likelihood of these profits being a one-time thing was very high.
After all, the first Victoria's Secret show was personally handled by Simon Westeros. Whether it was the design of the angel outfits or the production of the background music, Westeros put a lot of thought into it, which gave the audience an unprecedented sense of amazement.
Future Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows would certainly still receive a lot of attention. However, because the angel outfits were destined to lack major innovation and it was unlikely Westeros would keep creating songs for the show, the possibility of achieving the same sensation as the first time was basically zero.
Of course, having it once was enough to be delightful.
The focus of this operation, the Victoria's Secret brand, is expected to see its overall sales increase significantly by 30% this year compared to 1991. Most of this was achieved in the six months or so after the Westeros System completed the acquisition of LTD.
It is expected that next year, Victoria's Secret's sales growth could likely reach 40% to 50%.
Maintaining such a sales growth rate, within five years, Victoria's Secret could grow into the largest lingerie brand in North America.
On the other hand, LTD's fast-fashion transformation of its apparel business was also going quite smoothly.
Leslie Wexner was already a highly experienced businessman immersed in the fashion industry for many years, and he was never one to be stuck in his ways.
In the past, he just hadn't found the right direction. After receiving advice from Simon, Leslie Wexner carefully investigated the Spanish brand Zara, which had already expanded its business to North America. He quickly figured out this company's expansion model and carried out corresponding adjustments and transformations for the Express brand under LTD.
Simon originally thought he could stay peacefully in Australia for this vacation until after the New Year.
However, following the news of the great success of the Victoria's Secret videotapes, some bad news suddenly came from North America.
The matter concerned Time Warner.
Everyone knew that because of cancer, Steve Ross didn't have much time left.
However, after more than half a year of treatment, at least on the surface, Ross seemed to show signs of improvement and continued to firmly control the Time Warner Group during this year.
Time Warner's situation, except for the film business supported by the DC Cinematic Universe, other business sectors are struggling.
After waiting patiently for over half a year, as the end of the year approached, some people became restless again.
Gerald Levin, the current Vice Chairman of Time Warner, who had already been designated by Ross as the next successor, suddenly launched an attack recently. Joining forces with a large number of Time Warner shareholders and executives, he demanded Steve Ross step down on the grounds that Ross was too ill to focus on managing the company.
The most direct result of this management coup was not Ross's resignation, but a sharp drop in Time Warner's stock price.
Naturally, another group of people immediately expressed dissatisfaction, especially the supporters of the Ross faction.
The two sides went back and forth in the media and in private several times, and things were basically about to quiet down.
After all, no one wanted Time Warner's stock price to continue falling.
However, another event soon occurred.
On December 13th, Steve Ross suddenly fell into a coma and became unconscious.
After an examination, doctors determined it was a lung infection caused by cancer complications.
For a patient in the late stages of cancer, because their own immune system is too fragile, the cancer itself is often not fatal; complications are the most dangerous.
Two days later, after emergency surgery, Steve Ross's family announced to the public that Ross's condition had stabilized again.
However, those who knew the inside story were aware that Steve Ross was still in a coma and, most likely, would not be able to survive this crisis.
The news inevitably leaked out, causing Time Warner's stock price to fall again.
Thus, the executive coup, Ross's critical illness, and a week of continuous turmoil cumulatively caused Time Warner's stock price to drop by 16%. The market value slid from the initial $17.3 billion at the start of the events all the way down to $14.5 billion. In just one short week, $2.8 billion in market value evaporated.
This time, everyone stopped their fight.
Bringing a $2.8 billion paper loss to investors in just one week—if held accountable, everyone might have to get lost.
Moreover, with Ross critically ill, the infighting had become completely unnecessary.
Time Warner's top management also realized that avoiding further turmoil for the company was the most important thing at this time.
However, when it came to further power distribution, the various factions fell into a stalemate again.
The culprit behind this recent series of events was Gerald Levin. Although he didn't dare to be confrontational in public anymore, the Ross faction was privately and publicly pointing at Gerald Levin to take responsibility.
Simply put, they wanted him to give up his original plan to succeed Ross.
Gerald Levin had acted early precisely because he didn't want to wait any longer and risk complications. At this point, he would certainly not back down voluntarily. Everyone cared about market value and stock price, of course, but if he couldn't lead Time Warner, the company would be irrelevant to him.