Malibu.
Perhaps due to jet lag, Janet woke up before Simon.
The faint morning light broke into the bedroom through the gap in the curtains. It was still early.
Feeling the breath of the man next to her, Janet quickly clung to Simon's body, enjoying the feeling of skin-to-skin contact. She leaned forward and kissed the man's face, then retracted to his chest and narrowed her eyes again. Eye.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist, and the two of them pressed closer.
Knowing that Simon was also awake, Janet rubbed her face on his chest and greeted him with a soft and rustling voice: "Good morning."
"Um… "
Listening to the man's feeble response, Janet chuckled a few times, opened her mouth and bit the man as a gesture, and said: "You little bastard, you tortured me to death last night."
Simon just hummed again.
Janet said this, but there was no accusation in her words, but a sense of full happiness. The fact that he can torment himself like a little tiger that has been hungry for many days shows that a person in Los Angeles will rarely mess around with women.
Although she didn't mind him eating outside, of course she would be very happy if he could restrain himself like this.
After feeling tired for a while and not feeling sleepy at all, Janet got up and started dressing, and said she would prepare breakfast herself.
Simon also got up.
Today is November 18th, Saturday.
When I left the bedroom, it was still only a quarter past six.
There is no work schedule on the weekend, so everything can take its time.
The two played tennis for half an hour on the tennis court. Janet went to prepare breakfast, and Simon sat at the dining table and read today's newspapers.
These days, unrest in Eastern Europe is beginning to intensify.
The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, and the reunification of the two Germanys was inevitable.
Out of instinctive fear of a unified Germany, in order to prevent this from happening, countries such as Britain, France and Italy, which were allies just now, all turned against each other in an instant. They almost issued a warning of war and even threatened the two Germanys should they seek reunification. , Britain, France and Italy would form an alliance with the Soviet Union for military intervention.
Because of the turbulence of such a war, James Raybould more than once suggested that Simon at least postpone the acquisition of Nokia's mobile communications equipment division. After all, if a war breaks out, Finland, which directly borders the Soviet Union, is likely to be affected, and hundreds of millions of dollars in funds will be wasted.
Simon knew full well that there would be no war this time and did not follow James' advice.
Now is the best time to own Nokia. Once the situation in Eastern Europe stabilizes, it will definitely not be so easy to buy Nokia's entire mobile communications equipment department for $200 million.
While looking through several newspapers' discussions on the situation in Europe, Simon also discovered another interesting news: The Bush administration suddenly stopped a $2.3 billion loan to Iraq yesterday on the grounds that it suspected that the money might be used. Saddam used it to build weapons of mass destruction.
It turns out that the 'weapons of mass destruction' meme was born so early.
Simon has been paying attention to the situation in the Middle East since the 'US-Iraq Business Forum' in mid-year.
The news before us means that after trying to seize Iraqi oil sovereignty to no avail, the Bush administration has officially begun to take action against Saddam Hussein.
He made a mark with his pen on this piece of news that was to be collected as a newspaper clipping. Simon was about to read the reviews of several new movies released yesterday when Janet walked into the restaurant carrying two breakfasts.
Putting a stack of newspapers aside for the time being, Simon took the food. Janet sat down next to Simon as usual. She leaned over her head and glanced at the news article he had just marked, and then curled her lips and said: "Clumsy excuse."
Simon smiled and said: "We are all civilized people, so we still have to find an excuse."
Janet is actually also paying attention to this matter. The focus of Cersei Capital's operations next year will be oil.
However, she was not interested in talking about work at this time. She responded and changed the subject: "I have asked Sophia to help us prepare our schedule. We will go to Europe tomorrow and live in every city where we own real estate for a week. We will eat delicious food. You can buy things, go to fun places, and pick out more houses in other cities. By the way, you might even get into a war."
Simon glanced at the woman's excited and rosy face and said, "You really want to fight?"
"Yeah, it's quite exciting to see human beings heading towards self-destruction step by step."
Simon is a pessimist who firmly believes that mankind will eventually lead to self-destruction. Janet is the same type of person as him in this respect, but this woman's thoughts are even crazier, and she wants to destroy the world herself.
Hearing this, Simon just smiled and said, "Aren't you afraid that it will affect you?"
"Don't be afraid. If something goes wrong, we will hide in Australia immediately."
If World War III happens, the safest place in the world will probably be Australia in the southern hemisphere.
The island of Tasmania chosen by Simon is almost the southernmost point in the world outside the Antarctic continent, so it is safer.
Thinking of this, Simon half-seriously said: "Maybe we can build another doomsday shelter in Tasmania, so that we won't be afraid even if a nuclear war breaks out."
Doomsday shelters are not actually original to the Fallout games. During the decades-long Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, due to concerns about the outbreak of nuclear war, there were actually many shelters built across the United States to avoid nuclear war.
"What a great idea. We can get someone to come up with a plan in the next few days." Janet nodded in agreement. Speaking of this, she added: "By the way, my aunt is helping us negotiate for another piece of forest land, in Tas In the central and western parts of Mania, the land area this time is very large, covering more than 6,000 square kilometers. The Tasmanian government originally planned to enclose a state nature reserve. As long as we can ensure that the original ecology is maintained without damaging the environment, and we can provide the state government with With an extra income, it shouldn’t be a big problem to get this land.”
Simon already owns about 150,000 acres of land in Tasmania, the largest of which is more than 500 square kilometers of woodland along the Arthur River in northwest Tasmania. That land originally cost $7 million.
Calculated based on the standard that 1 square kilometer equals 247 acres, more than 6,000 square kilometers of forest land is approximately 1.5 million acres, which directly expands the area of private land owned by Simon tenfold. At the same time, the total area of Tasmania is 68,000 square kilometers. By acquiring this forest land, Simon will own nearly one-tenth of Tasmania's land.
Thinking about this, Simon asked: "How much does it cost?"
Janet said: "We are still discussing, but as long as we take over according to the specifications of the state nature reserve and do not seek economic benefits, the Tasmanian government's offer should not exceed US$100 million, and the price after negotiation will definitely be lower. I I brought the information and I will show it to you after breakfast."
After chatting like this, the two had breakfast, and Janet found out the information about the land Veronica was helping Simon negotiate.
Because of some trivial matters in Los Angeles, the two did not immediately fly to Europe. Instead, they stayed for another day to check the construction progress of the villa in Dume Point Manor. At noon, they also accepted Qintex Chairman Christopher Scars. lunch invitation.
Affected by Simon's big butterfly, Australia's Qintex Group's acquisition of MGM is already a certainty.
In this case, Simon is no longer as indifferent to Christopher Scars as he was at first. By building a good relationship now, once the Qintex Group becomes unsustainable, Simon can more easily arrange for other Australian capital to take over MGM.
The afternoon and evening schedules are also full.
So on the next day, the two boarded the Boeing 767 and took off from Los Angeles early in the morning. They stopped briefly in New York and took the Westeros acquisition team who was going to Europe for final negotiations with Nokia. They flew directly Helsinki, Finland.
When we arrived in Helsinki, it was less than six o'clock in the morning local time.
It is the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the nights are longer near the Arctic Circle. At six o'clock in the morning, it is still dark around Helsinki.
Nokia sent a car to pick up James Raybould and others, and the Boeing 767 took off again and rushed to Florence.
The 'first stop' of Simon and Janet's European trip was London. They went to Florence only because many of the things Sofia had prepared for them were there, including several maid chefs who were responsible for their daily life.
After many twists and turns, Simon and Janet finally settled in the famous Kensington Garden Street villa in central London on the evening of November 20th.
The long-distance flight totaled more than 15,000 kilometers. Due to the presence of the luxurious Boeing 767, apart from the jet lag, neither of them felt much fatigue from the long-distance travel.
Janet also introduced Simon in detail on the operation results of Cersei Capital's sub-funds 6 to 10 during this period on the plane.
After the "mini-crash" of the U.S. stock market broke out on October 13, Cersei Capital made a huge profit of US$1.6 billion in just the following week by closing short positions in S&P 500 index futures and other types of stocks and bonds.
In the following month or so, as the North American stock market quickly returned to stability and after receiving the most generous initial profits, Cersei Capital also began to cook slowly and patiently manage the remaining positions.
As of November 17, Cersei Capital's sub-funds 6 to 10 had once again made a profit of US$700 million based on the initial US$1.6 billion.
Therefore, excluding sub-funds 1 to 5 in the hands of the Japanese, Cersei Capital’s net asset value attributed to Simon and other investors has reached US$7.3 billion.
After discussing with Janet, Simon planned to completely liquidate various positions in the U.S. junk bond market around December, and then turn his target to the oil futures market.
The most memorable time in my memory was when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. During that time, the price of crude oil skyrocketed.
However, before the Kuwait War, in order to force Iraq to use force against Kuwait, Western countries joined forces with the major oil powers in the Middle East to significantly suppress oil prices by increasing production. The international crude oil price once fell to US$13 per barrel. Therefore, the first half of the year is just right for shorting.