Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

In the living room on the fifteenth floor of Taikoo City, Lin Yue and Lin Qian each occupied a corner of the long coffee table, while Lin Ying sat beside them, watching the two of them work on the last set of test papers before the freshmen class placement exam.

Lin Qian bit his pen, struggling to write a single word for a long time. While Lin Ying was looking down at her book, he secretly stretched his foot under the TV cabinet, trying to reach for the game controller hidden there.

"Lin Qian".

Lin Yue chuckled from the side: "You got caught before you even plugged in your Famicom."

Lin Qian angrily threw an eraser at her: "Stop talking nonsense! You got four English tenses wrong just now, you wrote the present continuous tense instead of the past continuous tense!"

"You still got six algebra problems wrong!" Lin Yue retorted without backing down.

"That was because I was careless!"

"When have you ever not been careless?"

The two were arguing when the landline on the living room cabinet rang.

Lin Lanying poked her head out from the kitchen: "Aying, answer the phone."

Lin Ying put down her book, got up, walked over, and picked up the microphone: "Feeding?"

It was Peng Xuebin's voice on the other end of the phone: "Screenwriter Lin, how was your summer vacation?"

Lin Ying sensed something was off about his tone. Ever since "The Magic Academy Exchange Student" became a global bestseller, Boss Peng had always been full of energy when he called.

"Uncle Peng, are the results of the film in?" Lin Ying asked.

"It's out." Peng Xuebin coughed. "The accounts for 'The Bell Rings'—local theaters, Southeast Asian theaters, British videotapes, and limited screenings and television rights in the United States—are almost settled."

Lin Ying didn't ask about the amount. She pulled over a chair and sat down, waiting for him to continue.

Peng Xuebin sighed on the other end of the phone and said, "After deducting all costs, the net profit is HK$30 million."

Lin Qian and Lin Yue, who were standing by the coffee table, stopped arguing and looked over curiously.

Thirty million.

This figure would have been enough to make any Hong Kong film company boss laugh in the middle of the night if it were in the 1980s; but Peng Xuebin's tone didn't sound like he was announcing good news.

Given the net profit of "Magic Academy Exchange Student" before, 30 million is indeed not impressive, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it has shrunk significantly.

Lin Ying asked directly, "Uncle Peng is not satisfied?"

Peng Xuebin sighed again on the other end of the phone.

"If I said I wasn't satisfied, that would be like me being arrogant. Thirty million! Many directors can't make a film that grosses in their entire careers." Peng Xuebin's voice was muffled. "But I know in my heart that this film didn't meet my own expectations and is far inferior to 'The Exchange Student at the Magic Academy'."

Lin Ying advised him: "Magic was just lucky to have all the right timing, location and people. An Eastern boy broke into a Western castle, which hit the Westerners' curiosity point. Plus, it had a cultural core, so its potential was high. Bell Rings is a comedy fantasy with lots of jokes and a low barrier to entry, so it can make money, but its potential is not that high."

"I understand that principle," Peng Xuebin said with a wry smile, "but I did relax during filming."

Peng Xuebin is a very ambitious person. He used to run around in mainland China, go abroad to discuss distribution, stay up all night to oversee editing, and would criticize anyone he could find. He rarely admitted his own mistakes. Today, he was able to admit that he had been lax, which means he has truly reflected on his mistakes and figured them out.

Lin Ying didn't rush to reply, but listened to him continue.

Peng Xuebin continued, "Filming this movie was much easier than filming 'Magic.' The scenes didn't need to be as grand, we didn't need to make as many connections with cultural figures, and there weren't as many technical terms to work with. I thought to myself, 'Anyway, this script is solid enough, and the plot is packed with jokes. The overseas video market will definitely love this.'"

"And the result?" Peng Xuebin paused for a moment. "They did make money, but the audience didn't remember it! After watching and laughing, the videotape was pulled out, and nobody talked about it anymore."

Lin Ying knew that "The Bell Rings" made money from the excitement, not from long-term success through word of mouth. The unlucky Taoist priest, the greedy translator, the foreign conman, and the broken copper bell—this kind of thing would make people laugh, and it would definitely sell well on videotape, but it didn't have the depth that "The Magic Academy Exchange Student" had, which would make the audience think about it again and again after leaving the theater.

Lin Ying said, "Uncle Peng, there's no need for every profitable film to be hailed as a masterpiece. Making commercial films is like running an assembly line."

Peng Xuebin chuckled, "You sure know how to comfort me."

"I'm not trying to comfort you, but the fact that this film easily made a net profit of 30 million proves that your overseas distribution channels are very well established, and you can sell any kind of content. It's just a reminder that you can't take the content for granted just because you have strong distribution channels."

Peng Xuebin then sighed, "Screenwriter Lin, you really hit the nail on the head even harder than the executives in my company."

Lin Ying changed the subject: "When will we receive our dividends?"

Peng Xuebin laughed loudly on the phone: "Tomorrow at three o'clock, still my office in Wan Chai. You get 20%, six million Hong Kong dollars. I've already prepared the promissory note; have Mrs. Lin and Attorney Shen come over together."

Lin Ying agreed, "Okay."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Lanying had already placed the sliced ​​watermelon on the table and sat down next to her.

Lin Qian grabbed a slice of watermelon and whispered, "Sister, were you saying 30 million wasn't enough?"

"I don't think it's too little."

Lin Qian agreed: "I knew it! If 30 million is still not enough, then we..."

The next second, Lin Ying added, "I just felt that Uncle Peng himself knew where the problem lay, and I was just giving him a couple of pointers."

Lin Qian silently took a bite of watermelon and shut his mouth. He shouldn't have said anything!

The next afternoon, Lin Lanying took Lin Ying to Wan Chai, and Shen Yanwen, the barrister across the street, followed along as usual, carrying his briefcase.

Peng Xuebin's office has doubled in size since last year and is now more impressively decorated, with overseas posters of "The Magic Academy Exchange Student" and "The Bell Rings" in different languages ​​hanging on the walls.

Peng Xuebin personally opened the glass door to welcome people.

"Screenwriter Lin, Mrs. Lin, Attorney Shen." Peng Xuebin was wearing a white shirt today and looked quite energetic.

Upon entering the office, the ledgers, promissory notes, and copies of contracts were all neatly arranged on the long table.

Shen Yanwen didn't stand on ceremony and sat down to start checking the accounts.

The buyout fees for overseas videotapes, the revenue sharing statements for Southeast Asian cinemas, the British television copyright contracts, the revenue from limited screenings in the United States, local box office revenue and revenue from second-run small theaters—one item at a time, reflecting the past.

More than half an hour later, Shen Yanwen closed the ledger and nodded to Lin Ying: "The accounts are clean, the invoices are fine, and the dividend amounts match."

Peng Xuebin sat in the boss's chair and pushed the bank draft on the table over: "Six million Hong Kong dollars, issued by HSBC, cashable anytime."

Lin Ying took it, glanced at the account name and numbers, and handed it to Lin Lanying.

Lin Lanying took it and put it into her purse. Nowadays, Mrs. Lin has seen promissory notes for ten million and has also spent two million three hundred thousand to buy a house, but this six million, which is actually in her hands, still feels quite heavy.

After distributing the money, Peng Xuebin leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "Aying, the reason I invited you here this time wasn't just to distribute the money."

Lin Ying looked up at him: "Uncle Peng, what do you want to say?"

"I want to take a break." Peng Xuebin looked at the ceiling. "It's not that I'm not going to film anymore, it's just that I'll take a break for a while. I still need to maintain the channels overseas and continue to cultivate relationships in mainland China, but I'm not in a hurry to start a new project for the time being."

Lin Ying wasn't surprised at all: "Of course."

Peng Xuebin was a little surprised: "Aren't you going to advise me to strike while the iron is hot? There's so much capital waiting to invest in me right now."

"When people are tired, their judgment is easily impaired. Uncle Peng now has money, channels, and a reputation. At this time, what he should be most afraid of is not stopping, but forcing himself to film something he shouldn't in order to prove that he hasn't regressed. That would be truly ruining his reputation."

Peng Xuebin laughed and scolded, "You little rascal, you really know exactly what I'm thinking."