The couple stayed curled up together, murmuring softly as the sun slowly sank below the horizon and the sky darkened without them noticing.
The crisp click of high heels rang out, sounding clear and pleasant in the vast, empty hall.
Ever since learning that wearing high heels too often could deform the toes and knowing Simon preferred natural, beautiful feet, Janet had rarely worn them outside formal social events. Even at work she usually chose a pair of cute white flat sneakers like a schoolgirl.
Simon, however, really loved the sharp, rhythmic sound of high heels striking the floor.
He turned his head. Walking toward them was the housekeeper, Alice Ferguson.
Since they were moving, the ABCD quartet and the seven-person team led by the housekeeper had been staying here for the past few days, handling a full deep-clean of the shell villa and arranging items in every room.
An ordinary 120-square-meter apartment could be divided into seven or eight rooms. The shell villa's three floors totaled 12,000 square meters of interior space, roughly one hundred times larger than a typical apartment. Just how vast it really was could easily be imagined.
Aside from the roughly 2,000-square-meter main hall and the 3,000 square meters on the underground level divided into a wine cellar, garage, vault, and workshop, the remaining areas still covered 7,000 square meters.
The 3,000 square meters outside the first-floor hall were further divided into kitchen, bar, study, bathrooms, meeting rooms, living rooms, reception rooms, gym, library, storage rooms, private screening room, and more. There was more than one kitchen, bar, or bathroom.
The second floor also spanned 3,000 square meters and contained six full suites, each with its own living room, study, bedroom, and bathroom and each exceeding 200 square meters. In addition there were separate bedrooms, studies, sitting rooms, walk-in closets, storage rooms, home theaters, and everything else one could want.
The third floor, spiraling upward in flowing lines, was dominated by a flying-saucer-shaped master bedroom that alone exceeded 300 square meters.
The master bedroom sat at the easternmost end of the third floor. To its west were additional study, bathroom, and walk-in closet spaces. Janet had also specially prepared two nursery rooms these past few days.
Because rooms often opened into other rooms and many areas were open-plan with half-partitions, it was hard to count exactly how many rooms the villa contained. According to standard Western residential calculations, however, there were eleven bedrooms and an even greater number of bathrooms: nineteen in total.
It was easy to imagine that even with eleven people, the ABCD girls and the housekeeper's seven-person team still faced a very physically demanding job just managing this single villa. Taking care of all Simon's properties across North America would be even more difficult.
Simon refused to let outsiders handle his homes, so the housekeeper had recently begun discussing with Janet the need to hire more staff.
Beside the glass wall, when Simon turned, Janet also twisted around and lazily draped herself over the back of the sofa.
Under their combined gaze, Alice's expression remained unchanged as she said softly, "Sir, ma'am, shall I prepare dinner?"
Janet rested her chin on the sofa back, her eyes sparkling, but said nothing.
Simon answered, "Yes. Also, call everyone over first and turn on all the lights in the villa."
Alice nodded and walked away again, her high heels clicking crisply.
Janet kept her upper body still, but her little foot in the white flat sneaker kicked rhythmically against Simon's leg in time with the sound. She teased, "Maybe I should add hard soles to my shoes so they make noise too."
Simon caught her restless calf and smiled. "How about horseshoes? That would make them even louder."
Janet rolled her eyes at him and kicked his leg again.
A few minutes later every light in the shell villa came on at once. Point Dume sat high above the coast, so more than half of Malibu could see the dreamlike blaze of lights shining from the city's pointed tip.
Inside the villa, eleven tall, fair-skinned blondes of outstanding figure and bearing soon appeared before Simon, all wearing matching black office-lady suits that created an extremely pleasing sight.
To anyone unaware of the truth, these women would absolutely look like elite professionals. No one would guess they were simply the Westeros family's maids.
In reality, the eleven women earning vice-president-level salaries truly qualified as workplace elites.
It was not only the 200,000-dollar annual salary and the bonus after the five-year contract. Their daily meals, accommodation, clothing, fitness, medical care, and all other expenses were fully covered by Simon, costs that rivaled their pay. To make it easier for the housekeeper to lead the team between properties, Simon had even provided them with a Gulfstream IV private jet.
Frankly, Simon was simply keeping trophy wives.
This was another hobby of his besides buying real estate.
He sought no return and had little physical desire involved. It was purely a hobby. He had earned so much money that he could do whatever he wanted. Raising a group of exquisitely refined trophy wives so perfect that many men and women would feel inferior just looking at them seemed like a rather interesting thing to do.
He openly admired the delightful scene before him, then finally looked at C-girl Claire and asked, "C, have you thought about what you want to do in the future?"
Claire felt many other pairs of eyes turn toward her but kept her gaze on her boss. "I want to start a company and be my own boss. I haven't decided exactly what yet."
Simon nodded and turned to the others. Every beautiful pair of eyes looked back with hidden expectation.
After studying them, he said, "Here's the thing. I plan to set up a startup fund. Hmm, let's call it the Vase Fund. What do you think?"
The name was far too obvious. A-girl Allison quickly asked, "Boss, is this for us?"
"Of course," Simon nodded. "One million dollars each. You can do whatever you want: fashion, technology, real estate, finance, even movies. I can give you advice if you like. If you feel doing it alone is too difficult, you can team up. I actually recommend cooperating. Two people would have two million dollars; eleven people would have eleven million. But each of you only gets a one-million-dollar share. If you lose it, there is no second chance."
Once the women confirmed Simon was not joking, they immediately began exchanging glances, excitement written on every face.
One million dollars. Although the sum meant little to Simon now, it was more than enough to fuel the ambitions of countless people who wanted to climb higher.
After a moment the housekeeper's assistant on one side gathered her courage and asked, "Boss, could you give us some suggestions?"
Simon looked over, recalled that this woman was named Zoe Parks, and smiled. "Of course. Besides cooperating among yourselves, I suggest you invest in the rising new-technology sector, such as the internet. I believe we are living in an era similar to the electrical revolution a hundred years ago. That era produced Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie. Likewise, this rapidly emerging information age will certainly produce its own group of such people. Perhaps you will be among them."
Another woman beside the housekeeper, sounding rather lacking in confidence, said, "How is that possible? We're women."
Simon caught the almost coquettish tone and smiled at her. This one was named Isabelle Dunn. "Should we just forget your one million dollars then?"
The woman quickly shook her head, realized the reaction was wrong, quickly nodded, then felt that was also wrong. She could only pout pitifully and look at Simon with pleading eyes.
"All right, that was a joke," Simon said. "For now this is the plan. I won't interfere with the details. Discuss it among yourselves. I'll just handle providing the money. Now, go back to what you were doing. ABCD, you four handle dinner."
The women dispersed in low, excited chatter.
Alice, however, stayed where she was. Once the others had left, the housekeeper looked at Simon and asked, "Boss, do I also get one million dollars?"
Simon answered, "Of course. But that won't affect your original plans. What you do with it later is entirely your choice."
Alice shook her head slightly. "I mean, one million dollars feels a little small for me."
Simon's expression grew interested. "You already have an idea?"
The housekeeper nodded. "I read the materials you gave me. E-commerce. I think it has tremendous potential."
Simon's expression turned slightly strange.
In his original plans he had hoped that Jeff Bezos, who was currently running Ygritte's internet business, would eventually pivot to e-commerce. If the housekeeper proved outstanding enough, he had wanted her to become Bezos's successor.
It seemed plans never kept up with reality.
These past few days Simon had opened up many new-technology-industry materials to the housekeeper as promised. He had not expected her to spot the prospects of e-commerce so quickly.
After a moment's thought he said, "The Vase Fund only has one million dollars for you. However, as long as you perform well enough, money will never be a problem."
Janet, who had been listening quietly beside Simon, smiled and added, "Cersei Capital can invest in you too. However much you need."
"Actually, it's still a bit early for e-commerce. Waiting another year or two until the World Wide Web has millions or even tens of millions of users would be the ideal time to enter. Since you have an idea, you can start small under the Ygritte portal to test the waters, for example by focusing on selling books or electronics online first in California or New York State." After saying this, Simon's expression turned serious again. "Of course, right now your most important job is still to do your current work well."
Alice listened attentively, then nodded. "Then I'll go help prepare dinner."
"Go ahead. Also, pick any bedroom in the villa and stay here tonight."
Alice paused as she turned, then gave a light nod.
Once the housekeeper had walked far enough away, Janet pretended to be displeased. "Leaving her here, are you planning a night raid?"
Simon pecked her sulky red lips and joked, "She's for you."
Janet's lashes fluttered as understanding dawned. "I'm not into girls, but maybe we could do it together."
"Isn't that too much bullying?"
"Aren't maids meant to be bullied?"
Simon made a disgusted face. "I never knew you were that kind of woman. Stay away from me, you evil capitalist."
Janet pounced forward instead, wrapping herself around him and laughing for a moment before asking curiously, "Why set up the Vase Fund? Wouldn't it be fine to just let them stay real vases?"
Simon held her waist and said, "They will still be vases. But I want even the Westeros family's vases to reach a level that makes many people look up in awe. Just imagine: in the future a whole group of female billionaires who started as Westeros maids, even making the Forbes list. Doesn't that sound interesting?"
"Do you really think they can achieve that?"
"I'm giving them the best possible starting conditions. As long as they put in a little effort, making some achievements is actually quite easy. You chose all of them yourself. None of them is just an empty pretty face, right?"
"Yeah, they're all quite ambitious. Someone even wants to take my place," Janet said with a smile and a nod, then teased, "But aren't you afraid you'll end up benefiting some other man in the end?"
"Not at all. This is an investment. If it succeeds, I'll get returns too," Simon shook his head. "Besides, there aren't many 'other men' in this world that I care about."
"That's true," Janet drew out her tone playfully. "Someone seems to quite like other men's women."
"Hey, that's slander."
"Hmph."
"What does 'hmph' mean?"
"You know exactly what it means."
As expected, the first time the shell villa at Point Dume Estate lit up appeared in many newspapers the next day, accompanied by the usual criticism accusing Simon Westeros of extravagant living, claiming the villa's electricity consumption was hundreds of times that of an ordinary household.
Simon naturally paid no attention. He wanted the world to gradually get used to his increasingly sharp edge.
As for the Vase Fund, Janet enthusiastically took over the matter at the end, planning to attach the fund under Cersei Capital. Simon had no objection; doing so would actually make the fund appear more legitimate.
After the brief weekend break, the workweek arrived, and the first thing Simon faced was a lawsuit.
Hollywood's three major unions, the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America, simultaneously filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, the corporate registration state of both MCA and Daenerys Entertainment. Citing concerns that Daenerys Entertainment's merger with MCA would create a monopoly and worsen working conditions for media-industry personnel, they demanded that the acquisition be blocked.
The three unions had clearly prepared thoroughly. They had hired America's most renowned anti-merger legal team and gathered substantial witness testimony and evidence.
Among the evidence, Daenerys Entertainment's severe internal overtime culture became one of the unions' key points. Members from all three unions came forward to testify that they had been forced to endure excessively long working hours while employed by Daenerys Entertainment.
In addition, the unions argued that once Daenerys Entertainment and MCA merged, the combined company's films would directly or indirectly account for roughly forty percent of the U.S. domestic box office, reaching two billion dollars, which already constituted monopoly suspicions. Daenerys Entertainment would also leverage its industry dominance to further squeeze compensation and benefits for industry workers.
This accusation was likewise supported by both witnesses and evidence.
At the same time, many media outlets launched a public-opinion offensive against Daenerys Entertainment.
Everyone sensed that to stop Daenerys Entertainment's expansion, Simon Westeros was likely about to face a bombardment of lawsuits. Such tactics had many precedents in the West, and countless corporate mergers had failed under the pressure of litigation and public opinion.