A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 204 Governor of Hong Kong

In early December, even if you don't actually go up to the top of the Tianshan Mountains, but are only halfway up or even at the foot of the mountain, it is still unusually cold.

But there's no other way; it fits the script, so we have to film here.

And it will take about twenty days to film.

Even with this, the main consideration was the weather. They were worried that heavy snow would close the mountain passes by the end of December, so they would have to move to BY City in Gansu Province to continue filming by the end of December.

The main focus here is on filming large armies on their journeys and several major battles.

Mobilizing manpower is extremely complicated.

Every day they were frantically rushing to meet the deadline. A group of actors, especially the little girls, were shivering from the cold every day. Whenever they weren't filming, they would all sneak into Wang Zuxian's or Lin Jianlu's nanny van.

There's a small town at the foot of the mountain, but the hotel still doesn't have heating. However, the film crew provided the two male and female leads with a minivan. These so-called minivans, which are converted from minibuses, aren't actually very high-end, but they do have one advantage: they have a heating system for parking. So, they naturally became very popular.

On the contrary, Lin Jianlu is in almost every scene here, and he doesn't have the time to squeeze in with a few pretty teenage girls to keep warm.

On December 11th, Lin Jianlu strained his arm while being suspended by wires. Although he rushed to get treatment, he was still in so much pain that he was covered in sweat. But it was quite miraculous that when he woke up the next morning, the strain that was so severe the day before felt almost completely healed!

Even Wang Zuxian was amazed!
In mid-December, Lin Jianlu, far away at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, received a phone call. A massive amount of international speculative capital had suddenly returned, almost wiping out several Southeast Asian countries in a single day. Then, it swept through Hong Kong once again. The Hong Kong dollar held firm once more, but the stock market failed to hold up. The Hang Seng Index had just rebounded by more than 400 points, reaching around 8300 points, when it was suddenly hit hard again, plummeting by 2100 points!
According to Hong Kong media, they managed to save face but lost all substance.

Lin Jianlu hesitated for a moment, then asked Wu Minghua: "How much has Gangcheng Telecom fallen?"
Wu Minghua replied that the market value was only HK$310 billion!
Well, it's frustrating. In the last round of bottom-fishing, I bought in too early again. Lin Jianlu had previously entrusted HSBC to handle the acquisition, and entrusted them with 2%. In the end, the transfer of shares, including HSBC's fees, cost a total of HK$7.9 million!
If you were to buy at the bottom now, 6.2 million to 6.3 million would be enough, saving you a whopping 1.6 million Hong Kong dollars!
However, I could only sigh inwardly.

He was just an ordinary time traveler. He didn't have Baidu with him to look up information, and he didn't understand economics or finance. To put it bluntly, he was even a loser in his previous life. It was only natural that his estimates of the economic situation were not accurate enough. In his tone, he even had to pretend to be nonchalant and indifferent.

To project an image of a powerful boss and avoid being seen through by someone as clever as Wu Minghua, he decided to call Wu Minghua again the next morning. He told her to send a fax with his application, sign it, and fax it back to her, authorizing her to use HK$6 million to HK$6.5 million to acquire another 2% of Hong Kong City Telecom from the market.
I refuse to admit defeat. If you dare to crash, I'll dare to buy more!

Anyway, once the financial crisis is over, I'm sure I'll win!

…………

At the foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

Lin Jianlu, clad in thick armor, listened to Jiang Wen's instructions. Tang Jili, the official director, wasn't there; he'd gone to America to oversee special effects. But the two co-directors, Hong Jinbao and Zhang Yimou, were present and stood by, listening to his rambling. "He's... doing something like this..."

“Look, by now you’ve developed some feelings for her. You can’t keep keeping a straight face like this. When you’re fighting the enemy, hey, take a quick glance back, oh, she’s safe and sound, you need to feel a sense of relief, and then take a deep breath and fuck her!”

"Do you understand how to act now? Show me! ...No! No! I'm just wondering, you have so many girlfriends, and you still need me to teach you how to act out these romance scenes... Come on, look, like this, take a deep breath, right? Then, hey, pull back, let out a sigh of relief! Then... no, you can't just glare to show that you've taken that breath, it's the eyes, the eyes, do you understand? Instantly, from care, from gentleness, to murderous intent!"

"Hey, that's about right! Your killing intent is really good. It's an innate ability of ours; we don't even need to act to have killing intent! ...Lu is actually very smart and a great actor. He just hasn't received any systematic training and hasn't spent much time on film sets! After this movie, he's definitely going to win Best Actor for his next one!"

That one sentence made everyone laugh.

Lin Jianlu laughed too, "Go to hell!"

As they were talking, everyone laughed. Jiang Wen suddenly took the megaphone from Zhang Yimou and shouted, "Attention everyone! We're going to do it again right away! There are so many people, plus horses, and it's so cold. Be careful! Before I yell... no, before our director yells 'action,' everyone should review their movements carefully so you don't mess things up. This time, let's try to get it right in one take! It's so cold outside, we can go warm ourselves by the fire after we're done!"

After he finished shouting, he held the megaphone in his hand, intending to make arrangements for Lin Jianlu. But when he turned his head, he saw that Hung Kam-po and Zhang Yimou were both staring at him. He paused for a moment, then shoved the megaphone into Zhang Yimou's arms. "Look at you! Look at you! What kind of eyes do you have? I was just speaking up for you guys!"

Zhang Yimou is still too civilized. "Get out of the way! I'm the director!"

…………

Filming days are really boring and tedious.

And it was both bitter and tiring.

Fortunately, even though Lin Jianlu was there, she had a lot of fans, plus a few good female fans.

"Brother-in-law, have some water! I just changed the tea leaves for you!"

Fan Bingbing was indeed clever, and it's hard to attribute it to Chen Hong's good training. It was just that she was naturally smart and quick-witted. Even though her face was pale from the cold, she still kept in mind to bring Lin Jianlu a hand warmer and hot water whenever she could.

It was just one scene that was filmed, and Lin Jianlu didn't even have time to take off his armor. While he was sitting there catching his breath, Fan Bingbing handed him a hot water cup, which he took and gulped down a couple of mouthfuls to replenish his energy.

He doesn't dare drink too much. All his armor is real. On such a cold day, it's so cold it hurts to the touch. He needs someone to help him pee by lifting the iron plates on his lower body. Lately, he's been mostly responsible for lifting the armor himself, with Wang Zuxian helping him take it out and holding it up to pee. After taking it out, he instantly turns into a thin dog!
Oh dear, so much pain.

He'd only been here a few days, and he was already starting to regret it—"I'm a top international superstar! I earn ten to twenty million US dollars for a Super Bowl performance. If I'm willing to do commercial gigs, even just ten minutes on stage and I get paid, I'll still get seven to eight million to ten million US dollars. And what's more, I have so many songs in my head. If I run out of money, I'll just record a new album. I can work hard for a month or two to record one album, and easily sell ten to twenty million copies—that's over a hundred million US dollars! Me, me, Lin Jianlu, what the hell was I thinking, coming here to make movies!"
However, the work still needs to be done. The business path I made was not wrong, even if I suffered a bit. Even if it was wrong, I had to grit my teeth and push forward until it became the right choice!

"It must be cold, right? When your sister called me, I told her not to come, that she'd suffer if she did. But she insisted on having you come and get a role. Why did she have to do that?"

"It's cold, but I think it's pretty good! I'm happy to work by your side, brother-in-law. I can learn a lot from you! My sister also told me to be more observant, to observe and learn more, and to speak less!"

The little girl was endearing, though not quite as radiant as she would be years later. But now, her face was full of collagen, giving her a cute, chubby face.

While the two were talking, Zhao Yanzi and Zhang Ziyi also came over.

The six young maids, all under twenty years old and barely able to fill out ten lines, have been engaged in fierce infighting since filming began.

Fan Bingbing is Chen Hong's protégé, constantly referring to her as "brother-in-law." She ignores everyone else, only focusing on flattering Lin Jianlu. She barely gives Zhang Ziyi any response, since Zhang Ziyi is also on Chen Hong's side.

Zhao Yanzi is different; she belongs to the legendary "courtyard faction," so she would occasionally go over to curry favor with Wang Zuxian. One of the two big shots of the courtyard faction is Lin Qingxia, and Lin Qingxia has an excellent relationship with Wang Zuxian—Fan Bingbing and Zhang Ziyi basically ignore her.

However, once they encountered those three greenhorns from Korea, the three of them could still cooperate to keep them at bay and prevent them from getting close to Lin Jianlu.

As a result, the three of them basically went to curry favor with Wang Zuxian.

Because Wang Zuxian is super popular in Korea, she is the idol of the three of them!

However, according to Wang Zuxian in private, the three of them also had fierce infighting. It is said that they were artists promoted by different companies, and basically Kim Tae-hee and Kim Seo-sun joined forces to look down on Song Hye-kyo. This is because the former two came from wealthy families, especially Kim Tae-hee, whose family is actually quite rich, while Song Hye-kyo came from an ordinary family. Although she was also cultivated with various expensive talents from a young age, she could only be considered middle class at most.

In short... well, it's all just fighting and fighting!
Lin Jianlu didn't bother to pay attention. Since he came here to film, he even quickly stopped having sex. Even though Wang Zuxian was right next to him, he still couldn't muster the energy—filming was too tiring, and the environment was too cold. He had no desire to reproduce.

After chatting briefly with Zhao Yanzi and Zhang Ziyi, before they could even get to the next topic, Jiang Wen was already calling out, "Jianlu, come on, hurry up! The light is amazing after the snow, come quick!"

The two directors, Sammo Hung and Zhang Yimou, looked at each other in bewilderment once again.

Well... this light is indeed good.

So they endured it once again and continued filming.

…………

"Ugh, I feel like I'm going to be a failure! Please come and see me!"

Late at night, at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

A few days ago, the small hotel was forced to call the power company to rewire the circuit and replace the wires with thicker copper wires to ensure that the electric heaters, electric fans, and electric blankets purchased in bulk by the film crew in the hotel could be used.

Even so, it's still far from the indoor heating in the capital. Even the air in Hong Kong and Taipei during winter, which is always damp, is much more comfortable than this dry and cold.

Lin Jianlu and Wang Zuxian had just finished showering and were snuggled naked in bed enjoying the electric blankets when they suddenly received a call from Maggie Cheung, asking for congratulations—tonight, Lin Jianlu's "best friend" Maggie Cheung had won Best Actress at the 34th Golden Horse Awards. However, Lin Jianlu's congratulations seemed perfunctory; instead, he kept begging Maggie Cheung to come and bring him some warmth—but Maggie Cheung wasn't fooled. "You mentioned going there to film last time, and I checked the weather. Wow, it's below minus twenty degrees Celsius! Just thinking about it is awful! I can't go! Don't beg me, even if you beg me, I won't go! I'm so afraid I'll freeze to death!"

Lin Jianlu continued to apply moral pressure, "What kind of friend are you! You'd just stand by and watch someone die?"

Maggie Cheung laughed heartily, but before she could speak, someone seemed to pass by and congratulate her. She quickly replied with a few words, then took the opportunity to evade the topic of the set visit, asking, "Is Ah-Xian alright? I'm not worried about you getting cold, I'm worried about Ah-Xian getting cold!"

Wang Zuxian, who was nestled against Lin Jianlu's chest, tilted his head back and replied, "Almost there! If you don't come soon, I'll freeze!"

Zhang Manyu laughed heartily, "Huh? What? Your signal must be bad, I can't hear you very well. Oh well, I'm hanging up now, let's chat again when you get back! Bye-bye!"

"Hey! Hey!"

After hanging up, Lin Jianlu pouted and showed her phone to Wang Zuxian.

She burst into laughter immediately.

But after a while, she suddenly looked up and said, "I've cleared my way today. Do you want to?"

"Ok?"

Upon reflection, I realized it had been many days since I'd had this experience, and without realizing it, I started to feel a little tempted.

Wang Zuxian smiled and said, "I'll lie on top of you in a bit, so we can both be in bed together." After saying that, she suddenly crawled into the blankets.

"hiss……"

…………

On the evening of December 19, Lin Jianlu suddenly received a phone call from an unknown number.

I didn't think much of it at first, but after the call connected, a gentle, unfamiliar girl's voice came from the other end of the line: "Hello Mr. Lin, this is Li Jiaxin. Sorry to bother you."

Lin Jianlu was stunned for a moment, then frowned slightly.

A little surprised.

"Hello, Ms. Li, is there something you need?"

Li Jiaxin's tone seemed somewhat cautious. "It's like this, Mr. Lin. I was having tea with a friend this afternoon when I suddenly heard about 'Flowers of Shanghai.' I'm so sorry. I really had no idea that 'Flowers of Shanghai' almost signed a contract with Media Asia Films, so... when Mr. Hou asked me to act in the film, I agreed. I didn't expect... I'm really sorry. I've already called someone to help me withdraw from the role. I won't be filming that movie anymore. I'm calling you now, Mr. Lin, to apologize to you in person. I hope you won't be angry! I really had no idea about that before, which is why I agreed to take the role!"

Lin Jianlu was stunned again. She had been stunned from the beginning, and the more she talked, the more confused she became.

Li Jiaxin's voice wasn't unpleasant—Lin Jianlu had heard before that Liu Luanxiong's wife had secretly recorded phone calls and subsequently leaked the recording of Li Jiaxin cursing Liu Luanxiong to the media. It was said that the cursing was extremely vulgar, with Li Jiaxin using foul language and constantly mentioning genitalia. She was extremely fierce and aggressive. Although he hadn't heard it before and was too lazy to find it, he didn't find her rude now that he heard her speaking so cautiously.

He's quite polite!
However, just as she was about to finish speaking, Lin Jianlu suddenly came to his senses again—he suddenly remembered that before he left Hong Kong, Liu Jialing had subtly apologized to him through Shi Nansheng!
At the time, I was only slightly surprised, but I didn't think much of it.

Whether Liu Jialing was truly slow to realize it, or whether she saw that the film was already a dead end and that she couldn't act in it even if she wanted to, Lin Jianlu thought that she probably considered that everyone was from the mainland and there was already some relationship between them, and they had played cards together many times. Since the film couldn't be made, she might as well try to ease the tension and find an excuse to not know beforehand to appease her temper and avoid affecting the relationship.

But... is it really necessary?

Lin Jianlu still remembers that when she called Shi Nansheng and heard her mention this matter, she replied to her, "I'm not that petty! Besides, Liu Jialing is just a friend. What roles she takes or whose roles she takes is none of my business. Why should she apologize to me?"

However, Li Jiaxin called me again to apologize?
She's unlikely to go that far, is she?

We are practically complete strangers, each going our own way. Do you, Li Jiaxin, need to explain to me why you accepted a role in a certain film or television series, and even apologize?

Almost instantly, Lin Jianlu felt a sense of unease—something was wrong!
There must be something you don't know about, and something has gone wrong!
Even if we don't mention Liu Jialing, Li Jiaxin's beauty is renowned throughout Hong Kong. She is known as the strongest mistress in history and has a reputation for "using her beauty to commit crimes." Although she has not made any achievements in movies, she is a big star and has taken a lot of money from Liu. She is famous and wealthy, and has no one to rely on—why should she apologize to me?

If you don't understand, just ask: "Ms. Li, why are you apologizing to me?"

On the other end of the phone, Li Jiaxin seemed to be taken aback for a moment upon hearing this, and her tone became increasingly cautious and careful, "Uh... it was my fault for not being well-informed and doing something wrong. Of course, I have to apologize to you, Mr. Lin!"

"We don't seem to know each other?"

"Yes, in the past two years, I've rarely taken on any acting roles or attended many events, so I haven't had the honor of meeting or getting to know you, Mr. Lin. However, I really enjoy listening to your songs, and I can sing many of them! Also, not long ago, I spoke with Mr. Liu Luanxiong on the phone. He told me that he and you did business together and had dinner together. You even shared some insights about relationships between men and women with him. He said that you are very insightful and intelligent, and that what you said made a lot of sense. I would also like to have a meal or some tea with you, Mr. Lin, and hear your guidance on some life principles. I just don't know if you have the time!"

broken!

Something really serious must have happened!

Li Jiaxin, a woman known for her "fierceness"!

Even Rosamund Kwan, who also amazed the entire Hong Kong, avoided her like the plague!

It is said that when Lau was interviewed, he admitted that he was completely unable to handle Li Jiaxin. Every day he was with her, he felt like he was "tied up with ropes" and "whipped by her"!
"Great! Next time I go to Hong Kong, I'll treat you to tea, Miss Li!"

"That would be my honor! I'm so looking forward to it! Thank you, Mr. Lin!"

After exchanging a few perfunctory words and hanging up, Lin Jianlu felt increasingly uneasy. He hesitated for a long time, holding his phone, considering calling Lin Qingxia's number, but then thinking that Ge Fuhong's information network was more reliable. In the end, however, he chose to dial Wang Jing's number, not caring whether he was busy or not, and immediately asked, "Old Wang! Has something happened in Hong Kong lately? My reputation... lately... is it really that scary? Like, a lot of people are afraid I'll kill them?"

Wang Jing laughed heartily, then stopped laughing. "Not at all! Your reputation... is excellent! Everyone says that Mr. Lin is good at mentoring people and willing to give them opportunities! They also say that Hong Kong films are in a slump right now, but Mr. Lin is investing heavily in Media Asia Films at this time, putting in so much money and even acting in the films himself, making big-budget movies and getting everyone working. He's helping the entire Hong Kong film industry! In short, it's all a good reputation!"

"to be frank!"

Wang Jing hesitated for a moment.

He coughed twice, then chuckled, "There is a little bit of a rumor."

Sure enough, "Tell me about it."

Wang Jing chuckled dryly and said, "Some people say you are the Governor of Hong Kong."

This was a strange statement. Lin Jianlu didn't even understand what it meant at first, and subconsciously asked, "Governor of Hong Kong?" before he finally figured out which three words it was.

But it was precisely because he had figured it out that he couldn't help but subconsciously ask the question again, his head full of question marks.

"The Governor of Hong Kong?"

I've heard that there used to be a so-called Chinese Chief Detective in Hong Kong, which was supposedly the highest-ranking Chinese official in the British Hong Kong government, responsible for suppressing local police forces for the British. But what the hell is this "Chinese Governor of Hong Kong"?

"So you're saying... you came here representing the North to take control of ATV, a mouthpiece for the government, and control the streets! Otherwise, even if the Lin family is in trouble, they have many friends they can ask for help. Why would they sell ATV, which they value so much, directly to you? And it's a package deal, with no shares left, and at such a low price! It's obvious that the Lin family knows your background and doesn't dare not sell to you! You tell me, isn't that right?"

Lin Jianlu was completely dumbfounded.

Do I have such a powerful background? How come I didn't know?
But he quickly regained his composure. "You don't need to test me! What else is there? Just say it!"

Wang Jing chuckled again, "No! Everyone talks about 'one country, two systems,' but Hong Kong also needs 'two governance' systems, with two people in charge of governance! The Hong Kong Chief Executive has to be in the open, and the North can't go back on its word! Of course, Hong Kong people should govern Hong Kong, but you were sent here separately!"

"But Ah Lu, you know me, I've always been patriotic, right? My good brothers, if I have any dirt on me, please help me cover it up, don't mess with me, I'm a good boy!"

***
That said, although I haven't been able to consistently write 10,000 words this month, my updates have still been fairly consistent. With the end of the month approaching and double bonus points coming up, brothers, please give me some monthly tickets!
(End of this chapter)