A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 174 A new beginning

At the end of May, Lin Jianlu went to Taipei.

There are many things to handle, such as Su Huilun and Chen Shuhua's move, their American citizenship application process, and preparations for having children.

Su Huilun is pregnant with a girl, due at the end of August. Chen Shuhua is pregnant with a boy, due two weeks later than Su Huilun, in mid-September. They will go there to adapt to the climate and environment, and by the end of October, they will have finished their postpartum confinement and can come back with their babies. This was the first time Lin Jianlu had known that boys and girls could stay in their mothers' wombs for different periods of time.

Of course, all these things were easy to handle because Zhang Aijia took care of everything. Moving wouldn't require Lin Jianlu or the two pregnant women to manage it, since there was a housekeeper at home.

The most important thing he did during this trip was to settle accounts with Rock Records.

Just a few days ago, he had boasted, leaving Shi Nansheng on the other end of the phone speechless. Then came the real challenge: the royalties to be settled this time were exceptionally complicated and varied.

The subsequent sales settlement of "Cold to the End", the settlement of "Cold to the End 10 Million Celebration Edition", "Lemon-Tree", "What's Left" and "Duck" written for Su Huilun, and especially importantly, the entire album "Chasing the Light" sold more than 2.6 million copies worldwide in half a year, and Lin Jianlu took 16%, which was a huge sum of more than three million dollars.

In addition, "Too Softhearted" has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide. Lin Jianlu wrote, composed, arranged and produced the song, which would earn him 1.6% of the album's revenue, barely exceeding $30.

In addition, Lin Jianlu also wrote to Zhou Huajian, Lin Yilian, and Karen Mok, but this time the payment couldn't be settled.

After a long and complicated audit, which almost led to a fight, the final settlement amounted to just over 700 million US dollars – well, that wasn't quite enough.

Although this amount of royalties already places him among the absolute top earners in the entire Chinese music scene, it's simply not enough to cover Lin Jianlu's self-proclaimed goal of amassing HK$200 billion (approximately US$30 billion) in assets within five years. The pricing of Chinese music records is far too low, and the market is too small. Even a blockbuster like "Chasing the Light," which has been the number one best-selling Chinese music record in the past six months, only earns Lin Jianlu, a producer who handles everything, a whopping 16% cut, a mere three million US dollars.

Records like "21" are more exciting to sell. Priced at $19.99 each, Lin Chien-lu takes 33%, meaning he gets $6.6 for each record sold. If he can sell over 2000 million copies in the first year, that would be a whopping $1.3 million in royalties!
Well, let's take stock of my personal assets. They mainly consist of stocks and real estate, while my negative equity is primarily bank loans.

Houses in the capital city are basically not selling for much right now, so let's leave that aside for now. I own a luxury house each in Taiwan and Hong Kong, totaling around 2000 million US dollars. I also bought 126 million shares of Yahoo stock, which haven't appreciated much since then. I bought them at an average price of less than 50 US dollars per share, and now the stock price is just over 53 US dollars. And even that's considered a very good result, because in the last two or three months, global stock markets have been declining, with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates aggressively, and money is constantly being withdrawn from the stock market. So, the total value is only a little over 6000 million US dollars.

Then there's the 40 Amazon shares I just subscribed to. They've gone up; I bought them at $18 a share, and now the market price is around $26. Many conservative investment institutions consider internet stocks extremely risky, but they're undeniably popular, so the turnover rate is high, but they've been slowly rising.

Let's say it's worth 1000 million US dollars.

There is about HKD 7 million left in cash, which is equivalent to USD 1 million, plus the USD 7 million in royalties that I just received - all of this together can barely reach USD 100 million.

Well, the debt mainly consists of three long-term loans, one of which is a Japanese yen loan of 1000 million US dollars, which is used as collateral for this luxury house in Taipei. The other two are Thai baht loans, one of which is a personal credit loan of 5000 million US dollars, and the other is a luxury house in Mid-Levels, Hong Kong, which is worth about 1600 million US dollars.

So, his assets are 100 million US dollars, and his liabilities are slightly over 76 million US dollars.

Hopefully, by next year, these loans will depreciate further, allowing me to pay them off with as little money as possible.

Hopefully, once the Southeast Asian financial crisis ends and the financial tycoons have had their fill of blood, they will start flocking back to the American stock market, and their Yahoo and Amazon stocks will begin to soar.

Hopefully, by the end of the year, Sony Columbia will actually settle the royalties of over 100 million US dollars!

There's so much to look forward to these days!

…………

Night, Taipei.

Both pregnant women were already quite pregnant. Lin Jianlu, having finally made it here, personally served his two wives a bath, carefully scrubbing their backs. Oh dear, he was always out there having affairs, with countless mistresses, and his scandals were frequently reported in the newspapers, which his two wives could all see. How could they not feel resentful? But now that he was back, gently and attentively bathing them like this, their resentment gradually dissipated. A little coquettishness, a kiss, and basking in the warmth of the little ones moving inside their bellies quickly brought back the intimate and tender feeling between the three of them.

After Lin Jianlu took a quick shower, the three of them put on some clothes and went up to the second-floor terrace to cool off—at the end of May, it was already hot in Taipei at noon, but the evenings were still cool.

Today, Lao Duan from Rolling Stone came to our house. There were many accountants present, but neither of them showed up. Later, after the audit was completed, Lin Jianlu took the documents upstairs to the second floor for them to sign. So, in fact, it wasn't until everyone had left that the three of them finally began to enjoy this time together.

Enjoying the evening breeze, having a cup of tea, and chatting together, the three of them felt very comfortable.

After chatting for a while, Chen Shuhua got up and quickly brought over two bank cards. She handed them to Lin Jianlu before sitting down—Lin Jianlu looked at her, puzzled.

She said gently, "This one is mine, and that one is Huilun's. Recently, I sold all my stocks and funds, some with losses and some with gains. I haven't touched the allowance you give me every month either. So, apart from the house where my parents live, this is basically all my assets. All the money I've earned from singing over the years is here."

Lin Jianlu was dumbfounded.

She continued, "Huilun also sold her house. Recently, house prices have been relatively stable. She bought it a little earlier, so she made a good profit. She also has some stocks and such, but most of her money is in savings."

"In short, over the years, I've accumulated over 160 million in my bank account, while Huilun has less than 60 million, all in New Taiwan Dollars! A lot of money was settled today; it usually gets deposited into the account within a few days. So Huilun has over 110 million, and I have about 250 million, which together is over 10 million US dollars!"

“We’ve been resting together lately, and since we’ve had a lot of free time, we’ve been chatting a lot. We’ve talked about it many times: we both love you so much and trust you so much. We feel like we’ll never want to leave you in this lifetime. Now that we’re having a baby, we’re even more of a family! We’re connected by blood!”

“We don’t have any other expenses, and the money is just sitting there anyway. It seems like even though you earn a lot, you spend even more, and you’ve taken out quite a few loans. We were worried before, not knowing how many albums you’d have to release to pay them off. Even though your English album is selling very well, it still doesn’t seem to be enough for you. This time, after settling down so much money, you still seem a bit dissatisfied, a little disappointed…”

Chen Shuhua's voice was soft.

The moonlight wasn't very bright tonight, but the starlight was beautiful. On the second-floor terrace, where only the ambient lights were on, a gentle breeze was blowing. Chen Shuhua spoke softly, while Su Huilun, who was usually the most talkative, remained silent.

It was only at this point that she couldn't help but complain, her sweet and adorable jealousy rising, "He's a womanizer! So many lovers, of course he spends a lot of money! Buying them villas on the hillside, giving them expensive bracelets, and even a courtyard house in the capital, keeping so many lovers... We're all neglected, we don't even have bracelets!"

Chen Shuhua couldn't help but chuckle.

Lin Jianlu touched his nose awkwardly—actually, he bought the bracelet in the capital. It wasn't as exaggerated as the Hong Kong newspapers made it out to be, costing two or three million Hong Kong dollars. Jade materials in mainland China aren't that expensive, so it only cost him a few hundred thousand RMB. But, of course, the main reason was that he felt Liang Yongqi had become much more obedient lately, so he rewarded her. It's just that she's shallow and couldn't suppress her pride, so she showed it off immediately.

"Actually... I also made money! Rosamund Kwan was my sugar daddy and paid for a lot of my drinks!"

"puff……"

Saying such things at this time is certainly asking for trouble.

Su Huilun couldn't help but clench her little fist and punch him.

After laughing and joking for a while, Lin Jianlu picked up the two bank cards in her hand. The smile on her face gradually faded, and she sighed with some indescribable complex feelings—this was the first time in both her past and present lives that she had truly eaten a meal of soft rice.

From his past life until now, Lin Jianlu has almost never gained any financial advantage from girls. He has long accepted his fate: he will love when he should love and give when he should give, but he will always keep the majority of his finances firmly in his own hands and will never hand them over to any woman.

He was terrified of being scammed.

However, who would have thought...

How could those two be so foolish?

How could she love me so much?
Even though I'm such a flirt...

“Actually, Huilun and I discussed it last month and decided to sell all our assets, convert them into cash, and give them to you. You can use them as you see fit. Anyway, no matter how poor you are, you will never let Huilun, us, and our two children go hungry, so we don’t have to hold onto this money.”

"Besides, we're family. It's unreasonable for Huilun and me to have money while you have to scrape together what we have. That wouldn't make us family!"

Lin Jianlu took a deep breath, looked at this one, and then at that one.

He was speechless for a long time.

…………

I spent three days in Taiwan.

They were both in their late pregnancy and it wasn't advisable to delay, as flying could be risky. So they chartered a business jet to carefully avoid any potential paparazzi, with Sylvia Chang and Hsi-lei Lin accompanying them to New York.

First, they'll move into that townhouse on New York's Upper East Side, and then wait for Lin Jianlu to visit in mid-July before reuniting.

After watching them board the plane, Lin Jianlu also boarded the plane and flew back to Hong Kong.

Continue recording.

It wasn't just his own album that was the problem; he also went to Warner Music to record "Good Hearted Breakup," a duet with Cheng Sau-man, and then started coaching Leung Wing-ki.

This girl is honest and straightforward, but she is making rapid progress and is becoming more and more well-behaved. Since I promised to make a whole album for her, I decided to do it well. Her vocal condition is actually limited, but she has received very systematic and professional vocal training, and her voice stability is also quite good. With some patient work, it will be very listenable.

Well, his trip to Taiwan deeply moved him. After returning to Hong Kong, he quit gambling for a full two weeks and reflected on his increasingly promiscuous behavior. Unexpectedly, this greatly accelerated his recording and work progress.

But it only lasted half a month.

That day, I suddenly received a call from Wang Zuxian. It was probably our first phone call. She asked me, "I haven't seen you at the last few card games. Have you been very busy lately?"

Lin Jianlu suddenly remembered her face and her eyes again.

But he hesitated for a moment before choosing his words, "I am a bit busy."

She said "Oh," and then said, "Qingxia called me and said she came back yesterday and invited me to come over. I don't know if I should go. Would it be convenient for me to visit your home?"

It's a very simple question, and the answer should be equally simple.

But Lin Jianlu hesitated for several seconds before suddenly asking, "I saw in the news that Lin Jianyue gave you a luxury house? I heard it's a house of over 1,500 square feet, in a superb location, and worth tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars!"

She said, "I refused. I have a place to live."

Lin Jianlu pursed her lips, a hint of joy creeping into her heart. "Yeah. Lin Jianyue's dad's stuck in Taiwan; he's been living a bit too carefree lately!"

On the other end of the phone, Wang Zuxian declined to comment. After a moment of silence, he asked, "I'd like to visit Qingxia at your house tomorrow morning. She said her belly is quite big. Will you be home?"

Lin Jianlu snapped out of her thoughts. "I have something to do tomorrow morning. You know Media Asia Films, right? I'm going to invest in it. I've invited a lot of people to talk about it tomorrow. I guess we'll have lunch and drinks together at noon, and then play cards in the afternoon."

"You're really making a movie? And you've chosen Media Asia?"

"Hmm, the foundation is good, it has a small copyright library, but not too big or too expensive for me to afford."

“Media Asia is great. I still remember their debut film, ‘I Have a Date with Spring’ directed by Gao Zhisen… How much money would you like to invest?”

"2000 million US dollars, and the current agreement is that I will get 35%. I will be the one in charge."

"Does Sister Qingxia know? Has she tried to persuade you?"

Why are you trying to persuade me?

"Making movies has become increasingly difficult in the last year or two, and it's easy to lose money. Media Asia has been established for two or three years now, right? Although I've heard they're doing very well, if I remember correctly, they mainly make low-budget films. I also heard from Sister Nansheng that, especially from last year until now, although they haven't lost much money, they haven't made much either. I think if you discuss this with Sister Qingxia, she'll probably advise you... The film market is really tough right now."

Lin Jianlu pondered for a moment, then suddenly changed the subject, "I remember you haven't been filming much in the last year or two. If I were to film something and invite you to come, would you come?"

Without hesitation, she said directly, "Yes."

Lin Jianlu nodded slowly, "Okay! Wait for my news."

She hummed in agreement and hung up the phone.

…………

Investing in Media Asia Films was a plan that was reached through collective discussion.

These Hong Kong film stars basically each have their own film companies, such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Li Lianjie, Wong Jing, and Tong Jili, but they generally only participate in the investment of film production. They basically have no opportunity to get involved in the later stages of the film process.

Although Media Asia Films has been established for less than three years, it has the ability to promote and distribute films in Hong Kong.

In 1994, Hong Kong films were already showing signs of fatigue, and the market began to decline rapidly. Led by renowned Hong Kong filmmaker Chong Shing, seven people founded Media Asia Entertainment Group, commonly known as Media Asia Films.

It's not exactly going against the tide, but in the past two or three years, they have invested in and produced many films. Due to limited funds and an increasingly sluggish market, in order to avoid risks, their investments are generally small to medium-budget. And because they have the publicity and distribution capabilities that they have been working hard to build from the beginning, most of their films can basically break even, and some can even make a profit.

Over the course of two years, they have made nearly 20 films. It's hard to say that they have made any remarkable progress in terms of strength and status in the industry. However, in today's Hong Kong film industry, the fact that they have not only not gone bankrupt in such a difficult environment, but have also been able to make a profit every year, and since last year, they have even been able to act as agents and distributors for films made by other small companies, is already a miracle in itself.

The market was bad, and everyone's morale was generally low, but people like Zhuang Cheng from Media Asia Films still had the ambition to move up the ladder. Wang Jing recommended him, and Lin Jianlu was very interested, so he asked Wang Jing to make contact with them, and they were immediately interested as well.

So they hit it off immediately.

2000 million US dollars is a lot of money. Of the money invested, 1000 million will be specifically invested in Lin Jianlu's first film, "The Myth". Then, Hong Jinbao's company and Tang Jili's company will also invest some, leaving a total of 1000 million Hong Kong dollars for them. The Forbidden City Film Company in the capital will also invest 1000 million.

Then, Lin Jianlu also planned to contact Columbia Pictures when he went to America in July, hoping to get some investment from there. He didn't need much, just one or two million US dollars would be enough. Although Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures are two completely independent companies, they are both under the Columbia Group. Lin Jianlu felt that with his popularity, this shouldn't be too difficult.

In this way, money from mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States will all be involved, providing a reliable direction for future issuances across the three regions and the United States. In short, the total investment is estimated at HK$100 million!
In America, this would be considered a medium-sized investment. In Hong Kong and mainland China, it wouldn't be considered unprecedented, because Jackie Chan had already made large investments of hundreds of millions of dollars many years ago. Golden Harvest even spent tens of millions of dollars to invest in an American film in the 1980s.

However, this is still an absolutely massive undertaking.

All individuals and companies involved must bear considerable risk.

However, when everyone sat down to talk, they generally felt that it was worth doing and worth taking some risks. The combination of Sammo Hung and Stanley Tong, plus the basic team from Media Asia Films, meant that the three of them could basically guarantee that the quality of the film would be maintained. The subject matter and grand scenes of "The Myth," coupled with the top popularity of Lam Kin-lu, meant that the film was expected to gross more than HK$100 million at the box office in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and even Japan and South Korea, which are markets that are traditionally dominated by Hong Kong films.

We can expect some box office revenue from mainland China. Jackie Chan is very popular there, and his film "Mr. Nice Guy" was released on the first day of the Lunar New Year and grossed 65 million yuan. But Lin Jianlu is also very popular in mainland China, so we don't dare to hope for that much. We can at least count on 30 to 40 million yuan. Just like our expectations for box office revenue in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, Lin Jianlu is so popular. Even if he's just relying on his face and name to fool people, he should be able to get that much box office revenue for his first movie.

If we can achieve a box office of around 150 million in these markets, we'll basically recoup half of the investment. Next, as long as Lin Jianlu can handle the distribution and public release in America, even if we rely on his looks to lure audiences in, as long as we can get 10 million US dollars at the box office, plus the subsequent video release and selling the rights in Europe and Latin America, we'll basically break even.

A Billboard chart-topping supernova and a future global pop king, Jackie Chan should have some box office success to begin with—he has already succeeded in North America, proving that Asian faces are not entirely unsellable, and further proving that American audiences enjoy watching Hong Kong martial arts films!
Lin Jianlu's recognition and acceptance among American movie fans is obviously not comparable to that of Jackie Chan, but his fan base is bound to expand rapidly in the coming year.

In short, given the combination of various factors, Lin Jianlu himself was willing to invest ten million US dollars, totaling about one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, to do such a thing, which showed that he was very confident. As a result, the original shareholders of Media Asia Films, as well as Sammo Hung and Tang Jili, were all inspired with great ambition.

Let's do it!

In recent years, with the sharp decline of the Hong Kong film market, people often sit down to analyze the situation and reach a generally accepted conclusion: Hong Kong films have been resting on their laurels and have become complacent, only concerned with making quick money and neglecting the issue of overall development and upgrading. As soon as Hollywood special effects films come out, they quickly come to conquer the market, and people have become more and more fond of watching Hollywood films, which has led to the decline of Hong Kong films.

This time, the total investment for "The Myth" starts at HK$100 million. A significant portion of that will be spent on special effects in America. Therefore, the production team will have to film in mainland China, using local locations and hiring local personnel to make the film possible. Otherwise, the budget wouldn't even be enough. In short, the team is pooling their resources and investing heavily to try making a large-scale investment and creating special effects, as a way to explore whether there's a future for Hong Kong films in this direction.

It's worth the risk.

Starting in mid-May, Lin Jianlu first secured the support of Sammo Hung and Stanley Tong, and then brought in Wong Jing as a middleman and pimp. Soon after, Media Asia Films also decided to join the fray.

The first draft of the script was completed and still needed polishing, but the overall structure of the story was very good. Both Sammo Hung and Stanley Tong had great confidence in it. The current head of Media Asia Films, Chuang Cheng, had read it and thought it was worth doing—so progress was rapid.

On June 7th, everyone officially signed the contract.

Lin Jianlu acquired a 35% stake in Media Asia Films for 2000 million US dollars, becoming the company's largest shareholder. Investing tens of millions of US dollars in a Hong Kong action film was already a risky move, but what Lin Jianlu's partners didn't know was that what he did was actually far more risky than they realized. Because his 2000 million US dollar investment came from a bank loan!
Many big stars have made tens or hundreds of millions of dollars by making movies and earning their salaries. After becoming famous and rich, many are willing to invest in their own new movies. But Lin Jianlu is probably the first one to take out a loan to make a movie, which means taking all the risks on his own shoulders!
In fact, this is a relatively small amount compared to the series of increasingly aggressive and risky business and investment decisions he has made in the past six months.

Just giving it a try, ten million US dollars, I can afford to lose.

In his spare time, he tried to recall this part of his past life, which he wasn't actually very familiar with. Combining this with his experiences in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the mainland entertainment industry after becoming famous, and his understanding of the entire Chinese-language film and entertainment industry, he gradually deduced a somewhat vague development process—

Cheng Long's successful entry into the North American market represents a breakthrough in two directions.

First, Asian faces gained recognition in the North American market, began to find a market, and started to become valuable. So, Li Lianjie followed suit, and Zhou Runfa later went to seek his fortune, each reaping their own rewards.

Secondly, Eastern martial arts and action films began to be accepted by the North American market.

As a result, a large number of stuntmen, action directors, and other professionals who were losing their jobs in Hong Kong began to seek their fortunes in America. This led to the increasing popularity of martial arts and action films in America, and even enabled the rapid evolution and development of action filmmaking in Hollywood.

The combination of the two led to films like Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero," which successfully entered North America and achieved remarkable success!

Yes, that's roughly the development path.

It's just the beginning.

Logically speaking, in this development path, even if you want to make "The Myth", you should wait another two years until Jackie Chan and Li Lianjie have started to have huge box office success in North America before you go and get a piece of the pie. That would be more secure. But what's so great about following in others' footsteps and making a little money by going down the path someone else has paved?

I'm quite popular in North America now!

I was already a pioneer. Not only did I become famous no later than Jackie Chan, but to this day, I am much more famous than him in North America. Jackie Chan's movies in North America have a few million ticket buyers at most. If you include those who didn't go to the theater but watched the videotape, the number definitely does not exceed ten million. But my albums have sold three or four million copies in North America, and the number of listeners is definitely in the tens of millions!

If even one-tenth of my die-hard fans are interested in my face and willing to spend eight or ten dollars to go to the cinema to see me, that would already be a great deal!

Moreover, the rapid rise of the album "21," from "Baby" to "HandClap" and then to "Yeah," has far exceeded my initial optimistic expectations. This shows that my understanding and grasp of the current American market is quite accurate—and the same goes for the film.

This is not based on an understanding of the film, but on an understanding of the times.

The East, Kung Fu, and Eastern aesthetics are becoming increasingly popular and anticipated in America. This is the trend – everyone gets rich simply because they ride the wave of the times!

…………

Continue recording and resume playing cards.

He seemed completely at ease, unlike someone who had just invested 20 million US dollars in a film company and was about to start filming a movie with an investment of over 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

That night, while playing cards, Wang Fei suddenly appeared.

The recording of "Red Bean" was interrupted for about twenty days. EMI Records had contacted Ge Fuhong twice, and she finally couldn't hold back anymore and came over to apologize and surrender.

But he pretended nothing was wrong.

He pushed open the door and came in casually. "Oh, playing cards?" After greeting everyone, he pretended to sit behind Liu Jialing to watch the game and started chatting and laughing. Later, he casually moved behind Lin Jianlu to watch the game, subtly flattering him and praising Lin Jianlu's good card playing skills.

Lin Jianlu ignored her until the end of the card game.

She later came up to me with a grin, "Oh, don't be angry, I was wrong! I'll listen to you completely, I won't make decisions on my own anymore. If you say one thing, I'll definitely not say another."

I reluctantly forgave her.

The next morning, I went to EMI Records early, finished recording for her in less than two hours, and left immediately.

…………

Back in late May, Columbia Records dropped its push for "HandClap." After holding the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks (May 9, May 16, and May 23), the song gracefully faded from the top ten. It first dropped to number seven, then quickly fell out of the top ten, and finally settled at number 16, 17, and 18, even lagging behind "Baby," which had already fallen out of the top ten.

而在五月底的5月30日，甚至没怎么耗费力气的去推，《Yeah》就无比顺利的登顶单曲榜冠军了，且一发不可收拾——5月30日、6月6日、6月13日、6月20日，一口气就拿下了四周的单曲榜冠军！

A sensation across America! A sensation worldwide!
At the end of June, Lin Jianlu returned to the capital to participate in the recording of a gala celebrating the return of Beijing to the motherland at the Great Hall of the People.

Not only did he sing, but he also took on the role of host for the first time.

Although it was the kind of reading from a script where no personal expression was allowed, it was still a good try.

He co-hosted the event with Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, and Ni Ping.

Well, it can be roughly understood as the production model and program ratio of the Spring Festival Gala, but it also has more poetry recitations than the Spring Festival Gala. Jackie Chan also came over and sang a song - Jackie Chan was involved, but Faye Wong was not.

Of course, Lin Jianlu didn't sing his own song, because it wouldn't be appropriate for the occasion.

As early as the end of May, the relevant parties in charge of preparing for the gala had already taken the initiative to contact them, saying that the program team had selected a song called "Red Flag Fluttering". After discussion, the program team thought it was very suitable for Lin Jianlu to sing at the gala. It is said that this song has been written for several years, but it has never been produced or released publicly. Currently, there are only lyrics and music, but no recorded version. So they asked for Lin Jianlu's opinion.

The sheet music was faxed to Hong Kong. After reviewing it, Lin Jianlu nodded in agreement. He then contacted the author by phone, had a brief chat, and personally paid out of his own pocket to buy out the copyright to the song's lyrics and music. In such matters, Lin Jianlu was certainly not stingy, so he gave extra money, paying 100,000 each for the lyrics and music.

In the context of the mainland music scene, this is already an astronomical price. Giving more would be considered price gouging and would invite criticism!

Then, also out of his own pocket, he recorded the song at Luo Dayou's music factory.

If his memory serves him right, in his hazy recollection, Sun Nan from later generations should have sung this song frequently. He wasn't sure if he had officially released it, but he simply adapted the song according to Sun Nan's original version. When hitting the highest note, he struggled a bit, and his voice wasn't as bright as Sun Nan's. But after practicing a few more times, it wasn't a big problem.

The final recording actually felt more powerful than his version.

The production team listened to the recorded version that Lin Jianlu brought and was quite satisfied.

So, they sang "The Red Flag Fluttering" at the party.

The trip took four days in total, with two rehearsals, and the final recording was successful in one take.

Since they were all hosts and spent a lot of time together, Lin Jianlu naturally chatted and laughed with Leslie Cheung and Gong Li. However, Ni Ping seemed to be in low spirits from time to time. It wasn't until just before the final recording that she managed to adjust her mood and was able to laugh and talk while waiting backstage. It is said that Chen Kaige officially broke up with her in March of this year, but she has not given up. She went to visit the set of "The Emperor and the Assassin" but the meeting ended badly. Therefore, Lin Jianlu saw her colleagues from CCTV come over to comfort her backstage.

Haha, actually Lin Jianlu is quite looking forward to seeing who Chen Kaige will eventually marry in this lifetime.

…………

August 1997, 6, night.

Lin Jianlu ate dinner early at her villa on the hillside in Ganggang, and then turned on the TV.

After brewing tea, the three women, along with a baby who occasionally kicked her belly in protest, sat with Lin Jianlu in front of the television, waiting for that special time to arrive. Lin Qingxia was in her late pregnancy and went to bed early, but after spending so much time together, she had come to understand very well what kind of person Lin Jianlu was and what she valued. So today, she deliberately slept for an extra hour in the afternoon and stayed up all night to keep him company.

Four people are enough to play mahjong.

However, the atmosphere was unusual. Lin Jianlu had been unusually excited since he woke up in the morning, but now that he was sitting in front of the TV drinking tea, his face was somewhat solemn, so no one dared to mention it.

It's just casual chatting, waiting.

Brigitte Lin didn't talk much; she mainly chatted with Rosamund Kwan and Leung Wing-ki, whom she had recently become very familiar with.

They mostly talked about things unrelated to the main topic.

Lin Jianlu's investment in Media Asia Films and the start of preparations for "The Myth" were not publicized at all, and the news was even intentionally or unintentionally covered up. Therefore, the media did not report on it at all, but the news still gradually spread within the entertainment industry.

People in the industry are very interested and want to know what Lin Jianlu is planning to make, having spent a fortune of 20 million US dollars to invest in Media Asia Films for his first film.

There are different opinions.

Some vague information about "The Myth" has begun to circulate within the industry, but it is mixed with a lot of nonsense, leaving outsiders completely confused.

The three of them were actually interested, and they asked questions one after another.

Lin Jianlu responded with a humming and hawing, not taking it seriously and going into details, and eventually stopped asking.

Finally, the ceremony began.

Lin Jianlu wasn't sure if he had seen it in his past life—at this time in his past life, he was only two years old, so perhaps he had been held and seen it. In any case, he was quite excited.

Even though I know this is a fact, even though I know there's absolutely no way anything could go wrong, even though I know there were troubles after the handover, from this moment on, being in Hong Kong is being in my own country!

1997年7月1日的00:00，国歌奏响，国旗升起。

Lin Jianlu had already stood up. Under the solemn, astonished, or surprised gazes of the three women, as soon as the national anthem began to play, he immediately snapped to attention and saluted the national flag that was slowly rising on the television.

The three women immediately became solemn.

In the year or so before the handover, Lin Jianlu had lived in Hong Kong for quite some time. He often watched local TV programs, newspapers, and magazines, and could roughly understand the current state of mind in Hong Kong. There were many people living in fear and anxiety, including ordinary people, small business owners, tycoons, compradors, and of course, people in the film, music, and entertainment industries.

Putting everything else aside, Hong Kong's property prices, which had been strong for many years, have been falling for two consecutive years!

Now it's all settled.

After the ceremony ended, Liang Yongqi obediently took the initiative to bring wine and glasses, opened them, poured the bottoms of three glasses, and also poured a glass of water for Lin Qingxia. The four glasses clinked together, and Lin Jianlu drank it all in one gulp.

Standing on the top floor of the villa on the hillside, I opened the window and looked out. The island was brightly lit, and the sea was dotted with lights.

If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the shouts of the march.

I was tempted to go down and participate, but then I remembered I had a gala recording to do tomorrow night, so I gave up on that idea.

But tonight, Hong Kong, and indeed the whole of China, is destined to be a sleepless night—Lin Jianlu went to take a shower, lay down, and hugged Lin Qingxia, gently stroking her already protruding belly, before falling into a deep sleep.

Sleep until dawn.

It marks a new beginning.

(End of this chapter)