Chapter 1935 Do You Still Want to Buy a Castle?

Geniuses always develop early. When McQueen was 6 years old, he suddenly realized that he liked men. However, this was unacceptable in the environment where he grew up. He began to learn to hide his feelings.

When he was 19 years old, his photos appeared in the street photography column of magazines. He publicly stated that he was gay. The first people to accept and embrace him were his mother, aunts and sisters. He believed that his orientation was Contribute to the work you do.

He has always been very proud of coming out. He even said publicly, "I came out when I was very young. I did not hide myself. I am very clear about myself and my sexual orientation. I have nothing to hide. I You are gay from the moment you are born."

Perhaps it was this uniqueness that gave him the title of ghost.

His creativity is always so unconstrained that it is even difficult for ordinary people to understand. However, in the eyes of industry insiders, his eclecticism is a manifestation of breaking through the shackles of thinking.

Today, although Sarah Burton has not completely inherited McQueen's style, she has also maintained the McQueen brand's product line very well, and has gradually begun to explore downwards, making more people aware of the McQueen brand. Sarah Burton deserves a lot of credit.

After looking at the time, it happened to be evening in Europe. Yang Cheng called William. As the designer of Kate's wedding dress, it was most convenient to contact William and his wife.

"Hey man~" William's bright voice sounded in the quiet room.

"Hey, good evening, I need your help with something~"

"Tell me, I just finished my afternoon tea~"

"That's right, I hope to invite Sarah Burton as Luo Yue's wedding dress designer~"

"You made a wise decision. No problem. Leave this matter to me and I'll ask Kate to contact you."

"The cost is easy to negotiate, as long as she is willing to help~"

"Of course, I don't think she will refuse. Hang up now and wait for my news~"

William acted vigorously and called back less than 10 minutes after hanging up the phone, "Man, we've contacted you. You're in luck. Sarah Burton had just finished handling RB's business and was planning to return to the UK, but I stopped her~ "

Yang Cheng said immediately,

"I'll send a plane to pick her up and let the two of them talk in person~"

"The best thing is that Sarah Burton had the inspiration after talking to Kate."

"That's it~ Thanks, brother."

"You're welcome, I just have something to tell you~"

"What's up?"

"Um, have you ever thought about buying another castle?" William said hesitantly.

"What? I'm crazy. I have no time to buy a castle. You know the cost of maintaining a castle better than me. Besides, haven't we set up a real estate company? You have the resources to directly introduce it to the company and buy it and transform it into real estate for sale~ "

William smiled bitterly and said, "If it were an ordinary castle, I wouldn't tell you. The problem is that this castle cannot be renovated and sold. It's okay if it is just sold to private individuals for their own use~"

Yang Cheng hesitated, "Sorry, I can't help with this, but what happened? Why did you suddenly want to sell the castle?"

William sighed, "It's not an old problem~"

Yang Cheng asked, "Is another taxpayer expressing dissatisfaction?"

"Yes~"

People in democratic societies are increasingly unwilling to pay for the legacy of the monarchy. This is a commonplace in the UK and is mentioned almost every year. It seems that the pressure this time is not small, otherwise it would not be to the point of selling the castle. .

"Which castle is it?"

"Queen Elizabeth's Castle Mey~"

The Queen Elizabeth he was talking about should be his great-grandmother, the mother of the current Queen Elizabeth.

No wonder William is not good at business operations.

William said, “Since 2014, Fort Mey has started to provide rental business. As long as you have enough connections and popularity and pay 50,000 pounds, you can spend a pleasant weekend there, but so far, the total cost is I haven't rented it out a few times.

This is just a test for the royal family. Now, Castle Mey is under the name of Charles. As the first castle rented out by the royal family, it can receive up to 12 guests at a time. The rent of 50,000 pounds can enjoy the full range of 20 servants in the castle. Services, full event planning provided by royal event planners, tasting of Britain's top series of wines, beautiful sea views, salmon fishing, etc.

During the rental period, guests can sit on the chair where Queen Elizabeth sat and taste the dishes that she ate during her lifetime. The only place where guests cannot stay is her bedroom.

Aren’t these projects attractive enough? "

You can hear William's dissatisfaction from his words. It seems that he doesn't understand it~

Yang Cheng remembered that this castle was quite famous. Of course, the reason for its fame was not Queen Elizabeth, but the famous supernatural events.

At that time, Princess Diana's love rival Camilla and Crown Prince Charles were staying overnight at the Castle of Mey in July 2002. They saw Princess Diana's ghost appearing in front of the bed in their sleep, and they suffered a mental breakdown.

Camilla felt deeply guilty for the harm she had caused to Princess Diana due to her extramarital affair with Charles. She cried uncontrollably and begged Princess Diana to forgive her.

In addition, there have been widespread rumors that Princess Diana's ghost haunts her childhood home and incense grave, the mansion owned by the Spencer family, and the cemetery near the lake.

Many visitors claimed to have seen her appear on the lake and other places, and even saw her standing by the lake, crying and talking, as if she still had something to worry about.

Fox, the spokesman for Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, personally admitted that people witnessed strange things happening in Althorp.

The island where Princess Diana’s Tomb is located was one of Princess Diana’s favorite places during her lifetime.

A staff member at work also said that he had also seen the ghost of Princess Diana, who seemed to want to talk to him. He said, "She was standing by the lake, crying non-stop. She was talking and wanted to tell me something." thing, but I couldn’t understand what she meant. I think she was very unhappy because she still had a lot of unfinished business.”

Castle Mey is located in Caithness County. It is the northernmost inhabited castle in Scotland. It is a Tudor Gothic building built in the mid-16th century. It was owned by the fourth Earl of Caithness for his second son William. establish.

Due to brotherly enmity, William was later killed by his brother John. The castle eventually fell into the hands of his younger brother George, and he inherited the title. For hundreds of years, Fort Mey has been the family territory of the Earl of Caithness.

It was not until 1819 that the 12th Earl asked designer William Byrne to conduct a large-scale renovation of the castle, adding a majestic gate and a magnificent restaurant. Later, the castle changed hands several times and became a rest and recuperation place for military officers during World War II. place.

In the 1950s, Queen Elizabeth discovered this castle when she was visiting friends in Scotland. It was dilapidated and in a semi-abandoned state. Against the backdrop of the ruins of weeds, it had a lonely and desolate atmosphere, which fit perfectly with Queen Elizabeth's loneliness at that time. As for the sad mood, King George VI had just died earlier that year, and she had been immersed in endless thoughts.

She fell in love with the castle at first sight and quickly reached a purchase agreement. She spent 12 years reinforcing and decorating the interior, and tidying up the surrounding 30 acres of gardens and public lands.

This is the only private residence under the Queen Mother's name. She loved it very much. She came here to spend the summer every August, and would come back to stay for a few days in October. This habit continued until her death in 2002 at the age of 101. .

One of her personal attendants said, "The queen mother's ideal castle layout is: half lives with her family and half lives with the sheep she feeds."

Today, the castle is managed by the Fort Mey Trust, with Prince Charles as its director.

The interior of the castle still remains as it was when the Queen Mother lived there, and paintings by the Queen Mother's husband, Prince Philip, hang on the walls of the dining room.

Shortly after the death of the Queen Mother, Castle Mey began to be open to tourists for four months every year. According to the official statement, this move was to prevent the castle from being lonely without the Queen Mother. In fact, it was to make money and subsidize the daily repairs of the castle. And maintenance.

William added, "In order to organize this rental event, we also hired a royal party planner named May Moment. This planner once hosted a royal family banquet for 40 people on the eve of my wedding. It was very special. experience.

Her plan was unanimously approved by us. In order to welcome distinguished guests, Castle Mey spent 250,000 pounds on internal renovations. I have been there before, and as soon as you step into the castle, you can deeply feel the presence of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen Mother exists because this is her home. "

Yang Cheng shuddered a little when he was told, "Stop talking, it's too scary. I think this activity is okay, you should stick to it."

"If I can persist, I won't tell you this. Anyway, grandma is ready to cry to Congress about poverty. This year our fiscal deficit will reach a new height. We really have no money~"

"Didn't I help you make a lot of money?"

"That's my personal money~"

Well, Yang Cheng was speechless.

In fact, the Queen is not short of money personally, but the royal family is also really poor. There is no way to separate personal and public assets.

As mentioned before, the Queen's sources of income are mainly divided into three parts, the bulk of which is financial allocations funded by taxpayers.

From 1760, King George III of England signed an agreement with the government to give up his rights to the royal family's property and hand over the property's income to the national treasury every year. In exchange, Congress paid the monarch a "royal annual stipend" for official expenses.

This agreement lasted for 250 years. It was originally agreed to be adjusted every 10 years. However, in the 20 years after 1990, the annual salary has been maintained at 7.9 million pounds. In addition, other official subsidies have been reduced year by year. The royal family's overall public expenditure has increased from It has dropped from £65.53 million in 1992 to £31 million today.

Financial allocations have shrunk by half, which is naturally a stretch for the pampered royal family.

The Queen's assistant has complained many times that due to lack of money, Buckingham Palace has not been properly maintained and "accidents" have continued, which really hurts "the face of the country." It is said that in 2007, a stone slab fell from the roof and almost hit Princess Anna who was passing below. , and then another stone slab fell, almost hitting a security guard on duty.