Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 863 - 832 European Grandmother_2

Chapter 863: Chapter 832 European Grandmother_2

If we’re talking about a "rare treasure", it couldn’t truly be considered one.

At some well-known auctions, similar Faberge Eggs have been auctioned, one fetching about six to seven million US dollars.

These were originally just jewelry for the royal use, and their being made in the form of decorative eggs added to their value.

The reason they are called "Faberge Eggs" is that these decorative eggs were all personally crafted by a royal master jeweler named "Fedorov".

Not only are their designs exquisite and incomparable, but their internal structures are also incredibly ingenious!

Many of these eggs, already looking very beautiful and delicate from the outside, will bring you an even greater surprise once you open their golden shells!

Take for instance the Decorative Egg that Constantin sent, which should be properly called "The Swan Egg".

It too has a history!

This egg was crafted in 1906 as an Easter gift from Tsar Nicholas II to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.

The egg shell is made of gold and is coated with a matte, opaque bluish-purple enamel.

Diamonds cut in a rose pattern are set in a diamond lattice, with a diamond bow at each intersection of the grid.

Upon opening the enameled outer shell, you’ll find a pure gold swan inside!

The swan looks lifelike, with even the fluff on its body clearly visible...

The two eyes are especially expressive, as if it had come to life!

"It’s... beautiful!" Rossiyana couldn’t help but exclaim after looking at it for a good while.

Wang Ye nodded in agreement and said, "This is really nice! It’s more than good enough for a gift."

Indeed, this gift, from any perspective, is very presentable.

Even for the British Royal Family, a gift worth six to seven million US dollars would surely be respectable.

Not to mention that this gift is very fitting for the occasion!

Originally a Tsarist Russia-era Russian Royal Family’s customary gift with distinct Russian characteristics.

And it was a gift from the Tsar to his mother, the Dowager Empress!

Now for ’juniors’ like Rossiyana and Wang Ye to present it to the Queen, a ’senior’, wouldn’t that be most apt...

...

On February 12th, Wang Ye’s private jet landed smoothly at London Airport.

As he and Rossiyana, hand in hand, appeared at the cabin door ready to descend the gangway, they saw Prince Charles waiting below with the Royal Ceremonial Guard and a convoy of vehicles not far from the plane.

A red carpet was laid directly from the bottom of the gangway to the front of the convoy, with the Royal Ceremonial Guard lined up on both sides of the carpet.

Red tunics, blue trousers, and cylindrical bearskin hats made for an impressive sight.

Thankfully, it was still winter—if it were summer, wearing those bearskin hats might lead to heatstroke before long...

The bearskin hats are really made from bear fur, requiring two black bears for each hat and costing a pretty penny!

They also carry a sense of "taking from the enemy" in their meaning.

Initially, it was the French army who wore these bearskin hats, but after the British-led allied forces defeated them at the Battle of Waterloo, they adopted the "captured" bearskin hats as trophies, thus creating a tradition.

One wonders what the French would feel seeing the Brits in bearskin hats...

But all this had little to do with Wang Ye, who actually thought these towering hats looked somewhat limp and not at all spirited, far inferior to the ceremonial guards of China-Russia and other nations.

When Wang Ye and Rossiyana stepped onto the red carpet shoulder to shoulder, military music started playing, and Charles and others stood on the other side of the red carpet, smiling as they watched the two of them.

The red carpet wasn’t very long, just about twenty to thirty meters.

They quickly crossed the red carpet, and Prince Charles gracefully bowed to greet them.

After the pleasantries, they were welcomed into the vehicle.

It must be mentioned here that the British Royal Family’s welcoming convoy is comprised entirely of Land Rover Range Rovers!

Once in the car, Charles said to Wang Ye with a smile, "Her Majesty the Queen is waiting for you at Buckingham Palace. She is very much looking forward to today’s meeting."

"Speaking of which," he turned to Rossiyana, "the Queen is very pleased to learn that there are still living descendants of the Romanov family."

That was just a polite remark. If the Romanov family were merely ’poor relatives’, I bet the British Royal Family could hardly be bothered to meet them.

The motorcade roared along the streets, and although it wasn’t a state guest convoy, it still enjoyed certain privileges, with streets being cleared wherever it went.

The journey was smooth, and they soon arrived in front of Buckingham Palace, where the Queen resides.

The car stopped in front of a castle-like building.

There was still a red carpet, which ran up the tall steps and directly into the grand hall of the castle...

Under Prince Charles’s lead, Wang Ye and Rossiyana finally met the world-famous Queen.

It was the beginning of 2004, and the Queen was nearly 80 years old but still in good health.

She was in full regalia, wearing a small, delicate diamond crown on her head, not the large crown from her coronation.

Seeing Charles walk in with a young couple, she naturally knew her relative, Grand Duchess Rossiyana, and her fiancé had arrived.

She got up with the help of the armrest of her chair, her face filled with a kind smile, and waved Wang Ye and Rossiyana over.

"So this must be Grand Duchess Rossiyana. By our relation, you should even call me ’Grandmother’, hehe. And this young man must be Mikhail, a very fine young man!"

Although uncertain how the ’Grandmother’ term came about, Rossiyana wasn’t at a disadvantage either.

After some pleasantries, Rossiyana waved her hand, signaling the attendants behind her to bring out the gift they had brought for the Queen.

Following Western customs, gifts are to be opened on the spot. The Queen was no exception...

And she wasn’t worried that the gift would be too cheap, potentially causing embarrassment for both parties.

Joking aside, let’s not mention that Rossiyana’s fiancé Mikhail had a net worth of several billion US dollars—just the Romanov family itself had a deep heritage, with family assets easily in the tens of billions of US dollars!

The gift they presented was certainly not going to be shabby...

After opening the oak box, the Queen was momentarily stunned, then her eyes showed a delighted sparkle.

"Wow, this is the Swan Egg from the Faberge Eggs, such a beautiful little thing," she exclaimed.

Clearly, the Queen knew her stuff and recognized the provenance of the decorative egg instantly.

Rossiyana nodded and replied with a smile, "This is a collectible from our family. My grandfather specifically asked me to bring it as a visit gift, saying you would like it."

Looking back at Rossiyana and Wang Ye, the Queen seemed even more approachable than before.

It wasn’t because the egg was so valuable.

But because she felt the young couple, including the Romanov family, were very "sensible"!

And they had shown a desire to maintain good relations with the British Royal Family, which was important!

Although the British Royal Family had a good reputation abroad and received respect in any country, compared to the past, it was now more style over substance.

In terms of power, the Royal Family had no real authority as they had become "secular."

In the current UK, the real power lay with the Prime Minister and the Parliament!

In terms of wealth, the British Royal Family didn’t rank very high. Aside from the palaces that were nominally theirs, they didn’t have much of a family business.

And they only had usage rights to these palaces; they couldn’t be sold privately...

There have been media calculations of global Royal Families’ assets, and the British Royal Family ranked quite low, reportedly only around "merely" over a hundred billion US dollars...

And most of that was in fixed assets, like land, palaces, and art pieces.

Just their current residence, Buckingham Palace, was valued at over forty billion US dollars, which indeed was quite valuable. But the problem was that such assets aren’t liquid!

They can’t be readily converted to cash; moreover, just maintaining them and keeping operations smooth requires significant funds each year.

Another point is that these assets belong to "the Windsor family" and not even to the Queen herself!

The Queen or future heirs only have the right to use these fixed assets, to "keep" them for posterity and the country.

If the Royal Family were to produce a hundred million US dollars in cash, it would probably be quite difficult...

The truly wealthy Royal Families are in the Middle East, with those sheikhs!

As well as the Thai king, Brunei, Morocco, and so on.