Reborn in Hollywood

Chapter 68 £5 and Step Up

Li Rui walked to the bedside and looked down at him.

"Who gave you permission to ask that question?"

James stared wide-eyed, wanting to speak, but unable to utter a word.

Li Rui relaxed a little.

"explain."

James was breathing heavily.

"It's... a gambling company..."

Which one?

"William... William Hill..."

Li Rui nodded, thinking to himself, "Just as I thought."

William Hill is the same betting company that previously sold lottery tickets through Goldman Sachs.

"How much did they pay you?"

"Fifty thousand... pounds..."

Li Rui sneered.

Is £50,000 worth risking your life for?

The next second, James suddenly looked pained, clutched his chest tightly with both hands, and rolled off the bed.

Li Rui withdrew his hand and turned to leave.

The next day, the apartment manager called the police after seeing that James's door was open.

When the police arrived, they took James to the hospital, where he eventually died of a heart attack.

Meanwhile, Li Rui located the residence of William Hill's CEO and forced him to reveal the addresses of the other residents.

Then there's the boss.

Finally, there are each shareholder.

He spent three days thoroughly "cleaning up" the company from top to bottom.

The CEO and boss were deeply "brainwashed" and became Li Rui's puppets.

Shareholders were "voluntarily" forced to sell their shares at low prices, then their memories were erased and they were implanted with the idea that "the spinach industry is a sunset industry."

When he left, William Hill was still ostensibly the century-old establishment, but in reality, it had become his personal ATM.

He can easily influence the outcomes of major sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympics over the next twenty years, thereby maximizing his profits.

With this company backing him up, Li Rui will never lack cash flow.

On the day the film crew was about to leave England, Ivan looked at him in the airport waiting room.

"Rafi, what have you been busy with these past few days? You've been so secretive."

Li Rui leaned back in his seat.

"To take care of some personal matters."

Ivan looked at him suspiciously.

"Is it related to that reporter?"

I guess so.

Ivan wanted to ask more, but seeing that he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't press the matter further.

Soon, the plane carrying the film crew soared into the sky.

On September 2nd, Li Rui returned to Los Angeles.

Jessica picked him up at the airport.

The two hugged, and Jessica whispered in his ear.

"Are you ready?"

"Always be at your best!"

Me too.

The premiere of "Step Up" is on September 20th. Li Rui has no time to rest; he and Jessica will be busy with promotional activities.

This is crucial to whether Li Rui can secure a final offer of $30 million from Universal.

Although Li Rui no longer cares about this money, one should see things through to the end, especially since this film is related to Jessica's future career.

Therefore, Li Rui must go all out.

Jessica looked at him with a hint of heartache in her eyes.

"You look very tired, why don't you rest for a couple of days?"

Li Rui smiled slightly.

"Why rest? You should work hard while you're young. You'll have plenty of time to rest after you die."

Jessica laughed and punched him twice.

"You're talking nonsense again!"

The two got into the car and drove towards Malibu.

The Los Angeles sun shone brightly outside the window. Li Rui sat in the passenger seat, occasionally exchanging glances with Jessica, both wearing radiant smiles.

My phone suddenly vibrated.

Li Rui picked it up and saw it was a text message from Alibaba regarding the third week's box office for Star Wars: Episode II – Revenge of the Fallen: $2.71 million in North America and $5.02 million worldwide as of yesterday.

Just a week ago, when Li Rui was still in Europe, Alibaba sent him the latest Star Wars box office figures: [$1.97 million in North America and $3.58 million worldwide in its second week.]

This result was in line with Li Rui's expectations. In his opinion, as long as the final result exceeded the original 6.5 million—ideally exceeding 7 million—it would be a satisfactory result.

But there was also bad news.

Ali made it clear to him that the Los Angeles Times had published several film reviews recently, but none of them were friendly—or rather, they were full of insults!

The Los Angeles Weekly also took similar actions.

In addition, The Hollywood Reporter and The New York Weekly did not spare George Lucas, unanimously saying that he was "at the age to retire"—meaning he had lost his creative spark.

Fortunately, Li Rui, the lead actor, was probably the only one who escaped criticism—but he wasn't praised either.

Li Rui scoffed inwardly. The reason he looked down on art films and never planned to make art films in his life was because he didn't want to be swayed by such trash.

As long as I don't take you seriously, you can forget about having any influence over me—that's Li Rui's view on these professional film critics.

As for IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, they are still relatively new and, in terms of film reviews and evaluations of film quality, they are just the smallest of the small and not even in the top tier.

At this moment, Jessica, who was standing to the side, gave Li Rui a look.

Whose text message was it?

"It's Ali."

Li Rui raised his phone and waved it, showing the box office figures for Star Wars: Episode II – Revenge of the Fallen last week.

Jessica simply gave a casual "Oh".

She didn't like Star Wars, and Li Rui knew why, just as Jessica had never asked him about the rumors about him and Natalie on the phone.

Back in Malibu, the two cooked a meal at home. Li Rui showed off his Chinese cooking skills—mainly Cantonese dishes with lighter flavors, while Jessica made several traditional Mexican dishes.

On his first night back in Los Angeles after the promotional campaign ended, Li Rui felt warm and loved.

The two were reunited after a long separation—they hadn't seen each other for almost a month, due to the "gap effect," plus Jessica.

Even Li Rui never mentioned it.

The cost is a bit high.

So much so that she needed to rely on Li Rui the whole time during the promotional tour the next day.

But this has another effect – almost everyone who sees these two so close will subconsciously regard them as a real couple.

-----------------

The promotional period for "Step Up" was only one week.

It's not for any other reason than that the film is just too small.

The budget was just over ten million, with no special effects, no grand scenes, and no topics that would generate media frenzy.

The only selling point is Li Rui and Jessica—two popular young people who fall in love in a musical.

Mark Pratt put it very bluntly at the launch event:

"We don't have money to throw money at GG, nor do we have money to buy press releases. The only resources we can use are the two of you, and at most, your scandals."

Li Rui leaned back in his chair, with Jessica sitting next to him.

"so what?"

"so--"

Mark looked at them and said seriously, "This week, you two need to show off your love as much as you can! Go on TV shows, do magazine shoots, give interviews, be as affectionate as possible, make those teenagers think that you two are really dating."

Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"But we are indeed in talks."

"I know."

Mark nodded. "But you can't admit it yourself."

Li Rui was stunned for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

Mark leaned forward.

"It's no fun if you admit it. Teenagers like to guess, they like that ambiguity of 'Are they a couple?' If you two insist 'we are lovers,' those young girls will find it boring."

He paused, then continued.

"But if you insist that 'we're just friends,' those young girls will think you're lying."

Li Rui understood.

"So we'll maintain this ambiguous relationship and keep them guessing?"

"Absolutely correct!"

Mark laughed. "Let them guess, let them discuss, let them argue online about your relationship. The fiercer the argument, the higher the buzz, and the higher the buzz, the better the box office."

Li Rui looked at Jessica.

Jessica shrugged.

"I'm fine."

Li Rui shrugged as well.

"I'm fine with it too."

A public relations representative from Global Times added from the side.

"In practice, you can hold hands, hug, and look into each other openly, but when reporters ask, you become vague and say things like 'we have a good relationship,' 'she is special,' or 'he takes good care of me.'"

She paused.

"Remember, never make definitive statements."

Li Rui nodded.

"Understood."

For the next seven days, the two traveled to every promotional location in Los Angeles.

The first morning, KTLA TV's morning program.

The two sat on the sofa, and the host asked them about their first impressions of each other.

Li Rui thought about it.

"She was wearing her practice clothes, stretching her legs in the sunlight. When I walked in, she turned around and glanced at me—in that instant, I felt the whole rehearsal hall light up."

Jessica laughed beside her, her face slightly flushed.

The host pressed for an answer.

"What about Jessica? What was your first impression of her?"

Jessica glanced at Li Rui.

"There was a scene where he had just gotten up from the muddy ground after the rain, covered in mud and looking terribly disheveled, but when I looked into his eyes, I knew I had fallen in love with him."

The host's eyes lit up.

"Love at first sight?"

Jessica thought for a moment.

"More or less, like that kind of thing..."

Li Rui coughed lightly beside him.

"Wow, if you keep talking, your manager will kill me."

Jessica burst out laughing.

The host couldn't stop laughing too.

That afternoon, the two went to KIIS-FM radio station.

This is the hottest pop music radio station in Los Angeles, with listeners mainly being teenagers.

The host was Ryan Seacrest, a young man with a particularly friendly smile.

He had the two of them sit in front of the microphone and started a rapid-fire Q&A session.