When he noticed that the man next to him was dark, he quietly got up.

Didn't wake up with it.

I don't know how long it took, the sky in the gap between the curtains was still not as bright as it should be in the morning, I was sleepy, I fumbled to put on my underwear, got out of bed barefoot and came to the window to open the curtains of the floor-to-ceiling window, and there was a drizzle and hazy gloomy scene in front of me.

The sky, the lake, and the city buildings on the opposite shore are shrouded in this gloom.

The mood did not become gloomy, but enjoyed the feeling.

The chill hit.

Facing the chill, I walked out of the bedroom and leaned over the balcony railing to look around, not worried about being seen.

This is a villa on Mercer Island in the middle of Lake Washington, in Seattle, a mansion over two acres surrounded by greenery and the city on the other side of the lake is still covered by rain.

When I was in college, I majored in advertising and art, and I hadn't written for a long time, but at this time I had the urge to paint the scenery around me.

It doesn't belong to you after all.

A 33-year-old woman doesn't feel like she's starting to grow old, but she feels a sense of frustration at this time.

It would be nice to have a house like this.

Just like the fantasy when you just left campus, create your own advertising agency, own a beautiful house, have no material constraints, and be free.

Then, there is the gap between the ideal and the reality.

At school, she was a cheerleader, she was the queen of homecoming day, she was the object of envy and envy of girls, and she was the target of boys' admiration and pursuit.

When you enter society, all of a sudden you are nothing.

I remembered that yesterday afternoon, when I heard the little man's invitation so naturally, I felt that he was too domineering, but I couldn't resist much.

It should be a bit yearning.

Longing for a world you've never touched.

So, after finishing work, she went home to change her clothes, waited for a car to pick her up, and sat on it very resignedly, imagining what the next night would be like.

The results were beyond her imagination.

Dinner was served on his Boeing 767, an experience that had never been felt before, and it even felt a little fantastical.

A very luxurious plane.

I didn't feel much ostentation from him.

Or, that young man, who has been shrouded in too much aura, really doesn't need to show off anything more.

It's just a natural thing.

Like, well, it was so natural when he 'invited' himself.

It's as if all of Hollywood is his.

He is the king.

You can take everything you want.

She is such an inconspicuous little woman, and in the face of the king's demand, she doesn't even have the courage to be reserved.

By the end of dinner, the plane had landed in Seattle at night.

The airport is located in Langton, on the south shore of the Great Lake, so leave the airport and board a speedboat nearby to cross Lake Washington and enter the mansion.

It's even a bit like coming home from work.

However, it's not the kind of car that struggles to move around the congested road for two hours and comes home exhausted.

It's smooth.

Though.

Well, it's a thousand miles away from Los Angeles.

Boundless thoughts, a thick cotton bathrobe suddenly wrapped around her.

Turning around, it was a man with a warm smile.

Let the whole body be wrapped in a bathrobe, he hugged his waist, hesitated, she leaned forward and kissed the man on the lips, and said, "Morning." ”

"Morning," Simon said, looking at the woman in front of him whose brown hair had been soaked in the rain, "I don't want to disturb you looking at the scenery, but, believe me, it doesn't feel good at all." ”

"It's so beautiful here. She replied, not knowing whether it was an explanation or something else, paused, looked into the man's eyes, and said, "So, what arrangements do we have for today?"

"Have breakfast first and then go back to Los Angeles. ”

"Huh?"

Simon said patiently: "I'm sorry, but I'm very busy, I'm afraid I can't spend the weekend with you here." ”

I'd love to say that it's okay to spend the weekend here alone.

It's just that it seems a bit abrupt.

I had to nod obediently.

Simon looked at the woman's wet hair again and said, "Let's take a shower first, don't really catch a cold, I'll wait for you downstairs." ”

Dragged out of the terrace by the man, into the bathroom, and finally plucked up the courage when the door was closed, he invited, "Do you want to come along?"

Simon smiled and shook his head, reaching out to help the woman close the bathroom door.

More than half an hour later, Sheila Wood walked out of the bedroom, and she was already wearing the black jacket and tunic skirt she had yesterday, showing off her figure.

It is easy for a woman to wear black to discourage a man, and she deliberately wore black yesterday.

It didn't work for him, and the man seemed to like it.

Slowly walking down the stairs with the handrail of the stairs, he looked curiously left and right.

Coming downstairs, I saw a young girl in a light blue professional suit tidying up the settings on the sofa in the living room, and noticed her appearance, and the girl greeted politely with a hint of detachment, "Good morning, Ms. Wood." ”

Withdrawing his hand casually, he nodded in response, "Morning, B." ”

This was one of the flight attendants on his private jet, blonde, tall, and young, he called her 'B', and the other was 'A', which the man casually introduced last night, it was actually Betsy and Allison, and he seemed to like this more concise title. I just don't know if there's still a 'C' and a 'D'.

There should be.

Myself.

Well, it should be 'S'.

However, he doesn't call himself that, doesn't even like to call his name very much, and doesn't use intimate words like 'Honey'. Just open his mouth when he speaks, and then, she knows he's talking to her.

The attitude of the girl in front of her towards her was clearly cold and hostile, as well as envious that could not be concealed.

Of course you know why.

They were younger and prettier, but he was more interested in her.

Suddenly there was some pride, and it was also intentional to call her 'B' after him.

I enjoyed this sense of superiority that I rarely experienced after leaving the campus, so I raised my chin slightly and asked the girl in front of me, "What about Simon?"

Seeing her like this, Betsy's tone was obviously colder, but she still said professionally, "In the dining room, Ms. Wood, please come with me." ”

Simon was reading the newspaper at the dinner table.

Seeing her come in, the man greeted her and motioned to Becky, who had followed up, to bring breakfast.

Sheila Wood sat down across from Simon, naturally propped up her chin and asked, "Is there any interesting news today?"

Simon glanced at the New York Times in his hand again and said: "Saddam Hussein called on the countries of the Middle East to unite at a meeting of the Arab Cooperation Council members yesterday to build a community of interests that can compete with Europe and North America by taking advantage of their unparalleled energy advantages." ”

Sheila Wood blinked a few times, her expression showed a little resentment, and said, "After men succeed, do they all become so perfunctory?"

Simon nodded with a 'heavy' expression: "Yes, the reality is cruel." ”

Sheila Wood wanted to grab something and threw it over, but she swept the table with clean eyes, so she had to give up and simply asked, "Is there anything special about this news?"

Simon said lightly: "It's going to be a war." ”

Sheila Wood wondered: "Why, is it just because the countries of the Middle East want to build an alliance? The Soviet Union has been confronting us for so many years, and it has not yet started a fight. ”

"It's different," Simon shook his head and explained, "The army of the Federation may not be able to beat the Soviet Union, but it is still easy to fight the countries of the Middle East, not to mention, there is oil over there." ”

Sheila Wood frowned slightly, and after a moment said, "Simon, do you want to fight?"

"No, I'm a staunch anti-war activist. ”

"In that case, Simon, you can try to use your influence to prevent the war from happening. ”

"I think self-destruction is the doomed end of humanity, so I'm not going to try to stop this because it's inevitable," Simon shook his head, his eyes fell on the newspaper in front of him, and he thought of something, and whispered, "War, war has never changed." ”

Sheila Wood was a little stunned, and the few words muttered by the young man opposite made her feel an inexplicable despair and desolation.

There should be a long, long story behind this sentence.

It's just that she's never heard of it.

Alison and Betsy brought breakfast, Simon closed the newspaper, smiled again, seemed to have forgotten the topic just now, and said to the woman: "I see that you like this very much, or else, you can spend the weekend here, and I will have someone pick you up tomorrow afternoon." ”

I thought about it this way, but when she heard the man bring it up, she subconsciously shook her head and said, "I still don't want it, I'm here alone, and I don't know where to go." ”

"There are so many places to go, Space Needle, University of Washington, Olympic National Park, by the way, I heard that Pike Place Market has a gum wall, you can go and see it, and stick a piece of it by the way. ”

Sheila Wood picked up the cutlery handed over by Alison, shook her head with a smile, and said, "It's disgusting to think about." Besides, it's raining outside, so I'd better go back to Los Angeles with you. ”

Simon didn't persuade much.

After breakfast, the group took a speedboat to leave Mercer Island in the middle of the lake and arrived at Langton City Airport, which is close to the south coast, and boarded the plane to return to Los Angeles.

It took less than two hours to go from the rainy days of Seattle to the sunny days of Los Angeles.

After getting off the plane at Los Angeles International Airport, he found that Simon had no intention of leaving the airport with him, and only then did he know that he had another trip.

Riding the car that the man specially called to take her to leave the airport, Sheila Wood looked at another plane in the airport roaring into the air, and suddenly had a feeling that the pumpkin cart and the crystal slipper were all gone.

Cinderella can still wait for her own prince.

She's probably just a passerby to him.

Abominable man.

From Seattle to Los Angeles, and from Los Angeles to New York, more than six hours of continuous flight time, Simon did not waste it, reading all kinds of materials prepared by Cersei Capital along the way.

After this period of negotiations, Cersei Capital and Blackstone Group reached an agreement for $75 million to acquire a 50% stake in Blackstone Financial Management, and Blackstone Financial Management's $3 billion capital and Lawrence Fink team will be transferred to Cersei Capital in its entirety.

In addition, Janet has re-planned the subsidiaries of Cersei Capital, and the three subsidiaries that have been confirmed are Cersei Fund Management Company, Apollo Management Company and Black Rock Asset Management Company.

Needless to say, Black Rock also existed in the original plane and time as the Apollo Management Company.

In terms of shareholding structure, the three subsidiaries are jointly held by the parent company, Cersei Capital, and the operation team, and each has its own business focus.

Cersei Fund Management is primarily engaged in financial hedging, Apollo Management is responsible for alternative investments such as leveraged buyouts and vultures, and Black Rock Asset Management is engaged in mainstream low-risk investments such as securities, equities and fixed income.

After the establishment of the three subsidiaries, sub-funds 6 to 10 were re-controlled by Cersei Capital, which allocated funds to each subsidiary according to the actual situation.

The biggest benefit of this is that the funds raised by Cersei Capital are still nominally held by Sub-Funds 6 to 10, with the respective subsidiary teams only responsible for taking care of them.

In the event of a loss or other situation on the subsidiary team, Cersei Capital has the flexibility to recover the funds to avoid further deterioration of the situation. Going further, it is even possible to disband the subsidiary team and deregister the subsidiary directly. At the same time, funds will not be lost due to the turmoil in the subsidiary.

This adjustment was also inspired by Janet's acquisition of Blackstone Financial Management.

Blackstone Financial Management's funds were raised separately, and when Lawrence Fink's team wanted to change jobs, Blackstone had no choice but to compromise and sell its shares.

Wall Street has been paying close attention to a series of recent developments at Cersei Capital, and investors are also very active. Obviously, many people expect Cersei Capital to continue to create the profit miracle that Simon has been operating in recent years.

In the face of the expectations in the circle, Simon did not have much pressure.

Because Simon knows very well that Cersei Capital doesn't need to continue to work miracles, the company just needs to outperform most of its peers on Wall Street in order to continue to grow in the future.

With the foresight of the next two decades and the operation of a talented team, Simon is very confident in achieving this goal.

In addition to the two teams of Cersei Fund Management and Black Rock Asset Management, Janet has also poached the M&A team of Dechong Securities, which filed for bankruptcy in early January, to form the team of Apollo Management. The leader of the team is named Leon Black, and after receiving an invitation from Cersei Capital and a 30% stake pledge, Blake quickly gave up his original plan to go it alone and lead the team to join Cersei Capital.

Everyone is a smart person, and if you go it alone, because of the work experience of Dechong Securities, which has just gone bankrupt, it will be difficult for Blake's team to get too much money from investors in the short term.

Cersei Capital, by contrast, has directly promised Leon Black $1 billion in initial operating capital, and has prepared the next phase of their work: a vulture investment in the still-volatile U.S. junk bond market.

A large part of the total size of the $200 billion junk bonds in the United States is still very guaranteed to be repaid.

However, as the overall bond market situation continues to deteriorate, the prices of many solvent bonds have also plummeted. As long as they can find these bonds and buy them at a price well below their book value, investors can get very good returns in the process of repaying the bonds when the economic situation improves and the company recovers.

Finding valuable assets from a pile of financial ruins that look like they're about to disappear is the general idea of Vulture Investing.

Janet did a lot of research on the U.S. junk bond market last year and accumulated a lot of information, so some time ago I talked about Vulture investment with Lawrence Fink at a cocktail party at the Raybould house.

However, if you have an understanding of the U.S. junk bond market, there is probably no one who can compare to the team at Dechong Securities.