Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 268 All Previous Efforts Wasted (First Update)
Liu Jiale had actually been eyeing that 3% stake for a long time, but he was too embarrassed to ask.

Because magazine companies are all supported by their owners, even though they may appear incredibly successful in public, such as being the general manager of a magazine or the general manager of a television station.

But only Liu Jiale knew that all of this was given by Li Song. Li Song's fame, Li Song's talent, and now 80% of the magazine's content is still provided by Li Song, including the Ghost Blows Out the Light comic, the Interstellar Mercenaries comic, and the Treasure Mystery novel.

Only 20% of the content consists of other novels and comics.

Several TV programs, such as The Voice of China and Millionaire Quiz, were also the boss's ideas.

But with the magazine's current size, how much would 1% of the shares be worth?
Moreover, it is foreseeable that as the owner's fame increases, the magazine's revenue will increase, and the shares will become more valuable.

Fortunately, Li Song kept his word, and Liu Jiale was very grateful.

The legal department drafted a share transfer agreement, under which Li Song would transfer 3% of the shares to Liu Jiale free of charge, with Li Song having the right of first refusal to repurchase them at market price.

This is to prevent future conflicts from leading to Liu Jiale selling his shares to his rival.

The company's legal department staff were also very envious; 3% of the shares!

Of course, no one else should even think about getting shares.

Phoenix TV began its trial broadcast on December 21st, the fifteenth day of the eleventh lunar month. The drama series was Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the variety show was The Voice of China, and there was also a live quiz show.

The quiz show isn't complicated; the key is the tense quiz segment, which creates suspense.

The production team for the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has already started filming. Because of the presence of staff from Phoenix TV, the filming progress is much faster than that of mainland Chinese TV dramas.

In mainland China, multiple film crews worked together to shoot the film, mainly because the scenes in Romance of the Three Kingdoms were too grand for one crew to meet the demands.

The reason why Hong Kong TV dramas can shoot two episodes a day is partly because the main storyline is relatively simple, the props and sets are just passable, and there is a lot of dialogue, with unnecessary talk before each fight.

After Li Song looked at it, he signed it, and the rest could be announced.

Although Li Song was a hands-off manager at the magazine, he still had to sign off on some important decisions.

The box office revenue sharing for Temple Run will only be received gradually over the next three months.

"Boss, Huang Baiming and his team want us to invest in the second part of Tomb Raider Chronicles. They're planning a big production this time." Liu Jiale handed a document to Li Song.

Li Song opened the document and looked at it. Cinema City was willing to contribute 10% of the box office revenue, but he would have to invest HK$300 million.

The first installment of The Lost Tomb, filmed in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan, grossed a total of HK$61 million at the box office, but only made a profit of HK$10 million.

"Forget it, I'll just take the copyright fee." Li Song shook his head.

I invested three million Hong Kong dollars myself, plus the film rights. Even if the box office is sixty million, it would only be six million Hong Kong dollars.

It's very difficult for the box office to reach 70 million now.

Moreover, this process is quite lengthy; even if a contract is signed now, it will likely take at least seven or eight months to receive the goods.

This is still the ideal situation; otherwise, we would suffer a huge loss.

Just because the first movie was a hit doesn't mean the second one will be. There are also movies that are critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

After all, the movie was made by someone else, and even if Li Song directed it himself, he couldn't guarantee any box office success.

"Okay!" Liu Jiale also felt it was unnecessary.

"This Cinema City film was a success, but unfortunately it was overshadowed by Temple Run," Lau Kar-leung said.

"They can only blame their bad luck." Li Song shook his head. Sometimes it's not that you don't work hard, but that no matter how hard you try, you can't compare to others.

If it weren't for Golden Harvest's Temple Run, Cinema City could have become an instant hit, but unfortunately, there's no regret.

While Li Song was handling matters at the magazine office, Tian Jiahui arrived with his company staff and Anjie Security personnel.

"Mr. Anthony, you're fired." Tian Jiahui brought the security company's people to Baisheng Semiconductor Laboratory and summoned Anthony and his colleagues.

"Why?" Anthony and the others were a bit confused. They had worked like slaves here and built up the semiconductor laboratory through various connections, and now they were being told to get out.

Anthony still had to coordinate with the people behind the scenes to ensure that the equipment needed for a semiconductor lab could be purchased as quickly as possible.

After Li Song applied for a patent for an embedded RISC chip, Anthony and the people behind him determined that there was a huge organization behind Li Song, and that this organization was by no means weak in semiconductor technology.

Anthony originally thought that by taking the lead in establishing this semiconductor research institute, he would soon gain Li Song's trust, because his resume and his technology would definitely impress Li Song.

"Why?" The others with Anthony were also a bit confused.

Is this what happens on your first mission?
"No reason?"

"Now take your personal belongings and leave the research institute!" Tian Jiahui sneered inwardly; this was all planned long ago.

“Harry, you stay!” Tian Jiahui said to Harry again.

Harry was the only one among them who wasn't a suspect. He had offended the son of an industry mogul at school, so he couldn't find a job in Silicon Valley.

Harry was a little confused. What?
"I protest..." Anthony was furious. He had worked so hard, and success was just around the corner, only to fail in an instant?

"Sir, please don't make things difficult for us." The institute's security was handled by Anjie Security Company. This time, Tian Jiahui brought more than ten people, plus the institute's own dozen or so security personnel, all eyeing Anthony and his group menacingly. "Alright!" Anthony was a technically skilled individual in the intelligence department. Although he had some military training, he was unarmed and knew he couldn't possibly defeat the group in front of him by himself.

Moreover, this guy surnamed Tian brought so many people with him. If several of them were to keep an eye on one person, anyone who resisted would inevitably get a beating.

“Harry, are you coming or not?” Anthony asked Harry.

“Sorry, I’m short of money.” Harry almost rolled his eyes. Last time when he was signing the contract, he was dissatisfied and wanted to leave, but these guys were the ones who said they were short of money.

Now that you've all left the lab, I'm the only one left. The fact that such a large investment in the lab, along with the chip patents applied for by the boss, proves that the boss has bigger plans in this field.

Wouldn't it be stupid to leave now? And what would I do back in Silicon Valley? Go wash dishes in a restaurant?

“You…” Only then did Anthony and the others realize that they had been set up when they signed the contract. In other words, they might have been exposed from the beginning and then tricked.

Anthony and his companions packed their belongings one by one, under the watchful eyes of a group of security personnel.

Then all five of them were kicked out!

Harry looked at Tian Jiahui with some confusion and asked, "Why?"

"Because they have a problem!"

"Harry, do you think they would come to a place like Hong Kong Island, given their qualifications, status, and skills?" Tian Jiahui didn't name names as being from the intelligence department, but simply said that the other party had a problem!

Harry immediately understood upon hearing this. Of course, Harry misunderstood that these people were sent by other companies, so he said, "Corporate spies are everywhere, so why leave me here?"

"You know our boss's age, and he really appreciates what you did at school."

"I think this is what a college student should do." Tian Jiahui immediately told a lie.

During his interactions with Harry, Tian Jiahui discovered that the young man had relatively low emotional intelligence.

He would speak out directly about things he didn't like, and he even complained about Anthony and others behind my back.

Furthermore, this guy embarrassed the son of a powerful figure at school, which led to him being unable to find a job in Silicon Valley.

I knew this person had low emotional intelligence, but his technical skills were still quite high.

At least Anthony's assessment of Harry's skills is relatively high.

Although Anthony works for the intelligence department, he also possesses considerable technical skills!
"Harry, this is a new contract!"

“You are now the head of this lab, and your monthly salary is six thousand US dollars. You have a one percent share of the profits from the projects you develop, and you also have the right to publish papers.” Tian Jiahui then took out another contract.

Harry glanced at the new contract, which was in both Chinese and English.

Then he signed very readily: "Of course!"

"The first thing you need to do now is to thoroughly investigate the lab and see if any of the guys who left have left anything behind that shouldn't be there."

"Then we recruited another group of people from Silicon Valley..." Tian Jiahui took out a thick document and let Harry choose!
After being kicked out of the Baisheng Semiconductor Laboratory, Anthony and his group went to the hotel.

Soon, the person who was supposed to meet Anthony also appeared at the hotel.

"Anthony, what exactly happened?" The person in charge of contacting Anthony was a bit confused; the unexpected event had come too suddenly!

"We don't know either!"

“We were called to the meeting room while we were working, and then told to leave immediately with our personal belongings. We didn’t even have time to go back to the lab.”

"All of this happened so suddenly!"

“They didn’t give us any time to react at all.” As an intelligence officer, Anthony wouldn’t speculate on things; he would simply report the actual situation to these people.

Because your own guesses could very well cause you trouble!
"why?"

"Have we worked so hard for so long?"

"You sacrificed so much?"

"Is this all we've got?" The person in charge of the contact was getting frantic.

It's worth noting that Anthony and his team encountered numerous problems while setting up the lab, and they handled them all on their own.

Just when the lab was running smoothly, we were able to get close to the target and learn more about their true background, and now you're telling me that everyone has been kicked out, and all our previous efforts have been wasted.

"We don't know what exactly happened either." Anthony and the others had just been discussing in private that their identities had already been known to the other side, which was why they were being treated like slaves, but they couldn't reveal this guess.

"Think carefully about what happened today, and then write a detailed report for me!"

"And you all wait here for further instructions." The person in charge of the contact had some doubts in his mind; had he been tricked?

Regardless, this matter must be reported first.

(End of this chapter)