America 1982-Chapter 354 - 32: Clues That Don’t Connect_3

Susan took the glass of wine Tommy handed her: "At CBET television station in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, I had people test many times, and every household in Detroit, Michigan, can receive its TV signal. The cooperation offer from CBET was 35% lower than that from the American stations in Detroit. The CICI television station in Sudbury, Ontario, its signal can be received across most of New Hampshire in the United States, and there’s more..."

Seeing Tommy, Susan habitually started talking about the work she used to be in charge of. Yes, Tommy the miser was never one to spend money lavishly. The offers for some large-city television stations to join the BT television network were too high, so Tommy sent Susan to Canada, looking for some cost-efficient alternatives that yielded the same result.

"You won’t find a husband that way, no man likes a career woman who still talks incessantly about work, even in the face of good food and wine, just like Ottelia has a couple friends. The husband really hates his wife, who is such a career woman, because she always discusses politics, business, or even international affairs with him, even when it’s just the two of them," Tommy stopped Susan from continuing her report on her past work in Canada.

"The Clintons and his lawyer wife? Ottelia has mentioned them quite a few times over the past year when she called to chat with me," Susan asked indifferently as if she had heard about it before.

Tommy nodded: "His wife is the greediest woman I’ve ever seen. Her offer to solve a female employee issue for Walmart in Arkansas was that she would invest a thousand dollars of principal, and needed to get a minimum return of a hundredfold in the financial market. Then the thousand miraculously turned into $120,000. Anyway, it’s best to stay away from such people."

"Sounds like you aren’t too far from them yourself."

"I don’t care. On the contrary, that woman is having some minor conflicts with her husband recently, and I’m actually getting closer."

"Marital conflict?"

"Sort of. Bill wants to register for the primary elections and then run for president next year. His prospects are very good because the party internally has high support for him, and some polling data also show he has a big chance. It’s mainly because the top-support Democrat, Gary Hart, couldn’t control his own stick, and an extramarital affair scandal got exposed, forcing him to drop out of the race, making Bill practically without a real challenger within the party. However, his wife strongly disagrees, so there are some disagreements between them," Tommy casually talked about the recent squabble between Bill and Hillary.

Hillary would talk about these issues with Ottelia, and then Ottelia would relate them to Tommy like telling a story. Of course, it wasn’t Hillary who couldn’t control her mouth, gossiping about her husband everywhere. Telling Tommy about this was just to test him, to see which side he would take when their marital conflicts surfaced, since he was the kind of silent donor who provided financial support.

Susan curiously asked, "Why doesn’t she support her husband’s campaign?"

"She feels the timing isn’t right. She wants Bill to spend four years working within the Democratic Party to truly consolidate internal factions before running for office. At the moment, the Moderate Faction, the Radical Faction, and the Reformist Faction within the Democratic Party are only temporarily united because of Gary Hart’s scandal, looking for a quick replacement to take on the Republicans after Reagan and Bush. In reality, because the factional issues are not alleviated, they simply cannot have true fighting power. Hillary believes that Bill should now appear in a more moderate image within the party to ease factional conflicts and truly unite the party’s power. Moreover, he’s still young and can afford to wait, trying to maximize benefits. But Bill would rather shape himself now into an image of someone who steps forward to answer the call and stand up for the Democratic Party in times of difficulty. Ottelia said that because of this issue, the two had a big fight, and Hillary was so angered by Bill that she drank an entire bottle of red wine by herself."

"What was the result of the argument?"

"Bill won’t come out to run this term. He doesn’t have a choice, all backers are in his wife’s hands. She has been the one strategizing for him for years for his campaigns for Governor and Attorney General. Besides his wife, there’s her brother, sister-in-law. In a nutshell, without his wife, Bill would find it hard to even run for Governor successfully. What Hillary envisioned as the best scenario is her husband following her instructions, postponing his presidential candidacy until ’92, and not seeking reelection after his term as Governor ends in ’90, but letting her run for Governor of Arkansas for a smooth transition. This way, Bill could spend the next two years dedicating himself to Democratic Party matters, integrating factional power to ensure a more composed candidacy."

"Sounds like you’ve done quite a lot of homework on this couple, thought it through."

"Indeed."

"Did things go as you expected?"

Tommy looked at the curious Susan and laughed, "I think you want to guess what I’m thinking, but as it stands, it’s still quite difficult."

Susan sniffed the aroma wafting from the red wine in her glass, then looked back at Tommy, "I enrolled in a wine-tasting course before because I wanted to learn how to taste wines from different vintages. In the end, after spending a few hundred on tuition, all I can differentiate now is the taste of beer. To me, red wine is all just as tough to drink."

"Most people who drink red wine are actually just like you, they just won’t admit it as straightforwardly as you do. Stephen gave this to me, he said it was a premium batch made by a Californian vineyard his family has shares in, so... Dorothy, could you please fetch me a dozen beers and take the decanted red wine to Sophia? She likes to unwind with a glass of red wine before sleeping alone to ease her fatigue," Tommy said as he pushed his wine glass aside and spoke to the maid.

Once the beers were served, Susan popped one open and took a chilling gulp, breathing out a satisfying sigh, "What were you saying just now?"

"Stop always dressing like a career woman. It might scare off men who want to pursue you," Tommy said.

Susan was dismissive of Tommy’s words, "During the years I spent on the streets, I had more X experiences than most women in their lifetimes. How much interest do you think I have left in sleeping with men?"

"You could learn from Holly, get some gigolos to please you, recovery therapy, you know. Mark, Jason, they can’t stop singing the praises of recovery therapy."

Susan shook her head slightly, "Forget it, I’ve heard from Holly that to vent her stress, she treats gigolos like rag dolls, abusing them ruthlessly with a whip until she is exhausted and then lies in bed, letting the poor, battered gigolos serve her."

"That’s right, her stress is high; if she keeps it bottled up, she’ll go insane sooner or later. Venting it promptly is normal. If you don’t have enough mental strength, that kind of pressure can crush all your nerves. Why do you think those brokers on Wall Street are crazy enough to smoke weed while working and then immediately call up high-class ladies for fun after work?" Tommy chuckled.

Susan obviously didn’t agree with Tommy, retorting, "Then why haven’t I seen you relieve stress like Holly, or Jason, or those brokers on Wall Street?"

"My accounts are filled with enough cash for me to live carefreely for a lifetime. The worst-case scenario is ending up as a rich person, so I don’t have that much pressure," Tommy spread his hands and innocently added, "With no pressure, naturally, there’s no need to relieve it."

"I don’t have any pressure either, nothing could be worse than the life I had before I met you."

Tommy nodded, "Honestly, talking to you is really boring, Susan, even more so than chatting with Sophia. Let’s continue discussing work. Remember those girls from Hollywood? You’re going to save them. Don’t worry about the costs; although I’ve invested a lot at the TV station recently, I assure you there won’t be any delays in your finances. Just save as many girls as possible, the more the better. You studied political science; after you do this job well, I’ll find a good position for you to put your knowledge to use."

"Starting a black TV channel, helping injured actresses, making connections with presidential candidates... these all seem completely unrelated, all different things," Susan murmured softly to herself, trying to make sense of Tommy’s recent investments of significant time and money, but she couldn’t piece it all together.

If Tommy had admitted during their casual conversation that he had guessed right about why he approached that couple, then things would have been much clearer. But Tommy denied it, saying he had guessed wrong about the direction things were taking, which left Susan utterly unable to find any clues to link all these matters together.

Tommy took a sip of his chilling beer and winked at Susan, "You’ll see for yourself how I link all this together. When I had only fifty thousand in start-up funds, I already had my greedy eyes on Lotus. Now, with so much cash at my disposal, what do you think could possibly attract my greedy gaze?"