Manhattan Reborn 1978

On the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii.

Evening~

Honolulu International Airport.

The housekeeper Acklade Parkinson, carrying his luggage, waved goodbye to Susan, the little Zach, and the maid Chasida who came to see him off, and walked straight into the ticket check-in channel.

Susan watched his disappearing back, feeling an indescribable strange emotion in her heart. .

The little Zach put his hand on the railing next to him and seemed to be talking to himself: "I thought he wouldn't leave~"

"..Um?"

Susan felt a little strange and asked: "Do you know why he left?"

"I don't know~"

"Then what do you...?"

"Tsk!"

The little Zach smacked his lips and glanced at the maid Chasida. He shook his head and said, "I was just guessing..."

"Don't listen to my nonsense!"

"..Haha~"

Susan deliberately sneered twice and stared at the tourists entering the ticket check-in channel one after another, feeling a little lost.

Acklade, gone.

He didn't say anything.

But Susan knew very well that his abnormal behavior in the past few days and his departure without any explanation were all because of Mr. Gardener.

What did the gardener say to David?

Although Susan was very curious, she would never ask.

There are some things, what can you do if you know them! ?

. . .

After half an hour.

398 Corudilla Avenue.

When Susan and the other two came back, they saw Madonna, Miranella and Giovanni's wife Jin Ji sitting around on the lawn in the yard chatting.

Susan's mother, Sarah, was holding her son, Johnny, and whispering something.

From a distance, the little Zach could see little Johnny lowering his head, pouting his mouth, and dissatisfaction was "written" all over his body. .

"what happened?"

Susan walked quickly to her mother Sarah, knelt down and looked at little Johnny, and asked with concern.

"...It's nothing." Sarah sighed silently, took her son's little hand, and lowered her head in silence.

Jin Ji, who was sitting not far away, walked up behind Susan, pulled her down next to her and whispered a few words.

Susan glanced at her mother Sarah with a surprised expression, then stared at her brother Johnny for a while, pursed her lips and nodded.

Jin Ji put her arm around her shoulders, and the two of them walked to the shade of a tree in the distance.

"Little Johnny just said it carelessly, you don't need to take it to heart."

"I know."

"But.."

"Nothing but!"

Jin Ji looked at the little Zach in the distance and saw him walking up to Madonna and muttering a few questions. Then he walked up to Sarah with a smile and patted the arm of little Johnny, who was only half a head shorter than him. A few jokes.

Little Qiao Ni, who is not yet 7 years old this year, raised his hand to wipe away the "stubborn" tears from the corners of his eyes, and burst into laughter~

"Susan, did you know?"

"Many times the decisions people make after careful consideration are not the wisest or most correct decisions."

"..Um!"

"They all envy you, even jealous of you!"

"But none of them are as smart as you, and they don't understand men as well as you do..."

"Actually, I don't understand either..."

"Hehe~"

"You just learned to play dumb by being around David..."

"Now Milanla is also imitating you intentionally or unintentionally..."

Susan tilted her head and glanced at Jin Ji, shook her head with a wry smile and said, "She is much smarter than me."

"Yes!"

"If I were as smart as her, I would definitely not look for her..." Jin Ji wisely closed her mouth and let go of Susan's shoulder.

"Forget it~ I chose it all myself..."

"Little Johnny, your personality has changed a lot recently."

"But Sarah's situation doesn't seem to be getting better~"

"...Thank you!" Susan looked at Jin Ji who was walking further and further seriously and whispered.

"Thank you!"

"Give me a bigger salary increase, that will be more practical!"

"..."

----

new York.

midnight.

Malkin Sr.'s home in Queens.

Ludy ate the takeout pizza that had just been delivered and changed the channel with the TV remote control in his hand.

Mike Bai next to him glanced at him with some dissatisfaction, took a big bite of pizza, and muttered.

"It's always changing...What do you want to see?!"

"watch TV!"

"...talking nonsense again!"

"Hahaha~"

Ludy, who felt like he had been talking nonsense all night, threw away the remote control with a laugh and drank most of the bottle of Coke. .

at the stairs.

Old Malkin was the first to walk down, turning his head and smiling at the two cousins ​​behind him.

"I've been eating takeout at home these past few days, and I'm about to throw up!"

"Hahaha~"

"Tomorrow at noon, we can go to Bonini's restaurant to help you improve..."

"Bonini's, let's forget it."

"I have an appointment to have steak with someone tomorrow."

"Oh.."

"Ok!"

"Don't send me off. You should go to bed early."

"Yeah ~ bye."

. . .

After seeing off the "guest", Malkin felt relaxed and walked to sit next to Ludy, picked up a piece of pizza and asked.

"Is there a call coming in?"

"Not yet."

"That.."

"Ring, ring, ring~" Old Malkin tilted his head and glanced at the phone that suddenly rang, winked at Ludy and shook his head.

"I guess the caller must be watching us somewhere!"

"Hahaha~" Lu Di wiped his fingers and walked to the phone and smiled.

"How about we bet ten dollars?"

"Okay~ You say it first."

"Hmm... I bet on Alto!"

"Okay, I'll take it!" Old Malkin took a big bite of pizza with a smile and opened another bottle of Coke.

"Hello~"

"it's me."

"Um.."

"Okay, you can book your flight tickets and come back first."

"Let David Romano handle the follow-up matters by himself."

Ludy put down the phone, put away his smile, made a money gesture to old Malkin, and then got down to business.

"Alto took Asti and helped Romano find his friend."

"It's just that the guy actually regretted it and kept silent about issuing the wanted order..."

"So, Alto and the others can only avoid surveillance first, prepare to rush from Rome to Milan, and then fly back via Paris."

"Um.."

Malkin Sr. asked as he dropped the last bit of pizza into his mouth, wiped his fingers clean.

"When Romano calls later, you tell him..."

"Everything we can do here has been done. If he has more ideas, he can only rely on himself!"

"ok~"

Lu Di raised his eyebrows, returned to his seat and sat down, and said with a sigh.

“The Italian government’s crackdown on the Gomorrah gang this time is very resolute~”

"The good days that belong to him will not be many in the future..."

"But he still has those unrealistic fantasies..."

Old Malkin didn't answer. He stood up and walked to the stairs. He turned around and said, "No matter what the outcome is, they will call tonight."

"I'm going to rest first."

"Okay~" Lu Di waved his hand and told old Malkin to go to sleep peacefully, he could handle everything by himself.

. . .

Old Malkin is gone.

"Transparent Man" Bai Mike approached Lu Di with curiosity in his eyes and asked in a low voice.

"Do you think David Romano will come to New York to hide out for a while?"

"Maybe, what do you want to do?"

"Hehe~"

Mike Bai showed a bad smile that every man knows, winked and said, "I was almost kicked out by Erica these days because I didn't go back all night."

"So, if there's nothing wrong with you, I think..."

"Hehe~"

Lu Di looked askance at the shameless Bai Mike and sneered: "Did she take all the money in your pocket, why are you so afraid of her?"

"Uh..." Mike Bai rubbed his hands in embarrassment and said nothing.

"Okay~"

Lu Di scratched his head with his hand and said helplessly: "Go to the nightclub to find Black Franky and ask him to come over tonight!"

"Ok~ Thanks, Ludy!"

"..."

Mike Bai walked away step by step.

Ludy turned down the volume of the TV, turned to look at the empty living room, and let out a sigh of relief.

tonight. .

After tonight, many things will be settled!

----

a new day.

Texas.

Northwest of Houston, eastern suburbs of the small city of Hempstead.

In the cold morning light.

David and his family sat down neatly in the restaurant on the first floor of the farm house.

Lilith took off her apron in a great mood and placed several carefully prepared breakfasts on the dining table.

David tilted his head and glanced at her, and asked in surprise: "Um... did you do all this?"

"Yes!"

"You can cook?!"

"..yes!"

"Um...ok~let me try it."

David, under the watchful eyes of Old David, his wife and Malik sisters, took a bite of the vegetable salad that looked very good and raised his eyebrows in praise.

“I really didn’t expect it~it tastes great!”

"Dad, Mom, you guys should try it too!"

"Hmm~"

Old David smiled and invited Lilith to sit down after a busy morning. He also tasted the breakfast salad she made with some curiosity and praised it equally.

"Yes, it is indeed delicious."

"Hahaha~"

David shook his head, cut the fried bacon on the plate in front of him into several large pieces, distributed a piece to his family members one by one, and said with a smile.

"Mom, let Lilith help you with breakfast from now on."

"You can just give her the ancestral menu bit by bit..."

"Okay!" Sierra's mother took a bite of the breakfast sandwich and gave Lilith a thumbs up with a smile.

Salonia, the elder sister of the Malik sisters, lowered her head to eat the breakfast on the plate and glanced at Lilith quietly.

Her sister Loisa, who was sitting next to her, rolled her eyes several times and "bombed" a series of sweet bombs at Lilith as if she had applied honey to her mouth. .

"du~du~"

Several car horns in the yard interrupted the chatter and laughter at the breakfast table.

David walked to the door, took a look, and waved to Odis Parker in the driver's seat.

"Hey~ Are you coming over to have breakfast too?!"

"No~thank you."

Mr. Parker deliberately wore a very ordinary casual suit + jacket, picked up a document bag from the passenger seat, and waved at David twice.

"Okay!" David understood what he meant, gave a thumbs up to show that he understood, turned around and walked into the restaurant to quickly finish breakfast.

. . .

After half an hour.

On the way to Professor Armstrong Bartley's house.

David sat in the back seat, quickly looked through several documents in his hand, frowned and handed one of them to Lilith beside him, and asked the driver Otis Parker.

"Is there anyone in the island business group in New York who has not left?"

"They have been here for more than a month, right?"

"Ok!"

Mr. Parker looked at David in the rearview mirror, shrugged and said: "Secretary of State Seth Roberts Vance, led the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Trade and his team at the Plaza Hotel and Waldorf Astoria respectively. The hotel has been holding meetings for more than half a month."

"The topics they discussed were basically whether the government should increase import tariffs on island country automobile companies + control the total import volume + increase the domestic capital gains tax of island country companies + control their sales channels to a certain extent, etc."

"Car...?"

David looked down at the information in his hand, let out a sigh of relief, and unconsciously smiled at the corner of his mouth.

He was right again!

Mr. Parker, who was concentrating on two things, keenly "captured" David's micro-expression in the rearview mirror and asked with a hint of curiosity.

"Do you think...this round of government's import trade restrictions on island countries is not coming to an end yet?!"

"Yes~"

David took out the pen from his breast pocket, wrote a few lines of small words on the document in his hand, shook his head and said.

"Since the 20s, the economic recovery of island countries has led to the rapid development of the textile industry, which has threatened the beginning of the US textile industry~"

"The country has been forcing island countries to sign agreements restricting textile exports."

"Subsequently, the textile trade dispute between the two countries was resolved. The island country moved all its major textile production companies abroad and vigorously developed industries such as heavy industry and semiconductors. In just 20 years, it became the world's second largest economic power."

"So, in recent years, the areas involved in the trade friction between the two countries have gradually expanded from textiles to steel, home appliances, ships, automobiles, semiconductors and other industries, leaving many large and medium-sized domestic companies unable to do so from 71 to 76. If we continue to operate, we will be forced to close down~"

"Last year, the island country voluntarily signed an export restriction agreement again, getting rid of the dumping accusations made by Congress against the companies affiliated to the island country consortium. The island country government also actively cooperated to make the exchange rate of the Japanese yen and the rice dollar rise sharply."

"But these restrictive measures on the export products of island countries cannot change the dilemma of stagnant domestic economic growth!"

"Because the price of most domestically produced products is much higher than that of products from island countries, the quality has also been criticized, and the after-sales service is even more frustrating."

David stopped the pen in his hand, tilted his head and glanced at Lilith who was deep in thought, and smiled.

"The so-called trade war has never left our lives~"

“During the Great Depression, Congressmen Hawley and Smoot jointly introduced a new tariff bill.”

"This initially only involves raising tariffs on imported agricultural products, but manufacturing-dominated states also insist on raising tariffs on manufacturing products."

"Finally, the list of goods subject to increased import tariffs exceeded 2000 items."

"But this bill aroused opposition from many economists, so in May 1930, President Hoover finally signed the Smoot-Hawley Act."

"This bill revised the import tax rates of 1125 commodities in legal form. Judging from the subsequent implementation, the average U.S. tariff rate reached 57.3%, four times the tariff rate in 1929. It can be called the largest tariff bill since the founding of the People's Republic of China. "

"After the bill was enacted, 34 governments formally protested."

"The United Kingdom mobilized the entire Commonwealth to fight a tariff war with the United States; France basically shut out all U.S. imports; Germany also joined the ranks of tariff retaliation, which ultimately led to a 61% drop in total import value; Italy imposed levies on the U.S. automobile industry The 2-fold tariff will directly cause the United States to be unable to sell Italian cars, etc..."

"More than 40 countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Cuba, have taken countermeasures against the U.S. trade war, essentially setting off a global commodity trade war with the widest spread in modern history."

“During the subsequent Great Depression, the domestic unemployment rate in the United States once exceeded 25%, and the total merchandise trade volume of various countries around the world shrank by more than 66%~”

"During the commodity trade war, the economies of many countries have killed one thousand enemies and suffered eight hundred losses, and are on the verge of collapse!"

“It wasn’t until 1934, after President Roosevelt took office, that he repealed the Smoot-Hawley Act, signed the Tariff Reciprocity Act, and coordinated tariff reductions.”

"This trade spirit eventually led to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signed by 23 countries during Truman's term."

David took the file back from Lilith, pointed at a piece of information in it, and continued with a smile.

"There is also the chicken trade war launched by the United States against Germany, France, the Netherlands and other countries in the 60s."

"After World War II, domestic factories began to implement assembly line chicken raising, and the supply of chicken increased rapidly. Compared with this, the traditional free-range broilers raised by Western European farmers were uncompetitive."

"The cheap chicken exported from the United States to Europe accounts for half of the entire European market."

“Local breeders in Western European countries have expressed dissatisfaction and demanded increased tariffs.”

"The Netherlands was the first to stand up and accuse the United States of dumping chicken at low prices."

"France even directly banned the sale of American chicken on the market."

“In 1962, the European Community at that time imposed tariff barriers on frozen chicken products from the United States, causing domestic chicken exports to shrink rapidly, and the chicken industry lost more than 3000 million yuan.”

“Domestic chicken raising companies have suffered miserably~”

"Members of Congress are beginning to propose retaliation against Europe's unfair trade practices."

"So, representatives in Congress first sued the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and then passed the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which directly authorized the president to fight back against trade protection practices."

"Ultimately in retaliation, Lyndon Johnson's administration decided in December 1963 to impose a 12% tariff on a range of goods imported from Europe, such as potato starch, dextrin, light trucks and brandy."

"Some congressmen even threatened to reduce the number of troops stationed in Europe in private."

"But~"

David put away his smile, looked at Lilith seriously and said, "This trade war finally ended with the United States' compromise."

"In May 1965, the United States and the European Community countries held a reconciliation conference in Geneva. The average tariff in the United States was reduced by 5%, and the average tariff in Europe was reduced by 37%."

"After Europe reduced tariffs, American products relied on its mature and efficient production system to enter the European market, which put great pressure on manufacturers in the European Community to survive."

"As the United States imposed high tariffs on European cars, American car companies were protected from competition from European car companies, and they lost the opportunity to quickly realize modernization and transformation. There was a decline for more than ten years, and eventually Chrysler Automobile Company had to I just managed to survive by asking the government for help..."

"As for General Motors..."

David lowered his head and flipped through the information, sighing: "General Motors' problems are hard to come back from, and it's time to make changes!"

"If this round of oil crisis continues to worsen, the sales of existing large-displacement family cars on the market will reach a historical freezing point."

"The rising gas prices will be a problem that consumers who buy cars must look directly at!"

"so.."

Mr. Parker, who was sitting in the driver's seat, suddenly smiled and said, "So, why did you say those weird things yesterday?"

"..yes!"

David turned to look at the street scene outside the window, countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and he whispered: "The most difficult, helpless and desperate rock bottom period is coming!"

"It's like a hurricane with the smallest eye, and its destructive power is staggering!"

Lilith grabbed David's hand, looked at his side face, and bit her lip: "Wait a minute, if you see..."

"Ok?"

"Who did you see?"

"..."

Lilith looked down at her fingertips and murmured: "Karl J. Mellon, he is the ex-boyfriend Nariya introduced to me."

"forward.."

"Hehe~"

David subconsciously twitched the corners of his mouth a few times, never expecting that he would encounter something like this. .Bloody scenes that only appear in movies and TV dramas~