America's Road to Wealth

The time came to September 9, 2002, and there were only two days left before September 11.

This afternoon, near the Swan Wharf in Great Neck Town.

Great Neck is located on the border of Queens, New York City and Nassau County, Long Island. Its convenient transportation and good school district make it one of the gathering places for wealthy people in New York.

Swan Wharf is a small peninsula extending to the sea facing the Atlantic Ocean in Great Neck.

When the Europeans first came to colonize, the Swan Wharf was used as a material transportation wharf.

Now the wharf has long been abandoned, and "Swan Wharf" is only used as a place name, and there is no big wharf on it.

Of course, since it is by the sea. There are still some small piers in the villas and manors of the rich.

The weather was sunny, the sky was cloudless, and the breeze was blowing. It was the best time of the year in New York State.

Standing at the door of his own courtyard, William, a wealthy local resident, looked curiously at the many vehicles with various New York City license plates driving past on the asphalt path outside the door from time to time. Most of them are luxury cars, such as Maybach, Rolls Royce, Cadillac, Lincoln and so on.

These luxury cars are not uncommon in Great Neck Town. After all, this is one of the well-known rich areas in New York, and the conditions of those who can live here are not too bad.

But today they appear in such a large number and with such a high frequency in Great Neck Town, and they are still limited to the vicinity of Swan Wharf, which is somewhat rare.

"Hey, William, good afternoon. Don't you think it's a little strange? There are not so many cars in normal times. They are all good cars. Look, Maybach 62s, luxury cars worth more than three hundred thousand dollars!"

When William was looking at the car with fascination, the voice of his neighbor Albert Wachter came from not far away.

Erberhard Wachter was a lawyer, upper middle class, barely affluent class.

The car that Erberhard usually drives is a BMW 7 Series, worth more than 100,000 US dollars, much richer than William.

The two are neighbors, and both live in Great Neck Town. William is also a small businessman, and his family conditions are not bad.

"Yeah, it's a strange phenomenon. It's really strange that so many luxury vehicles appear in our small place at once."

Swan Wharf is not an important place in Great Neck Town. Although the scenery is beautiful, it is actually relatively remote.

William replied to the neighbor's barrister with a smile. In the United States, most of the time, lawyers make more money than small businessmen like him, and their social status is higher.

"I did hear a rumor from one of my big clients. He also wanted to come to us today, but he said he was not qualified to come."

William heard Albert approaching, and said to himself mysteriously through a fence.

He hurried up, also using a gossip tone, and whispered curiously: "What kind of rumors?"

"You know the super mansion at No. 227?" Eberhard said softly after seeing him approaching.

William thought for a moment, then asked uncertainly, "Are you referring to the exaggeratedly large villa that occupies the entire rear part of Swan Pier?"

"Yes." Albert Wachter nodded and said:

"I once accompanied one of my clients, went in and looked at the house. It was a super luxurious manor house with 23 bedrooms and 27.5 bathrooms. At that time, the client liked it very much and wanted to buy it. The seller quoted $35 million, My clients find it a bit expensive and want to bargain."

William's class allowed him to live reasonably well, better than most Americans. But he is not yet a rich man, he can only be said to be a rich man. Not as good as a barrister like Albert Wachter.

Erberhard Wachter was not much richer than Wilhelm. But his occupation and social status, the social level that he can come into contact with, is obviously much older than the small businessman William.

William listened with relish, and subconsciously asked, "And then? I mean the back?"

"And the next day." Eberhard Wachter continued with a smile:

"The real estate company told my client that someone offered $36 million and asked him if he wanted to keep up. My client refused, and the house was sold to another buyer by the real estate company for $36 million. gone."

A $36 million mansion. William sighed, feeling that he would never be able to live in this life.

Although his house is actually not bad, the value is about 3 million US dollars.

This can already be regarded as a very good house in the United States, especially in a low-key wealthy area like Great Neck.

"What does this have to do with these cars today? Oh..." William suddenly realized, "You mean, these cars are going to the mansion at No. 227 Swan Wharf?"

"That's the reason. But my rumor is outrageous. My big client told me that the owner of the house at No. 227 is probably Abel Smith."

"Abel Smith!" William's eyes widened when he heard the name, and his tone was a little excited: "You mean Mr. the richest man in the world, he lives near us? My God, from my house to there, It's only three miles at most!"

Eberhard Wachter glanced at William with disdain, and said:

"I know what you're thinking, William. You're wondering if there's a chance you'll be Smith's neighbor, and then some chance encounter, and you're going to fly, aren't you?"

William said with a sneer: "Well, I thought so. But in the autobiographies of many legendary businessmen and entrepreneurs, don't such things often happen? Even Rockefeller, he was also influenced by Vanderbilt. After being favored, it really began to rise."

"Do you also believe the things in the story?" Albert Wachter shook his head and smiled, "Even if it is true, the probability is very, very low. What's more, I want to say, dear William. In our kind of In the eyes of people, the mansion at No. 227 is super prominent, and we wish we could live in it 365 days a year. But in the eyes of people like Abe Smith, it is just one of his countless properties. That's all. If he thinks about it, he will come to live in it for a day or two. If he doesn't think about it, he may not know that he has such a house until the house is sold."

William fell silent after listening to Albert Eberhard's long speech.

The small businessman knew that Albert Erhard had a good point.

This is indeed the case, because even a small businessman like him is not limited to this residence worth more than 3 million US dollars.

William also owns three other properties in several other locations in New York state.

This is the case for small businessmen like him whose net worth does not exceed 20 million US dollars.

It is said that Abel Smith, who is said to have a net worth of hundreds of billions of dollars, would have the real estate under his name multiplied by several hundred times, which is quite normal.

And when the two "neighbors" were discussing Abel.

Abel was indeed already in No. 227 of Swan Wharf in Great Neck.

This manor villa covers a total area of ​​37.3 acres, occupying the entire "neck" of Swan Wharf and the land behind it.

The interior has a construction area of ​​about 23,000 square feet, and the villa is luxuriously decorated in the style of a Victorian manor in England.

Outside the building is a stunning and huge open area with views of everything including forests, small lakes, hills and even a small strait leading to the open sea.

Most of the interior of the building has hardwood floors and soft carpets. The exquisite open kitchen is equipped with granite custom cabinets and stainless steel tableware, which can be used by the owner of the manor to hold a super party of more than 500 people.

Surrounding views are great with beautiful water views. The environment is beautiful, the green vegetation is very lush, and the outdoor courtyard is huge and beautiful.

More importantly, when Abel bought it, the price was only 36 million US dollars.

Now with the rise of real estate across the United States, if this place is sold, it has at least doubled.

Around 4pm.

In the luxurious master bedroom of the villa, Abel wears a tailor-made slim suit, which perfectly fits his body line, decent tailoring, coupled with a stylish and mature design, and the buttons on the cuffs are all low-key luxury black gemstone cufflinks.

The fabric of the clothes is very light and thin. Although it is black, under the illumination of the light, a glimmer of light can be seen from some angles, which not only shows Abel's young and handsome, but also reflects his age and his incompatibility. Mature and charming, the bright leather shoes on his feet can be used as a mirror, and the whole outfit is a perfect combination with his temperament.

Abel lifted the tie in his hands helplessly, and said helplessly, "I need help!"

He really doesn't know how to tie a tie.

Keira, who was being styled by the hair stylist with a curling iron, turned her head and looked over, her eyes lit up, the corners of her mouth turned up, revealing a sweet and arrogant smile.

My man is so handsome. Seeing his helpless expression, he couldn't help but chuckle. The hair stylist stopped. Keira stood up, walked up to Abel, took the tie, and gently touched it. The handsome face of her boyfriend said: "You need a delicate little bow to match."

Abel lowered his head to let Kayla put the bow tie around his neck, and watched the silk nightgown with a large white V-neck and a belt on his body out of shape because he raised his arms to tie a bow for him. The protruding tops, the dazzling white, and the black lace silk protective covers perfectly retracted into their positions, making them even more arrogant.

If there was no one around, perhaps Abel would have jumped on him long ago, singing the nursery rhyme of the little rabbit.

In many cases, even he, who has seen countless beauties, has to admit it.

In terms of appearance and figure, Keira is the top T0 among her women.

Compared with her, Little Laura is at most T1 gear.

At this moment, Kaila saw her boyfriend's flickering eyes, and naturally knew his nature, so she raised her small hand and patted his shoulder angrily.

She knew that if she didn't stop her, this guy would definitely be able to ask the makeup artist out, and then catch and toss herself.

Although she rested for a few days, she felt that her fighting power had recovered.

But tonight is a super banquet that she attaches great importance to.

She hopes to appear on the stage in the most perfect image and state. If Abel catches her and makes a fuss, Keira can't guarantee that she won't make a fool of herself tonight.

"Don't act recklessly..." She thought for a while, and could only whisper her offer to bribe the Demon King, "After tonight, I'll do whatever you want."

"That can't be done..." She heard Abel say in the same voice in her ear:

"It's just that, I don't have to wait until the end of the night, it's okay now."

Kyla knew he was threatening her, so she had to throw out another condition angrily, "Okay, new condition... I met those two sisters. They talked to me, and I think it's okay. That's right. Laura Bush can have a Hankook girl, and I'd be fine with two Hurst girls. Do you see what I mean?"

"Hahaha--"

Abel smiled smugly.

Keira couldn't bear to fight these days, and she hung up the exemption card for a few days. During this time, Abel learned that she went to meet Lydia and Amanda, who were in a cold war with each other.

I don't know what the three of them talked about, but it seems that they talked very well now.

Kayla has always been the most independent and troublesome one in his girl group.

She didn't like the Avril and Britney that Abel made for her at all.

Now he is finally willing to compromise, integrate into his women's group, and form a "pair" with the Hester sisters, which makes him a little happy.

"OK, deal." Abel raised his eyebrows and said.

"Okay, are you satisfied?" Kayla curled her lips and had already helped Abel hang up the tie knot. She stretched out her hands and grabbed Abel's arms, making him turn his body around, looking in the mirror, and said with a smile on his face .

Abel nodded in satisfaction, stretched out his hand to hold Keira's waist, lowered his head and kissed her cheek and said in a low voice, "You have a pair of very magical and beautiful hands, and you have never disappointed me."

Keira seemed to have thought of something, her pretty face blushed slightly, and she said coquettishly, "You really are, forget it. I can't be angry with you, you can go to the banquet hall to have a look and see if you are satisfied."

"Hehe, I'm really relieved to leave it to you...Okay, okay, I won't bother you to clean up, I'll just go and see."

Abel was also a little embarrassed after being glanced at.

After all, since they decided to hold a dinner party, except for making a list of invitations, they never asked about it again, and Kaila was in charge of everything.

Keira had to go to work again during this time, and she had to deal with her deliberate endless demands a while ago, and she was so tired that she gave up the exemption card, which was really not easy.

The venue for the dinner was the manor villa at No. 227 on Swan Wharf, the huge outdoor garden and the corresponding banquet hall.

A manor of this level has perfect functions in this respect.

The exaggerated size of the twenty-odd bedrooms and the twenty-odd toilets is actually to meet the large-scale social needs of the wealthy world.

Those castles in old Europe have hundreds of rooms at every turn. Do those nobles really have so many family members, can these rooms be filled?

Of course not, in fact, so many rooms are mostly used as large social function rooms.

The mainstream class in the United States came from Europe, and naturally inherited the characteristics of that country.

This is the characteristic of the rich mansions here, most of which have a lot of rooms and a lot of toilets.

Abel walked through the main entrance of the banquet hall decorated with black and white textured marble, and what he saw was an empty hall of nearly 5,600 square meters, decorated with various green plants.

On the left is a large bar. The bar is facing an artistic open wooden partition. The original wine tasting area on the other side has also been transformed into some very artistic and spacious sofa rest areas.

The spacious bar is filled with all kinds of drinks, various fruits, and several juicers, and there are more than a dozen waiters standing beside them, to squeeze juice on the spot and provide freshly made snacks for those guests who need it in the evening. food.

There are four cocktail bartenders at the bar, who will prepare various cocktails for guests who want to drink cocktails, or take them from the trays on the waiters who are shuttled through the scene.

In the dining area of ​​the dinner party, there are floor-to-ceiling windows with special glass on three sides, so you can have a panoramic view of the whole dinner party. There are ten long tables that can accommodate fifty people each, and a horizontal table for two at the front. It's Abel and Kayla's hosts, and Kayla is the hostess of the dinner and will sit on the right seat.

The format of the banquet at that time will be the buffet format that has been very popular in Europe and the United States for more than ten years. In fact, it is a buffet format.

Except for the host, everyone will not have a fixed seat at that time, they can sit anywhere, and they can get food and drinks anywhere.

The main reason is that the identities of the guests are all very honorable, and the seats are not arranged correctly in the traditional seats, so we just use this mode.

Outside the banquet hall, there is a beautiful outdoor courtyard garden decorated with various beautiful neon lights.

At that time, there will also be one of the main venues for the banquet.

Participating guests can choose to go outside when they need a place to chat.

It's summer in New York, when the climate is at its hottest.

Outdoors at night, as long as it doesn't rain, is much more comfortable than indoors.

After visiting all the way, Abel smiled and nodded to the passing waiters.

Unlike other rich people, most of the rich people who engage in this kind of big scene use waiters and party housekeeping staff, mostly people who directly hire the corresponding high-end housekeeping service companies.

These companies only serve the rich, and the fees are very professional and expensive.

Often a banquet with more than a hundred people is held, without counting the cost of various drinks and food.

Just the employment and labor costs of these personnel will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

But now Abel doesn't hire those high-end housekeeping companies outside.

In fact, almost all the waiters around are cameo staff from Rock Security.

Even the bartenders and chefs, many of them are non-professionals, and they are all rock security people.

Because in Abel's opinion, for a banquet of this scale and grade, the guests would not value the deliciousness of the drinks and food at all.

As long as it's hygienic and clean, and it's not really unpalatable, it's enough to deal with it.

The key is to be able to control the scene and ensure safety. Because in many cases, the waiters and service personnel of this kind of banquet are the easiest to mix in with those foreigners with other purposes.

However, although the rock security is not professional enough in terms of housekeeping. But Abel looked at the ten long tables. The distance between the opposite seats was not narrow. Every set of tableware on the table was extremely clean. Three crystal clear goblets of different sizes are placed in front of the tableware.

There is a long fruit basket every two places on the table, which is full of fresh and colorful seasonal fruits.

He looked very neat and professional, and he was relieved.

Abel was very satisfied with the arrangement of the banquet, which was simple and clean, not extravagant. The guests he invited tonight were not the messy second generation, or some well-known socialites, let alone Hollywood people who pursued luxury.

Most of the people invited this time are powerful figures in the American financial and political circles, and the number of invitation functions released by Abel this time is actually not very exaggerated, only 200 copies.

Counting that some people will bring their girlfriends or friends, there will be more than 400 people coming.

Such a scene is enough to deal with.

But whether it is New York or other places in the United States, there are more qualified people who actually want to come.

After all, even big names like Rockefeller, Morgan, and Cheney will be present, so one can imagine the specifications of this dinner.

Those who are qualified to come and want to come, if Abel invites all of them, it is estimated that there will be more than 2,000 people.

That would be overblown, and he knew he and Kayla couldn't handle it.

Therefore, for the list of invited guests, he can only make a choice according to his status and his personal relationship.

Guys who qualified and wanted to come, but didn't get an invite.

It can only be said that either their status is really not enough, even the deputy mayor or congressman of New York.

Or they have a relatively distant relationship with Abel, and they don't usually know each other very well.

The limited number of invitations made the banquet seem to have a higher level.

Because of this, the list of invitations to the dinner party caused quite a commotion. Most of the powerful people on Wall Street were invited to participate, but only most, not all.

Some bigwigs who felt that they were qualified and indeed qualified, went to Smith Tower in person for this reason, and caused quite a big incident.

For this kind of thing, Abel treats it coldly.

Make trouble, Abel will not expand the scale of the banquet because of this.

A limited list and limited guests will make most of the guests who come to participate feel a sense of pride.

Over time, the banquets held by him will be more respected and pursued by others.

Next year, when he holds a similar banquet again, the pursuit of invitations outside will definitely be even more exaggerated.

This is what Abel wants to see.

On the one hand, it can satisfy his vanity—everyone has vanity, and so does the richest man in the world.

Secondly, there are real benefits in this way, which will make many people unknowingly integrate into his circle, or make this choice voluntarily and enthusiastically.

Whether you can attend Smith's banquet at that time, and whether you are eligible to participate will become a threshold for New York and even the upper class in the United States.

An invisible certification.

Then Abel's status would be higher.