The next morning, after breakfast, Josh sat in the living room reading the newspaper.
However, his expression seemed a bit strange, and it was unclear whether he was angry or happy.
"Darling, what's wrong?" Margot came over, noticed his expression, kissed his cheek, and asked with a smile.
"To be honest, it's hard for me to believe that the person in this newspaper is me!" Josh said, his tone full of helplessness as he handed the newspaper to Margot.
It was a Chicago Tribune, the earliest newspaper in Chicago and the third-largest in the United States.
Margot took the newspaper and looked at it, laughing.
The headline on the front page read, "Three Million: The Determination of an Austrian Nobleman's Son to Fight Against the Fascists!"
The article reported the event from last night's fundraising gala, where Margot bought three million dollars' worth of war bonds in Josh's name.
However, after being embellished with some dramatic flourishes, the tone of the article became rather odd.
The article described Josh and his deceased parents as a heroic Austrian noble family that had fought against the fascists, who had been persecuted when Germany invaded Austria. They were forced to flee across the sea to America.
After arriving in the United States, Josh's parents continued to struggle against the fascists for the sake of national vengeance, until they tragically passed away.
Josh inherited his parents' legacy and continued their fight, spending all his family's fortune, throwing away three million dollars, just to support America's fight against the fascists.
The passionate words in the article were hard for Josh to believe—when did he become so great?
And when did their family become nobles?
Oh, right, during the interview after the fundraiser yesterday, when a reporter asked about his family, he had mentioned that his grandfather, who was in this body, was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and had a noble title.
But the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been dissolved for over twenty years, and the Habsburg dynasty had died out! His grandfather had died in World War I!
To think the reporter would intentionally exaggerate this detail was truly absurd.
However, thinking about it, it seemed that rich Americans often had a fascination with nobility, so perhaps it wasn't completely incomprehensible.
Of course, the reason the newspaper wrote it this way was mainly to boost the sales of war bonds.
The implied message was: Even a small-town man like that one supports the war so heavily. As American citizens, shouldn't you all do your part too and buy more bonds?
"This isn't too bad, is it? At least our goal was achieved. After today, I believe everyone in Chicago, and many parts of the United States, will know your name. This will definitely help you when starting your business in the future," Margot said with a playful smile. "And in my heart, you've always been the greatest."
"But this isn't fair to you!" Josh sighed. Actually, he didn't want the title, but Margot was so determined. She even forbade Josh from mentioning that the money was hers. It was as if she would threaten to burn the bonds, worth six million dollars, if he dared to speak the truth.
Facing such a forced situation, Josh couldn't refuse.
"We don't need to say that between us, do we? If you really feel indebted to me, get the factory up and running as soon as possible and make the business bigger," Margot said, hugging Josh again, speaking softly and tenderly.
Her gentle encouragement made Josh feel energized.
"Oh my, look at this! The Leibler family's vault was robbed, one security guard was injured, and one of the robbers was shot. Famous crime expert Elvin Linden Schneider may be involved in this case. What that cop said was true—Uncle John's family's vault really was robbed!" At that moment, Margot flipped to the second page of the newspaper and suddenly exclaimed.
"Yes, I saw that too. But don't worry about your Uncle John, because in a case like this, the insurance company is much more urgent than the Leibler family," Josh casually replied.
If it were in normal times, such a major case would make headlines but during a war, it couldn't overshadow Josh's prominence.
Right now, the United States was also busy creating anti-fascist heroes in various fields, all for the sake of the war.
But as Josh said, the ones most desperate in such cases are often not the victims themselves, but the insurance companies. The vault that was robbed from the Leibler family was a large commercial vault, not a private family vault, so it must have been insured.
Ah, right! There was insurance!
Once Josh reminded her, Margot, who had been a bit worried about her Uncle John, instantly relaxed.
"By the way, how's that lawyer, Emory? What's he like?" At this moment, Josh suddenly asked.
"Emory? Why bring him up?" Margot seemed a little surprised.
"Well, it's nothing. He's one of the top lawyers in the city, and I'm about to set up a company. I'll definitely need legal support," Josh answered without mentioning that he found the lawyer suspicious, instead offering a casual excuse.
"If you're talking about legal matters, according to Uncle John, he's the most professional. But as for his character…" Margot hesitated for a moment.
"What's wrong?" Josh became curious.
"I heard this top lawyer's private life is quite a mess. He has a young girl, who could be his granddaughter, as his mistress. I heard this when I hired a private detective to look into that dead guy," Margot whispered.
Upon hearing this, Josh raised an eyebrow.
It seemed like Margot was openly talking about the lawyer, but really, she was warning him.
To be honest, Margot was overthinking. With a top beauty like her around, there weren't many others he'd be interested in.
But when he thought of this, Sabrina's image suddenly appeared in his mind.
Shaking his head, he dismissed the thought—without the star aura, the girl was nothing special.
"I'm going to an interview at McKinsey later. Do you want to come with me?" Josh decisively changed the subject.
The McKinsey company he mentioned had nothing to do with the anti-social McKinseyism of the 1950s. It was a management consulting company.
In the future, it would become one of the world's top management consulting firms.
Josh was about to set up three factories at once, and he knew he couldn't do it alone, so he needed to hire people—especially professional managers.
One of McKinsey's services was headhunting.
The professional manager system and headhunting business in the U.S. started early—headhunting had already appeared by the 1920s and was well-established by the 1930s.
Last week, Josh had already provided McKinsey with his staffing needs, and by Friday, they had already sent him some resumes.
So, the interview he was attending was for him to interview others, not for someone to interview him.
"I'm not going. I'm not interested in that stuff, and I've already gotten a set of equipment from Uncle John. It should be delivered today. For the next period of time, I'll be busy with that giant pink diamond," Margot said. The "giant pink diamond" referred to the huge pink diamond she planned to cut herself, as it wasn't suitable for exposure.