A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 126 Take the initiative
New York seems a bit colder than the capital.

On the first day, we adjusted to the time difference, and on the second day, we didn't rush to Columbia's large recording studio in New York. Instead, Zhao Mingxin and Ge Fuhong accompanied us to stroll around New York, at least to buy a down jacket for each of us first.

It wasn't until evening that Zhao Mingxin led the way to the recording studio.

I've already informed them that recording will officially begin tomorrow, so I went there today just to familiarize myself with the environment and meet the person in charge, a few musicians, and especially a senior music director from Columbia University.

Lin Jianlu has recently started watching some English-language TV programs in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which has helped her to slightly improve her English, which was passable in her previous life. She speaks less and can barely manage to get by.

But once outside the recording studio, he immediately issued an order: "Before leaving New York, none of you should speak Chinese with me. We'll speak entirely in English."

Ge Fuhong shrugged, saying that her English was the worst among them, and she had already suffered from it when she came to communicate before.

However, she had no objection.

As for Lin Xilei, she's a top student from the University of California and speaks fluent English. Zhao Mingxin, on the other hand, has ten years of work experience at Columbia's headquarters, so his English is naturally excellent.

The next morning, my biological clock was still a little off, but that was okay. I went to the recording studio mainly to get to know the musicians, artists, recording engineers, and backing vocalists and to communicate with them.

Lin Jianlu plans to stay here for a while.

To reiterate, if you want to make money from others, you need to show the proper attitude and have the necessary foundation. You can't be too bad at it—you need to overcome the language barrier and be able to speak fluent English. You need to keep up with the trends and play with these American musicians more. Only then can you create works that are considered cutting-edge even in America, so that you have a solid foundation and won't be accused of plagiarism.

Even if I question it, it's useless—who did I copy?
In short, have fun.

They played musical instruments, discussed composition, showed off their skills, and exchanged ideas in various ways.

Around noon, I suddenly received another call from Chen Hong. She had actually returned to New York.

When we met in Taipei before, I remember He Xiuqiong introduced her to me. She had just returned from America and was only visiting Qiong Yao in Taiwan. However, it seems that she has changed her itinerary and is really not going back to the capital.

Hearing that Lin Jianlu was with Columbia Records, she said that Lin Jianlu had just arrived in America, while she had arrived a few months earlier. Since they were both in a foreign land, it was only natural for her to treat him to a meal. However, Lin Jianlu had already agreed to attend a party that evening, organized by another record company in New York called Epic Records. She knew before she came that Americans loved parties, but she still didn't expect to be invited so soon after arriving and meeting people.

He planned to go and experience what an American-style party was like.

To her surprise, Chen Hong immediately said, "Really? Oh, Jianlu, even though I've been in America for several months, I actually have very few friends. I've never been to an American party before!"

Lin Jianlu was taken aback for a moment. After thinking about it, she realized that since the other person had already gone this far, she couldn't very well not respond. So she tentatively said, "How about... I take you with me tonight?"

To my surprise, she readily agreed, "That's wonderful! Thank you so much for seeing Lu!"

Hey……

Perhaps it was because of his increasingly rich experiences since his transmigration to the present day, but at this moment, Lin Jianlu seemed to suddenly sense a special feeling—it was almost the same when Xu Qing pursued him. Exceptionally proactive, exceptionally passionate.

But Chen Hong... she definitely married Chen Kaige later!

Lin Jianlu didn't know the timeline and could only guess. He felt that since Chen Kaige had pursued Chen Hong before, but she didn't agree and ran off to America, but they ended up getting together later, and their son had even debuted around 2020, it fully demonstrated that it was only a matter of one or two years!
So he had previously thought that Ni Ping would be completely defeated when Chen Hong returned this time.

Instead of returning to China, she went back to New York. Is she... coming after me?
I think my reputation is pretty bad, right? — Whether in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, I'm definitely well-regarded for my conduct, but I doubt there's anything good to say about my relationships with women!
Why are you even going to pursue this?

In the blink of an eye, countless thoughts flashed through her mind, but it didn't stop her from speaking—she gave him her address, arranged a time, and said she would take a taxi over right away.

After hanging up the phone, I thought about it for a moment and thought, "Hey... interesting."

It turns out that when you reach a certain level of success, you really don't need to chase girls; many girls will actively pursue you!
Chen Hong. Chen Hong. Chen Hong.

Damn, she's the most beautiful woman in China... But thinking about it again, never mind.

I even gave up Yu Feihong, didn't I?
It's not that I don't want her, it's just that I can't figure her out. No matter how beautiful she is, I don't dare to mess with her. If I do, it will cause me a lot of trouble!
Besides, Xu Qing might not be very jealous of Jiang Qinqin and Zuo Xiaoqian, but she knows for sure that she will definitely be jealous of Chen Hong! And she will be extremely jealous!
In mainland China today, there are only a few truly beautiful actresses who are both stunning and capable of carrying a show – Xu Qing, Chen Hong, Jiang Wenli (the older sister-in-law), Jiang Shan, and perhaps Chen Xiaoyi as well. Also, well, Ning Jing isn't considered pretty.

Xu Jinglei has already begun to emerge, and the next few years will quickly become the era of the "Four Dan and Two Bing" (referring to four top actresses and two top actresses in China), at which point these older sisters will have no choice but to step down from the ranks of the most popular actresses.

But at least for now, the only people who can make Xu Qing jealous are those mentioned above.

Chen Hong is estimated to be ranked first!

Hey... forget it! Forget it! Forget it!
…………

It wasn't even 2 p.m. yet, and Chen Hong had already arrived in Colombia.

Upon receiving the call, Lin Jianlu had no choice but to arrange for Lin Xilei to go down and meet her. She quickly came back up, and wow, she looked stunning! She had clearly dressed up carefully, wearing a fitted, long wool coat with a cream-colored silk scarf around her neck. Underneath the coat were matching trousers and high heels. Although her outfit was simple, it perfectly complemented her delicately painted face, instantly making her appear incredibly elegant and poised. They shook hands, exchanged a few words, and then Lin Jianlu didn't pay her any more attention. She instructed Ge Fuhong to take care of her, showing her around the world's top recording studios—after all, it was one of the world's largest record companies' most prestigious studios, and anyone unfamiliar with the industry would be quite curious.

Ge Fuhong smiled and agreed, so Lin Jianlu turned around and went back.

I don't know how they waited outside, but Lin Jianlu had a pretty good time after playing around for an afternoon. The musicians here are really different. Their casual ways of playing are so varied, especially the black guys. Their sense of rhythm really makes you marvel at the power of racial talent.

Around 5 p.m., after the break-in period, everyone went to a party.

Zhao Mingxin had chartered two cars to pick up and drop off Lin Jianlu's small work team. However, since Lin Jianlu's guests had arrived today, Ge Fuhong took Lin Xilei to squeeze into the car with Zhao Mingxin, leaving the other car entirely for Lin Jianlu and Chen Hong. Only then did they finally have a chance to exchange a few words.

She has an exceptionally good sense of propriety.

"No, how could I be bored! I just visited Columbia Records! If it weren't for you, I would never have been able to step into this building in my life! Before coming here, I even asked a friend about it, and I found out that Columbia is so amazing, one of the world's three major record companies! Seeing that you can actually come here to record and have a bunch of American musicians working for you, that's really impressive!"

"No way! How can I compare to you? I've acted in a few movies and a few TV series, but... it's only in the last few years, ever since 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms,' that I suddenly became somewhat famous. Everyone saw me and recognized me, saying that I was Diao Chan. Before that, I earned very little money acting!"

"To be honest, I only started making some money in the last two or three years. It was mainly after I acted in 'Plum Blossom Trilogy: Between Water and Clouds,' which became a hit and my salary increased a bit. But... whether it's making money or building a career, what do I have that's enough to compare with you? Don't mock me!"

Lin Jianlu had nothing to say.

He's actually a very willing person to praise others; as the saying goes, he has a sweet tongue. Since his debut and subsequent rise to fame, things were going well at first. As long as his words were sincere, they were infectious, and people usually appreciated them, making him very successful. However, in the last two or three months, he's increasingly found that no matter how much he praises others, they no longer accept it.

The phrase they say most often is: "How could I possibly compare to you!"
But what can you praise about Chen Hong?

If someone hasn't won any awards, how can you praise their acting skills?
Praising her looks? She's the most beautiful woman out there, but I'm no less beautiful than her! Besides, I've already praised her.

Then praise her for being very popular lately, but it turns out she's far less popular than you are.

She used to film in mainland China and was quite popular there. In a year when the overall production capacity of the mainland film and television industry was limited and many actors had ten months of downtime, she filmed at least two movies a year.

Later, when Qiong Yao wanted to expand into the mainland market, she immediately took a liking to Chen Hong. At that time, there was no such thing as a brokerage company in the mainland, so she directly signed Chen Hong's brokerage contract. Then Chen Hong filmed Qiong Yao's dramas—which didn't have much influence in the mainland because their values ​​didn't align with each other, but in Taiwan, Chen Hong was quite popular.

In this day and age, being famous in Hong Kong and Taiwan is far more valuable than being famous on the mainland.

Chen Kaige pursued her, and her looks were definitely a major factor, but her popularity shouldn't be underestimated either.

Oh, right, values... Standing thirty years in the future, especially from the perspective of a mainlander born under the red flag, it's fine to mock the values ​​of Qiong Yao dramas, that's normal. But you have to know that her values ​​are not worth mocking in Taiwan and Hong Kong, because many of them reflect the realities of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

What's the big deal if a rich man has a mistress?
It's not a big deal for wealthy people to take a second wife, or even have two or three other homes outside the marriage!
They fight amongst themselves in their private homes, grooming and raising their children, only to fight over the inheritance decades later. A wise patriarch can even arrange all these things in advance while he is alive, so that they won't cause any trouble after his death.

To be precise, what truly wealthy person doesn't act this way?
It won't be long, maybe another ten years or so, when the wealthy class in mainland China starts to rise, it will be the same!

As for the many male celebrities who have been famous for a few years and made a little money, and they also want to do this, they are just blindly following the trend. They don't have enough money or ability, so they can't handle it. It's one thing to date and sleep with a few girls, but some people actually want to have mistresses and extramarital affairs. And the thing is, the women that male celebrities marry are often celebrities, and many of them are not afraid of them at all. So in the end, they mess things up and it all falls apart, leaving a mess.

In this world, true love is everywhere, whether in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. Harmonious families are also everywhere, with husbands and wives working together happily. However, there are also many families where the first, second, or third wife lives together, raising children together, taking care of the husband and in-laws together, and even having their own division of labor, with each person responsible for a whole range of things—yes, Lu Han is doing just that.

This is simply a mindset that has persisted in Eastern culture for thousands of years.

Whether it's the essence or the dross, that's how men get involved!

While Qiong Yao's works are said to be shocking in terms of values, she simply reversed the absolute male-dominated social reality in Taiwan—in fact, she could be considered a pioneer of that kind of thing!
In reality, there are one man and multiple women, but in her novels and TV series, there is only one woman and two men.

Girls love watching this!
In fact, "Plum Blossom Trilogy" was also very popular in mainland China, but this popularity was due to piracy. It was mainly broadcast on small city and county-level TV stations in various places, so the production company, Yiren Media, didn't make much money!
"New York winters are indeed cold, but autumn here is very pleasant. I came in the fall, and autumn here is actually more comfortable than in the capital. In the capital, especially in early spring, the sandstorms are terrible."

"No, I'm in an acting class. The tuition is over ten thousand dollars, and it's a six-month course. But I often skip classes. My English is actually pretty good, and I can understand it, but I feel that the teachers there are no better than the teachers in drama academies in China. So I regret it. ... I'll just treat this as a few months of fun!"

"Yeah, the cost of living here is really high. I rent a small apartment, but it's not small either, about 60 or 70 square meters, and it costs six hundred dollars a month. Sigh, that's not just six hundred yuan, it's six hundred dollars! But it includes utilities... What about you? How long do you plan to stay here? Oh, you're just staying in hotels the whole time?"

"Sure, I'm happy to go with you whenever you have time. If you get tired of Western food, I can make soup and other dishes for you; I'm a pretty good cook. Besides, I already bought a whole set of Chinese kitchenware—I just can't stand the bread here! ...Fresh vegetables are easy to buy, just a limited variety. But seasonings are harder to find; you'd have to go to Chinatown! ...You've never been to Chinatown, have you? I'll go with you sometime?"

"What's this? We're from the same hometown!"

***
Today’s 10 or 10!

We don't have enough monthly passes, guys!
Since its release, Xiaodao has been incredibly diligent, she couldn't be more so (crying...).
Let's cast some monthly votes, guys!

(End of this chapter)