A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 105 Hitchhiking

Ge Fuhong flew over that morning.

Sylvia Chang personally picked them up at the airport. The two hid in Sylvia Chang's agency office and plotted for a long time. Then they went through a series of technical means, such as taking photos, videos, and notarizing documents.

In the afternoon, the two of them, carrying photocopies of Lin Jianlu's three music manuscripts, went to see Zhao Mingxin. Zhang Aijia later described how he was initially somewhat astonished, and after actually receiving the manuscripts, his "face changed color." After reading a few pages, roughly the entire score of a song, he was "greatly shocked," then his "eyes widened like the dumplings I made," and then he was "overjoyed." After reading everything, he pondered for several minutes, then put down the manuscripts, "didn't say a word, and went straight out the door." A few minutes later, he returned and said that all conditions were negotiable, and he planned to immediately take the manuscripts to the Columbia Records headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The journey was long, but all three were eager to know what kind of evaluation the Columbia headquarters would give, so without hesitation, Ge Fuhong and Zhang Aijia decided to fly to America with Zhao Mingxin.

With just over three hours until their next flight, the two women still had time to get back to Rock Records. They knocked on the recording studio door, even interrupting Chen Shuhua's recording of her last song, and dragged the displeased Lin Jianlu out. Aside from briefly recounting their meeting, they gave her earnest instructions: "Whether you stay in Taiwan or Hong Kong, do whatever you want, just don't cause any big scandals. You wanted to look at houses? I'll arrange for someone to protect you while you go. But, don't say a word about the English song!"

Lin Jianlu shrugged.

Chen Shuhua had already caught up and was quite surprised, but Zhang Aijia didn't even care that she was there. She immediately stood on tiptoe, cupped Lin Jianlu's face in her hands, and kissed Lin Jianlu on the lips with eyes full of adoration and worship. She said, "Baby, I've wanted to cheat on you ever since I saw you. Now I'm going crazy! You're a genius! A genius I've never seen in my life! If I weren't so old, you would never have been anyone else's!"

Lin Jianlu pushed her face away, "I'm sorry, you're too ugly!"

Zhang Aijia and Ge Fuhong burst into laughter.

Then, their two agents left in a rather cryptic manner.

Before leaving, in the corridor of Rock Records, Ge Fuhong called Lin Xilei over, poked the girl's chest hard with her finger, revealing her most ferocious look in a rare manner, and whispered some instructions to her.

Lin Xilei was so frightened that her face turned pale.

Zhang Aijia got off the elevator first, and out of nowhere, she got angry and suddenly dialed Liu Ruoying's number. Without caring what Liu Ruoying was doing, she started to berate her.

Liu Ruoying on the other end of the phone was also completely bewildered.

…………

recording.

Although interrupted, the recording of the last song, "Chasing the Light," was finally completed in the evening, marking the end of Chen Shuhua's entire album.

Old Duan waited patiently outside the recording studio. When he heard that the recording was over, he personally carried a large bottle of champagne with great effort. With a "pop," the champagne was opened, and the recording studio was immediately filled with the aroma of champagne.

Fortunately, he deliberately avoided the most expensive batch of equipment.

The entire recording studio was filled with laughter and screams. Soon, many people came over to join in the fun. Everyone shared drinks and congratulated Chen Shuhua, Lin Jianlu, and Lao Duan.

Someone was holding a camera, snapping photos and flashing the lights.

Lin Jianlu specially greeted the other side, then called over Chen Shuhua and Su Huilun, and put his arm around one of them each. Right there in the recording studio, they took a group photo of the three of them laughing happily.

The next day, we went to look at houses together.

Early in the morning, Lin Jianlu got up and went out for a run, while Chen Shuhua was still fast asleep. Su Huilun had already sneaked over, knocked on the door, and started making a ruckus. Even now, Chen Shuhua still can't accept discussing the process of sleeping with Lin Jianlu with Su Huilun. Her antics not only made her lose all sleepiness, but also made her feel quite embarrassed.

They were all girls, and normally they wouldn't notice anything unusual even if they were both dressed lightly. But now it was different, especially since Su Huilun insisted on touching her breasts, saying she wanted to compare them. After she slapped him away, he quickly hid in the bathroom and put on a coat before daring to approach her again.

We went to look at houses together this morning.

Chen Shuhua originally wanted a duplex apartment of around 100 square meters, but Su Huilun had never lived in a villa before, so she preferred at least a townhouse, and she successfully persuaded Chen Shuhua.

Terraced houses are generally not very large, rarely exceeding 100 square meters, which is very different from the detached villas with more than 200 square meters per floor that she used to live in. If she was scared, she could just stay on the first or second floor and wouldn't be worried or scared.

Moreover, Chen Shuhua was simply living a life of luxury in the past. She was unaware of the many drawbacks of living in an apartment building, such as being disturbed by noises from upstairs and downstairs neighbors, having trouble sleeping at night, being noisy in the morning, and having problems like renovations or leaks in other apartments.

So Chen Shuhua finally agreed to go see the row houses.

Later, at Lin Jianlu's request, Zhang Aijia also looked for suitable houses for them, and even recommended a large detached villa in their community - the price was high, but the house was well maintained, and even the interior decoration was more in line with Chen Shuhua and Su Huilun's tastes.

In the end, however, both of them politely declined the house.

It wasn't that she was worried her boyfriend couldn't afford it; the main problem was that the house was too big. If they bought it, would they both have to live in one house? Even with a good relationship and mutual understanding, seeing each other constantly over time would inevitably create awkwardness. They both agreed that the best solution was to buy two separate houses, close to each other, so they could be neighbors.

But the house is indeed a good house, and if you like it, you really like it.

When it came time to view the property today, both of them unanimously wanted to bring Lin Jianlu to see it again. It was indeed a good property.

As an outsider, Lin Jianlu didn't know much about the geographical location, but the house was right in the bustling city center, and it would only take five or eight minutes to ride a bicycle to buy groceries. Once inside the community, it was quiet and secluded, and all the houses in the community were detached villas, so it must be an extremely high-end wealthy area.

Just considering this large villa, not even the house itself, the garden surrounding it alone is a full three thousand square meters—four and a half acres, enough even to play football.

The house has a spacious interior, yet the decoration is simple and elegant, which shows the original owner's refined taste.

However, the price is indeed exorbitant. In Taipei, the average price of ordinary apartments varies from NT$50,000 to NT$100,000 per square meter, depending on the location and community. But this house has an actual indoor area of ​​199 ping (approximately 663 square meters), yet the price is as high as NT$330 million, which is equivalent to NT$500,000 per square meter!
In US dollars, that's over ten million!

Absolutely a luxury mansion!
To be honest, Lin Jianlu had just sorted out his finances not long ago. In fact, he did some calculations. With Rolling Stone not yet settling accounts on a large scale, his income from endorsements, commercial performances, and so on had exceeded 1200 million US dollars, which was enough to buy this house—but that was all.

After working hard for half a year, I only managed to buy a villa!
Not only did Chen Shuhua and Su Huilun think it was expensive, but even Lin Jianlu thought it was outrageously expensive!
But judging from their expressions, they genuinely like each other a lot—don't believe what they say, Lin Jianlu already knew in her past life that women are the most hypocritical of all.

However, even if Rolling Stone will settle the account soon, and even if Rolling Stone can settle another ten million US dollars, it is by no means Lin Jianlu's wish to spend ten million US dollars to buy such a house in Taipei, where she will not actually live for long.

With ten million, whether you find an agent in Hong Kong or go directly to New York to buy Yahoo stock, wouldn't that be great?

However, at this moment, a remark from the real estate agent suddenly struck a nerve with Lin Jianlu: "Mr. Lin, if you like this house, you don't need to worry about spending too much money to buy it. You are a celebrity, an Asian superstar. If you are willing, I can introduce you to business managers from major banks at any time. You can even buy this house without paying a single penny of down payment."

Loan, um, loan.

After asking a few simple questions, the real estate agent, who seemed to have been in the luxury home business for a long time, understood the psychology of business people who were reluctant to spend money on houses. Therefore, he was very skilled in his work and immediately began to give a detailed introduction.

Taipei has countless banks, and every bank would certainly be willing to lend money to Lin Chien-lu for such a luxurious mansion. In fact, Lin Chien-lu doesn't necessarily need to borrow from Taiwan, where financial regulations are strict. She could have chosen to use loans from Fusang Bank or even Thai banks, and could have chosen banks with low interest rates, long terms, and good conditions.

The US dollar began lowering interest rates two years ago, and the rest of the world followed suit, but Taiwan was slower to follow. Therefore, loan interest rates on the island are relatively high. However, the Thai baht is completely pegged to the US dollar, and its interest rates have consistently followed suit, resulting in very low interest rates. Japan's interest rates are also very low, even lower than the Thai baht's, and currency exchange is very convenient. When you sign a purchase agreement for a property here, there's no need to make a down payment. You simply contact the relevant bank there to review your qualifications, and once approved, you can directly sign a loan contract in Thai baht or Japanese yen. The bank might even proactively exchange your currency for US dollars at the exchange rate and deposit it into your personal account before completing the payment—three, five, or ten years, you can choose whichever you prefer, and the interest rate can definitely be negotiated to be the lowest possible market rate.

Originally, Lin Jianlu wasn't interested, but upon hearing this, she suddenly became somewhat tempted.

He wasn't very familiar with the history of the 1990s, but he did know about the famous Southeast Asian financial crisis. He didn't know much else, but he clearly remembered that all the currencies in Asia, such as the Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah, Japanese yen, and South Korean won, were severely devalued during that financial crisis!

Then... give it a try?
If you take out a loan of ten million US dollars, maybe you only need to exchange six or seven million US dollars into their currency to pay it off? — That's not a slow way to make money!

Moreover, it was already November 1996!

The Southeast Asian financial crisis of 97, no matter how late it was, it was bound to happen in 97!

So he asked the real estate agent to inquire with the bank.

As soon as the group left that house and were about to look at the next one, Lin Jianlu's account manager from HSBC called him directly. Speaking in perfect Mandarin, the manager said, "Mr. Lin, I received a message saying you need a loan? You are HSBC's most valued client, you don't need to seek outside help at all. As long as you have the need, I can design the best solution for you anytime, helping you get the lowest loan interest rate and the highest credit line in the world. You don't even need any collateral! Your reputation and your talent are the best collateral!"

…………

Both girls were surprised.

They were already surprised when Lin Jianlu inquired about a loan, but now, in the car, Lin Jianlu received a call from HSBC and actually had a serious conversation with the caller, discussing a credit line of ten million US dollars. The two girls were even more astonished—they did like the house, but they never expected Lin Jianlu to actually consider buying it! It's too luxurious, too expensive, completely unnecessary!

After he put down his phone, Su Huilun said, "Ah Lu, there's no need to buy this house! It's too expensive! Besides, I'd feel uncomfortable living in the same house as Sister Shuhua."

Chen Shuhua immediately seconded, "Besides, we'll need a loan. Even if we want to buy it, the three of us can chip in! Loans are such a rip-off; we have to pay so much interest every month! Xiao Qi and A Ying at the company are in the same situation. They work hard every month, and all the money they earn goes to paying off the bank interest!"

Normally they are very reserved, especially when there are outsiders around, but this time when Lin Jianlu came, they felt more and more comfortable and less awkward when the three of them were together. When they came to look at houses, Zhang Aijia arranged for bodyguards to drive, and the three of them tacitly squeezed into the back seat of one car, while the assistant Lin Xilei was sent to another car.

So at this time, Lin Jianlu was able to enjoy the pleasure of having women on both sides.

"Don't worry, I won't mess around. I can afford to buy a house. What I'm talking to the bank about now is actually a different business deal!"

…………

After only a slight hesitation, Lin Jianlu called his account manager back that afternoon, intending to use his credit limit and offering to use his future income as collateral—he wanted to borrow 30 million US dollars worth of Thai baht.

The interest rate of the Thai baht is higher than that of the Japanese yen. However, Lin Jianlu is not sure whether the yen will depreciate or by how much. But he is absolutely certain that the Thai baht will depreciate next year, and the depreciation will be enough to save all the interest on this loan over the next few years!

Then why not use it?
Not only should he use it, but he should use it with complete confidence and boldness—six months ago, or even less, three months ago, he wouldn't have even considered such a thing, but now, he feels he can do it. Because he knows he has no way of influencing such a major international event.

Let's hitch a ride!
(End of this chapter)