After Yu Tingyu left, Simon leaned on the back of the mahogany chair, sipped his tea, and continued to admire the scenery outside the window. He casually asked Ren Jingxi opposite him: "How are you doing there? I heard about a recent Kung Fu reality show. Is the show pretty good?"
"Yeah," Ren Jingxi felt inexplicably happy when he heard him talking to her. But for a moment, he felt that he was the same as Wuling, so he continued: "However, I only plan to do one season. Someone reminded me that this kind of Programs that tend to focus on real fighting are not in line with, well, the current environment."
Simon laughed: "Yeah, it's okay to have a slapstick scene in the movie, but in reality it's really not good."
Ren Jingxi's smart eyes glanced over: "You, ha, really look like a Chinese."
Simon deliberately raised his chin slightly, making a proud gesture: "I have a Chinese name."
Ren Jingxi was curious: "What?"
Mo Wuling also opened his eyes slightly.
Before Simon opened his mouth, Chen Qing had already said in a somewhat unflattering tone: "Lianhua Westeros."
“…”
“…”
Simon glared at a girl with feigned anger, smiled, and shook his head: "This is just a joke. My serious Chinese name is very Chinese. It's called Jianguo, Westeros Jianguo. How about it?"
“…”
“…”
“…”
Now the three girls were speechless together.
In fact, Chen Qing had heard her boss joke about it before, but neither Chen Qing nor the other two girls would be able to get this deep-sea story that was separated by an entire parallel time and space.
After a moment of silence, Ren Jingxi remembered something about himself and said again: "Simon, speaking of names, I have always planned to change my company's name. The name of Huanzhu Film and Television is too narrow. This time , I just want to ask your opinion."
When Ren Jingxi said this, Chen Qing suddenly became alert. However, before she could think of an excuse to stop her, Simon had already said, "Do you have any ideas?"
Ren Jingxi looked directly at a certain man and said, "Weijing Media, what do you think?"
Simon shook his head and laughed: "Isn't this too straightforward?"
Mo Wuling also looked over with a surprised look on his face, unexpectedly... This is too bold. However, I couldn't help but think about it, if I, well, Wei Wu and Wei Ling didn't seem to sound as pleasant to my ears as Wei Jing.
Chen Qing finally came to his senses and rushed to answer: "Yes, if we change this name, Jinshu will have opinions, and it may also cause many people to speculate. Anyway, it is too high-profile, which is not good."
Because a certain man was here, Ren Jingxi was not afraid of Chen Qing and retorted: "I'm not afraid of these gossips."
After speaking, he looked at someone expectantly.
Simon shrugged: "If you don't think there's a problem with the name, of course I don't have a problem either."
To be honest, Wei Jing, this name is indeed a bit too straightforward and high-profile, but with Simon's current status, he really doesn't care about this. As long as the opposite Nizi can bear some of the consequences of this name.
"That's it," Ren Jingxi didn't give anyone a chance to regret it, with a bit of excitement on his beautiful face: "I'll call the capital later and ask the capital to start the name change procedures."
Seeing how things turned out, Chen Qing immediately looked at Simon pitifully: "Boss, I want it too."
Simon put the nearly bottomed teacup on the table, and was about to get the teapot next to him. Mo Wuling had already picked it up, leaning slightly over to refill his tea. He nodded to the girl to express his gratitude, and turned to Chen Qing: "What do you want? ?”
"Weiqing," Chen Qing said, "I also want to register a company, let's call it Weiqing."
"This sounds a bit far-fetched, right?"
When the two words "Weijing" are put together, they feel very harmonious for some reason, and "Weiqing" suddenly seems a bit nondescript.
Chen Qing pouted coquettishly, and took her boss's big hand and started shaking it: "I want this."
Simon could only agree again: "I don't care, it's your fault anyway."
Chatting so casually, the time quickly came to noon.
Simon had lunch with the three girls, sent Ren Jingxi, who was still not interested in leaving, to go to the garden, and returned to the study on the second floor of the three-story library with Chen Qing.
A world map has been hung up here in advance.
Simon went straight to the topic, picked up a pen and drew a large circle in Southeast Asia, and said to Chen Qing: "Next, the Westeros system's investment layout in Asia will be adjusted. The investment strategy for China remains unchanged, but... At the same time, we must strengthen the development of Southeast Asia."
Standing next to her boss, Chen Qing scanned the map of Southeast Asian countries one by one and asked curiously: "Boss, why?"
Southeast Asia was just destroyed by international speculative capital led by the United States such as Soros three years ago. In Chen Qing's view, this actually has the effect of inhibiting the economic development of Southeast Asian countries.
Now, why the other way around
Simon didn't hide it, and even stretched out his hand to make virtual circles in areas such as Mexico below the United States, Ukraine in Eastern Europe, and even Angola in Africa, and said: "It's very simple. Considering the interests of the Westeros system, I don't want to put the eggs there." In a basket.”
Chen Qing blinked, as if she had some realization, she curled her lips and said, "I have always thought that my boss is very optimistic about China. Now it seems that I have underestimated my boss's optimism about China?"
Simon did not deny it. He smiled, reached out and pinched Chen Qing's chin, and said, "The problem is, you still only saw half of it."
Chen Qing tried to lower her head and hook her boss's big hand with her chin, but failed. After hearing this, she tilted her head slightly to think. After a moment, some uncertain thoughts flashed through her, and she hesitated and said: "Boss, you, um, you don't think so." America’s future?”
Simon did not answer immediately, but talked about another seemingly irrelevant thing: "Have you ever known some history of the Age of Discovery?"
Chen Qing shook her head in confusion: "Not much."
Simon stepped forward slightly and tapped on the Spanish map of Europe: "The first maritime overlord, Spain, at its peak, and later the Empire on which the sun never sets, in the eyes of the Spaniards was just a group of pirates. Guess, Spain is How did it decline?”
Chen Qing shook her head directly this time: "I don't know."
Simon smiled and said: "The decline of a country often has quite comprehensive reasons. It cannot be just due to one aspect. However, one of the most important points in Spain's decline is that at its peak, Spain controlled the world More than 80% of the gold and silver mining rights.”
Chen Qing was a little confused and didn't quite understand the cause and effect relationship.
Isn’t it a good thing to control more than 80% of the world’s gold and silver deposits
Simon continued: "Your first reaction may be to think, isn't this a good thing? The problem is that because you have mastered huge amounts of gold and silver mineral resources, you almost have inexhaustible currency that was common in the world at that time, so, Spain keeps giving up other low-profit industries and just uses money to buy whatever it needs. In the end, even warships and arms need to be purchased from other countries. Think about it, what is the result?"
Chen Qing reacted and quickly organized her words to continue: "As a result, due to the lack of strong national defense and people's livelihood industry support, when the war broke out, the once invincible fleet was defeated by the pirate country that he had always looked down on?"
"That's right."
Chen Qing drew inferences: "What does the boss mean? Now that the United States has left the gold standard and can theoretically issue unlimited U.S. dollars, it is already on a path similar to that of Spain?"
Simon's eyes fell back on the world map in front of him, and he nodded when he heard this: "Same approach but same purpose."
Chen Qing was not sure: "Boss, I think the United States will not repeat the mistakes of Spain. After all, it is not hundreds of years ago."
"The only lesson history teaches mankind..."
"...Human beings never learn lessons," Chen Qing answered skillfully, but then added: "However, things are not absolute, right? Isn't the boss just preparing for a rainy day?"
Simon shook his head: "The key is that the general trend of a society is difficult to reverse."
society
Chen Qing caught a certain word and felt a little weird. The two of them had been talking in Chinese. She felt that her boss would not mistake the difference between 'country' and 'society', so she asked: "What about country?" ?”
Simon smiled a little bitterly: "It is possible for the country, but these days, I have considered some possibilities and asked the affiliated think tank to make some models."
Sure enough, it was correct.
Chen Qing made up her mind for a moment, then saw her boss stopped mid-sentence and asked curiously: "What model is it?"
"As for the model of reversing the future through certain means," Simon hesitated a little, but still said: "Just like Spain in the past, the United States now has the advantage of the US dollar and can directly print money to buy large amounts of material. However, it is conceivable that this It is definitely not sustainable forever. Therefore, if you want a society that gradually relies on direct money printing and hidden plunder to turn to diligent production and self-sufficiency, you must forcefully make changes to many things, such as high prices that cannot be supported by actual national strength. Social welfare, for example, is the continuous shortening of working hours. Oh, now many European countries are constantly compressing working hours, eight hours, six hours, or even five hours and four hours. You Chinese must think this is advanced civilization. A symbol of, right?”
Chen Qing couldn't deny it and nodded.
Simon shrugged: "The question is, if a person only works a few hours a day, can the material produced be enough for him to live a good life? Of course, individual productivity must be different, but what about the entire society, think about it Look, everyone only works six hours a day, five days at most a week, and there are various holidays during this period. So, are the materials produced by this society enough to satisfy everyone's superior life?"
Chen Qing didn't know how to answer for a while.
Simon glanced at the girl next to him and said with a smile: "You may be thinking, isn't this the case in some countries in Western Europe?"
Chen Qing nodded slightly again.
Simon said: “This is because Europe or the entire Western world still has enough technological and cultural advantages, so it can sell the products it produces in 6 hours to other backward countries’ basic industrial products that take 60 or even 600 hours to produce. The price is quite high, and then you can conduct an unequal exchange to get the materials you need. But then, do you think this technological and cultural advantage can last forever, and what if it cannot last?"
Chen Qing's face showed surprise.
The result is of course conceivable.
Simon didn't wait for her answer and shrugged again: "So, this is not an advanced civilization. It can even be said that it is very despicable. In my opinion, the reason why human civilization is civilization is that it is different from animals. This is very critical. The point is that we can actively engage in production, instead of filling our stomachs like animals, through hunting or, more bluntly, through plunder.”
Chen Qing calmed down for a moment and returned to the topic: "So, what is the change to the United States that the boss said?"
"As I said just now, it's very simple. Cut high-cost benefits, reorganize social distribution, reform the labor system, etc."
Chen Qing was puzzled: "Can't it be done?"
Simon's big hand on the world map returned to China and said with a smile: "According to what you in China say, these things are actually a very appropriate term. Do you know what they are called?"
Chen Qing didn't react for a moment: "What?"
"Reform," Simon still smiled, but his smile was a little cold: "In the history of China, the people who initiated the reform, whether they succeeded or failed, tell me, how many people ended up well?"
A series of names flashed through Chen Qing's mind, from Shang Yang to Wang Anshi, from Zhang Juzheng to the Six Gentlemen of Wuxu, well, it seems... I really can't think of a few that are considered perfect at the moment. Shang Yang's reform was successful, but then he was torn apart by chariots. Wang Anshi failed and died in depression, which also led to the long-term rupture of the Northern Song Dynasty court. Zhang Juzheng's reforms extended the life of the Ming Dynasty for a hundred years. After his death, his family was blocked and his family was ransacked, and his descendants were starved to death. As for the Six Gentlemen of Wuxu, this is more direct.
Next to him, Simon quickly continued: "I am not so great that I am willing to sacrifice my life for others. Moreover, the situation in Western society is different from that in China. For example, in the United States, if you want to change, you must first change the existing political system to a considerable extent. , Otherwise, the White House and Congress will check each other, and the central and local governments will confront each other, and nothing will be done at all.
Chen Qing thought of a word in her mind, thought about it, and said, "Isn't the boss working quietly all the time? I don't think this is possible?"
"Yes, it is possible," Simon said: "Then the problem comes back to the reform just now. Even if I try hard to realize this possibility, it will actually hurt all the vested interests from top to bottom. Rights, even if these rights cannot last much longer if they do not change, they will still only feel that they have been hurt, and then, you understand.”
Chen Qing nodded slightly.
Simon said: "So, the current situation is actually not bad for all walks of life. If things are messed up, even if it goes to the most extreme situation, the most the government can do is resign collectively, and then let them randomly select some people to come to power."
"But this won't solve the fundamental problem?"
"Of course," Simon said, "So, once we encounter another economic crisis like the Great Depression in the United States, and social conflicts are fierce, it's hard to say what will happen. Oh, I am a little worried when thinking about these issues, even... Fear, after all, I am a capitalist."
Chen Qing blinked, and after a moment's thought, she suddenly understood what her boss was worried about.
A spark.
Thinking about it again, he and his boss were like grasshoppers in the same boat. They even had children. After pondering and pondering, Chen Qing inevitably felt a little worried: "Boss, what should we do?"