"Brother!" Upon seeing Vivian, the little girl immediately clung to Huang He, disregarding the expressions of an old man and several maids around them.
Indeed, Vivian was no longer a runaway teenager but a princess. If Vivian hadn't been unwilling, she would have been residing in the French State Guest House by now.
Compared to the lively and spirited girl he had met in Italy, Vivian now exuded a touch of nobility. Although only a few months had passed, there seemed to have been significant changes.
For instance, her chest had visibly grown, as Huang He had been in a position to observe their actual measurements back then.
However, Vivian was accompanied by the usual entourage for a princess: a middle-aged butler and two maids. Of course, the butler was dressed in a suit, and the maids wore smart professional attire, not the maid outfits Huang He had imagined.
A letdown!
However, the three regarded Huang He with great vigilance, as if he were a villain trying to abduct their young lady.
"Mr. Keel, this is a friend I met in Italy, also the owner of the company that manufactured my Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious gown, a billionaire from China, Mr. Huang He!" Vivian explained with a grin, then turned to Huang He and asked, "By the way, how much are you worth now?"
"Ah!" Huang He was startled by the question. After a moment, he chuckled and said, "Forbes says I have 1.9 billion US dollars. I suppose that's about right!"
"1.9 billion!" Vivian blinked, then turned to the butler and asked, "Mr. Keel, what is our country's GDP?"
"5.462 billion US dollars, Your Highness!" the butler replied with his head bowed.
"Wow, Brother, your wealth is equivalent to a third of our country's!" Vivian exclaimed, her eyes shining like stars as she looked at Huang He.
"Cough, cough, GDP and national wealth are different things. GDP is the total output value created in a year, while a country's wealth is far greater than its annual output!" Huang He explained with a hint of helplessness.
Huang He's explanation was not wrong, but his personal assets were certainly not limited to a mere 1.9 billion US dollars. After all, the shares and assets Huang He held through the Western Mustang Company alone were worth over 8 billion US dollars.
"That's still very impressive!" Vivian said excitedly with a smile. "Brother, this is your first time in Paris, right? I've been here many times. How about I take you sightseeing in Paris tomorrow, and I can be your guide?"
"Well..." before Huang He could finish speaking, the butler interjected, "Your Royal Highness, His Highness the Prince has already agreed to have members of the royal family and the French President's family join him for a holiday tomorrow, and you are also expected to attend!"
"I know, what holiday? Isn't it just going to be playing golf? It's so boring!" Vivian pouted.
"This is a matter of international etiquette and is closely related to the fate of the principality. Please treat it with the utmost seriousness!" the butler admonished.
"Alright, I know, I'll go!" Vivian said, and the butler finally fell silent. However, his silence lasted only a few minutes before he spoke again, because Vivian continued, "Brother, why don't you come with me tomorrow? They can play golf, and we two can play games together."
"Ah!" Huang He was stunned. Go out with Vivian tomorrow?
Putting aside his own status at such a gathering, which also involved the French President, he felt rather uncomfortable about attending.
However, it didn't seem to matter much. After all, he had already met the President of the United States, and the French President was essentially the same. Moreover, the latter only held authority now; after stepping down, he would just be an ordinary politician, even less influential than himself as a wealthy individual.
"Your Highness!" Butler Keel couldn't restrain himself again, but Vivian retorted unceremoniously, "I always have the right to invite my friends to gatherings! Besides, this is an open event, and my actions violate no rules. If you don't let me invite my friend, then I won't go, and you can be the princess!"
"..." Keel fell silent.
"Brother, I'll send a car to pick you up at eight tomorrow morning. Give Kil your address!" Vivian continued.
"I haven't even said if I'm going or not..." Huang He muttered to himself. However, considering it was an event involving figures of the French President's caliber, attending seemed like a rather good idea.
Indeed, Huang He was more interested in such a major state event than anything else.
So, Huang He gave Hu Jing a look, signaling her to give his address to Butler Keel.
"You two also leave. I want to chat with Brother Huang He alone!" Vivian said. The two maids glanced at Butler Keel, who nodded helplessly, and the three then departed, leaving only Vivian and Huang He in the room.
"Brother Huang He, I didn't scare you that night, did I!" Vivian asked cheerfully.
"It was fine, just a small matter!" Huang He replied calmly. In reality, ever since that incident, Huang He had rarely let his bodyguards leave his side, unless he was on his own territory.
"Brother Huang He, have you been well these past few months? Has anything interesting happened?" Vivian asked again.
"Quite well. As for interesting things, I went to America, and then got married after returning home, becoming a married man!" Huang He said with a smile, deliberately highlighting his marital status.
Huang He's intention was quite clear: he did not want any further relationship with Vivian.
It wasn't that Huang He was adverse to romance, but Vivian's identity was too special, and Huang He couldn't offer Vivian a commitment. Therefore, Huang He thought it best to reveal his married status upfront to avoid future trouble.
"Really? Do you have any photos of my sister-in-law? Can you show me!" Vivian asked curiously, her face showing no signs of any particular emotion, as if she were indifferent to the news.
This made Huang He feel a little disappointed. Was he being overly sentimental? It seemed his charm wasn't enough!
"I only have a few saved on my phone, and they might not be very clear." Huang He took out his phone and directly showed Vivian the lock screen, which was a photo of Leng Zhiruo.
"Wow, this phone is so cool! The pictures are displayed so clearly!" Vivian exclaimed upon seeing the phone... Strange, shouldn't her focus be on the photo, not the phone?
"What brand is this phone? I've never seen one like it before. I didn't know such advanced phones existed!" Vivian.
"Do you really like phones?" Huang He asked curiously.
"Yes, let me show you. I have a bag filled with phones!" Vivian ran to the bedside and took out a bag, then poured its contents onto the bed. Indeed, the bag was filled with all sorts of phones.
From Nokia to Motorola, then to Samsung, Sony, Ericsson, and so on, there were phones from seven or eight brands, all of them the latest models released in the past two years.
"Actually, this is just a part of my collection. I have a large display cabinet at home filled with all the phones we've collected, over 600 in total. It even includes the world's first mobile phone!" Vivian said proudly, which surprised Huang He a bit, that there was a girl who loved collecting phones so much.
"But I haven't seen this phone before, and it's so advanced, with such a good screen display. Where did you buy it? I'll have someone buy one for me right away!" Vivian said impatiently.
"You probably can't buy this. There are only two in the world, one is with me, and the other is in my laboratory!" Huang He shrugged. "This is a phone brand under my company, produced by Tianxing Mobile. The Tianxing IV was just born last month, and all its components are new, laboratory-grade elements."
"Take this screen, for example. If Samsung wanted to mass-produce it, it would be two years from now!" Huang He said casually. In fact, the screen of the Tianxing IV was the screen used in the first generation iPhone.
Samsung had reportedly manufactured only over a hundred such screens in its laboratories. Half of them were sent to other manufacturers as samples, and China received only three. Jiangnan managed to get two of them and installed them on the latest Tianxing IV phones.
As for when the Tianxing IV would be available in blind boxes, it would be at the earliest next year, or even the year after, as all the parts were too rare.
Most of the phones sold in blind boxes at this time were Tianxing 3.
But even the Tianxing 3 was far ahead of most flagship phones of this era.
"Brother, your company even has a mobile phone business, and such advanced phones!" Vivian's eyes lit up brighter as she stared intently at the phone in Huang He's hand, making Huang He feel a bit uneasy.
"I know what you want, but this phone contains many of my secrets and cannot be given to you. If you really want one, a few more should be produced in two months, and I'll send one to you!" Huang He quickly said!
"Okay!" Vivian nodded vigorously and then asked, "Can I use it?"
"You can, but I have to supervise you, as there are secrets in here!" Huang He said. Then he unlocked the phone for Vivian, and she exclaimed, "Huh? The photo has changed! It's not my sister-in-law anymore!"
"Oh!" Huang He's eyebrows twitched, then he said nonchalantly, "This is a celebrity from our country. I'm planning to ask her to be our spokesperson, so I saved her photo!"
Huang He then remembered that to be fair, the lock screen was Leng Zhiruo, and the desktop wallpaper had been changed to Leng Zhiwen.
"Good heavens, this phone can display pictures like this! This is simply the best phone in the world!" Vivian was practically drooling.
Afterward, Huang He demonstrated the camera, video recording, and video playback functions, as well as gaming. The phone came with several built-in games, all classics from the Nintendo GBA era.
Of course, these were unlicensed, but Huang He had not publicly sold this phone, so he wasn't worried about Nintendo coming after him for copyright infringement.
It is worth mentioning that the Tianxing 4 was not the future iPhone 4 from the laboratory, but a phone that still used a keyboard.
The design concept of the phone in the laboratory was too advanced, and Huang He would not let that phone leave the laboratory.