America's Road to Wealth

On the streets of London, there are crowds of people coming and going, and cars passing by like clouds. Especially the beautiful double-decker buses, with their red color, are very eye-catching.

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

He was wondering whether the scene at Heathrow Airport just now was caused by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or a local person playing tricks.

Fortunately, no matter which possibility it is, it actually has little impact.

At most, it can only disgust him, but it can't even make him sick.

So Abel thought for a moment and put his mind into the surrounding London street scene.

Now in 2002.

The Iron Lady's reform of Britain seemed to be very successful.

She succeeded in making Britain, which was originally very industrially strong, abandon most of its tiring factories and industries on the basis of its economy.

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

Most of the "burden" has been thrown to foreigners.

Such as Americans, French, Germans...

So wise, so wise.

She is also very "smart" in using the service industry, especially the financial industry, as a substitute industry for those industries in the UK.

In the UK, which has a population of less than 60 million, nearly 600,000 people work 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 "Financial Nation" are the current British national policy.

Finally, with the help of the Iron Lady, Britain began to undergo a complete transformation in the 1980s.

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

It is precisely because of this national policy that the United Kingdom, especially London, has become a magnet for the world's richest people.

Relatively low taxes, complete legal system, rich cultural life, convenient language, good education, many professional talents to recruit, time zone located between the Americas and Asia, convenient for taking care of the markets of three continents, and located in Europe, but not in the troubled Eurozone wait.

For the wealthy, London is the perfect city.

As a result, two-thirds of the UK's billionaires are concentrated here. They were either born here, have lived here for a long time, or use London as their business base.

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

Most of the "rich people in the UK" are immigrants, which shows from one aspect the UK's strong attraction to world-class rich people.

The British media proudly believe that the biggest secret to attracting wealthy people is that Britain has low taxes.

The UK is known as a "tax haven". According to statistics from the accounting firm Grant Thornton, the total assets of the top 54 "billionaires" in the UK have reached 126 billion pounds.

On the other hand, the relaxed immigration policy has also attracted many wealthy people to the UK.

For those wealthy people who have "committed crimes" in their own country, the UK will generally not refuse them as long as they request formal asylum.

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

After they could no longer stay in their home countries, they all immediately chose to live in London.

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

What pleases the richest is that British banks and law firms don't ask much about where the money comes from.

Of course, we all know that.

Britain's "education and disinterest" towards wealthy foreigners is actually just a pretense.

When the critical moment comes, the piracy nature of the Unsa people will be exposed as it should.

It's just that in this current era, there are no challengers for the Angsa people.

As an extension of New York and Wall Street, London, where the sun has set on the empire, pretends to be pretty good.

Abel looked at the scenery along the way.

Both sides of the Thames River, as well as near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, are famous attractions in London. After crossing the bridge, you pass by the London Eye.

Only when you look at it up close can you feel that this London Eye is quite impressive.

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

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

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

Apart from nearby Kensington Palace, it may even be the largest residence.

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

The long-awaited owner has returned, and naturally all the people working at No. 1 Garden Street, Kensington Palace, are out in force.

Ms. Joanna, who comes from a family of housekeepers and has worked at Windsor Castle for several years, is the deputy manager of the Smith Family Office and a royal housekeeper. She leads the housekeepers, maids, and maids she has trained over the past year to line up at the door to greet her. The arrival of the master.

Two rows of beautiful young women, all dressed in professional housekeeper costumes or maid costumes, lined up from the door.

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

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

"Welcome back Master..."

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

A feeling of a great European medieval noble arose in my heart.

Look at Joanna and the group of housekeeping talents she has trained and trained.

Abel wanted to say to David next to him

"Now, look, this is called professionalism."

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

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

When we arrived at Kensington Palace Gardens, it was getting dark.

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

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

Abel, who was walking behind him, looked at the housekeeper and maids in front of him, whose backs were tightly wrapped in professional suits with exaggerated curves.

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

It seems that the money I spent in the past year on training Joanna to train professional housekeepers and maids in Kensington Palace Gardens was not in vain!

Abel was guided to the bedroom without even saying a word or making a single unnecessary movement.

The beautiful maid, under the command of the beautiful housekeeper, helped him open the closet, took out the bathrobe, took off his 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 with tumbling water, two beautiful maids who had absolutely many suitors outside smiled and stepped forward to take a shower and scrub his body.

"call--"

Taking a long breath, Abel couldn't help but sigh -

When it comes to tormenting people, the culture of the old and young of this old empire is professional enough!

No wonder the wealthy Americans are rushing to hire these professional British butlers.

I have to say that from the perspective of the enjoyer, it is really worth the money.

Snapped--

Abel, who closed his eyes slightly and enjoyed the top-notch service, snapped his fingers: "Mobile phone..."

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

With his eyes closed, Abel thought for a moment. Since he was in Europe, of course he would call his European girls over.

"Call Sophie Marceau and Penélope Cruz."

Paris France.

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

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

The ripples named Smith quickly spread throughout the European entertainment media world.

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

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

Most of the investments in these film and television dramas are around US$10 million to US$20 million.

An investment budget of this level, if it were in Hollywood, could only be considered a small and medium-sized investment at best.

However, this level of investment can often be considered a large investment in the European film and television circles.

Therefore, the collaboration between Vivendi and Smith naturally caused a huge response in the European film circle.

A large number of European entertainment media people have benefited from the "European Star" plan.

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

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

The two movies with the largest investment were one in which she was the heroine, and one in which Sophie was the most important supporting role.

There is also a TV series that Vivendi actively invested in and filmed, and Smith provided part of the financing, and she also served as the heroine.

There is certainly a reason why a big star like Sophie Marceau, who started out as a movie star, is willing to star in a TV series.

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

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

Vivendi plans to adapt and film based on the deeds of Queen Marie Antoinette in history books, as well as "The Beheaded Queen" written by Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig.

The famous line "She was too young at that time and did not know that all the gifts given by fate had already been secretly marked with a price" was said by Stephen Zweig in "The Beheaded Queen".

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

And she is one of the most famous actresses in Europe.

Sophie Marceau, who had been somewhat silent and planned to go to Hollywood, became popular in Europe again.

Movies and TV series are still being filmed.

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

She has been very busy during this time.

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

At this moment, she is in Paris and has just finished shooting the endorsement advertisement for L'Oreal's latest lipstick.

In the dressing room, Sophie sat on a chair.

She was only wearing a rice-red silk nightgown at the moment. She stretched out her hand to straighten the front of her nightgown, flattening the gap where she could fully view her side peaks, and her slender and beautiful pair of beautiful moonlights relaxed and stretched.

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

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

In order to show off L'Oreal's Black Tube 666 lipstick, Sophie's face was made up with very bright makeup.

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

The older the actress, the more she pays attention to self-care.

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

A black female assistant walked over quickly with an expressionless face and handed the phone to Sophie Marceau.

Sophie glanced at the other person. She didn't like the black female assistant very much.

She didn't even like the bodyguards and assistants who followed her.

Because these people, they are all Americans.

They were all the people that that hateful guy arranged around her in order to monitor her.

Although these personnel have brought her convenience in many aspects.

Make her life and work very simple and enjoyable.

She felt that she might not be able to buy this kind of service on her own.

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

At least Sophie Marceau thinks so.

Pretentiousness is one of the labels of a demented literary woman.

After taking the phone, Sophie Marceau looked at the display. Her beautiful eyebrows suddenly wrinkled. She turned back 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, glanced back at the black female assistant angrily, walked into the lounge, and closed the door behind him.

"Hey, my French sweetheart. I'm in London right now and I was hoping to see you."

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

This voice made Sophie Marceau's heart palpitate.

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

Before answering the phone, Sophie Marceau had already thought about responding to him angrily.

It made him feel that French Kiss, even if it was forced, would never surrender so easily in his heart.

But now that I hear his voice, I don’t know what happened.

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

Why is my voice so weak?

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

She felt like she still hated this bastard.

"Then come over. Come over with Cruz. I have already called her. She is also in Paris. I will send you all over by plane."

"Oh, my little French sweetheart. You don't know how much I miss you two. Tsk tsk, you are the two most unlovable goddesses in Europe. I can't wait to hold you two in my arms and play happily in the bathtub."

"I miss you so much..."

"And that..."

Listening to Abel's unbridled teasing on the phone.

Sophie Marceau became a little irritated by the various details she was familiar with.

She wanted to rebuke loudly, but when she thought about that situation.

France Kiss's bright eyes could not help but make water mist rise.

"Don't tell me."

"After you pack up, just ask the people around you to bring you here. To be honest, I can't wait to see you. Oh, Sophie, you will soon know how much I miss you."

"Mon Dieu, mon oncle."

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

Abel naturally heard it, and he guessed that it was not a good thing.

He didn't understand it anyway, so he simply didn't care.

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

The other party hung up the phone and cursed Sophie Marceau with a French curse. It was useless to curse her again.

Snapped--

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

But a few minutes later, the arrogant and artistic young woman, the so-called demented literary woman, still walked out expressionlessly.

Then she asked the makeup artist to help her remove her makeup and re-create a makeup that matched her temperament and the type that she liked better.

She didn't have to wait for her to go back to pack her things, there were rock security staff around her to help her sort everything out.

Sophie Marceau only needed to get in the car and the motorcade headed directly to Charles de Gaulle Airport.

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

So in fact, after Abel made the call, he would be able to see her within two hours at most.

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

Sure enough, on the plane.

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

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

Sophie Marceau knew this Cruz.

She is Penelope Cruz's sister, the dear one, and her name is Monica Cruz.

Monica Cruz is also an actress and a model.

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

"Hi, Petunia and Monica."

Sophie was stunned for a moment, but still took the initiative to say hello.

In fact, Sophie Marceau and Penelope Cruz were not very familiar with each other before.

One of them is in France and the other is in Spain, so they are not in the same circles.

It was only since the two of them had been honest with each other many times under the influence of someone.

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

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

But she was not familiar with Monica Cruz. She had only met him twice, and they only called her by name.

"Hey Sophie! Good evening."

When Sophie came up, Penelope was reading a book.

Seeing "comrades" appear.

Spain's national treasure goddess looks happy.

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

The little transparent Monica Cruz also greeted the big star in a flattering way:

"Good evening, dear Mademoiselle Sophie Marceau."

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

"What are you looking at?"

In Sophie's impression, Penelope was not someone who loved reading.

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

This means that generally speaking, European-born actresses who become famous in Europe are relatively artistic.

Penelope Cruz became famous in Europe, but she is not artistic at all. Instead, she is very "commercial" and is not liked by mainstream European film people.

That's why Penelope Cruz went to Hollywood relatively early.

Because all Hollywood actresses are Penelope.

Penelope, who is not artistic enough and doesn't like reading, is reading.

Sophie was naturally curious and asked.

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

Penelope chuckled and raised the thick magazine in her hand.

"European Spectator? Never heard of that magazine."

Sophie was curious.

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

She pointed to a pile of magazines next to her.

"The price is 12 euros per serving, which is so expensive."

In this era in the United States, magazine pricing did not differ much regardless of monthly, weekly, or thickness. The mainstream pricing was US$4-6.

European magazine pricing is slightly more expensive than in the United States, with the normal price being 6-8 euros.

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

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

But she couldn't help but pick up a copy of "European Observer" and opened it.

This is the French version of "European Observer". It is relatively thick and seems to have a lot of content.

She glanced at the catalog and turned directly to the first article, which was titled "Smith's Golden Age."

This title aroused her curiosity, and Sophie Marceau began to read it carefully.