America’s Road To Wealth

  Chapter 463 European Goddesses

  On the streets of London, the people coming and going, the cars passing by like a cloud, especially the beautiful double-decker bus, the red color, is very eye-catching.

  Sitting in his Cadillac monster, Abel was in a normal mood.

  He was guessing that the scene at Heathrow Airport just now was caused by the Neon Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or by the locals.

   Fortunately, no matter what the possibility is, it doesn't actually have a big impact.

   At best, he can only disgust him, and he can't even do it.

  So Abel thought for a while, and he put his spirit into the surrounding London street scene.

   Now in 2002.

  The iron lady's reforms to Britain seemed to be very successful.

  She successfully made Britain, which was originally a strong industrial force, abandon most of the tiring factories and industries on the basis of the economy.

  Under her leadership, a series of state-owned companies in the UK that were originally very competitive were privatized one after another.

  Most of the "burdens" are left to foreigners.

   Such as Americans, French, Germans...

  Too wise and powerful, too wise.

  She is very "smart" to use the service industry, especially the financial industry, as a substitute industry to replace those industries in the UK.

   Britain, with a population of less than 60 million, has nearly 600,000 people engaged in the financial industry...

   This number has reached one percent.

   What's more, there are as many as two to three million people who indirectly serve this group of people.

   It can be said that the four words of building a country through finance are the current British national policy.

  Finally, with the help of the Iron Lady, Britain has undergone a complete transformation since the 1980s.

  The current UK has been completely transformed into a service-oriented country, mainly relying on finance and other tertiary industries to support the people of the country.

   It is precisely because of this national policy that Britain, especially London, has become a "magnet" for the world's rich.

Relatively low tax, perfect legal system, rich cultural life, convenient language, good education, many professionals can be recruited, the time zone is located in the middle of America and Asia, it is convenient to take into account the markets of three continents, and it is located in Europe, but not in the troubled Eurozone wait.

   For the rich, London is the perfect city.

  Therefore, two-thirds of the billionaires in the UK are concentrated here. They are either born here, or live here for a long time, or regard London as their business base.

  London is certainly an economic and cultural capital with a long history, but compared with emerging financial centers such as New York, Singapore, Dubai, and Monaco, it seems to be a little less "modern", but it can still attract so many new rich people.

  The "rich people in the UK" are mostly outsiders, which shows from one aspect that Britain is very attractive to world-class rich people.

  British media proudly believe that the biggest secret to attract rich people in Britain is: British tax is low.

  Britain is known as a "tax evasion paradise". According to statistics from Grant Thornton International, the total assets of the top 54 "billionaires" in the UK alone reached 126 billion pounds

  On the other hand, the loose immigration policy has also attracted many rich people to the UK.

  For those rich people who have "committed crimes" in their own country, as long as they apply for legal asylum, the UK generally does not refuse them.

  Many bear oligarchs, such as Berezovsky, Abramovich and others.

  After they could not stay in their home countries, they all chose to live in London for the first time.

  Although most of them do not have British nationality, they enjoy the same treatment as British citizens.

   What pleases the rich most is that British banks and law firms don't ask questions like "where does the money come from?"

   Of course, we all know that.

  Britain's "education without distinction" for foreign rich people is actually just a pretense.

   When the critical moment came, the pirate nature of the Ansar people should be exposed as it should be.

   It's just in the current era when there is no challenger for the Angsa people.

  As an extension of New York and Wall Street, London, the empire of the sunset, is not badly disguised.

  Abel looked at the scenery along the way.

  The banks of the Thames River, and near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are famous attractions in London. Cross the bridge and pass by the London Eye.

   Only when you look at it up close can you feel the London Eye, which is still very imposing.

   Drive all the way through Prince of Wales Street and King's Road.

  Abel's convoy finally arrived at No. 1 Garden Street, Kensington Palace.

   This house, which is now named "Smith House", is one of the largest buildings in the entire Kensington Palace Garden Street.

   It may even be the largest residence, aside from nearby Kensington Palace.

   Covering an area of ​​18,589 square meters, it is truly a high-end mansion in a place where every inch of land is expensive in the heart of London.

  The long-awaited master returned, and the people working in No. 1 Garden Street, Kensington Palace, naturally all dispatched.

Ms. Joanna, who was born in a butler family and had worked in Windsor Castle for several years, was the deputy manager of the Smith family office and a royal butler. She led the butlers, maids, and maids she had trained in the past year, and lined up at the door to welcome Mrs. The arrival of the master.

  All beautiful young women, all dressed in professional butler costumes, or two rows of maid costumes, lined up from the door.

  Abel got off at the gate of the manor villa and walked inside.

  Joanna took the lead and bent slightly, and said softly: "Welcome back, master."

   "Welcome the master back..."

  The greetings sounded at the same time, crisp or clear or charming, which looked and sounded spectacular.

  A feeling of a European medieval aristocrat, spontaneously born in my heart.

  Looking at Joanna, and the batch of domestic talents she cultivated and trained.

  Abel wanted to say to David next to him

   "Hey, look, this is called professional."

   But he didn't, he just smiled at Joanna, kept his master's reserve, and walked into the manor.

  When Abel came from India, it was already relatively late.

  When we arrived at the garden of Kensington Palace, it was getting dark now.

  Abel asked Joanna to prepare dinner directly. After dinner, he planned to take a bath.

  The butler, Joanna, arranged for a beautiful housekeeper and two maids to guide Abel to the master bathroom.

  Abel, who was walking behind, looked at the housekeeper and maids in front of him, who were tightly wrapped in professional suits to form an exaggerated figure.

  He once again praised Joanna's work achievements in the past year.

   It seems that in the past year, the money I spent on the garden of Kensington Palace, allowing Joanna to train professional housekeepers and maids, was not wasted!

  Abel was led to the bedroom, and he didn't even need to say a word or make a superfluous movement during the whole process.

   There is a beautiful maid, under the command of the beautiful housekeeper, to help him open the closet, take out the bathrobe, take off the original clothes for him, and put on a comfortable velvet bathrobe.

  The maids continued to guide him to the spacious bathroom.

  When he sat in the whirlpool bathtub, two beautiful maids who were definitely pursuing him outside smiled and stepped forward to shower and scrub his body.

   "Huh—"

   Letting out a long breath, Abel couldn't help feeling—

   In terms of tossing people, the old and young culture of this old empire is professional enough!

   No wonder the local rich in the United States are scrambling to hire these professional British butlers.

   I have to say, from the point of view of enjoyrs, it is really worth the money.

Snapped-

   Closed his eyes slightly, Abel, who enjoyed the top service, snapped his fingers: "Mobile phone..."

  The beautiful housekeeper brought the waterproof satellite phone over in the shortest possible time.

   Abel with his eyes closed thought for a while, since he was in Europe, of course he called his European girls over.

   "Call Sophie Marceau and Penelope Cruz."

Paris France.

  Since the entertainment department of the Vivendi Group signed a cooperation agreement with Smith Media in the United States and jointly launched a "European Star" project.

  The European entertainment industry, which was originally stagnant, seemed to have been dropped by a super bomb, causing huge ripples.

  The ripples named Smith quickly spread throughout the entire European entertainment and media circles.

  Since July last year, the "European Star" program has been launched.

  Smith Media and Vivendi have jointly invested in a total of 17 films and TV series in Europe.

  In these film and television dramas, most of the investment is around 10 million US dollars to 20 million US dollars.

  An investment budget of this level, if it is in Hollywood, can only be regarded as a small and medium-sized investment at best.

  But this level of investment is often considered a big investment in the European film and television circles.

  So the combination of Vivendi and Smith naturally caused a huge repercussions in the European film circle.

  A large number of European entertainment and media professionals benefited from the "European Star" program.

  Among them, Sophie Marceau, who has become famous in France and is known as the kiss of France, has benefited a lot.

  In the 17 film and television dramas of the "European Star" project.

   The two films with the largest investment, one with her as the heroine, and one with Sophie as the most important supporting role.

   There is also a TV series in which Vivendi strongly advocates investment and shooting, and Smith bears part of the funds. She also serves as the heroine.

  There is a reason why Sophie Marceau, a big star who made her debut as a movie star, is willing to act in a TV series.

  Because this is a TV series with an investment budget of 80 million euros. According to the current exchange rate, if converted into US dollars, the investment budget is almost hundreds of millions of dollars.

  Vivendi is going to film the life of Marie Antoinette, the famous "Queen of the Beheaded" in French history.

  Vivendi intends to adapt and shoot based on the deeds of Queen Marie Antoinette in the history books, plus "Queen of the Decapitated" written by Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig.

  The famous line "She was too young at that time, didn't know all the gifts from fate, and the price had already been secretly marked" was said by Stefan Zweig in "Queen of the Dead".

  Two "big movies" in the eyes of Europeans, plus a "big drama" in the eyes of Europeans.

   and herself is one of the most famous actresses in Europe.

  Already quiet, Sophie Marceau, who planned to go to Hollywood to develop, became popular again in Europe.

   Movies and TV shows are still being filmed.

  Sophie Marceau has regained the endorsement of a large number of European and even international brands in Europe and even in the world.

   She has been extremely busy during this period of time.

  She has to find time to shoot commercials and endorse MVs in addition to filming tasks for movies and TV series.

   Like at this moment, she is in Paris and has just finished filming the endorsement advertisement of L'Oreal's latest lipstick.

  In the dressing room, Sophie sat on a chair.

  At this moment, she was only wearing a beige red silk nightgown, and stretched out her hands to straighten the front of her nightgown, flattening the gap where she could see her side peaks, and the slender and beautiful pair of beautiful moons stretched out.

  On the fair and delicate bare feet, the red nail polish is particularly conspicuous.

  The makeup artist held makeup remover in her hand and began to quickly remove her makeup.

  In order to show off L'Oreal's clarinet 666 lipstick, the makeup on Sophie's face is very gorgeous.

  After the filming ended, Sophie Marceau couldn't wait to remove her makeup. She didn't want her skin to suffer.

  The older actresses pay more attention to self-care.

   "Ms. Marceau, your phone number..."

  A black female assistant walked over quickly with a blank expression, and handed the phone to Sophie Marceau.

  Sophie glanced at the other party, she didn't like this black female assistant very much.

   She doesn't even like the few bodyguards and assistants who follow her.

   Because of these people, they are all Americans.

  It’s all that nasty guy who arranged people around her in order to monitor her.

  Although these personnel have brought her many conveniences.

   It makes her life and work very simple and enjoyable.

  This kind of service, she felt that she might not be able to buy it by herself.

   But that didn't stop her from hating them as much as she hated that rude Yankee.

  At least Sophie Marceau thinks so.

   Hypocritical is one of the labels of a demented woman.

   Picking up the phone, Sophie Marceau looked at it, her beautiful eyebrows frowned, and she turned to the makeup artist and said, "Wait a minute, I'll answer the phone first..."

   As he spoke, he stood up from his seat with a cotton pad soaked in lotion, turned his head and glanced at the black female assistant angrily, walked into the lounge, and closed the door behind him.

   "Hey, my little Frenchie. I'm in London now and I hope to see you."

  As soon as the phone was connected, it was Abel's voice.

  This voice made Sophie Marceau's mood throbbing.

  Actually, she didn't know whether she hated him or had some special feelings for him.

  Before answering the phone, Sophie Marceau had already thought about it and wanted to respond to him with a vicious voice.

  Let him feel that French Kiss, even if he is persecuted, will never surrender so easily in his heart.

   But now hearing his voice, I don't know what's wrong.

  Sophie's voice became soft: "Have you arrived in London? Where are you now? Then I'll go there?"

  Why is my voice so weak?

  I didn't give in, I just pretended to be a snake with him.

  She felt that she still hated this bastard's heart.

   "Come here then. Come with Cruz, I've called her, she's in Paris too. I'll have someone fly me and bring you all here together."

   "Oh, my little French sweetheart. You don't know how much I miss you two, tsk tsk, the second most beloved goddess in Europe. I can't wait to hug you now and play happily in the bathtub."

   "I miss you that..."

   "And that..."

   Listening to Abel's unscrupulous teasing on the phone.

   Described all the details she was familiar with, Sophie Marceau became a little annoyed.

  She wanted to reprimand loudly, but when she thought of that situation.

   French Kiss has a pair of bright eyes, and the mist can't help but rise.

   "Stop talking."

   "You pack up and just let the people around you bring you here. Seriously, I can't wait to see you all. Oh, Sophie, you'll soon know how much I miss you."

   "Mon Dieu, mononcle."

  Sophie Marceau finally couldn't bear it anymore, and cursed softly in French.

  Abel heard it naturally, and he guessed that it should not be a good word.

   He couldn't understand it anyway, so he just didn't bother to understand it.

   "That's it. Wait for you to come over."

  The other side hung up the phone and scolded Sophie Marceau, who spoke foul French. It was useless to try to scold again.

Snapped-

  She smashed the phone on the ground, and it fell apart.

  But a few minutes later, the tsundere literary young woman, the so-called demented literary woman, walked out with a blank expression.

  Then asked the makeup artist to remove the makeup for her, and recreated a makeup that fits her temperament and someone prefers.

   There is no need to wait for her to go back to pack her things, there are rock security staff beside her to help her organize everything.

  Sophie Marceau only needs to get in the car, and the team goes directly to Charles de Gaulle Airport.

   It only takes about an hour to fly from Paris to London.

  So in fact, Abel will be able to see her in two hours at most after the phone call.

  When Sophie Marceau arrived at the airport and boarded an Airbus A320 owned by Air France.

   Sure enough, on the plane.

  She met the famous Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, the Spanish national treasure goddess named by someone just now.

   Before Sophie had time to say hello to Penelope, she saw another Cruz next to Cruz.

   This Cruz, Sophie Marceau knows.

  She's Penelope Cruz's sister, the kiss kind, her name is Monica Cruz.

  Monica Cruz is also an actress and a model.

  But compared to her already famous sister, Monica, who looks exactly like Penelope, is just a little transparent in the European entertainment circle.

   "Hi, Penny and Monica."

  Sophie was taken aback for a moment, but she still took the initiative to say hello.

  Actually, Sophie Marceau and Penelope Cruz were not very familiar with them before.

  One of the two is in France, the other is in Spain, and they are not in the same circle.

   It's only since the two of them have been frank with each other many times under the influence of someone.

   Even if you were not familiar with it before, you can't help but become familiar with it now.

  So French Kiss was just called Penelope's nickname "Penny".

  But she is not familiar with Monica Cruz, she has only met twice, and she just calls her by name.

   "Hey, Sophie! Good evening."

   When Sophie came up, Penelope was reading a book.

   See "comrades" appear.

  Spanish national treasure Goddess looks happy.

  She entertained Sophie with a smile, and motioned for Sophie to come and sit beside her.

  Little transparent Monica Cruz, at this time also greets the big star in a flattering way:

   "Good evening, dear Miss Sophie Marceau."

  Sophie responded to Penelope's sister, then sat down beside Penelope, and looked curiously at the book in her hand.

"What are you looking at?"

  In Sophie's impression, Penelope is not someone who likes to read books.

   This Spanish actress is a very non-European European actress.

  This refers to European-born actresses who are generally famous in Europe, and they are more literary.

   Penelope Cruz became famous in Europe, but she is not literary at all, but very "commercial", and she is not liked by mainstream European filmmakers.

  That's why Penelope Cruz went to Hollywood to develop earlier.

  Because Hollywood actresses are all Penelope.

  At the moment, Penelope, who doesn't like reading, is reading a book.

  Sophie naturally asked questions curiously.

   "It's not a book, it's a magazine!"

   Penelope smiled lightly and raised the thick magazine in her hand.

   "Euro Observer? Never heard of that magazine."

   Sophie was curious.

Penelope smiled: "This is our man, the first issue of his magazine launched in Europe. The first report above is about our man, so I bought dozens of copies, promise-"

  She pointed to a stack of magazines next to her.

   "One serving is priced at 12 euros, which is very expensive."

  In the United States in this era, no matter how thick or thin the magazine is, there is not much difference in the pricing of magazines. The mainstream price is 4-6 dollars.

  European magazines are slightly more expensive than in the United States, and the normal price is 6-8 euros.

  The price of 12 euros per copy, whether it is a monthly or a quarterly magazine, is relatively expensive.

  Although Sophie doesn't like Penelope's "our man" title.

  But she couldn't help herself, picked up a copy of "European Observer" and flipped through it.

  This is the French version of "Europe Observer", which is relatively thick and seems to have a lot of content.

  She glanced at the catalog and turned directly to the first article. The title of the article was—"Smith's Golden Age".

  The title aroused her curiosity, and Sophie Marceau read it carefully.

  (end of this chapter)