A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 149: Aboveboard
January 28th, the 1th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Zuo Xiaoqian carried her backpack downstairs. Along the way, she greeted classmates who were leaving school with large and small bags. When she arrived at the school gate, she looked around but couldn't find the BMW. She put her hands in her pockets and stood there waiting. Suddenly, a car honked its horn not far away.

It's a short, slender little car, but it's quite nice-looking.

She didn't pay attention until the car honked its horn again and the window on the side of the car facing the road was rolled down. Only then did she walk a few steps over and peek into the car.

"Hey! Brother!"

She practically jumped for joy, excitedly opened the passenger door, grabbed her bag and hugged it to her chest, got in the car, and looked around curiously. "You changed your car?"

Lin Jianlu laughed, "I was driving someone else's car."

The girl simply said "Oh," and then casually pulled on her seatbelt.

Lin Jianlu laughed, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, asking her, "Aren't you going to ask whose car I'm driving? Why would I drive someone else's car?"—Strictly speaking, he had a contract and couldn't just drive other cars, but this was the capital, and frankly, BMW's official monitoring wasn't that strict.

"Huh? Then...whose car are you driving?"

In this respect, the girl was a bit silly.

Lin Jianlu didn't make things difficult for her. She raised her hand and touched her cheek again, saying, "It's Zuo Xiaoqian's."

"Huh?" She paused for two seconds, then suddenly realized, "It's for me?"

"Like it?"

Zuo Xiaoqian couldn't believe it. Her first reaction was to look around the car from top to bottom. The car Lin Jianlu had ordered would arrive soon. There were many channels available, and it wasn't necessary to buy a smuggled car. In this era, the whole country was attracting investment. Taiwanese businessmen could easily pass through customs and get license plates in the mainland as long as they declared their personal items.

It can be registered under Rolling Stone Records for now, and then transferred to an individual's name next year or the year after.

I gave Xu Qing a Range Rover, Lin Qingxia a Mercedes-Benz S-Class with a "W14" design, Jiang Qinqin a Volvo V40, and this is the one I gave Zuo Xiaoqian: a MINI.

In addition, he prepared two more cars: an Audi for Chen Hong and a Land Rover Defender for Yu Feihong. Of course, the cars would be delivered gradually. Chen Hong's car could be given directly, but there was no point in giving Yu Feihong's car because she didn't have a driver's license.

In addition, there is another car that is not a gift. He plans to register it under the Forbidden City Film Company, but for his own use. Specifically, it will probably be used by Liu Xiaoli normally, but a driver will be assigned to it.

It's different from a house.

When it comes to houses, people say they're giving them away as gifts, but Lin Jianlu actually holds onto them very tightly. Whether it's spending tens of millions of dollars to buy a large villa in Taiwan, or recently giving Xu Qing and Lin Qingxia each a large villa, they're all registered in his own name. It's not just about the houses being more expensive, nor is it simply about their future appreciation; it's about the fact that he always has a string in his heart that he's always on edge.

He loves his woman, and he believes she loves him too. But no matter how much he loves her, he has to keep these hard things under his control—he'll give her a place to live, give her money to decorate the place exactly the way she wants, and cover all her monthly expenses. In addition, he'll give her a large living allowance every month. If she's willing, we can live like this forever, but she has to be his.

I absolutely will not allow a situation where we've been together for two or three years, and then you say you're done, taking my big house and the huge sum of money I've supported you for the past two or three years, and just dump me—that would be incredibly shameful!
Hmm, why was it that in my past life I was over thirty, had several girlfriends, but could never get married?
They've been seriously discussing marriage several times already!

It's all because of these kinds of trivial things!

My income is good, and although yours isn't high, it's enough for your own spending. If it's not enough, I can give you some more. When it comes to daily life, there's no need to be so calculating. I wouldn't even mind if you secretly saved some of your money to help your parents. You're my wife, so your parents are also my parents. These are all minor issues!

However, you can't expect me to hand over all my monthly income to you for your control!

That's my money, the money I earned with all my hard work!
I like you, I can give you flowers, I can take care of the family and support you, that's only right and proper, but it has to be me giving them to you for them to be yours—do you think I'm selling myself to you just because we're married? I do the work, and you run the household?

Go to hell!
It's the same now—living expenses, given generously!
Jiang Qinqin and Zuo Xiaoqian are still in school, so I'll give them 10,000 yuan a month for living expenses. Besides that, HSBC now offers credit cards, and many large shopping malls in the capital accept credit cards. I'll get a supplementary card for each of you, with a monthly limit of 30,000 yuan. Go ahead and spend it! It doesn't matter if you max it out every month, I'll pay it off for you!
Chen Hong and Yu Feihong are both considered "Beijing drifters" now, somewhat homeless. I'll give each of them 100,000 yuan upfront so they can rent apartments, pay off their past debts, and clear their accounts. Then I'll give them 10,000 yuan each month, along with a credit card. As long as I take them out shopping, I'll pay, they can buy things. When I have time, I can go out and buy them watches, bags, or give them as gifts.

Lin Qingxia and Xu Qing have been with me for quite some time. The former is the general manager of Forbidden City Film Company and intends to settle in the capital. The latter is the chairman of Qingkong Film and Television. They are both respectable people and have been supporting me in various ways, so their status is quite different. Therefore, I will buy you a big villa to live in, with a monthly living allowance of 100,000 yuan and a credit card with a limit of 100,000 yuan, which you can use as you please.

Needless to say, the cost of living in Taiwan is much higher for Chen Shuhua and Su Huilun, costing one million NT dollars per person per month!
Next, we'll deliver the car!

Each person should own a car and drive it; we can't make ourselves suffer!

But the house... I'm sorry, it's mine! You can stay there, but I won't give it away!
Surprisingly, whether it was Su Huilun, Chen Shuhua before, or Xu Qing and Lin Qingxia more recently, none of them had any objections to this, and they never even mentioned why the house wasn't registered in their names—which left Lin Jianlu with mixed feelings. The more ordinary a girl seems, the less clear-headed she often is.

The more a girl reaches a certain level, the more she understands the basic rules of how society works. Therefore, she is able to handle things in a way that is appropriate and not excessive.

So in reality... just focus on being yourself, work hard to climb the social ladder, work hard to earn more money, and when you reach a certain social standing, finding a good girl won't be difficult at all.

The more you spend your days at the bottom of society, the less the girls you encounter in all your social circles will understand the rules of how society works, and the less they will understand men or themselves—these are the kinds of ordinary girls whose demands will only cause you pain.

…………

Zuo Xiaoqian was in charge of driving, and she drove very carefully the whole way.

She took her driving test this summer. She even got two shades darker from the sun while trying to get the license, but she seems to have learned well. Although she didn't drive for several months after getting the license, she gradually became familiar with it again after a few pointers. She was cautious, but she drove quite steadily.

Finally, the car stopped at the entrance of the alley.

She pulled the handbrake, breathed a sigh of relief, and asked excitedly, "Brother, how did I drive?"

Lin Jianlu generously applauded, "Fantastic!"

Then she got out of the car and excitedly circled her little car, looking at it again and again, clearly fascinated by it.

After a while, she came to her senses and hugged Lin Jianlu's arm, saying thank you again.

Then I took her hand and we went home.

She asked her family for leave and won't be going home for the Chinese New Year this year, saying she'll be working on set—actually, she joined the crew the earliest. She was also the first to finish filming her scenes for "Kangxi's Private Visits" at the Huairou Feiteng Film and Television Base. Jia Jingwen was the second. The one who is actually working on set now is Jiang Qinqin.

But she still plans not to go home for the Chinese New Year; she will stay in the capital to accompany Lin Jianlu.

Take her back to the courtyard house.

This courtyard is huge. There are six rows of houses in total: the first row of houses, the second row of houses (which is along the line of the hanging flower gate), the second row of main houses, the third row of rear houses, plus the east and west wing rooms in the second row. Apart from the first row of houses, which was originally intended for the living quarters of nannies, drivers, and bodyguards, there are as many as nine bedrooms that were built during the original renovation.

Xu Qing has taken over the master bedroom and refuses to make room for it.

Lin Qingxia stayed in the first room of the east wing. After confirming that Lin Jianlu would stay in the capital until after the Lunar New Year, she also decided not to leave this year and to stay in the capital for the Spring Festival.

Lin Jianlu then decided to bring a third one home.

The plan is to arrange for Zuo Xiaoqian to stay in the back house – the courtyard is nearly 24 meters wide overall. The roof ridge of the back house is definitely lower than that of the main house, but the height is more than three meters, almost four meters, which is not low at all. The width of the room is also more than six meters. Except for the corridor in front of the house being 60 centimeters narrower than the second courtyard, everything else is exactly the same. Moreover, it is relatively independent and has a courtyard of more than 100 square meters to itself.

The three-courtyard house is about 150 square meters in total. It has a small home theater with soundproofing, a small living room of about 40 square meters in the center, and three separate bedrooms.

Zuo Xiaoqian now has her own bedroom.

When Jiang Qinqin returns from the film set, we plan to arrange for her to work in the back room as well.

As soon as he arrived home, holding Zuo Xiaoqian's hand, Old Zhou's wife reminded him that there were guests at home. Lin Jianlu didn't take it seriously. Now that he has officially moved in here, many people in the circle have started to know his new address.

Unexpectedly, the person who came was actually Old Gu's wife, Jiang Wenli.

When Xu Qing led Zuo Xiaoqian into the main room, she was sitting with her. The old woman was crying her eyes out, her eyes were swollen. "Oh... what happened? Did Lao Gu cheat on you?"

Embarrassingly, Jiang Wenli didn't even lift her head before bursting into even louder tears.

Xu Qing looked up helplessly and glanced at Zuo Xiaoqian. "Look, they're actually on the same side. Our guy is even more upright than your old Gu!"

(End of this chapter)