Chapter 12: Contest of Wits (Seeking Recommendations! Seeking Collections!)
After playing poker for over ten minutes, Morgan heard the sound of footsteps approaching him and sneered inwardly, but he couldn't help it. However, in the next second, Morgan's eyebrows involuntarily twitched.
"Squeak!"
He deliberately pressed the chair, pulled the heavy sofa armchair, making it emit an ear-piercing sound. With a smile on his face, Li Zichen draped his overcoat over the back of the chair and sat down.
Provocation! Ruthless provocation!
The screeching sound of the wooden chair scraping against the marble floor made Morgan's eyebrows furrow, his eyes, which had been fixed on the card face, slightly raised, and just as he was about to relax his eyebrows, he saw that this Chinese person was actually sitting in front of him, his eyebrows furrowing again.
"Oh yeah?"
Sitting in front of Morgan, noticing his frown, Li Zichen sneered inwardly, thinking of fighting a psychological war with himself?
You know nothing about me! But I understand you very well! You died, and the whole world has studied you for over a hundred years. There are hundreds of biographies written about you. What a celebrity! What a celebrity!
If you ignore me, I'll ignore you!
Realizing that the other party had noticed his intention and deliberately stimulated himself, Morgan immediately raised an eyebrow and continued to play with his poker cards.
"There's still time!"
Despite this, Morgan's eyes involuntarily glanced at the person and chair opposite him, no one dared to sit in front of him without an invitation!
Aware of the fluctuations in his inner emotions, Morgan took a deep breath and soon continued to immerse himself in poker.
Morgan's silence only made Li Zichen's mood sink, but he endured his own disregard. Was he waiting for him to take the initiative to speak? But once he spoke, he realized that it would give Morgan complete control, making himself beg him, rather than...
He is playing poker!
Five years ago, during the US economic crisis, he might have been playing poker in this very room, locking a dozen or so major New York financiers in one of the rooms for a day and a night, forcing them to come up with $50 billion to bail out the market.
"$20 million? Not enough! Then he continued playing poker!"
Recalling a documentary about Morgan, his grandson proudly described how in 1907 he locked up those financiers, not giving them food or drink, and used one day and night to force out $50 million. Li Zicheng secretly congratulated himself on his "brilliance".
It's okay! I was prepared for this anyway.
His buttocks sank into the chair, and he had to admit that this chair was very comfortable, far more comfortable than what later generations called "ergonomic chairs". After sitting for a few minutes, Li Zichen, who had made up his mind to spend the day with Morgan, reached back and pulled out a book from his coat pocket.
One word, one word, looking as if he was being careful, but in fact Li Zichen knew that the back of his head felt a chill, would doing this provoke Morgan? Would he get himself killed?
No!
Isn't the purpose of coming here to knock on his door? If you want to knock on his door, why consider so much? After finally calming down completely, Li Zichen became immersed in this book with hundreds of pages.
When Li Zichen was immersed in the game, Morgan saw him looking at him with a leisurely expression out of the corner of his eye, almost dropping his cards. What... what is he doing here!
For the first time, Morgan felt a sense of defeat in his heart. The trick he was most proud of had been easily resolved by this young man!
Calm down! Calm down!
After repeating it to himself several times, Morgan continued playing with his poker cards.
Bang, bang, bang......
The hands of the clock moved forward bit by bit, one second, one minute, one hour, until the night was driven away by sunlight. In the smoking room of Morgan Library, two people sat by the window, an old man and a young man, one reading a book, the other playing cards. For four hours, neither of them initiated a conversation or uttered even a single word, nor did they show any excessive emotions.
Quiet!
Inside the smoking room, all that could be heard was the sound of two people breathing quietly.
Hurry!
Two seemingly calm people are actually both waiting for each other to speak up first.
No one spoke, and both of them understood that they were waiting for the other to break the silence first. Finally, sunlight shone through the colored window of the smoking room, casting a glow on the faces and bodies of the old man and the young man.
"Dong, dong, dong......"
The clock struck eleven!
It's already 11 o'clock on the second day!
With his left hand holding something, and his right hand rubbing his throat, Li Zichen, who had not drunk a drop of water for over twenty hours, felt his stomach growling. He bent down, took out a sandwich from the pocket of his coat, tore off the newspaper wrapping, and took a big bite.
"Damn it!"
Listening to the sound of paper being torn, smelling the aroma of sandwiches, Morgan was shrouded in a strong sense of defeat for the first time. He found that everything about him had been easily dispelled by this young man. Although he had eaten a meal on purpose when inviting him over, Morgan, who had not drunk water for eight hours, also discovered a fact that he had neglected in the past.
The sandwich tastes so delicious!
The same feeling, the same from Li Zichen's heart, this is preparing for a protracted war! He took three sandwiches from the dining car. If it goes on like this, the first to fall will be Morgan, not himself. Thinking of Morgan, Li Zichen glanced at him and saw that there was actually a cup of coffee on his left side, and the cup seemed to still have a cup of coffee in it!
Morgan, still playing poker, suddenly found a hand reaching out to his left, and before he could even react, Morgan saw that it had taken away his cup of coffee, drinking the coffee while eating a sandwich, and even looking at him!
My coffee!
Morgan, who hasn't drunk coffee for years, will really regret this. Why? Why didn't he drink that cup of coffee?!
Wanting to get up, Morgan realized that this was a competition, and if he lost...
Time passed for several hours, and the sky completely darkened.
"Gulu..."
His stomach growled again, and at this moment the air was still filled with the faint scent of sandwiches, which continued to stimulate his empty stomach. Due to his stomach rumbling with hunger, the walls of his stomach were also a bit painful. Morgan remembered that he had once heard someone say that if there is nothing in the stomach for a long time, it can cause the stomach lining to rub against each other, eventually leading to stomach ulcers.
"Just one bite, even if it's just a mouthful!"
Enduring the hunger in his stomach, Morgan glanced at Li Zichen opposite him. At first glance, he almost spat out blood. He was holding a book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, with an air of ease that Morgan couldn't fake.
He drank a cup of coffee, ate a sandwich, perhaps... Morgan understood that if they continued to confront each other like this, the first one who wouldn't be able to hold on would be himself, not him. Who knows what would happen if he continued to hold on? But... but he absolutely couldn't show weakness voluntarily.
When Morgan fell into deep thought, Li Zichen, who seemed to be drinking coffee and watching him, caught a glimpse of Morgan's hands, which had been playing with cards all along, stopping suddenly, without even realizing he needed to pay attention to him.
"This old fox, he can't hold on any longer, but... he will never show weakness voluntarily! He is Morgan!"
He finished the coffee in one gulp and as he put the cup back on the table, still looking at Li Zichen, he said a sentence seemingly unintentionally.
"The coffee is good!"
"Thank you!"
A word slipped out of his mouth and Morgan was so annoyed that he almost slapped himself!
Even!
After supporting for more than ten hours, it turned out to be a draw!
Morgan, who had always insisted on regretting no more than three seconds, quickly recovered and put down the poker cards in his hand.
"Mr. Li, I think we can have dinner while talking, what do you think?"
Li Zichen, who had been hungry for a long time, would certainly not refuse this request.
At the dinner table, while Li Zichen was enjoying a sumptuous dinner, Morgan suddenly spoke up after eating a few mouthfuls of rice.
I have a job!
"Huh?"
Raised her head and stared at Morgan in surprise.
"A salary of one million dollars! Not including dividends!"
The young man's stunned face finally balanced Morgan, who still couldn't see through himself. The young man in front of him was the only opponent who made him feel defeated, and if he could work for himself, there might not be a more wonderful thing than that!
"If you accept..."
What? Is Morgan going to hire himself?
One million dollars!
This is not $1 million in 2013, but $1 million in 1912. In this era, $1 million could buy about 1.4 tons of gold! For ordinary Americans, a monthly salary of $100 was already a rare high salary, which usually required supporting the consumption of ten mouths. As for the middle class - the term most loved by Chinese people 100 years later - it is only an emerging class, and the monthly income of what is called the middle class in the United States today is only two or three hundred dollars.
From this era's perspective, no matter how you look at it, one million dollars is a staggering sum. For anyone in this era, the number is very tempting.
"And I can accept your offer, in stock of United States Steel Corporation and cash!"
One million dollars! At Morgan! In the eyes of John Pierpont Morgan, his own work for a year is worth one million dollars! And that doesn't even include dividends! And just a few months ago, in order to get promoted, he was fawning on his superiors like a dog, and now John Pierpont Morgan actually thinks...
Calm down! Stay calm!
If it were a month ago, or even three weeks ago, I would have agreed, but what about now? He wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin and put on an innocent smile.
"I need to express my gratitude..."
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