Chapter 357: Keeping a Piece of the Sky

Simon and Janet left Melbourne on July 11th and arrived at a lakeside forest in central-west Tasmania, precisely in the middle of Simon's private land.

Due to the nearest road being thirty kilometers away, reaching the location required a helicopter.

The female assistant paid for the construction of three cabins out of her pocket, designated for Simon, Janet, and their entourage, along with a helipad. The transportation of building materials alone was costly. The area, devoid of water and electricity, relied on generators and natural water sources, with satellite phones for communication.

Originally a secluded living environment, the area became completely isolated from the world once covered in snow.

Stepping away from his bustling work life, Simon's initial feeling was not of comfort but anxiety, a strong sense of loss of control. Fortunately, with experiences unlike anyone else in this world, equivalent to the accumulation of multiple lifetimes, he quickly adapted.

The female assistant effortlessly switched between being a professional woman at work and a domestic woman at home.

Arriving here, she brought only a few books and a sketchpad.

During the day, she asked Simon to teach her drawing and ice skated on the frozen lake in front of the cabin, wearing a girlish white down jacket, gliding like an elf.

In the evening, they snuggled by the fireplace while she read to Simon in her elegant voice, Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time," a thick volume.

Or Yeats's poetry collection.

...

*I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.

*And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made.

*Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee.

*And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

*And I shall have some peace there.

...

After reading, she suggested naming the lake in front of them, perhaps calling it Innisfree Lake.

Simon declined.

In the rare disappointed expression of the female assistant, he suggested calling it Janet Lake.

The disappointment didn't fade as she inquired which Janet he referred to.

Simon firmly stated, of course, the Janet present.

They also brought a Chinese original version of "Dream of the Red Chamber."

Janet always remembered the assistant's joke about wanting to know the story of Xiren, asking Simon to narrate it to her.

She then fell in love with listening to the tales of the Grand View Garden, filled with romantic encounters and separations.

Even with intense curiosity occasionally flashing in her eyes, she never asked why Simon knew such a difficult and obscure language.

Instead, she kept asking various questions.

She even made an effort to memorize a poem from the book.

With impeccable pronunciation and tone.

...

*All these ridiculous statements,

*A handful of bitter tears.

*Everyone says the author is foolish,

*But who can understand the underlying taste?

...

Unable to resist, she casually asked Simon if the Stone of Three Lives really existed.

Simon said it did not.

Just a story.

Clearly unsatisfied with the answer, her lips pursed again.

Simon consoled her, and her mood finally improved.

She was content with Xiren's ending, declaring that if one day Simon no longer liked her, she would marry a decent man.

The look she gave Simon while saying this was threatening.

Daring to threaten.

Thus, she was 'dealt with' thoroughly.

Always compliant.

Discovering certain things, she complained to Janet about many dirty little details she was told, which turned out to be non-existent.

Simon laughed and said those could be made real.

And then.

They indeed became real.

Settling down, she continued reading "In Search of Lost Time" to Simon.

Simon always listened patiently, inadvertently noting down a sentence he heard on a blank page of "Dream of the Red Chamber": Always strive to keep a piece of the sky beyond your life.

Smelling the scent of food, she lazily opened her eyes.

There was no food in the bedroom; the scent was from the man who came from the kitchen.

Still, she couldn't help but sniffle, too lazy to move.

The room was warm, Simon dressed in a woolen shirt and khaki pants, approached her for a kiss upon seeing her awake.

She turned her head away, "I haven't brushed my teeth yet."

Simon didn't let her go, kissing her freshly awakened cheek and then her neck, not satisfied, he pulled down the blanket a bit more and moved closer.

Beneath the blanket was a perfect body that could drive any man wild.

Unadorned.

Soft and fragrant.

Feeling Simon greedily biting, she finally weakly pushed his head away, laughing, "That tickles."

Simon lifted his head, his hand reaching in, asking, "Get up now, or shall I join you for a bit longer?"

Holding back his wandering hand, "I want to get up, you go out first."

"I

'll help you dress."

"No need, I can dress myself."

"But I must assist."

As they laughed together, they both ended up dressing each other once again.

Breakfast had to be remade.

The original was cold.

After eating, it was already ten o'clock in the morning.

July 17th, they had spent a full week here. Though occasionally interrupted by Janet's sporadic calls, it was difficult to justify staying longer.

It was a clear day.

After packing their luggage and standing outside the cabin, the female assistant, visibly reluctant to leave and worried about her cabin being vandalized, only relaxed after Simon promised to arrange for a caretaker.

Taking advantage of the noon sunlight, they boarded the nearby helicopter.

The helicopter roared into the sky, the small lake shrinking in their view, like the distant memories fading in everyone's hearts.

The rented Bell helicopter had limited endurance, requiring them to switch to a boat on the northern coast of Tasmania to return to Melbourne. Arriving back at their suburban villa was after four in the afternoon.

After making some calls to close acquaintances, Simon was planning to rest for the night and start work tomorrow, but Anthony Johnston called, inviting him to a party at the estate—it turned out to be Norman Johnston's birthday, with family attending.

Having stayed outside with Janet for a week, Simon believed the Johnston family knew about it, and feeling somewhat guilty, he did not refuse.

The more guilty-feeling female assistant dared not go along.

Arriving at the estate in the evening.

The party was lively with many guests.

Aside from Patrick Johnston giving Simon suggestive glances, everyone else seemed not to make much of Simon's whereabouts over the past week.

The socializing continued until late, and after the guests had left, Simon was about to leave when the old man insisted he stay, implying there was no lack of a place for him in the house. Simon understood that the old man still had issues with his actions from the previous week.

He naturally had to stay.

Back in Melbourne, there was no more sleeping in; Simon woke up at seven o'clock sharp the next day.

Leaving his room and heading towards the staircase, passing a room, Veronica Johnston happened to step out and saw Simon, freezing in place and instinctively raising her hand, only to lower it quickly.

Simon also stopped, frowning at Veronica's defensive gesture.

Seeing Simon's frown, Veronica nervously raised her hand again as if to explain but could only stammer out an "I..." before falling silent.

Simon, seeing she had nothing more to say, continued towards the stairs.

Veronica watched Simon's figure disappear around the stairwell before she stepped out of the room.

After breakfast, Simon and Anthony Johnston hurried to Johnston Holdings' headquarters in Melbourne's city area.

After last year's operation targeting the Japanese market, although Cersei Capital's headquarters moved to New York, a team was still maintained here. This time's oil market operation aimed to reduce external infiltration into Cersei Capital's activities, with the Melbourne team also involved.

In fact, because Cersei Capital had established a very large and complex set of crude oil futures combinations through different accounts on various oil futures markets like New York and London, and recently started participating in spot trading directly, besides Janet and a few others, even Cersei Capital's internal staff were unaware of the specific holding data.

From late June, Cersei Capital began establishing long positions when the international crude oil price was still above $14.

In less than a month, the price had fallen to $13, the lowest Simon remembered.

If the gains from short positions were not considered and only the recent long positions were accounted for, Cersei Capital had already incurred a book loss of over $1.6 billion in less than a month.

Moreover, as Cersei Capital continued to increase its long positions and reduce its short holdings, if the oil price did not rebound as expected but fell towards $10 per barrel as many institutions predicted, not only would the profits from the earlier short positions be wiped out, but even the principal could be lost.

In Simon's memory, international oil prices began to rise at the end of July after negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait on oil production control broke down, doubling immediately after the outbreak of war on August 2nd.

Currently, negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait were ongoing, with the first phase of results expected next week. Either Kuwait would compromise and reduce oil production, or negotiations would break down, leading to an unpredictable situation.

Simon did not believe his presence could prevent the outbreak of war.

In fact, the internal causes of this war were far more complex than most people imagined, involving not only the interests of Western oil conglomerates but also the still unstable situations in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

However, to be cautious, Cersei Capital's operations were relatively conservative. By mid-July, the scale of long positions established was still under $15 billion, with enough reserve funds kept to maintain Cersei Capital's leverage ratio below five times.

In the plan, after

 closing all short positions next week, although Cersei Capital's principal would exceed $5 billion, the total scale of long positions would still be cautiously maintained within $25 billion.

Spending a day at Johnston Holdings' headquarters discussing Cersei Capital's next moves, Simon's focus shifted back to filmmaking.

"Batman: The Dark Knight" was progressing smoothly and did not require much of Simon's attention.

In North America.

Since Simon left on June 24th, more than three weeks had passed.

During the North American summer season, several new films including "Die Hard 2," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and "Days of Thunder" had been released.

Looking further back, "Ghost" released on June 1st, continued to maintain a strong box office performance despite the pressure from these new releases.

As of July 19th, seven weeks after its release, "Ghost" had accumulated a box office of $115.06 million.

Moreover, in its seventh week, "Ghost" still maintained a weekly box office of over $10 million, reaching $11.07 million, and it was very likely to break the $200 million mark in North America, potentially becoming the first film of 1990 to do so.

In comparison, "Total Recall," released in the same period, had reached a total North American box office of $106.41 million in its seventh week, successfully breaking $100 million, but its weekly box office had slipped to $4.77 million, with only about $10 million in remaining box office potential.

Simon was particularly interested in the first of Daenerys Entertainment's plan of 10 films, "Sleeping with the Enemy." After an opening week box office of $27.62 million, its second week saw a 33% drop, earning $18.53 million.

A drop exceeding 30% was slightly disappointing.

However, over the next three weeks, "Sleeping with the Enemy" maintained a drop below 30%, respectively 21%, 17%, and 23%, collecting an additional $14.61 million, $12.13 million, and $9.37 million.

In five weeks, "Sleeping with the Enemy" had accumulated a box office of $82.26 million.

Although its weekly box office had fallen below $10 million, breaking $100 million in North America was now certain.

Additionally, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," released on July 6th, had a production budget increased from the original $8 million B-movie level to $20 million, significantly improving its quality. Coupled with the golden period of the summer season and Daenerys Entertainment's marketing efforts, the film's opening week box office reached $39.78 million, far surpassing the opening week figures of "Ghost" and "Sleeping with the Enemy."

However, according to the tiered revenue-sharing agreement signed with theaters, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" had already recouped its entire production and marketing costs within the first week of July 6th to 12th.

However, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" largely relied on recent years' popularity from animations and games, and the film's quality did not reach a phenomenal level. A high opening inevitably meant a significant drop in the second week.

From July 13th to 19th.

In its second week, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" saw a 43% drop, earning another $22.67 million.

With a two-week total of $62.45 million, this box office trajectory was similar to "Total Recall," which had also opened strongly around the same time as "Ghost."

However, the key difference was that "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" had a production cost less than a third of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall," which barely managed to recoup its production costs. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," by the second week, was already generating substantial profits.

Due to the outstanding market performance of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," Daenerys Entertainment quickly announced a sequel.

In the original timeline, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" films saw decreasing box office returns, primarily because, besides the initial IP popularity, the series struggled to maintain high attraction to audiences. Viewers went to see the first film largely because of the series' popularity from animations and games.

However, Simon did not prevent the sequel's initiation this time, unlike with the "Home Alone" series.

The main reason was the cost.

Compared to the blockbuster series "Home Alone" and "Lethal Weapon," even if a sequel to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was developed, its production cost compared to the first film would not exceed by much, nor would it involve high-profit sharing demands from stars like Mel Gibson.

If the first film could break $100 million, recouping the cost and achieving profitability with a sequel was easily manageable.

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