America 1881: They Call Me Legend

Chapter 413 Great Inventor
The advantage of the acquisition is that it gave Chen Jianqiu the opportunity to integrate more than half of the western railway industry.

As for the disadvantage, it gave little Astor various reasons for him to go to New York.

To be honest, Chen Jianqiu didn't dislike the son of a New York real estate tycoon.

Little Astor helped him a lot.

Although I almost killed this product at the beginning.

But judging from the time we have been together for so long, this young man is not bad in nature.

He just felt a little creepy every time he saw little Astor's ambiguous smile looking at him.

In addition, the Astor family's mansion is a well-known social resort for New York's upper class.

His wife, Caroline Astor, was a fan of it.

As the inventor and talker of the "high-end bureau" in New York's high society at that time: she organized the famous "Celebrity 400" (The 400) dance party, and only the rich and famous recognized by Mrs. Astor were eligible to participate.

Lady Caroline is a complete diamond lover, and every ball must appear in gorgeous dresses. Some flattering guests describe her skirts as "walking crystal chandeliers".

All kinds of dignitaries come and go here every day.

Rockefeller and JP Morgan are regular visitors here.

Little Astor desperately wanted to introduce Chen Jianqiu to them, and praised him as: an outstanding young man from the east, a western pioneer with both courage and strength.

He looked at Chen Jianqiu with a filter in his eyes, but the others did not.

Needless to say, Rockefeller has always believed that he did not kill the yellow man simply because he did not pose much threat to his oil empire for the time being.

So he never looked directly at Chen Jianqiu.

Morgan asked a few symbolic questions, but since then he has always regarded Chen Jianqiu as air.

As for other people's attitude towards Chen Jianqiu is similar.

Polite, but full of distance.

What he has accomplished over the years has been truly remarkable.

However, these rich people have always privately attributed it to Chen Jianqiu's good luck and being close to the big tree of the Astor family.

Little Astor's socialite mother mentioned to her son more than once:
Don't get too close to Chen Jianqiu.

He is still a Chinese, but a rich Chinese.

Chen Jianqiu's luck is indeed good, but he doesn't think that his first pot of gold - that treasure, can be obtained by luck alone.

Therefore, he does not like to participate in such parties.

But little Astor didn't think there was any problem, he still wanted to bring Chen Jianqiu into the circle with great enjoyment.

And Chen Jianqiu's attitude at gatherings is often lukewarm, neither humble nor overbearing.

This afternoon, Chen Jianqiu was looking at the regulations for tomorrow's meeting in the office of the International Gunpowder Association.

"Hey, the stone lion at your door is really impressive."

Little Astor walked into Chen Jianqiu's office with great interest.

"You don't go to class?" Chen Jianqiu sat at the desk without raising his head, and continued to look at the charter documents.

"Harvard's class is boring, so I slipped out first."

Little Astor looked left and right in Chen Jianqiu's office, then picked up a small ornament on his desk and started playing with it.

It was a metal slug fixed to a small wooden frame.

"The warhead of the first smokeless gunpowder bullet that caused a kill was picked out from a corpse." Chen Jianqiu said coldly.

Little Astor shrank his hands, and immediately put the ornaments back on the table.

"So you wander around like this every day?" Chen Jianqiu asked.

"What else? Write novels, make inventions, pick up girls, etc." Little Astor shrugged, "Life is so boring and boring."

He suddenly understood the meaning of Chen Jianqiu's words:
"Hey, don't worry, the trust has professionals doing asset accounting, and your acquisition will be fine!"

Chen Jianqiu stopped talking.

"Chen, when do you get off work?" Little Astor's mouth was still restless.

Chen Jianqiu took out his pocket watch and took a look:
"There are still a few hours, what's the matter?"

"Go to my house for dinner." Little Astor winked at Chen Jianqiu.

"It's a ball again?" Chen Jianqiu frowned.

"No, no, this is a private game, let me introduce you to a few people." Little Astor said shyly.

Chen Jianqiu felt a little headache, but he did not refuse.

"Then just sit there and wait obediently."

A few hours later, Chen Jianqiu and Little Astor walked out of the gate of the association office.

It was completely dark in New York at this time.

But the streets of Manhattan are brightly lit.

Chen Jianqiu and Little Astor sat in a carriage and walked along Fifth Avenue.

"Chen, guess what kind of energy these street lights use?" Little Astor pointed to the street lights outside the carriage window.

"It uses electricity." Chen Jianqiu glanced at it and said without thinking.

"Huh? How do you know?" Little Astor asked with a look of surprise, "You also know how to light lamps in the west?"

Chen Jianqiu didn't bother to talk to him.

This thing is not familiar to people now, but it does not mean that I am not familiar with it.

The carriage stopped in front of the conspicuous mansion of the Astor family.

The two got out of the carriage and walked in.

The inside of the mansion is much brighter than the outside. Hundreds of incandescent lamps are camouflaged in various exquisite lampshades, illuminating this magnificent mansion as if it were daytime.

Today's dinner is not in the hall.

Little Astor led him up the stairs to the door of a room on the second floor.

There stood a servant.

See them coming.

The servant pushed open the door of the room.

Someone was already there waiting for them.

A man with a rather muscular body and a dignified appearance had a rather "majestic" beard on his lips, hanging down like two thick leaves, covering his entire lips.

The other was in his forties, his face looked much "cleaner", his facial features were three-dimensional, quite fair, and he could vaguely recognize his handsome appearance when he was young.

Little Astor pointed to the bearded man, and introduced to Chen Jianqiu:
"This is George Westinghouse (George Westinghouse), founder of the Westinghouse (Westinghouse) Electric Company, who holds more than 400 patents related to rail transportation."

The man looked Chen Jianqiu up and down, with a somewhat indifferent expression.

Little Astor turned to another person:
"As for this one, I don't know if you have heard his name in the west. He is the hottest inventor in the United States now, with hundreds of patents!"

He pointed to the flickering electric lights in the house.

"These are made by him, and they are always on because of the power plant and DC generator built by his company."

"His name is Thomas Alva Edison."

Unlike Westinghouse, Edison looked at Chen Jianqiu with a smile on his face.

But looking at his smile, Chen Jianqiu always felt that something was wrong.

He noticed that when Astor was introducing Edison, a look of disdain flashed across Mr. Westinghouse's face.

"This one is the 'Western Railway Tycoon' and 'Roswell Gun King' Chen Jianqiu, Mr. Chen!" Astor introduced Chen Jianqiu to the two of them.

Chen Jianqiu glanced at little Astor.

He vaguely remembered that his nickname was "Eastern Wise Man" last time, why did he suddenly become "Western Railway Tycoon" and "Roswell Gun King"?

One day he would become notorious in the New York business circle, and Little Astor would contribute half of the "credit".

Westinghouse's expression still didn't change much, he just shook hands with Chen Jianqiu symbolically and nodded at the same time.

It is estimated that this polite handshake and nod is still based on the face of little Astor and the future business of his company.

Not so with Thomas.

He shook Chen Jianqiu's hand tightly, and his smile made people feel like spring breeze:
"Mr. Astor mentioned you a long time ago, saying that you are a very talented inventor."

Chen Jianqiu didn't even look at Little Astor this time.

Anyway, he has overcome his weakness of blushing.

He suddenly remembered the man who was about to jump into the sea in San Francisco.

"I also know a friend who often mentioned you to me." Chen Jianqiu said with a smile while holding Edison's hand.

Edison was quite surprised.

Some people in the frontier actually knew his name.

"What's your friend's name?" he asked.

"His name is Hiram Maxim." Chen Jianqiu tentatively reported the gun inventor's name while staring into Edison's eyes, "He admires you very much and is deeply impressed by you."

Edison quickly ran the name through his mind.

He seemed to have lost all memory.

It seems that there is, and it seems that there is no.

"Well, he is a very good friend of mine, and we appreciate each other." The smile on Edison's face remained unchanged, "By the way, what is he doing now?"

Chen Jianqiu really wanted to touch his chin.

"He's fine. He's working on a battlefield device that can reduce the suffering of soldiers."

"Oh, that's it. Medical devices may now sell better in Europe, and there is not much market in the United States."

Edison finally determined that he did not know the person Chen Jianqiu was talking about.

"Sit down, sit down, let's eat first!"

Little Astor made the three of them sit down, and at the same time snapped his fingers at the servant:
"Quick, serve!"

The dinner has begun.

(End of this chapter)