After a brief conversation with Gill, Fruit Nana began defending Simon, which seemed somewhat deliberately arranged.
Many viewers in front of their computer screens harbored similar suspicions. Some even sneered at Simon Westeros' attempt to clear the 'facts' through a live broadcast.
Simon had no time to arrange these petty tricks.
However, saying it was pre-arranged wouldn't be wrong either, as the arranger was Fruit Nana herself.
The girls who entered the final 200 slots through the auditions knew from the start that they were far from the ultimate lucky ones. A month ago, some girls were eliminated due to parents trying to demand more, making this point clearer.
After settling down, the girls' biggest concern was the specific elimination mechanism.
Especially for girls like Fruit Nana, who were relatively less intelligent and less beautiful, realizing the gap between themselves and others almost made them give up.
For this issue, the guardians quickly provided specific answers.
From the start of their training until they turned 18, as long as they worked hard enough, they wouldn't be eliminated for lagging behind in performance.
The fundamental influencing factor was loyalty.
The girls needed to constantly remember who gave them everything they had now, complete all training courses seriously, and must be 100% loyal to their boss in the future.
This principle wasn't written down explicitly but was subtly instilled by the guardians.
The twenty groups of girls' guardians were carefully selected and privately trained by psychological experts.
Indeed.
This was brainwashing.
And it was a relatively high-end and long-term brainwashing.
To achieve the best brainwashing effect, the girls would have known the true identity of Simon, the 'big figure' behind the scenes, at an appropriate time. The tabloid's unexpected exposure saved Simon this step. Not only the group in London but other girls distributed in cities across Europe and Latin America had already learned who they would be working for in the future.
From the looks of it, Fruit Nana's somewhat deliberate yet instinctively protective behavior towards Simon indicated that the subtle brainwashing effect was quite good.
After Fruit Nana, the live camera introduced the other six girls in the villa.
Then there were scenes of the girls taking ballet classes from 6 AM to 8 AM. Throughout this period, the live camera was fixed in a corner of the villa's underground practice room. Gill stopped narrating, and only a graceful ballet teacher was seriously teaching the seven girls.
Although the two-hour ballet class seemed simple and monotonous, the number of viewers on the live broadcast site did not decrease significantly.
Because both the teacher and the students were pleasing to the eye.
However, while enjoying these delightful scenes, viewers couldn't help but think it was nothing special.
Except for the luxurious residence, luxurious practice room, and the princess-like treatment of the girls, there seemed to be nothing more.
However, after breakfast, when the girls started their day's schedule, the viewers in front of their computer screens were left with only two thoughts.
The gap in intelligence is insurmountable.
The power of capital is despairing.
Seven girls, who had rushed from Russia to the UK just over a month ago, could now all communicate fluently in English, including Natalia Vodianova and Eugenia Volodina. This made many live viewers not believe that most of the girls had no prior English foundation.
Even if that were the case.
For ordinary people, mastering a foreign language requires prolonged and persistent effort.
However, for the five girls with an average IQ of 160, apart from the two who got in through connections, they stopped their English training courses within half a month and had already started learning French, German, Spanish, and other languages.
Many people in the world are born with high intelligence, but most gradually fade into obscurity due to environmental influences, leaving only the occasional impression that so-and-so is very smart, which is a great pity.
In the initial IQ test, Fruit Nana's group of girls had Natalie's IQ at 130 and Eugenia's at 120, both within the smart range, but they paled in comparison to the other girls.
The other five girls had a minimum IQ score of 140, with Anna Brelskaya scoring 200 in the IQ test, which was the maximum score for that test, indicating her actual IQ was even higher.
Thus, in the morning's 'regular' academic courses, viewers saw a girl named Anna discussing a high-level economic model with a professor from Munich University in fluent German. They also saw the other four girls, who had easily completed high school math courses, learning calculus. This was Simon's personal arrangement, as he always placed great importance on the mathematical abilities of those around him.
In the eyes of the viewers, only Natalia and Eugenia seemed somewhat normal.
It was unrealistic to expect the two girls to become academic prodigies, especially compared to the other girls.
Therefore, after mastering English, the two girls were arranged to attend classes with other girls in the girls' school, and they also had an additional hour of French classes in the morning. Since becoming academic prodigies was not feasible, Simon hoped to cultivate their multilingual abilities.
Around noon, an interesting episode occurred in the live broadcast.
The professor from Munich University, invited to teach Anna economics, had a dispute with the girls' guardian, Wendy Allan.
The professor, looking very agitated, stated that Anna had the potential to win the Nobel Prize and hoped she would return to Germany with him for more professional education rather than being groomed into Simon Westeros' decorative assistant, which he considered a tremendous waste.
After the agent said she couldn't decide, the professor demanded to contact Simon Westeros personally.
Finally, Wendy Allan called Anna over, letting the girl decide for herself, and told the professor that all the girls were free to leave whenever they wished.
Indeed, that was the case.
Simon never forced anyone. Thus, the selected girls had the freedom to leave at any time if they found a better path, a more reliable belonging, or a brighter future. They could leave whenever they wished.
Of course, there was never a scenario in which one could enjoy everything without paying a price. Whether they would be punished depended on the specific situation and, sometimes, on Simon's mood.
Simon wasn't forceful, nor was he ever a pushover.
In the live broadcast, faced with the German professor's expectations, Anna politely declined, stating she was deeply grateful to Mr. Westeros and would not disappoint him.
An individual's character and life philosophy are gradually shaped by various environmental factors during growth, and high-IQ girls cannot resist such subtle influences either.
The morning's academic courses subtly showcased the immense capital power of the Westeros system, but more attention was drawn to the girls' extraordinary intelligence. After half a day of academic courses, the girls' subsequent schedule fully displayed the power of capital.
One of the afternoon's activities was art identification and preservation.
The girls went to a warehouse of Christie's Auction House in London. Christie's was preparing for an Impressionist art auction, and the auction house's art appraisal expert personally introduced the identification methods for 26 paintings worth over 1.5 billion pounds to the seven girls.
The ability to appraise artworks is not something that can be developed overnight, but these girls were different.
In the following small test, based on a series of highly professional knowledge taught by the appraisal expert, three out of the seven girls correctly identified the authenticity of five sets of real and fake paintings. In stark contrast, Eugenia's apparent guessing on some pieces made her appear adorably clueless, causing even the appraisal expert beside her to smile knowingly.
In the subsequent art preservation practice, the girls got hands-on experience with paintings worth millions of pounds, making many viewers watching the live broadcast extremely cautious.
Simon wasn't particularly interested in collecting artworks, but Janet, who once almost made a living by selling paintings, frequently collected various artworks. Numerous porcelain, paintings, antique furniture, and other valuable collectibles were stored in the Westeros family properties worldwide. Future assistants needed to have the corresponding appreciation and preservation skills, or at least, an eye for it.
After two hours of art identification and preservation courses, the girls took a helicopter to a golf course in the suburbs of London.
Next was a golf course.
Some viewers familiar with golf recognized that the instructor for the girls was the renowned American coach Butch Harmon, who was currently coaching another student named Tiger Woods. Harmon flew from the USA to Europe specifically to provide a month-long basic golf training for five groups of girls in London, Paris, Berlin, and other cities.
Unseen by the audience were several other famous coaches teaching the remaining fifteen groups of girls.
Thus, in a single day, with specialized small-class courses, a German economics professor, an American golf coach, real artworks worth millions as teaching aids, luxury cars and helicopters for travel... countless viewers couldn't help but sigh that if their own children had such educational conditions, even a dull child could be cultivated into a genius.
Burning money!
When many viewers thought all this was just Simon Westeros' deliberate arrangement, the girls' schedule remained consistently luxurious over the following days.
Various criticisms followed.
Many self-righteous social figures, who probably never donated even a few cents, flocked to declare that Simon Westeros should donate more money to children in need instead of wasting it on cultivating his decorative assistants.
How many children in Asia can't afford to go to school?
How many children in Europe can't afford milk?
How many children in America don't receive proper education?
How many children in Africa are suffering from war and unrest?
Blah blah blah.
In response, Westeros Company simply posted a list of various charitable projects supported by the Westeros system over the past year on the Eaglet portal, totaling over $600 million.
Of course.
Six hundred million dollars is not enough!
Simon Westeros, you have over a hundred billion dollars.
Naturally, this kind of rhetoric, wishing Simon would donate all his wealth, was ignored.
As the topic
continued to heat up, girls from other cities were also exposed, inevitably attracting various ill-intentioned individuals. Within three days, the security team around the girls in London caught two people attempting to break into the villa at night, and many incidents occurred in the girls' apartments in other cities, including remote Latin America.
A Brazilian official publicly claimed to investigate the actions of Westeros Company but privately demanded money.
Very straightforward.
Simon was even more straightforward, reacting by relocating the 10 groups of girls in Latin America from major Brazilian cities overnight, dispersing them to nearby islands like the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
Of course, if these girls or their parents wanted the girls to leave, they could do so anytime.
If the Brazilian government wanted to conduct an investigation, it was no problem.
Unfortunately, when the Brazilian government contacted them, none of the involved parties were willing to cooperate.
In reality, more people wanted their children to receive such assistant training, and none voluntarily left.
This even led to a fraud case.
Just like when Simon was suspected of achieving great success through psychic abilities, leading to various psychic learning classes, a similar incident occurred in Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana, USA.
Fraudsters claimed to be selecting girls for the Westeros family assistant team. Watching the internet live broadcast where the girls were treated like princesses and thinking about Claire Gaines, the former Westeros assistant who established Thinkerbell with hundreds of millions of dollars, many people submitted their daughters' resumes.
It wasn't until the fraudsters started asking for a $5,000 fee that someone became suspicious and chose to report it to the police.
Even so, over a dozen families were scammed within a week.
Westeros Company had to issue a statement on the Eaglet portal platforms in various countries, warning the public to beware of such scams. However, regarding the question of whether there would be another selection in the future, the statement gave no response.
On the other hand, the live broadcast continued for a week, from 5:40 AM to 9:40 PM London time. The audience consistently remained in the millions, with an average daily viewership of 16 million. This phenomenon, a social event, even caused traditional television media to feel alarmed and anxious.
Internet platforms had already posed a significant threat to the traditional print media industry.
Now, with a daily live broadcast maintaining millions of viewers for 16 hours, it clearly indicated the vast potential of the internet video and live broadcast industry. The enormous number of viewers attracted to computer screens undoubtedly threatened the television industry.
From March 1st, within a week, global sales of the latest personal computers significantly increased as viewers sought clearer live broadcast images through their computers. This phenomenon caused concern in the television industry as TV sales also notably declined during this period.
It wasn't just hardware upgrades. Many users also connected to the internet or upgraded their network packages, all for this live broadcast.
According to feedback from America Online, in the week starting March 1st, 460,000 new internet users signed up for AOL's internet service, a 130% increase month-on-month. Additionally, 120,000 users upgraded from their basic 256Kbps packages to 512Kbps, and over 30,000 users upgraded to more expensive packages above 1Mbps.
This costly live broadcast also significantly increased the daily active users of the Eaglet portal. Users had to log into their Eaglet accounts to watch the live broadcast, bringing a large number of new registered users to Eaglet recently.
What Simon personally was most satisfied with regarding this live broadcast was that even at its peak on the first day, with nearly 50 million viewers, there were no crashes due to user overload. This represented Eaglet's increasingly mature elastic cloud computing technology.
The famous American computer magazine "PC Magazine" also reported on this, making Eaglet's previously low-key cloud computing technology an inevitable focus of attention for more high-tech companies in the industry.
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