Manhattan Reborn 1978

California.

Los Angeles, South Bay.

Under the bright afternoon sun.

David followed Louis Rockefeller and walked to the woods in the yard. He turned his head and glanced at the tall and tall woods, and smiled sheepishly.

"The last time I went to Chase Bank with Leslie, it was by chance... and I was forced to tell a few short stories..."

"Oh?" Louis walked to the bench under the tree and sat down, waving to David and teasing with a smile.

"The one you told...the story about turkeys eating cow dung and flying up branches is very interesting~"

"When Leslie told us this story, many of us almost laughed to tears..."

"Is it...that funny?"

"No?" Louis sneered as he looked at David, who was sitting down with a very cautious look on his face.

"Bullshit luck can get you to the top, but it can't keep you there, right?"

"Yes!" David straightened his chest and nodded seriously in a very standard sitting posture.

Louis looked at him quietly for a few seconds, crossed his hands and crossed his legs, and asked again.

"I'm very curious, and my family is very curious..."

"You would rather allow yourself to be disappointed than have extravagant expectations."

David opened his mouth and blinked, then thought for a moment and asked, "Floyd?"

The expression on Louis' face did not change at all, but his eyes instantly became gentler and he nodded.

"Huh~" David took two deep breaths, looked down at the grass and said.

"What Freud said in his book "The Interpretation of Dreams" means that letting yourself be disappointed and accepting disappointment requires a lot of courage. Only those who dare to face setbacks and failures can succeed. Only by not getting discouraged despite repeated failures and setbacks can we continue to move forward.”

"And those who have a sense of luck in failure, or have an extravagant hope mentality, will be doomed. Such people will often fall into the same similar trap again, or fall on the same hurdle again and again. once.."

"Is it so difficult to let one disappointment, admit one failure, and face failure seriously?"

"No, people just hate failure from the bottom of their hearts. They are unwilling to face failure, let alone admit their failure to others."

After David said this, he observed an "encouraging" look on Louis' face, and then continued.

"I once picked up a copy of "Being and Nothingness" published by the famous French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in a bar~"

"Freedom is the basic concept in Sartre's existential philosophy."

"He gave freedom a new meaning. His freedom is an activity of pure consciousness characterized by human subjectivity and transcendence, and is identical with the self."

"In other words, freedom is not a certain quality of existence, but human existence itself. Human beings are free."

"Freedom is not what people pursue and choose, but what people themselves have. Freedom cannot be escaped. People are destined to be free."

"The first condition for action is freedom."

“Because all activities should be intentional, that is, activities with purpose and motivation.”

"So, Sartre believes that people only form themselves and shape themselves in the process of action."

“Man is the result of his own actions and nothing else.”

"Haha~" Louis' laughter made David stop.

He saw a hint of longing for his old friend on the face of the old man in front of him who was over seventy years old. .

"When Mary was young, she was particularly fond of Nietzsche."

“Sartre was very close to Nietzsche in his critical nihilistic enthusiasm.”

"In 64, Mary and I learned that he was about to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. We were about to go to the award ceremony to congratulate him when we saw reports of his public refusal to accept the award."

"He said he did not accept any official honors..."

David's hands floated on his knees, his mind was racing, and he quickly answered: "But I think Freud is more realistic!"

"Freud believed that human culture is first and foremost a set of methods used to restrict and prohibit people's unbridled, free, and inner desires."

"Yeah..." Louis nodded slightly and smiled.

"Saint Genet: Comedian and Sufferer, published by Sartre in 52, was a favorite of Mary's."

"If you come across this book published by Gallimard Paris..."

"I will definitely buy it immediately and give it to Grandma Mary!"

"Hahaha~"

Louis's laughter spread far and wide, and his wife Mary and Bob, who stood quietly watching him by the window, also heard it. .

Bob looked at grandma very curiously and couldn't help but ask: "Grandpa, what are they talking about?"

"Haha~"

Grandma Mary looked back at "simple" Bob and said with a smile: "That second-hand car you bought in New York always breaks down?"

"Yeah~" Bob raised his hand and scratched his head, shrugging somewhat distressedly.

"In recent months, I have driven it for more than 6,000 kilometers in the central and northern states. It broke down several times on the way. I have spent more than 1,000 meters to repair it."

"Oh~" Grandma Mary nodded kindly, raised two fingers to Bob, and smiled.

"How about I lend you 20,000 yuan to buy a new car you like?"

"Twenty thousand?"

"Uh..." Bob looked at Grandma Mary, thought about it seriously, and shook his head.

"No, thank you!"

"I still want to use the money I earn to buy a new car that I like the most."

"Haha~" Grandma Mary smiled in surprise and relief.

She took Bob back to the living room, sat down and asked, "Did you just say that you met an acquaintance by chance when you were passing through Missouri?"

"Ah...yes!"

"I was passing through St. Louis, a city in eastern Missouri, and saw Shadia hanging out with a few hippies at a gas station."

"Hippies...!" The smile on Grandma Mary's face disappeared.

She held Bob's hand and said: "On Halloween last year, after Shadia had a big fight with her family, she ran away from home and lost all news~"

"She didn't come back from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's gatherings."

"If you can meet her again, you will definitely..."

"I will!"

Bob understood the meaning of grandma's words and immediately nodded in assurance.

"Sadia loves her sister Kelina the most!"

"When I met Giles in New York a few days ago, he said he wanted to hold an engagement ceremony with Kylena at the end of next month."

"If Shadia learns this news, she will definitely participate!"

"Are Kylena and Giles getting engaged?"

"That's really great~"

"However, you also know Shadia's character, she is difficult..."

After hearing his grandma's "concerns", Bob rubbed his nose with his hand, couldn't help but glance out the window, and asked tentatively with a strange expression.

"You want to..."

"Ok!"

Grandma Mary nodded with a smile: "When Leslie led his girlfriend Livlin to our family's Christmas party, both of them mentioned David more than once, saying that he was very good at talking to people about everything. friends and help them untie their knots, right?”

"Uh..." Bob tilted his head and thought for a while, feeling that Leslie was right, and nodded slowly.

"David is really good at socializing and knows how to communicate."

"Especially among the female friends around him, almost no one would say anything bad about him..."

"Occasionally, someone will make fun of his philandering, and it's just a friendly joke~"

"Famous?"

Grandma Mary's eyes flashed with "the light of gossip" and asked: "Isn't he already engaged? Does he have many lovers?"

"Uh..." Bob was at a loss for words when grandma asked him again.

He scratched his head vigorously, then helplessly spread his hands and said, "Although my boss has never concealed the fact that besides his fiancée Lilith, he also has multiple girlfriends..."

"But I don't want to be behind his back..."

"Haha~ There are only two of us here. I'm just curious about what method he will use to convince Shadiya..."

"It's okay, I promise I won't tell anyone!"

"Including your grandpa!" Grandma Mary promised with a serious expression.

"..." Bob shook his legs subconsciously, held his hands together unnaturally, hesitated for a while, and then whispered.

"I heard from my colleagues that he seems to have at least three girlfriends..."

"Ah~!" Grandma Mary couldn't help laughing.

She deliberately showed an expression of disbelief and asked curiously: "At least three...? How many are there?"

"Isn't he afraid of being caught by Lilith on a date with his lover?"

"Haha~" Bob looked at grandma with a weird smile and grinned.

"You still underestimate him!"

"The last time we had dinner together, Lilith..."

Under Grandma Mary's constant questioning, Bob finally told everything he knew.

. . .

It's approaching evening~

Unknowingly, David and Louis had been sitting under the tree chatting for most of the afternoon.

Louis led David to a flower bush outside the woods, pointed at several wildflowers in bloom, and said with a smile.

"When I planted them, I didn't have many expectations. I just wanted to see if they could adapt to the southern climate and grow~"

"Oh... did you bring these flowers from the north? What are they called?" David squatted down and looked at these unnamed wild flowers for a while and asked.

"Yeah~ I brought them all from Chicago, and they didn't have names originally."

"Mary loved their tenacity and how they struggled to adapt to their environment and bloom..."

"So we asked a few gardeners to help us keep them~"

"Hmm..." David stretched out his hand to gently fiddle with the pale yellow wildflowers that were blowing in the wind, and looked up at Louis and asked.

"I promised Leslie to join your family's SFO as a consultant..."

"When I returned to New York a few days ago to prepare tax filing documents, I discovered that a remuneration transferred from your family's SFO has been received in my account."

"But I thought about it for a long time and couldn't figure out how to perform the role of consultant..."

"I think when Grandpa David mentioned this matter, he didn't make any demands on me..."

"so.."

Louis put his arms behind his back and asked with a smile: "So, you came to ask me?"

"Uh...yeah!" David tapped the little flower with his fingertips, stood up and looked at Louis expectantly.

Louis chuckled and shook his head, sighing: "But I'm already retired!"

"In the past few years that David has been managing the family office, I have never had any involvement."

"You came to me because you asked the wrong person!"

"..." David deliberately smiled crookedly, did not answer, and continued to wait.

Louis looked directly into David's eyes, the smile at the corner of his mouth slowly faded, and he gradually understood the real "purpose" of this kid's visit today, and asked directly.

"Are you interested in politics?"

"No~"

"I'm only very interested in how to become...a rich man like old Mr. Cherov."

"Hahaha~"

"Then do you know what it took for him to achieve what he is today?"

"Probably know something."

"Now that you know everything, do you still insist on this decision??"

"Yes!" David nodded vigorously without showing any hesitation.

Louis smiled again, looked at young David, and said with some sigh: "There are dozens of people of your age among the younger generation of our Rockefeller family."

"But few of them can be as mature as you, and no one can know how to choose like you."

"However, you took the initiative to expose the child's matter. You must have already anticipated and arranged the subsequent development~?"

David took a deep breath and nodded: "Yes!"

Without any pause, Louis asked: "Then what private agreement you and old Morgan have reached, can you tell me?"

"Sorry, I can't."

Seeing David's straightforward refusal, Louis smiled nonchalantly: "If it were me, I wouldn't let you go so easily~"

“Since you don’t want to get too involved in politics, then don’t get too close to Wall Street investment banks.”

"Our shareholding ratio in Chase Bank has never exceeded 15%, and David can still control the board of directors of Chase Bank."

"do you understand?"

"I understand!" David quickly understood what Louis meant from his "riddle-guessing" words, and said with a sincere smile.

"Thank you for your advice!"

"Haha~" Louis teased with admiration hidden in his eyes.

"Even I don't know...how did you understand what I said?"

"Hahaha~" David laughed in agreement, knowing that Lois was teasing him.

"One of my favorite comic book characters is the Riddler!"

"But I'm also disgusted with the Riddler's arrogance, narcissism, neurosis, and high-profile behavior."

"So I hope that I can become a low-key rich man and not be like old Uncle Cherov who keeps running around for the sake of his children and feels haggard."

"..." Louis turned his head silently and looked into the distance, sighing silently.

ps: I thought about this chapter for two days, and finally deleted the plot about Winthrop Rockefeller, the fourth of the five Rockefeller brothers.

The reason is actually very simple. His character experience is a bit too sensitive and he is easily locked up. .