Simon's wooden cabin sat on a hill southeast of Park City. There were four cabins in total. One served as the owner's residence, while the three surrounding it housed the bodyguards and other entourage.
At some point Simon's life had reached the stage where bodyguards never left his side.
With his current wealth and status, paying close attention to personal security had become essential. The world these days was nowhere near as peaceful as ordinary people imagined.
He arrived in Park City around noon on Saturday, followed immediately by a string of scheduled events.
That evening he accompanied Kathryn to a filmmakers' gathering organized by Robert Redford and did not return to the cabin on the hill until after ten o'clock.
The SUV well suited for driving in Park City pulled up quietly in front of the wooden cabin. Simon and Kathryn stepped out together and were instantly enveloped by the heavy chill of the night.
Down at the foot of the hill, however, Park City still blazed with lights and bustle thanks to the crowds drawn by the Sundance Film Festival.
In recent years Sundance had gradually evolved beyond a gathering of filmmakers alone. Every edition now attracted people from the music and fashion circles as well, turning the event into a broader entertainment industry get-together.
They did not linger outdoors in the cold. Simon and Kathryn entered the cabin together. Zoe Parks and Isabelle Dunn, the two maids who had come along this time, had already lit the fireplace and prepared hot coffee. The interior was warm and inviting.
The A, B, and D girls had all received baby-care training in advance. Because they were helping Janet look after the child, they basically never left Dume Point Manor now.
If Simon needed someone to take care of him, he could only choose from the new team of maids the housekeeper had brought in.
After the spy incident last time, Simon had instructed Janet to run fresh background checks on the girls around them. The results had been satisfactory. Probably because the checks had come too soon, none of the girls showed any problems.
As for the people orbiting Simon, they had basically been investigated to the bone by now.
The only reason he had not dismissed those already exposed was the certainty that sending one batch away would only bring in another.
Kathryn did not let Zoe Parks, who had stepped forward, help her. She took off her thick down coat and hung it on the nearby rack herself, then shot Simon a quick glare. She had clearly seen the girl with the prominent chest press her body against the man while taking his coat.
Simon pretended not to notice the woman's look. Once Isabelle had hung up his overcoat, he said, "You two go rest. Also, there is no need to get up too early tomorrow. Kathryn and I will prepare breakfast ourselves."
Both girls sensed the aura radiating from Kathryn and understood they would have no chance tonight. They answered obediently and withdrew on their own.
Simon carried the coffee the two maids had prepared to the low table in front of the fireplace, poured a cup, and handed it to Kathryn, who had settled on the sofa. He smiled and said, "Do not blame me. It was actually Janet who got jealous and deliberately sent these two light bulbs to disturb us."
Kathryn accepted the coffee and held it in her hands, but only gave Simon a roll of her eyes.
In truth, Janet's exact words had been that Simon's life skills had deteriorated sharply in the past two years and that without someone looking after him he might starve. That was why she had sent Zoe and Isabelle along.
Of course there had also been an element of female jealousy.
After all, she had to stay home watching the child while her man went off to meet his best friend. Even if she truly did not mind, she still needed to express her attitude somehow.
Kathryn remained silent. Simon simply smiled, poured himself a cup of coffee, and moved over to sit beside her.
If she had really been angry, Kathryn would have chosen the single sofa next to them.
The fact that she had deliberately sat on the double sofa facing the fireplace was a small detail that revealed everything.
Simon slid closer. Feeling as though her thoughts had been seen through, Kathryn's face flashed with a trace of embarrassment. She shifted deliberately to the side, as if trying to draw a clear line between them.
Of course he could not let her "succeed."
When the woman moved away, Simon shamelessly squeezed right after her, earning himself another roll of her eyes.
He took a sip of the hot coffee and changed the subject. "You knew Reservoir Dogs was a Highgate Pictures project, yet you did not give it a single award. That was a bit too much, was it not?"
Reservoir Dogs was precisely Quentin's breakthrough film.
Although Simon had taken Pulp Fiction ahead of time, some things had remained unchanged.
In recent years Highgate Pictures had maintained very close cooperation with Sundance. Quentin had happened to attend a training program at the Sundance Institute last year.
Therefore the script for Reservoir Dogs had landed in Simon's hands early last year.
Having arrived first, Highgate Pictures naturally secured the project and also brought Harvey Keitel, who had just finished The Piano, together with Quentin for the collaboration.
Because a major studio like Daenerys Entertainment was involved, the film's budget had risen from the 1.2 million dollars in Simon's memory to 2.5 million. Reservoir Dogs had become Highgate Pictures' flagship entry in the main competition section of this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Of course, a small 2.5 million dollar production was not something Simon would personally oversee now, so he had only watched the finished cut briefly before the festival.
Although the closing ceremony was tomorrow, the Sundance award results had already been decided two days earlier.
The organizers had also specially notified the winning crews and reminded them to attend tomorrow's closing ceremony.
Although she knew the young man beside her was not truly blaming her, Kathryn still explained seriously, "Everyone felt the film displayed violence too graphically."
Simon asked with a smile, "What about you? What did you think of the movie?"
"The narrative structure is very unique, but I do not really understand what the director ultimately wanted to express through this story."
Simon shifted into a more comfortable position on the sofa and studied Kathryn, who was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and jeans. He said, "That is exactly why you are still not a true filmmaker."
Kathryn looked puzzled and could not help showing a trace of instinctive female dissatisfaction. She glared at the young man beside her.
After all, she had already received an Oscar nomination for Best Director.
Not a true filmmaker.
Then what was she?
Simon did not continue the previous topic right away. He nodded toward the leather boots on Kathryn's feet and said, "You are still wearing these inside the house. Are your feet not cold? Take them off and warm up."
Kathryn glanced at the boots on her feet, tapped them twice against the floor, and tilted her calves slightly to the side. "You take them off for me."
"No problem."
Simon set his coffee cup down on the low table without hesitation, reached out, and pulled over her long legs.
Kathryn's body tilted from the pull. She carefully protected the coffee in her hands so it would not spill, then watched with a mix of annoyance and amusement as the young man quickly removed her boots and tossed them aside, even peeling off her socks.
The shoes and socks were brand new, and Kathryn was a very clean person. There was no odor on her feet, so she had no worry about leaving a bad impression on Simon.
Still, once her shoes and socks were off she immediately pulled her feet back from his lap. She did not put them on the floor again, however. Instead she sat sideways and tucked both feet beside the man. Once he had retrieved his coffee she asked proactively, "Why exactly am I not a true filmmaker?"
"From my personal point of view, a true filmmaker is someone who expresses what he wants to express. The director of Reservoir Dogs did that exceptionally well. The reason you do not understand what his film is trying to say is simply that you are bound by traditional thinking. You believe a movie should convey certain viewpoints, values, or social significance. That is a serious misconception."
Kathryn listened attentively. She wanted to argue but found that Simon's words actually made a lot of sense.
She had studied fine art.
Take painting, for example. Many outstanding artists created works that simply displayed what was in their minds and hearts without any intention of instilling a particular viewpoint in outsiders.
Yet that had not prevented many of those works from becoming enduring classics.
Movies should probably be the same.
Then she thought about herself.
Her first theatrical feature, Blood Corpse Night, told an unconventional vampire love story. It was not a subject she particularly liked. But as a woman trying to become a director in Hollywood, she had had very little choice.
In the films that followed, Blue Steel, Point Break, and even the recent Thelma & Louise, she had actually been trying to inject her own will into the work.
However, none of those attempts could really be called successful.
Take Thelma & Louise this time. She believed she had shot it in her own style.
Yet the core feminist awakening in the film had come more from the screenwriter than from her as director.
Thinking of this, Kathryn could not help glancing at Simon beside her.
Leaving aside his screenplays, the films he had personally directed, Run Lola Run, Pulp Fiction, and even the very commercial Batman, all carried a strong personal will despite their different styles and subjects.
After watching those films, audiences easily remembered them. Every time they were mentioned afterward, people would say this was a Simon Westeros movie.
Looking back at Blood Corpse Night and the others.
If not for the fact that she was a rare female director in Hollywood, audiences who watched the films would probably have found it hard to recall who the director even was.
Simon saw the realization on Kathryn's face and smiled. "Feeling frustrated? Thinking life is a failure and nothing is worth living for? Here, you can lean on my shoulder."
She kicked him again without hesitation. After thinking for a moment Kathryn asked, "Then what should I do?"
"Find subjects you truly want to shoot. Even if you do not write the script yourself, at least personally outline the story and create something that genuinely belongs to you."
Kathryn fell into thought once more.
Then she discovered with some alarm that she actually did not know what she wanted to shoot.
Her age.
She did not even want to think about that question in front of Simon.
Yet after being battered by too many realities of society, she was destined to find it difficult to hold the naive and simple ideas of a young person just entering the world.
Why had she switched from fine art to studying film in the first place?
It was because a mentor had awakened her. She had felt that, compared with painting, film could present many things in a far more three-dimensional way.
Then she had thrown herself into it with great enthusiasm.
Reality had never been as kind as she hoped.
Most directors in Hollywood usually had to wait until after thirty to direct their first feature. And she was a woman on top of that.
In ten years, up until Blood Corpse Night, she had only completed her debut feature film, the one called Ruthless in 1981 with funding from some film foundation. The movie had caused hardly any ripples, after which came years of stumbling.
How many original dreams in this world could withstand the erosion of time?
And how many people could rise suddenly like the young man beside her, dazzling the world with talent? While many of his peers had not even figured out their future, he had already left the entire world far behind.
Thinking this way, Kathryn looked at Simon and could not help shaking her head. With a trace of defeat in her voice she said, "I... I do not know what to do anymore."
Simon saw Kathryn's somewhat dejected expression, turned his body sideways, pulled her feet out from beside him, and placed her calves across his own thighs, holding them. He said, "No one knows from the beginning what they should do. Only after experiencing things, after seeing the shortcomings of this world, and after having the heart to change them, does a person start working toward the direction they want to change. So next, you can take a serious look at this world."
Kathryn did not answer, as though waiting for Simon to continue.
Simon went on, "What do you think my life goal is?"
Kathryn's lips curved into a slight smile. "Janet told me you want to rule the world."
"Did Janet also tell you her dream?"
"She did. To destroy the world."
"All right. The fact that you have managed to restrain yourself until now and have not killed me to protect humanity means you really do like me."
Kathryn kicked Simon again in embarrassment.
Simon pressed her calves and stroked the rough denim fabric as he continued, "Actually, my view of this world is extremely pessimistic. I believe humanity will ultimately head toward self-destruction, and that deadline is not very far away. So ruling the world is a rather boring thing. Even if you manage to do it on the surface, you can never control everyone's hearts."
"Controlling hearts, huh? You sound even more dangerous than what Janet said."
"When you possess enough power and grow used to it, you start to find certain things quite boring."
"Hm?"
Sensing that Kathryn seemed to be getting even more confused by his words, Simon smiled and said, "You are different from me and Janet, these two potential antisocial elements. You probably hope this world, or at least this country, will become better. That is the common view held by ordinary human who have lived a long time in a social environment."
Kathryn paused, then nodded.
Although it felt a little strange.
Simon had just used the word "Human."
The term could be translated as "person" or as "humanity."
Kathryn somehow felt that when Simon used the word, translating it as "humanity" seemed more appropriate.
And what corresponded to "humanity" was naturally "non-humanity," was it not?
After all, she had personally witnessed him accomplish far too many things that probably only a "non-human" could achieve.
Simon naturally could not guess the woman's thoughts. He continued, "Therefore you can spend one to two years without rushing to start a new film. Observe this world carefully, find the things you believe people need to remember or need to change, things that also resonate with you personally. Then use that as the subject and prepare your next movie."