America 1881: Legend of the West

The advantage of the acquisition is that it gives Chen Jianqiu the opportunity to integrate most of the western railway industry.

As for the disadvantage, it gave little Astor all kinds of reasons to go to New York.

To be honest, Chen Jianqiu doesn't hate the son of a New York real estate tycoon.

Little Astor helped him a lot.

Although I almost killed this guy at first.

But judging from the fact that they have been together for so long, this young man is not inherently bad.

He just felt a little creepy every time he saw the ambiguous smile that little Astor looked at him.

In addition, the Astor family's mansion is well-known as a social resort for New York's upper class.

His wife, Caroline Astor, was passionate about this.

As the inventor and talker of the "high-end bureau" in New York's upper class society at that time: she organized the famous "Celebrity 400" (The 400) dance, in which only rich and famous people recognized by Mrs. Astor were eligible to participate.

Mrs. Caroline is a total diamond addict. She will appear in gorgeous clothes at every ball. Some flattering guests describe her skirt as a "walking crystal chandelier."

Various dignitaries come and go here every day.

Rockefeller and JP Morgan were frequent visitors here.

Little Astor desperately wanted to introduce Chen Jianqiu to them, and praised him as: an outstanding young man from the East, a western pioneer with both courage and strength.

He looked at Chen Jianqiu with a filter in his eyes, but others did not.

Needless to say, Rockefeller always believed that he did not kill this yellow man simply because he did not pose much of a threat to his oil empire for the time being.

So he never looked at Chen Jianqiu in the eyes.

Morgan asked a few symbolic questions, but then he just dismissed Chen Jianqiu as nothing.

As for other people's attitude towards Chen Jianqiu, they have a similar attitude.

Be polite, but distant.

His achievements over the past few years are truly remarkable.

However, these rich people have always privately attributed this to Chen Jianqiu's good luck and being attached to the big tree of the Astor family.

Little Astor’s socialite mother also mentioned to her son in a subtle way more than once:

Don't get too close to Chen Jianqiu.

He is still a Chinese, just a rich Chinese.

Chen Jianqiu's luck was indeed good, but he didn't think that his first pot of gold, the treasure, could be obtained by luck alone.

Therefore, he does not like to participate in such gatherings.

However, little Astor didn't think there was any problem. He was still eager to bring Chen Jianqiu into the circle.

Chen Jianqiu's attitude at gatherings is often lukewarm, neither humble nor overbearing.

This afternoon, Chen Jianqiu was looking at the charter for tomorrow's meeting in the office of the International Gunpowder Association.

"Hey, the stone lion at your door is really impressive."

Little Astor walked into Chen Jianqiu's office with great interest.

"You're not going to class?" Chen Jianqiu sat at his desk and continued to read the charter documents without raising his head.

"The class at Harvard University was boring, so I slipped out first."

Little Astor looked left and right in Chen Jianqiu's office, then picked up a small ornament on his desk and started playing with it.

It was a metal slug fixed on a small wooden stand.

"The warhead of the first smokeless powder bullet that caused a kill was dug out of a corpse." Chen Jianqiu said coldly.

Little Astor retracted his hand and immediately put the ornaments back on the table.

"So you wander around like this every day?" Chen Jianqiu asked.

"Otherwise? Write novels, make inventions, pick up girls, etc." Little Astor shrugged, "Life is so boring and boring."

He suddenly understood what Chen Jianqiu meant:

"Oh, don't worry. There are professionals at the trust doing asset accounting. Your acquisition will be no problem!"

Chen Jianqiu stopped talking.

"Chen, when will you get off work?" Little Astor still couldn't stop talking.

Chen Jianqiu took out his pocket watch and took a look:

"There are still a few hours, what's wrong?"

"Come to my house for dinner." Little Astor winked at Chen Jianqiu.

"A dance again?" Chen Jianqiu frowned.

"No, no, no, this is a private round. I'll introduce you to a few people." Little Astor said with a shy face.

Chen Jianqiu had a headache, but he did not refuse.

"Then just sit there and wait patiently."

A few hours later, Chen Jianqiu and little Astor walked out of the association office door.

It was completely dark in New York at this time.

But the streets of Manhattan were brightly lit.

Chen Jianqiu and little Astor rode a carriage along Fifth Avenue.

"Chen, what kind of energy do you think these street lights use?" Little Astor pointed to the street lights outside the carriage window.

"It uses electricity." Chen Jianqiu glanced at it and said without thinking.

"Eh? How do you know?" Little Astor asked with a surprised look on his face, "You also know how to light lamps in the West?"

Chen Jianqiu was too lazy to pay attention to him.

Nowadays, people are not familiar with this stuff, but it doesn’t mean that I am not familiar with it.

The carriage stopped in front of the particularly conspicuous mansion of the Astor family.

The two got off the carriage and walked inside.

The interior of the mansion was much brighter than the outside. Hundreds of incandescent lamps were disguised in various exquisite lampshades, illuminating this magnificent mansion as if it were daytime.

Today's dinner is not in the hall.

Little Astor took him up the stairs and to the door of a room on the second floor.

There stood a servant.

See them coming.

The servant opened the door to the room.

Someone was already there waiting for them.

One man has a rather strong build and an imposing figure. The beard on his lips is quite "majestic" and hangs down like two thick leaves, covering his entire lips.

The other was in his forties, and his face looked much "cleaner". His facial features were three-dimensional and quite fair, and he could vaguely recognize his handsome appearance when he was young.

Little Astor pointed to the bearded man and introduced to Chen Jianqiu:

"This is George Westinghouse, the founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company, who holds more than 400 patents related to railway transportation."

The man looked Chen Jianqiu up and down with a somewhat indifferent expression.

Little Astor turned to another person:

"As for this one, I don't know if you have heard of his name in the West. He is the most popular inventor in the United States right now, with hundreds of patents!"

He pointed to the shining electric light in the room.

"These are all made by him, and the reason why they stay on is because of the power plants and DC generators built by his company."

"His name, Thomas Alva Edison."

Unlike Westinghouse, Edison looked at Chen Jianqiu with a smile.

But when Chen Jianqiu looked at his smile, he always felt that something was not right.

He noticed that when little Astor introduced Edison, a look of disdain flashed across Mr. Westinghouse's face.

"This is the 'Western Railway Tycoon' and 'Roswell Gun King' Chen Jianqiu that I often tell you about, Mr. Chen!" Astor introduced Chen Jianqiu to the two of them.

Chen Jianqiu glanced at little Astor.

He vaguely remembered that the last time his nickname was "The Wise Man of the East," why did he suddenly become the "Western Railway Tycoon" and the "Roswell Gun King"?

The day he becomes notorious in the New York business world, little Astor will have to contribute half of his "credit."

Westinghouse's expression still didn't change much. He just shook Chen Jianqiu's hand symbolically and nodded at the same time.

I guess this polite handshake and nod was for the sake of little Astor's face and his company's future business.

But Thomas is different.

He squeezed Chen Jianqiu's hand tightly, his smile making people feel like spring breeze:

"I've heard Mr. Astor mention you a long time ago, saying that you are a very talented inventor."

Chen Jianqiu didn't even look at little Astor this time.

Anyway, he has overcome his weakness of blushing.

He suddenly remembered the man who was about to jump into the sea in San Francisco.

"I also know a friend who often mentions you to me." Chen Jianqiu held Edison's hand and said with a smile.

Edison was quite surprised.

There are actually people on the border who know his name.

"What's your friend's name?" he asked.

"His name is Hiram Maxim." Chen Jianqiu tentatively announced the name of the firearms inventor while staring into Edison's eyes. "He admires you very much and is deeply impressed by you."

Edison quickly ran the name through his mind.

He seemed completely unable to remember.

It seems there is, but it seems there isn't.

"Well, he is a very good friend of mine, and we appreciate each other." The smile on Edison's face remained unchanged, "By the way, what is he doing now?"

Chen Jianqiu really wanted to touch his chin.

"He's very good. He's working on a battlefield device that can reduce the pain of soldiers."

"Oh, that's right. Medical devices may be better sold in Europe now, but they are not very marketable in the United States."

Edison finally confirmed that he did not know the person Chen Jianqiu was talking about.

"Sit down, sit down, let's eat first!"

Little Astor helped the three of them sit down and at the same time snapped his fingers at the servant:

"Quick, serve!"

The dinner began.