A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 171 Lively
When I woke up groggily in the early morning, I felt numb from being pressed down again.

It took her a while to regain her senses. Lin Jianlu carefully clenched her fists and stretched her legs, only then feeling her blood flow again. Just like that, she disturbed Yu Feihong, who was lying on top of her. She groggily hummed and instinctively reacted, hugging him tighter.

Sigh, it's always the same.

If it were in her past life, judging solely from her image in movies and TV dramas, or even from interviews she saw on short videos, Lin Jianlu would never have imagined that she would be the most clingy of all her girlfriends and lovers!
She's clingy not only during the day, but even more so when she's asleep.

At first, it wasn't obvious. At most, you would find when you woke up that half of her body was clinging to you, making half of your body numb. But you were still quite happy, thinking that with her personality, it was surprising that she would be so attached to you. When you're awake, you can act, but when you're asleep, it's an unconscious action that you can't act out. Nobody acts when they're asleep.

It was obvious that she was utterly in love with herself.

However, as their relationship grew closer and their love became more and more intense, she began to reveal her true colors—she liked to sleep naked and seemed to have a particular fondness for the feeling of skin close to her own. Later, she would beg and plead with Lin Jianlu to sleep naked as well. And then, well, that's how it was. Before she knew it, she would be like a toad, completely sprawled on Lin Jianlu's body.

When I woke up, my whole body was numb, as if I had marched ten kilometers with a heavy load.

Yes, the person in my arms is warm, soft, and smooth, and the feeling of skin touching skin is indeed captivating.

But... I'm so tired! I'm not getting enough rest!
Lin Jianlu originally thought Su Huilun was rather clingy, but later he discovered that Chen Shuhua, with her quiet and reserved nature, was actually more clingy. Su Huilun, on the other hand, was carefree, talkative, cheerful, playful, and mischievous. She was especially clingy when they were together, but she was quite happy when they were apart.

Later, he felt that Xu Qing was quite clingy to him, but after getting to know her better, he found that, in fact, even when Xu Qing was away from him, she was still busy and happy, even if she did things in a haphazard and disorganized way, and was not clingy at all.

Alas, real-life interactions gradually corrected Lin Jianlu's understanding of people and their personalities. As a result, he began to understand that there was a reason why he could never hold onto the people he liked in his previous life—he simply didn't understand women at all in his past life.

For example, with Yu Feihong's personality, how could she possibly be clingy?

That's the result.

However, sleeping naked also has its advantages, especially this position, so whenever Lin Jianlu is with Yu Feihong, he always has to have sex with her before getting up to exercise every morning...

After they finished, she could still go back to sleep.

A woman who sleeps incredibly well!
…………

Get up, squat on the toilet, wash up, run, and practice boxing.

Lin Jianlu's five-piece morning bedding set.

He didn't realize it before; he just kept the running habit that the original owner had developed in the army, and was consciously trying to stay healthy and in shape. Later, he probably ate too much, and once he left the army, he couldn't keep up with his activity level, so he started to gain some weight.

Unfortunately, at that time, Lin Jianlu had already lost her virginity and felt a bit weak.

So he resumed boxing.

As the game went on, several months passed, and he was surrounded by women and having sex all the time. But he found that his body seemed to be getting better and better!
My physical condition is even better than when I was first discharged from the military!
Moreover, he was full of energy. Gradually, he found that he could go to bed at 11 p.m. and get up before 6 a.m., yet he felt no fatigue at all throughout the day.

Of course, the more I punch, the more I love it.

Each time Yu Feihong slapped him all night, the feeling of exhaustion would almost completely disappear after one round of boxing—Lin Jianlu even wondered if he had some kind of cheat code, like giving him extra stamina or relieving fatigue. He stupidly shouted this in his head several times, but the system didn't respond.

Probably not.

When Lin Jianlu returned with breakfast, Yu Feihong was already awake. She had just washed her hair, which was still dripping wet, and she looked stunningly radiant. They sat down to eat and chat. Yu Feihong had made an appointment to look at houses today. Lin Jianlu had actually wanted to look at houses during her recent trips back to the capital, but she had never been able to find the time. Later, she mentioned that both Chen Hong and Yu Feihong were very interested.

Let them go look at houses and buy whichever one they like.

They were in agreement; neither of them liked courtyard houses. Perhaps it was because in the capital's social circles, Lin Jianlu had gifted Lin Qingxia and Xu Qing each a villa worth ten million yuan. They both liked villas, but neither of them really wanted to be Xu Qing's neighbor.

Then go and choose for yourself!

In fact, Lin Jianlu had already finished preparing the second courtyard house she bought back in April. Liu Xiaoli went to inspect it, and Lin Jianlu went to check it again after she returned. It was considered an inspection. However, as of now, it still doesn't have any basic facilities. At the very least, it needs a nanny.

That courtyard is where he plans to settle his wives.

Yes, once Gao Yuanyuan goes to university, I'll take her there to visit.

From then on, that little home was kept hidden within the circle, not announced to the public, not used to entertain friends, and only used as a secret haven for keeping a mistress. In fact, the previous deliberate concealment of Gao Yuanyuan's existence had been effective. This time, the Hong Kong media exposed his life in the capital, but they did not find Gao Yuanyuan's existence.

…………

The capital city was bustling and noisy at around 7 a.m.

If someone else were to travel back in time, they might think that the capital city today is poor and backward, and it hardly feels like the bustling modern metropolis it would be thirty years from now. But in Lin Jianlu's eyes, the capital city today is full of a vibrant, vigorous, and wildly growing sense of life.

It is nothing like the cold, modern metropolis of one or two decades from now.

So he enjoys riding his motorcycle at a leisurely pace through the city.

Regardless of whether it's within his social circle or even among his romantic partners, his hobby is generally considered a "quirk".

With cars available and chauffeured drivers, who would still ride a motorcycle?
Even his lovers all drive Land Rovers, Mercedes-Benzes, and Audis, but he, on the contrary, rarely drives his 3 Series BMW. Whenever he sneaks back to stay for ten days or half a month, even in the coldest weather, he always likes to ride his motorcycle around—what else is this but a quirk?
however……

I ran along the road, looking at the streets and pedestrians on both sides, feeling calm inside.

I can't ride fast, and I don't want to ride fast at all.

Wear a full-face helmet in winter and a half-face helmet in summer. It's hot in summer and cold in winter.

Willow catkins will brush against your face, making you itchy. And these days, car exhaust has a much stronger lead smell than in later years—it's really unpleasant. Lots of troubles.

But the roadside will smell of fried dough sticks, smoked meat pancakes, cheap perfume and shampoo from women, arguments, firecrackers for openings and weddings, songs from street-side music stores, the sounds of scrap collectors, and the clinking of scissors and knives...

A world where color, aroma, and taste are all perfectly combined.

He knew that "21" was a hit, a smash hit in Europe and America, and a hit that far exceeded expectations—it had many similar factors to the previous phenomenal success of "Coldness." Novelty.

Music, especially pop music, is hard to say that there's anything completely new. Everything you play has already been played by others. However, fresh mixes, novel arrangements, and novel ways of playing music, which have suddenly traveled from the early 2000s, 2010s, and even 2020s to today, are certainly refreshing.

Even the ears of supposedly well-informed Western audiences had never heard of it.

In addition, the catchy melodies are instantly captivating, and some melodies even have a kind of brainwashing effect...

Yes, it's red.

Even before the Chinese-style version of "Believer" was released, she had already become this popular—Sylvia Chang called to say she was already in contact with promoters in America. She discussed with Lin Jianlu the possibility of testing the waters in America by holding a small tour in North America, or perhaps a fan meeting. The number of shows would be limited to six to eight, with a capacity of five to six thousand people in a small venue. There would be no excessive stage decoration, and the main focus would be Lin Jianlu's first public performance in America.

With an average price of around $80 and a total audience of 30,000 to 40,000, it was a small tour with a total box office of only around $3 million, but promoters were scrambling to get their hands on it.

It doesn't make much money, maybe a million dollars, but it's good for publicity, good for ranking, good for everything.

It takes about a month in total. On rest days, I put on performances, and on workdays, I participate in some TV program recordings, radio promotions, attend some public events, sing, and attend music festivals.

Then, if Lin Jianlu is to release his second Mandarin album in July as planned, he can start his global concert tour in August—starting from Asia and going to North America, Europe, and even Latin America and Russia.

Depending on ticket sales, if the box office is good and stable, this tour might last for a year!
In places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, the songs are mainly in Mandarin, which also serves as a way to promote the new album. Outside of Chinese-speaking regions, the songs are mainly in English, supplemented by a few Mandarin songs, which can be used as a form of promotion.

This is a promotional plan that Rolling Stone Records, Sony Columbia Records, and Columbia Records would all be quite happy to see – the plan is quite large.

The goal is to achieve a global box office of over $100 million—at that point, not only in the Chinese music scene but globally, it would be a leap into the top tier. Well, before the second album is released, of course, before that "top tier," we should definitely add the word "almost."

A very good plan.

However, Lin Jianlu denied it.

He has a bigger plan.

But within this plan, the ultimate goal of making money is still to enjoy this real world.

…………

I rode straight up the steps of the courtyard house.

As soon as I opened the door, Old Song came out to greet me.

He can now be considered Lin Jianlu's housekeeper in this courtyard house in the capital. In just half a year, he has become more prosperous and his previous dejection after being laid off has been swept away. Lin Qingxia has given him a lot of guidance, and now he is more and more reliable in dealing with people.

At this moment, he took the motorcycle, pushed it inside, and whispered, "Sir, your guest has arrived."

Lin Jianlu raised her wrist to check the time and nodded, "Wait a minute, 8:30."

He agreed and pushed the motorcycle into the garage of the rear-facing house.

Lin Jianlu went straight to the hanging flower gate and entered the house.

In fact, in the waiting room of the row of rooms, his private manager from HSBC and two accountants from Taiwan had arrived before 7:30.

Sure enough, the four women were having breakfast.

They seemed to be discussing some private women's topics. As soon as Lin Jianlu appeared, Lin Qingxia shut up and didn't say anything, so she didn't hear anything. When they saw him come in, the women laughed together.

Zuo Xiaoqian complained, saying, "Sister Qingxia is saying that you like..."

"Shut up! Don't say anything!"

Lin Qingxia first tried to stop him, then laughed heartily.

Zuo Xiaoqian shut up and stopped talking. Lin Jianlu was too lazy to ask any more questions and turned to go to her own tea room in the main room.

A little while later, Zuo Xiaoqian, probably the first to finish her meal, sneaked over and chimed in, "Sister Qingxia said you love it when girls kneel down, licking you while looking up at you! You even taught us what kind of look to give you!"

"Damn! You guys talk about this over breakfast?"

Lin Jianlu was both amused and exasperated.

Zuo Xiaoqian didn't seem to find anything wrong with it. "Yeah! They were talking about how Chen Hong is obviously good at flattering you! Sister Xu Qing said, 'That Chen Hong is shameless!' Then Sister Qingxia said, 'Then I'll teach you how to be even more shameless than her,' and that's how they got onto this topic..."

Lin Jianlu smiled upon hearing this, but... how should I put it, a wave of unease washed over her.

It's normal for Xu Qing to be jealous but not upset, and it's also normal for her to talk about Chen Hong behind her back! There's even less reason to be upset when Lin Qingxia gives advice—but even Zuo Xiaoqian has started to gossip!

Wow... time flies!

It's only been a few months.

To be honest, having the ability to gather four girls into one courtyard, with each of them behaving themselves and not arguing, makes countless men envious. But actually, Lin Jianlu is now a little regretful—it's hard to learn good things, but it's easy to learn bad things. Zuo Xiaoqian is such a sweet girl. Before she moved in, you couldn't say she was naive or didn't compete, but she had a strong sense of shame. Even if she was somewhat competitive with her senior, Jiang Qinqin, she was never excessive and mainly cared about Lin Jianlu. She was very lovable!
As a result, they quickly fell into decadence within just a few months of moving in.

Those who understand things are becoming more and more aware of the relationships between these women—Lin Qingxia was heavily pregnant and quite old, so she deliberately and diligently tried to maintain good relationships with Xu Qing, Jiang Qinqin, and Zuo Xiaoqian, and so quickly, the four of them almost formed a small clique.

They banded together to compete with Chen Hong.

As the old saying goes, "Old people are cunning, and old horses are slippery." By the time Brigitte Lin has reached this point, after twenty years in the entertainment industry, regardless of her initial nature, she is now both cunning and slippery. She easily united people like Xu Qing, a straightforward, hot-tempered, and willful princess, and Jiang Qinqin, a fool. Add to that Zuo Xiaoqian, who pretends to be ignorant... Sigh!

Since transmigrating a year and a half ago, Lin Jianlu has admitted that she has fallen very low on moral standards and has become increasingly shameless. But in fact, the four of them together are far more shameless than Lin Jianlu!
They've already made internal scheduling and started coordinating!
However, on the other hand, removing Brigitte Lin and sending her back to Hong Kong would really not work—without her, who did a lot of mediating and making concessions, Hsu Ching certainly wouldn't have been as capable as her. Otherwise, this courtyard would probably still be in chaos every day!
Whether it's Jiang Qinqin or Zuo Xiaoqian, despite their youth, lack of experience, and significantly lower fame and status, they are not intimidated by Xu Qing at all when it comes to stealing men!
Zuo Xiaoqian, in particular, is incredibly shrewd!
So either everyone fights against each other, everyone becomes enemies and families are in turmoil, or we can only tacitly accept this—one group fighting against another!
Sigh, my queens Jay Chou and Wah Kwan are still the most well-behaved!
…………

eight thirty.

After drinking tea and spacing out for a while, I watched as the four beautiful women, all dressed up and looking their best, came over one after another to kiss their husbands. Lin Qingxia and Xu Qing didn't care about work and wanted to stay home with their husbands. Jiang Qinqin wasn't filming and had no classes on Sunday, so she could stay home as well. Zuo Xiaoqian, on the other hand, was a bit helpless. She had to go to the set for "Sunset in the Forbidden City"—normally it would be late, and she would arrive at the set at nine o'clock, but she didn't have any scenes to film today, so she could actually skip it. But she insisted on putting on a professional act. Okay, off she went.

By this time, Liu Xiaoli, the personal assistant, had already arrived at work.

After chatting with his three girlfriends for a while, it was almost time. Lin Jianlu finally mustered his energy and asked Liu Xiaoli to call the three people in the waiting room over.

At this point, the three women left the tea room one after another, some going to the courtyard to sunbathe and protect their pregnancies, some going to tidy up their bedrooms, and others going to the gym in the back room to exercise, each busy with their own things.

He stood up, shook hands, offered the seat, and personally poured tea for the customer.

Lin Jianlu is a contradiction between her inherent aloofness and reluctance to interact with people, and her outward appearance of always being hospitable, able to chat and laugh with everyone, and making people feel like they are basking in a spring breeze.

The three of them came from two different places and all arrived yesterday.

The purpose of their gathering was to discuss something—actually, it wasn't really a discussion, since Lin Jianlu had already made the decision. They were mainly discussing the next steps in the execution plan.

Because he previously spent $6100 million to purchase 126 million shares of Yahoo stock, representing a 4.5% stake, he is now on the lists of several major Wall Street investment banks, who consider him a buyer of emerging technology and internet stocks. As a result, he frequently receives letters of recommendation, and not long ago he received one that even Lin Jianlu found interesting.

Amazon, an online bookstore, is going public.

The date has been set for May 15th.

Four days later, next Thursday.

When new shares are listed, underwriters wouldn't dare to underwrite them if they couldn't secure sales channels. In that case, pre-subscription is required. Ordinary investors can, of course, pre-subscribe through stockbrokers, but that process is extremely complicated and requires a lot of work to achieve a certain subscription volume.

Therefore, when a new stock is listed on the US stock market, it is usually necessary to secure a large number of subscriptions from major clients before opening the subscription to ordinary investors. Simply put, if major clients and institutions are not interested, that's fine, but if they are interested, the subscription volume will be very large. So securing the subscriptions first is a safety net for the entire new stock listing, and then releasing the shares at the end of the trading day is the opportunity for ordinary investors to subscribe. However, Lin Jianlu's money is running out.

The large loan secured by his future income, plus his own savings, totaling just over $6800 million, was all put into his US stock account at the end of last year. His plan was to take out $6000 million to exchange for Yahoo stock, and keep the rest as collateral. In the end, he spent about $6100 million on stocks, and after deducting commissions and other expenses, he still had just over $600 million in cash.

From that time on, Lin Jianlu's main income came from two sources: one was signing nine new endorsement deals in Hong Kong, earning over 30 million Hong Kong dollars; the other was a signing fee of 20 million Hong Kong dollars from Sony Columbia.

However, there were also significant expenses, mainly arranging a villa for Xu Qing and Lin Qingxia respectively, plus giving each of them five million Hong Kong dollars for renovations—in addition to various miscellaneous expenses, he only had about 1700 million Hong Kong dollars left in his personal account.

As for the recent purchase of a villa in the Mid-Levels of Hong Kong, he didn't use his own account at all—he simply signed the purchase contract, then the loan contract, transferred the property title, and mortgaged it.

In short, after combining all his accounts, he only has a little over eight million, less than nine million US dollars, in readily available cash.

It's sufficient for normal use.

Internet stocks are a new concept now, and many people are interested in them, but their market capitalization is generally very small.

Amazon's IPO plans to publicly offer 300 million shares at $18 per share, raising a total of $5400 million. With such a small total offering size, raising six or seven million dollars is already a huge undertaking!

If it weren't for the fluctuating global stock market this year, making it somewhat unclear, and the seemingly cautious approach of many large institutions, who appear to be only selling and not buying, frankly speaking, even for a hot internet stock like this, Lin Jianlu might not have become a "major client"—of course, Lin Jianlu had a vague suspicion. The money was probably all diverted to "big projects"!

This doesn't just refer to the Southeast Asian financial crisis. In fact, as the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates and withdrawing liquidity, money seems to be getting tighter and tighter around the world. Even HSBC is tightening its lending to high-quality clients like Lin Jianlu.

Of course, they dared not refuse to release him.

The client is exceptional.

The new album is a global hit. HSBC has evaluators who are quite knowledgeable about the film, record, and entertainment industries. They generally believe that Lin Jianlu's latest English album will sell more than 15 million copies worldwide. Therefore, in the foreseeable future, Lin Jianlu's royalties from record sales alone will have a very high probability of exceeding 100 million US dollars – it's truly outstanding.

No matter how much credit tightens, we must try our best to meet the loan requests of such customers.

Therefore, it was easy to negotiate. The main point was for Lin Jianlu to determine the scale of the subsequent operations and to legally and legitimately avoid taxes by utilizing different tax policies around the world. In less than an hour, Lin Jianlu signed the contract and received an additional 4000 million US dollars in credit.

However, he did not intend to use the money directly.

Amazon's IPO raised $5400 million in its offering pool. Squeezing out $720 million from cash to acquire 40 shares was more than enough. After the IPO, Amazon's total share capital will only be 2000 million shares, so even just 40 shares effectively makes them a small but significant shareholder. 2%.

However, securing this credit line in advance is very important.

We can't really spend all the cash we have.

He shook hands, personally escorted them to the corridor outside the room, and then waved goodbye as he watched the three leave.

Lin Qingxia was sunbathing on a deck chair, so Lin Jianlu went over and lay down on another deck chair.

Casual chat.

When she bought a house in Hong Kong last time, Brigitte Lin met with Lin Chien-lu's personal manager and asked, "Are you short of money?"
Lin Jianlu casually replied, "I don't lack small amounts of money, but I'm always short of big amounts."

So she asked curiously, "How big is considered big? How small is considered small?"

Lin Jianlu thought for a moment and replied, "Anything over ten million US dollars is considered large."

Lin Qingxia smiled and remained silent. Despite being famous for many years, her total assets were only forty or fifty million Hong Kong dollars, less than ten million US dollars!
After thinking for a while, she said, "I don't quite understand what you're doing. You're definitely not short of money, but Zhang Aijia said that you took out a loan to buy a villa in Taiwan. Why keep your own money in savings and always take out loans to buy houses?"

Lin Jianlu smiled but didn't explain further. She got up, leaned over, and pressed her ear to her belly to listen to her son's movements. Calculating the timeline, she was about 20 days later than Chen Shuhua and Su Huilun, so she was probably a little over five months along now, and she could already hear some movements from inside her belly frequently.

And this scene was witnessed by Xu Qing.

After staring blankly in the corridor for a while, she turned around and went back to the tea room.

“I’m planning to arrange for Shuhua and Huilun to give birth in America. I don’t want people to find fault with us if we go to the mainland, and I don’t want my son to have to serve in the military there in the future. After thinking it over, I’m planning to get them citizenship in America. What about you? Are you going to America?”

Lin Qingxia thought for a moment, "Isn't Hong Kong okay?"

Lin Jianlu replied without hesitation, "Sure! Whatever you want!"

Lin Qingxia thought about it again, "I think I'll give birth in Hong Kong! I already have such a big villa on the hillside, I don't want to live in such an unfamiliar environment as America again."

So Lin Jianlu nodded, and that was the end of it.

Around 10 o'clock, Chen Hong suddenly called, saying that a singer named Sun Nan had somehow found out that Lin Jianlu had a management company and had contacted the company to sign her to a management contract. She asked if Lin Jianlu wanted to sign her.

Lin Jianlu suddenly remembered that this was something Liu Huan had specifically asked about on the phone yesterday.

I was so busy I forgot.

Sun Nan has been in Hong Kong for several years, but he hasn't achieved much success. He's just a small-time singer who often makes a little money by piggybacking on other singers' concerts. This year, he decided to return to the mainland to develop his career. He is also a student of Gu Jianfen, and he is considered to be in the same school as Liu Huan and Na Ying. Yesterday, Liu Huan called him specifically to recommend him. In fact, it's not that simple.

It's hard to say with absolute certainty that it's related to Lin Jianlu's sudden rise to fame in mainland China, but it certainly has a significant connection and has inspired it to a considerable extent. In short, in the past year, many record companies, large and small, from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and even around the world have been moving into mainland China, and many of them have been quite aggressive. Among them, Rock Records has been relatively slow to act.

Zhao Mingxin's Sony Columbia, in a joint venture with its parent company, opened a subsidiary label in mainland China—simply called Sony Music—the company should already be established, and their first target singer is Liu Huan.

As is well known, Lin Jianlu has unparalleled connections in the mainland music industry and has a close personal relationship with Liu Huan. When Sony Music was first established, Zhao Mingxin made a special phone call, and Lin Jianlu helped to make connections and recommend him. As a result, Liu Huan signed what could be considered his first formal record contract with Sony Music.

At the same time, his management contract was signed with Chen Hong—his record deal was finalized after Chen Hong called Ge Fuhong, who then spoke briefly with Zhao Mingxin over the phone, and the two sides were coordinated to finalize the contract details.

There are nuances to this.

Liu Huan originally had a long-term agent, but then Chen Hong suddenly started her own agency, and she made a big splash right from the start. She learned from Ge Fuhong and tested it out with Su Huilun, which broke the long-standing working relationship between agents and artists in mainland China. Before her, agents in mainland China generally operated on a traveling, itinerant model, having to network with local bigwigs wherever they went. They relied entirely on their connections and familiarity with people to take their artists to various performances and commercial events, ensuring both safety and a basic guarantee of payment. But Chen Hong did it differently. She directly invested heavily in building a security team and obtaining the relevant security qualifications. All performance invitations required advance payment, and she directly deployed her security team to escort the performers.

Her artists, at least those she publicly proclaimed and Su Huilun verified, do not accompany others for drinks or meals, and do not even meet with them; they are only responsible for performing on stage, and the money is paid in advance and a contract is signed.

Recently, Wakin Chau and Wu Pak have joined her second batch of business trips to the mainland to make money.

Two people, 20 minutes, five songs, 25 yuan appearance fee, no discussion!
In just half a month, they've only been traveling around a dozen or so major cities in mainland China, and they've already done more than 20 shows. Chen Hong plans to leave by the end of the month. They just need to make 1000 million yuan, and then they'll replace them!
Chen Hong takes 20% of their earnings, so each of them can get 4 million RMB, which is a decent income. Hong Kong and Taiwan big names only get 20,000 to 50,000 dollars per performance when they go to Southeast Asia for commercial performances!
But the market there is so small. Even if we only take twenty major cities in the mainland, there would be more work than there. Besides, we can do both at the same time! One session can earn more than 10,000 US dollars, which is not bad.

Whether it's Hong Kong or Taiwan, celebrities there desperately need these kinds of commercial performances to make money!

So, as soon as May began, her business model caused a sensation in the private performance market. A few days ago, she even took a group of people to Qingdao Island to sign a big contract with the local government for the opening ceremony performance of this year's International Beer Festival. The contract was worth three million, and she had arranged for six top-tier artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan to perform twelve songs!
Upon returning, they publicized it extensively, and it quickly spread.

With bodyguards, private cars, and the option to go straight to work on stage, all paid in advance and paid off immediately after the performance, who wouldn't want a job like this, where you don't have to eat or drink with people?

So Liu Huan, as an old friend, was willing to pay a 20% commission to sign the formal agency contract. But as an old friend, he received preferential treatment: his original agent could stay on, and he could choose which path to take to continue his career.

Well, perhaps at Ge Fuhong's behest, Liang Yongqi also signed her mainland agency contract with Chen Hong.

Chen Hong was generous and treated her the same as Su Huilun, only taking 10% of the profits.

But in reality, Leung Wing-ki's popularity in mainland China is far from being established, and she doesn't have any truly outstanding representative works, so it's not her turn anytime soon.

In short, that's how it is. Even Lin Jianlu didn't expect it. He only invested one million yuan to give Chen Hong something to do, but after a few months, she actually managed to create a huge mess.

Many singers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China have expressed a strong desire to sign with her company.

She is now good at organizing performances and taking on commercial performances, but she is not afraid of negotiating contracts. She finds outside help and directly pulls people from Ge Fuhong's company to negotiate with her, and she learns from them.

Compared to her efficient and decisive approach to setting things up, Xu Qing's Qingkong Films was left far behind – money had been poured in for half a year, the film was finished, but it wasn't edited yet; it would have to be sold before they could start the next project!
It's no surprise that Xu Qing disliked her even more!
…………

A little after ten o'clock, guests arrived at our home.

There was an appointment, but there was also an unexpected event—when Li Shaohong entered, Lin Jianlu was talking to Lin Qingxia about an idea, which was to help her write a column. Lin Qingxia laughed at a somewhat funny comment, and then heard Lao Song's voice. Lin Jianlu turned her head and glanced at the hanging flower gate, and couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

A girl followed Li Shaohong timidly into the courtyard.

After exchanging greetings, Li Shaohong introduced, "This girl is Zhang Ziyi, a freshman in the class of '96 at the Central Academy of Drama. I met her when they were recruiting actors, and I really liked her. She auditioned for the role of Sifeng, but I didn't think she was suitable, so I didn't choose her. But I felt that this girl had a lot of energy, so I recommended her to Chen Hong, and she signed with her agency. I just happened to call her today and brought her here to show you."

So Zhang Ziyi quickly took the initiative to greet them, "Hello, Brother Lu! Hello, Sister-in-law Lu!"

After basking in the sun for a while, Lin Qingxia responded, stared at her for a moment, and then went into the tea room to help make tea. Lin Jianlu also invited them to come into the tea room to drink tea together.

After sitting down, Lin Jianlu couldn't help but stare at Zhang Ziyi a few more times.

The younger version of Zhang Ziyi does indeed possess an indescribable energy and sharp edge—at first glance, she is quite different from ordinary girls.

After a brief chat, Lin Jianlu suddenly picked up his phone. "Hey, Lao Zhang, am I bothering you? Okay, I'll get straight to the point... I'll recommend someone to you, you'll definitely like him! I won't tell you his name yet, but when you get back to the capital, look for Li Shaohong, he's one of her people! Hey, I swear, if you don't like him, you can return him! Hahaha..."

After hanging up the phone, he said to the still-young Zhang Ziyi, whose eyes were wide open, "If there are any suitable roles later, I'll remember to recommend you!"—She quickly stood up and thanked him sincerely.

In fact, they are all seasoned veterans. Whether it's Xu Qing or Lin Qingxia, if you let them choose on their own, they might not pick Zhang Ziyi at first glance. But a girl like her, once she is chosen and brought to them for them to see, they can sense something just by intuition, so they all stare at her.

The purpose is achieved.

After sitting for a short while, briefly explaining the schedule for the upcoming production of "Thunderstorm," without rushing to mention the company's plans for its next film, Li Shaohong took Zhang Ziyi and said goodbye.

In fact, both Lin Jianlu and Xu Qing knew that Li Shaohong was a fan of Chen Hong's looks—she herself had said it, in front of Lin Jianlu and in front of Chen Hong, that she would definitely ask Chen Hong to film a movie in the future.

After getting to know Lin Jianlu, Chen Hong and Lin Jianlu became very close.

She has absolutely no competitive relationship with Chen Hong. As a fan of her looks and a simp, and also Lin Jianlu's collaborator, it's no wonder that Chen Hong would have a bad relationship with her.

So ever since she brought Zhang Ziyi into the house, Xu Qing hasn't smiled at all.

They have no grudges, and rarely even interact, yet they are not on good terms.

…………

When the two went out, Lin Jianlu subconsciously saw them off to the door and down to the corridor.

Before the two of them could even step down the stairs, Zhang Aijia and Zhao Mingxin had already arrived at the hanging flower gate—these were the important guests who had actually made the appointment for today.

Even from a distance, Zhang Aijia had a bright smile on her face. As she walked down the corridor and onto the steps, she opened her arms, hugged Lin Jianlu, and then stood on tiptoe to cup her face and give her a big kiss.

"Where is my precious Qingxia?"

She let her kiss him freely, but after he finished, she waved her hand with a look of disgust, as if to push him away. Zhang Aijia laughed and simply put her arms around Lin Jianlu's neck. Only then did Lin Jianlu take the opportunity to introduce her, "My friend, the director, Li Shaohong, and that, her actress, Zhang Ziyi."

"This is Sylvia Chang, my manager. And that's Zhao Mingxin, the general manager of Sony Columbia Records."

They nodded to each other.

It seems there's nothing to do with them; a nodding acquaintance is enough.

Perhaps it was her gut feeling, or perhaps it was because she had been a director for many years, but Zhang Aijia subconsciously glanced at Zhang Ziyi a few more times—but was quickly interrupted.

Lin Qingxia had already gotten up and came out. When she saw Zhang Aijia, she couldn't help but laugh happily. Zhang Aijia immediately let go of Lin Jianlu, went over and hugged Lin Qingxia's belly, kissed it, and greeted her, "Hello, son!"

She wants to be the godmother of Brigitte Lin's son.

The child has many godfathers; Leslie Cheung, Huang Zhan, Wong Jing, and Tsui Hark have all signed up.

He will also have a godmother, Shi Nansheng.

Li Shaohong turned to leave, but seeing Zhang Ziyi not moving and staring intently at Lin Jianlu, she couldn't help but reach out and tug at her. Zhang Ziyi was startled and quickly lowered her head, following Li Shaohong down the steps.

But as she walked, she couldn't help but subconsciously turn back and glance at the commotion at the entrance.

It seems the rumors are true.

Not only is he a sensation across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but his power and connections in the entire Chinese-speaking entertainment industry are also extraordinary. Leaving aside singers, just in the film and television industry, every director with some standing in the industry has a very deep relationship with him. Now it seems that he is not just a group of beautiful lovers. Even a big star and director from Taiwan, Sylvia Chang, hugged and kissed him directly upon meeting him.

It's so lively around him!
Unfortunately, I didn't even have the right to participate.

Even her own boss wasn't qualified to step into this courtyard and become the mistress of the house.

…………

Sylvia Chang and Zhao Mingxin flew back from America specifically for this purpose.

The album was released on April 15th, and the first four weeks in terms of sales have passed. The two of them have been monitoring the North American market from beginning to end during these four weeks. So far, the results have been remarkable, even far exceeding the initial expectations. The overall public opinion trend and the sales trend of the album have also begun to take shape, so of course they have to come back to report.

While I'm at it, I'll also give a shout-out to myself.

In just four weeks since its release, global sales have exceeded 600 million copies!

A huge success is a certainty!

These past few years have been the golden age of the record industry since its inception, not only for Chinese-language records but also for English-language records. Even so, to achieve a gold record with 50 copies sold means that a singer has initially established themselves in the music scene. To achieve a platinum record with over 100 million copies sold means to have secured a place as a second-tier singer. And 300 million copies sold means to be sitting at the peak of the second tier and looking towards the first tier.

Moreover, it should be noted that these sales figures are generally based on sales over the past year since the product was launched!
If we only consider the first four weeks after the release of a record label, under normal circumstances, a new artist, with effective promotion and the record company using all available methods, should have already achieved one-third to one-half of their first year's sales.

A hit album or a blockbuster album is a different matter!

Regardless of Michael Jackson, Madonna, and others, even a newcomer, if they can have a song that tops the Billboard charts for ten weeks, do you think they'll sell more?

When it comes to publicity, it's always a matter of return on investment, never a question of whether it's useful or not—no matter how famous Michael Jackson was, there were still plenty of people around the world who didn't know who he was!
If your song tops the Billboard charts, it will naturally attract many casual listeners who wouldn't normally be interested in you.

That's why Columbia Records came up with an ambitious plan to push global sales of "21" to over 2000 million copies within a year of its release!
They've been selling for four weeks, and they haven't even really used their usual marketing tactics yet!

So many great songs, almost every one of them has the potential to top the Billboard charts, and this is only the second one!

Four weeks, 600 million tickets; the plan is to reach 2000 million tickets in one year!

This is an achievement that skips all foreplay, goes straight to the climax, skips all upgrade stages, and directly ascends to immortality, attains its fruition, and ascends to the throne of the global pop king!

If the plan is successfully implemented, Lin Jianlu will be qualified to become the only superstar in the world who is qualified to challenge Michael Jackson's commercial status—but his status in the entertainment industry is still far from being there!

Drinking tea, chatting, and communicating.

We had lunch together and drank a few drinks.

"HandClap still has a lot of staying power and can easily overtake other songs. But the problem now is that Yeah, which is currently in second place, is starting to lose its grip. That song is very strong. In the UK, Australia, Singapore, and Colombia, Yeah only relaxed a little and it was already in first place! You could say that if HandClap's momentum is relaxed even slightly, Yeah can just surge ahead!"

"The problem now is, do we have to put pressure on ourselves? But if we don't continue to promote 'HandClap,' it's easy for 'Baby' to only last two weeks, and 'HandClap' to last two weeks as well. Such strong works, yet so short-lived. If we rush to release new ones, it will be a waste!"

"A happy problem!"

"Right now, one of the issues that Colombia is most concerned about is whether to interrupt the unstoppable momentum of 'Yeah' and promote your new music video? They've seen the finished product and are full of praise for it! They generally believe that the gorgeous scenes you filmed with Chinese style will definitely move American fans!"

"But like I said, it's such a waste! Keep pushing it, try to get 'HandClap' to last four weeks, then push 'Yeah' up and get it to last at least another four weeks, they say it might even last six weeks! Then, push 'Believer' and simultaneously promote your music video globally to create a sensation, that's the way to maximize profits!"

“But if we don’t promote ‘Believer’ next, it would go against the original publicity plan, and you could even say it would completely disrupt it! So they want to hear your opinion.”

Hi……

Lin Jianlu remained calm and waved her hand, "When dealing with a special singer like me, they might not be as good as me at taking the first step in America because I understand my strengths and weaknesses better. But now that I'm so famous, as long as they can control the direction of public opinion and prevent it from going astray, they will definitely have more experience in how to promote the singer. Just listen to them as much as possible!"

"The original plan..."

"Plans can't keep up with changes! How could I have known back then that these songs would be so popular?"

Everyone in the room burst into laughter.

Sylvia Chang asked, "So you're going back to Hong Kong next week?"

Lin Jianlu nodded.

He still has a lot of things to take care of over there!

She hasn't finished recording her second Mandarin album yet, and she has to work on her new album. She promised to accompany Rosamund Kwan, so she still needs to persuade Rosamund Kwan and then make it happen.

I also want to meet Sammo Hung – Sammo Hung, Yuen Hop-ping, and Tong Chi-li. It’s no exaggeration to say that Lam Kin-lu genuinely believes they are all gems of Hong Kong cinema. Their martial arts choreography skills are absolutely top-notch in the world today!
If we're going to make movies next, these people will be indispensable.

Zhang Aijia replied, "Okay, I'll rest in the capital for two days, and then I'll go back with you!"

She paused, then exclaimed excitedly, "I'm going to Hong Kong to show off my power! To have some fun!"

This time, Lin Jianlu burst into laughter.

***
A long chapter of 12,000 words, please vote with monthly tickets!
(End of this chapter)