A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 191 Small Joys and the Great Era

Alyssa Chia was clearly a little flustered, but also inexplicably excited.

"...My periods are usually very regular, never even a day late. The only exception I remember was the month after our first time. That time it came a day early, but then it quickly returned to normal. Until this time, I didn't dare say anything for the past few days, and now it's been five days and it still hasn't come..."

"Really? Can I have a baby? Waaah... Brother, you love him so much, right? You love our baby so much, right? I love him so much too! Oh my god! I never expected this..."

How to do?
Although her tone was slightly panicked, for someone like Lin Jianlu who dealt with all sorts of girls and women of all kinds every day, the surprise was impossible to hide.

You could sense that she was testing the waters, and it seemed she really wanted to have the child.

Of course I'll agree to let her give birth!
There are countless young women in their early twenties, especially those in the entertainment industry, who are unwilling to waste a year of their prime by having a child. Take Jiang Qinqin, Zuo Xiaoqian, and even Xu Qing, for example. They don't need to be urged; they are all taking contraceptive measures very seriously and have never even considered having a child.

But Alyssa Chia is clearly an exception.

She has always lacked a sense of security and always wanted to be protected. This pregnancy was probably an accident, but even with a little intentional indulgence, it was still just a way to bind her more closely to herself through having a child, so that she would feel safer.

Lin Jianlu didn't mind being tied up at all!
Lin Jianlu didn't mention abortion at all; as long as she was willing to give birth, he was willing to keep her.

The more kids the merrier!

As I said before, having children is a natural pursuit for every man!
However, from another perspective, it seems that Taiwanese girls tend to seize the time to have children when all conditions are right—if we include the one that Jia Jingwen is pregnant with, Lin Jianlu has four children, and all of them are Taiwanese.

Lin Jianlu has had six girlfriends in mainland China: Xu Qing, Chen Hong, Yu Feihong, Jiang Qinqin, Zuo Xiaoqian, and Gao Yuanyuan. Apart from Chen Hong, who has explicitly expressed that she is of age and wants to have a child with Lin Jianlu, Gao Yuanyuan is still too young and it is normal that she has not considered such a thing. The other four have never even thought about it. Although Jiang Qinqin and the others lived in the same courtyard as Lin Qingxia for several months and could feel that Lin Jianlu was very loving and doting on her as a pregnant woman, they did not seem to have started to consider such a thing.

The same applies to several places in Hong Kong.

Rosamund Kwan, Leung Wing-ki, and the recently married Wang Zu-xian and Zhou Hui-min—oh, speaking of which, I just remembered, no, it seems only Wang Zu-xian once expressed envy for Brigitte Lin's pregnancy and impending childbirth. But she's also from Taiwan!

Upon closer reflection, it seems that there is a sense of human nature and reasoning involved. Girls in mainland China grow up accustomed to the idea that women can hold up half the sky, and they don't seem to think that being intimate with a man requires having a child as a way to continue binding them. Girls in Hong Kong, on the other hand, are influenced by the commercial society from a young age. Perhaps they assume that being someone's mistress and having a child is a perk that can only be granted with the consent of their man.

"Have the baby! Have the baby! You're filming lately, so be careful. Don't do any big movements. If it's really too much, I'll call He Xiuqiong and ask her to find you a stunt double! If you don't come in a few days, I'll arrange for someone to go and take you back to a hospital in the capital for a professional checkup..."

In the large study of his New York penthouse apartment, Lin Jianlu comforted Jia Jingwen, put down his phone, but couldn't get his thoughts back. He tapped the latest version of the script for "The Myth" on the table a few times, then picked up his phone again. After hesitating for a moment, he finally chose to call Rosamund Kwan.

She seems to have been born in 62, so she's 35 years old this year!
After a few sweet nothings and some probing, it was rather disappointing: "Have children? I don't want to have children, having children is too much trouble! I'm doing great now, so carefree, and I don't lack money for retirement, why would I want to have children?"

Okay, it seems I misunderstood.

How to put it? She was actually a little disappointed—Lin Jianlu never cared about illegitimate children, or how many illegitimate children there were, who would be the eldest son in the future, how they would fight for the inheritance, or that the media would expose it after a while, affecting her reputation and making it impossible for her to work in the entertainment industry and earn money, etc.

He really wants to have more children!

Andy Lau is an idol; he makes his living as an idol, selling his idol persona. His popularity over the years is largely due to this persona. Once you've made your living this way, you shouldn't complain about how hard it is to maintain that persona. But Lin Jianlu doesn't have that burden. From the beginning, he insisted on not letting his record company and manager promote or build his idol persona. In fact, when he first debuted and went to Taiwan and Hong Kong for promotions, he intentionally or unintentionally created rumors about himself, even if there was nothing between them.

So from the very beginning, he marketed himself as a "talented but womanizing playboy who is also a genius."

Not afraid of collapsing!

Even illegitimate children won't ruin things!
The revelation of Brigitte Lin's pregnancy sparked a huge wave of public discussion in Hong Kong, with various discussions in the Hong Kong media, but ultimately it did not really damage her core fan base of fans who admire her looks.

Besides, the quality is excellent!

Even if there is some damage to the reputation, as long as the product is good enough, controversy and buzz may not necessarily be a bad thing for the promotion of a product like a record!
Before the real decline of the record industry, selling a few more records shouldn't be a problem!

The money they make just from this is enough to qualify them to be like Prince Ma and have more than a dozen children!
At worst, we can just open our own kindergarten!

However, Rosamund Kwan doesn't actually want to have children!

…………

On September 14, Lin Jianlu made a trip to Tribeca District.

Since the spring of this year, Mariah Carey has been planning her divorce from Tommy Mottola. To avoid being followed and eavesdropped on, she chose to move into her two-story apartment in Tribeca.

By now, it is said that the two sides are irreconcilable enemies.

Lin Jianlu flew to New York in late August. During this time, Tommy Mottola visited him twice at his townhouse on the Upper East Side. His only purpose was to ask Lin Jianlu to give him his unwavering support. He took credit for this, saying that he had forcefully suppressed Mariah Carey's new album at an internal meeting of Columbia Records, with the aim of not wanting that album to impact the success of "21".

After all, he's a super DIVA. No matter how much of a new generation of global pop king you are, if an album has been on the market for four months, a new super DIVA album might just overturn it, causing the records you should have achieved and the sales that you should have made to be even more brilliant to be discounted all at once.

But I recently spoke with Mariah Carey on the phone. While I certainly didn't directly ask her about it, I did affect the release schedule of her new album, so I definitely had to thank her. After all, someone like me, Lin Jianlu, never does the kind of thing where I benefit from something and then act innocent or try to show off—and Mariah Carey's implication was that she insisted on releasing it next spring. No need to thank her.

It is said that after listening to "21", she decided to take some songs from her new album and re-record them.

Uh……

Despite the warm invitation, Lin Jianlu decided to have a meal with the other party.

However, given his current situation, it wasn't appropriate for him to be in the public eye, so Mariah Carey invited him to her home for a chat about music.

So, on that day, a group of Mariah Carey's friends from the music industry, including Lin Jianlu, gathered at her home in Tribeca for a small get-together, where they ate, drank, and chatted.

Since arriving in New York last winter, and having tentatively tried to get into the New York music scene but ultimately giving up because he couldn't accept American parties, this is basically Lin Jianlu's first public appearance in the New York pop music scene—he brought Lin Xilei and his friend, Chris Martins, a rising star in the American music scene.

We had a lot of fun.

Whether it's Sylvia Chang or Chris Martins, normal villa parties in New York, and even the entire American music scene, are generally very wild, especially in the rock and rap scene. But in comparison, Mariah Carey's little circle seems much cleaner.

It may be related to the fact that there were relatively few people attending, and that Mariah Carey has only just begun to break free from Tommy Mottola's long-standing control, so she is still quite naive.

Of course, Mariah Carey already had some tendency toward alcoholism, and in front of so many people, she so brazenly and openly criticized her "ex-husband" for being so strict with her, including not allowing her to drink a second drink, not allowing her to eat cake, forcing her to weigh herself every day, and a series of other "inhuman" forms of abuse.

But listening to her excitedly complaining, as if she had an indescribable sense of "breaking free," "being free," and "flying," Lin Jianlu felt a strange sense of emotion. From the perspective of a fan, or rather, from the perspective of an admirer, he actually quite appreciated Tommy Mottola's management of her.

No wonder she quickly went from being a famous social butterfly to an even more famous "Sister Cow"!

It's...quite a shame.

But in this small circle today, everyone congratulated her on breaking free from constraints and encouraged her to let herself go—of course, the other half were basically all expressing their admiration for Lin Jianlu.

Even Mariah Carey was delighted to have Lin Jianlu invited to her home for a party—she expressed her happiness by frequently pouring drinks and clinking glasses with him. She met a large group of prominent figures in the New York and American music scene.

One of the old men, Quincy Jones, was the biggest braggart. He constantly claimed that he was the one who made Michael Jackson famous. After drinking too much, he started crying, saying that he hadn't seen Michael Jackson for three years. He said that Michael was now surrounded by treacherous officials, a bunch of lawyers and accountants, all vampires, and a gay businessman like David Geffen. That's why his work was becoming more and more self-centered and "losing its vitality." He then confidently declared that if Michael trusted him and let him produce another album, he could bring Michael back to his peak and definitely defeat that kung fu kid from the East!

The boasting went on until the scene became quite awkward. After being reminded, the old man turned his head and realized that the kung fu kid who had almost been killed by his words was standing next to him. The old man seemed to want to sober up, but he quickly chose to avoid the awkward situation and chose to "pass out drunk".

Mariah Carey chuckled for a long time, then put her arm around Lin Jianlu's neck. Drunk and acting crazy, she said, "Come on! Come on! Show me your kung fu!"

Since he had no broadsword to use, Lin Jianlu chose to perform a set of punches on the spot.

That was enough to elicit a series of "wows" from a bunch of Americans.

Before leaving, he received a small note—it was from a girl who looked like she was of mixed race, very young, and probably considered pretty by American standards. But Lin Jianlu wasn't used to that kind of look. If we're talking about Black heritage, he preferred the looks of Mariah Carey or Rihanna. Oh, right, there's a Black actress who's also very pretty these days, Halle Berry.

It was lost as soon as it went out the door.

…………

Although it was a major event like childbirth, Su Huilun and Chen Shuhua declined to have their families come over. They only brought three nannies from Taiwan to take care of their daily needs and help with the postpartum care.

For no other reason than that it would be quite awkward if the parents on both sides met.

On the contrary, now that the children are being cared for by a nanny, and both of the pregnant women have given birth, they are basically relaxed except for still having to breastfeed. They are both in confinement together, and their husbands are by their side, so their moods have quickly become lighter.

Su Huilun was born early and is young, so she recovered quickly. In just half a month, she started to do some activities intentionally or unintentionally, and even started to practice her singing from time to time.

However, after discussing it, the two of them agreed that they would wait until October, when Chen Shuhua had completed her postpartum confinement, before they would all go back to Taiwan together.

Aside from seeing friends, spending time with his wife and children, and remotely managing Sylvia Chang's negotiations with Warner Bros., Lin Chien-lu has resumed dance training and soon reunited with his backup dancers in New York. They began discussing choreography and rehearsing together—the 32nd Super Bowl, the 1997 season finale, was scheduled for January 25, 1998, reportedly at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. Lin Chien-lu had already signed a contract for the Super Bowl halftime show.

That will be his first public appearance and performance in the United States and around the world.

There are still four months left, but he has already started preparing, arranging and training—if done well, he could earn 20 million US dollars in one go, enough to buy a 10,000-square-meter office building in the capital!

On September 15, Hung Kam-pao and Tong Chi-li flew to New York.

They were still not invited to the penthouse apartment; instead, they were received at a townhouse on the Upper East Side, where they discussed the script earnestly for several hours.

In the end, after four drafts, the script was largely finalized.

Of course, it was a drama scene.

Regarding the fight scenes, the script only specifies the outcome and the visual presentation required. How to film them on set will depend on the location and personnel, and will be decided by the three action directors: Sammo Hung, Tong Chi-Lip, and Yuen Hop-Ping.

These are not too difficult things for them.

The most difficult part for the entire production team was actually the final climax, namely the special effects inside the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. Hong Kong still lacks experience in shooting with a full green screen, so they had to hire some experienced staff from Hollywood to help build the green screen. Then, they had to select a special effects company in advance, and the staff of the special effects company had to be involved from the beginning of the filming stage.

Therefore, in order to save post-production time, this film had to be filmed in reverse order. That is, the scenes that required special effects were filmed first, and then the footage was edited directly after filming. Tang Jili came to Hollywood to work with the special effects production company to start the special effects production while the crew was still filming.

This has always been the approach to filming Hong Kong movies: saving time.

This raises another question: who should direct? The initial story concept was provided by Tang Jili, so he was the first director chosen. Hong Jinbao could only be considered a co-director. However, as one version of the script after another was produced, Lin Jianlu's ideas gradually changed.

The directors were still Tang Jili and Sammo Hung, but Lin Jianlu asked Zhang Yimou to join as director of photography.

The two of them seemed to have some objections, but the project was already underway and various contracts had been signed. Their share in the film was limited and not enough to truly oppose Lin Jianlu's opinion, so they eventually agreed.

In short, the directors were decided: Tang Jili and Hung Kam-po; director of photography: Zhang Yimou; cinematographers: Gu Changwei and Li Pingbin; and martial arts director: Yuan Heping. Green screens were set up in Hong Kong starting in early October, and the entire production team was assembled. Casting was to begin in both the capital and Hong Kong, with filming scheduled to officially start around mid-October.

…………

On September 17, Lin Jianlu had to temporarily leave behind his two wives and two children and fly back to Hong Kong. Five days later, on September 22, Lin Qingxia gave birth to his second son.

He was born weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces, a very healthy little guy.

Moreover, this little guy was born with raised eyebrows, which makes him look fierce when he grows up.

Lin Jianlu was overjoyed and couldn't put it down.

This can be considered one of his small moments of happiness.

Witnessing his love for children firsthand, the women in the room were all somewhat astonished—he was only twenty-one years old. Although he had always appeared exceptionally mature, composed, and experienced in public and private since his debut, his women still had no idea that he, at the age of a young man, would love children so much!

Holding a baby, fighting with the baby for milk, spending time with women, recording for Vivian Chow, going to watch the green screen setup, auditioning actors...

Lin Jianlu lived a busy and fulfilling life throughout the end of September and beginning of October.

It wasn't until early October that he finally found time to check the financial news, only to be shocked to discover that the Thai baht exchange rate had fallen below 50%, and Yahoo's stock, after its crazy surge in September, had risen from $52-$53 per share at the end of August to over $106 per share, with the company's total market capitalization reaching a staggering $29.7 billion—not only surpassing Netscape to become the number one internet stock, but also starting to approach the $30 billion market capitalization mark!

This is just one surprise after another.

After much deliberation, on October 3rd, Lin Jianlu called Zhang Aijia and told her to immediately suspend the protracted negotiations with Warner Bros., return to New York, and ask Tommy Mottola for money!

"21" was released globally on April 15th. Almost half a year has passed, and there is every reason to demand that Columbia Records immediately settle the first royalty payment!

I can easily get over 100 million US dollars, so I'll buy stocks!

If before, Lin Jianlu only had a vague impression of Yahoo from his previous life and a stubborn belief that "any internet stock must represent the future and must first surge for a period of time," which is why he even took out loans to buy Yahoo stock, then now he has truly seen an incredibly clear trend—Yahoo will definitely rise! And it might even skyrocket!
He was certain that a great era was slowly unfolding!

The reason lies in this round of dollar influx. Southeast Asia has already been overwhelmed, and it is estimated that the next target will be Hong Kong, or Japan and South Korea. But regardless of the outcome, it does not affect the fact that the Wall Street giants have already made huge profits in this overall financial battle. They have essentially made a killing. So, where will all that money go next?
US stocks!

US stocks are bound to rise!

Internet stocks, representing the future, are bound to rise!

Among the relatively few internet stocks currently available, Yahoo, as the world's leading internet portal, has now secured the title of the most valuable internet stock and is poised to become a hot commodity!
The timid might not be able to hold on, feeling that the stock price of a company that is still losing money is already frighteningly high, and they would seek a safer option and start cashing out. But for the bold, those who are familiar with economic laws and the rules of the US stock market, and those who are adventurous, this is precisely the time to invest heavily, hold more Yahoo shares, wait for it to truly start to soar, and then enjoy the good times when its stock price rises again and again!
It's absolutely worth selling everything you own to buy Yahoo!
On October 4th, Zhang Aijia called back, and Tommy Mottola agreed to settle the first royalty payment for "21" with Lin Jianlu without the slightest hesitation—it was incredibly straightforward!
So the next morning, Lin Jianlu boarded a plane to New York!
(End of this chapter)