The four seasons along the Mediterranean coast are not distinct, but they are also different.
In the manor in the south of Rome, the spring sunshine was perfect. After taking a nap, Simon was accompanying Sophia to do pregnancy yoga on the outdoor lawn covered with blankets.
This is Friday, April 28th.
After an overnight stay in Rivni last night, Simon arrived in Rome this morning.
She is five months pregnant. As an older pregnant woman, Sofia has basically stopped working. She cares more about the two little ones in her belly than Simon. She went to Los Angeles during the last Oscars ceremony and returned again. I have been staying in this manor in the south of Rome. I eat, sleep, read, do prenatal care, do yoga very regularly every day, have regular pregnancy check-ups, raise a beautiful cow cat, and recently fell in love with flower arranging. My life is warm and fulfilling. .
This is actually the most leisurely and worry-free time for a woman to grow up.
"Yes, that's it. Mr. Westeros, please slow down. Pregnant women are prone to cramps. Oh, you are so gentle."
on the lawn.
The yoga instructor with a hot figure in a light pink tight-fitting sports suit guided Simon to help Sophia perform a set of leg lifts. The exquisite figure kneeling next to Simon came over intentionally or unintentionally, with a light fragrance and slightly cool fingertips. Pressing on Simon's arm holding Sophia's calf, it was full of teasing.
After completing this set of movements, he noticed that fine sweat had appeared on Sophia's forehead. Simon stopped continuing and told the yoga instructor beside him: "That's it for today. You go back first. Sophie and I will bask in the sun for a while."
Simon drove them away directly, but the girl named Evelin behaved impeccably. She stood up respectfully and said, "I'll go get a glass of water for Mr. and Madam."
After the girl walked away, Sophia sat up and said with a teasing smile: "I thought you wouldn't be able to bear it, and you planned to take a nap after doing yoga."
Simon helped Sophia move to sit next to him, feeling the warm sunshine in the spring together, and smiled: "I'm not interested in women recently."
"Ah..." Sophia was confused for a moment, then suddenly realized, and her smile became stronger: "Then you have had enough fun and want to return to your family. It seems that I will be dumped by you soon, right?"
"Of course not. The current situation is the life I have dreamed of in my whole life. It's just that, you know, people's minds are fickle."
Sophia turned her head and thought for a moment, then nodded quickly: "Yeah, I understand."
"Understand what?"
"Just like us women," Sofia said with a smile, "there are a few days every month."
Simon feigned anger and raised his right hand that was holding the woman's other shoulder. He lightly flicked her earlobe with his fingers. After teasing a few words, he asked the woman to lie down again, lying on her bulging belly and listening to the two little guys. The movement seemed like she was a little tired from practicing yoga with her mother. The little ones were very shameless and didn't respond at all. They were probably asleep.
Evelin brought water. It was impossible to bask in the sun for too long. The two continued to stay in the warm sun for more than ten minutes before getting up and returning to the villa.
Arriving at a living room on the first floor, Sofia gave instructions to a maid, and soon a three-month-old dairy cat was brought over. Sofia meowed dotingly, which was obviously not too cute. The little guy who likes to be hugged put it on his lap and explained: "This is Luna. Gemma gave it to me when she came to Rome last week. She said she could accompany me on her behalf."
As he said this, there was obviously some resentment in his tone.
Simon picked up a document that Girl A put on the coffee table, opened it, and said, "It's very good, but why is it called Luna? This name is too big."
Luna is the ancient Roman goddess of the moon.
Sofia didn't take it seriously and gently held down the little guy who was about to run away again: "Gemma named it, I think it's a good name. Or, if you give me a cat, what would it be called?"
Simon thought for a moment and said, "The cat should be called Meow."
Sophia rolled her eyes at Simon: "Only a child would be named like this. If it's a dog, does it have to bark woof woof?"
Simon nodded: "Of course."
Feeling that the little guy really didn't want to stay with her, Sofia finally let it go and watched the little thing run out of the room. Then she curiously looked at the files Simon was looking through, knowing that Girl A could put it in the living room so that Simon could do whatever he wanted. What I was looking through was not important information, so I asked, "What is this?"
Simon handed it over directly.
Sofia took it, turned it over roughly, and suddenly laughed again: "You bought a large piece of land in Africa, um, 150,000 acres?"
"Any questions?"
Sofia glanced at Simon as if she were a fool, and then returned her eyes to the information in front of her: "Coffee plantation, tsk, are you sure coffee can be grown in Africa now? Or Angola, that place seems to have been fighting a civil war for decades. ”
Simon said: "In the 1970s, Angola was one of the most important coffee producers in the world, with annual exports of coffee beans exceeding 200,000 tons."
"In the early 1970s, that should still be the colonial era," Sofia said, and then asked: "What about now?"
Simon didn't hide it, saying: "In the past year, this figure was about 500 tons."
“…”
From the world's major coffee-producing countries exporting 200,000 tons of coffee beans annually to 500 tons in 1994, the gap is really big.
The reason is actually very simple.
Angola declared independence in 1975. Before that, the country had been a Portuguese colony, and domestic agricultural production was controlled by white people. After independence, a large number of whites withdrew, and large areas of Angola's coffee plantations were taken over by inefficient blacks. This was followed by a twenty-year civil war. The national economy completely collapsed, and the once prosperous coffee planting system also declined.
However, it was precisely for this reason that Simon was able to obtain 150,000 acres of land through a contract worth only $10 million.
You know, this is more than 600 square kilometers of land. It was once the highest quality coffee growing area. It is not the original forest in Tasmania that basically cannot be developed and Simon does not plan to develop it. Moreover, the real cost of the US$10 million weapons order and consulting team contract is actually less than half of the cost of the Westeros system, only the US$10 million on the books.
Although this coffee growing area is almost in a state of abandonment, according to the recorded output of coffee plantations in Angola in the 1970s, this land can produce about 30,000 tons of coffee beans every year.
After several years of operation, even if the output of this coffee growing area is only restored to one-third of its peak, 10,000 tons of coffee beans can be harvested every year.
The recent global price of coffee beans is about US$1,100 per ton.
Producing 10,000 tons of coffee beans every year, the market price is US$11 million. Obviously, ideally, in just one year, Simon would be able to basically recoup his investment in acquiring this land.
Of course, this is just an ideal situation.
Simon knows exactly what Africa is like because of many memories of the past.
To put it bluntly, the mud won’t stick to the wall.
Coffee cultivation relies heavily on labor, because coffee beans are matured in batches and are difficult to pick by machine. Labor costs basically account for more than half of the input in coffee production around the world.
Simon never expected the coffee plantation to resume production with the support of local black labor in Angola. Even coffee bean picking is not too difficult for monkeys. Simon's plan is to mainly employ white people left over from the immigration era, and then hire a group of overseas workers from Ukraine or China, as well as a small number of local residents who are motivated to work.
What's more, Simon's fundamental purpose in taking this land was not to make money.
So just don't waste it all the time.
After listening to Simon's general explanation, Sophia realized that her doubts just now were completely unnecessary. The man obviously had his own perfect ideas, and maybe there were some deep-seated plans that she didn't know about. However, Sofia quickly added: "Given the long-term turmoil in Africa, Angola exports only 500 tons of coffee a year. If you build a coffee plantation with an annual output of 10,000 tons, it will cost tens of millions of dollars a year. Compared with The income from many diamond mines is even greater, are you sure that those warlords won’t turn their heads and take it away by then?”
Simon said: “There is already a team sponsoring the children of some high-ranking Angolan government officials to study in the United States.”
Sophia was puzzled: "Huh?"
Simon explained: "This is just the first step. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, African countries will basically stabilize because there will be less competition between great powers. As long as they get political power, there will be no changes for a long time in the future. My plan is Fund these people in power to integrate with the United States, invite their children to study in the United States, invite their relatives to immigrate and settle in the United States, invite them to make financial investments in the United States after accumulating a certain amount of wealth, and gradually realize the bundling of interests. Imagine taking Angola For example, if the vested interests in this country have their wives, children, and houses all in the United States, will these people still dare to fall out with me?"
Sofia was stunned, and then rolled her eyes at Simon: "I thought you would directly overthrow their government like you did in Rwanda."
"This is the lowest way," Simon shook his head and said in Chinese: "That's why winning every battle is not a good thing. Subjugating the enemy's army without fighting is a good thing. So use the strategy of attacking with troops. , then attack the enemy, then attack the army, and then attack the city. The method of attacking the city is as a last resort."
Naturally, Sofia didn't understand, but she listened very carefully, and finally asked: "What is this?"
Simon said: "Sun Tzu's Art of War."
"I know, I read a book full of wisdom in college. Which paragraph is this?"
Simon roughly explained.
Sophia understood, caressed her bulging belly, and said, "Read it to the babies again, they will definitely like it very much."
Simon said: "Are you sure you want to teach your children this now?"
"Of course, they are two Westeros, they must be different."
Simon didn't refuse, so he simply posted it and started reading from the beginning of "The Art of War". Unfortunately, he didn't remember much, so he quickly switched to "The Tao Te Ching".
I once memorized Laozi's Five Thousand Words when I was a child, and I became very proficient in it.
Sofia had learned a little Chinese under Simon's influence, but was far less thoughtful than Janet, so it was impossible to understand her. The man quietly replaced "Sun Tzu's Art of War" with "Tao Te Ching" and just listened with a smile. I wonder if the twins sensed it. His father was cheating and soon started to make a fuss. Simon had to stop and accompany the woman to comfort the two restless little guys.
Also spent three days in Italy.
In addition to accompanying Sophia, Simon also paid attention to another thing.
After the opening of Universal Studios Osaka, negotiations between Daenerys Entertainment Group and the Italian government on the European Universal Studios project have entered the final stage. Although there has been no official announcement, the choice to build European Universal Studios near Rome is already a certainty.
It is still kept secret for the time being, and a lot of smoke bombs have been released, just to prevent someone from raising land prices in advance on the land where the movie theater may be built after the news spreads.
This happens during the construction of many large theme park projects.
After the weekend, time entered May of 1995.
The beginning of this year's summer season should be considered as starting on May 12th, "Crimson Tide" produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, directed by Tony Scott, starring Denzel Washington, similar to "The Hunt for Red October" "A submarine war film produced by Disney and costing US$53 million.
Simon doesn't have much memory of this film, and Disney chose to launch it on May 12, so we can predict the quality of the project.
The real blockbuster of this summer must be "Jurassic Park 2" produced by Daenerys Entertainment, which is scheduled to be released on June 2. Before "Jurassic Park 2", Simon paid more attention to Daenerys Entertainment's two local box office movies in the first half of the year that had exceeded or were expected to exceed 200 million US dollars, "This Man Is From Earth" and "Today's Tom Clancy's 3"
Because of these two dark horses at the box office, many films released in the first half of the year ended dismally, including some other projects produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Arriving in London on May 1st, the plan is still 3 days.
The work here is mainly on "The Conjuring 2".
Simon drafted the plot of "The Conjuring 2" based on the version he remembered, and the story still takes place in London. However, he did not copy the original version. Since he was going to develop a horror film universe, Simon felt that in addition to the crossover of characters, some more continuous details should be added.
Therefore, during the preparation process of "The Conjuring 2" project, Simon specially asked the main creators to watch the classic Hong Kong film "Mr. Zombie" from the 1980s several times.
It's certainly not about adding a comedic twist to the Conjuring cinematic universe franchise.
One of Simon's most important feelings about the "Conjuring" series in his memory was that it was too random. The protagonist's process of subduing ghosts seemed to be entirely based on luck, and the use of crosses and Bibles was also haphazard.
In comparison, Lin Daozhang's ghost-hunting routine in "Mr. Zombie" is full of entertainment.
Copper coin swords, black donkey hooves, glutinous rice, yellow talismans... even influenced the ghost culture in the Chinese-speaking circle in the following decades, making many ordinary people think that this is how Taoist priests should be, and how to catch ghosts.
Therefore, Simon also hopes that the process of ghost hunting by the two protagonists can have more of a sense of ritual like in "Mr. Zombie" and form a set of process rules that can convince the audience, instead of shouting like headless chickens in a haunted house. Yelling and bumping around like holding a cross to try your luck.
In fact, Simon had already had this idea before the opening of last year's two films.
However, since we want to build the Conjuring movie universe, it is obviously not a wise choice to do it all at once, so the opening chapter basically follows the script from memory.
In this way, a gradual growth can be maintained.
Starting from the second part, relevant elements will be added.
Later, it gradually matures.
Simon is to help the Warrens step by step from rookie paranormal investigators to master ghost hunters, and develop their own unique method of fighting ghosts.
Basically, those who can succeed in Hollywood are not idiots.
The creative team had watched "Mr. Zombie" and did not need to be reminded. They quickly understood Simon's intentions and began to implement them during the project preparation process.
The first is to combine Western legends to make a clearer plan for the attributes of ghosts.
In terms of ghost hunting, traditional props such as crosses, Bibles, holy water, garlic, and amulets are also more standardized and are no longer used haphazardly. The project team also discussed the idea of using different chapters of the Bible to restrain different ghosts, which was used in The Conjuring 2.