Chapter 128: Celebration

Through the connections of James Redfield, Simon quickly learned about the impending settlement between the Lehman brothers and the Quantum Fund.

In the past five months, Westeros Corporation's only notable misstep in the operation of stock index futures was on October 22, when the S&P 500 index plunged.

The Lehman brothers accidentally leaked news of their imminent large-scale sale of Quantum Fund contracts, leading to another crash of the recently stabilized S&P 500 index. Westeros Corporation then opportunistically cleared its last batch of short contracts within hours of the plunge, a coincidence that indeed smacked of manipulation.

Now, the media pressure, covert investigations, wiretapping, and psychological questioning had all played their part in forcing the Lehman brothers to cooperate with what seemed like an entrapment strategy, causing turmoil for over half a month. With the news of the settlement with the Quantum Fund, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as the Lehman brothers reached a settlement with the Quantum Fund, institutions like the Southern District of New York Federal Court would no longer be able to drag Westeros Corporation into the fray. As for other matters, if the authorities continued their relentless pursuit, Simon would not hesitate to spend tens of millions of dollars to vigorously defend his position in court.

To avoid any complications, all parties clearly did not want to drag this issue out any longer.

Thus, on November 23, the Lehman brothers and the Quantum Fund swiftly signed the settlement agreement.

It was on the same day that Madonna officially released her latest remix album, "You-Can-Dance."

Unlike studio albums and live albums, remix albums are typically re-arranged versions of a singer's previous album tracks. Of course, to ensure the album sells well, it cannot consist solely of old songs. Madonna had initially prepared a new song called "Spotlight" for this album. However, after Simon provided another song, the pop queen decisively scrapped the rather mediocre "Spotlight" in favor of Simon's song.

Simon's involvement in writing a song for Madonna's new album had been known for months, and with his recent exposure as a billionaire, the promotion of Madonna's new album was almost completely overshadowed by this explosive news.

With the confirmation of the Lehman brothers' imminent settlement with the Quantum Fund, Simon's PR team also began to cool down the media frenzy that had lasted for half a month.

Immediately after Madonna's new album was released, many people's attention was drawn to it, particularly because of the song Simon contributed, titled "Celebration."

Celebration: a fitting title for someone who had made over a billion dollars in just over five months and had now evaded an investigation by federal agencies.

Most importantly, both regular fans and North American media quickly embraced the view that "Celebration" completely outshone all other tracks on Madonna's remix album.

"Celebration" was actually a nostalgic pop dance track from the original timeline, released by Madonna in 2009. While Simon was not particularly fond of Madonna's music, "Celebration" was one of the few songs he genuinely enjoyed.

Although it was a song from 2009, its strong rhythmic beat and thematic content perfectly matched the style of the "You-Can-Dance" album, and the quality of "Celebration" far surpassed Madonna's early best-selling singles like "Holiday."

Thanks to the massive popularity brought by "Celebration," the following week, "You-Can-Dance" debuted at the top of the North American Billboard best-selling album chart with first-week sales of 510,000 copies, and "Celebration" effortlessly became the number one song on the Billboard Hot Singles chart.

For a remix album, which is essentially rehashing old material, the industry had originally estimated that global sales of around 5 million copies would be a huge success. However, given the album's first-week sales data, just in North America, "You-Can-Dance" was likely to reach 5 million copies, with total global sales almost certainly breaking the ten million mark.

After the first-week sales figures were released, Madonna eagerly called Simon to invite him to the celebratory party for the album's huge success at her home in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. However, having spent Thanksgiving in New York, Simon returned to Los Angeles with the crew of the recently wrapped "When Harry Met Sally," and thus had to decline the pop queen's invitation.

In the whirlwind of events, time swiftly moved into the last month of 1987.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Simon focused most of his energy on the post-production of "Pulp Fiction."

Despite evading federal investigations, the chain reactions triggered by his newfound billion-dollar fortune were far from over. Simon's biggest realization during this period was that he had indeed become a 'fat sheep.'

Since the news broke in early November, Simon began receiving countless donation requests from charitable organizations, public welfare groups, and university funds.

Following that, what Simon found most distressing

 was that within just a month, many individuals across North America claiming to be his parents emerged, most acting with convincing seriousness.

The federal media also seemed very keen on helping Simon find his relatives, further fueling the frenzy.

As for Los Angeles, the stock market crash had halted the economic boom of the past few years in Hollywood, and many second and third-tier film companies, already struggling due to aggressive expansion, were doomed. Even the big seven movie studios began to change hands over the next few years.

Thus, Simon, suddenly a billionaire, appeared as a super 'fat sheep' in the eyes of most in Hollywood.

From the day Simon returned to Los Angeles, his company's headquarters in Santa Monica were swamped with people delivering scripts, seeking investments, or even wanting to sell their film companies to him.

Despite the annoyance, this situation was not entirely without its benefits.

When Simon had previously gathered rights, he only managed to secure adaptation rights for "Forrest Gump" and "Dances with Wolves," mainly because his influence in Hollywood was too weak. Although he had the successes of "Run Lola Run" and "The Butterfly Effect," most novel authors and screenwriters were reluctant to entrust their rights to Daenerys Media.

Now, with a fortune of over a billion dollars, Simon's circumstances had completely changed.

In an era when the average cost of movie production was still under ten million dollars, Simon's billion-dollar fortune was more than enough to produce any film that could pique his interest.

___________________

Read Ahead

Patreon.com/INNIT