Chasing Stars in Hollywood

At six o'clock in the morning, Simon got up, washed up, and got dressed in the master bedroom of the Woodside villa. The two stunning women on the bed were still asleep.

"Good morning, Simon."

"Morning. What do you want for breakfast? I'll have it prepared."

"Hmm, I'm so hungry, but I don't want to get up."

"Then let's eat in bed."

"Better not, it'll cause jealousy."

On the other side, Nadia, hearing the conversation, also woke up. She snuggled up to Yasmin from behind, seemingly wrapping her arms around Yasmin's slender waist under the covers, and said, "Simon, I want a fruit salad and a nut milkshake. Hmm... and an apple pie made by D, the one from last night was delicious."

Simon nodded and looked at Yasmin.

Yasmin said, "I'll have the same as Nadia."

Simon went downstairs. The other ladies in the villa were already up. He went to the kitchen to instruct Aria and Lady D, who were preparing breakfast, then headed to the gym.

He used to enjoy running on the mountain trails of Woodside when visiting San Francisco, but it wasn't suitable for public appearances now. Even a simple run could be captured and scrutinized by the media. Simon believed the best way to handle media scrutiny was to disappear from public view. Of course, behind-the-scenes PR work was necessary to avoid being led by the nose.

Just as he started on the treadmill, little Jenny came into the gym, also wearing a tank top and shorts. Despite her petite frame, her proportions were very well-balanced and her skin as white as milk.

She chose the treadmill next to Simon, started it, and began chatting about her recent activities while jogging. She also mentioned her graduation thesis on the prospects of portal websites. Due to her proximity to Simon, she had access to a lot of firsthand information, allowing her to insightfully predict that portal websites might only be a transitional phase in the early development of the internet, which would lean towards more diversity and specialization in the future.

Simon had imparted his ideas about the 1.0 and 2.0 eras of the internet to Jeff Bezos and others, guiding Egret's development along these lines. However, these highly confidential discussions were never documented in detail, and Egret's top executives would never divulge them to Jenny.

Clearly, these insights were her own.

Even though her predictions about the future of the internet might not be entirely accurate, recognizing that portal websites were just a transitional phase already exceeded Simon's expectations.

They chatted casually and jogged for half an hour. Simon was about to head upstairs to shower when the sweaty little Jenny clung to him, seamlessly transitioning from a scholarly demeanor to a lovestruck one.

Simon didn't refuse and took her upstairs to shower together, but he didn't go further. He had always been very disciplined about intimate matters.

Recently, Hearst Corporation had been portraying him as a playboy indulging in nightly revelry.

While the playboy label might be accurate, nightly revelry wasn't. Sometimes Simon went ten days to half a month without touching a woman. For instance, last night was his first time this week, and he hadn't even touched a vase named Mia he captured during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

People often fantasize about those at the top of the pyramid indulging in wild pleasures. In reality, when something is too easily obtainable, it loses its appeal. Many wealthy individuals, besides working nonstop, prefer spending their leisure time on racing, playing sports, or watching sports.

After the shower, Simon went back downstairs to the villa's office. Lady A had already organized today's media brief. Recently, the Westeros family's PR team had been closely monitoring mainstream North American media coverage of the Westeros system, especially Hearst Corporation's media, to respond promptly.

Aside from some inconsequential articles criticizing the success of "Happy Farm" as a result of Egret's internet monopoly, today's notable scoop from Hearst Corporation came from the Houston Chronicle in Texas.

The newspaper exposed Simon's secret connection with Joseph Lewis, the founder of the Tavistock Group. The article revealed that Joseph Lewis had shorted European currencies with George Soros two years ago, accusing the Westeros system of lying about not being involved in the European currency crisis, making Simon the behind-the-scenes culprit of that financial disaster.

The 1992 European currency crisis not only led to the collapse of the European Monetary System and significant currency devaluation in the UK, Italy, Spain, and other countries but also triggered severe economic recession in Europe over the past two years.

Even though wise people understood that the issue fundamentally stemmed from a contest between the two major Western economic systems, opportunistic politicians and conspiracy-loving ordinary people preferred to target specific scapegoats.

Soros had already been taking the brunt of the blame for the European currency crisis over the past two years. As a financier without ties to the real economy, he could ignore the insults.

The Westeros system, however, could not.

Simon's ambitions were much greater than Soros's. If these accusations stuck, the Westeros system's various industries in Europe could be substantially affected.

Simon despised Hearst Corporation's recent exposes.

Even after a century, this media family that had set the standard for yellow journalism hadn't innovated, still relying on scandal and attacks on opponents.

Unfortunately, if your actions can't cause substantial harm to your enemy, it often becomes a joke.

Simon had been dealing with this with a sense of detachment. The Westeros family's intelligence team had collected plenty of dirt on the Hearst family, but he had been too disinterested to retaliate. After all, if a dog bites you, you don't bite back. Simon aimed to kill the attacking dog with one decisive blow.

After reaching a cooperative agreement with British businessman Joseph Lewis early last year, aside from a symbolic $100 million investment, Simon had only met with him a few times. The Houston Chronicle article had no concrete evidence, merely hearsay.

However, the fact remained that the Westeros system had a cooperative relationship with the Tavistock Group.

So, it couldn't be denied.

Claiming that Simon had only connected with Joseph Lewis after the European currency crisis, even if true, wouldn't be believed by the "skeptical" media and public.

The best response was to ignore it.

Simon had already instructed the core executives of the Westeros system to avoid media interviews as much as possible during this period. The Westeros family's PR team had completely cut off contact with the media, only countering Hearst Corporation's exposes through portal websites and associated newspapers.

The main reason was that Simon disliked lying.

Every lie often requires a thousand more to cover it up, and Simon didn't want to go down that path.

Hearst Corporation's exposes always contained a mix of truth and lies. For example, today's report: the Westeros system did have ties with the Tavistock Group, which was true. Once that was acknowledged, all other accusations became indefensible under the public's "I don't believe it" mentality.

Private preparations were nearly complete. After reviewing today's media brief, Simon decided not to play along with Hearst Corporation anymore. He called George Norman to initiate the "litigation bombing" plan starting next Monday.

In history, Peter Thiel, one of PayPal's founders and a notable Silicon Valley investor, spent ten years and tens of millions of dollars sponsoring various victims with legal disputes against a gossip website that had outed him as gay, ultimately driving the site to bankruptcy.

Simon planned to follow this model.

Compared to a gossip site, Hearst Corporation, with its dozens of newspapers across the US, had accumulated a large number of victims of false or exaggerated reports over the years. US legal fees are notoriously expensive. These victims lacked the capital and strength to fight the powerful Hearst Corporation, often having to accept their fate.

Simon's plan was to find these people, fund them, and launch a series of lawsuits against Hearst Corporation's media.

The Westeros system's ban on Hearst Corporation had already stunted the growth of the old media conglomerate.

Now, to take Hearst Corporation down, Simon was prepared to spare no expense in a litigation bombing strategy, even if it meant spending billions of dollars annually on legal fees.

In US law, litigation is largely a contest of financial resources. The Westeros system would deploy top-notch lawyers for the victims of Hearst media. If Hearst Corporation didn't hire lawyers of the same caliber to fight back, they'd lose the lawsuits and face huge compensations. Hiring equivalent lawyers would still drain their resources, given that their capital was nowhere near the Westeros system's level.

Even if Hearst Corporation won all the lawsuits, the enormous legal costs would severely damage the old media conglomerate, leading to its eventual downfall.

Simple arithmetic: Simon burning $2.5 billion would only be one-eightieth of his current $200 billion personal fortune, barely affecting him. For the Hearst family, with total assets of less than $2.5 billion, burning the same amount would mean bankruptcy.

That's the power of capital.

Previously, victims of Hearst Corporation were crushed by its capital strength. Now, with roles reversed, the Hearst family would be the ones crushed.

Having arranged this, Simon had breakfast. Despite it being Saturday, he still headed to Egret Corporation.

In the morning, he had to listen to Jeff Bezos's report on the development of Egret's overseas network business and discuss the next expansion plan.

For the past two years, Egret had been gradually expanding its operations in Europe, Asia, and Australia, establishing a foothold in major overseas developed countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Australia.

With the growth of internet users overseas outpacing North America last year, Egret's overseas operations needed reinforcement.

Initially, Simon hadn't planned to meet directly with Azim Premji, the Indian businessman Aria had introduced

.

However, after Simon personally made a call last night, Bezos took it seriously and arranged a lunch meeting for Saturday. Simon, having no other plans for lunch, decided to join.

Bezos also took the time to explain to Simon that Premji's Wipro had potential in India. However, Wipro, having only recently ventured into the software business, lagged behind older tech companies in India.

Currently, Wipro was more of a diversified company dealing in personal computers, lighting fixtures, and even oil extraction.

Despite cost-saving through outsourcing, to ensure maximum data security for Egret's software, Bezos and the executives preferred paying extra rather than using Wipro, a newcomer to the software field. This was why Wipro hadn't won any bids in Egret's March software outsourcing tender.

While a single lunch wouldn't provide a complete picture, Premji's familiarity with Egret's software outsourcing needs and his detailed explanation of Wipro's software division management impressed Simon and Bezos. Premji also invited Egret to send a team to India to inspect Wipro's software team and their newly upgraded equipment.

After lunch, as they sent Premji off in a regular taxi, Simon and Bezos decided to give Wipro some business orders.

Egret's software outsourcing orders for Indian companies were already signed, but there were still many that could be outsourced to Wipro, initially small orders, to see how the cooperation worked.

Back at Egret's headquarters in the afternoon, Simon reconvened the Egret Four to detail his idea of creating a dedicated software outsourcing platform.

Even without understanding Simon's underlying ambition to control more jobs worldwide, Tim Berners-Lee and the others immediately saw the potential in the plan.

In fact, similar ideas weren't new.

There were already websites offering such services, including Egret's 58list classifieds, which had sections for hiring temporary programmers. However, these small-scale efforts lacked authority and credibility, hindering growth.

Egret had these advantages.

The entire afternoon was spent discussing the detailed planning of this software outsourcing platform, including its construction, leveraging Egret's strengths, avoiding industry competition, and sustainable business models.

By the time a preliminary project plan was finalized, it was already past eight in the evening.

Platform design, construction, task release systems, and the use of Egret's cloud computing resources would be handled by Bezos and his team. Simon's main suggestion was to create a professional software communication platform, integrating email, instant messaging, file transfer, and information release based on Egret's ICQ.

Historically, enterprise collaboration tools like Alibaba's DingTalk and the US's Slack had been highly successful.

DingTalk, part of Alibaba, is difficult to value separately. Slack, however, was a standalone company, and its IPO valuation easily exceeded $20 billion, showing the immense potential of such platforms.

For good luck, Simon named the software being spun off from ICQ as Slack.

Egret's ICQ, quietly released in 1992, now had over 27 million users worldwide. The business model of this software had puzzled everyone until the launch of "Happy Farm" last week made it clear.

Users were Egret's greatest asset.

Maintaining a large user base meant Egret would eventually find the right business model. Once found, like "Happy Farm," Egret's massive user base would guarantee huge profits.

Alice once wanted ICQ to be the instant messaging tool for Amazon's online store. Simon hadn't agreed but did allow the development of another communication tool, LSD (Let's Deal), specifically for e-commerce. It was now in use.

Including the upcoming Slack, the original ICQ idea had now spun off into three different tools.

Whether ICQ, LSD, or the planned Slack, all were poised to bring enormous profits to Egret.

With numerous core patents on instant messaging, it would be difficult for other companies to compete with Egret. Even if future competitors developed similar products, Egret's massive user base would render them ineffective.

Sunday was Easter.

After the meeting with Egret's Four, Lady A informed Simon that Janet had already returned to Los Angeles with her family and had called to ask when he would be home.

The original plan was to spend two or three hours discussing the software outsourcing platform with Bezos and then attend a meeting at Cisco in the afternoon, returning to Los Angeles in the evening.

But the topic had extended until after eight in the evening.

Planning to spend Easter with his family, Simon decided not to stay overnight in San Francisco. The Cisco meeting was rescheduled for Monday morning via phone. After the meeting, he had dinner with Bezos and the others before flying back to Los Angeles.

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