The entertainment industry: My 99 future timelines!

The car merged into the traffic flow on Chang'an Avenue.

Outside the window, the sun blazed down on Beijing in 2007. Huge propaganda posters for the eve of the Olympics swept across the streets, and the whole city was filled with a restless, burgeoning hope.

Li Xu closed his eyes, and the sunlight, shining through his eyelids, turned into a warm, reddish hue.

Today marks the fifth day since he received investment from China Film Group, and it's already late April.

In the past few days, thanks to ample funding, the pre-production preparations for filming "Love Announcement" have progressed rapidly.

Everything, from contacting the venue and designing props to costumes and makeup, is almost done.

It was at this crucial juncture that Li Xu received a call from Wang Jing yesterday. He had finally selected a suitable investment target from among the coal bosses recommended by Zheng Lao and Mu Deyuan.

At this moment, Li Xu, along with Shen Ao, were preparing to go and discuss the situation.

Liu Yifei instinctively wanted to go, but Li Xu stopped her.

After all, Liu Yifei has a certain status and looks. If such a popular actress like her were to come with him to seek investment from coal mine owners, Li Xu didn't want to cause trouble for her or for himself.

-

Wang Jing drove Li Xu into a secluded villa complex outside the East Fourth Ring Road.

As night falls, the villa complex is illuminated by meticulously arranged landscape lights, making it look magnificent and incredibly luxurious. This contrasts somewhat with the cold modernity of the nearby CBD.

The villa complex has strict security. After receiving a call from the homeowner, the security guard in a black suit conducted a preliminary check before allowing entry.

"Wow, this place."

"Li Xu, you know what, the aesthetics here are really straightforward, no wonder people here are into coal mine owners."

Once inside the villa complex, Shen Ao rolled down the passenger window and examined a gilded Pixiu sculpture that gleamed under the spotlights. He clicked his tongue twice, his tone full of "criticism" of decadent money-worship.

Wang Jing drove his car. He had been to this place once before, just two days ago, when he first made initial contact with the coal mine owner.

His eyes swept over the exaggerated Roman columns and fountains along the way, but his tone was serious and calm: "We don't need to care about the coal bosses' aesthetic sense. These coal bosses may be vulgar, but they are really generous when it comes to money. We just need to satisfy their little requests."

"We're here to get paid, not to do art appreciation, Director Shen and Director Li. We need to be careful what we say later..."

"I know."

"No arguing, no commenting, no making friends, just taking the money and solving the problem."

Li Xu, sitting in the back seat, casually interrupted Wang Jing.

His gaze fell on the lanterns with gold trim flashing past the window. He neither envied nor cared about this luxury.

soon.

The car stopped in front of a detached, European-style palace building.

A waiter was already waiting at the door. When he saw Li Xu and his two companions' vehicle stop, he quickly bowed and opened the car door.

At the same time, a graceful young woman in a cheongsam emerged from the villa, smiling as she said:

"Producer Wang, Director Li, Director Shen, and General Manager Qian have been waiting for you. This way, please. I'll lead the way."

Seeing this, Shen Ao couldn't help but gasp.

He had met coal mine owners before.

But he had never seen anything like this before, nor had he ever heard of it.

"Let's go, stop standing there, don't embarrass yourselves as locals who grew up in the capital."

Li Xu glanced at Shen Ao's appearance, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes, and immediately spoke in a low voice.

As he spoke, he gave Wang Jing a wink and then took the lead in following the woman in the cheongsam.

Unlike Shen Ao, who was naive and harbored a sense of unease, Li Xu had already witnessed far too many celestial palace scenes and certain dark aspects of life that outsiders could not see in his future memories.

Compared to the petty tricks played by these wealthy people in China.

As the world's No. 1 director, Li Xu has seen far too many big shots in Hollywood, Mexico, and South Korea engage in things that are illegal even to talk about.

They quickly entered the villa.

Li Xu led the way, following the graceful women in cheongsams ahead, through a foyer with a ceiling nearly ten meters high and a giant crystal chandelier, stepping on Persian carpets that could sink into their ankles, and finally into a private room.

As soon as you open the door to this private room, you're greeted by an aroma that blends expensive fragrances, cigars, and some kind of precious wood.

Inside the private room.

In the center was a round table made of rosewood, large enough to seat twenty people, but only two people, a man and a woman, were seated at the head of the table.

The man was a man in his fifties, overweight, wearing a flashy bright purple velvet Tang suit, and eight of his ten fingers were adorned with various rings.

Gold, jade, diamond-encrusted—the styles vary, but they all have one thing in common: they are all large and dazzling.

What caught Li Xu's attention the most was his eyes.

Small, but bright.

He squints when looking at people, as if he's assessing the quality of a piece of merchandise.

Li Xu recalled Wang Jinglai's earlier joke that most coal mine owners have small, bright eyes because they've spent a lot of time underground and seen many people in the dark mine tunnels.

Li Xu didn't know how much of Wang Jing's words were true and how much were false, but thinking about it now, they did seem to make some sense.

At this moment, the coal mine owner has a young girl in his arms.

The girl was in her early twenties.

Judging from her appearance and figure, she would be considered top-notch even in the entertainment industry.

She wore a light pink modified cheongsam with a very high slit, revealing a large section of her dazzlingly white thighs.

She was almost completely pressed against the man, her fingers tracing circles on his chest, while her eyes secretly glanced at Li Xu at the door. Her gaze swept over Li Xu's handsome face, and a slight blush rose on her neck.

"Oh my! Producer Wang! Come, come, take a look at my new goddaughter, what do you think?"

"And these two, one of them should be Director Li, right? I've been waiting for you to come, haha, my goddaughter has been waiting to make a movie, she was just being affectionate with me."

They saw Li Xu and the other two enter.

The overweight man in his fifties, sitting at the head of the table, didn't notice the strange appearance of the woman in his arms. He casually waved his hand, signaling the woman in the cheongsam who was leading the way to leave, and then laughed loudly as he spoke.

Although he smiled warmly, he did not get up from his seat.

Upon seeing this, Wang Jing immediately walked over with a big smile and began to introduce himself to the other person.

After such a lively and exaggerated exchange of pleasantries and introductions, Li Xu and the other two finally took their seats.

After taking their seats.

The situation was completely different from what Shen Ao had imagined. Although this coal boss, Mr. Qian, had inquired about the current funding situation and the casting of the male and female leads for Li Xu's film "Love Announcement,"...

But aside from saying that Liu Yifei was so beautiful and should definitely be the female lead, implying that Li Xu and the others had "good taste," he completely avoided talking about the movie for the rest of the conversation.

He kept boasting about the coal mine investments he had recently closed that were worth over 100 million yuan, as well as the luxury cars and beautiful women he had just acquired.

As they chatted, the chef soon brought out the dishes.

The liquor was 30-year-old Moutai, and the dishes included bird's nest, abalone, shark fin, and sea cucumber—an extreme display of extravagance.

Shen Ao was a bit impatient. Under these circumstances, he originally planned to speak up and talk about the "Love Announcement" without hesitation, but before he could say anything, Wang Jing gave him a look that stopped him.

Li Xu watched from the side, saying very little.

In his future memories, during his rise to power, although he had dealt with coal bosses, he mostly left such interactions to professionals, just like Wang Jing is now.

Therefore, at this moment, he chose to entrust the main communication and interpersonal work to Wang Jing, the production manager of the "Love Announcement" project.

Only at the appropriate time should one raise a glass, listen with a smile to what Mr. Qian is saying, and offer a slight nod of agreement.

As expected of a senior production manager, Wang Jing played a key role in this situation, constantly engaging in conversation and offering encouragement, making the atmosphere in the private room exceptionally harmonious.

After a few rounds of drinks...

Seeing that Li Xu and his group had been inside the villa for more than an hour, Mr. Qian finally started to talk about business.

He put his arm around the beautiful woman in his arms, reeking of alcohol, and laughed at Li Xu, "Director Li, my goddaughter, Su Xiaoxiao, has loved the arts since she was a child and has always dreamed of appearing on the big screen."

"I heard your movie has big stars, romance, and... you know, mental illness? That sounds good! It's got depth! I think your movie must be pretty good!"

"Look, could you arrange a role for her too? It doesn't have to be big, just a cameo, a few lines, just to fulfill her dream."

"As long as Director Li agrees to this condition, the money is easy to negotiate!"

As he spoke, he gently stroked the girl's waist and patted it lightly: "Our Xiaoxiao likes things with depth, right?"

Su Xiaoxiao nodded with a charming smile, her eyes filled with anticipation as she looked at Li Xu.