Chasing Stars in Hollywood

For Simon, there is hardly a distinction between weekdays and weekends nowadays.

Simon spent the entire Saturday at the East Coast headquarters of Daenerys Entertainment in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, handling various important TV projects for the year.

The six main actors for "Friends" had already been finalized, with all but the actress playing Monica remaining the same as in the original. The pilot episode had been completed. Due to Daenerys Entertainment's recent reputation in the television industry, several major networks had shown interest in "Friends."

The newly acquired "ER" was still in the early stages of casting and was expected to begin pilot production in May after contracts were signed with the networks. If all went well, it would air in the fall season.

The main teams behind the long-running hit series "Seinfeld" and "Desperate Housewives" were already very experienced, so the production of new seasons required little of Simon's oversight.

Apart from these four flagship shows, there were six other TV projects, either renewals or new releases, which Simon did not pay special attention to due to limited time.

In the realm of reality TV, the earliest shows "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "Survivor," "Big Brother," and "Real Housewives" series saw some changes. "Big Brother" would cease production after the spring season, while "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor" would continue, although their ratings were not as high as six years ago.

In contrast, the "Real Housewives" series maintained its vitality after moving to the USA Network. The original "Beverly Hills Housewives" continued, and three new series, "New York Housewives," "Atlanta Housewives," and "Miami Housewives," had been launched in recent years.

With "Big Brother" ending, the production team was split to launch two new reality shows this year: "Climbers," about adventure travel, and "Best Housewife," a cooking competition. The latter was confirmed to air on the USA Network, while the former was still in negotiations with public television networks.

Simon had not been involved in the planning of these two new reality shows, making them entirely original creations without prior memory references.

Having accepted an invitation to a dinner hosted by the Sulzberger family of the New York Times Group, Simon wrapped up his day's work around 6:30 PM and took a helicopter directly from Manhattan to the eastern end of Long Island, about 150 kilometers away, to save time.

As the most renowned wealthy area on the East Coast, the Westeros family also owned property in East Hampton.

Half an hour later, two Bell helicopters carrying Simon and his entourage landed successively in an estate south of East Hampton's town center. Alia and her team had already carried out routine cleaning and checks in the villa, where Simon would stay after the party.

Once the helicopter landed, Simon carefully helped B-girl, who was feeling airsick, disembark. Betsy was dizzy and could barely stand without Simon's support, though she managed not to throw up. A-girl, who followed, seemed fine but looked expectantly at Simon as he helped Betsy down. Simon smiled and gently helped her down as well.

The four bodyguards in the other helicopter did not need his attention.

After ensuring the helicopters were properly settled, Simon walked towards the estate villa with the two women, instructing A-girl, "Contact Sikorsky and see if we can order four helicopters to the standards of the White House's Marine One."

Simon had many residences on both coasts, often far from his office locations. Using helicopters when necessary was the most time-efficient mode of transport. For instance, traveling from Manhattan to East Hampton by car would take at least two hours, while the Bell helicopter took less than forty minutes.

For Simon, the cost of any mode of transport was negligible compared to his personal time cost.

Standard helicopters did not meet his requirements for safety and comfort. Even the most luxurious top-tier Bell helicopters were still noisy and not very comfortable, causing B-girl to get airsick despite her good physical condition.

Memories of the Marine One helicopters, used for the White House and certain U.S. officials, revealed none of these shortcomings. Passengers could converse or hold meetings in the nearly silent cabin, with top-notch safety and comfort parameters.

Sikorsky's Black Hawk helicopters were restricted from being sold to many foreign countries, but not within the U.S. or to certain close allies. Simon had seen civilian versions of the Black Hawk used as regular transport.

However, he was unsure if there were restrictions on selling the presidential-level helicopters. Nonetheless, he was not interested in the classified military equipment, so a slightly modified version maintaining safety and comfort would be acceptable.

A-girl had no objections to Simon's instructions, only noting, "In that case, we'll also need to hire a dedicated helicopter pilot and maintenance team."

Simon nodded, acknowledging the need.

The Westeros family already had a dedicated private jet team, so adding a helicopter team was no big deal. The four helicopters might be used less frequently than the private jets, but that did not matter.

By dusk, Simon had showered and changed clothes. He then took the also finely dressed B-girl to the Sulzberger family mansion.

Since it was a dinner party, there was no need for A-girl to serve as a social assistant.

Taking B-girl along was mainly to help her expand her network in the media industry. The financial information company Alphabeta, founded by A-girl and B-girl, was progressing steadily.

Simon and Janet both highly valued this project, intended to rival Bloomberg, and provided all kinds of support, including funds and elite teams from Egret Corporation, Cersei Capital, and other Wall Street financial giants for software development and information operations.

Alphabeta planned to launch its financial information software, named 'Alia,' in October. The short-term target customer base included numerous small fund managers and individual stock traders across the USA, who could not afford the expensive Bloomberg Terminal fees and were still using outdated stock market terminals.

Alia would offer advanced financial information services similar to the Bloomberg Terminal at only a tenth of the cost.

The name 'Alia' was a spontaneous choice by Simon when asked by the Indian girl beside him.

The key was that it was easy to remember.

Many business case studies showed that a product with a simple, memorable name could have unexpectedly positive effects on its marketing.

Compared to the current less than 20,000 high-end institutional clients of the Bloomberg Terminal, the demand for the latest financial information software in the booming U.S. stock market, especially the tech stock sector, was several dozen to a hundred times greater.

Although Alia targeted lower-end customers and might not be as profitable as the Bloomberg Terminal, its potential vast user base could make it just as significant in scale.

Alphabeta aimed to use a strategy similar to 'Gresham's law' by first capturing the lower-end market with its still-maturing financial information services before gradually improving and attacking the high-end market, eventually dominating the financial information service field.

This was the ideal scenario.

Bloomberg Terminal had over a decade of experience in the financial information field. Alphabeta, created by B-girl, might not even reach the point of challenging the high-end market. If Bloomberg or other financial information companies realized the potential of the low-end market, they might counterattack early, making it a severe challenge for Alphabeta to survive in its niche.

Therefore, Simon would provide maximum support for Alphabeta without having absolute expectations. Success would depend on B-girl's own efforts.

The dinner party was small, with only about a dozen guests, all notable figures on the East Coast.

During dinner, they discussed the recent sexual assault lawsuit against the unfortunate President by a woman named Paula Jones, the potential crisis of the Mexican peso, various charity projects in Africa, and many other topics.

These seemingly unrelated conversations often included subtle probing and negotiations.

The topic of tech stocks was inevitable.

A fund manager of a $1 billion composite fund invested by the Sulzberger family repeatedly tried to gauge Simon's views on the prospects of tech stocks. It was evident that everyone in the dining room paid close attention to this topic. Simon, however, expertly deflected their inquiries without revealing his true thoughts.

During this, Simon also introduced B-girl to everyone, personally promoting Alphabeta's upcoming product.

To avoid raising the vigilance of Bloomberg and other established financial giants, only a few were aware of the 'Gresham's law' strategy. Alphabeta publicly declared its target as the vast potential low-end market.

The dinner started at 8 PM and continued until 9 PM.

Afterward, guests did not leave immediately but gathered in the Sulzberger mansion's ballroom to drink and chat.

After another round of socializing with B-girl, Simon sent her off to network freely and found himself engaged by a woman in her mid-thirties. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the current head of the Sulzberger family, approached with a middle-aged man in his forties.

Dismissing the woman who was almost clinging to Simon, Arthur introduced the man beside him. "Simon, this is John Hearst, brother of William III."

Arthur quickly excused himself, saying, "You two talk, I have matters to attend to."

The Hearst family was large, and Simon had not met this brother of William Hearst III during his previous visit to the Hearst family.

As Arthur left, John Hearst smiled and extended his hand. However, Simon did not reciprocate, understanding that John was seeking reconciliation. Since announcing the boycott of the Hearst family in March, Simon had firmly closed the door on reconciliation. He coldly shook his head and said, "Mr. Hearst, we have nothing to discuss."

With that, he walked away.

Left standing with his hand extended, John Hearst was stunned for

 a moment, feeling the various gazes around him. A surge of anger and humiliation washed over him.

The Hearst family had never been treated so rudely.

Even with no power in the family, John had been flattered for decades due to his surname. The sudden drop in status was hard to accept. Watching Simon walk away, John hesitated but couldn't drop his pride to pursue him. Instead, he turned away in anger.

Once John Hearst had left, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. reappeared beside Simon, offering a roundabout explanation.

Simon didn't mind.

The complex network of influence among America's old media families meant the Sulzbergers wouldn't risk offending him if they could avoid it.

After socializing until around 10 PM, Simon left with B-girl.

The next day, Simon rose early again.

After breakfast, he remained on Long Island, handling some work emails in the villa study. Around 10 AM, a black Mercedes arrived, bringing Martin Dinham, one of the heads of the Westeros family intelligence team, carrying a briefcase. He was directly led to the study by A-girl.

Simon had received a message from Janet the previous night upon returning from the Sulzberger dinner.

The investigation into the attempted assassination in March was complete.

Janet sent Martin Dinham to the East Coast for Simon to handle the matter personally.

In the villa study, after a brief greeting, Martin Dinham opened his briefcase, revealing a box full of photos, videos, and documents. Simon did not look at the photos or videos serving as evidence but instead took Martin's handwritten investigation report and quietly read it.

The whole matter, once unraveled, was indeed simple.

George Woodfield, a businessman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had been persuaded by his old classmate Clark Grelaf, who ran a hedge fund on Wall Street, to withdraw $200 million from his family business, Monroeville Machinery Company, to bet on shorting tech stocks.

Monroeville Machinery, a century-old company mainly dealing in agricultural machinery, was publicly traded with a market value of about $2 billion. The Woodfield family owned less than 15% of the company, with family assets totaling around $300 million.

Thus, George Woodfield's unauthorized withdrawal of $200 million was nearly the entire available cash flow of the company.

This sum was placed entirely in tech stock shorts by his classmate.

Unfortunately, like many hedge fund managers on Wall Street, Clark Grelaf's expectation of a tech stock bubble burst did not materialize. Over the next month, tech stocks continued to surge.

Clark Grelaf's firm, Grelaf Capital, managed $300 million, of which $200 million came from George Woodfield's unauthorized withdrawal.

If this money were entirely lost, not only would Monroeville Machinery face bankruptcy due to a broken cash flow, but the Woodfield family would also be wiped out in subsequent lawsuits and corporate bankruptcy proceedings.

Facing the relentless rise in tech stocks, Clark Grelaf and George Woodfield, in their desperation, conceived a drastic plan to save their situation.

If Simon Westero were assassinated, even if he didn't die, the shock of an incident involving the core figure of the Westeros System would undoubtedly cause tech stocks to plummet, at least in the short term.

Grelaf Capital could then seize the opportunity to exit.

Thus, under their scheme, the assassination attempt on March 9 occurred, barely causing a ripple.

Although the assassination failed, the various negative news surrounding the Westeros System in mid-March caused a dip in tech stocks, giving Grelaf a chance to exit with half the funds. However, Grelaf, like many gamblers, hoped to recover all his losses and missed the last opportunity.

By the end of March, the tech stock rebound resulted in Grelaf Capital's complete liquidation.

Clark Grelaf, once worth tens of millions, was now penniless. News of George Woodfield's unauthorized withdrawal and total loss had also surfaced, leaving both men struggling with their predicaments, unaware that their supposedly secret assassination plot had been thoroughly uncovered by the Westeros family intelligence team.

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