National Tide 1980.

The United States is a country of immigrants. In the first census after its founding (1790), the population was only million.

At this time, the United States' territory only consisted of thirteen states on the east coast, but it could also be said that the area was vast and sparsely populated.

As the territory expanded westward, the United States needed a large labor force to develop the West and industry, and it also needed a population to drive consumption.

Until the 1870s, when the westward movement came to an end, the United States adopted a liberal immigration policy, attracting immigrants with almost no restrictions.

By this time, the country's population had exceeded 40 million, and voices against immigration began to grow.

In 1882, the United States passed the first federal law to restrict immigration based on race, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese workers from entering the country for ten years.

The act was then extended indefinitely until it was repealed in 1943.

The labor shortage caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act was filled by immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.

The number of Italian immigrants to the United States increased by more than four million in the forty years between 1880 and 1920, most of whom came from southern Italy, including farmers and mafia members from Sicily.

Including the Chinese workers, most of these "new immigrants" from Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Italy were illiterate, could not speak English, had no skills or funds, and were generally discriminated against by Americans and Western European immigrants who arrived earlier and established themselves.

However, within this group, there are a few outliers who are able to stand out.

The Corleone family in the American movie "The Godfather" is one of the few Italian immigrant families that lived well.

They get rich through criminal means and use interests to lure judges and politicians to act as their umbrella to fight against the law. They are the real mafia.

In fact, there are such people among Chinese people as well.

Despite this, compared with Italian immigrants, these people are extremely rare.

But we must admit that there are always exceptions to everything. Even in the United States, there are still Chinese who are superior to others.

Louis Koon, the ex-husband of American film star Deborah Paget, is such a special case.

Deborah Paget, born in Denver, USA in 1933, is years old this year and is no longer active in the public eye.

But in the fifties and sixties she was a popular actress in Hollywood.

She started acting in movies when she was fifteen years old. In 1956, she starred in "Tender Love" with Elvis Presley. The two pretended to be in love and became lovers. Elvis even proposed to her at one point, but she refused.

She even had a love affair with legendary Hollywood tycoon Howard Hughes.

However, she had only one real marriage, which was with her Chinese husband.

In 1963, at a banquet filled with many celebrities, Deborah Paget, who was only years old at the time, met Louis Koon, who was said to be from a legendary family in a mysterious oriental country.

No one knows how much property he has.

His external identity was just the chairman of "Occidental Petroleum Development Company", an oil tycoon and a good friend of the Rockefeller family.

According to unauthoritative estimates at the time, he was worth at least $1 billion, and owned four private jets, a hunting ground covering more than 5,000 acres, a guard dedicated to protecting himself, and a series of industries.

In short, it means being very rich.

However, at first, Deborah Paget had no idea about this Eastern tycoon who was constantly courting her.

In addition to the serious cultural gap between the two and the lack of communication, Louis Kong was not only not good-looking but also over 40 years old.

However, the other party was like an indestructible cockroach, refusing to give up and launched a fierce pursuit of her.

Even when she had a contract dispute with Warner Bros., in order to protect her rights, she openly turned against the boss of Warner Bros. Pictures and officially declared war.

This heroic act of risking everything for love finally moved Deborah Paget, who fell in love with him and decided to marry him six months later.

In 1964, Deborah Paget and Louis Koon had a grand wedding.

That grand wedding banquet was as low-key as Kong Lingjie himself. No Western journalist was invited and no photos were circulated.

However, newspapers at the time still reported the news without pictures, causing a sensation throughout the United States.

After marriage, Deborah chose to retire from the film industry.

In the same year, their son Kong Deqi was born. He was also the couple's only child.

But unfortunately, although their married life has always been harmonious, they support each other and have never had a quarrel.

Neither of them has ever cheated on their partner, and they have been 100% loyal to their marriage.

However, their marriage only lasted for sixteen years and finally ended in 1980 due to a political event.

Louis Kong initiated the divorce, and his reason was that his family had been very prominent in China's Nationalist government, but had also caused a lot of trouble and had many enemies.

Today, their descendants have died, and although they are scattered overseas, many of them have died inexplicably.

Now that China and the United States have established diplomatic relations, he is afraid that the United States is no longer safe. He is even more afraid that he will encounter some danger in the future and implicate his wife and children.

Deborah was only 47 years old at the time and did not believe her husband's lies at all.

But she soon discovered that Louis Kong was not joking.

He began to spend huge sums of money to build a mysterious and sturdy "Doomsday Fortress" in the suburbs of Houston.

The designer and builder was his good friend, Chinese architect Tao Bushen.

In order to build a perfect and impeccable "Doomsday Fortress", Louis Koon repeatedly increased the budget, from the initial US$12 million to US$28 million.

Louis Kong even ignored all his business and devoted himself to this matter.

After repeated private observations, Deborah could not see any signs that her husband had any mental problems.

The person behaves normally, and his words and actions show nothing but anxiety.

After much consideration, for the sake of her own and her son's safety, Deborah agreed to her husband's request for divorce and obtained a division of tens of millions of dollars in property.

However, despite this, they still maintained a certain contact after the divorce and were still quite concerned about each other's living conditions.

Their relationship even became more harmonious. Although they no longer slept together, their family-like relationship made them always think of each other.

Deborah never set foot in the film industry again, and never even got married again.

Just like on March 1988, 3, even though it was almost midnight, it was around 10 noon in China.

Deborah can still go to the Doomsday Castle in Houston to meet her ex-husband in a chauffeured Cadillac. The heavily guarded castle opened its gates to her as soon as it saw her car, and the driver turned into the parking lot with ease, parked the car in a fixed position, and waited for the bodyguard's safety check, just like every time he visited.

Deborah passed the detector inspection, came to the castle elevator alone, and then took the elevator down.

There were two bodyguards guarding the elevator exit outside, and one of them told her when they saw that it was her who came.

"Madam, I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside the study door for a while. The boss is still on the phone in the study. I'm afraid he won't be able to see you until later."

Deborah sighed and waited quietly outside the door.

After more than ten minutes, the door opened and someone opened it, and Deborah came in.

Then, she saw her ex-husband in the middle of the study.

He is a slightly plump man, about 5.6 feet tall, weighs about 185 pounds, and has black hair with a few gray strands.

Although he is almost seventy years old, he has maintained himself very well and looks more than ten years younger than his actual age.

Not many people in the United States are familiar with him, but Deborah knows that the wealth and power he possesses are greater than those of the protagonist in the movie "The Godfather", and he can even influence politics to a certain extent.

Because the current first Chinese American minister in the United States, Elena Chao, was able to get this position with his funding.

That was why Deborah felt it necessary for her to make this trip to plead for Dobusson, the designer of the castle.

"how are you dear……"

"I'm fine, dear. Long time no see. How's our son?"

"I'm fine, but I'm a little too popular with girls. I don't have anyone to start a family with..."

"That's all your genes at work. Look at you, you're still so beautiful. It's you who made our son a handsome boy..."

They hugged each other tightly before sitting down.

Louis Kong pointed to the wine cabinet in the corner of the study and said, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Have a glass of anise wine," Deborah said without any hesitation.

The assistant standing in the corner of the study took immediate action and brought Deborah a glass of wine without Louis Kong's instructions.

Deborah was a little sleepy at this time, so she said directly, "Your friend Tobusen is really pitiful. He is nervous all the time. What do you think of him? I came here to advise you not to make him worry anymore. Give him a call and tell him to clear those crazy worries from his mind."

"I can't do this," Louis Coon said. "This matter has nothing to do with you. He betrayed me and should be punished."

"Don't say that. Tao came to me and begged me that some of the castle's internal information was not leaked on his own initiative. It was his assistant who sold it to reporters for money. He has already fired that person. If you are still not satisfied, he can give you all that person's information."

Then Deborah held her ex-husband's hand and advised him as if they had not divorced, "Honey, I know you are very angry and how much you care about this matter. But everyone has been careless sometimes. You don't have many people who can be considered friends in the United States, and Tao and you have always had such a good relationship. You won't make his wife sad, right? If you agree, I can call Tao. I really don't want to see good friends like you turn against each other because of this accident..."

This was a reasonable suggestion, but Louis Kong thought about it for a long time.

This puzzled Deborah.

Fortunately, after a while, Louis Kong sighed and finally spoke to fulfill her wish, "My dear, you are such a good person. Tao really went to the right person to ask you. Forget it, I'd better call him, otherwise he will still be suspicious. If I don't tell him in person, I'm afraid anyone will have wild thoughts about him and be powerless to do anything."

Deborah smiled.

She realized that she was still the most important person to Louis Kong. Even though they had been divorced for eight years, he still doted on her and was unable to refuse her request.

In addition, she knew that her ex-husband would not take hard tactics, and if she used force, he would be cruel and make up his mind.

She knew she was the only person in the world who could influence his will.

However, she also understood that if she used this privilege too frequently, it would undermine its power.

So when she saw Louis Kong stand up and take the initiative to pick up the phone, she was happy and wanted to give him some compensation.

"Louis, if it's convenient, I'd like to stay for a few days. I'm actually a little interested in the castle life in the end times. If you'd like to bask in the sun, we can also ride horses in your manor, just like we did in the past..."

However, at this moment, the phone happened to ring.

Louis didn't bother to respond to Deborah and picked up the phone. The voice on the other end brought him shocking news.

"Boss, the island's investigation bureau said that it is difficult for them to intervene further in the matter you asked them to do..."

Louis Kong immediately said, "Wait a minute."

Then he said to Deborah, "You can stay if you want, dear. I'd love for you to stay... But now, I have something important to deal with and need to take an important call."

"Okay, I won't disturb you. I'll go to bed first. We can talk about it tomorrow." Deborah didn't even ask what it was.

She already knew Louis Kong well enough, and understood the rules governing how American society works. She was aware that important people needed to keep some secrets, so she naturally would not make things difficult for him.

When she was leaving, she just gestured, "Don't forget to call Tao..."

After receiving Louis Kong's smiling and positive response, she left with a relieved mood.

Next, after his assistant closed the door and created a completely sealed and soundproof environment, Louis Kong talked to the person on the phone about something that took him very seriously.

"What's going on? Is this a clue about Song Xiuwen?"

"Director Zhao from the Investigation Bureau said that the person who was trying to find out about Song Xiuwen was the current Asian singing queen, Teresa Teng. As a public figure, it would have been very troublesome if we had contacted her rashly. But unexpectedly, she went to the mainland to participate in the Spring Festival Gala this year. Whatever we do now could easily be linked to political factors. Especially since President Chiang just passed away a few months ago, the current political situation on the island is very delicate. The Investigation Bureau is being watched by countless people. If we act rashly, something unexpected will happen..."

"What? He's just a singer. There are so many accidents in the world. If they were to do it quietly and cleanly, no one would think too much about it. Is this their excuse? They can't even control such a small area on the island..."

"No, boss. It's mainly because Teresa Teng has such a huge influence. Her songs can be heard wherever there are Chinese people. She is much more popular than Anna May Wong, and can be said to be the number one Chinese actress. And she is always followed by reporters and paparazzi. If you act rashly, something bad will happen. Even if something happens to her family, it will attract the attention of reporters and the police. For such a person, the investigation bureau cannot cover up completely..."

Louis Kong was silent for a while, "Where is that Teresa Teng now?"

The voice on the phone said, "In Hong Kong, she is very alert now. It may be related to the Spring Festival Gala in mainland China. So she did not return to the island, but went to Hong Kong to bring her family to Hong Kong to meet. As far as I know, she rarely comes to the island now. Most of the time, she travels between Hong Kong and Tokyo. She may stay in mainland China in the future..."

"Okay, I get it. Then you should send someone to keep an eye on her. A female star won't be suspicious if there are a few people following her. So whether it's in the mainland, Hong Kong or Tokyo, I want to know what she did, who she contacted, and the scope of her social life..."

After giving instructions for a long time, Louis Kong finally hung up the phone. His worried face showed fatigue and unhappiness.

But even so, he did not forget Deborah's instructions. He picked up the phone and prepared to do as she said, really intending to reconcile with his designer friend.

But before making the call, he called his assistant and whispered in his ear, "For Deborah's sake, let this bastard named Tao live for another two or three months. When the time comes, find a good opportunity and remember to make it look like an accident so as not to arouse Deborah's suspicion..."

The assistant understood and nodded, indicating that he understood. (End of this chapter)