Huayu: I'm reborn, but you still force me to be a scumbag?

Chapter 441 Chain Reaction
This is an elegantly decorated bedroom. The dark gray velvet curtains are tightly drawn, shutting out the morning light and leaving the room completely dark.

Suddenly, a melody carrying a faint sadness filled the room.

“I remember when we fell in love in late December…”

Taylor Swift's slightly husky yet story-filled voice gently echoed in the air as she sang her new single, "Back to December," released in June of this year.

This melancholic love song quickly climbed into the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release, becoming one of the best-selling singles of the summer. Many boys and girls liked to use it as their phone ringtone.

This is also the case at this time.

About three seconds after the music started, a slender hand emerged from under the covers, groping in the dim morning light towards the iPhone 4S on the bedside table, and picked it up.

I turned off the alarm, checked the time, and it was correct: 6:30.

The lingering effects of the alcohol were still taking their toll on her fragile nerves. Lori Eisner frowned, wishing she could retreat back into bed for another five minutes to ease her headache.

But she had to get up.

The more difficult the times, the more she refused to let herself give up.

An hour later, a red convertible Porsche 911 drove out of the underground parking lot of an upscale apartment building and turned right onto a wide road in the morning mist.

In the driver's seat, Luo Rui wore a Sony Bluetooth headset in her right ear and stopped at a traffic light.

The window of a Ford Mustang parked next to her suddenly rolled down, and a man in his thirties who looked to be of Indian descent whistled at her and said, "Hey beautiful, nice car, can I get to know you?"

Luo Rui seemed not to hear, staring at her phone screen, but not seeing what she wanted, she frowned and immediately dialed a speed dial number.

The other end answered quickly.

"Hey Lauren, why didn't I receive the meeting materials from today? ... What happened? I didn't receive them... OK, take a look right away and send them over immediately."

Still hungover, Luo Rui's mood worsened when this happened.

When the red light turned green, I floored the accelerator and instantly left the Ford Mustang a head start.

While driving, my mind was constantly occupied.

This morning's meeting discussed Ted Sarandos, who had previously been thoroughly humiliated by her, but who has regained his voice these past few days. As a result, House of Cards was brought back to the meeting room today.

What does this mean? She knows perfectly well.

Because she knew this, she got completely drunk at home alone yesterday.

Lost in thought and feeling agitated, she heard the roar of an engine; the Mustang had caught up with her and was now driving alongside her on Highway 101 in the early morning. It was rush hour, and there were quite a few cars on the road, but the Mustang driver was skilled and navigated the traffic with ease.

She tilted her head slightly and saw the Indian man in the driver's seat grinning and blowing her a kiss.

Rory Eisner curled her lips slightly, revealing a cold expression.

……

Half an hour later, the red Porsche 911 drove into a modern building in Los Gatos and parked in the executive parking space on the B1 level.

She turned off the engine, smoothed her slightly messy hair in the rearview mirror, got out of the car, straightened her suit jacket, and walked towards the elevator in her high heels.

As I walked, I opened my email on my phone and looked at the meeting outline I had just received.

blablabla……

As she expected, today's discussion was all nonsense, all things that had been said before but were no longer mentioned.

Ted Sarandos was simply testing the waters in this way...

No, it's not just a test.

The fact that Reed Hastings was able to bring back a project that had been shelved for discussion among all the senior executives suggests his attitude.

This was undoubtedly a devastating blow to her.

This applies not only to this project, but perhaps to her entire career at Netflix.

Because for a woman, if she loses control in the workplace, it's usually very difficult to turn things around. This is a lesson she learned during her internship at Disney, and in last month's People magazine, current Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also mentioned a similar point.

"Ding."

The elevator doors opened, and a burst of light flooded in. The spacious open-plan office was filled with soft natural light, and huge floor-to-ceiling windows faced the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the mountain shadows were as dark as ink.

As she stepped out of the elevator, a woman in her early twenties waiting at the elevator entrance greeted her, holding a folder in her hands, and said somewhat awkwardly, "Good morning, Luo Rui."

Luo Rui walked into her office and asked, "Has Reed arrived yet?"

"not yet."

"Luo Rui, I'm so sorry, it was my fault before, I didn't check..."

"It's okay, Lauren, go make me a cup of coffee."

"Ah, good, good."

Since she fired her previous assistant in Cannes, she has gone through one assistant after another, but has never found a suitable one.

Lauren, the intern who just joined the company, has made numerous mistakes in less than a week. Luo Rui is too tired to say anything now and is just waiting to ask HR to replace her in a few days.

But in a way, the fact that someone like her was sent to her side was a reflection of her declining status in the company. Thinking about this, Luo Rui felt even worse.

I went into the office, hung up my coat, and then turned on my computer.

Looking at the computer screen, Luo Rui picked up a piece of paper and, while thinking, wrote down her thoughts on it.

The original lead actor ultimately withdrew.

This was indeed a devastating setback for the "Eagle Catches Chickens" project, turning it from a darling of the company into a pawn on the edge of a cliff, or even a discarded piece, making it seem as if it had lost power.

But she is not prepared to give up.

Because she had read the script, she liked the story, which was full of strong oriental flavor, tension, excitement, and human struggle.

So, what's the solution?
“1,” she thought for a long time before finally writing it on the blank paper.

"Dong dong."

"Come in."

Lauren walked over with a steaming cup of coffee and placed it on her desk.

Luo Rui didn't look up, but frowned in thought.

The pencil lead remained stuck on that comma, unable to continue writing.

After a while, noticing the door hadn't closed, a sudden surge of irritation rose within her. She looked up and asked, "Is there anything else?" The intern was clearly nervous; she tucked a stray red hair behind her ear and stammered, "Luo Rui, there's something. I... I just saw a news article online, a video..."

The girl's voice grew softer and softer.

Luo Rui, growing impatient, interrupted her, "What are you trying to say?"

"...I've seen a lot of people online attacking him, and I'm wondering if...you know, this kind of scandal might affect his...next movie. Is it possible that Hollywood companies might refuse to invest because of this scandal...?"

Lorraine Eisner's mind was now filled with thoughts of the upcoming meeting and how to persuade Reed Hastings not to switch sides.

Lauren's words sounded like she wanted to gossip with her and ask about some of the rules of Hollywood. Normally, she would have been more inclined to teach her, but now...

Luo Rui took a deep breath. She didn't really want to swear, but a whole host of unpleasant things had happened since the beginning of the morning, making it hard for her to contain her temper.

"That's enough," she said softly.

Lauren immediately shut her mouth.

"Go and see if Reed has arrived yet. If he has, come and tell me right away."

"……Yes."

"Don't talk about these things in the office anymore, especially during work hours. Remember, whether it's Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino, they all..."

and many more.

There was a soft "pop" sound.

The tip of her pencil snapped off the paper and bounced far away.

Luo Rui paused for two seconds, then asked, "What did you say? Repeat it again, Quentin? What happened to him?"

One hour and ten minutes later, in Netflix's largest conference room.

"...House of Cards will redefine the production standards of television series, not only becoming a benchmark for our original content, but also directly changing viewers' viewing habits and willingness to pay."

Ted Sarandos was in the conference room, passionately outlining the prospects of "House of Cards".

This was something he had discussed with Reed Hastings beforehand.

The meeting itself was merely a formality, intended only to go through the motions and allow the senior management team to "vote democratically," but in reality, it was just to legitimize his takeover of the project.

However, as he stood in front of the projection screen, facing those familiar faces of executives, he found that Reed Hastings, who was directly opposite him, was staring blankly with a wandering gaze, as if he were not paying attention.

Similarly, that bitch, Lorraine Eisner, didn't show the impatience, shame, or even pleading he expected. Instead, she acted as if nothing was wrong, with her head down, writing something on a piece of paper stroke by stroke.

What can she write?
He betrayed her, threw her away like a piece of trash, and abandoned the project.

She's finished.

Now, nobody in the company has any faith in "The Eagle Catches the Chickens." No matter how much she tries to persuade him, everyone in the company is on his side.

Once House of Cards becomes a success, she will be completely kicked out of Netflix by him.

But why can she still laugh?

What else does she have to rely on?
As Ted spoke, a strange sense of foreboding suddenly welled up in his heart.

Sure enough, after he finished speaking, he didn't get the response Reed Hastings expected. Instead, he said, "Okay, thank you, Ted. That's all for today's meeting. Ted, come with me for a moment."

After saying that, the Netflix CEO was the first to walk out of the conference room, followed closely by the blonde bitch, who didn't even glance at him!
Ted Sarandos was once again certain that something must have happened somewhere he was unaware of.

The answer was soon revealed.

When he heard what Reed Hastings said in his office, he could hardly believe his ears.

"Just because of this, Reed, you're going to..."

When Ted asked this question, he thought the man who had gone back on his word and made a fool of him would feel a little embarrassed, but to his surprise, Reed Hastings just shrugged and said as if it were a matter of course: "Give Lorrie some more time and wait for definite news. I think that's normal, don't you think, Ted?"

Ted Sarandos felt as if something was pressing down on his heart. Shame, resentment, anger, and the humiliation of betrayal were all mixed together, making it hard for him to breathe. In the end, he could only squeeze out short sentences through gritted teeth: "Yes, I agree."

“Ted,” Reed Hastings glanced at him and added, “I think you should understand. Ask any Hollywood studio head who Kevin Spacey or Chen Nuo would choose, and I don’t think there’s a single answer. So…”

"I'm sorry I can only trouble you for now."

……

……

"We don't know yet... Why are you so excited?"

"No, it's not." Pang Ho-cheung wasn't alone on the other end of the phone; it was quite noisy, and his Cantonese-accented Mandarin was unusually loud, making Chen Nuo instinctively move the phone away from her ear. "I'm not excited. I have experience with foot licking; which man wouldn't want to? It's a piece of cake. It's really a big deal that Quentin Tarantino has blown this out of proportion."

"Anyway, if you have some free time next year, how about you come and film our movie?"

"Hehe. We'll talk about it later..." Chen Nuo gave a perfunctory reply, and then heard a different person on the other end of the phone say, "Mr. Chen, Nai Hai, Xiang Zai, and I all think that you are the best person to play the role of A Lai."

Chen Nuo couldn't be as casual with the hired screenwriters as he was with Fatty Peng. He immediately smiled and said, "Teacher Wei, you're too kind. There are so many excellent actors in Hong Kong, and many other options, but in any case, we will still make this film. Please rest assured."

"No, no, no, I don't care whether you film or not. But if you do film, it's like we painstakingly prepared eighteen kinds of ingredients to stew Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, but the most important abalone was replaced with fish balls. The flavor was immediately lost by more than half. For us chefs, that's the most heartbreaking and regrettable thing."

Wei Jiahui's polite words made Chen Nuo feel a little embarrassed.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Quentin, what are you doing? What do you mean?

It has now been five days since the incident, and Quentin Tarantino has still not responded.

While this might be a viable approach in certain public relations situations, as he did with his salary issues before, he didn't have a film project about to start at that time, so he could have chosen to return to China and disappear for a while.

Quentin is different.

If this scandal isn't clarified in time, it will hurt far more than just himself. However, for Chen Nuo, this is something he truly can't help with; he can only wait and see.

As a result, another week passed.

Even after he celebrated Chen Ruoruo's first birthday on the 15th in Shanghai, he still hadn't received a reply from Quentin.

He finally couldn't resist calling, but all he heard was the sound of the phone being switched off.

Finally, it wasn't until he left Shanghai on the 16th and went to Beijing to invite Han Sanping to dinner that he received Quentin's call at the Ziyu Villa.

Ps:

That's a bit too little.

There are special circumstances, please understand.

(End of this chapter)