Nancy Josephson only chatted briefly before giving Simon and Natasha some space.
After Nancy left, other guests came to greet Simon, so he took Natasha Henstridge around the hall, introducing her to some prominent figures.
At 11 o'clock, Simon decided to leave. He had promised his assistant to return home tonight and intended to keep his word.
He brought Natasha back to Nancy Josephson, instructing her to take Natasha home. Noticing Natasha's disappointed look, Simon glanced at her again and smiled, "Your dress is a bit plain. For parties, you should wear something nicer. I'll have someone contact you tomorrow to pick out some better clothes."
While the idea of pretty clothes was appealing, Natasha was more worried that this might be the last time she saw Simon for months. She boldly asked, "Simon, can you take me home?"
"Not tonight," Simon shook his head and then thought for a moment, "How about next weekend? Let's go to Park City together for the Sundance closing ceremony. I have a cabin there."
Hearing this, Natasha finally felt reassured and quickly agreed.
Back at the Dume Point estate, Janet was already asleep.
Simon didn't disturb her. Instead, he went to check on the kids in the Shell Villa, then headed to the west side where his assistant lived.
Jennifer was still awake. When Simon entered the bedroom, his assistant, who was reading in bed, said, "I ran a bath for you. You can take a soak first."
Simon picked up his assistant, who was wearing a light silk nightgown, and said, "Join me."
The assistant compliantly let Simon carry her, but she wrinkled her nose, catching a whiff of perfume, and gave him a disapproving look.
When he woke up in the morning, his assistant was already gone.
It was Sunday morning, 7 o'clock.
With no work scheduled for the day, he slept in an extra hour.
After jogging along the estate's private beach for half an hour, he showered and dressed before joining the family at the breakfast table at 8 o'clock.
After breakfast, everyone had their own tasks.
The assistant took charge of the weekend shopping, Janet was taken by Veronica to care for the kids, and apart from the night nanny and Alya who went to rest, other beautiful figures occasionally came and went around the villa.
Thus, Simon found himself the most leisurely one.
He set up a lounge chair by the glass curtain wall facing the sea in the Shell Villa, enjoying the morning sunlight while reading the day's newspapers. After going through almost all the papers and feeling drowsy, Allison came over with a laptop.
"Boss?"
Simon opened his eyes, and Allison knelt on the carpet beside his lounge chair, holding the laptop. "The list of 200 girls has been finalized. The first group has already arrived in London. Do you want to review it?"
"Yes."
Simon sat up, and Allison placed the laptop on his lap, remaining in a kneeling position next to the lounge chair, occasionally glancing at Simon's side profile with a hint of satisfaction.
After that night, Allison made sure not to show any changes in her behavior, knowing that if she became unruly, she might lose her place beside this man.
Quietly, she watched the laptop screen with him.
Last year, a new batch of housemaids for the Westeros family began training. Simon was dissatisfied with the initial selection of girls by the B-girl, choosing only a few dozen out of the proposed 200.
The plan, however, did not halt.
Simon expanded the selection process by announcing a future supermodel training program in major newspapers in Eastern Europe and Latin America through Elite Model Management, seeking girls aged 10 to 14 for specialized training. In the Western modeling industry, it's not uncommon for girls to start as young as thirteen or fourteen.
Elite's global reputation attracted over 36,000 applications from girls worldwide, which were then sent to Simon in electronic format.
Elite didn't actually need such young models, nor did it have plans to train them from scratch. There were plenty of older girls with excellent potential in Latin America and Eastern Europe. A single model contest could yield many promising candidates.
Simon didn't have the patience to go through all 36,000 applications.
However, after recognizing a few familiar names in the initial list from the B-girl, he became interested.
In Latin America, where the modeling industry is very developed, girls often start training at seven or eight if their families see potential, registering with beginner modeling agencies.
Many famous models' stories of being 'discovered on the street' are mostly fabricated. Most girls proactively send their photos to modeling agencies or participate in beauty contests.
Gisele Bündchen and Isabeli Fontana, who were among the initial names, were such cases.
'Gisele' and 'Isabeli,' at this point, were just young girls, aged 13 and 11, respectively, fitting the Lolita profile.
Though calling them that isn't quite accurate.
At 13, Gisele Bündchen was already almost six feet tall, about 1.80 meters.
After discovering these two, Simon decided to collect some future supermodels he remembered.
He thus expanded the recruitment process, eventually finding several familiar names among the 36,000 applications.
The world is vast, and finding specific individuals can be challenging.
In the end, Simon identified 11 familiar names, which satisfied him greatly.
Besides the 11 pre-selected lucky girls, the remaining spots would go through rigorous screening. To emphasize the opportunity's value, Simon designed a strict selection process involving the girls and their parents, making the selection of 200 out of 36,000 a legitimate claim.
As Simon browsed the list on the laptop, occasionally asking Allison questions, Janet walked up behind him.
Sending Allison away, Janet mimicked her position by kneeling beside Simon, leaning on him to look at the laptop screen, and said playfully, "I discovered your secret."
Simon smiled, "What is it?"
Janet tapped the screen to highlight a name, "This, Natalia Vodianova," then another, "And this, Carmen Kass. Her details are fake; she's actually 16, pretending to be 14. Yet you picked her."
Simon didn't deny it, "Personal preference. I choose whoever catches my eye."
"Not true," Janet knew Simon was meticulous. "You initially had high standards, requiring girls to come from complete families to avoid potential personality issues. The second time, you relaxed some criteria, but these two are clear exceptions. Natalia Vodianova comes from a single-parent family, isn't tall enough, and doesn't fit your usual preference. Carmen Kass fits your looks preference but you hate being deceived."
'Natalia' and 'Carmen,' of course, were exceptions.
Simon smiled, tapping Janet's head lightly, "Smart, but no reward."
Janet pretended to bite his finger, missed, and pouted, "I bet there are many more special picks among these girls."
Simon grunted, showing he didn't mind being figured out.
Janet giggled, tickling his chest, "Are they all settled? Let's go to the monitoring room to check on your little goblins."
Excited, she pulled Simon up.
Simon, curious as well, followed her. They went to a monitoring room in the Shell Villa's basement, filled with numerous screens connected to over 300 properties worldwide, from the Dume Point estate to Europe, Latin America, and even Simon's private land in Tasmania, Australia.
Simon realized he was developing a bit of Howard Hughes' behavior.
Hughes famously liked to install bugging devices in his enemies' and lovers' homes, part of a broader trend in America's upper echelons after the FBI's rise.
Simon saw this more as a desire for control than voyeurism.
Thus, besides this global monitoring system, Simon secretly invested in spy equipment R&D teams in Australia, North America, and Europe, aiming for a future where the Westeros monitoring system could intelligently analyze behavior patterns.
Some current devices already had similar capabilities.
Recently deployed bugs could enter standby mode in a quiet environment and automatically record upon detecting sound, saving energy and avoiding large chunks of useless content.
As for the moral and legal issues of using such equipment, Simon didn't dwell on them. If he were bound by too many societal constraints, he wouldn't have reached his current height. Janet, even more lawless by nature, understood this well.
In the monitoring room, Simon sat on a spacious office chair, Janet sitting on his lap, expertly navigating the controls. The central screen, larger than the others, displayed the interior of a villa.
Simon, with Janet in his arms, recognized the 12-year-old 'Natalia Vodianova' among the group of girls.
This villa was in Chelsea, London. With an eight-hour time difference, it was already past 5 PM, and the girls had just returned from outside. They were taking off their thick coats in the spacious hallway, revealing their slightly awkward but generally good figures in sweaters and pants.
Unlike Los Angeles, London was in its coldest season.
All selected as model candidates, these girls aged 10 to 14 were generally taller than their peers.
The 200 girls were spread across 20 villas in European cities like London, Paris, Berlin, and Latin American cities like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Brasília, with 10 girls per villa.
Natalia Vodianova's villa also housed 'Queen Eugenia' Eugenia Volodina, another name on Simon's list.
At 10, Eugenia Volodina, already about 1.60 meters tall, matched the slightly malnourished Natalia, both from impoverished backgrounds. They came from cities 300 kilometers apart in Russia, making them practically neighbors by Russian standards, and thus were placed together.
Janet watched the girls for a while, then turned on the audio.
Russian
chatter filled the room.
The villa housed 10 Russian girls. Of the 100 European spots, half were Russian.
In Latin America, 80 of the 100 spots were Brazilian, a higher ratio due to Brazil's large population, established modeling industry, and good relations with the US. It wasn't feasible for Simon to recruit from Cuba or Venezuela unless through illegal means.
After a few seconds of listening, Janet turned to Simon, "What are these little goblins saying?"
Before Simon could answer, a stern-looking middle-aged woman in a black suit appeared, scolding the girls, who immediately quieted down.
The woman issued orders in English, translated into Russian by a younger woman beside her.
The girls obediently organized their coats, scarves, gloves, bags, and shoes under the woman's meticulous instructions, a process that took over ten minutes before they were allowed into the living room.
With surveillance in public areas, Janet switched the camera to the living room, watching the woman instruct the girls.
This training plan was an experiment for Simon, a small step toward building an independent Westeros economic system.
An economic system's core lies in its people.
These girls, after selection, would enter the Westeros family circle, so the training was stringent. Simon planned to keep only 20, possibly fewer. Even the 11 supermodel seeds, if they didn't meet standards, might remain as vases like Natasha Henstridge but wouldn't serve as housemaids.
If successful, this training mechanism could expand, providing a steady stream of loyal talent for the Westeros system.
The 200 girls enjoyed luxurious living conditions, with a one-to-one ratio of support staff: each villa had a team of ten, including housekeepers, chefs, translators, bodyguards, and drivers, not counting secret overseers.
Additionally, top professionals oversaw their private schooling and various training sessions.
Though starting as vases, Simon intended to use rigorous, competitive training to cultivate top-tier talents, surpassing even the ABCD girls and housekeepers.
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