Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 134 The World is Really Crowded
A private marina on Quincy Bay in Quincy, Massachusetts.
At this time, at the end of the plank road, there is a three-masted monohull sailing ship that is about 50 meters long. With the mast raised and the sails opened, it looks like a white swan taking a rest gracefully in the blue sea with its snow-white body.
At the dock leisure area, billionaire Robert Miller, who had just finished a tour on the ship, looked at Julian Farrell, a Cornell University alumnus and president of Sea Line, who was selecting cigars based on the recommendations of his butler, and asked, "What do you think my third super sailboat should be called?"
"The first one is called Pia, the second one is called Mary, and the whole world knows that the third one should be called Alexandra. This question is not difficult at all. The real difficulty is the name of the fourth sailboat that will definitely belong to you in the future. After all, you only have three daughters." Farrell chose a cigar and asked the butler to help him toast it. He smiled and said:
"Unlike me, although I manufacture and sell cruise ships, my wife and I only have one yacht under our names, and it's the same as my daughter's, both named Otilia. Speaking of yachts, are you sure you don't need one? You always ask me to help you design this monohull sailboat, you know..."
Robert Miller made a begging gesture and pleaded with Farrell, "Julian, please don't sell me yachts, which are just for showing off wealth. These are the toys that men should buy for themselves, okay? Once I have selected the crew, I will drive this Alexandra across the Atlantic and break the world record for crossing the Atlantic once again."
"Mr. Miller, SSD's monthly issue of 'Agenda' magazine has arrived. Do you want to read it now, or do you need me to send it to your study or bedroom..." The butler came over, leaned over slightly, and spoke softly.
"It's okay, just give it to me, Charlie. I can show off to Farrell until we are old and lie in the cemetery. He didn't join SSD, but I was one of it. This will be his lifelong regret and my lifelong glory." Robert turned his head and said to the butler, and deliberately made a provocative gesture to Farrell in an exaggerated manner.
"Hey! I'm not an unwanted little follower. I joined the VSA. I'm a member of the Order of the Phoenix, okay? Everyone knows that the Order of the Phoenix is better than the White Robes. What's more, I'm the final winner. I finally pursued your SSD's international sweetheart and married her home." Farrell sat up straight with dissatisfaction and pointed to several women who were showing off their cooking skills not far away, signaling Robert to pay attention: "That's why I have a lovely daughter, Otilia."
Robert also looked at his wife and three daughters, who were happily chatting with Farrell's wife and daughters while grilling meat.
"Time flies, Julian. It feels like all the stupid things we did in college happened just yesterday. The Order of the Phoenix, the Order of the White Robes, the Order of Bishops, the Order of Hunters, the Order of Wolves... In the blink of an eye, our daughters have graduated from college, and we have all turned our abdominal muscles into bellies." He retracted his gaze and said to Farrell with some emotion.
At this time, the butler Charlie brought over the Agenda magazine, which is only issued by SSD to the living members. Robert took it and flipped through it. "I am glad that I joined SSD. Without the connections of SSD , there would be no Robert Miller today, let alone DFS today. I am not you, Julian. You can directly join the Order of the Phoenix with the halo of your father, but my father is just a salesman and my mother is a substitute teacher. Without SSD, I might just be a hotel manager after graduating from college. After all, I only have a degree in hotel management from Cornell University, which was the lowest tuition major at Cornell University that year."
Julian nodded in understanding. He knew the experience of this classmate who would customize a super sailboat for him every once in a while when he was young. To put it simply, Robert and his current two genius bastards who met at the SSD chapter of Cornell University, and they hit it off and told the world the existence of a brand new and lucrative industry: the chain of duty-free shops.
Thanks to SSD's connections with many members of the military, the two flew to Asia during their college vacations to make money.
In South Korea, Japan sold all kinds of cheap cigarettes and alcoholic beverages from smuggling channels directly to American soldiers outside the US military base. At that time, the term duty-free goods was still very unfamiliar, but smuggling was known to everyone. However, the police or tax departments of those countries did not have the courage to stop the two from blatantly selling smuggled goods to the US military, because Japan had tried it once. Several policemen tried to confiscate the two people's goods. As a result, the police were beaten into pig heads by several American soldiers. Then the result of the handling was that Japan was strongly dissatisfied. The US military stationed in Japan expressed regret and sent the soldiers who beat people to Hawaii for a vacation.
After that, no one dared to interfere in such matters.
Relying on the power of the United States, they used illegal means to quickly make their first pot of gold in other countries. Then the two of them registered DFS and quickly expanded their business with the help of SSD's military connections, opening duty-free shops in every airport in Europe and Asia where US troops were stationed.
Today, those two young men who could only study the major with the lowest tuition fee have become the two founders of DFS, the world's largest travel retailer with nearly a hundred duty-free shops.
Although DFS is not listed in order to avoid disclosing the information of its shareholders, business magazines value the company at as much as $4 billion because it is still in its expansion phase. As long as the Cold War continues and as long as the United States continues to increase its overseas troops, the company will continue to expand and occupy the most core locations of airports in those countries where troops are stationed.
What’s even more frightening is that no one knows how many shareholders DFS has and what their identities are.
Anyway, Julian has known Robert for so many years, and he only knows two alumni founders of DFS.
"This article is good." At this time, Robert found an interesting text in the magazine and read it with great interest:
"If those nerds from Boston's prestigious schools think that they can scare off SSD members just because they have the names of Yale and Harvard, I don't mind kicking their asses and teaching them what SSD is all about. It looks like they need support. Charlie, call the SSD headquarters for me and find out if these two guys need lawyers or something... No, I saw that they found a lawyer from the White Shoes Law Firm..."
Soon, Robert stopped talking, and the expression on his face changed from a pastime to a playful one. After reading the entire article, he spoke: "Call Charlie Feeney at the Hong Kong headquarters and ask him to issue an internal notice in the name of DFS. Whether for efficiency, cost or other reasons, the company's office software must be replaced with Actor's OSS. This must be completed before the trial. He must have received this magazine and will understand the meaning of before the trial."
"Do you want me to call the headquarters again and ask them to thank you?" asked the butler.
"No need. I'm on vacation in Massachusetts. They will come to see me and thank me in person. Besides, if they don't come, we are a large commercial user of OSS. We have reason to intervene on the grounds that this judgment may cause economic and human losses." After Robert finished speaking, he handed the magazine to Farrell next to him:
"SSD is about to give birth to another pair of Robert and Charlie, this time from California, Stanford University SSD chapter, Tommy and Jason."
"Are you sure that my reading your internal magazine won't make you violate SSD's leak regulations?" Julian teased, then took the magazine and took a look. He was not as interested as Robert because this was not the internal magazine of the Phoenix Society. At least he simply looked at the photos and roughly understood the content. Then he put the magazine on the table: "I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the two of them are robbers in suits. At least I have never seen the engineer in charge of program control in the company show such an excited expression on his face when he encountered a lawsuit. The opponent is Lotus, a well-known software company in Boston..."
"Try the vanilla cookies I baked, Mr. Miller and father." Ottilia came over wearing baking gloves, carrying a batch of freshly baked cookies and placed them on the table in front of the two of them, and just happened to notice the photo in the magazine.
She was slightly stunned at first, then picked up the magazine in disbelief and looked at the photo of Tommy and Jason on it: "Tommy Hawke? Is this Tommy?"
"You know him?" Farrell was stunned for a moment, then he realized, "Tommy Hawke, is this the kid who made a fortune by setting up an international summer camp and got himself into Stanford? The world is really crowded."
Robert also looked at Otilia. Farrell's words just now made him interested: "Otilia, while we are eating cookies, would you mind explaining to me what it means to set up an international summer camp to make a fortune and get yourself into Stanford?"
