Regardless of whether Lehman Brothers followed suit, it did not have much impact on Simon's operations in the stock index futures market. Noah Scott came all the way from Chicago to repair the relationship, so Simon naturally wouldn't turn him away.
In this country, where Simon wanted to go further, it was simply impossible to break free from ties to investment banks. Although I still don’t have too much trust in Noah Scott and Lehman Brothers, compared to several other investment banks that are still silent, the information Noah Scott just disclosed already seems to be full of sincerity.
After dinner, Simon and Noah Scott parted ways and returned to the Plaza Hotel. It was just after eight o'clock in the evening.
In the presidential suite on the top floor of the Plaza Hotel.
Janet hung their coats on the hangers and came to the study. She saw that the man had already sat down by the window with his usual hard-cover notebook. She leaned over and leaned on the back of the sofa and asked: "Simon, what are you going to do?" ?”
Simon held a 16-karat notebook that was still bound by hand, used a pencil to draw musical lines on the white paper, and filled in the notes nonchalantly.
Madonna's new album will be released next month. It is a dance-style album called "You-can-dance". Simon had already pitched a song that fit the album's style. What he was writing at this time was another song, which Simon planned to use as the ending song of "Pulp Fiction".
However, Simon's current thoughts cannot be on these things. He just wants to find something to do for a while.
Although he was reminded by Noah Scott that his operation in the stock index futures market had been exposed, Simon found that there was nothing he could do to prevent this matter from being exposed.
Hearing Janet's question, Simon turned his head and smiled helplessly at the woman, saying: "There is nothing you can do, Simon Westeros is going to be famous again."
Janet smiled, turned around on the sofa, leaned over and sat down next to Simon.
In front of the two of them was a floor-to-ceiling glass window overlooking the entire Central Park. At this time, it was dark outside the window, with only the bright lights on the buildings on both sides of the park.
Holding the man's arm and watching him fill in the notes on the score, Janet added after a moment: "Actually, it doesn't matter if it's exposed. You didn't do anything illegal."
Simon shook his head and said: "A nineteen-year-old young man has made more than a billion U.S. dollars in just a few months. Isn't this illegal enough?"
"Haha, this only shows that my little man is so awesome," Janet came over and kissed Simon on the face, changed the topic and said, "What do you think of the houses you saw today?"
Simon tried his best to get rid of the feeling of powerlessness in his heart, and continued Janet's topic: "It's not that good."
Janet had some small expectations and said: "I think the penthouse duplex on 68th Street is good. It is a three-story structure with a total area of more than 1,200 square meters, facing Central Park. Although the price of 15 million US dollars is a bit high, it is the first The house on Fifth Avenue will definitely appreciate in value in the future. Even if you don’t like the Baroque style inside, we can redecorate it.”
Following Janet's description, Simon recalled the luxurious Fifth Avenue apartment he had seen during the day.
The top three floors of a 15-story light gray building built in the 1950s have a total of 26 rooms, 3 living rooms, 2 kitchens, 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. It also comes with facilities such as a gym, a wine cellar and a private screening room. Janet noticed that she was unknowingly After changing the metric measurements, Simon smiled and said: "Call the real estate agent tomorrow and we will buy this house."
The price of such an Upper East Side apartment next to Central Park would have easily exceeded 100 million in the era before Simon was reborn.
At 15 million US dollars, Simon actually didn’t think it was expensive at all.
Of course, now in 1987, US$15 million was definitely considered a sky-high price, especially with the recent collapse of the North American stock market, and the US real estate market would definitely plummet in the future. In Simon's memory, the price of the famous Empire State Building two years later was only US$42 million.
Seeing that Simon had agreed, Janet showed some hesitation on her face and said, "If you don't like it, let's take another look."
"Buy it," Simon turned and kissed the woman on the cheek and said, "Actually, I don't like the whole house in Manhattan very much. Since I want to buy it, one of us must be satisfied."
Janet's eyes flashed a few times: "What kind of house do you like?"
"You know, modern, minimalist, and on the highest floor. I hope I stand by the window and all the other buildings in my field of vision are at my feet," Simon said, suddenly moved, and turned over the notebook in his hand. On one page, he picked up a pencil and began to draw quickly, while saying slowly: "Probably, that's it."
Janet came over curiously and waited patiently for a while before seeing a building that should be a fiberglass structure appear on the manuscript paper.
The entire building is tapered, but a platform is revealed on the uppermost floors. Later, Simon also marked a letter on the side. It seemed to be 'A' at first. Well, it probably wasn't finished yet, and it was quickly changed to 'W'.
'W' obviously stands for 'Westeros'.
Westeros Towers.
Simon's painting skills can be seen from the original draft of "Run Lola Run". A few minutes later, some silhouettes of high-rise buildings were randomly traced around the building, and a building that stood proudly on Manhattan Island and was much taller than the Empire State Building appeared on the paper.
Janet waited for Simon to finish drawing, and couldn't help but take the notebook in his hand, blinked a few times, and pointed to the platform at the top of the building: "What is this?"
"Helipad," Simon explained.
"Then," Janet paused, then asked, "approximately how high is it?"
"If I don't want to see the Empire State Building from outside my bedroom," Simon thought for a moment and said, "it should be more than 500 meters."
Janet briefly imagined living in a penthouse apartment in a building over 500 meters high. She slowly turned to look at Simon and said, "Can this really be built?"
"Since I have earned more than one billion US dollars in just over five months, it is no problem to build another building," Simon said, thinking for a moment, and said: "Start preparations now, maybe, three years later Construction can begin. For such a building, including all expenses such as land, 500 million US dollars should be enough. Of course, the expenses for various internal facilities must also be very large, and there will also be future maintenance costs. However, , as long as it can be built, it doesn’t matter even if it costs $1 billion.”
Janet's expression was still a little dull. She handed the notebook back to Simon, hugged the man's arm and rubbed it like a kitten, and said: "You little bastard, I want to live in it now."
Simon took a pencil and carefully traced the 'W' letter that had just been temporarily changed. Fortunately, he didn't finish the 'A', otherwise the 'Avengers Tower' would be exposed. In my memory, the Avengers Tower in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series is probably only as tall as the Empire State Building. However, since it was going to be built, Simon naturally had no intention of going step by step.
After drawing a few strokes again, Simon listened to what Janet said, pointed to the part above the apron on the top of the building, and said: "By then, all the top ten floors will be Westeros families."
"Yeah, yeah," Janet nodded her head a few times and said, "I will change my husband's surname in the future."
Simon smiled, leaned his head against the woman's head, and joked: "It's just to live in a big house, it's so spineless."
"Haha," Janet smiled, then pointed to the part below the platform and said, "Where are these?"
"Since it is the Westeros Building," Simon said, "it should naturally be the headquarters of the Westeros Company below. Of course, it must be planned carefully, and this needs to be left to professionals."
Janet asked again: "Where do you plan to build this house?"
Simon pointed to the right side of the window and said: "The corner next to it is good. If Fifth Avenue doesn't work, then move it further east and build it next to Madison Avenue, so that you still have Central Park at your feet."
The two discussed in low voices for a few more words before Janet turned back to the present and asked: "In this case, little bastard, do we still buy a house now
"Of course, where else would you live?" Simon nodded and said, "Just the one you just mentioned. The building in the sketch will be planned for a few years and built for a few more years. Maybe it will be ready by the time you move in. It will be seven or eight years later. We will definitely come to New York often in the future, there is no way we will not have a house to live here for seven or eight years."
"Then I'll try to lower the price again, and I estimate that I can get it for US$12 million. Now that the stock market has crashed, housing prices will definitely plummet. US$15 million is the price before the crash," Janet said, and then added: "Little bastard, when the building in the drawing is completed, do you plan to move to New York?"
"Of course we can live wherever we want. In the future, we will have a private jet, and it will be no problem even if we fly from New York to Los Angeles for work every day."
Janet patted Simon gently and said with a smile: "I don't want to go through such trouble."
Simon said: "Then I will go to work every day and you will be the housewife."
Janet immediately shook her head again: "No, I don't want to be a housewife."
Simon nodded nonchalantly: "Well, you can do whatever you want."
The two chatted for a while, and Janet took the drawing in front of Simon again and looked at it, and said: "You little bastard, actually, I still think it's a little impossible."
"You just have to stand by and watch me build it," Simon said, and then added: "But I will definitely have to work hard to make money next."
"Who just said that earning more than one billion US dollars at the age of 19 is already against the rules."
Simon thought for a while and said: "Since it has been known to many people, there is no need to hide it anymore. Perhaps, this should be considered a good thing."
Before this, Simon did many things and always subconsciously made his actions look less conspicuous. Although the results are often a bit harsh, he has never given up on this possibly deceptive behavior.
Now, if the operation of the stock index futures market is exposed, whatever unexpected things Simon does next will no longer seem so shocking.
You know, one billion US dollars is still very valuable in this era.
"Forbes" magazine just started to compile the list of the world's richest people a few years ago. According to this year’s latest list, the richest families in the world are only those oil families in the Middle East, and there are only three families with family wealth exceeding US$10 billion. The wealth of the Newhouse family, the fourth-ranked media family, fell directly to US$8.7 billion, and the threshold for the top ten richest people in the world is also only US$5.4 billion.
Even if all taxes are removed, Simon is now within the 100th place on Forbes' list of the world's richest people.
In 1987, the global population officially exceeded 5 billion. Simon is one of the 100 richest people among these 5 billion people. It is conceivable that he is now definitely among the people at the top of the pyramid.
In just one year, an 18-year-old boy suddenly went from poverty to the list of the 100 richest people in the world. As long as this status is accepted by the outside world, Simon will do anything beyond people's imagination. It probably won't seem too out of the ordinary.
After staying in New York for another day, Simon returned to Los Angeles again, but Janet stayed in New York and continued to work on the house.
On October 30, the day Simon returned to Los Angeles, the first-week box office of "Dead Man" was also released, with a revenue of 18.16 million US dollars in seven days. Both Fox internal and external media generally predicted that the film's final North American box office would be Breaking through $60 million.
Although it cannot be compared with "Run Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect", within one year, two movies were in the top ten at the North American box office and one was in the top fifteen at the North American box office. Simon's reputation as a blockbuster filmmaker was now firmly cemented.
During the few days in New York, Simon also found time to complete the script for "Basic Instinct" in his free time. After returning to Los Angeles, he handed the script to Jonathan Friedman and asked his agent and Amy to negotiate a new film with Fox. .
Three consecutive movies have been hugely successful, and Simon will naturally strive for more benefits this time.
On the other side, after Noah Scott personally visited Simon that day, the two parties still maintained contact in the following days, and Simon could hear the latest news related to him on Wall Street from time to time.
This continued until November. Although it had been anticipated, Simon was still a little unprepared when the incident broke out.
The trigger was with Lehman Brothers, and it was also related to Soros, whom Simon had been paying close attention to.
As a futures broker for the Quantum Fund, Lehman Brothers suffered heavy losses during the sell-off on October 22 when the S&P 500 index plummeted due to early leaks of the news. After a period of deliberation, Soros officially took Lehman Brothers to court and also implicated Simon.