Chapter Twenty-Two: The East Coast

  14 days later, Liu and his entourage had moved into the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Manhattan's Park Avenue. In order not to draw too much attention, they only booked 4 suites on the top 12th floor, occupying half of the 12th floor.

  For this era's New York, Liu Mo is relatively satisfied, except for the various horse-drawn carriages and animal dung on the streets being quite an eyesore. The city architecture and pace of life in New York are closest to Liu Mo's impression of a city.

  In the early 20th century, New York already had many skyscrapers over 100 meters high with 20-30 floors, and buildings under 10 floors were everywhere, especially in Midtown Manhattan where high-rise buildings stood densely, resembling Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou after their reform. The streets were filled with spider web-like power lines and the sound of streetcars ringing out.

  David took Liu Fei and a few others to Macy's on Broadway in a luxurious carriage provided by the restaurant. Liu Fei sat alone with two American girls in a horse-drawn carriage, since getting on the train to New York, these two San Francisco socialites had been extremely enthusiastic about Liu Fei, after checking into the Astor Hotel, they directly became Liu Fei's private life secretaries and lovers, for this mysterious oriental millionaire, the two girls used their skills to take care of Liu Fei in every aspect of his life, even starting to learn Chinese with him, it seemed like they were going all out.

  The dark-haired girl is a 25-year-old Latin American mixed-blood girl named Rosalia Mafalda Moreno, who is a dancer and has some reputation in the San Francisco area. The blonde girl is a 21-year-old descendant of French immigrants, named Jacqueline Bourgeois, whose father owns a small factory in San Francisco that used to produce steam engine parts but now supplies parts for Dongfeng Motor Corporation.

  At the party, they didn't notice this somewhat awkward yellow-skinned man at first. It wasn't until David introduced them to this young Chinese man named Liu Ye as his business partner that Rosalia and Jacqueline took slight notice of him. When David strongly requested a few socialites on the scene to accompany his Chinese friend to the balcony, the two girls reluctantly agreed for David's sake. Unexpectedly, after a few cups of wine, this seemingly awkward young Chinese man immediately changed his demeanor, telling various small jokes, playing new and unusual games, and becoming very charming. As a result, at the end of the party, the two girls half-heartedly helped David get Liu Ye into the room...

  The series of events that followed made the two girls look at this young Chinese man with new eyes. Not only did they ride in a first-class carriage to New York, a metropolis they had never set foot in before, but they also stayed in four large suites at the luxurious Astoria Hotel, where even the coffee utensils were pure silver.

  For a girl who has been to many parties, dances and banquets in San Francisco, Rosalia and Jacqueline have seen the luxury and grandeur of high society, but that was all in San Francisco, or at most Los Angeles. After turning around, it's still those new cities on the West Coast. The two girls who haven't even been to the East Coast, let alone New York, clearly know what kind of people they have met, what kind of opportunities they have encountered, and whether they can seize them, all depend on themselves.

  After passing through several blocks, Liu Ye and his party arrived at the front of Macy's department store. Liu Ye looked at this four-story building located at the intersection, which had no large advertisements and no crowded pedestrian traffic, giving him not a hint of the feeling of America's first department store.

  A carriage of the Astor House Hotel stopped in front of the gate, two white young men wearing snow-white uniforms ran up, opened the door of the carriage neatly, put down the step, and waited on one side for the people in the carriage to get off.

  Liu Mo and a few others got off the horse-drawn carriage, waited for a moment, then David and several others on another horse-drawn carriage also arrived, and they all rushed into Macy's through the large glass door.

  It has to be said that this American luxury department store is much better than those in San Francisco and Omaha, not only several times larger in size but also with many more exquisite goods. All sorts of high-end clothing, jewelry, men's and women's accessories are dazzling. However, due to the difference in era, Liu Mei was only interested in the pearl, watch, and pen exhibition areas, and looked down on all other products.

  However, Rosalia and Jacqueline were like birds out of a cage, flying back and forth between various clothing and shoe exhibits, wanting to try on every single piece of clothing. Without trying one on, they would fly over to Liu Fei and David, strike a few poses, then fly off towards another item.

  In order to show sympathy for the salesgirl's hard work, Liu Ye had no choice but to foot the bill time and again in exchange for a brief respite. When they arrived at the second floor, the manager of the mall had already been alerted and hurried over to David's side, respectfully introducing some of Macy's special products and services while discreetly probing into their background.

  When the manager realized that this white youth was the refrigerator king who had caused a sensation throughout the United States, he immediately used very professional vocabulary to discuss with David the advantages and disadvantages of several models of refrigerators, and invited David and his party to come to the "Snowflake Refrigerator" counter on the third floor of Macy's department store.

  It's called a specialty store, but Liu Ye looked at it and thought it was like an office in a bank. Behind the four old-fashioned desks sat middle-aged men. According to the manager's introduction, the snowflake refrigerators here were just samples for demonstrating the function of the refrigerator, and the main business was to receive various wealthy families who came to consult and order custom-made refrigerators, freezers and cold storage, while retailing refrigerators was rarely done.

  After inspecting the refrigerator showcase, the manager invited David and his party to rest in the VIP room and assured Rosalia and Jacqueline that as long as they made rough requests to the service staff, without having to run around each exhibition area themselves, the goods that met their requirements would be brought to the VIP room for them to choose from, and if they were not satisfied, another batch would be replaced.

  Without waiting for David's consent, Liu Fei hastily accepted the invitation and sat on the sofa to drink coffee while selecting, why bother wandering around by herself. Liu Fei's legs were a bit weak, although they had only been walking for more than half an hour.

  As soon as the young man beside David became the master, the shopping mall manager immediately took an interest in Liu Fei's identity and started chatting with him in a soft, standard male voice, from the weather to clothing, from refrigerators to cars, from dinner to women, everything was discussed.

  Liu Wei truly admired this manager, a small man in his 40s with a broad knowledge base and far-reaching vision, the most formidable person Liu Wei had met in this era. From their first meeting, Liu Wei had not seen any hint of disdain or contempt in his eyes. At that time, the manager was still unsure if Liu Wei was one of David's followers, but of course, the service staff on the first floor might have also told him that the person who paid the bill was a Chinese youth.

  Three men, puffing on cigars, drinking coffee and tea (what's more, Liu Mo took a closer look at Macy's and found that they actually had three types of Chinese tea, all of which were new tea from this year. Liu Mo didn't know how many people in this era would choose to drink tea in a high-end department store in New York), while the two women were in another dressing room, constantly changing into various outfits and hats, completely disregarding the fact that several mall employees were running around busily upstairs and downstairs.

  The whole afternoon, the most tired were the two ladies and several service staff running up and down the floors. The manager, except for personally going downstairs to the jewelry counter to pick out a set of matching evening wear jewelry, basically spent the whole time chatting with David and Liu Ye. When it was time to leave, Liu Ye even thought about asking the manager if he wanted to go to Taiwan to hang out together. Someone who can chat with strangers all afternoon without being annoying is someone they really need, especially in the diplomatic department, where their job is to talk meaningless but meaningful nonsense with all sorts of strange people from various countries and backgrounds.