Malibu.
Perhaps due to jet lag, Janette woke up first.
Faint morning light streamed into the bedroom through the curtains; it was still early.
Feeling the man's presence beside her, Janette snuggled up to Simon, enjoying the feeling of skin-on-skin contact.
She leaned over, kissed him on the face, then nestled back into his chest and closed her eyes again.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist, pulling them even closer.
Knowing Simon was also awake, Janette rubbed her cheek against his chest, her voice soft and husky, greeting him, "Good morning".
"Mmm…"
Hearing his weak response, Janette chuckled a few times, then playfully bit him, saying, "You little rascal, you almost wore me out last night".
Simon only hummed in response again.
Although Janette said this, there was no hint of blame in her words, but rather a sense of profound happiness.
The fact that he could torment her like a hungry little tiger meant he must have been very restrained in Los Angeles, not getting involved with other women.
She didn't mind if he had affairs outside, but she was naturally very happy that he could be so discreet.
After a while of cuddling, feeling wide awake, Janette got up and started dressing, declaring that she would prepare breakfast herself.
Simon also got out of bed.
Today is Saturday, November 18th, 1989.
Leaving the bedroom, it was only a quarter past six.
There were no work arrangements for the weekend, so everything could be done at a leisurely pace.
They played tennis for half an hour on the court.
Janette went to prepare breakfast, while Simon sat at the dining table, flipping through the day's newspapers.
These days, the turmoil in Eastern Europe was intensifying.
The Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, and German reunification was now inevitable.
Out of an instinctive fear of a unified Germany, and to prevent this from happening, countries like Britain, France, and Italy, who had just been allies, immediately turned hostile, issuing warnings that amounted to threats of war.
They even threatened that if the two Germanies sought reunification, the UK, France, and Italy would form an alliance with the Soviet Union for military intervention.
Because of this volatile situation, where war could break out at any moment, James Raybould had more than once advised Simon to at least postpone the acquisition of Nokia's mobile communication equipment division.
After all, if war broke out, Finland, which directly bordered the Soviet Union, could be affected, and hundreds of millions of dollars would effectively be wasted.
Simon knew very well that no war would occur this time and did not follow James's advice.
Now was the best time to take over Nokia; once the situation in Eastern Europe stabilized, it would certainly not be so easy to acquire Nokia's entire mobile communication equipment division for two hundred million dollars.
While reading several newspaper discussions on the European situation, Simon also discovered another interesting piece of news: the Bush administration had suddenly halted a $2.3 billion loan to Iraq yesterday, citing suspicions that the money might be used by Saddam to produce weapons of mass destruction.
So the 'weapons of mass destruction' trope originated this early eh….
Since the 'US-Iraq Business Forum' in the middle of the year, Simon had been secretly monitoring the situation in the Middle East.
This news meant that after failing to seize Iraq's oil sovereignty, the Bush administration had officially begun to move against Saddam.
Simon marked the news item, which was to be kept as a clipping, and was about to check the reviews of several new films released yesterday, when Janette walked into the dining room with two plates of breakfast.
Temporarily setting aside a stack of newspapers, Simon took the food.
Janette, as usual, sat beside Simon, leaned over, glanced at the news he had just marked, then pouted and said, "A clumsy excuse".
Simon smiled and said, "Everyone is civilized; an excuse still needs to be found".
Janette was actually also concerned about this matter, as Cersi Capital's operational focus for next year was on oil.
However, she wasn't in the mood to talk about work at the moment.
She hummed in agreement and then changed the subject, saying, "I've already had Sophia prepare our itinerary. Tomorrow, we're going to Europe, staying a week in each city where we own property, eating delicious food, visiting fun places, and we can personally pick out more houses in other cities. Oh, and who knows, we might even run into a war".
Simon glanced at the woman's flushed face, which showed a hint of excitement, and asked, "Are you really hoping for a war?"
"Yes, it's quite thrilling to watch humanity gradually move towards self-destruction".
Simon was a pessimist who, deep down, believed that humanity would ultimately lead to its own destruction.
In this respect, Janette was similar to him, but her thoughts were even more radical; she wanted to personally destroy the world.
Hearing this, Simon merely smiled and asked, "Aren't you afraid of being affected yourself?"
"No, if things look bad, we'll immediately hide in Australia".
If a third world war broke out, the safest place in the world would probably be Australia in the Southern Hemisphere.
Tasmania, which Simon had chosen, happened to be the southernmost point in the world outside the Antarctic continent, making it even safer.
Thinking of this, Simon said half-jokingly, "Perhaps we can build a doomsday bunker in Tasmania, so even if a nuclear war breaks out, we won't be afraid".
Doomsday bunkers were not actually an original concept from the 'Fallout' game.
During the decades-long Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, due to fears of nuclear war, many shelters were indeed built across the United States to escape nuclear attacks.
"Good idea. We can have someone draw up a plan in the coming days", Janette nodded in agreement.
Speaking of which, she added, "Oh, Auntie is helping us negotiate for another piece of woodland in west-central Tasmania. This time, the plot is very large, over 6,000 square kilometres. The Tasmanian government originally planned to designate it as a state nature reserve.
As long as we can ensure the ecological integrity is maintained and the environment is not damaged, and we can provide an additional income for the state government, there shouldn't be a problem acquiring this land".
Simon already owned about 150,000 acres of land on Tasmania, the largest of which was a woodland of over 500 square kilometres along the Arthur River in northwestern Tasmania, which cost him $7 million at the time.
Calculated at 247 acres per square kilometre, over 6,000 square kilometres of woodland would be approximately 1.5 million acres, directly increasing Simon's private land holdings tenfold.
At the same time, the total area of Tasmania is 68,000 square kilometres, so acquiring this woodland would mean Simon owned nearly one-tenth of Tasmania's land.
Thinking about this, Simon asked, "How much will it cost?"
Janette said, "It's still being discussed, but as long as we take over according to the standards of a state nature reserve and don't seek economic profit, the Tasmanian government's offer shouldn't exceed $100 million, and the price after negotiation will definitely be lower. I have the material, I can show it to you after breakfast".
As they chatted, they finished breakfast, and Janette took out the information about the land Veronica was negotiating for Simon.
Due to some minor matters in Los Angeles, they did not immediately fly to Europe but stayed for another day, checking the construction progress of the villa at Point Dumé Estate.
At noon, they also accepted a lunch invitation from Christopher Skase, chairman of Qintex.
Influenced by Simon, the acquisition of MGM by Australia's Qintex Group was already a done deal.
Given this, Simon no longer treated Christopher Skase as coldly as he initially did.
By establishing good relations now, if the Qintex Group became unsustainable, Simon could more conveniently arrange for other Australian capital to take over MGM.
The afternoon and evening schedules were also packed.
Thus, the next day, they boarded the Boeing 767 early in the morning, flying from Los Angeles, making a brief stop in New York to pick up the Westeros Company acquisition team, who were heading to Europe for final negotiations with Nokia.
The group flew directly to Helsinki, Finland.
Upon arrival in Helsinki, it was not yet six o'clock local time.
It was deep winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the nights were longer near the Arctic Circle; at six in the morning, Helsinki was still shrouded in darkness.
Nokia sent cars to pick up James Raybould and the others, and the Boeing 767 took off again, heading for Florence.
Simon and Janette's 'first stop' on this European trip was London; going to Florence was only because many things Sophia had prepared for them were there, including several maids and chefs who would be responsible for their daily needs.
After several transfers, Simon and Janette finally settled into a villa on the famous Kensington Palace Gardens in central London on the evening of November 20th.
The long journey of over 15,000 kilometres, thanks to the luxurious Boeing 767, did not leave them feeling much long-distance travel fatigue, apart from the jet lag.
On the plane, Janette also detailed the operating results of Cersi Capital's 6th to 10th sub-funds during this period.
After the 'mini-crash' of the US stock market on October 13th, Cersi Capital gained a massive $1.6 billion in the following week alone by closing out S&P 500 index futures and various other stock and bond short positions.
In the more than a month that followed, as the North American stock market quickly stabilized, after securing the initial, most lucrative profits, Cersi Capital also began to slowly manage its remaining positions with patience.
As of November 17th, Cersi Capital's 6th to 10th sub-funds had generated an additional $700 million in profit on top of the initial $1.6 billion.
Therefore, excluding the 1st to 5th sub-funds held by the Japanese, the net asset value of Cersi Capital attributable to Simon and other investors had reached $7.3 billion.
After discussions, Simon and Janette planned to completely liquidate all positions in the US junk bond market by the end of December and then shift their focus to the oil futures market.
The memory of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was August 2, 1990, during which time crude oil prices surged rapidly.
However, before the Kuwait War, in order to pressure Iraq into taking military action against Kuwait, Western countries, in conjunction with major Middle Eastern oil producers, significantly suppressed oil prices through increased production.
International crude oil prices once fell to $13 per barrel; therefore, the first half of the year could be used for short selling.