Chapter 14: Newspaper Front Page
On February 11th, all of England was buzzing. At work and at home, people couldn't help but discuss a man named William Devonshire, a nineteen-year-old student at the University of London.
In the early morning, when people picked up their copies of the *Sun*, the first thing they saw was the front-page headline: "WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? HE'S SET TO BECOME ENGLAND'S YOUNGEST BILLIONAIRE." Alongside it, a half-length photo of William occupied the entire page.
The William on the front page was dressed in a formal suit, a confident smile on his young face. His raised right hand seemed to be waving a greeting to the nation's citizens. The young man in the photo was handsome enough to make people jealous.
Most readers of the *Sun* secretly cursed in their hearts. *The Sun's headline-baiting is at it again. Just another rich kid showing off in the papers.*
*A billionaire at nineteen? How is that even possible?*
*Anyone who doesn't think he's just some rich heir is a fool. The Sun and its clickbait headlines have no professional ethics.*
However, after reading the full article in today's *Sun*, citizens all over England found themselves filled with a mixture of envy and resentment toward William.
They thought to themselves, *Why isn't this lad my child?* or *Why can't I be that guy?*
According to the paper, it wasn't certain if the "billionaire" claim was true, but it did state that this young man was making more than two million pounds a month.
*Good God, it's not April Fools' Day. How could a nineteen-year-old kid, only in his second year of university, be making two million pounds a month? Good things like that never happen to me.*
Most readers initially thought, *How is this possible? It has to be another publicity stunt, right?*
But after calming down, they couldn't help but believe it. The paper had published the sales data for merchandise like T-shirts, hats, and teacups from Carrefour over the past half-month. If the data were fake, the *Sun* could expect Carrefour to sue them into oblivion.
Most people went from being unhappy to being stunned into silence after reading the background profile on William Devonshire.
Most couldn't help but read it again. On page two, the editor-in-chief of the *Sun* had written a special column: "In my twenty-plus years in the newspaper business, I have seen many incredible things.
But when I received this report from our journalist, I first fell into deep thought, and then into ecstasy. We have all heard countless stories of American IT geniuses, tales of how they became rich overnight. But we have never had such a story here in England, a fact that has always frustrated me.
In the past, I often complained, wondering why our great England couldn't produce such a prodigy.
But when I saw this information land on my desk at midnight, I was so excited that I stayed up all night to write this report myself. Dear readers, allow me to solemnly introduce to you a twenty-year-old genius, born and raised right here in England.
Yes, I used the word 'genius' because right now, I cannot find another twenty-year-old in the entire world more talented than William Devonshire.
William Devonshire was born on December 7th, 1980, at St. Mary's Hospital in London. His mother is Lina Devonshire; his father is unknown (we were unable to find any information about William's father). His grandfather was Henry Winster, the Earl of Devonshire.
Does the name Devonshire ring a bell? Haha, you've guessed correctly. That's *the* Devonshire, as in the Duke of Devonshire. Henry Winster Devonshire was a descendant of that very line.
However, Henry's branch of the family had fallen into decline during the Second World War, more than sixty years ago.
Henry was born in 1928, but his teenage years were harsh. When he was just fourteen, his father, the old Earl, and his three uncles all died for England in the war.
In 1946, due to inheritance laws, Henry, then only eighteen years old, was unable to keep his family's territory and castle.
He was only able to inherit the title of Earl and a pitifully small amount of property. He did not marry until he was thirty-one.
He fathered a daughter, Lina Devonshire, at the age of thirty-three, and she would be his only child. For the last fifty years, Earl Henry has lived in obscurity. Our records only show that he was an ordinary mid-level manager at the London Electric Company.
If not for this report today, I believe no one would have ever paid attention to this family, which lost all its adult males for England in World War II. I wish to pay tribute to the Devonshire family and all the heroes who sacrificed for their country in that war.
Lina Devonshire was born in September 1961. An ordinary descendant of the nobility, she has lived in obscurity for the past thirty-nine years.
We only know that she became pregnant with William after returning from a skiing trip to Switzerland twenty years ago. After giving birth to young William, Lina had several short-lived romances but, for her son's sake, she never married.
When William was ten, the Earl and his wife passed away from illness, and the medical expenses wiped out the family's meagre savings. After that, Lina raised William alone. She worked many different jobs, often two at a time, just so William could go to university. She is a truly great mother.
However, during our follow-up reporting yesterday, we discovered that Ms. Lina purchased a café of over 110 square metres on Oxford Street just the day before yesterday. It seems that after all her hardships, her dreams are finally coming true. We wish this great mother all the best."
Readers who saw this part of the article cursed under their breath. *Damn 'follow-up report.' Do you think we don't know it was just paparazzi snooping around? You've got some nerve calling it reporting. Everyone knows the* Sun *is just good for its Page Three girls.*
For the past sixty years, the Devonshire family has produced no interesting events or people. Even the title has now been passed down to a collateral branch of the family.
But, to quote a certain Forrest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." And for the Devonshire family, everything changed at the dawn of the new millennium.
William Devonshire, a young man of nineteen years and three months, was born into a single-parent family. Being of mixed race, he was often excluded from a young age and had no friends.
In the eyes of his peers, he was just a nerd, with no friends and no hobbies.
But if you think he's truly just a nerd, you would be mistaken. According to what our paper has learned about his business negotiations, William's performance was masterful. He understood the needs and psychological bottom lines of the large corporations he dealt with. The representatives from these companies often found themselves doing exactly as he said, because he always seemed to know precisely what they wanted.
Most importantly, while developing a hit game, William Devonshire also had the brilliant idea to create merchandise to go along with it, multiplying the game's value several times over.
I imagine Carrefour must be the happiest of all. This marketing plan, run out of the University of London, has made them two million pounds in less than a month.
In one month, a student at the University of London earned a commission of more than £300,000.
Before the new millennium, William could only be described as a bookish, talented young man. Perhaps he would have graduated, found an IT job with a monthly salary of £3,000, and become an ordinary office worker. That was the most one could expect.
But after the turn of the millennium, everything changed. It was as if God himself had kissed him and personally bestowed great wisdom upon William's mind.
Otherwise, I cannot imagine how he could accomplish a task in half a month that normally takes dozens of people half a year, a year, or even longer. It is truly remarkable.
According to the professional game designers and programmers I consulted, after they tried the game called *Plants vs. Zombies*, they all felt as if they had witnessed a miracle. They couldn't believe one person had completed the game in only half a month.
But after our paper confirmed the facts, they could only sigh in admiration: "William Devonshire, you are truly a genius."
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