The four seasons along the Mediterranean coast are not clear, but there are differences.

In the manor south of Rome, the spring sun is shining. After taking a nap, Simon is accompanying Sophia to do pregnant women's yoga on the open-air lawn covered with blankets.

This is Friday, April 28th.

Stopped in Rifney for a night last night, and Simon arrived in Rome this morning.

As an older pregnant woman, Sofia basically no longer works. She cares much more about the two little guys in her belly than Simon. During the last Oscars ceremony, she went to Los Angeles and returned again. She has been staying at this manor south of Rome. She eats, sleeps, reads books, prenatal education, does yoga, and regularly gets a beautiful cow cat. Recently, she has fallen in love with flower arrangements. She lives a warm and fulfilling life.

This is actually the most leisurely and carefree time for a woman to grow up so old.

"Yes, that's it, Mr. Westeros, be slower, pregnant women are prone to cramps, oh, you're so gentle."

On the lawn.

The yoga instructor who was wearing a light pink tight sports suit was inspiring to help Sophia perform a set of leg lifting movements. The delicate body, who was kneeling beside Simon, came over intentionally or unintentionally, with a light fragrance, and his slightly cool fingertips were pressed on Simon's arm holding Sophia's calves from time to time, which was full of teasing.

After completing this set of movements, he noticed that sweat had already oozed from Sophia's forehead. Simon stopped continuing and ordered the yoga instructor around him to say, "I'll be here today. Go back first, Sophie and I will bask in the sun for a while."

Simon drove the people directly, but the girl named Evelyn acted impeccably, stood up respectfully, and said, "I'll go and bring a glass of water for my husband and wife."

When the girl walked away, Sophia sat up with a teasing smile on her lips: "I thought you wouldn't stand it, and she planned to go and have a nap after finishing yoga."

Simon helped Sophia move and sit down beside her, feeling the warm spring sunshine together, and smiled, "I'm not interested in women recently."

"Ah..." Sophia was puzzled, then suddenly realized, and her smile became stronger: "That's just that I've had enough fun. Are you going to return to my family? It seems that I'm going to be dumped by you soon, right?"

"Of course not, my current state is the life I have dreamed of for two lifetimes. It's just, you know, people's minds are fickle."

Sofia turned her head and thought for a while, and nodded quickly: "Yeah, I understand."

"What do you understand?"

"Like us women," Sophia smiled, "there are days every month."

Simon raised his right hand holding the other shoulder of the woman in anger, leaned his finger and gently flicked it on her earlobe, made a few jokes, and let the woman lie down and leaned on her bulging belly to listen to the movements of the two little guys. It seemed that he was a little tired of practicing yoga with his mother. The little guys responded without any face, probably because they were asleep.

Evelyn brought water over, and it was impossible for the sun to be sunbathed for too long. The two continued to stay in the warm sun for more than ten minutes before getting up and returning to the villa.

When he arrived at a living room on the first floor, Sophia ordered a waitress and soon a cow cat that was only over three months old was brought over. Sophia drankly meowed and put the little guy who obviously didn't like being hugged on her lap, explaining: "This is Luna, what Gemma gave me when she came to Rome last week, saying that she could accompany me on her behalf."

As he said this, there was a hint of resentment in his tone.

Simon picked up a document that the girl A placed on the coffee table and opened it, and said, "It's very good, but why is it called Luna? This name is too big."

Luna, this is the moon god of ancient Rome.

Sophia didn't care and gently pressed and held the little guy who was about to escape: "Gema, I think this name is good. Or, what would it be called if you give me a cat?"

Simon thought for a while and said, "Cat, you should call meow."

Sofia gave Simon a blank look: "It's only a child who is named like this. If a dog is, will he be called Wangwang?"

Simon nodded and said, "Of course."

It felt that the little guy really didn't want to stay by his side. Sophia finally let it go and looked at the little thing running out of the room. Then she was curious to look at the documents Simon was flipping through. She knew that it was not important information that could be placed in the living room by Girl A for Simon to read at leisure, so she asked: "What is this?"

Simon handed it over directly.

Sofia took it, roughly flipped over it, and suddenly laughed again: "You bought a large piece of land in Africa, yes, 150,000 acres?"

"Is there any problem?"

Sophia glanced at Simon like a fool, and her eyes fell back to the information in front of her: "Coffee Plantation, tsk, are you sure that Africa can grow coffee? Or, Angora, that place seems to have been in civil war for decades."

Simon said: "In the 1970s, Angola was one of the most important coffee producers in the world, with annual exports of coffee beans exceeding 200,000 tons."

"In the early seventies, it should have been colonialism," Sophia said, asking again, "What about now?"

Simon did not hide it and said, "In the past year, this data was about 500 tons."

“…”

From the world's major coffee producer with an annual export of 200,000 tons of coffee beans to 500 tons in 1994, the gap is really big.

The reason is actually very simple.

Angola declared its own power in 1975. Before that, the country had been a colony of Portugal, and domestic agricultural production was controlled by whites. After that, a large number of whites withdrew, and large areas of Angola's coffee plantations were taken over by inefficient blacks. Then another twenty-year civil war, the national economy collapsed completely, and the once prosperous coffee planting system also declined.

However, it is precisely this reason that Simon was able to obtain 150,000 acres of land through a contract worth only $10 million.

You know, this is a land of more than 600 square kilometers. The once best coffee-growing area is not a primeval forest like Tasmania that basically cannot develop Simon and does not intend to develop. Moreover, the cost of the Westeros system of $10 million in weapons orders and consulting team contracts is actually less than half of the cost, just $10 million on the books.

Although this coffee planting area is almost deserted, according to the record of the coffee plantation output in Angola in the 1970s, this land can produce about 30,000 tons of coffee beans every year.

After the next few years of operation, even if the output of this coffee-growing area only returns to one-third of its heyday, it can harvest 10,000 tons of coffee beans every year.

The global price of coffee beans is about US$1,100 per ton recently.

10,000 tons of coffee beans are produced every year, and at the market price, it is 11 million US dollars. Obviously, in only one year, Simon can basically recover the investment in this land.

Of course, it's just an ideal state.

What exactly is Africa? Simon knows it even more clearly because of many memories from the past.

To be more straightforward, it just means that the mud cannot be covered with the wall.

Coffee cultivation is very dependent on labor because coffee beans are mature in batches and are difficult to pick through machines. Coffee production around the world basically accounts for more than half of the investment.

Simon did not expect this coffee plantation to resume production with the support of the local black labor force in Angola, even the job of picking coffee beans is not too difficult for monkeys. Simon's plan is to mainly white people left over from the immigration era, and to hire a group of overseas workers from Ukrainian or Chinese, as well as a small number of local residents who are motivated to work.

What's more, Simon's fundamental purpose in taking this land was not to make money.

Therefore, it is enough to not waste it all the time.

After hearing Simon's general explanation, Sophia realized that her doubts just now were completely redundant. The man obviously had his own idea of ​​perfection, and perhaps there were some deep-seated layouts that she didn't know. However, Sophia quickly said: "In the long-term turbulence in Africa, Angola exports a total of 500 tons of coffee per year. You can create a coffee plantation with an annual output of 10,000 tons, which is tens of millions of dollars a year, which is richer than the income of many diamond mines. Is it sure that the warlords will not be snatched away by the warlords?"

"A team is already funding children of some senior government officials in Angola to study in the United States," Simon said.

Sofia wondered: "Hmm?"

Simon explained: "This is just the first step. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, African countries will basically stabilize because there is no big power game. As long as they get the regime, there will be no more changes in the future. My plan is to fund these people in power to integrate with the United States, invite their children to study in the United States, invite their relatives to immigrate to settle in the United States, and invite them to invest in financial management in the United States after accumulating a certain amount of wealth, and gradually realize the binding of interests. Imagine, take Angola as an example. If the vested interest class in this country, their wives, children, and houses are in the United States, will these people still dare to turn against me?"

Sophia suddenly realized, then gave Simon a blank look: "I thought you would directly overthrow their government like you did in Rwanda."

"This is the best way," Simon shook his head and said in Chinese: "Therefore, victory is not the good of good. If you don't fight, you will be the good of good. Therefore, the superior soldiers will attack plan, then attack diplomatic relations, then attack troops, and then attack cities. The method of siege is a last resort."

Sophia naturally couldn't understand, but listened very seriously and finally asked, "What is this?"

Simon said: "The Art of War of Sun Tzu."

"I know, I read a book full of wisdom in college. Which paragraph is this?"

Simon probably explained.

Sofia understood, stroked her bulging belly and said, "Read it for the babies again, they must like it."

Simon said: "Are you sure you want to teach your child this now?"

"Of course, they are two Westeros, and they must be different."

Simon didn't refuse, so he simply posted it and started to recite "The Art of War" from the beginning. Unfortunately, he didn't remember much, so he quickly turned to "Tao Te Ching".

I have five thousand words, and I once recited them when I was a child, and I am very skillful.

Sophia was influenced by Simon and learned a little Chinese, which was far less thoughtful than Janet, so it was impossible for her to understand her man to quietly replace "The Art of War" with "Tao Te Ching". She just listened with a smile, wondering if the twins sensed that their father was replacing the pillars. Soon she started making trouble. Simon had to stop and accompany the woman to comfort the two restless little guys.

I also stayed in Italy for three days.

In addition to accompanying Sophia, Simon also paid attention to another thing.

After Universal Studios Osaka opened, the negotiations between Daenerys Entertainment Group and the Italian government on Universal Studios Europe have entered the final stage. Although it has not been officially announced yet, it is a foregone conclusion to choose to build Universal Studios Europe near Rome.

It is still confidential for the time being and a lot of smoke bombs have been released, just to avoid someone enclosing land on the land that may be built in the synopsis after the news spreads.

This has happened during the construction of many large theme park projects.

After the weekend, the time entered May 1995.

The beginning of this summer season should be considered as "Red Tide Storm" produced by Jerry Brookheimer, directed by Tony Scott, and starring Denzel Washington, a submarine war film similar to "Hunting Red October", produced by Disney and cost $53 million.

Simon has little memory of this film, and Disney chose to land on May 12, so it is foreseeable how the quality of the project is.

The real super bombshell this summer must be the production of "Jurassic Park 2" which will be scheduled for June 2. Before "Jurassic Park 2", Simon paid more attention to Daenerys Entertainment's two local box offices in the first half of the year, which have exceeded the $200 million movies, "This Man from Earth" and "Anti-Witness 3"

Because of these two box office dark horses, many of the films released in the first half of the year ended miserably, including some other projects produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

Arrived in London on May 1, and the plan is still 3 days.

The main work here is "Soul Conjuring 2".

Simon formulated the plot of "Soul Conjuring 2" based on the version in memory, and the story still took place in London. However, he did not copy the original version. Since he was going to unfold a horror film universe, Simon felt that in addition to the intersection of characters, some more continuity-based details should be added.

Therefore, during the preparations for the "Soul Conjuring 2" project, Simon specially asked the main creators to watch the classic Hong Kong film "Mr. Zombie" from the 1980s several times.

Of course it is not to add comedy elements to the Conjuring Movie Universe series.

In the memory of the "Soul Conjuring" series, Simon's most important feeling is that it is too casual. The process of the protagonist subduing a group of ghosts seems to be entirely based on luck, and his application of the cross and the Bible is also indisciplined.

In comparison, Master Lin’s ghost hunting routine in "Mr. Zombie" is full of ornamentality.

The copper coin sword, black donkey hoof, glutinous rice, yellow talisman... even affected the ghost culture in the Chinese-speaking circle for decades, making many ordinary people think that Taoist priests should do this and that it should do this and that it should do this.

Therefore, Simon also hopes that the two protagonists' process of catching ghosts can provide more rituals like "Mr. Zombie" and form a set of process rules that can convince the audience, rather than yelling like a headless fly in the haunted house, holding a cross and hitting around like luck.
To be continued...