Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

Dowager Cixi?”
“She was the old lady that died in the opening scene of that Last Emperor movie, wasn’t
she?” Kitty said in a quiet voice.
“Yes, the Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the concubines of Emperor Xianfeng, and
after he died she launched a palace coup and became the true force of power in China.
Cixi had a greater impact than possibly any other emperor in the country’s history—she
transformed it from a medieval empire into a modern nation, opened the country up to
the West, and abolished foot-binding for girls. And she did all this, Kitty, even though she
technically had no power at all because she was a woman.”
“So how did she do it?” Kitty asked.
“She ruled indirectly through her five-year-old son, who succeeded to the throne as
emperor. And after he died as a teenager, she adopted another boy and put him on the
throne so she could rule through him. As the Empress Dowager, court etiquette decreed
that she wasn’t even allowed to be seen by men, so she took all her meetings with her
ministers from behind a silk screen. You could learn a great deal from Cixi, you know.
You need to bide your time and solidify your position by being the best mother to Harvard
that you can possibly be. You need to be the most influential person in his life, and in
time, he’ll come to rule the Bing empire and you will be the power behind the throne.
Throughout history, Kitty, the people who wielded the most power weren’t always the
ones who were in the spotlight. Dowager Empress Cixi, Cardinal Richelieu, Cosimo de’
Medici. These are the people who flew under the radar in their own time, but they
amassed all the power and influence through patience, intelligence, and stealth.”
“Patience, intelligence, and stealth,” Kitty repeated. Suddenly she rolled over and sat up
on the massage bed, the hot stones rolling off her back and scattering onto the floor as
Elenya scurried to pick them up. “Has the contract to buy Tyersall Park been signed yet?”
“I think the lawyers are still drafting the agreement.”
“So it’s not a done deal?”
“No. There’s a gentleman’s agreement, but it won’t be official until the contracts are
actually signed.” Oliver wondered where she was going with all this.
“Didn’t you tell me that there were other interested parties in Tyersall Park before Jack
bought it?”
“Well yes, my cousin Nick was trying to buy it, but he never managed to scrape up
enough money to match Jack’s offer.”
“How much did he need?”
“I think he was short about four billion dollars.”
Kitty’s eyes gleamed. “What if I became a secret investor in the house? What if I put in
the money and stole this house away from Jack?”
Oliver stared at her in surprise. “Kitty, do you have that kind of money on your own?”
“I got two billion in my divorce settlement from Bernard, and I invested all that money
in Amazon. Do you know how much those shares have gone up in the past year? I have
more than five billion dollars, and it’s just all sitting there in an account managed by the