A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 32 Retirement Time!

Lin Jianlu moved on May 10th.

I didn't buy a house. Instead, I rented an apartment in a residential complex not far from Nanluoguxiang. It's 58 square meters, with two bedrooms and one living room. The rent is 240 yuan a month, including water and electricity, but there are no property management fees.

I rode my bicycle home, which took about 15 minutes.

Lin's parents both came over to take a look, but didn't say anything. The house was indeed too small, and their son was grown up. They didn't need a few hundred yuan now, so they decided to rent it out. It was much cheaper than buying!

He's more comfortable, and actually, he and his wife live quite comfortably, without missing out on going home for meals.

As for letting them come and live here, that's out of the question. "Are you crazy? Our two rooms, which are only 30 square meters, only cost the neighborhood committee 12.5 yuan a month to rent. Where else can we find such cheap housing? Your dad and I have to keep our place! Besides, once you leave, your dad and I will have plenty of room!"

He called Zhao Hou'er and the others over, and the brothers worked together to light a fire at the bottom of the stove. With a new bed, new quilts, and new cotton, he considered himself to have a small home. He didn't have much money at the moment, and considering cost-effectiveness and future value, he still planned to buy a small courtyard house. He was still inquiring and had looked at several places, but wasn't very satisfied. They were either too expensive or too dilapidated.

Then, good things suddenly happened.

Rolling Stone is going to pay salaries.

It was decided to settle the royalties with Lin Jianlu for the first 500,000 records sold in Taiwan, of course, according to the maximum 15% share agreed in the original contract.

It’s so cool!
The pre-tax take-home pay is NT$1350 million, which is approximately US$43.

Because Lin Jianlu didn't have a management contract when she signed the record deal, the money didn't need to be split between the two managers. This was agreed upon when the management contract was signed; the two managers would only split the money after Lin Jianlu signed a new contract. So, in fact, after performing at several commercial shows, Lin Jianlu earned about 110,000 US dollars. Ge Fuhong at least received about 10,000 US dollars, but Zhang Aijia hasn't received a single penny from Lin Jianlu's management contract yet. At most, according to the agreement, Ge Fuhong would give her 30%!

Rolling Stone thoughtfully asked if you wanted them to open a Taiwan Dollar account, or deposit the money into your HSBC account in Hong Kong? Should it be in New Taiwan Dollars, Hong Kong Dollars, or US Dollars? Considering you don't have a professional accountant, it seems inappropriate for this money to go through your agent. Do you need your company to design a tax filing plan for you?
Lin Jianlu didn't really care, but after thinking about it, he still called Zhang Aijia.

It was agreed that Zhang Aijia would take the lead in matters concerning Taiwan.

Although you won't get a share of this money, you still have to do the work.

As expected, Sylvia Chang didn't hesitate and said that her agency had a long-term partner in accounting, so the payment could be directly deposited into HSBC, and a receipt could be sent to her agency. When tax season came, the company would prepare a professional tax plan for Lin Chien-lu, and then the taxes would be paid.

Then let's do as she says.

He checked his pockets. Once the money was deposited, aside from the small amount he had withdrawn in RMB that he hadn't actually spent much of, his HSBC bank card would soon have 53 US dollars!
More than 400 million RMB!

This is clearly just the beginning of the problem!

So, I've already achieved financial freedom!

So, with a heavy heart, he turned around, went back, contacted a real estate agent he had previously looked at, and bought the house!
The house is a bit old, typical of old houses from the Republican era, but it's not leaky or dilapidated. With a little money and proper renovation, it will still be a good house. It's located in Lishi Hutong, about 1,000 meters east of the East Second Ring Road and Chaoyangmen Bridge, and 300 meters south of Dengshikou Street and Jinyu Hutong. It's also less than two kilometers as the crow flies from the Forbidden City.

From the rooftop, you could probably see the corner towers of the Forbidden City.

The courtyard covers a little over 1000 square meters, approximately 1.6 acres, 23.5 meters wide from east to west and 45.6 meters long from north to south. It's a three-courtyard house with 36 rooms including the main gate. The registered building area on the property certificate is 581 square meters, but the house has been uninhabited for a long time and does look old. The total price is 258 million, which is about 4440 yuan per square meter of indoor area. The covered walkway is not included in the indoor area. Oh, here's a trick: if paid in cash, the other party agreed to 280,000 US dollars. After calculating, it saves a little over 200,000 RMB!
No doubt, this guy is determined to go abroad!

It's about 3.5 kilometers from here back to Nanluoguxiang, which takes just over ten minutes by bike. But Lin Jianlu doesn't plan to tell his parents yet. He can't move in right away either. He's asked around to find a professional old house renovation company and plans to invest some money to slowly tidy up the house and give his parents a surprise.

The gas supply needs to be connected, the drainage system needs to be repaired, and the entire roof needs to be replaced.

In addition, underfloor heating is a must, even if it means setting up a boiler room in your own yard to heat the water yourself.

Busy and bustling, yet leisurely and carefree.

After several busy yet leisurely days of tinkering, the renovation master introduced by us inspected the entire project, took measurements, and after careful communication and calculations, according to Lin Jianlu's requirements, including the roof, walls, beams and columns, drainage, underfloor heating, flooring, lighting fixtures, kitchenware, central air conditioning, and complete replacement of doors and windows, etc., as well as the requirement to have Ming-style Suzhou-made mahogany furniture made as a whole, and advanced toilets and bathtubs in the room, the requirements are high but not extravagant. The renovation, including labor and materials, will cost 65 yuan and take six months to complete.

They didn't haggle over the price and even prepaid 25 yuan after signing the contract.

If life continued like this, Lin Jianlu felt as if he had already retired from the world of outlaws—a bandit who had reached old age, carrying his life's savings, returned to his hometown, bought several hundred acres of land, built a large courtyard, and, like a wealthy landlord, married a wife and a concubine, thus retiring from the life of outlaws and living a peaceful old age in the forest!

Occasionally, I'd stroll around the New Grand Hotel, sit for a while, chat with Lao Xue, and hear about the happenings of the martial arts world—things that seemed so distant. I'd accompany Lao Zhang to listen to the submissions, some of them of varying quality, and occasionally I'd see a few singers who proactively came to submit their work. If they were friendly and not arrogant, he'd offer a few words of encouragement and even sign an autograph. He exuded the air of retirement.

Then one day, Su Huilun suddenly called.

"Ah Lu, my new album sold over 70,000 copies in its first week! Everyone says I have a chance to break 100,000 copies in the second week! Thank you for writing such beautiful lyrics for me! Fans love the title track 'Lemon-tree'! The whole of Taiwan is praising your lyrics!"

"Yes, you're welcome. Don't worry, even if it doesn't sell for 100,000, Lao Duan will still promote it like this!"

"Hahaha, you're so annoying! Why did you say that! I'll definitely sell it! I'll sell it myself!"

"Okay, okay! It's good that you're confident! Is there anything else?"

"Let me tell you, I'm a person who keeps my promises! I owe you a kiss... But! You'd better come and get it now! If I get into a relationship, this is off, so don't blame me for breaking my promise!"

Lin Jianlu suddenly remembered... Ah, Su Huilun still owes me a kiss.

However, this is only the beginning.

It seemed like all sorts of calls started coming in all at once.

Sylvia Chang asked when she would return to Taiwan. Ge Fuhong asked when she would return to Hong Kong.
Lin Qingxia asked, "Why haven't I seen you out lately? Want to go for a drink together?"

Leung Wing-ki said her company had already planned to have her start recording songs, but Sister Ge (Ge Jie) got her a movie role in "Feel 100%", starring Ekin Cheng and Sau-man Cheng. She's the second female lead. The main reason is that the production company had faced widespread criticism for their two consecutive "Young and Dangerous" films, forcing them to urgently release a heartwarming manga-adapted romance to correct their market positioning. Sister Ge recommended her, saying she had a pure and innocent look and was currently quite popular, so they've probably decided to cast her.

Rosamund Kwan said, "We agreed to have tea together, where are you?"

Chen Shuhua said, "I heard you've gone to the mainland to hide! You promised me you'd write songs for me! Just three will do! Don't hide!"
Lin Xilei said, "Brother Lu, I want to go to the capital to find you! I'm so idle every day, I have absolutely no idea what I should do or what I can do. Being unemployed is really distressing, I really want a job where I can work like a dog!"

Oh well, never mind them...

May 21st is the Lesser Fullness solar term, finally I have an excuse to have a meal.

Using the excuse that he was too busy on the day of Lixia (the beginning of summer) and didn't get to eat Lixia noodles, he invited a few brothers to his house for dinner. He went out early in the morning to buy groceries, and when he came back, he started preparing various toppings. After kneading the dough, he stayed awake and made the sauce over a low flame.

People in the capital eat noodles with soybean paste in a particularly refined and meticulous way.

But Lin Jianlu is now a retired old cadre, a former bandit who has washed his hands of the bandits, and a small landlord who has bought land. He has no shortage of such useless time, so he slowly fusses over this meal.

Before noon, Zhang Yang called and then came over to freeload noodles.

However, he didn't say anything good. He ate the noodles, and quite a lot of them. After finishing, he wiped his mouth and started complaining about being broke. "Oh dear Lu, you know how hard it is to make something these days! The market is bad, it doesn't sell well, and the studio is broke anyway. They can't allocate any funds. If you keep chasing them for money, they'll dare to hang themselves!"
In short, there's just no money! We can't get it, we really can't get it!

Ha... Just kidding. Lin Jianlu is definitely not short of money now, but don't even think about him investing in movies—his money is for retirement! If the opportunity really comes, he also plans to invest in Sina, NetEase, Sohu, or even Baidu, Tencent, or Alibaba!
Besides, I've only had two meals with Zhang Yang, our relationship isn't that close!
Finally, he revealed his true intentions: "Come and do a small role for us, it'll only take two days, and it won't interfere with your retirement! You should understand, once you come, I can put up the signboard and easily ask the factory for payment! You'll be famous!"

Lin Jianlu hesitated. They had already exchanged drinks at the dinner table. If it was just this little bit of help, it wouldn't be appropriate not to help. So he asked what kind of play it was.

Zhang Yang immediately became excited, stopped picking his teeth, quickly grabbed his briefcase, and pulled out several documents. The movie was called "Spicy Love Soup," an urban romance film, a project of Xi'an Film Studio. He was the director, responsible for assembling the crew. The pre-production preparations and personnel were almost complete—but that wasn't important!

Suddenly, when she flipped to the cast list, Lin Jianlu's eyes widened in surprise.

The third female lead is Gao Yuanyuan!
***
I'm very happy. I've read almost all the book reviews and chapter comments that everyone posted. I'm grateful that everyone has recognized my identity as a post-2000s generation. This fully demonstrates that, in the eyes of the people, I am still a very simple and innocent young man.

thank you all!

The simple young man is now struggling to make a living, diligently writing every day. He needs some monthly votes to improve his monthly vote ranking so that he can earn more money to buy instant noodles. Dear brothers and sisters, can you support him with monthly votes?

(End of this chapter)