Chapter 291: Karen's Blue Ocean Plan
After the family no longer lacked money, Frank began giving the kids monthly allowances—amounts that were actually more than what Fiona used to earn from working herself to the bone.
With money no longer a problem, life should have improved.
The kids should've been able to enjoy themselves, pursue what they liked, live more freely.
But for Fiona, it didn't work that way.
The family had once been dirt poor. The old "Frank" was unreliable, and everything rested on Fiona's shoulders.
Every day, all Fiona thought about was how to make money, how to keep everyone fed. Her thinking never extended beyond survival—how to get through today. She never had the luxury to think about tomorrow, let alone the future.
She'd dropped out of high school and worked nonstop to support the family, year after year. That way of thinking had become ingrained—habitual.
Her mind was locked into the cycle of working and eating, working and eating.
Then suddenly, she didn't have to work anymore.
That left her deeply uncomfortable.
It was like elderly farmers who'd spent their entire lives working the land, then were brought to the city by their children. In the children's eyes, the parents could finally rest—shop, play cards, enjoy life. But the old folks felt utterly out of place. They'd rather go back to the countryside to farm, tend gardens, raise pigs, and work with their hands.
Fiona was like that—only worse.
Now that money wasn't an issue, she was expected to think about the future.
And that left her completely lost.
Just like Lip—who had no clear goal for his future and felt adrift.
"Later."
"Someday."
"Future."
Fiona had never thought about any of that.
The farthest ahead she'd ever planned was summer—saving enough money to survive the brutal winter.
Now, suddenly talking about the future felt absurd.
It was like someone who'd been strictly forbidden from dating their entire youth—no early romance, no relationships even in college, only study—and then, the moment they graduated, their parents demanded they get married immediately.
Completely unrealistic.
So when Frank asked her to think about the future—about what she wanted to do, what dreams she might have—it only deepened her confusion.
She had no goals.
No ambitions.
Nothing she wanted to do.
Her entire identity had been built around taking care of the kids. And once Sammi could help shoulder that responsibility, Fiona felt lost—as if the only value she had left had been taken away.
She didn't know what to do anymore.
That was why, earlier, when Frank suggested she start by getting her high school diploma—at least setting one concrete goal—she agreed.
Even though it wasn't a dream she'd chosen herself.
At least, it was something to hold onto.
Now that Frank had suggested Fiona learn accounting, she agreed without thinking too much about it.
Under normal circumstances, Fiona was a woman with strong opinions. She was always the one making decisions, the one others listened to—otherwise she could never have held this family together or taken care of so many kids.
But now, she was quietly following Frank's arrangements.
It seemed contradictory, but people were complicated like that.
Frank enrolled Fiona in an accounting course.
Unlike Anfisa, who had frighteningly strong mathematical talent—someone who didn't need school or training, who could simply read a few accounting books and teach herself—Fiona needed systematic, professional instruction.
Once Fiona's foundation was solid enough, Frank planned to send her to New York, to the accounting firm Goodman had mentioned, to intern there and quickly turn theory into real competence.
He wanted Fiona to grow as fast as possible.
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At the same time, Karen's shell media company officially began operating.
Karen had been studying how to run a company, along with everything related to media.
After a long period of exploration, she ultimately set her sights on the internet.
When people talked about "media," they usually thought of television and newspapers. Those who wanted to enter the industry aimed for newsrooms, TV stations, or radio.
But Karen had keenly noticed the internet—this emerging new field.
That likely had something to do with her mother, Sheila, and her livestreams. It made Karen aware of the internet's massive traffic and its future economic potential.
After all, Sheila was now a streamer with over a million followers.
Karen understood the entertainment industry well enough to know that in terms of visibility, many third- or fourth-tier celebrities weren't even as well-known as Sheila.
And yet—when it came to income—Sheila earned less than a fraction of what those minor celebrities made.
There were plenty of streamers like Sheila, each with millions of followers. They more or less all knew one another—people at the same level naturally crossed paths.
Karen asked around and found that most of these big streamers earned about the same. Some even had more followers than Sheila, yet made less money.
Sheila's case was actually better than most.
Because her educational content about rubber toys had become well known, some manufacturers and brands occasionally asked her to promote products during livestreams, paying her a small fee.
Of course, compared to celebrity appearance fees or endorsement deals, that money was laughable—barely pocket change. A few hundred, maybe a few thousand dollars at most.
Still, Sheila was delighted. Many other big streamers didn't even have that kind of extra income.
Karen noticed how strange this was.
She understood the entertainment world: traffic was king. Attention and fame were directly tied to income. Celebrities constantly sought exposure.
But online—despite enormous traffic and massive fanbases—livestreamers barely made money.
That was abnormal. It made no sense.
Karen had been puzzled by this for a long time. But after going back to school and learning more, the reason gradually became clear.
The United States was a deeply capitalized society with severe class stagnation. The people actually controlling the system were old men from the '50s, '60s, and '70s.
In their era, there were no computers or smartphones. They weren't familiar with the internet. Online spaces were full of young people, and they were uncomfortable with that.
When it came to news, they preferred the smell of ink on paper newspapers. When it came to entertainment, they liked black-and-white old movies.
They might have paid some attention to the internet and invested a little in it.
But they had vastly underestimated its future potential.
Karen hadn't.
She believed the internet would become a massive trend: blogs, websites, livestreams, self-media platforms, virtual currencies—all of it was a blue ocean.
More importantly, the internet was still young.
It had only entered public awareness in the 1990s. Now it was the early 2000s—less than fifteen years old.
Regulation was crude, incomplete, full of loopholes.
If you wanted to launder money, it couldn't be easier.
Karen didn't even need to ask anyone else. She herself could already think of several laundering methods—and even if discovered, there were barely any laws to regulate them.
Lawyers could easily handle this kind of legal gray area.
Karen decided to seize the opportunity.
Before this gold mountain was fully discovered, she would dig out as much as she could.
And more importantly, every one of Frank's transactions funneled money into the shell company's accounts.
There was already a massive, ready-made cash flow waiting to be used.