A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 223 Charming
Spring rain is misty.

The atmosphere at home was solemn yet gentle.

Only the baby's chatter continued, and she continued to crawl around without restraint. Lin Shunqi could crawl, and ever since she could crawl, she was almost never at rest whenever she was awake. She crawled around the huge villa, and even if you picked her up, she would quickly get back down to the ground and continue crawling. If she encountered anything blocking her way, she would knock it down.

Despite having a nanny with her, she was almost hit by vases and other objects several times—Su Huilun started to get annoyed with her and often squatted there watching her with a puzzled and distressed expression.

She said, "My mom said I was very well-behaved when I was little, and she's nothing like me!"

In contrast, Lin Shunping seemed unusually docile. The day was fast approaching, but he showed no intention of learning to crawl. He spent his days eating, drinking, and sleeping.

But Lin Jianlu adored her lively daughter, often scooping her up from the ground and holding her in her arms. She was also happy to lie there and let her crawl all over her and even on her body.

The servants all knew that the First Madam's mother had passed away, so they quickly prepared a batch of elegant curtains, sheets, duvet covers, sofa covers, etc., but Chen Shuhua herself rejected them, saying that they were not needed. However, Su Huilun directed everyone to change them, and then pulled Lin Jianlu aside to accompany her and help her relieve her emotions.

The day after Chen Shuhua's mother was buried, Lin Jianlu accompanied Chen Shuhua to her home to discuss her father's future life. There was a hurdle: Chen Shuhua could bring her elderly father to live with her, even if she were to become someone's mistress without a formal title, let alone get married. However, besides her husband, she also had a sister in her family, which would cause some inconvenience.

So we need to discuss it and see what the old man's plans are.

However, the old man himself had no intention of disturbing his daughter's life at all.

With the old lady gone, only the old man remained at home. He was only sixty-six years old, in good health, and had no problem buying groceries and cooking for himself. He even jokingly said that he was a good driver and could drive long distances, so he didn't have to worry about his livelihood at all. Lin Jianlu felt as if the passing of such a strong person as Chen Shuhua's mother had actually freed the old man from his burdens.

Well... In the end, Chen Shuhua agreed to let her father live alone, but said she would bring a maid over every week to clean the house. The old man happily agreed.

The old man even asked Lin Jianlu with great interest, "Is it true that the newspaper says that the recently popular and rebroadcast TV series 'Heaven Has Tears' was co-produced and filmed by you and Qiong Yao?"

Lin Jianlu told him no, that it was a co-production between Qiong Yao and Hunan TV in mainland China, but he himself had also worked with Qiong Yao, and it was estimated to be broadcast during the summer vacation. It was a period drama called "Princess Pearl", and the female lead of "Heaven Has Tears" also played one of the two female leads in "Princess Pearl".

He then gave a general account of the story, and the old man seemed very interested, saying he would definitely want to see it sometime.

In short, the old man was in stable condition.

Regardless, although Chen Shuhua was heartbroken, she still hoped that her father would not grieve too much and harm his health—but she herself was indeed somewhat distressed.

Lin Jianlu had been terrified for days and often had nightmares in the middle of the night. She would either be frightened awake in her dreams or start crying in her dreams without realizing it. Lin Jianlu was usually a deep sleeper, but recently she had been subconsciously afraid to sleep peacefully. Sometimes it was him, and sometimes it was Su Huilun. When they noticed that Chen Shuhua was not right, the two of them would hold her and gently comfort her.

Finally, Lin Jianlu suggested that they go to Hong Kong for a short stay to relax.

After much hesitation, Chen Shuhua agreed.

So, after packing large and small bags of luggage and booking a charter flight, Lin Jianlu, along with his two wives, two children, and several maids, flew to Hong Kong on April 16th. Before leaving, Chen Shuhua repeatedly instructed the housekeeper to visit her father every three days to see if he needed any help.

It was quite miraculous; on the very night she arrived in Hong Kong, she suddenly slept soundly for a long time.

Perhaps it was the change of environment, or perhaps it was the fatigue and anxiety of the past few days, coupled with excessive grief, that had exhausted her spirit, yet she couldn't seem to shake it off. Now, something unrelated was bothering her and distracting her, and she was busy worrying about what to pack for the child. But once she arrived in Hong Kong, she suddenly found the key to peaceful sleep.

She fell asleep without even noticing that Lin Jianlu was up early to exercise.

Lin Jianlu waited for her to eat breakfast until after eight o'clock, but she still didn't get up. It was almost eight-thirty when Lin Jianlu carefully pushed the door open and went in. She found that she was already awake and sitting blankly on the edge of the bed. The curtains were half open, and she seemed to be staring blankly at the sea and sky outside the window. She looked completely wooden.

Startled awake by footsteps, she turned stiffly and saw her man. A shy smile appeared on her face. "I was sleeping so soundly, I didn't even feel you and Huilun get up..."

Lin Jianlu got into bed from the other side, and she immediately snuggled up to him, squeezing into his arms. Lin Jianlu simply held her tightly without saying a word.

After a long while, she finally spoke, "I don't know why, but when I woke up, it felt like everything had been going on for a long time, like my mother had been gone for ages..."

It has indeed been a long time.

Since Lin Jianlu went to Taiwan in the spring of 96, the two met and began living together by winter. In fact, for the previous thirty years, Chen Shuhua had almost never left her mother. But in the past year or so, her mind was first on Lin Jianlu and then on Lin Shunping. In reality, she had long been separated from her mother, but at that time, she was unaware of it.

However, looking back now, it's true that if she hadn't had a child, if her mother, who had accompanied her through the first half of her life and in fact controlled it, had passed away, the blow to her would likely have been devastating, and she might have found it very difficult to recover for the rest of her life.

"Yes, it's all in the past. You can remember her, but you don't have to be sad about it anymore. We who are alive have to keep living. You still have your father, your husband, your children, and Huilun is with you. She's been so worried about you lately. I've been urging her to go back to sleep, but she won't..."

"Ah."

As they were talking, the young lady pushed open the door, poked her head in, and then jumped in completely. "Oh, you're smiling now! Feeling better?"

Chen Shuhua smiled gently and tilted her head slightly. "Yes. I slept very well, and my mood seems to have improved a lot all of a sudden."

So Su Huilun came in and squeezed to Chen Shuhua's side. Chen Shuhua hugged her, and the two sisters' heads touched. It was a warm moment, though they didn't say a word. However, just a dozen seconds later, Su Huilun suddenly straightened up, leaned over, and kissed Chen Shuhua on the lips. Chen Shuhua looked at her in surprise and said, "It's so convenient to go out to sea from here. Do you want to rent a boat and go out for a day trip?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Shuhua thought for a moment, then suddenly became very perceptive. She smiled, reached out and grabbed her chest, glanced back at Lin Jianlu behind her, and then asked her with a smile, "Are you craving something?" — Su Huilun laughed heartily.

…………

In the afternoon, at the hillside villa.

The windows in the large study were open, and a gentle breeze carrying a fresh, slightly salty scent of the sea constantly blew against the white gauze curtains. Sunlight streamed in unobstructed through the large glass windows.

Lin Jianlu sat at the newly added computer desk in the room, facing a 14-inch CRT monitor, his fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard—well, after a little practice, it's not bad. The main task is to write an outline, all practical information without any filler, so he expects to finish it in 3,000 words. But he has to say, the Intelligent ABC Chinese character input software, although it has been around for several years, is really not as user-friendly as Sogou in later years.

It's just barely enough to get the job done!
Tsai Chung-hsin, representing Lam Kin-lu, made initial contact with the other two minority shareholders of ATV, and the results were quite good. At least both of them agreed to sell. Given the current economic climate, Lam Kin-lu's proposal to promote digitalization would require a cash injection of five or six hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Although they are all minority shareholders and each contributes according to their shareholding ratio, the amount they each need to contribute is less than one hundred million, but it is still a lot.

If this had happened in 1996, they might have given it away without batting an eye. But not now. Even someone as powerful as Li Zhaoji, Hong Kong's richest man, has to sell properties to bail out his business.

Unfortunately, Lin Jianlu holds a whopping 67.08% of the shares, exceeding the absolute control threshold. As minority shareholders, they either have to contribute money or let Lin Jianlu invest a large sum, further diluting their shareholding. It was just a small business to begin with, and they didn't have much say in it. Most people who have been in the Hong Kong business world for many years are good at letting go. Since they have no intention of causing trouble, they might as well let him go and make a good relationship.

Moreover, once the equity is sold, it can bring in another source of cash.

So, let's talk.

They are all wealthy businessmen, some of whom have seen guns and bloodshed in the past. They are not so calculating. I am willing to sell to you. As long as you give me a reasonable price and don't cheat me, I will sell.

Previously, Lin Baixin was forced to sell his shares due to his predicament. He sold them to ATV for a valuation of more than HK$1.4 billion. Li Zhaoji readily agreed, claiming that he "would not take advantage of a child". So he sold his 14.92% stake for a roughly the same price, HK$160 million.

However, the Cha family is a bit stubborn. They hold 18.5% of the shares and have negotiated a price of 2.2 million, which is roughly a valuation of 12 billion for ATV – this is definitely not acceptable.

It's not that Lin Jianlu was unwilling to part with the money, but the two transactions were going through almost simultaneously. It doesn't make sense for whoever is more stubborn to pay the other more. The one who is willing to sell you shares and help you succeed will end up losing out.

Cai Zhongxin's current negotiation strategy is to negotiate a second round with the Cha family based on a valuation of HK$11 billion.

Once the deal is reached, both companies will pay according to this valuation.

The problem is not big.

The Cha family's real estate project on Lantau Island, while touted as tourism real estate, was actually located in a remote area with inconvenient transportation. As a result, they essentially missed out on all the major property price surges in Hong Kong over the past two decades. When the financial crisis hit last year, it is said that their cash flow was at risk of breaking down at any time.

Don't be fooled by his tough talk; he's actually quite weak inside.

A valuation of 11 billion is something his family will likely accept in the end.

So, once the shares held by these two companies are bought back, ATV will become a wholly-owned subsidiary. Then, Lin Jianlu will invest five or six hundred million Hong Kong dollars to carry out a full digital transformation of the entire television station, and then push for the establishment of a satellite TV center, all the way to satellite broadcasting and global broadcasting.

The application for operating qualifications in mainland China has been submitted. It will definitely take some time, but I don't think there will be any major problems. That means that once ATV goes satellite, it will be able to receive the signal in mainland China.

At that time, ATV will be based in Hong Kong and radiate its influence to the mainland, similar to a provincial TV station in the mainland, but with much more freedom than mainland TV stations.

By next spring, I hope we can get these matters to a fairly good level. Then, we can launch some flagship programs to capture viewership ratings in mainland China—competing with TVB in Hong Kong would be a natural next step. Lin Jianlu's goal has never been to directly challenge TVB in the Hong Kong market.

So... let's go with "Super Girl".

Hong Kong has a long history of talent shows. The most famous is, of course, TVB's Miss Hong Kong pageant, and later, ATV launched the Miss Asia pageant to compete with TVB. Many of the beautiful actresses in Hong Kong's movies and TV series today, such as Li Jiaxin, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Yuen, emerged from these pageants and have now become the backbone of Hong Kong's film and television industry.

Music talent shows have always existed, and since the 1960s and 70s, they have been continuously launching new singers—needless to say, Vivian Chow was selected in this way.

However, for this era, the many innovative features of "Super Girl" are still enough to create an atomic bomb-level effect. In the past, Hong Kong music talent shows were really focused on selecting good voices and singing skills. Experts made the decisions, and ordinary viewers just watched for fun. But "Super Girl" is different. It really mobilized the whole nation, and everyone participated in this grand talent show.

If we consider singing competition shows in Hong Kong, and even in many other parts of the world, as talent shows 1.0, then the "Super Girl" format is like jumping straight to 2.0. Even the later "The Voice of China" doesn't really reach 3.0; it's at most a 2.5 level.

Therefore, "Super Girl" has great potential.

Draft an outline, clearly state the key points, and then give it to Brigitte Lin so that she can gather a small team of elites to refine the outline. After that, since it's not feasible to do it alone, the first step is to involve other mainland TV stations, such as Beijing TV and Hunan TV, so that all three stations can work together.

On the one hand, this reduces the surprise of Dragon TV entering the mainland market in the future, making the process smoother. Even if they get a huge advantage, it doesn't matter, because they still can't enter the Hong Kong market. On the other hand, frankly speaking, it's about spreading the risk of capital investment. In addition, it provides many more helpers in the mainland. Anyway, the copyright is in our hands, and what we give them is only the broadcasting rights. Being able to share the profits with them according to the proportion of investment is already very generous.

In short, we need to do this properly. We should have Brigitte Lin personally listed as the producer.

The keyboard clattered away for over two hours, but only about three thousand words were actually typed. In between, he received a phone call from Shi Nansheng, who reconfirmed that Lin Jianlu would attend the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony on April 26th. He hadn't originally wanted to go. If it were him, it wouldn't matter whether he went or not. Lin Jianlu has never cared about awards. As a singer, he didn't care about music awards, and as a movie actor, he didn't care about film awards, as long as he could make money. However, he is now a major shareholder and chairman of the board of directors of Media Asia Films, so Zhuang Cheng and Shi Nansheng still hoped that he could go and support Media Asia Films.

Lin Jianlu agreed.

Although the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony has always been broadcast live by TVB, and Lam Kin-lu is the boss of ATV, he still never cares about these small details.

He doesn't care much about ATV potentially causing him to lose 1 billion or even more Hong Kong dollars in the next five years, so why would he care if doing so would give his so-called "rivals" a little bit of ratings?

Yes, it's true that we've already started losing money.

Unfortunately, ATV had just turned a profit in 1996 under the management of the Lin family, earning more than ten million Hong Kong dollars. However, in 1997, the financial crisis hit, causing many companies to either go bankrupt or drastically reduce their advertising budgets. As a result, the financial statements for the last few months were already quite bad. To make matters worse, Lin Jianlu decided to expand the number of staff and buy TV dramas from the mainland. As a result, ATV once again turned a profit into a loss, incurring a loss of more than nine million Hong Kong dollars.

However, this loss is actually a minor matter. Compared to the widespread lamentation in Hong Kong in the second half of last year, where even the super-rich had to sell properties to alleviate their financial difficulties, ATV's return to losses did not attract much attention or media coverage. Everyone assumed that it was normal to lose some money last year, no matter what industry you were in.

…………

Suddenly someone knocked on the door. Lin Jianlu was turning around to review the manuscript and casually replied, "Come in." When she looked up again, she saw Zhou Huimin looking furtive, biting her lip, and peeking her head inside.

"Ok?"

Lin Jianlu looked at her, and she was a little embarrassed, not daring to speak loudly, but said, "It's past four o'clock, shall we go?"

After a moment of surprise, Lin Jianlu remembered what her "let's go" meant, and couldn't help but laugh. She raised her wrist to check the time, quickly saved the file to her hard drive, and then, without turning off the computer, got up and waved to her. When she ran over lightly and hugged her, Lin Jianlu still wanted to laugh a little, and asked her, "Are you sure this is okay? Does Zhou Haimei even agree? You're just doing this?"

She was indignant and very serious. "We've been best friends for ten years! Do you think I don't know her? I only asked her one question, and judging from her reaction, I know she definitely has no objections! But she'll definitely be very embarrassed, but it's okay, I guarantee she'll agree 100%! You can try it later, hug her, she won't struggle at all... Humph, she's almost dying of envy!"

Lin Jianlu chuckled again—to be honest, he had always felt something was off, but strangely enough, this matter was quite exciting. Although he didn't lack girlfriends, he was still tempted.

So he thought for a moment and said, "Then it's settled. If anyone disagrees even slightly, this matter will stop, understand?" — Vivian Chow replied, "Don't worry, she's very flirtatious!"

Lin Jianlu almost burst out laughing.

Zhou Haimei's fame is far less than that of Zhou Huimin, but she has maintained an excellent reputation since her debut. Although she has never had a good opportunity to truly stand out over the years, she has only worked between two television stations in Hong Kong, filming some TV dramas and occasionally hosting shows. However, she has a pure and innocent appearance, and is often compared to Zhou Huimin, Yang Caini, and others by Hong Kong people. She is a typical representative of the pure and innocent girl type. In particular, in 94, Taiwanese producer Yang Peipei cast her in "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber". Her portrayal of Zhou Zhiruo in that drama made her an instant hit and was highly praised in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. However, her best friend actually said that she was "very sexy"!
Ok……

In fact, Lin Jianlu had recently traveled to Taiwan twice and was deeply involved in the funeral. He was already feeling down, and he was worried that Chen Shuhua wouldn't be able to get over it, which made him feel even worse. So he didn't really have much interest in pursuing women. However... Zhou Huimin's suggestion still made him excited.

According to her, Zhou Haimei is actually quite different.

Try it!
So they went out, but before the car had even left the villa, Brigitte Lin's car turned in first. When she saw Brigitte Lin take off, she was still in the car when she rolled down the window and looked over.

Lin Jianlu then lowered the glass, put his arm around Zhou Huimin, and told her, "I won't be coming back tonight!"

Lin Qingxia asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Hook up with a new girl!"

Brigitte Lin laughed heartily, and Vivian Chow laughed along with her.

…………

When the car arrived at Zhou Huimin's small home, Lin Jianlu quickly realized that she had been overthinking things.

This was definitely not about picking up girls; it was just two best friends sharing their lives. As soon as I walked in, Zhou Haimei was already there, shy and avoiding eye contact. She didn't even dare to make eye contact with me, but she was wearing a very pure and innocent light pink dress and her makeup was so exquisite that it was obviously not the usual casual home look between best friends.

However, Zhou Haimei's skin is actually exceptionally good; it's said that she often doesn't need to wear makeup while filming.

They suddenly made eye contact, and her face flushed red.

This shows that they were already fully prepared, and might even be looking forward to it!
Her nearsightedness was quite severe; even from four or five meters away, she probably couldn't discern what Lin Jianlu's gaze was like. They only made eye contact briefly before she looked away, so Lin Jianlu didn't really have time to decipher the expression in her eyes. Zhou Huimin said, "Wait for me. I prepared all the dishes beforehand. I'll start cooking right away, and we can eat in an hour. I also prepared several bottles of red wine... stolen from our family's underground wine cellar, haha!"

She slipped into the kitchen, and soon there was a clattering of pots and pans.

But Zhou Haimei was standing outside the kitchen. Zhou Huimin's living room was so small that there was almost nowhere to hide. Lin Jianlu was so embarrassed by her appearance that he almost scratched his feet. It wasn't until he secretly glanced at Lin Jianlu and saw him sit down on the sofa that he suddenly remembered Zhou Huimin's instructions and quickly said, "Lin Sheng, please sit down. I'll boil some water and make you some tea!" — "Oh, no need, come here!"

"what?"

"What do you mean 'huh'? Come here!"

To be honest, Lin Jianlu had never experienced such a simple and straightforward situation before, but his experience in picking up girls, or rather, being picked up by girls, was far too rich. When the time came, he would not be intimidated.

Since they've already made preparations, what is there for me to be shy about?

Because of her nearsightedness, she always habitually squinted slightly, but before Lin Jianlu could get close enough to see anything clearly, she took the initiative to get up, reach out, grab her wrist, pull her close, and hug her tightly.

She didn't move at all, like a quail, with her head tucked in.

"Lin Sheng, you...don't do this."

Lin Jianlu almost burst out laughing again, "You don't agree? Hmm... Vivian lied to me?"

She quickly looked up and waved her hand, "No...no!"

Before she could finish speaking, she snapped out of her daze, and her face instantly flushed red again.

…………

Zhou Huimin was cooking when she heard a commotion outside that seemed a bit off. She turned around abruptly, paused for a moment, then immediately pushed open the sliding door and said to the sofa, "Hey, you guys..."

I can't tell if I'm happy or annoyed—but it sounds quite exciting.

Yes, that was really exciting.

Zhou Haimei didn't get a break until the food was ready for dinner. Zhou Huimin set out a table full of dishes, stood by the table, hands on her hips, and said, "Please, Miss! Do you have to be so flirtatious? At least wait until I've finished cooking, then we can eat together, have some drinks, and then come on over, okay?"

Zhou Haimei was unable to defend herself, and could only curl up naked, covering her burning face with her hands.

This movement is 90% similar to that of Vivian Chow in the previous big melee.

…………

"She was so stupid. It wasn't like she didn't have opportunities, but she just wouldn't leave Hong Kong to develop her career in Taiwan, so of course they gave up on her! At that time, she was very popular, and TVB wanted to renew her contract as soon as possible. The terms they offered were actually quite good, but she just didn't want to stay at TVB. She insisted that she felt too suffocated there and insisted on switching to ATV. So, in the last few years at TVB, she hardly had any roles. In the end, she finally went to ATV, and she still got nothing."

Well, we had dinner, drinks, and then some intense exercise. Afterwards, the three of us snuggled together, and Zhou Huimin opened the remaining bottle of wine and continued drinking and chatting. It was only then that Lin Jianlu realized how sharp, direct, and ruthless the usually well-behaved, sweet, and charming Xiao Youzi could be in front of her best friend—full of complaints.

Zhou Haimei, however, defended herself, her words sharp and direct, no less so than Zhou Huimin's: "If you say I'm stupid, when did I ever make a decision willingly? It was because I had no choice! All crows are black! If you say I'm stupid, I'll only admit one thing: back then I was actually foolish enough to believe that ATV was better than TVB!"

Lin Jianlu couldn't bear it any longer. "Hey, if you say that, it makes me sound so heartless!"

Both girls laughed.

Zhou Haimei was even a little embarrassed, and with a hint of flattery, she said, "Mr. Lin, I didn't say anything bad about you. It's just that ATV used to treat us actors and staff members very poorly in order to save costs and make a profit as soon as possible!"

Well, there's nothing we can do about it.

As everyone knows, Hong Kong's entertainment industry was exceptionally prosperous and glamorous from the 1980s to the 1990s. Its music, movies, and TV dramas all reached the pinnacle of the entire Chinese-language entertainment industry. Even after 2000, it remained a renowned and glamorous force in mainland China, Japan, and South Korea.

But in reality, if you peel back the layers, apart from the big shots and top stars who have reached the top of the industry and are indeed well-off, even many actors, singers, screenwriters, and even directors who are somewhat famous in the industry are just employees who are slightly better off than ordinary people.

Not to mention, deep within the industry and behind the scenes, there are many more ordinary staff members who are treated like ordinary office workers. Back in 1991, Hong Kong claimed that the average monthly salary of its working class exceeded HK$10,000. However, even today, after Brigitte Lin took over ATV and reviewed the data, she told Lin Jianlu that by 1996, when ATV finally achieved profitability, a large number of its employees still earned between HK$6,000 and HK$8,000 a month.

No need to bring up anything else, capitalists have always been like this.

I can hire someone to do this job for 6,000 yuan, why would I spend 7,000?
Lin Jianlu is also a capitalist. To say he has the desire to make changes is true, but even he wouldn't just openly take money out of his own pocket and shoulder losses to raise salaries for all employees. "I'll show you a clear path. I'll provide you with start-up capital. You just need to work hard. Whether it's digital transformation, building a satellite TV station, concentrating funds to refine several dramas, or the talent shows like 'Super Girl' planned for next year, in short, do a good job, boost ratings, open up the market, and increase advertising spending. When ATV starts making money, that's when I'll give you raises!"
“You don’t need to explain. I’m not much better than the Lin family. That’s how it is for bosses! The only difference is that I’m far more knowledgeable than them and know better how a TV station should operate! Once I’ve built ATV up and up, and the ratings are soaring, and we’re making a lot of money, of course I’ll give everyone a raise!”

Zhou Haimei laughed again upon hearing this.

When she smiles, her eyes automatically squint.

Honestly, in a moment of confusion, Lin Jianlu felt that the two of them really looked alike. They were both exceptionally pure and cute, with slightly flat figures, but their whole bodies appeared plump and tender. Even though she knew that they were both over thirty, to be honest, in terms of both appearance and touch, they were completely at the level of twenty-year-old girls.

Absolutely captivating.

(End of this chapter)